New pic, old fic
Sorry to be posting so much, but I gots some more crap to share ^^ A quicky future Data sketch and my first (and unfinished) TNG fic.
Cave fic
Characters: Data, Geordi
Rating: PG (minor language and injuries)
Notes: I'm gonna post this directly here if that's okay, since this fic is pretty much abandoned. I wrote this right after I started season two (since I refer to Geordi as an engineer), but it takes place sometime after "Datalore" and "Home Soil." I used this fic as a way to ponder how Data might function and I go on about it at length. The story just stops, and then continues with two later scenes (one of which is based on the idea of what the average person does when a machine stops working properly. Sorry, Data). It's open if anyone feels like playing with it for some reason. Um, enjoy?
-----------unfinished cave fic:
The first thing Geordi became aware of was an uneven, rocking sensation. Even in his current state of half-consciousness, it was nauseating. Then came the pain. It was pain he’d dealt with his whole life from the implants, a background noise he’d come to know and accustom himself to as much as one could. But as he pulled himself towards consciousness, it lashed out, like large claws digging into the tissue of his brain. He instinctively jerked, gasping as it pounced on him and threatened to send him back into unconsciousness.
“Lie still, Geordi, you are safe.”
Data. That was Data. Relief washed through him and his muscles relaxed, reminding him how utterly exhausted he was. Didn’t he just wake up?
The pain in his head was not lessening, but the initial shock had worn off and Geordi managed to overcome it enough that it no longer swarmed his senses. Time to rejoin the universe and figure out what had happened. He opened his eyes.
Nothing. In fact, there had been nothing this whole time he’d been conscious. That was wrong, the visor fed information directly to his brain, regardless whether his eyes were open or not. He could never sleep with it on for that reason. He reached up, his hands probing his face for his visor.
“I have your visor. You were struggling and I had to remove it for its own safety.” Data again, and very close by the sound of it. “I will retrieve it for you when I am able.”
When he was able? What was he doing that he couldn’t...?
Oh. The rocking, the pressure in the back of Geordi’s knees and shoulders; Data was carrying him. Geordi swallowed, trying to stave the bile intent on coming up his throat. Why so uneven then? Data had better balance than anyone.
Geordi really didn’t want to puke on Data, so he struggled to occupy his mind on something other than the oddly unsteady rocking. Data had his visor, so no taking in their surroundings. Where were they, anyway? He tried to forget the pain as well, as it only increased the nausea. That really left him with only one sense in which to lose himself.
It was quiet, no deep thrum of the engines or beeping computers. Not the Enterprise, then, but a penetrating silence broken only by the echoing sound of Data’s footsteps. Echoes? And on uneven, stony ground. They were in a cavern of some sort. Geordi really wished he remembered what happened. The last thing he could recall was being on the Enterprise. Had they beamed down?
There was something else, though very faint. A constant whirrrr click whirrrr click whirrrrrrr click-click, and the soft sound of refined metal rubbing on metal. Whatever had happened, Data suffered some damage as well; his functions never made noise. As an engineer, Geordi had been most impressed by that fact when they’d first met.
Other, far less advanced droids made noise from their various functions. Most notorious were their motorized joints; every move made was accompanied by the soft whirring and shifting of gears. All joints within the droid were motorized, set to remain on standby until a signal from the brain sent it into the appropriate motion. Simple droids were limited to left-right and up-down motions, but the complex ones had a variety of motions that allowed them to move almost like humans. These could perform a great number of feats and tasks, but set even the best to a full run and then tell it to do sharp turn and it would either have to slow down or risk loss of balance from its inability to do fluid, human movement.
Data dodged laser beams.
Doctor Soong had known what he wanted when he built Data; an android who could emulate humans. So Data had been built to move like one. He had motorized joints like any lesser droid, but these were more or less a backup to the primary system. The primary form of movement was a complex system of thin, durable plates that covered almost the entirety of Data’s body in rows and groupings. They reminded Geordi of the scales on a snake’s belly, constricting and relaxing for movement in a way akin to human muscle. This put the power of movement in Data’s “muscles,” and not in the joints, allowing him to enjoy full articulation like, if not surpassing, humans. He could arch his back, twist, and roll his shoulders. Also, these plates acted as a form of armor, protecting the circuits underneath from trauma, yet they yielded to touch; patting Data on the shoulder was not like tapping a steel drum, as Geordi had first thought it might. They could even be retracted, allowing Data access to his internal systems.
The Soong androids were built to last. Data had multiple self-protection and backup systems, including a secondary computer brain designed to take over in the case that the positronic net was too damaged to function properly. However, it was there only to keep him in running condition, Data’s personality and memories only existed in the positronic brain.
The protection systems were simpler in design, but no less impressive, meant to come online when Data was turned off or, more importantly, when separated from the head. As soon as one of Data’s body segments lost contact with the brain, the plates would clamp down and lock, fusing together. This not only provided protection for the segment, but also ensured that, if damaged, the body would stay in relatively large pieces, making recovery easier. Geordi hadn’t known about this until a few months ago.
When they first recovered Lore, Geordi took one look at the large, simple pieces and came to the conclusion that they were looking at a prototype, far inferior in design to Data. The body had no plates, but each segment was encased in a singe shell, though it was the same metal, and the segments attached to each other like the pieces of the “action figures” that ancient Earth children used to play with. Granted, that hadn’t made his assembly any easier.
But as soon as Lore’s head was attached the reaction was immediate. The plates unfused and began a self test, rippling up and down in a pattern that gave the illusion of movement though the body was still. Specialized, very fine plates much like scales emerged from the segment and interlinked with each other and joints. This process lasted mere seconds before apparently finding everything satisfactory and stopping. The skin had been intact at the time, but the computer had recorded it all.
Geordi had joined in with the engineers’ unanimous “Ooooh…”
This whole process didn’t happen all the time. When turned off, the plates would fuse, but just as quickly release when reactivated. What the engineers witnessed only occurred after reassembly to confirm a proper unification of the body.
What truly impressed Geordi was the Soong androids’ ability to access full control of these systems, unlike humans whose muscle control was subconscious. Data and Lore packed powerful punches due not only to their increased strength, but their ability to, milliseconds before contact, fuse the plates to create a single, reinforced unit with the impact strength of a crowbar.
A near stumble knocked Geordi from his musings. How long had he zoned out? Definitely long enough for him to really begin feeling the position he was in, and Data’s stumble was worrisome. More importantly, Geordi wanted his visor.
“Data, stop a minute, take a break.”
“I do not require rest, Geordi. I am capable of maintaining...”
“Yeah, but I do. Put me down.”
Data stopped, stood a moment, and then changed direction. He helped Geordi to take a seat on a stone outcropping. Geordi leaned back against the cold wall, ignoring the sharp stones in his back that were nothing compared to the pounding in his head. His fingers locked around the visor as soon as Data placed it in his hands. He put it on and got his first look at this place.
A cavern was right, definitely the tunnel of a cave. While uneven, the floor was quite smooth for nature, the ceiling high and decorated with ancient stalactites. There were the remains of some fallen ones littering the cave floor. That made him nervous. Data, too, by the way he was looking up at them. There was something on the wall, a microorganism of some kind that was putting out a faint glow all throughout the cavern.
Geordi looked to Data then, circling the immediate section of the cave with uneven steps. He was easy to spot, his aura glowing like a beacon in the gloom, though Geordi noted a few “sputters” in certain places. Something had definitely gone wrong, Data’s uniform was torn off at the left shoulder, a patch of his skin gone as well, exposing the plates and circuits beneath. The same had happened to the front of his right thigh, though to a greater extent. After finishing his survey, Data returned and sat awkwardly beside Geordi, his injured leg extended.
That explained the limp. The plates covering Data’s body were so meticulously placed that they moved and rubbed together with the least amount of friction and no noise. But hit them hard enough in just the right way and the plates would get knocked out of alignment, locking up the whole section. Geordi had jokingly referred to it as an “android muscle cramp,” and Data had agreed it was a good enough analogy. On the rare occasion this happened, the command relay would reroute and the joint motors would kick on. That would definitely throw Data’s balance off, so different were the two systems, if only one leg was affected. Fortunately, it was easy enough for Data to fix.
Geordi watched as Data’s fingers flew over the misaligned plates at rapid speed, sliding them back into their proper place. Within less than a minute he had finished and when he stood again his steps were even and the sound of shifting metal was gone, though the whirring and clicking continued. Great.
“Data, what happened? The last thing I remember is being on the Enterprise.”
“You do not remember beaming down? Nor anything preceding that?”
He fought back a sarcastic remark, knowing it was wasted on his friend. “No.”
“That is to be expected, memory loss is not uncommon with a head injury.”
Head injury? Definitely explained the pain. Geordi had yet to take a look at himself, and found he looked worse than Data. His uniform was shredded in certain spots, and he was covered in cuts and bruises that were now making themselves known. He groaned.
Data was kneeling before him in an instant.
---------random scene 1
Whatever it was, Data wasn’t snapping out of it on his own. His right eye was blinking non-stop and he was stuttering badly, caught in a loop of three and a half words.
“Data!”
The android didn’t respond, just continued to loop, stutter, and twitch in a way all too reminiscent of Lore. Aside from turning him off, there was nothing Geordi could do, and it was far too risky in Data’s current state. So Geordi acted on instinct and was moving before even he realized what he was intending.
Geordi slapped Data upside the head as hard as he could.
--
It was not the smartest thing to do.
The pain of his hand impacting an android head reverberated up his arm and into his skull. He gasped and recoiled, gripping his head. But soon the pain dropped back to the dull throbbing he’d been enduring and he relaxed some. He noted the silence, aside from the constant, random clicking, and looked up at Data.
The android was staring at the ground ahead of him, mouth slightly open and eyes shifting back and forth in a way that let Geordi know he was running a diagnostic. He blinked a few times and turned to face the engineer.
“Thank you, Geordi. That was...disturbing.”
Geordi didn’t know if the fact that Data was aware of the glitch was a good or bad sign. Either way, he did not want to imagine what it was like to be stuck like that and conscious.
“Come on, let’s keep moving.” He took Data’s arm this time, and began to lead him down the tunnel. The android was looking a little too bewildered and that worried Geordi more than the glitches from hell.
---------random scene 2
“I hear singing is quite relaxing to some humans.”
“Data, when do you sing?”
“In the shower.”
Geordi stared at him for a moment before daring to ask, “Why would you need to shower? You don’t sweat, produce oil…”
“But humans do. You also shed hair, skin, and leave various residue everywhere.” He stopped and gave Geordi an accusing look. It wasn’t an expression he’d mastered very well and it came off slightly more comical than threatening, but Geordi had to wonder what brought it on. “It gets in my air filter.”
Geordi burst out laughing. The combination of Data’s pale impression of a glare and tone, along with the sheer ridiculousness of his statement was too much. Data was bitching!
“Have I said something humorous?”
“I couldn’t explain it to you, Data, trust me,” Geordi wheezed out between snickers. The laughing only made the pain in his head worse, back to waves of throbbing that distorted the signals from his visor to his brain. Still, the ball of tension that had settled in his stomach loosened some and he felt better than had since this nightmare began.
Data sat for a moment, then joined in with his forced, awkward laugh that Geordi honestly couldn’t stand. He was about to say something on the matter when Data was cut off by a sudden click-clackety-clackety thunk. The android hunched slightly, his eyes wide and his mouth forming an “oh,” though no sound emerged.
Geordi winced. “Let me guess, your breathing apparatus just quit on you.”
“That is correct,” Data said after a moment required for him to switch over from his voice box synthesizer to the digital voice modulator. The synthesizer required air flow and worked much like a human’s throat, hence Data preferred it, and allowed him to perform impressions. However, the modulator alone was used when Data had to mimic another’s voice. He didn’t use it much and Geordi was sure someone had pointed out to him before that, since it did not require working the throat, it looked odd when he spoke with it, as though he was lip-syncing.
On the other hand, Data’s breathing apparatus acted as a supplementary cooling system, and without it, he was going to have to monitor his thermal regulators closely.
At least that damned clicking had stopped.
Cave fic
Characters: Data, Geordi
Rating: PG (minor language and injuries)
Notes: I'm gonna post this directly here if that's okay, since this fic is pretty much abandoned. I wrote this right after I started season two (since I refer to Geordi as an engineer), but it takes place sometime after "Datalore" and "Home Soil." I used this fic as a way to ponder how Data might function and I go on about it at length. The story just stops, and then continues with two later scenes (one of which is based on the idea of what the average person does when a machine stops working properly. Sorry, Data). It's open if anyone feels like playing with it for some reason. Um, enjoy?
-----------unfinished cave fic:
The first thing Geordi became aware of was an uneven, rocking sensation. Even in his current state of half-consciousness, it was nauseating. Then came the pain. It was pain he’d dealt with his whole life from the implants, a background noise he’d come to know and accustom himself to as much as one could. But as he pulled himself towards consciousness, it lashed out, like large claws digging into the tissue of his brain. He instinctively jerked, gasping as it pounced on him and threatened to send him back into unconsciousness.
“Lie still, Geordi, you are safe.”
Data. That was Data. Relief washed through him and his muscles relaxed, reminding him how utterly exhausted he was. Didn’t he just wake up?
The pain in his head was not lessening, but the initial shock had worn off and Geordi managed to overcome it enough that it no longer swarmed his senses. Time to rejoin the universe and figure out what had happened. He opened his eyes.
Nothing. In fact, there had been nothing this whole time he’d been conscious. That was wrong, the visor fed information directly to his brain, regardless whether his eyes were open or not. He could never sleep with it on for that reason. He reached up, his hands probing his face for his visor.
“I have your visor. You were struggling and I had to remove it for its own safety.” Data again, and very close by the sound of it. “I will retrieve it for you when I am able.”
When he was able? What was he doing that he couldn’t...?
Oh. The rocking, the pressure in the back of Geordi’s knees and shoulders; Data was carrying him. Geordi swallowed, trying to stave the bile intent on coming up his throat. Why so uneven then? Data had better balance than anyone.
Geordi really didn’t want to puke on Data, so he struggled to occupy his mind on something other than the oddly unsteady rocking. Data had his visor, so no taking in their surroundings. Where were they, anyway? He tried to forget the pain as well, as it only increased the nausea. That really left him with only one sense in which to lose himself.
It was quiet, no deep thrum of the engines or beeping computers. Not the Enterprise, then, but a penetrating silence broken only by the echoing sound of Data’s footsteps. Echoes? And on uneven, stony ground. They were in a cavern of some sort. Geordi really wished he remembered what happened. The last thing he could recall was being on the Enterprise. Had they beamed down?
There was something else, though very faint. A constant whirrrr click whirrrr click whirrrrrrr click-click, and the soft sound of refined metal rubbing on metal. Whatever had happened, Data suffered some damage as well; his functions never made noise. As an engineer, Geordi had been most impressed by that fact when they’d first met.
Other, far less advanced droids made noise from their various functions. Most notorious were their motorized joints; every move made was accompanied by the soft whirring and shifting of gears. All joints within the droid were motorized, set to remain on standby until a signal from the brain sent it into the appropriate motion. Simple droids were limited to left-right and up-down motions, but the complex ones had a variety of motions that allowed them to move almost like humans. These could perform a great number of feats and tasks, but set even the best to a full run and then tell it to do sharp turn and it would either have to slow down or risk loss of balance from its inability to do fluid, human movement.
Data dodged laser beams.
Doctor Soong had known what he wanted when he built Data; an android who could emulate humans. So Data had been built to move like one. He had motorized joints like any lesser droid, but these were more or less a backup to the primary system. The primary form of movement was a complex system of thin, durable plates that covered almost the entirety of Data’s body in rows and groupings. They reminded Geordi of the scales on a snake’s belly, constricting and relaxing for movement in a way akin to human muscle. This put the power of movement in Data’s “muscles,” and not in the joints, allowing him to enjoy full articulation like, if not surpassing, humans. He could arch his back, twist, and roll his shoulders. Also, these plates acted as a form of armor, protecting the circuits underneath from trauma, yet they yielded to touch; patting Data on the shoulder was not like tapping a steel drum, as Geordi had first thought it might. They could even be retracted, allowing Data access to his internal systems.
The Soong androids were built to last. Data had multiple self-protection and backup systems, including a secondary computer brain designed to take over in the case that the positronic net was too damaged to function properly. However, it was there only to keep him in running condition, Data’s personality and memories only existed in the positronic brain.
The protection systems were simpler in design, but no less impressive, meant to come online when Data was turned off or, more importantly, when separated from the head. As soon as one of Data’s body segments lost contact with the brain, the plates would clamp down and lock, fusing together. This not only provided protection for the segment, but also ensured that, if damaged, the body would stay in relatively large pieces, making recovery easier. Geordi hadn’t known about this until a few months ago.
When they first recovered Lore, Geordi took one look at the large, simple pieces and came to the conclusion that they were looking at a prototype, far inferior in design to Data. The body had no plates, but each segment was encased in a singe shell, though it was the same metal, and the segments attached to each other like the pieces of the “action figures” that ancient Earth children used to play with. Granted, that hadn’t made his assembly any easier.
But as soon as Lore’s head was attached the reaction was immediate. The plates unfused and began a self test, rippling up and down in a pattern that gave the illusion of movement though the body was still. Specialized, very fine plates much like scales emerged from the segment and interlinked with each other and joints. This process lasted mere seconds before apparently finding everything satisfactory and stopping. The skin had been intact at the time, but the computer had recorded it all.
Geordi had joined in with the engineers’ unanimous “Ooooh…”
This whole process didn’t happen all the time. When turned off, the plates would fuse, but just as quickly release when reactivated. What the engineers witnessed only occurred after reassembly to confirm a proper unification of the body.
What truly impressed Geordi was the Soong androids’ ability to access full control of these systems, unlike humans whose muscle control was subconscious. Data and Lore packed powerful punches due not only to their increased strength, but their ability to, milliseconds before contact, fuse the plates to create a single, reinforced unit with the impact strength of a crowbar.
A near stumble knocked Geordi from his musings. How long had he zoned out? Definitely long enough for him to really begin feeling the position he was in, and Data’s stumble was worrisome. More importantly, Geordi wanted his visor.
“Data, stop a minute, take a break.”
“I do not require rest, Geordi. I am capable of maintaining...”
“Yeah, but I do. Put me down.”
Data stopped, stood a moment, and then changed direction. He helped Geordi to take a seat on a stone outcropping. Geordi leaned back against the cold wall, ignoring the sharp stones in his back that were nothing compared to the pounding in his head. His fingers locked around the visor as soon as Data placed it in his hands. He put it on and got his first look at this place.
A cavern was right, definitely the tunnel of a cave. While uneven, the floor was quite smooth for nature, the ceiling high and decorated with ancient stalactites. There were the remains of some fallen ones littering the cave floor. That made him nervous. Data, too, by the way he was looking up at them. There was something on the wall, a microorganism of some kind that was putting out a faint glow all throughout the cavern.
Geordi looked to Data then, circling the immediate section of the cave with uneven steps. He was easy to spot, his aura glowing like a beacon in the gloom, though Geordi noted a few “sputters” in certain places. Something had definitely gone wrong, Data’s uniform was torn off at the left shoulder, a patch of his skin gone as well, exposing the plates and circuits beneath. The same had happened to the front of his right thigh, though to a greater extent. After finishing his survey, Data returned and sat awkwardly beside Geordi, his injured leg extended.
That explained the limp. The plates covering Data’s body were so meticulously placed that they moved and rubbed together with the least amount of friction and no noise. But hit them hard enough in just the right way and the plates would get knocked out of alignment, locking up the whole section. Geordi had jokingly referred to it as an “android muscle cramp,” and Data had agreed it was a good enough analogy. On the rare occasion this happened, the command relay would reroute and the joint motors would kick on. That would definitely throw Data’s balance off, so different were the two systems, if only one leg was affected. Fortunately, it was easy enough for Data to fix.
Geordi watched as Data’s fingers flew over the misaligned plates at rapid speed, sliding them back into their proper place. Within less than a minute he had finished and when he stood again his steps were even and the sound of shifting metal was gone, though the whirring and clicking continued. Great.
“Data, what happened? The last thing I remember is being on the Enterprise.”
“You do not remember beaming down? Nor anything preceding that?”
He fought back a sarcastic remark, knowing it was wasted on his friend. “No.”
“That is to be expected, memory loss is not uncommon with a head injury.”
Head injury? Definitely explained the pain. Geordi had yet to take a look at himself, and found he looked worse than Data. His uniform was shredded in certain spots, and he was covered in cuts and bruises that were now making themselves known. He groaned.
Data was kneeling before him in an instant.
---------random scene 1
Whatever it was, Data wasn’t snapping out of it on his own. His right eye was blinking non-stop and he was stuttering badly, caught in a loop of three and a half words.
“Data!”
The android didn’t respond, just continued to loop, stutter, and twitch in a way all too reminiscent of Lore. Aside from turning him off, there was nothing Geordi could do, and it was far too risky in Data’s current state. So Geordi acted on instinct and was moving before even he realized what he was intending.
Geordi slapped Data upside the head as hard as he could.
--
It was not the smartest thing to do.
The pain of his hand impacting an android head reverberated up his arm and into his skull. He gasped and recoiled, gripping his head. But soon the pain dropped back to the dull throbbing he’d been enduring and he relaxed some. He noted the silence, aside from the constant, random clicking, and looked up at Data.
The android was staring at the ground ahead of him, mouth slightly open and eyes shifting back and forth in a way that let Geordi know he was running a diagnostic. He blinked a few times and turned to face the engineer.
“Thank you, Geordi. That was...disturbing.”
Geordi didn’t know if the fact that Data was aware of the glitch was a good or bad sign. Either way, he did not want to imagine what it was like to be stuck like that and conscious.
“Come on, let’s keep moving.” He took Data’s arm this time, and began to lead him down the tunnel. The android was looking a little too bewildered and that worried Geordi more than the glitches from hell.
---------random scene 2
“I hear singing is quite relaxing to some humans.”
“Data, when do you sing?”
“In the shower.”
Geordi stared at him for a moment before daring to ask, “Why would you need to shower? You don’t sweat, produce oil…”
“But humans do. You also shed hair, skin, and leave various residue everywhere.” He stopped and gave Geordi an accusing look. It wasn’t an expression he’d mastered very well and it came off slightly more comical than threatening, but Geordi had to wonder what brought it on. “It gets in my air filter.”
Geordi burst out laughing. The combination of Data’s pale impression of a glare and tone, along with the sheer ridiculousness of his statement was too much. Data was bitching!
“Have I said something humorous?”
“I couldn’t explain it to you, Data, trust me,” Geordi wheezed out between snickers. The laughing only made the pain in his head worse, back to waves of throbbing that distorted the signals from his visor to his brain. Still, the ball of tension that had settled in his stomach loosened some and he felt better than had since this nightmare began.
Data sat for a moment, then joined in with his forced, awkward laugh that Geordi honestly couldn’t stand. He was about to say something on the matter when Data was cut off by a sudden click-clackety-clackety thunk. The android hunched slightly, his eyes wide and his mouth forming an “oh,” though no sound emerged.
Geordi winced. “Let me guess, your breathing apparatus just quit on you.”
“That is correct,” Data said after a moment required for him to switch over from his voice box synthesizer to the digital voice modulator. The synthesizer required air flow and worked much like a human’s throat, hence Data preferred it, and allowed him to perform impressions. However, the modulator alone was used when Data had to mimic another’s voice. He didn’t use it much and Geordi was sure someone had pointed out to him before that, since it did not require working the throat, it looked odd when he spoke with it, as though he was lip-syncing.
On the other hand, Data’s breathing apparatus acted as a supplementary cooling system, and without it, he was going to have to monitor his thermal regulators closely.
At least that damned clicking had stopped.