Episode premise:
Kivas Fajo is determined to add the unique Data to his prized collection of one-of-a-kind artefacts and, staging Data’s apparent death, he imprisons him aboard his ship.
We know that Data is later logically coerced to lie in “Clues” to protect the crew, but this appears to be a decision all his own. Or did he not in fact actually fire the weapon?
Yeah, I don’t have an explanation for the out-of-character-ness for that (at least that early in the series), but I would assume his report included all of the details as they occurred (including an official answer to the question posed here).
My theory is he did, indeed, intend to kill Fajo but the writers/executives wanted some wiggle room so we got that.
I’m sure the vagueness is intentional, but hey, it gets us talking and debating decades later.