Yesterday's Enterprise - Borrowed Time

Chapter One | Twilight

Author's Note: This story contains elements of Michael Chabon's Romulan mythology for the Picard series. This will be a three-part story.

Apologies in advance as this a deviation from what I typically like to compose - adventure, fluff, and humour.

Contrary to that, this was bittersweet to write.

It's sappy. Melodramatic. And although there are some touching moments, this story is littered with tragedy.

That said, ploughed forward with it regardless because it would not leave me alone.

AU Yesterday's Enterprise. Data/Tasha.

In this story, Tasha holds the rank of Commander. In the original promotion media releases for the show, she was referred to as "Commander Yar" and I'm actually quite salty this didn't come to fruition.

This is a fan-made work written solely because the idea wouldn't leave me alone. I make no profit from this. The Star Trek Universe and the characters contained within it were created by Gene Roddenberry.

C/W: This story depicts the destruction of the Enterprise, Romulan prison, major character deaths, abuse, sexual assault, and all-around pretty heavy subject matter. You've been warned.

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Chapter One | Twilight

His first memory was the feeling of sunshine on his face.

He did not immediately open his eyes. He would like to tell himself that this is a whimsical moment in which he had savoured the feeling of light and warmth on his skin.

His mind tells him that is not the case. Rather, his sensory receptors received the signal of light and warmth, ran it through his synthetic somatosensory system and directed the input to his positronic brain for analysis where his information bank deduced it was sunshine.

Yet, there was something nagging at him. He had been sitting on the holodeck for the last ten minutes, recreating the sensation of the sunlight on his polymer skin – as he had done many times before – and it did not illicit the same response.

He did not know how else to explain it, but it felt different.

No matter how many times he had attempted to study the phenomenon, he had never been able to replicate the same magical feeling of the first time he felt the sun on his face.

Over the course of his 26 years in Starfleet, Data had attempted this on 208 occasions. Fifteen minutes on the holodeck once a month was one privileges, he was afforded as Second Officer. Many of the officers found it strange that an Android would even use a holodeck.

"Captain Picard for Commander Data. You're needed on the bridge," Picard's voice rang out through his combadge.

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"Analysis, Mister Data," Captain Picard orders.

They were reading some kind of gravimetric fluctuation. It was unlike anything Data has ever encountered before. There appears to be some kind of time displacement. He considers the possibility that it could be a wormhole but concluded this time displacement was different.

But wormholes have event horizons. This did not.

"I do not have sufficient information to make an analysis as yet," Data advises as his neural net races to process the information coming from the scan.

"There's been a change in the sensor readings," Tasha informs them from the tactical position.

"Mister Data?" Picard asks.