Paramount Global owns the Star Trek franchise. This is a piece of fan fiction based on Star Trek the Next Generation characters.
Best friend?
Data saw a pair of red eyes peer out of the darkness that enveloped him. From the eyes he felt anger, mistrust, and disappointment. Then he heard voices. “Noonien this is wrong. We shouldn’t do this to him.” Juliana voiced with concern. Data saw himself lying deactivated on an observation table. Juliana was standing by his side. Noonien was at a computer hooked into Data’s positronic matrix. “This is wrong.” She protested.
“All he has done since she left is mope around like he’s lost his best friend.” It was obvious Noonien was upset.
Juliana kept her voice calm. “Even though we created him, we wanted him to learn and develop on his own. We couldn’t control the rate or direction of his development. Nor should we. And really,” she held Data’s lifeless hand, “he did lose his best friend.”
“I will not have another accident like Lore.”
“Him having friends is not a mistake. It’s a miracle.”
“Friend!” He snapped. “You mean lover! I am not! I will not have him nor allow him to go running through the galaxy after a woman.”
Juliana thought for a moment, “what an even bigger miracle.”
“What would that be?” Noonien asked in disgust.
“A lover,” she continued to hold Data’s hand. “But what if that’s what he wants?”
“He doesn’t know what he wants!”
“I have a compromise.”
“What?” Noonien sighed.
“Instead of erasing the last 10 years of his life, let’s compress the memories and block them off.”
“Why?”
“He has experienced so much. It isn’t right to deny him the memories.” He just glared at her. “We can put a wall around the file that looks like a circuit. He will never know the difference.”
“To him it will be a circuit?”
“To us (you and I) it will be a full memory cell.” She smiled.
“Okay but if this doesn’t work, I will erase that cell. And,” Noonien leaned over Data, “this emotion chip is going. Perhaps someday I can perfect it.”
“This will work.”
Darkness encased him again.
“Help me.” He moaned. “Computer.” He rolled out of bed with a thud onto the floor. “Dr. Crusher.” He gasped.
Dr. Crusher’s communicator beeped. “Dr. Crusher here.”
A garbled voice called out, “help me.”
She ran out of sickbay, finding Data lying in the fetal position on the floor. There was a pool of something red around his head and chest. The black lounge pants he had on were soaking wet. “Data!” He was cold to the touch. He coughed. More of the red substance oozed from his nose and mouth. She ran to the replicator to get a liter flask. He coughed again. “Data!”
“Help,” was all he could squeeze out before he started coughing repeatedly. She raised his head collecting the red substance.
“Data,” she scanned him with her tricorder. She found nothing. He moaned.
*
Geordi La Forge, before his eye surgery.
After
Poetry & More 
What happens when machines develop empathy and humanity? Are we that far from computers advancing past the thresholds made capable by the human brain and the human soul? Is it all about storage and retrieval, or is there something else? I think we may all live long enough to find out.
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I think you might be right.
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