"I'm sorry. I…I can't understand you. I NEED to run some tests if you WANT me to help her." Dr. Bashir was at his wits end as he tried desperately to communicate with the tall red skinned female alien that had come in on the last transport with an apparently sick child in tow that morning.
Presently the child in question was being held by a almost panicked looking Julian as the mother muttered something guttural and made hand gestures that the universal translator apparently didn't register as a language.
Gaven didn't say anything at first when he'd arrived upon the unexpected scene and simply stood in place watching the chaotic looking situation without comment for at least a full two minutes.
Finally, Julian caught sight of him and uttered the most pathetic sounding "help" imaginable.
Gaven didn't hesitate further and came the rest of the way into the main part of the infirmary rolling up his sleeves to his forearms as he came around the exam table Julian had been trying to put the clinging child down upon. "Well?"
"She just came in here off the morning transport and started babbling incessantly at me. Next thing I know she thrusts this child into my arms and starts making a god awful fuss. As far as I can tell the child has a very high fever but I have no idea if that's an abnormality in this species and to what existent. Every time I try to put her down to examine her the child starts crying bloody murder and the mother tries to hoist her back into my arms. Would YOU try to reason with her please? I'm about ready to sedate the both of them and be done with it." Julian threatened.
"Right. Give me a moment." At that Gaven swiftly went around the table to address the woman who was nearly a foot taller than him.
Julian looked on as Gaven gently guided her aside and began talking to her with one or two carefully placed words. Julian noticed he didn't let go of the woman's upper arm and that she had let it hang dead while she made a few slower hand gestures with her other hand and one or two guttural grunts. Several seconds later he let go of the woman and turned back towards Julian.
"Hand her over, please." Gaven requested with an urgent but even edge to his voice.
"Gladly." Julian gently pried the child off him and directly into Gaven's arms before the girl had time to realize what was happening and started fussing again.
Gaven balanced the girl child on one hip as he pressed his thumb and pointer fingers into either side of her forehead and gently dragged them down toward her throat. "Your right. We have to get her body temperature down NOW. She's also exceedingly dehydrated but that should be easy to fix."
"Yes and just how do you propose we do that? The mother won't let me near her with anything let alone put her down." Julian muttered in frustration.
"I can get it down. I'll need an isolation room, a sub zero anti thermal blanket, a large bottle of water along with your momentary help." Gaven requested.
Julian nodded and jumped into action to fill the order quickly gathering what they needed as he escorted Gaven into a private room, figuring the man would explain as they went.
"Now what?" Julian asked.
"I need you to secure that door eventually, I can't afford prying eyes. In the meantime I need you to cut off my shirt so the child can properly latch onto my skin." Gaven explained.
"What are you going to do, strip down and wrap yourself and her in that anti thermal blanket? You'll induce hypothermia." Julian protested.
"Not in her. And only a little in me. You're a doctor. I'm sure you can treat me for it after. I need to get her temperature down now and this is the quickest way. Once its down she'll take the bottle and the mother can handle it from there. But if we're going to keep perpetuating the idea I'm human I have to do it in here. This is a need to know situation, doctor; and you're in a need to know position." Gaven insisted. "Lets get to it."
Julian didn't protest further and after locking down the room, did what he was told. He didn't see what all the fuss was about until he got about half way down Gaven's shirt where he ripped it the rest away to expose the man's toned muscular upper body. Once he was completely visible from the waist up Julian suddenly saw the glaring difference in their individual anatomy. Along the front of Gaven's abdomen was a pocket of what looked like muscle and cartilage. One slot on either side of his abdomen starting about two inches down from his rib cage and ending just above his defined pelvic muscle. It reminded Julian of a gill opening on a shark.
"Facinat…" Julian muttered as he nearly reached out and touched one.
"Later, doctor. I need you to properly position the anti thermal blanket for me." Gaven muttered.
"Right. How do we know when it's been enough do you think?" Julian inquired.
"I'm hoping that she'll unlatch and want out of it and off of me once her body temperature has normalized." Gaven mused.
"In that a professional opinion?" Julian quipped.
"No. More like an educated guess. Why don't we find out if I'm right." He urged.
Julian and Gaven didn't waste anymore time. The anti thermal blanket was a thick insulated cooling blanket designed to rapidly reduce body temperature in a short period of time. Prolonged time in one at least for humans could result in hypothermia and shock. True to his estimation the girl child seemed to latch onto Gaven by her fingers and toes which had little suckers on them then she went into a kind of stasis. Gaven apparently joined her in this stasis and after being secured on a med bed he became verbally non responsive as the child and man were caught up together in a mutual kind of repose. For Julian's part, he monitored them carefully, trying to come up with a quick game plan if something went awry. The experience was nerve wracking for Julian since, for once he felt like he didn't know what was going on.
About forty-five minutes in and just about around the time Julian was ready to pull the plug on the whole damn experiment. Julian suddenly saw the child begin to stir and eventually indicate it was moving about independently and wanted out of the blanket as quickly as possible. Julian obliged her swiftly and sure enough the child suddenly seemed alert and very eager to return to her mother as she started making loud chirping noises and stood expectantly at the door.
"Quiet you. I'll let you out in a moment. Gaven? Gaven, come on. Wake up." Julian unwrapped the other doctor as swiftly as possible and began taking his vitals.
Not surprisingly he was in the beginning phase of hypothermia and it took several minutes for th Doctor to stabilize him and get Gaven to start coming out of it.
"Damn it, you scared the hell out of me!" Julian said crossly once Gaven began to open his eyes and show signed of independent awareness.
"Well? Did it work?" Gaven muttered his lips still shivering as Julian worked to slowly stabilize his body temperature.
"Yes it bloody well worked which seems like a damn miracle since I'm only vaguely certain you had any idea what the hell you were doing." Julian grumbled trying to keep his tone in check.
"Like I said…It was an educated guess. I'll explain more later if you really want to know. Throw me something to wear if you would and get that girl back to her mother before they both have an anxiety attack. Everything should be fine now." He insisted.
Gaven spent the rest of the morning in the isolation room, recovering himself until he was right enough to retreat back to his own quarters for the day. Meanwhile, the rest of Julian's day settled back into a sense of normalcy with perhaps the exception of the usually upbeat doctor seeming a little off beat the rest of his day. It wasn't surprising to Gaven when sometime later that day, the computer indicated someone was waiting at his door.
"Come in." Gaven said from his spot on the sofa he'd planted himself on with a blanket, pillow, and data pad.
A purposeful looking Julian stepped into the apartment and waited for the door to close behind him before he cut right to the chase of what had brought him there.
"Explain." Julian demanded.
"Which part?" Gaven could tell the doctor was not very pleased and had been brooding about it most of the day.
"How about we aim for just about all of it. Hows that?" Julian almost spat.
"Won't you sit down?" Gaven offered.
Julian obliged him but never took his eyes off the man.
"Shall we do this interrogation style or do you want to go with a softer interview like approach?" Gaven inquired, while adjusting his pillow before folding his hands in his lap.
"What did that woman tell you and how did you go about getting it out of her?" Julian wasn't pulling any punched and launched right in.
"Interrogation style, it is." Gaven sighed. "As far as I can tell her species communicates using a combination of throat sounds, sign language, chemical signaling and emotional telepathy. Her clothing and posture indicated she was likely an important figure from a matriarchal society. Perhaps an emissary or even a cultural leader. While you might not have understood her she clearly understood you enough to realize where she needed to take her child for treatment and that you were the right person to see. You'll have noticed her own body temperature was significantly high. Probably a general biological normality, as a mature adult I'd wager that was typical to see. The child was a juvenile though, too young and underdeveloped to regulate it own body temperature in the same way she could. And so, as children are apt to do, the little one likely came down with a run of the mill fever in transit that just got a little out of hand. As for what she said to me when I linked with her for lack of a better word…"
"Linked…So wait a moment. You linked with her? As in telepathically?" Julian pressed.
"I linked with her, yes, biologically. Its more empathic than it is telepathic although in theory if I was dealing with certain species with telepathic abilities I suppose I could probably communicate with them in that way. As I said, this was more emotional and biological. As a result I was able to piece together a few theoretical possibilities. She basically knew you couldn't understand her and was essentially trying to show you what to do. She was highly frustrated by what she deemed to not be so hard to understand. That was the gist of it.
"She called me stupid?" Julian protested.
"…In not so many words. I think a closer translation would have been 'inept'." Gaven replied smiling slightly.
"Oh that's just so much better. What do you mean, in not so many words? Stupid and inept or both SINGLE words." He fumed.
"Can we get past this, please? You're letting you indignity sideline you from your other burning questions." Gaven muttered.
"Right. So how did you know the little one wanted to lath onto you?" Julian continued.
"I figured if the mother could have controlled the child's temperature herself, she would have. I also hypothesized that assuming she was from a matriarchal society that there was a possibility that in her culture males would be expected to fulfill nurturing aspects of parenting. When it comes to survival juveniles tend to do what's instinctual. A hungry juvenile mammal for example will on instinct seek out its mother's teat and try to latch. This child was trying to do the same thing to us by latching on so that it could try to disperse its body heat. We were the only males in the room after all. I made an educated guess that just happened to be right. In spite of my empathic advantages I still use modern deductive reasoning, doctor." Gaven explained.
Julian tilted his head down and then up again as if he saw some kind of opportunity.
"Are the Oum a matriarchal society, by chance?" Julian asked carefully.
He was no doubt trying to back his way into inquiring about the gill like openings upon the man's abdomen.
Gaven knew exactly what Julian was fishing for and tried to hold back an amused close lipped smile. "No, as a matter of fact."
Julian didn't say anything and waited.
"My people, doctor, do a tremendous amount of compensating for the radiation exposure we're afflicted with. While my people have developed a natural tolerance we can't generally escape the logical consequences of such exposure. Birth defects are common, as well as severe deformities and other deficiencies during the development process. That's why my people developed telepathic ad empathic abilities. To ensure communication and connection between those who would otherwise not be able to achieve it through natural biological means. Procreation is carefully orchestrated and for the most part a large amount of natural abnormality is embraced. Even preferred." Gaven explained.
"So your people embrace genetic mutation and deformity…Well that is a new one. You look remarkably developed considering what your inferring." Julian noted gently trying to hold back a deep sense of alarm at the idea.
"Sometimes anomalies happen. About 1 out of every 100 of the Oum's population are born without noticeable defect. Those of us that are part of that 1% are singled out and are generally restricted to subservient societal positions." Gaven said neatly.
"You're punished for being born unencumbered? That's ludicrous." Julian protested.
"Every culture has its unique appreciation for aesthetics." Gaven said an a distant manner. "Anyway, it doesn't matter now, I'm human. Remember?"
"Remarkable." Julian got to his feet as his mind began to spin and spin forming rapid connections around what the other doctor had revealed. "Well in any case, I think we did a far good amount of work today. I'm glad you were there and I look forward to seeing what other professional adventures we can get up to. I suppose I've taken up just about enough of your time for the evening. I think, I'm going to go and seek out a good…game of darts. Care to come along?"
"No. Thank you, Doctor. I'd rather stay in and get an early start tomorrow. I'll see you then." Gaven replied.
"Yes. Tomorrow. Goodnight then." Julian saluted and headed for the exit. His mind reeling like mad despite his even looking demeanor.
"Oh. Before you go, Doctor Bashir. The answer to the question you didn't ask me is 'yes'. I'll see you in the morning." Gaven's eyes had fallen back upon his computer pad though he didn't need to look up to know that Julian had stiffened slightly before he'd recovered himself and let himself out.
In his absence Gaven smiles to himself but the satisfied feeling lasted only a minute before other memories had him scowling again.
For the next few days Gaven kept to himself while working and actually spent a great deal of his time out of the office. Starfleet didn't have any records or documentation on the species he and Dr. Bashir had treated and Gaven wanted to remedy the fact.
This gave Julian ample time to consider the things Gaven had said and not said about his people. More than anything he was finding it frustrating to not be able to openly vent about his thoughts. Julian's tolerance for his own unfulfilled curiosity finally got the better of him by the end of the second day Gaven had been away conversing and spending time with the alien woman.
"I don't like it." Julian grumbled as he and Jadzia examined some data regarding the Poxy radiation they were supposed to be analyzing.
"Don't like what?" Dax asked distractedly as she compared the Data Gaven had given her to other know radiation types in the computer database.
"All this cloak and dagger business we're dealing with. Here we are trying to beat back the dominion. Everything is in shambles, and then out of no where a man appears who possibly could be the answers to all our problems but we're not allowed to know a damn thing about anything to do with him. Who are the Oum? Why after all this time have they changed a major behavior?"
"You know Julian sometimes you need to stick around a little longer during briefings. I think Dr. Ore has been very candid about why he's here. More so than he is required to be. It also seems he's quite willing to answer questions when they're directly put to him and asked by people that are allowed to know. If you want insight into his culture and home world so badly why don't you just ask him about it?" Jadzia muttered.
"I have a little. Frankly it seems down right bewildering to know even a little of what I've learned." Julian confessed.
"Maybe that's the whole point, Julian. All politics aside maybe Dr. Ore left his home world because he was disturbed by the same things you are. Different cultures have different rules and expectations. Usually when someone is expelled from their society its because they're either unwilling or unable to conform to those rules and expectations. I feel sad for him frankly. He's so brilliant and he's lost everything. Did you know that he has an eidetic memory? All of the files he gave us from his home world were transcribed from memory. He wasn't able to take anything off world with him. Can you imagine what that must be like?" Jadzia asked rhetorically.
Actually, Julian did know what it was like to be eidetic given he had the same ability. Though somehow he doubted that Dax had gotten it completely right. It appeared that Gaven had many unique abilities that no one would have suspected.
"What I am happy about is at least I think he might have found a friend. There's this beautiful red woman I've seen him with the last few days. He looks peaceful around her. Who knows, maybe there's something there." Dax shrugged.
"Somehow I doubt it. He's probably looking to write a dissertation on her for Starfleet." Julian muttered.
"Wow, so that's it. Huh. You disappoint me Julian, I thought you were above that kind of pettiness." Jadzia said flatly. "I can't believe you're jealous of Dr. Ore."
What? No. That's ridiculous." Julian protested.
"Is it? Did you see his equivalency scores? They weren't fabricated. Dr. Ore has enough medical and science knowledge in his respective feild to put both of use to shame and I've been through how many lifetimes? He's an amazing asset to have on our side. Face it, Julian. You're used to being th best around here. Your a medical prodigy, everyone likes you…You've already achieved so much so quickly and now your faced with a man that might just be better than you and you don't even have the satisfaction of knowing how much better he is or how he got to be that way. You like him too and it bugs you that you have to really try with him." Jadzia pointed out in that matter of fact way she was known for.
"Well he may be brilliant but he's also deeply depressed, isolated, and…and I'm really at a loss for how to help him. I just wish I knew more about his circumstances." Julian admitted as he thought about the medical trouble Gaven was heading towards and how little Julian had yet to learn that could help him.
"Well considering he gave up his planet, his people, his culture, and his identity…I'd say that is to be expected. As for the rest…Maybe the best way to help him is to be his friend. If he'll let you and if you can manage it. I can't imagine what it must be like to keep such huge secrets about your life from people." Jadzia mused.
Julian on the other had could imagine it, and felt creeping wedge of empathy wiggle its way into his chest. "I'll have you know I've tried to befriend him. I ask him out to lunch, to darts…He never takes me up on any of it or extends an invitation in return."
"Maybe he doesn't like public places. Think about it, Julian. He knows we're all curious about him and generally speaking he knows he has to be careful what he says and where. Yet it seems like when you ask him things directly and in private he's more than willing to answer questions and converse about his experiences. Maybe instead of inviting him out to things you should try spending time with him in private." Jadzia pointed out. "It can't hurt to try."
Later that evening Gaven was in his quarters for the day writing reports and trying to ignore the lurking darkness of his thoughts. The night had been difficult for him with dreams of his final days on Oum as well as haunting memories of particular events he wished he could wipe from his mind. When he had eventually awoken he had found himself in intense emotional pain and had spent nearly three hours in bed grieving before he'd forced himself to try and get some kind of work done.
Writing the reports through the day in his quarters instead of in his office had helped but not relieved his suffering completely and had served only to numb him until he felt completely hollow and wrung out inside. Putting down his pad after several hours of work done lounging upon his favorite couch, Gaven finally put his pad aside and crossed his arms to stare into space. How long was he to go on like this, he wondered. Displeased with himself Gaven finally stood, he'd grown stiff from lounging in one position for so long, and moved towards a display table that sat near the outer wall of his quarters. Gaven hadn't meditated for some time. Preferring to live with the heaviness of his feelings instead of trying to purge them. Maybe in a way he felt that holding onto his suffering was likened to holding on to the memory of his world now lost.
On the table was what looked like a simple collection of crystals and a dark stone obelisk or two. At the center was a small engraved metal box that glowed and pulsed gently. Gaven hovered near it his eyes focused on the box which he eventually took up in his hand. Sighing to himself, Gaven turned around and allowed himself to slid down into a sitting position on the floor with his back rested against the display. He then held the box in front of him and hesitated a moment before he triggered it to open and display th three dimensional image of himself standing and laughing with a figure hanging upon his back. "Come Lopel Ner, look look look. See? We've missed it again. I don't know how I'll ever forgive you."
The audio of the box made Gaven suddenly smile as tears welled at the same time and he choked a little, mourning both of the easy men he saw before him. Gaven raised his free hand to touch the projection which flickered and replayed itself a few more times.
"Yes, we've missed it again, Lopel Ner. We've missed it again." He repeated to himself.
Gaven might have given himself over to a few heart wrenching sobs had the bell on his door not suddenly rung jarring him into hurried composure. Getting quickly to his feet, Gaven closed the box and put it back in place before he briskly scrubbed at his face and upon the second ring brought himself to answer the door.
"Doctor…What, what can I do for you?" Gaven was surprised Julian was on the other side of the door holding in his arms a bottle of some kind of blue liquid and a package of food.
"Good evening, Doctor. A patient of mine gifted me with a bottle of blue Acrelian mead and since I happened to be on this side of the habitation ring I thought you might be interested in testing it with me. I'm told it has quite an interesting effect. I also brought dinner along, figured if the mead wasn't to our liking we could console ourselves with something more palatable. Since you helped on the patient case last week I felt it only fair that you get half of the resulting spoi…" Julian had been making such a show of his own gesture that he hadn't bothered to actually look at Gaven directly until just near the end of his speech.
When he did he was alarmed to see the state the man was in. The good doctor looked sick and pale, his eyes looked more hooded than normal and were bruised as if he'd been rubbing at his face all day and though his cloths were in order he radiated a disheveled wild kind of energy that made his hawkish glare almost alarming.
"Gaven are you ill? You look like hell." Julian muttered.
"I'm fine. Please, come in." Not wanting to discuss his state of being out in the open Gaven saw no choice but to retreat into his quarters and allow Julian to come with him. "I'm just a little out of sorts today."
"Why do I feel as if that is an understatement?" Julian inquired lightly.
"Because it probably is." Gaven smiled slowly, unable to resist subtle honesty just then.
"Well, perhaps its a good thing I dropped by. Nothing beats a somber mood then a good meal, some alien spirits, and some company." Julian said in that over the top stage fashion he liked to use when trying to lighten the mood.
"Really, I'm appreciative but you don't have to do this. I'm quite alright." Gaven protested.
"Oh contrar', I want to do this and anyway I out rank you as the CMO of this station and your physician. Sit and eat something. You'll feel better and it'll make me fee better to see you do it." Julian wasn't above pulling rank and professional status when it was warranted. "I don't know what's going on with you but its been building for weeks and I'm not the only one worried about you. I am however in a position to help you. If you'll let me."
"I see." Gaven said, "In that case I suppose it would be rude to avoid your charity and professional concern."
Gaven settled into a chair near the small round dining table and gestured for Julian to proceed.
"Good." Julian said approvingly as he jumped right into unpacking in that directive way that indicated he was in no mood to be swayed.
For the next forty five minutes Julian watched with a doctors concern as Gaven ate whatever was put before him and started to gain back some proper coloring. Julian was almost certain the man hadn't eaten since the day before and once he had it seemed like his mood lightened considerably.
"Well, doctor? Shall we get started?" Gaven suddenly said when he caught Julian starting to stare off into space for the lack of conversation between them. "I'm sure you didn't come here just to feed me. We should find something safe to talk about."
"Indeed. I know. What was it like on that Vulcan Freighter? You were there for some time, I understand?" Julian dropped out of his stupor and launched right in.
"Eight months. Granted I was mostly unconscious for the first three but it was still a long time. As candidates go I can see why they're a desirable first contact species. I'd been expelled from Oum and was floating around in space barely clinging to life when they found me. I think if they hadn't had some telepathic abilities they might have accidentally blasted my tomb like transport out of space. But I suppose one of them felt something and they choose to investigate and ultimately extract me." Gaven said candidly.
"That's terrible. Why not just kill you on world if they were planning to go about it like that and leave you for dead anyway." Julian muttered.
"Peace, Doctor." Gaven said evenly looking down into his own lap. "The Oum are not as cruel as they sound. My people don't believe in execution. But they do believe in honorable suicide. Though I like to think exile from one's home planet when you are not a species that allows contact with other ones to be likened to murdering a person. In spirit anyway. I promise you I had no intention of dying in space."
"You called the Vulcan's to you?" Julian felt impressed. He hadn't thought Gaven's telepathic abilities were so strong.
"I reached out to anyone or thing that could have been listening on the off chance someone heard me and someone did. As for being on the freighter the Vulcan's treated me like they would most first contact situations, though my telepathic abilities convinced them rather logically that I was probably from an advanced, intellectually aware, and space capable species. Not being a science vessel they really had no choice but to drop me at the closest star base as a refugee. In the meantime though they found me quite fascinating and useful. I think both for my emotional depth and staunch mental control which feels like an intriguing contradiction of logic to them. In exchange for my assistance with some problems they were having they agreed to allow me to learn about their culture and opened their common data base to me. I essentially spent the rest of my trip absorbing information in a containment bay." Gaven explained.
"Fascinating. Do you know how to do that neck pinch thing they're so famous for?" Julian asked with child like interest. "Ive always wanted to be able to do it but can't seem to get the technique right."
"Yes and its probably because you energy exchange isn't fine tuned enough. Humans can achieve it but it requires some telepathic predisposition and projection. Most humans aren't self aware enough to achieve it." Gaven explained.
"But you can do it." Julian noted.
"Yes. But then again I'm not a human and as you've seen I have some telepathic and empathetic abilities natural to my species." Gaven replied humbly.
At that Julian finally cracked open the mead and poured for them. "Speaking of that. I've been meaning to ask you something on the personal side having to do with something from awhile back. I swear you answered my question but naturally that led to more questions and being a doctor and in the name of scientific discovery I was just wondering…I mean if it's too personal please feel free to not tell me about it…"
Gaven chuckled slightly. The first time Julian had ever seen him exhibit bonafied evidence of a sense of humor.
"You want to know about the…" Gaven wiggled a pointer finger between his chest and abdomen indicating he knew exactly what Julian was referring to from before. "As I said before doctor, the answer is yes."
Julian grinned wide and actually blushed slightly proving he was both satisfied and embarrassed by the suggestion that he'd possibly been thinking about Gaven's anatomical features for so long. "Have you ever carried children?"
With a smile still on his face, Gaven picked up his mead glass and sipped from it before answering in that humble though amused way he had of displaying when he was perhaps warmed by someone elses interest in him in a personal sense. "No."
"Is…Uh. Do all males of your species come…Equipped?" Julian asked taking a big swig from his own glass.
Gaven smiled wider and drank again. "You don't have to be so delicate about it, doctor. And the answer is no. I requested to be genetically modified later and was granted carrier rights. Procreation you understand is a very delicate matter on Oum since most of our people are either sterile or biologically incapable of carry offspring safely. Breeding is carefully controlled and often done via surrogate, those like myself are particularly favorable because we have ideal bodies for the task that put less stress on a fetus that is already likely to struggle to form completely in the first place."
"Interesting. For a people who reduce the able like yourself to a subservient position in your society they still largely prefer you for…carriers." Julian's indignity began to rise slightly.
"Life is full of contradictions." Gaven sympathized.
"If you requested to be modified you must have been planning to…" Julian surmised realizing too late that it was perhaps insensitive for him to ask more probing questions about Gaven's intentions.
Gaven didn't say anything but the look on his face said more than Julian was comfortable with.
"I'm sorry. Forget I said anything. You've been more than candid on the subject to appease my curiosity." Julian back tracked.
"Do you want children, Julian?" Gaven asked casually. His smile had dropped away and his expression was momentarily being obscured by his mead glass as he finished it off.
"Well, I don't know really. It would be such a big decision and I haven't really met anyone that fit the bill if you will. Many humans like to be partnered when it comes to these things. But, uh, yes. I suppose I would like to be a parent if I ever got the chance. I like to think I'd make for a good father despite not having the best of models to work from." It didn't escape Julian's attention that this was the first time that night Gaven had addressed him by his first name instead of by his title.
"The Oum like to be paired too whenever possible though more for practical reasons and not just emotional ones." Gaven remarked.
At this Julian was tempted to ask what Gaven's particular circumstances had been regarding the subject while on Oum but he thought it impolite just then and refrained from posing the question.
"Right. I believe its time for a second round." Julian said in an attempt to change the subject.
"Yes. This may also be a good opportunity to explain this game of yours. What was it called again?" Gaven asked.
"Darts. Its called darts." Now it seamed it was Julian's turn to smile.