One week later

Sivok breezed through the door, shaking off the awful humidity of San Francisco and breathing in the relief of the standardized environment of the bio warehouse.

With his identity electronically confirmed, he turned to find Tilk, his young and lanky Vulcan lab tech, standing waiting for him.

"Osu."

Sivok nodded in recognition. "Have you completed your analysis of the anomaly in the secondary module?"

"I am awaiting the computer to finish the diagnostic. It will be completed in two hours and twelve minutes."

"Very well. Continue."

Sivok began reviewing the paperwork on the progress of the modifications of the software for retrofitting the current Starfleet flexible use manufacturing systems, when he received a message on his PADD.

FROM: Lt. Cecelia Matteson

MESSAGE: F5 SD C29 hurry

Sivok knew from memorizing the warehousing and storage complex's floorplan that this was the coordinates of a 5th floor, section D storage cell.

His first instinct was to reply and ask why, and remind her he was busy and was neither a security officer nor a moving assistant. Despite his thoughts against doing so, Sivok found himself speeding down the hallway and into the lift.

"Floor five."

He arrived at cell #29 and found the door cracked, wondering what was going on.

"Sivok?"

"I am here."

He walked through the door to find quite the display. The entire cell was torn apart, boxes chaotically jumbled everywhere and things strewn across the floor.

"Come here, Sivok! I found it!"

Sivok fought the urge to scowl as he stepped across the debris and towards the sound of Matteson's voice. Why had she called him here? Or rather, why had he come with so little resistance?

The last week had gone comparatively well, with him settling into a routine of working with his two assistants during the day, communicating with command, and debating the finer points of it all with Matteson as they worked on the storage system design.

She lifted herself off the ground and held something towards him. "LHDS coupling."

He took the device from her hands and tilted his head. "What does it do?"

"Increases the transference speed between the timing gauge and the electronic eye by about 4% - you might be able to shave three tenths of a second off."

"That could make a substantial impact on the lifecycle deficiency in the second cooling phase."

"I know! That's why I was so excited to find them," she smiled as she motioned towards the boxes on the ground around her.

He opened the small device and examined its circuitry. "I have not encountered this technology before. Why are these not in the Federation database?"

She was quiet for a moment, turning away from him busying herself with attempting to clean up the mess that was the storage cell.

"The project was abandoned when the lead researcher died. That was 15 years ago, and the technology in the HC chip has improved dramatically since. They didn't really work then, but I'm confident with some tinkering they will now."

Sivok raised an eyebrow at her suddenly subdued voice. "Where did you encounter this? I have personally examined every potentially applicable transference interface in the Federation and Vulcan databases."

She turned back towards him, and he was startled by the sudden sadness in her usually alert but neutral eyes. "The researcher was my father. Nobody saw an application back then, so nobody took it seriously. I only thought of it this morning."

"I grieve with thee."

She smiled. "Don't worry about it. I'm glad they can be put to use. Anyhow, I need you to help me get these out."

"Can you not call for assistance?"

"Yeah, well, I don't want lots of people in here."

He looked at the mess and nodded. "I can see why."

"No, that's not what I meant. It's just, this is my dad's old lab work, and, well...nevermind. It's not logical. I'll just call for assistance."

Sivok was mildly surprised she changed her course of action based on logic, and knew he should simply allow her to request assistance from the warehouse staff as was proper.

But the same force that brought him up here in the first place led him to speak without further consideration of his words.

"That is not necessary. I will...assist you in moving the containers. No other individuals are needed."

He steadied his breath as she gave him a big, genuine smile. He took a slight step back, suddenly concerned she might touch him again, but she stayed where she was.

"Thanks! It's for your samples, after all."

"Also, I am three times stronger than the ensigns who would assist you otherwise. It is only logical that I would be better for you than a human."

He slightly winced at his phrasing while she rolled her eyes playfully, thankfully missing the second part of his comment that could be misinterpreted.

Why was he making these linguistic slips?

He decided it was because his command of Federation standard was not perfect, and vowed to increase his studies of the language as it was apparently needed in social and information conversational settings.

"Yeah, yeah. Come show how superior you are at physics and figure out how to get these things out."

After 20 minutes of reorganizing, with him moving the boxes and her picking everything up, the door to the storage cell finally clicked shut and automatically locked.

"Let's get these downstairs and get to work."

"Is it not time for midday meal?"

She narrowed her eyes. "And yet you keep complaining about how weak humans are in their constant need for breaks."

He drew up. "It is logical to consume the necessary calories and nutrients for proper physical function. However, I do not require it at this time."

"Well neither do I." She crossed her arms.

He gave a slight sigh. "It would be wise for you to stop attempting to match my performance. You need considerably more sleep, breaks, fluid, and food than I require for survival."

"It would also be wise for you to stop underestimating my performance, considering the evidence to contrary. And requiring something for survival isn't the same as requiring it to be healthy and perform optimally."

She turned her head, watching him carefully. "You might not need these things to stay alive, but I'm sure you need just as much maintenance as I do truly be balanced and healthy."

He fell silent, privately admitting she had hit on an unspoken misdirection - they were not technically lies - perpetuated by his people.

While it was true he didn't need the same amount of sleep, he did require hours of meditation per day to thrive.

And while he could go without food for longer, he also required substantially more calories and physical activity than her to maintain his present ratio of fat and muscle.

That she noticed showed a further depth of consideration into him and his species than he expected from her, considering logistics had no diplomatic facing elements.

She subtly smirked and picked up the first set of boxes, heading down the hall and he forced himself to not look at her as she departed.

What was he getting himself into?

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Matteson stood up on the tips of her toes, her lunch sack in hand, trying to get a look at the figure on the other side of the garden dividing wall.

She couldn't see the shape of the figure's ears from their silhouette through the fabric barrier, but there was someone back there and it smelled like they were cooking something she couldn't identify.

One of the warehouse assistants had said that a Vulcan staff member had a habit of going to the roof top gardens of the manufacturing and logistics complex and doing his darndest to scare everyone else away and eat alone in the walled off area.

The poor girl had been terribly upset, saying she and her friends had simply been eating when a Vulcan came over to assert they were disturbing the peace of the public area with their conversation and he would call security if they did not keep silent.

She had been quite confident who the Vulcan in question was, and if he didn't stop acting like such as ass, he was going to get them both in trouble.

Sighing, she rounded the corner to find Sivok staring at what looked like a portable heating unit making a humming noise.

As a light turned green on the device, he opened the lid to reveal a dish she had never seen before, and looked up to glare at her.

"Are you lost?"

"Of course not. I just figured I'm tired of eating down there, and I needed some fresh air. You know, to get my blood pumping and in the mood to get some good work done."

"There are many places outdoors to sit, and other areas on this rooftop."

She plopped down right next to him, causing him to tense up. "Yeah, but this is the best view right here. There is no place better to sit than this spot. Well, you've actually got the best spot of all, but this is great too."

He gave her a pointed look. "There is no view: this area of the garden is walled in."

"Exactly! The people-free view, that's why you're up here, right? You know, I used to eat here all the time, before I just started eating at my desk. The whole point of this area is to avoid everyone else."

"If that is true, than your presence nullifies its purpose."

"Not between friends, right?"

"We are not friends."

She laughed. "Whatever you say. What did you think of the proposal from Commander Hendricks that I sent you?"

He relented, causally discussing work as they ate their respective meals.

It had been a week since she had exposed herself emotionally to him a tiny bit in the storage cell, and two weeks since the fateful night he showed up at 0200.

Thankfully, Matteson had noticed small improvements in his behavior since then.

He argued a lot less, often quickly giving in as he just did. His insults were less intense and less frequent. He spoke positively about his human lab assistant's work, though he also said she was extremely shy.

Perhaps he was starting to warm up to humanity after all.

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Every moment on this dreaded planet was wearing away at Sivok's soul, or at least that's what he had decided, in all of its illogic.

Why did these humans have to so loud and obnoxious?

He leaned over the meditation candle and inhaled deeply, correctly positioning his hands for the exercise.

There were four humans he had to interact with regularly, and amazingly two of them were manageable. The first was his lab assistant, a young woman named Emily Chambal.

She was quiet to the point he hardly noticed she was there, which he was thankful for. She seemed terrified of him, but had worked with Tilk for over a year and whispered questions and comments to the young Vulcan lab tech frequently.

He hadn't gotten to pick the Starfleet lab reps, but he had been gifted with two capable and mostly silent ones, once of whom was Vulcan. For this he was grateful.

Then there were the two Command interfaces: Cadet Pike, who managed all transferences and incoming/outgoing, and Commander Jira, who tortured him with his mere existence.

Sivok had to concede that Pike had technically done nothing wrong. He had approved all of his requests and everything had been on schedule so far, though Sivok had no confidence such a trend would continue.

Pike had a pleasant but serious demeanor, and clearly had great commitment to Starfleet. That commitment was of course misplaced in such a barbaric organization, but was admirable all the same for a member of a species so known for their fickle nature.

It seemed his problems with the cadet weren't professional, but personal.

The casual and intimate interactions with Matteson were deeply bothersome, and angered Sivok to extents he couldn't fully repress in meditation, as he couldn't find a source to dissect.

No matter how much he mentally broke down their interactions, there was no cause for his deep and undeserved dislike of the young cadet, and this was worrisome from the perspective of his emotional controls.

His current strategy was to avoid interactions with him as much as possible, but despite his resolve to do so, he always seemed to find himself in Matteson's workspace when the cadet was likely to stop by.

Then there was the manufacturing Starfleet rep, Commander Jira.

Sivok's frustration with the obnoxious human was equal to his dislike for Pike, except Jira deserved it. He fought every recommendation Sivok made and was clearly emotionally handicapped for such a role.

Even Matteson had taken his side on that, saying he had "gotten some bad luck" on having Jira assigned, and the VSA had so far been unable to get a new rep.

Matteson.

In the eighteen Earth days he had been on this awful planet, she had been a source of great comfort and confusion.

Comfort because she was tolerable. Perhaps not truly logical, but she was open to it and didn't simply let her emotions lead her. She was also perceptive, and most importantly, highly skilled at her work.

They saw each other everyday when they worked on the storage system, and communicated about their projects via messaging even when he was elsewhere.

Every day for the past five days she had intruded on his lunch, and even when he moved locations, she had still found him.

But he was starting not to mind; she was a welcome refuge from the other insufferable humans.

But she was also distracting.

His eidetic memory picked up all kinds of facts about her he wish he didn't know.

For example, every day they had eaten together or he had inspected her lunch in the office, he noted she had only ever consumed vegetarian foods. He also noticed she never ate in the cafeteria and always brought her lunch.

She was always alone, except for the dreaded times when Pike came to visit. She kept her computer access projected on the large console in her office, and he had never seen the box labeled 'PERSONAL MESSAGES' display anything but a zero.

Perhaps she had a home console? He knew her father was dead but knew nothing else about her family.

He understood that most mate-searching activities were conducted on the evenings of Friday, or during the Earth days Saturday or Sunday. She typically worked very late on these days, which suggested she did not participate in the disgusting mating practices of her planet.

Not that he cared who she mated with, of course. She had been attracted to him when he first arrived, but she now showed no indication of it and he had decided to put it aside.

His research said humans experienced random sexual urges toward strangers that they were often unaware of - even when they already had mates! - and that such feelings typically dissipated quickly with no further actions taken.

Furthermore, since he was unused to human emotions, perhaps he misread the depth of her attraction in their brief, accidental telepathic encounter.

Sivok assured himself his interest in her romantic state was nothing more than scientific curiosity of the local population, though that curiosity admittedly manifested nowhere besides Matteson.

He considered why she continued to be so distracting, and eventually settled upon the logical conclusion that she was unlike the other humans and therefore stood out, demanding attention as a result.

Par'sel'ker, the break of a pattern attracting undue attention.

All he had to do was ignore the other humans further, and then he wouldn't notice her differences, and she wouldn't be as distracting.

Logical.

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AN: Tilk has an odd name, but there's a bit of canon precedent with Tos and Tolaris in ENT. I just wanted him to stand out from Sivok and not give him a S-k name. I imagine it's kind of like a human named Archibald or Broderick today.

Thank you to the guest who reviewed. Also, a big, big thank you to Tom Foolery for their encouragement, advice, and amazing beta skills. (Current version is a re-post of their beta.) If you like Sarek/Amanda, they wrote one of the best, go check it out.

Please review as critically as possible, or just to say hello!