Free Star Trek: TNG: Cold Equations II: Silent Weapons by David Mack Page A

our embassy there, the SI section chief, Commander Hilar Tohm, had two meetings with the Soong-made android known as Data over the past two days.”
    The mention of the android’s name stoked Bateson’s interest. “Data? From the Enterprise ? But . . . I thought he was dead!”
    “It’s a long story, Captain, and a few notches above your clearance level. For now, let it suffice to say, he was dead, but he got better.”
    One of the drawbacks of answering to an admiral with oversight responsibilities for Starfleet Intelligence, in Bateson’s opinion, was that she had a knack for reminding him just how far out of the loop he was most of the time. For now, he would have to content himself with answers to lesser queries. “Do we know why he met with Tohm? Or why he’s on Orion?”
    “Not yet. The duty logs only noted that the meetings occurred. To find out the substance of her interactions with Data, we’ll have to debrief her and check her private files.”
    Having dealt more than once with Starfleet Intelligence, he feared he was about to be left in the dark again. “By ‘we,’ I presume you mean your people in SI.”
    “Correct. But you’re not being sidelined, Morgan, I promise. In fact, there’s something equally important that I need you and your crew to handle.”
    “And that would be . . . ?”
    There was a new edge in her voice. “You need to track down Lieutenant Commander Data and take him into custody. If he was involved with the attempted breach at the bank, he’ll be on his guard, which means he’ll be exceptionally dangerous.”
    She sent over a data packet, and a Starfleet Intelligence dossier about Data opened on one side of Bateson’s monitor. The principal image of Data closely resembled the android he remembered meeting years earlier, but with one key difference: he now looked fully human.
    “We have it on good authority that Data has become quite expert at disguising himself,” Batanides continued, “and that he can even fool biometric sensors into thinking he’s any of a number of species. We know he can mimic voices; we also have unverified reports that he might have learned to spoof retinal patterns. Tell your people to approach him with extreme caution. ”
    “Understood.”
    “One more thing, Morgan, and this is vital: Make sure no one—especially not Data—contacts the Enterprise crew. The last thing anyone needs at this stage is Picard and his ship racing to Orion and attracting the Typhon Pact’s attention to us in the process.” She sighed and shook her head in quiet frustration. “We’ve come too far to let this fall apart. We’re counting on you to hold it together. ”
    “I will, Admiral.”
    An encouraging half smile. “Good hunting, Captain. Batanides out. ”
    She closed the channel, and Bateson’s screen went dark. He exhaled and felt his strength falter under the weight of responsibility. This was not how this was supposed to go . He drew a deep breath, hardened himself for what had to be done, and got up from his chair.
    Time to start a manhunt .
    •   •   •
    Keeping pace with the headlong floodcrush of people moving through the starport in Orion’s capital made Data imagine himself being swept away by a mighty river, a slave to the current. It was an imperfect analogy, he knew, but his new brain and programming tended to make strange connections and draw peculiar associations. Perhaps that was an essential ingredient of my father’s genius, he speculated. The ability to imagine seemingly unrelated ideas in fusion.
    Thinking of his father filled him with melancholy. It seemed odd to him that he should miss Noonien so deeply when he possessed all of the man’s memories—his entire lifetime of experience, all his skills, all his vast knowledge. But knowing every detail of the life Soong had lived was not the same as having him there in the flesh. It was not the same as being able to share a moment with him, or the singular experience