Prologue

Lore stopped near a large tree just at the edge of the force-field protected area and tapped the badge.

"Lore here."

"This is LaForge. Lore…." There was a pause, "Is B-4 down there with you?"

Lore's eyes shot wide instantly, "No. Why?"

Another long pause followed, in which Lore gripped the trunk of the tree next to him. Finally, LaForge spoke, "Damnit, Lore. We can't find him. We're searching everywhere. The ship, the station, but…."

"But what!" Lore demanded. His voice was loud enough to draw some looks from the party, including from Anna. She rose from her seat quickly and headed toward him. He did not mean to overreact, but losing someone on a Federation starship was nearly impossible, unless the person wanted to be lost. Anna reached his side and gave him a questioning look before taking his hand.

"LaForge?" Lore demanded again. "Where is he?"

"You need to get up here, Lore. We've searched everywhere. The ship, the station." LaForge's voice stumbled and paused, then, "The Enterprise runabout is missing and we can't detect a warp trail. Bee is gone."

I.

"I left him vulnerable."

Eight Hours Later

Lore leaned over the console with both arms braced. The few people who stood around kept their distance, as if they worried that he might wield around at any moment to smash something. Everyone accept Anna, that is, who stood next to him with her eyes fixed on the same screen. It had taken them less than twenty minutes to realize that B-4—or Data—had placed security blocks on the Enterprise surveillance system. It had taken them the better part of seven hours to finally break through it, a fact which had Lore frustrated beyond all measure.

"Why would he do this?" Lore muttered again, and once again to no one in particular. He placed his attention firmly back to the screen.

It was a surveillance feed from science lab two, the same lab in which Lore had been working with B-4 and Data for the past four months. The image wiggled and sparked only slightly, still corrupted by the suppression job Data had done on it. At least, Lore assumed it was Data…. What difference did it make! As he watched, he saw the back of his brother's head, still and facing forward without so much as blinking.

"What is he doing?" Picard asked, for he and several others were watching the same images on a different screen.

"I left him to do a test diagnostic of his memory differential nodes." Lore said, providing no further explanation. Only Geordi, who was standing with his arms crossed next to Picard, nodded some kind of understanding.

As they continued to watch the screens in main engineering, B-4 suddenly rose from his seat and pulled the fiber-optic cable from the back of his skull. He closed the panel there with a smooth downward swipe of his hand and stepped down from the platform. In a second, he was out of view.

"Okay, switching to the corridor." Geordi said as he pressed a few keys on the control table. The screens shifted, and now B-4 was leaving the science lab and stepping out into the corridor. Without a moment's hesitation he turned left and was quickly out of view again. Geordi continued to shift feeds, allowing them to follow B-4 as he made his way through the corridors and toward the turbo lift. Along the way he passed several crewmen but, from what Lore could tell, did not acknowledge them in any way, even when several of them made greetings.

"Is he hallucinating in some way?" Picard offered. "You see how he doesn't appear to be acknowledging anyone?"

Lore shook his head but said nothing. He didn't think it was that. An hallucination wouldn't explain why B-4 appeared to know exactly what he was doing and where he was going.

"Look! Now he's entering security control." Geordi said, still working the console. Worf, who was also standing nearby, grumbled something unintelligible. B-4 walked past an Ensign security officer, who immediately asked him what he was doing. In response, B-4 turned around and caught the young man by the side of his neck. Anna winced at the swift action, but it was not so terribly violent. B-4 squeezed the nerve bundle at the side of his neck until the man's eyes rolled up into his head and he fell unconscious. He then lowered him to the deck and proceeded to tear open the unit that controlled the ship's surveillance system.

"Why do this with the security system? What was he trying to accomplish?" Commander Madden asked.

Lore was so preoccupied with everything that was going on that he had no snide remark for Madden, as he so usually did. In the four months he had been working with B-4 and Data, he had grown to dislike the Enterprise's new first officer, Commander Martin Madden, and would have much preferred Riker, which was truly saying something. It was nothing in particular, he supposed. Madden was polite enough, professional enough, and did not appear to have any kind of problem with Lore's presence, but Lore could not help but notice the way in which Madden never mentioned what he planned to do after Data's new body was complete and he would be able to retake his duties. The man acted as if he had no intention of going anywhere, and Lore had been wondering for some time if Picard was going to speak to him about it.

Or perhaps they planned for Data to retake his old place as second officer, which in Lore's opinion would be bullshit. Bullshit…. Another wonderful term he had learned from Anna's sister Louise.

"Probably to buy time." Anna answered after a moment. "From the time you knew he was gone to the time you noticed the runabout was missing was nearly three hours. If the surveillance had been available we would have known almost right away."

"So wherever Data has gone, he had a three hour head start." Picard said heavily.

"Eleven hours now, and they have a headstart." Lore scoffed, "Since we can't detect a warp trail. Damnit!"

"Did he say anything to you at all that might shed some light on this?" Picard said, "He didn't mention anything about going somewhere?"

"Let me think…." Lore said sarcastically, "Um…no. My memory is just as flawless the second time around, Picard. B-4's world experience is somewhat limited. Where would he want or need to go?"

Captain Picard made a sour expression and turned away. Everyone knew that Lore's sarcastic streak truly showed itself when he was irritated. Or worried. Lore hovered over the screen and continued to watch as his brother left the security office and continued directly toward the underbelly shuttle bay, where the large runabout—known euphemistically as the Captain's Yacht—was stored. He made no stops and spoke to no one.

"What? Are you kidding me!" Lore burst suddenly.

"What is it?" Geordi said.

"Take the footage back, five seconds!" Lore demanded, "Look! He's entered a code into the panel to release the docking clamps and silence the alarms. My security code. Thanks a lot, Bee!"

A muffled laugh came from across the room, and Lore shot a menacing glance at Worf, who was only just suppressing a satisfied smile.

"Turn about?" Worf smirked, his chest bouncing in what passed for a Klingon laugh.

Shut up. Lore turned away and watched the rest of the footage, but there was not much to see. B-4 entered the runabout through the rear hatch and, a few minutes later, started up the engines and glided out of the shuttle bay doors completely undetected.

This feels so familiar….

"You've seen this before." Lore muttered as he stepped back from the screen.

"Seen what before?" Madden asked.

Lore ignored him and faced Picard, "Data's done something like this before, hasn't he? Come on, Picard. What do you remember?"

"Lore, I am really not interested in your games right now. If you know something, say it."

"You're no fun, Captain, as always." Lore sighed, though it was clear that he was no mood for games either. He was just covering his worry, as usual. "When Data and I were remotely summoned to the unnamed planet where Dr. Soong…died, it was done in a manner very similar to this, wasn't it. Data just suddenly took the ship, appeared to be in completely command of his faculties, despite being unable or unwilling to stop his actions?" Lore's expression became incredulous in an instant, as if he were revealing it all to himself instead of Picard, "I never checked! Why did I never check?"

"Check what?" Picard stepped forward as Lore moved to another console on the other side of the room. He began entering a series of commands so quickly that it was difficult to see the individual movements of his fingers. The screen beeped the universal affirmative and Lore actually snarled in response.

"B-4 had the same homing device that Data and I had. The ship's sensors logged it, but it didn't set off any alarms because it's on the same frequency scale as standard comm units."

"Someone activated it?" Anna said, though it wasn't really a question. She moved forward and began running through the sensor results as Lore stepped away from the screen. He was staring at the floor, deep in thought. With each moment, those thoughts only became more dire. How could this have happened? No. More specifically, who could have done this?

"The signal is very faint, but I think we might be able to track it." Anna said, "If we can get a good direction on it, we might be able to send a message to starships further out to conduct a scan. The signal would be fresh on their end."

Picard nodded and gave Madden a silent signal. Their relationship was nowhere near as nonverbal as it had been with Riker, but it was getting there.

"If this is the same thing that Dr. Soong used…. I'm not sure what we can do." Geordi sighed heavily and shook his head, "Data took control of the Enterprise in minutes, and I doubt he was even using all of his resources. If he didn't want to be tracked, I'm not very hopeful that we will track him."

"Give me some credit, LaForge." Lore deadpanned. "Data is good, but I'm probably better."

Worf snorted again.

"I think this is one of those rare occasions when I will actually hope you're right." Picard said, "Can you track him?"

"Yes." Lore replied, "Though it will be spotty depending on where he's gone. A signal like this can be scattered if it comes in contact with a warp field or a heavy magnetic output like that of a pulsar."

"Covering up a signal like this would be easy." Geordi folded his arms and shook his head, "If Data didn't want to be found, he could have blocked this too."

"I'm sure he received instructions not to." Lore replied.

Picard gave him a curious look and waited, but typical to Lore's fashion he did not explain further. Finally he demanded, "Instructions from who?"

"Maddox!" Lore cried, "Who else would we be talking about? Was the existence of our homing beacon public knowledge? Was the incident with my father public knowledge?"

Picard's jaw clenched, "No. But Maddox would have known all about it. Data had an agreement with him at the time. He kept him informed of…everything to do with his systems."

"Oh, well that's just great!" Lore fumed. He tossed up his hands and pressed them to the sides of his head. Whatever panic he had been holding back for the last eight hours was beginning to show itself. "We have no idea where he is! It's been almost twelve hours, Maddox could have them already!"

"No, no. I doubt that." Geordi said quickly, "The authorities have been searching for Maddox for months, and there is no sign of him. Reports are pretty sure that he isn't in Federation space any more. He would have been caught by now."

"I moved in and out of Federation space for years without getting caught!" Lore countered.

"Yeah, but we weren't looking for you." Madden noted with a kind of apologetic shrug, "The manhunt for Maddox has been relentless."

Lore replied with a sneering look, but it was clear that he gained some kind of relief too. He knew they were probably right. He had followed updates on the search for Maddox even more closely than they, and it was highly unlikely that Maddox would still be in Federation space and manage to avoid the authorities. The Federation had even issued notices of a capture reward throughout the Ferengi Alliance, which was not something they usually did.

"Mr. LaForge, how soon can you have the engines fully online?" Picard asked.

Geordi shook his head, "Engines are good, Captain. Just give the word."

Picard nodded and turned to Madden, "Where are we on repairs? Any vital systems?"

Madden shook his head, "Nothing that can't be repaired on the fly. Station maintenance has nothing left but aesthetic upgrades and interiors. It's all paint and spackle, Captain."

"In that case, I want you to inform station maintenance that we have overstayed our welcome. Prepare to undock. I will…" Here Picard expelled a long, irritated sigh, "I will inform Starfleet command that our departure date has been moved up."

"They'll respond well to that." Madden grumbled.

"Data and Bee are more important than some stupid launch ceremony!" Lore retorted. The outburst was a bit much, considering that no one had issued objections. Seeing their irritated looks, he threw up his hands once more and headed toward the exit. He could only hope that there were more answers in science lab two. B-4 had been connected to the diagnostic computer when his homing device was activated, and he might be able to use the collected data to get a better read on the signal.

He knew that Anna was just behind him before he reached the turbo lift, and he was glad for it. With the others now out of view, he could feel his composure starting to crack. His brothers were gone, possibly already murdered, and he held no certainly that he would be able to find them.

"This is my fault." He said when Anna stepped into the lift with him.

She immediately frowned, "Like hell it is."

"I never searched Bee for a homing device. I should have assumed our father would have given him the same components. It was a liability, that's why Data and I removed ours' after the incident." He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, "I left him vulnerable."

"Don't do that. This isn't your fault." Anna said, taking his hand, "Data didn't mention it either, right? It didn't occur to anyone."

"I haven't spoken to Data very much." Lore muttered, "He doesn't like suppressing B-4 that way."

Anna made an indulgent smile, "You know what I mean. And I know you speak to Data through Bee all the time."

He muttered something, but Anna couldn't discern it. She moved closer and put her hands on his shoulders, "We'll find them. Depending on far they have to go, there's any number of obstacles they could run into, and the runabout doesn't have a cloak. Someone will spot them."

He nodded, but he could not bring himself to share her hope. He knew what Data was capable of, because he was capable of much the same. With a single purpose and no willingness to reason, there was very little that either of them could not accomplish. He could only hope that something got in Data's way, something that even he would not be able to overcome.

"Lore." Anna began, "This…homing device. Is it possible that only one of them could be under its control?"

Lore looked up quickly. His jaw worked, but he said nothing as he thought. It…was possible, but he had no way of knowing. He was unsure if it mattered. "I don't know." He said, "Even if it were Bee and not Data, Bee has access to Data's memories. He would be able to use his knowledge to carry out the instructions from the homing device."

Anna nodded. It was a passing question, and she had not yet given it any more thought. The lift stopped and they emerged into the corridor near science lab two. They had much work to do.