Flashfic for kahvi

[syredronning]

***

There were one million three hundred thousand seven hundred and twelve definitions of love to be found in the Enterprise's databanks, but Data failed to connect any of the explanations with his own…feelings, for lack of a better word.

Lapses in logic were not possible for him, for his mind was perfectly logical. For every question, there had to be a definite answer. For every state of his positronic mind, there had to be a fitting word describing this state.

"Feeling" was not one of them. He could not feel as humans did. Therefore, using this word was inadequate. But any other word was an even less fitting descriptive of his state. The excitement when he saw her, the interest she sparked in him - somehow it was neither scientific curiosity, nor the striving for knowledge to enhance his abilities.

He felt.

Yet he could not feel.

For twenty point three milliseconds, his mind rotated around the contradictory statements.

Then he decided that, after all, learning that there were things that could not be described by simple logic was an achievement in itself. He filed the result as working hypothesis for future testing.

"Mr. Data, I have given you an order," Picard repeated sharply.

"Yes, Captain," Data said and turned away from Tasha Yar to focus on his console again.

***