Author's Note: Thank you all for your continued support on this journey!
I've been so eager to get to Home Soil! I think it's one of the earliest pivotal episodes in Data's character development – showcasing his creativity and accepting nature. He's willing to recognise life as more than just organic, carbon-based cells and successfully convince the rest of the crew to expand their minds.
Home Soil was also one of the episodes in which Tasha actually got to do her job as a Security Chief! There's also a moment early in the episode where she sticks up for Data and I like to cite that as evidence they were (if not lovers) friends and I think it demonstrates that she sees him differently.
If only there had been more first series episodes like it....
Per usual, there are some slight changes dotted throughout to better facilitate our story. I also want to expand on the lifeform found in this episode and tie it into the broader Star Trek universe & Data's story. This arc will have implications for future chapters in The Choice.
A note on electrocution – low voltage is where you become 'stuck' and cannot move. High voltage will typically throw you off or back. In this chapter, we are dealing with high voltage.
Thank you for your patience with this update! I've got a new HUGE project in the works (more details coming soon)! Thank you for all your support!
-X-
"We'll I'm out," Miles announced.
He tossed his cards down on the table and reached for his pint glass.
"Can you believe it? Six hands and all of them lousy," Miles grumbled.
"With your luck?" Riker teased.
"What I can't believe is that we're on another mapping mission," Geordi said.
Following their assignment to Mordan, the Enterprise had received new orders. To everyone's dismay it was another mapping mission – this time, the Pleiades Cluster.
"How many more of these do you think we'll get?" Geordi asked. "I mean there's only so many times I can run a maintenance cycle."
"Doesn't it strike anybody as odd that the flagship is getting assigned these tasks?" Beverly asked.
She had recently spoken with a colleague aboard the Enterprise's sister ship, the USS Yamato, and confirmed she was facing similar assignments.
"I mean why are they sending Galaxy class ships on mundane cartography assignments?" Beverly went on. "As much as I'd like to believe that things really are that stable, I know better."
Worf and Tasha exchanged a dark look across the table.
Their fears about Romulan interference were growing stronger with each passing day. They both believed this mapping mission was just the latest attempt to side-line the Enterprise.
They were all thinking it, but no one wanted to voice it aloud.
It seemed whenever the subject came up, Tasha was quick to kill it by changing the subject. Riker knew that there were classified memos circulated from Starfleet security and that Tasha had connections from her time with grey ops.
Riker saw her shift uncomfortably in her chair and suspected she wanted to avoid this chain of conversation.
"Is that a new painting, Data?" Riker asked, desperate to change the subject.
YOU ARE READING
The Complication
Fanfiction"Am I the 'complication'?" Data asked. Following the events on Ligon II, Data struggles to reconcile the discrepancies between Tasha's verbal and nonverbal communication. Furthermore, his attempts to better understand what's happening lead to him fr...
