Sevek commercial writers, I have a question for you: why would a life coach be in Starfleet? Why?! This would be a much, much shorter and less dramatic story if he wasn't wearing those darn science blues. Oh well.

Today it gets serious with Sevek on the USS Eagle. Still in "story setup" mode, hopefully the next chapter will be more entertaining. But I needed a reason to put a Vulcan psychologist on a Starship at this point in timeline, and that reason needs some footing to it.

Disclaimer: see chapter one. I still don't own Sevek, Star Trek, or the dog with the Vulcan haircut. I don't even own a regular dog. Do you think I could give my cat...? Nah, her hair is too short. Darn it!

Sevek felt the still-unfamiliar tingle as he materialized on the transporter pad, bag over one shoulder and orders in hand.

But when he arrived, nobody was there.

He looked around, his mind whirling with questions. Who had just energized him? Where was the receiving officer? What was going on?

After standing at attention in the empty transporter room for 47.3 minutes, thinking this was perhaps a patience test, it was becoming clear that nobody was going to greet him and accept his orders, as was protocol.

He relaxed his posture and hesitantly stepped off the platform. "Is someone here?"

Sevek hadn't been sure what to expect. He had been briefed by his recruiting officer the bare minimum of information: they had a large percentage of non-human crewman and officers, and had major moral issues. Internal cliques and factions were forming, and the ship had burnt through multiple Captains, but the same first officer.

As he had been a cadet before this experimental posting, he hadn't had the security clearance to review their profiles or receive detailed information. And the processing officer, so amused by the "Vulcan shrink" had been little help in securing further documentation.

But even with these excuses, Sevek was beginning to get a glimpse at why previous attempts at reconciling this crew might have failed.

Why didn't he receive more information on his project from the counseling board? Where was the transporter operator? What was wrong with this ship, and why did Starfleet think he could fix such an obviously incompetent crew?

He was a counselor, not an officer. He would literally have to be the last person alive to be in command, but still with no formal authority even then, a byproduct of his accelerated Academy training.

He had been anticipating psychological issues on account of the highly mixed crew, and as a hybrid, he knew the pain of the rejection from those around on the account of genetics all too well.

But this wasn't a psychology problem, this was gross negligence! Anyone could walk in and transport anywhere! And how did they transport him without touching the panel?

Sevek supposed they could be linked to the station's transporters. But why go through all that trouble just to confuse him?

Now having been standing around in this transporter room for over an hour, he moved towards the door and was rewarded by it's automatic swoosh.

He glanced around the hallway and decided to go left, not really knowing where he was going. He was supposed to have been supplied with access codes to all ship layout and personnel files and escorted to his quarters.

Finally, Sevek saw a human woman in an Ensign's uniform approaching.

Putting his psychological training and experience in interacting with humans to work, he approached her with the proper body language. Open posture, lifting one hand slightly towards her while maintaining a respectable distance, and following proper linguistic procedure:

"Excuse me miss, do you know-"

But before he could finish his sentence, she had disappeared around the corner. Sevek suppressed a frown and turned to follow her, adjusting the bag on his shoulder as he went.

"Excuse me? Miss?" His long stride caught him up to her quickly, but she suddenly stopped and looked up at him, her green eyes flashing.

"Get lost, freak."

And with that, she turned on her heel and stalked right back down the hall, leaving Sevek staring after her dumbfounded. Wondering, not for the first time since he materialized on this ship, what was wrong with these people.

"They are extremely emotional."

He spun around at the unexpected voice from behind, and was greeted by an unusually short Vulcan woman. Her skin was a dark olive hue, indicating her from the north-western region his mate T'Zel was from, but curiously, her accent didn't quite match.

Sevek straightened at her presence. She was wearing the blue uniform of a science officer, and bore Commander's stripes. He abstracted she must be T'Jor, the Eagle's Vulcan science officer and second in command.

He raised the ta'al and recited the ritual phrase. "I come to serve."

She returned the gesture. "Your service honors us."

She looked him over, and then extended her hand towards him, and he was suddenly reminded of the gesture of the human handshake. But then he remembered he still had his orders, and he handed them over.

"Sevek S'Ker'Val'Jar, reporting for duty."

T'Jor simply nodded and tucked the PADD under her arm, saying nothing further, seemingly awaiting a response to her original statement on the passing Ensign's emotionalism.

Sevek paused, carefully considering the Vulcan woman before him.

As second in command, she was largely responsible for the efficiency of the ship. She had also been an officer under the last four captains, and pre-dated almost anyone on the ship, including in the Eagle's pre-moral issue days under the late, great Captain Jovar.

The fact that the Eagle's crew relations were struggling, though its output and productivity was higher than most other ships, said something about her command style.

He decided to take her bait. "Who is extremely emotional?"

T'Jor raised her eyebrow and slightly tilted her head, a Vulcan-style scoff at the absurdity of the question. "The off worlders. Who else?" she paused. "Where is your receiving officer?"

Sevek shifted slightly, unsure of how to explain the awkward situation of him walking through the halls without his orders being accepted.

"I do not know. The transport room was unattended, and after waiting for 62.78 Federation standard minutes, I was never greeted. I walked down this hall to investigate. The first person I encountered was the human Ensign, and then you moments later."

Her face betrayed no emotion as she stared him down, as if considering something. After a moment of silence, she sighed so slightly he almost missed it.

"I am not surprised. I was detained in an emergency briefing, and assigned Lt. Rah-Likn'n to receive your orders and show you to your quarters."

She paused, as if weighing her words carefully, and continued. "However, this incident further confirms what I already knew. The Lieutenant is illogically prejudiced against our kind."

Our kind. She didn't point out that he was a hybrid as many did - your father's kind - which was a step in the right direction. And she had made no comment about his career choice, which was a welcome change as well.

Sevek wasn't sure what to say. From his encounter with the crewmen in the hall and his briefing on the psychological state of this ship, he was already aware of the emergence of internal cliques, though he was frankly shocked at the intensity of these issues.

From the missing officer and transporter chief, to the passing Ensign's behavior, even T'Jor referring to her crewmates as off worlders and calling them extremely emotional - a grave insult in Vulcan culture - the lack of cohesion in this crew was quite baffling.

He had many questions about the psychology of this ship, but one concern in particular was burning a hole in his mind: why had Starfleet allowed it to get this bad?

"I see." Sevek finally said. Her response raised the question on why she sent a someone she knew would be hostile towards him, but he figured she had a logical reason and didn't press the issue. Perhaps she was giving him a taste of the work laid out for him?

She nodded in satisfaction at his lack of further questions, then turned and began down the hall. "Follow me. I will show to your quarters and issue your access codes."

He nodded and followed her to the turbolift, and they both stood silently as the lift commenced towards the deck he would apparently be living on.

Even though he was in Starfleet for now, he would have much rather worked in a civilian psychological practice, but alas his "hilarious" status as Vulcan counselor for humans had prevented him from doing so.

But even without a background in the organization beyond the last two years, he had gone through enough training in Starfleet Academy's accelerated program that Sevek was having a hard time believing so far had occurred.

Can commissioned officers just no-show new transfers, leaving the transport room abandoned and Ensigns could storm the halls insulting others with no repercussions within a military organization?

Though he was confident he wasn't projecting telepathically, T'Jor seemed to have guessed his train of thought and addressed it without further prompt.

"I assure you both Lt. Rah-Likn'n and Ensign Verda will be disciplined," she stated confidently.

Sevek felt a surge of excitement, not that they would be disciplined, but that T'Jor had just cracked the door of insight to more about this ship. Understanding disciplinary behaviors for such gross violations of protocol could give a major view into the dynamic of command, and her command in particular.

Sevek paced his reply, seeking to project Vulcan calm to his greatest degree. "As the counselor tasked with understanding and reconciling the personnel of this vessel, may I ask what type of discipline will be administered and how the proceedings will occur?"

But T'Jor stared silently straight forward, not answering his question and saying nothing for the rest of the trip. The lift slowed to a stop, and the Vulcan woman stepped forward as if to leave, but then stilled in the doorway, facing the hall so Sevek couldn't see her face.

"They will be dealt with...adequately," she stated before breezing out of the lift and down the hall towards his quarters.

Sevek followed her and considered T'Jor anew.

He had expected reluctance or even hostility from officers and crewmen to his presence.

They were used to running things their own way, and having a non-ranking officer wield influence over them and asking uncomfortable questions was unlikely to be well received.

But Sevek was surprised she gave no logical reason for her refusal to share information, considering the situation involved him directly and he did have clearance for such information, something she would have briefed on when she received his orders from Starfleet Command.

Was there something she didn't want him to know about the ship's discipline program? Her reaction had been a bit odd, but Sevek couldn't quite tell.

Ironically, Vulcan psychology was his worst subject when it came to counseling. He had great respect and dedication to the culture of his birth, but the people themselves did often did not live up to their own standards of logic and rationality.

Hypocrisy did not sit well with him, and it was part of why he had left for Earth.

But then again, perhaps he was overthinking her response. Perhaps she was unused to sharing information about the discipline of those under her command or was unsure of the Captain's stance on him.

Yes, she probably had some logical reason, and he put it aside in his mind and began to formulate a plan to use his newly-acquired personnel file access codes to begin creating psychological profiles of this in positions of power.

He thought no further of T'Jor and her slightly odd behavior. After all, he was quite the oddity himself - as those around him constantly reminded him.

But somewhere, deep in the depths of his long-repressed human half - his intuition, as it was called - there was something about her, something in the way she said "adequately" that was...off.

Though he did not acknowledge the thought nor allow it to surface to his conscious mind, he knew that Commander T'Jor was a big part of the Eagle's problem, if not the problem herself.

So… I don't remember how to introduce characters in fiction and this was way longer than I anticipated spending on T'Jor, but she's important so I'll leave it for now.

My fiction skills are DUSTY. I've been trying to study dialogue creation further, I really don't know how to write it. Looks like it's statement → physical descriptor, back and forth between the members of the conversation. Or at least that's one way, I'll try that for now.

Let me know what you think, I take criticism very well and I'm trying to get a "method" setup for writing the rest of this story. Un-beta'd, all tpyos are mine. (wink)