by David Mack
“No, the one I am living now has just begun. But the android you knew as Data, the one whose body and mind experienced nearly forty years of continuous consciousness . . . he is gone, Geordi. I possess his memories. I recall the life he lived, as well as others—Lore’s, Lal’s, my father’s—but I am not him.” He pointed at his head. “My brain, my body, and my programming are all far more advanced than his. Now that I have finished repairing myself, I have come to realize how different I am from the person whose life I am meant to continue.”
Incredulity wrinkled La Forge’s brow. “What’re you saying? You’re not the real Data?”
“I am not sure.” Overhead, the cargo doors on Archeus’s ventral hull closed with a low thrumming that resounded off the hangar’s walls and deck. “The fact is, I am a copy of his essential information, like the contents of an old computer transferred to a new one. Whether that makes me a new model of Data, or an upgraded copy of the old one, I cannot say.”
La Forge found Data’s reasoning disheartening. “I’ll admit you look different, and you have some new abilities, but are you really so different from the Data I knew?”
Data cocked his head and arched his eyebrows. “My new positronic matrix is so different from my last one that, if I wished, I could use contractions with ease.”
“Then why don’t you?”
He shrugged. “It is difficult to explain. I think the most truthful answer is that I am accustomed to expressing myself this way. It is part of who I am.”
“Sounds to me like you’re the same man adjusting to new circumstances.”
The youthful android grimaced and shook his head. “I understand why you would take comfort in that idea, but I cannot share your confidence that I am, as you say, ‘the real Data.’ ”
Offering his hand, La Forge asked, “Are you still my friend?”
Data shook La Forge’s hand. “Always.”
“Then you are the real Data. Case closed.”
He smiled and released La Forge’s hand. “Thank you, Geordi.” Then he reached into his pants pocket, took out a metallic device shaped like a cylinder the size of a finger, and handed it to him. “I want you to have this. It is a comm device you can use to reach me in an emergency.”
Holding up the gadget, La Forge asked, “How does it work?”
“Quantum particle entanglement.” He took an identical device from his pocket. “Short audio messages can be recorded and sent instantly from one device to the other. Press here to record, and there to send. If that green light is on, it has recorded an incoming message.”
La Forge had never seen anything like it. “Data, this is incredible! Where’d you get it?”
“It is something I threw together based on one of my father’s old designs.”
“Something you threw together?” La Forge chuckled to mask his envy. “Wow.” He shook his head and pocketed the transmitter. “Thanks. I’ll try to save it for a special occasion.”
“I shall do likewise.”
Data strolled toward the port-side ramp, and La Forge walked alongside him. “What about Lal? Are you taking her with you?”
“No,” Data said. “That would be too great a risk. On my behalf, Captain Picard asked Starfleet Command to keep her body safe in the secure vaults beneath its headquarters in San Francisco. When I am ready, I will come back for her.”
“Ready? To do what?”
They stopped at the bottom of the ramp, and Data faced La Forge with an expression of intense focus. “Do you remember our last mission to Galor IV, Geordi?” La Forge nodded, and Data continued. “After that mission ended, the body of my mother, Juliana Tainer, was stolen from its stasis pod in my lab. I have long suspected that Emil Vaslovik took her because he hoped to one day reanimate her positronic matrix.”
“But, Data . . . that’s impossible.”
Data’s eyes narrowed. “No, it is not.” His countenance became steadily more grave as he went on. “There were many times I considered going in search of Vaslovik, but I could never be certain his efforts to revive my mother would succeed, and in any case I had a duty to Starfleet. But now I have all of my father’s memories. He saw her, Geordi. She was alive, rejuvenated, and she was with Vaslovik in 2375, less than a year after her body was taken from the Enterprise. That means Vaslovik—or Flint, or Akharin, or whatever name he now travels under—knows how to revive a positronic matrix after a total cascade failure.” He took La Forge by the shoulders. “That man knows the secrets of life and death. No matter what it takes, Geordi, I will find him.
“And when I do . . . my daughter will live again.”
COLD EQUATIONS
CONTINUES IN BOOK II
SILENT WEAPONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have a tendency to let my acknowledgments run on too long, so this time I will try to be brief.
I’d like to thank my wife, Kara, for her patience and encouragement.
My sincere gratitude goes out to author Jeffrey Lang, whose Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Immortal Coil (2002) served as the direct inspiration for this trilogy. I also wish to pay special respect to the work of Rick Berman, who wrote the TNG episode “Brothers,” from which I adapted a key moment in the first scene of Part Two.
Thanks are also owed to my Star Trek brain trust, which consists of fellow authors Scott Pearson, Dayton Ward, Kevin Dilmore, William Leisner, David R. George III, Keith R.A. DeCandido, and Christopher L. Bennett. Their sage advice was a true godsend on this project.
Finally, I wish to extend thanks to you, my readers, for making this effort worth all the trouble.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Mack remains a mystery to science.
Learn more at his website:
www.davidmack.pro
We hope you enjoyed reading this Pocket Books eBook.
* * *
Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Pocket Books and Simon & Schuster.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP
or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com
Pocket Books
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
™, ®, and © 2012 by CBS Studios Inc. and Paramount Pictures Corporation. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This book is published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., under exclusive license from CBS Studios Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Pocket Books paperback edition November 2012
POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
ISBN 978-1-4516-5072-3
ISBN 978-1-4516-5075-4 (ebook)
-inline-share-buttons">share
