Brooding [OTA]

[dr_arik_soong]

Near the habitat area there was a tired old man, sitting on a resting bench with his face in hands and trying so hard not to be daunted after giving up on trying to find the man he wanted to have a word with

Comments

[psychotravis]

"You," Travis said, stopping dead in front of Arik. "I've been looking for you. Is there any news about our friend?" By which he meant Lore, of course.

[dr_arik_soong]

"I'm working on it," he said, nearly jolting at Travis's sudden voice. His hands slid to cover the lower half of his face as he looked up, that worn, tired version of Lore's (or Data's) countenance looking all the more weary for its years.

"I have most of what I need, but I want answers. I'm still going to fix him. You have my word. He may be generations away but he's still a part of me and I would never have denied one of my own. But I need to know how he got that bullet in his back."

[psychotravis]

"Good," Travis grunted, helping himself to a seat next to Arik. "I'm very glad to hear it."

He was silent for a moment, considering his response to the question. He didn't want to say anything that might put Arik off repairing Lore, after all. He had given his word, but then, many people had given their word to Travis; few had ever kept it.

"I didn't shoot him, if that's what you were thinking," he said. "He was killed by an enemy of progress. Somebody objected to the...scientific experiments he wanted to carry out."

Travis was not a particularly good liar; he hoped to make himself sound convincing by keeping to something he could almost persuade himself was true.

[dr_arik_soong]

There was a problem. Arik was a good liar too, and despite his tendency to be forgiving he had become paranoid after the events that cost him his children.

"He did," he responded simply at first. He decided not to mention Avon's name. Not yet. But for now, he would let the simplified explanation lie.

"What will make this man's life worth saving? I've not had a friend in a long time. I've lived behind glass under constant observation like the worst sort of science project. I need to know how I led to something that could be someone's friend." He watched Travis, but didn't move away when he sat down next to him. Still just regarding him, as if trying to find something that he'd missed. Both good and bad.

[drsilkenfloss]

Silken Floss' focus was not on the surrounding area but rather her PADD. Always thinking, always working her mind, at least this work happened to be her form of fun rather then actual work. Not that her idea of fun ever deviated very far from the definition of work. She caught sight of a figure out of the corner of her eye and looked up to make sure she did not run into any one but rather then going on her way she stopped and turned.

"Dr. Soong?" She did not show outward concern but she did raise an eyebrow at him, quizzically.

[dr_arik_soong]

He looked up from his hands, gaze settling on Dr. Floss, recognizing her mostly as the 'nice looking woman from sick bay'. He twitched a faint smile that dissipated quickly.

"You look busy," he said, both noting her form of fun and that he decidedly wasn't. Not a great impression to make. But then again, he wasn't in much of a mood to attempt work at the moment.

[drsilkenfloss]

"I'm always busy. Idle hands..." She turned the PADD off. "You look tired." Is something wrong? Would of been the caring and docile approach to asking someone if they were all right but Silken Floss was matter of fact in her manner. She didn't even know this man well enough to show concern, but he was Data's ancestor. There was a reason to make sure he was healthy and well of mind.

[dr_arik_soong]

"I am. More of a... tired of being a fool tired than a tired than an actual physical exhaustion. I need to stop entertaining these delusions that I can actually improve upon humanity...." There was a certain venom that rose in his voice. Not directed at her, of course. But instead, at himself.

[ladysallymcgee]

"You, sir, look as though you could use a drink." The accent was very upper-class British, the manner, very 'hooker with a heart of gold'." And it came from a red-head bombshell 'of a certain age' standing regarding him with her head to one side.

[dr_arik_soong]

He looked up from his mournful thoughts, to be pleasantly distracted by that woman of a certain age. And really, there were many ages that a woman could be damnably attractive, this was one of them.

"I could, probably," he said a bit more dimly than he intended. Allowing someone to know you were upset often exposed weakness, and he'd spent the last decade around people that wanted information. He was slipping. Badly.

[ladysallymcgee]

"Well, it just so happens that I know a good bar, a couple of them in fact, but my own is my favorite."

She offered him an arm.

[dr_arik_soong]

He stood, hooking his arm in hers and deciding sulking with a pretty red-head was better than sulking in a station hallway. "You have a bar here?"

[maxlittlefella]

Max had kept to herself since her arrival, mostly watching and to be honest, waiting for the inevitable betrayal but it hadn't happened. No one approached her about the blood sample that she'd given so she tentatively moved Dr. Soong from possible threat to possible ally. He proven that he could keep his word.

It was almost as if her thoughts had conjured him up, when she spotted him sitting on a bench. "Hey." She said quietly as she approached.

[dr_arik_soong]

He sat up at Max's voice, earning himself a surprising crick to his back that just served as another reminder of his age.

But there was the young Augment that he'd met in sickbay, and he gave her a slight wave. "Hi there. Looks like you managed to come through on top. I didn't see you in there after you came in."

Settling down, he leaned his back against the wall behind him. "Guess I ought to say thanks." No one else would have the chance, after all.

[maxlittlefella]

"Nah, takes more than some virus to get me." Max shrugged her shoulders and took a seat on the bench without being asked. "Glad it worked." She hated what Manticore did to her, but if it helped sometimes then she'd use it.

[dr_arik_soong]

"You helped more than you know." He looked down at his hands, shoulders shirking with a sigh. He couldn't quite get it out of his head that she reminded him of Persis. They were a lot alike. In mannerisms. Even in smile.

"What were the other augments that made Manticore like? I was told by someone once that Augments couldn't help treachery and violence. It was in their nature. I couldn't... bring myself to believe him. I almost did, considering what my son had just done... But there were so many more of them that were just unfortunate."

Post-Silkenfloss

[r_d_olivaw]

Daneel took care when he approached the man; his footsteps were measured (precisely so) and unhurried. His telepathic sense was unnecessary; even the most rudimentary of robots, with the poorest facial/emotional recognition, would have known that this was a human in distress. He had been eagerly curious to speak with the human since he had seen the familiar face, but the first law created a strong potential against harmful intrusion. And something else, that burgeoning sense that to distress an innocent was to degrade his own functionality in the process.

"I have a question for you, sir," Daneel said, his voice muted, modulated with soothing harmonics. "But first and foremost I would like to offer my aid. Is there anything that I can help you with?"

[dr_arik_soong]

The soothing harmonics were a nice attempt, though at the moment they did little more than remind him of the poor soul that he suspected he offended even if he knew he damn well couldn't offend the damn thing. Why should he even get so worried? It wasn't like he actually could be hurt.

But he was worried. "First and foremost I would like to find Data. Android. Shiny and gold and about so high-" he motioned to the top of his own head, turning in place in that corridor to try and see down both ways of it.

"Damn it," he swore again, and started striding off, hoping that it was in the right direction.

[r_d_olivaw]

"Computer, where is Data on the station?" Daneel asked the computer, choosing to move straight to the source. Having received an answer, he moved swiftly to catch up with the man. "I know Data. I consider him a friend; is his function impaired, or is there a danger to him?"

Then this man did know Data. It had been Daneel's intent to ask if the human had been part of Data's build team, as he himself had been modeled physically after his design engineer, Jan Sarton. The relation was now confirmed, but in such a way as to raise further concern.

[dr_arik_soong]

Data was on the move, and not slowly either. He was fast leaving the habitat section.

"Is his function impaired?" The old man laughed ruefully. "I doubt it. I think I said something that.... needs explaining to him."

He strode off in the direction of the Docking Bay.