milliways_bar | (no subject)

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The ball seems to be closer and yet farther every day. Jane has not gone looking for the Bar but she's found it today as she's considering something she wrote a while ago.

Her thoughts keep straying to Mister Lefroy but he has returned to London and may not come back for the ball.

It is best to move on and do as her mother would wish even though she doesn't wish to. In the end, it takes her rather longer to find a seat as her thoughts are not truly in Milliways.

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"I am not certain that he ever did. He took his case to court, and it was ruled that I am a sentient being, with the right to choose. After that, there was nothing he could do.

"However, I can understand why he thought of me in that way. He is an expert on the technology that was used to create me, so to him, I must seem more like a project or an experiment than a person. When we went to court, he was seeking permission to dismantle and study me, with the intent to attempt to create another android like myself."

"That seems like it would be rather unfair to you."

"That is what my captain thought," Data replies. "He fought hard to get the court ruling that we received, and I am very grateful for that. In effect, he saved my life."

"He sounds like a rather remarkable man."

"He is," Data agrees. "He is one of my greatest role models in my quest to become more human."

"May I ask what you find most difficult to learn?"

Data thinks about this for a moment.

"I am incapable of experiencing emotion," he says finally. "So I have trouble understanding it. As a result, I also have difficulty understanding simple things like humor, and love."

"Oh, but still you endeavor to understand them?"

"Yes, I do, despite the difficulty," Data answers. He opens his mouth as if to say something else, but shuts it again without saying anything.

"May I ask what you have learned?"

"I have learned many things in my thirty years of experience, such as which stimuli most commonly produce various emotional responses. But I am afraid that even in that respect, I still have much to learn. I am not always able to predict how humans will react in certain situations."

"I think you will find that is true of almost everyone, sir."

Data thinks about this.

"True," he agrees. "However, it seems that I am still at a disadvantage, compared to most people. Emotions give people the ability to sympathize, whereas I cannot."

"I agree. Have you found ways to work around that disadvantage?"

"I simply try to understand," Data replies. "My crewmates are aware of my disadvantage, and are usually kind enough to take the time to explain things to me that I do not understand. So I am learning."

"I think learning at times is all that we can manage. For those people that are of the greatest interest are also the most complicated. I know that is true for one man of my acquaintance."

This sounds fascinating.

"Could you tell me about him?" Data asks.

Jane smiles as she tries to think where to begin,

"When I first met him, I thought him terribly full of ego and proud of his rather rakish ways. Now I think that there is more to him, but I know too that there is more that I can learn of him."

"He sounds like an intriguing person," Data says. "From what evidence did you decide that there was 'more to him'?"

"The depths that he has shown himself to have during further conversations."

Data nods. "I have heard people described as having 'depth' before, but I have never quite been sure what that means. Could you perhaps explain it to me?"

"He holds himself with the airs of someone who does not truly care for anyone but himself. Yet I have seen him fight for justice for others so I believe that he cares more deeply about the world and is not truly as shallow as he appears."

"How did you first become acquainted with this man?"

"He is friends with my brother Henry and he slept through one of my readings."

"I have had similar experiences with my own crewmates," Data says, remembering some of his poetry readings. (Though certainly whatever Jane was reading was far more interesting.)

"Do you often come in contact with this person, then?"