Chapter 20: To make Sam screw up

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..Aboard the Enterprise...

Picard was walking down the corridor to his quarters on deck nine to get a good book he recently when a man approached him. The man looked familiar, the hair style reminded Picard of Data's hair cut, and the man wore a black and yellow uniform. He had two golden pins along the black collar.

"Captain, I have been wanting to speak with you," The man said.

"Yes?" Picard asked.

"I am not an Android," And then it became clear to Picard this man is Data. "Could you turn me back into an Android, please?"

At first Picard is baffled.

"But isn't that what you wanted to be?" Picard asked.

"Yes, sir," Data said, with a nod. "That is true. But I never wanted to compound one... illusion with another. It might be real to Sam... perhaps even you, sir. But it would never be so to me. Was it not one of the your favorite authors who wrote, 'This above all: to thine own self be true?' Sorry, captain, I must stick to what is real."

"You are right,Data," Picard said.

Shortly afterward Data is returned to his Android self within a white flash.

"Thank you, sir," Data said.

"Who were you with when you turned human?" Picard asked.

"Riker," Data said.

"Riker," Picard repeated.

"Yes," Data said.

"I will need to talk to him about the intention of this mission," Picard said.

Picard vanished in a white flash.

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...15 minutes later...

...Sick Bay...

"How does your fingers feel?" I asked.

"Terrible," Bailson replied.

"Hold up your hands," I said.

Bailson held up his hands.

"So what do I have, Nurse Bell?" Bailson asked.

"You have stalker syndrome," I said. "Your fingers are no doubtedly fine. I have scanned them numerous times, bent them, and ran all the tests I can think of."

"Hey, that's condescending," Bailson said.

"You have come for the same 'illness' for the past two weeks," I said. "You have worn my patience."

"Maybe it is something new!" Bailson suggested.

I sighed.

"I am not taking any of your crap," I said. "You are free to go."

Bailson got up grumbling. He went out the door leaving sick bay.

"How was the patient?" Doctor Beverly asked, behind me.

"What!" I jumped, at first frightened then turned around toward Doctor Beverly. "He was fine. Just faking it to get some attention from me."

"Ah,you have an admirer?" Doctor Beverly said.

"More or less," I said. "I am not interested in him at the slightest!"

Doctor Beverly has a snicker, amused by my relationship (probably) with Bailson, then she turns away going to a different patient with burns all over. I didn't get assigned to that patient as it is Beverly's charge. The doors opened with a whishing kind of sound. I had a feeling in my gut that Geordi just came in. It is the not kind of typical feeling that is odd, strange, and rather had a 'cool' theme to it.

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