The Complication

The Shield

"Mmmm, I didn't want to get out of bed," Tasha replied with a lazy grin.

Data had been in the lavvy readying himself for the day. Upon returning to the main room, he found Tasha seated at the table. Her feet were thrown up on the next chair and she was sipping on Raktajino as she scrolled through the morning report.

"Any news?" Data inquired.

"Not a peep," Tasha replied.

"Good," Data said.

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head before slipping into the seat across the table.

For the last two weeks, Data and Tasha had shared in a renewed sense of domestic delight in the wake of the incident at Starbase 173.

After a tense situation and more than enough heartache to last a lifetime, Data's personhood was now a matter of law. He had been granted the full rights of a Federation citizen. Bruce Maddox was behind bars.

And Tasha had a habit of twirling the ring on the finger and flashing Data a smile from time to time whenever they were alone.

It was pure bliss – and a feeling they were hoping would last.

"Are we still on for tonight?" Data asked.

"Wouldn't miss it for anything," Tasha replied over the rim of her mug.

It had officially been seventeen days since Data and Tasha had mutually agreed to get engaged. There were still a lot of details to work through, but Data and Tasha weren't concerned about it.

They were confident that they were going to make a commitment together and, for the moment, the specifics of just how that would shape up were unimportant.

For the time being, they were just happy to be together.

And they had big plans for the evening. It was the first time they were going to get the chance to celebrate that engagement.

So they had both set aside time to be off duty early. They were going to spend a few hours on the holodeck before a quiet dinner at home.

"Will we be celebrating anything tonight?" Tasha asked.

Data cocked his head to the side.

"A project," Tasha clarified. "I assume you submitted something."

Data had a satisfied grin on his face.

"My dear, I am the judge," Data said.

Tasha raised her glass to him.

Every six months, the Enterprise had a research evaluation process. For the engineers and science officers aboard, there was nothing more valuable than time.

Well, time in the lab.

Unfortunately, it was a finite resource.

While the Enterprise housed numerous decks full of laboratory space, that space remained a premium commodity. Outside of labs that were community spaces designated for specific purposes (like Stellar Cartography), most officers were doubled or even tripled up in the other general purposes areas.

Departmental heads were usually afforded their own private labs. By virtue of their rank and position, both Data and Geordi had their own dedicated laboratory spaces.

So every six months, the crew used this research evaluation process to determine who would get to occupy two private rotating lab spaces.

In addition, the most promising projects received additionally allocated duty time on the roster.