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Starfleet Career Summary
2348 – Promoted to lieutenant (junior grade)
2364 – Named as operations officer and second officer on U.S.S.
Enterprise, under Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
2365 – JAG inquiry at Starbase 173 denied any Starfleet property
interest, upholding sentient individual rights
2368 – Temporarily in command of U.S.S. Sutherland, detected Romulan
interference in Klingon civil war 2372 -- Transferred with remainder of Picard's senior staff to
Sovereign-class U.S.S. Enterprise
2373 – During attempt to repair Borg temporal sabotage with Earth first
contact, kidnapped and resisted assimilation by Borg to prevent capture
of vessel and loss of timeline integrity
2379 – Sacrificed himself aboard Reman ship Scimitar in order to destroy Thalaron beam generator and save crew of Enterprise-E; prior to death, downloaded entire memory database into android prototype B-4
Psychological Profile: Report of Ship's Counselor Deanna Troi
Although the outlook did not pick up steam until his Enterprise posting
after 26 years of existence, Data has quite simply wished to be more
human and experience as much of that condition's depths and shadows as
his adaptive programming can approximate - with experiments in
everything from art, acting, and poetry to keeping a pet cat Spot and
imitating humanisms ranging from laughter, sneezing and whistling to
dance, facial hair grooming and bedtime routines.
Even with that goal, Data turned down a chance to be human offered by Q
in 2364, quoting Shakespeare's "To thine own self be true," but inched
closer to his goal with the discovery of an "emotion chip" created by
his builder, Dr. Noonien Soong. Although he delayed using it for over a
year, the chip when finally installed in 2371 caused a near-overload
until Data began learning the complexities of the new world just opened.
Humor was a concept that largely eluded him until that point, although
relationships - both positive and negative - were fostered via what Data
described as a familiarity of repetition.
UPDATE: SD 50900 review cycle:
Re: emotion chip of subject Data:
Data continue to familiarize himself with the flood of potential the chip opened up, but always until strict supervision to avoid further
overloads. Today, two years after installation, he tends to keep it
running during normal operations but maintains internal control over the
timing should it prove troubling or distracting.
The chip proved an Achilles heel during Data's capture by the Borg
Queen, when she literally tempted him with sensations of flesh and blood
he had never experienced despite his growing worldliness. Even so, the
emotional data overload was not enough to overrule his ethics
program.
Data was the fifth and next-to-last model created by Soong and his
then-wife Juliana on the Omicron Theta science colony, activated on Feb.
2, 2338 when found by members of a U.S.S. Tripoli away team after the
Crystalline Entity had drained the life force from the 411-member colony. Not until 2370 did he realize he had a childhood-like
developmental memory from an existence before that date, wiped by Soong
and replaced by the colonists' memories and logs as they faced their
doom by the Entity.
In later years, Data discovered his remarried "mother" and just as
quickly realized Soong had made her an android, transferring her
consciousness shortly before she died; the revelation, which he opted
not to reveal to her, was one of two Data experienced in programs left
by Soong, the other being a dreaming routine accidentally accessed in
2369. Dr. Ira Graves, Soong's mentor and a legend in his own right,
asked the android to call him "grandfather" during a time before Graves'
short-lived hijacking of Data's body for his own consciousness in 2365.
Data has said his post-activation months were rough, but the crew who found him inspired him to join Starfleet and, after being deemed
sentient, he was accepted to Starfleet Academy in 2341 - with Cmdr.
Bruce Maddox of the Daystrom Institute casting the only nay vote in the
decision of his examination board. Data found the entrance exams
elementary but in his freshman year discovered his biggest problems to
be those of social interaction, such as practical jokes and the Sadie
Hawkins Dance. After a curriculum which included advanced training in
auxiliary vessels, he graduated four years later with honors in
probability mechanics and exobiology. Following graduation he spent
three more as an ensign and 10-12 more in the lieutenant grades. One of
his postings was to the U.S.S. Trieste, where the missions included an
unstable wormhole.
Even with his career, Data's rights as an intelligent being rather than
Starfleet property were challenged and barely won in 2365 when Maddox wished to disassemble him for replication without first having mastered
the Soong's positronic process. Data and Maddox eventually kept up
correspondence to further Maddox's research.
Data only discovered in 2364 that he was immediately preceded by a
"brother," Lore, built with an inferior ethics program and originally
disassembled before Data's own creation. The Starfleet android
encountered his "sibling" three times in all: once upon his reassembly
when first revisiting Omicron Theta in 2364, again when Soong was killed
by Lore on Terlina III in 2368 during his theft of the emotion chip
meant for Data; and again in late 2369, while commanding a faction of
renegade Borg marauders released from the Collective. Lore had coerced
Data by suppressing his ethics program, but he was overcome and finally
disassembled, the emotions chip going to Data at last.
Combining his interest in procreation with advanced positronic studies
in 2366, Data himself created a short-lived daughter christened Lal
whose ownership had again been contested by Starfleet and Admiral
Haftel. The emotional overload she was exposed to in the struggle
presaged Data's five years later, but her unintended emotional ability
could not be processed adequately and she "died" despite the best
efforts of Data and Haftel.
Aside from a romantic encounter with the late Tasha Yar under effects of
the Tsiolkovsky virus in 2364, and a crush directed at him by Tau Cygna
colonist Ard'rian MacKenzie, he later tried dating Lt. (j.g.) Jenna
D'Sora. A small hologram of Yar is among his closest possessions, which
also include a book of Shakespeare sonnets from Picard, the proximity
detector of Turkana IV from Yar's sister Ishara, and props from his
Holodeck adventures.
After all Data's years in Starfleet following activation, Geordi LaForge
was the first to become a friend and accept him with respect as an equal
- apparently not until they met aboard thhee U.S.S. Enterprise; he later
planned LaForge's memorial service when the chief engineer and Ro were
presumed dead during an encounter with the Romulans in 2368. Having
introduced Miles O'Brien and Keiko Ishikawa, Data served as her bridal
escort during their wedding and danced a step he'd learned from Dr.
Crusher.
A fascination with Old Earth detective fiction led Data to a common
hobby shared with La Forge of role-playing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
on the Holodeck; he has read all the Holmes books. That interest evolved
into legitimate theatre as well as music, where he has studied the
violin, guitar, oboe and flute and plays in shipboard performances.
Skill dances such as tap are easier to master than those with subtle variables such as ballroom, but he has done so. Data also tried his hand
at various styles of painting, but realized that his knowledge of
previous styles overrode any personality he could put into the art. He
also plays poker, knows blackjack and learned Stratagema well enough to
tie gamesmaster Sirna Kolrami - but he once lost a tri-dimensional chess
game to this officer.
Professional Assessment: Report of Starfleet Command Review Board
Due to his programming and superhuman abilities, Data is by definition
an exemplary officer, but those same abilities have also been proven an
Achilles' heel of sorts - as when he was overcome by his "brother" Lore,
or the homing signal once used by his creator Soong, among other
instances on record. The recent Borg invasion and his capture and
hoped-for assimilation as a potential ally is yet another.
Unfortunately, as the only android in the service, the natural
disinclination to attribute command abilities and respect to an
artificial being - as well as the long-undetermined issue of his
self-determination rights - hampered Data's command advancement and led
to service in operations division only. Despite his long career he was
not placed even in acting command until assuming the con of the U.S.S.
Sutherland during the blockade of Romulan aid to the Duras Klingon
faction in 2367-68. Data also devised the first known defense to the
Picard Maneuver in 2364, nine years after it was first used.
He carries Alpha-1 computer clearance and Priority 3 security clearance.
Bio-engineering Review: Joint Report of CMO Beverly Crusher, M.D. and
Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge
Data, who weighs 100 kg., carries a concealed master on/off switch
centered just below his right shoulder blade. This switch is known only
to the senior staff of the Enterprise: commander, first officer, chief
engineer, chief medical officer and ship's counselor. As designed he is
programmed not to lie or deceive, recalls everything he's ever been
exposed to, cannot use verbal contractions, and has super-human
strength, dexterity, voice duplication, self-diagnostics, and "fully
functional" male sexual abilities without the emotional attraction.
Though he approximates fellow humanoid sleeping patterns and workshifts,
he of course needs no actual rest and often takes the helm during the
"night watch."
Experiments into his direct input into or remote control of ship's
systems have been uneven, but his unique abilities have been invaluable
in securing the safety of ship and crew in numerous crises and far
outweigh, in our opinion, any potential weakness they present.
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