Data

Data is a Soong-type android in the 24th century who served as second officer aboard the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) and the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) and eventually captained the latter vessel.

Specification
Data was constructed by Doctor Noonien Soong and, like the majority of Dr. Soong's works, was modeled after Soong's own likeness and mimicked the human form in impressive detail. Data's design included an ability to grow hair and a pseudo-cardiovascular system which produced a pulse and breathing, but rather than pumping blood, distributed biochemical lubricants and regulated microhydraulic power and temperatures throughout his body. 

Data's chemical nutrients are also capable of contracting molecular pathogens undetectable to transporter filters and bleeding from his dermal surface when his skin is pierced or torn. 

Data was composed of 24.6 kilograms of tripolymer composites, 11.8 kilograms of molybdenum-cobalt alloys and 1.3 kilograms of bioplast sheeting. 

His upper, spinal support is a polyalloy designed to withstand extreme stress. His skull is composed of cortinide and duranium. This composition makes him resistant to most forms of stress and virtually bullet proof. 

Data was built with an ultimate storage capacity of eight hundred quadrillion bits (approximately 100 petabytes) and a total linear computational speed rated at sixty trillion operations per second. 

Data's brain was outfitted (unlike Lore's type L) with a type R phase discriminating amplifier. 

As his neural net was composed of anti-electrons (positrons), and throughout the nervous system, his body gave off an aura on a wavelength only visible to a humanoid wearing a VISOR. 

Data has an ability to "spacewalk", for a limited amount of time, outside the pressurized confines of a vessel's hull-without an environmental suit. He also has acrobatic skills necessary to perform tasks in zero-gravity. 

Designed with a "fully functional", anatomically correct form, he could perform various techniques of interaction, including sexuality. However, he could not master the ability to whistle. 

Although he is flawlessly capable of this human idiosyncrasy. 

Data's construction, at first, had no buoyancy-resulting in his sinking whenever submerged in water. 

However, this was corrected in later years as a potential drowning risk in emergencies. 

Data possessed a simple infrared vision in addition to normal sight. 

Despite his impressive abilities and specifications, Data always desired to become more human but often struggled to master various aspects of humanity, such as emotion, humor and contractions. As part of his quest to become more human Data kept a pet cat, Spot.

Data did finally gain emotions when he installed an emotion chip created by Dr. Soong. 

Upon their first meeting, Commander Riker referred to him with the pet name of Pinocchio. Years later, his comparison to the antiquated children's tale came up again, while Will Riker considered Data's search for the "human condition." 

Ancestry and Family
The dream of creating an android like Data dates back to as early as the 22nd century when Dr. Arik Soong, having failed in improving humanity by means of genetic modification, decided to begin development of a cybernetic lifeform. 

He had fully expected that he would not be the one to see the completion of this task; indeed, it was not until Arik Soong's descendant: Noonien Soong, under the tutelage of Ira Graves (Data's "grandfather") and with the assistance of Juliana Tainer (Data's "mother"), that a fully-formed android was created. 

Prior to Data, Dr. Soong created at least two other androids, Data's brothers Lore and B-4. Both were considered faulty and were deactivated in favor of the more advanced Data. 

Despite his quite extensive ancestry Data may consider his crewmates aboard the starships USS Enterprise and -E more of a family and had a particularly strong bond with his friend Geordi La Forge.

In 2366 Data created a new android, his daughter Lal, in her short life Lal successfully achieved a far greater level of human emotion than Data had yet managed and she remained in his thoughts for many years following her death. 

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 (NCC-19386), 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 move to an accelerated track with credit for individual study. 


 * Nechayev's rank of rear admiral (with two pips on her collar) is inconsistent with her rank of commander at nearly the same time in Rogue Saucer.

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  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 fool 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. 

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 being promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 2360, after a mission with Captain Jean-Luc Picard, aboard the USS Portia. 

A meeting of Starfleet Command had to specially approve the promotion. 

He subsequently served aboard the USS Trieste (NCC-37124). 

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

By the late 24th century, Data's collected letters were required reading by cadets taking the Introduction to Artificial Intelligence course at Starfleet Academy. 

The Enterprise-D
In 2364, Data joined the crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) as operations manager, chief science officer, and second officer. 

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 whilst 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. 


 * In Survivors, in 2364, Data gives his age as 26 in Federation Standard Years, which corresponds to the date of his reactivation by the Tripoli in 2338, rather than the earlier date of his creation or new memories.

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. 

At some point during the year 2364, Data also served in the position of navigator aboard the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D). 

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. 

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 (NCC-1701-E).

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. 


 * In Bridge Commander, Data was referred to as commander; it might have been possible that he was promoted to acting commander for his assignment aboard the Sovereign.

Turbulent times
In 2378, Data had his emotion chip forcibly removed following an incident at the Rashanar Battle site. 

In 2379, he commanded the Bravo team mission to infiltrate the nadion-pulse cannon firebase located in the Solasook Peninsula on Tezwa. The mission was successful after Data was able to interface with the base computers allowing him to send false signals forcing the crew to abandon the base. It was on this mission that Commander Riker was kidnapped and held captive for one month. During Riker's captivity, Data served as acting first officer of the Enterprise. It was Lieutenant Vale's belief that Data went without any rest for this entire one-month period. 

After Riker's return, he approached Captain Picard about taking crew of the Enterprise with him to the USS Titan. Picard was fine with this except that Riker was not allowed to take Data as Picard felt that he had earned his chance to become first officer of the Enterprise. 

Towards the end of the year, Data sacrificed himself to rescue Captain Picard and destroy the Reman warbird Scimitar thereby preventing the deaths of the Enterprise-E's crew. 

Sometime in the 29th century when the Borg assimilated the entire galaxy, Data's positronic matrix was stored in the Borg hive mind when they assimilated the Daystrom Institute. Data was then rebuilt by Locutus and helped Locutus defeat the Borg Queen's sentinel, Seven of Nine. After Locutus and the Queen killed each other, Data was then sent back to USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) in 2381 to help Captain Picard defeat the Borg. 

Return
In 2382, a USS Titan crew member remarked that the Daystrom Institute had been trying to recover the mind of Lieutenant Commander Data for almost three years. 

Primary Timeline
In 2384, Data's memories were transferred into a new body designed and constructed by his father who at first transferred his own consciousness into the body in an effort to prolong his life for a continuation of his work on androids. This body was human in appearance and was even able to give off Human lifesigns, it was overall a better body than the one Noonien Soong had made for Data on Omicron Theta. Soong had originally planned on resurrecting Data with a body even more advanced then the one he made for himself, but mid construction, which was during the Borg invasion, Soong's lab was destroyed in a Borg attack. Being reset to square one, Soong had no choice but to seek out other methods. Unfortunately, he found he was unable to make a new body in time to save Data's memories. Having ony one option, he came up with a way that would save B-4 and bring back Data in exchange for his life. His plan was put into motion at the last possible moment due to the sudden kidnapping of all the Soong-type androids. Having chased the ship who stole the androids to a K class planet and indirectly soliciting help from Enterprise, Soong went with an away team to recapture the androids from the Breen. After dispatching the guards, Soong upgraded B-4's firmware so Data's memories would survive the transfer to Soong's own android body. When the transfer was successful, Soong deleted himself to allow Data to take over the new body. 

Star Trek Online
After an extensive study at the Soong Foundation by a dedicated science team and Geordi La Forge, the group manage to unravel the Data matrix allowing for all of Data's memories, personality and experiences to override B-4. When the restored Data first gained consciousness, he objected to the fact that his restoration was at B-4's expense, and immediately attempted to destroy his own consciousness to preserve B-4. However, B-4 sacrificed himself to prevent Data from dying. Through this, the android was able to help the Soong Foundation in upgrading the positronic brain and help in the recreation of the emotion chip originally developed by Doctor Soong. Ambassador Spock likened it to his resurrection a hundred and two years previously, though Data likened it more to a return. 

By 2387, Data was active in Starfleet and had risen to the rank of Captain. Data assumed command of the Enterprise-E, after the retirement of Captain Picard from Starfleet. 

In 2390, Jake Sisko came aboard the Enterprise for an interview with Data. Data gave his thoughts regarding future Borg attacks and whether Species 8472 had reached Federation space; the captain refused to discuss the events of his "recovery." It should be noted that in the transcript of the interview, Data uses a verbal contraction, whatever it may mean. 

Interests
One of Data's hobbies/interests was "classical chamber music." 

Alternate timelines
In an alternate timeline, he ascended to the rank of commodore and was the commanding officer of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-F) with 2,023 crewmembers. 

In an alternate timeline, Doctor Soong's dream became a reality and hundreds of Soong-type androids were operational within the Federation. Data fought for android rights and, after winning them, he and a group of others separated from the Federation to establish their own society. They settled on a planet (Iconia) and began to explore their abilities. Following the reactivation of Lore in 2378, Data contacted the Enterprise-D and requested Captain Picard's assistance to avert a war. After successful negotiations utilizing Iconian gateway technology as a bargaining chip, the war Data feared was prevented. In the mid-2400s, Data was offered a posting as Ambassador to the Dominion. (SS TNG (Brave New World))


 * Data is one of few prominent Star Trek characters to not have an established mirror universe counterpart, although his absence is usually at least partially explained through accounts of the mirror counterpart of $𝜇$. In the parallel universe of Q & A, Lore replaces Data.

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