MEMORY OMEGA EXTRACT / PERSONAL LOG: LAFORGE

SD44405.8

Today was brutal. Not just analytically, but physically and even, for me, emotionally. The only bright spot was Captain Thalla confirming there was nothing I could have done during the Terlina III incident that would have stopped Data from taking over the Enterprise. I noticed her antennae twitch a little when she said it, though.

Our second playback of the incident was interesting to say the least. It was a what-could we-have-done-differently run-through. Captain Thalla has a blunt command style, that’s for sure. She had us try to disable the entire ship by destroying key components. “Better we die in the void than fall into the wrong hands,” she said. First up: phasering the EPS conduits. It was a simulation, but I still cringed when the feedback blew out the taps.

Commander Maddox pointed out that Data could have had the main computer deactivate phasers, either ship wide, by section or even by unit, so we wouldn’t get very far.

She responded to Maddox with what I think was a growl, then picked up a sonic driver and used it to gauge out force field emitters during the part of the simulation where Data made his way to the transporter room. All that got her was thrown against an L-CARS interface hard enough to crack the glass. Holographic Data is just as strong as the real thing.

While Dr. Cameron was patching her up, she explained that keeping the safeguards on a low setting motivates us to act in our self-interest. She never took her eyes off me when she said that. That woman does not like me.

Later on, Thalla’s Vulcan tactical expert Tuvok attempted to physically access the saucer section interlink clamps while wearing an environmental suit. The plan was to force a saucer separation, which would drop Data out of warp, but Maddox had the Holo-Data program the replicators to beam water into the between-deck spaces. With no life-support in there, the water froze instantly. Tuvok broke two ribs when the ice crushed his suit. Fortunately for him Vulcans process pain very, very well.

While I’m not sure that Thalla’s die-before-Data approach was really called for, I began to suggest using the replicators to make individual explosive components so that we could put a bomb in the turbolift shafts, blocking Data from getting to the transporter room, but Maddox cut me off before I could get two sentences out.

He was right in that Data would be able to instantly analyze all known combinations of those components and realize we were trying to make a rudimentary thermite compound, but he was positively gleeful about it. I think he’s enjoying this, playing devil’s advocate. Or as he likes to call it, ironically, playing Data’s advocate.