Data

**Data** is a Soong-type android in the 24th century who served as second officer aboard the USS *Enterprise*-D and the USS *Enterprise*-E.

## Personal Info

### Parents:

Noonien Soong and Juliana Tainer (creators)

## Biography

### Discovery and early life

Data was constructed by Dr. Noonien Soong, and first activated in 2335 at the Omicron Theta colony on planet Kiron III. Unlike his "older brother" Lore, he was not given emotions, and at first was very childlike. In 2336, his early memories were wiped and replaced with the logs and journals of the colonists. Shortly after, the colony was attacked by a Crystalline Entity and Data was left deactivated on a rock shelf.

He was discovered in 2338 by the crew of the USS *Tripoli*, and reactivated, becoming familiar with Starfleet. Data entered Starfleet Academy in 2341.

Rear Admiral Alynna Nechayev met with Data while he was hoping to join Starfleet. Nechayev allowed Data to skip the entrance exams and to

Data took the first-year course Ethics and Moral Principles, in which cadets debate the topic that life everywhere was sacred. However, Data was unable to form an argument against the hypothesis, as it was against his programming, and failed the course.

In 2343, Data completed an engineering honorarium at Utopia Planitia. A year later, he piloted the shuttle *Curie* from Earth to Utopia Planitia, ferrying a number of Starfleet officers and one civilian, the nine-year-old Kathryn Janeway. After arriving, he took Janeway on a tour of the facility.

At Starfleet Academy, he undertook the Priam IV test as part of admission to the graduating class. Although the test required cadets to be hypnotized into believing the test was real, Data could not be fooled and could even the see the holodeck walls. Therefore, he allowed computer experts to program the experience directly into his mind, an experience that he found disturbing due to the loss of mental control and later sudden return. It took him several days to reconcile the conflicting memories, and finally resolved the paradox by denying access to the real events.

While in Starfleet Academy, Data had been instrumental in doing some updating and redesigning of the computer system used aboard starships, including greater sophistication in its communication skills and expansion of its already formidable memory.

The year 2345 saw Data graduate with honors in exobiology and probability mechanics from Starfleet Academy as its first android graduate.

One of Data's first assignments was as a Starfleet Education Representative, where he visited schools across the Sol system, before he was assigned to a starship.

He remained an ensign for three years and spent ten-to-twelve years as a lieutenant before he was recruited for a survey mission by Captain Jean-Luc Picard aboard the USS *Portia*. During this mission, Picard encouraged Data to assert himself and work beyond what his superiors request of him; prior to meeting Picard, Data had shown a lack of career advancement because he always did the job in front of him simply because it didn't occur to him to push himself further or ask for particular assignments over others, adhering to the chain of command without thinking of going beyond the rules. Inspired by Picard's advice, Data was not only able to determine the true abilities and motives of the Manraloth, Ariel, but expose and thwart her plans to sabotage the *Galaxy*-class starships with a quantum virus that would have added various minor faults to their designs while rendering Starfleet computers unable to detect these flaws. As a result of his efforts, Data was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 2360 after the conclusion of the mission (A meeting of Starfleet Command had to specially approve the promotion. He subsequently served aboard the USS *Trieste* , although he was assured that there was a place for him on a Galaxy-class starship when he wanted it for his role in saving them.

By 2365, Data had earned the Starfleet Command Decoration for Gallantry, Medal of Honor with clusters, Legion of Honor, and the Star Cross.

### The *Enterprise*-D

In 2364, Data joined the crew of the USS *Enterprise*-D as operations manager, chief science officer, and second officer.

Data also accompanied the *Enterprise*-D's First Officer, Commander Riker and away teams on various missions and first contacts with species such as the Theluvians. He also took part in various celebrations aboard the *Enterprise*-D such as Christmas.

Prior to a encounter with Q, Data was, unknowingly, pre-programmed by Starfleet Command to have the *Enterprise*-D find the planet Faltos. Data was given authority to command the ship on the orders of Admiral Thivov. Data was successful in finding Faltos. Data was also instrumental in escaping Faltos's orbit. Chief Engineer Michael Argyle and Dr. Beverly Crusher were able to help Data find Dr. Soong's research on the Crystalline Entity. Using this information, Data was able to create an escape plan by joining transporter and warp technology in a unorthodox way. However, as the ship was leaving Faltos's orbit, Data's file on this was taken away by Bensley to protect Faltos, thus making sure the planet remains lost.

On stardate 41590.8, Data was part of an away team to the planet Tigan. After discovering a planetary conspiracy, the team were attacked by Tigan security forces. Tasha Yar and Will Riker were taken into captivity while Data was taken to a Tigan facility where one of the Tigan conspirators, Edic, attempted to reprogram Data's positronic brain to erase his findings and report back to the *Enterprise* with only a positive experience of the planet. Fortunately Data's mind proved too resilient for this tampering and the attempt was unsuccessful. Data was freed from the Tigans when Edic rebelled against his fellow conspirator Kadec after seeing the error of his ways. The experience left Data contemplative, his memory so perfect, maybe that could be the key to him learning to be Human.

He later went on an investigative mission to the planet Treva with Lieutenant Tasha Yar. They met with President Nalavia, with whom he attempted to flirt on Yar's suggestion. After Yar disappeared, Data was forced to carry on alone, and was taken on tours of the city to meet with survivors of the terrorist attacks and visiting schools. Meanwhile, he infiltrated the Presidential Palace, explored its computers, analyzed the data he found, and searched for Yar. Finally he escaped the palace and headed to the castle of Warrior's Rest in a stolen flyer to rescue Yar, but he was captured by a quoghart net he did not notice. There, Data shared what he'd learned about Nalavia’s Riatine water treatments and fake terrorists. Though conflicted by their duty to the Prime Directive, he and Yar participated in planning for the liberation of Treva, and in the defense of the rebel stronghold. He also began a relationship with Pris Shenkley, a mercenary working for fugitive ex–Starfleet officer Darryl Adin. Data later discovered information exposing Nalavia's schemes.

Following the mission, Data remotely accessed the Starbase 36 computer in order to find and examine files related to Adin's conviction in 2359. Delving deeper, he interfaced with and finally merged completely with the computer to recover deleted files from the Standard Unlimited Virtual memory system, something that could only be done by an android. He virtually drowned in conflicting information from the starbase and was left unconscious, but was fortunately discovered and restored by Lieutenant Geordi La Forge. He discovered that the files had been tampered with and exosed the Orion plot that had framed Adin, exonerating him.

In 2366, Data was taken by the Mezartine crew of the warship *Conqueror*. There he was used as a new body for the Pilot's personality to continue his existence. As the pilot, Data ordered Captain Picard to give supplies or he would destroy the *Enterprise*.

In late 2368, Data traveled through a Devidian portal to 1893. An away team from the *Enterprise* followed him and brought him back to his own time. However, he left his head behind, which stayed in San Francisco for nearly five hundred years before being reconnected to his body shortly after his recovery by his crewmates.

In 2371, Data was forced to play a deadly game with the entity Redjac when he took over *Enterprise*-D 's computer as part of his revenge. Redjac used the *Enterprise*-D 's holodeck to recreate Victorian London using Data's Sherlock Holmes program. Redjac tried to make Data feel fear. At first, Data was not able to stop Redjac from killing officers such as Ensign McKenzie. Data was able to save Counselor Troi from Redjac. Data and LaForge were then able to devise away to stop Redjac. Data was then able to find Redjac in a warehoused named "**Montgomery** & Sons" on **Scott** street, which Data saw as reference to Redjac's time on the original *Enterprise*. Data and La Forge were able to seal Redjac within a photon torpedo.

### The *Enterprise*-E

Following the *Enterprise*-D's destruction, Data alongside the majority of Captain Picard's crew transferred to the new *Sovereign*-class USS *Enterprise*-E.

In the months following the infusion of the emotion chip into his neural net, Data had dificulties mastering his new emotions. He was prone to get angry or agitated over trivial matters, and found himself unable to produce art as before. In the latter matter, he enlisted the help of Lieutenant Padraig Daniels who came aboard for a temorary assignment. The two spent much time in the *Enterprise*' art center painting, and eventually Data managed to express himself again using his emotions.

In 2374 during the Dominion War, Data and the crew of *Enterprise-E* were then sent to the Gorn homeworld to try and form an alliance between the Federation and the Gorn Empire. Data was left in command of the *Enterprise* after a coup occurred on the surface and Capt. Picard, Counselor Troi and Dr. Crusher went down to the surface. Data then held the *Enterprise's* fire against the one of the Gorn warships. Data then destroyed the Gorn warship. Data then informed Starfleet command and Adm. Connolly of the situation with the Gorn. Connolly told him that Starfleet could not send any reinforcements to him. Data was then contacted by the *coup* leader, Slessshh, who wanted the *Enterprise* to surrender or he would kill Capt. Picard, Dr. Crusher, Counselor Troi and the rest of the away team. Data however refused to do so saying that Slessshh was underestimating the human's strength. Data then decided to beam down, unarmed to the Gorn council chamber to demonstrate his point. Data then called Slessshh and the gorn weak. Data, at the behest of Capt. Picard, then challenged Slessshh to fight him. Data was able to defeat him and force the gorn war fleet to stand down.

In 2376, Data was part of an away team to investigate the Cardassian freighter *Kamal*, which the *Enterprise* had discovered in the Badlands. The freighter contained the Orb of Memory which caused the away team, including Data, to suffer flashbacks to people and events in their lives.

#### Assignments away from the *Enterprise*

Given Data's impressive abilities and usefulness to Starfleet, it was not uncommon for him to be called to serve on other missions away from the *Enterprise* from time to time .

In 2375 Data joined a duck-blind mission on the planet Ba'ku and was largely responsible for revealing a Starfleet/Son'a plot to remove the Ba'ku from their planet.

In 2377 Data served as technical advisor during the development of the highly experimental USS *Incursion*. He joined the *Incursion*'s crew in the shakedown cruise testing the Incursion's holographic systems and subsequently found himself in the midst of the Warden plot to take over the galaxy. During the crisis he was recalled to Earth to help decode warden transmissions and was almost assassinated by Warden agents, fortunately he was rescued by the *Incursion*'s crew and rejoined the vessel to help bring down the Wardens.

In 2378 Data was assigned to the USS *Sovereign* to assist in the investigation of the Vesuvi Event. It was discovered that a rogue Cardassian faction was responsible. Data received orders from Vice Admiral Liu to track down the device that the Cardassians were using to destroy star systems. A device was located on Alioth VI, but unfortunately, the *Sovereign* was discovered and attacked by a Cardassian fleet, forcing the crew to leave Data behind on the hostile planet for several months. He was recovered by the crew of the *Sovereign* and later was able to establish a dialogue with the Kessok after the *Sovereign*'s captain initiated a peaceful first contact. After the conflict in the Maelstrom region was resolved, he returned to the *Enterprise*.

## Personal Timeline

 2338
 2364
 2366
 2378