Well, it was done with. I was off the ship. Standing in my temporary quarters waiting for my new ship to come seemed kind of pointless, so I decided to check out the tavern. Most starbase taverns were stocked pretty well, with several varieties of synthehol. If I was going to drug myself, I'd prefer to do it with caffeine, but they served coffee as well. Most of all, I just wanted to have someone to talk to.

I met someone fairly soon. I had been drinking the coffee—life-giving liquid that it is—when someone behind me said, "Commander Janeway?"

I turned around to see a young Vulcan women, elegantly dressed, sipping what seemed to be Romulan ale. "I am Lieutenant T'Lin," she said after I conceded that I was indeed Kathryn Janeway, "ship's counselor on the Socrates. I wanted to introduce myself to you, as we will be serving together."

"I'm Kathryn Janeway," I said. I put my hand up in the Vulcan salute. "Live Long and Prosper, Lieutenant."

She nodded. "Is this seat occupied?"

I shook my head. "Sit down." She did so. "I didn't know Vulcans made good psychiatrists."

T'Lin paused before answering me, something that surprised me since I thought that she would have got that question a lot. "Vulcans tend to be more in touch with their emotional states than humans. They have to be in, in order to keep their control. This emotional sorting sometimes gives them the experience necessary to guide others. While this will be the first ship I will serve on as counselor, I have already found that many humans prefer to disclose their feelings to a Vulcan, since they know they will not be judged. They are also more willing to believe a Vulcan will keep an oath of confidentiality. And, of course, the mind meld may be used for therapeutic reasons, though usually only as a last resort."

All that seemed to make sense to me, so I nodded. Yet I still doubted that a Vulcan could totally comprehend human emotions.

Still, my knowledge of Vulcans was largely academic. I knew a little Vulcan history and had studied some of Surak's teachings in the Academy, but I never knew one better than a casual acquaintances. I soon found that T'Lin could interact in a human environment almost effortlessly and still keep her Vulcan reserve. We chatted (I still had trouble believing Vulcans could engage in casual conversations) for a while, and exchanged stories.

After a while a waiter came around, and T'Lin did indeed order a synthehol version of Romulan ale. "Not as good as the real stuff, but you take what you can get," she told me. I ordered a coffee.

The waiter returned with our drinks, but as he did so, I heard the familiar whine of a transporter beam. I spun around to see who would use a transporter just to get to the bar. What appeared was beyond my expectations.

A woman stood there, dressed in an odd outfit that seemed like a bunch of rags sewn together. Whatever it was, it must have been two or three sizes to small. When she spoke, it was in a deep voice whose accent and inflections were reminiscent of a ship's computer. "I have come," she said, "to kill Kathryn Janeway."

The woman's eyes swept the room, and finally came to rest on me. I tried to maneuver out of the bar, but she followed me. Suddenly she raised her hand, stretching it out as if she were reaching for me. Then, the hand began to glow.

A burst of blue energy, similar to the energy beam of a Starfleet phaser, shot out of her hand. I jumped out of the way, but only barely in time. I watched as the floor dissolved next to me.

It seems that T'Lin has some pretty fast reflexes. While everyone else in the bar was still gaping at the sight, she had her hand on her commbadge. "Intruder alert. Security detail, immediately."

I was trying to get out of the tavern, to get the people around me out of risk, but most of all, I was trying to get out of the way of the terrible blue beams. One grazed a young cadet, and a large chunk of his leg dissolved. His entire body fell to the floor limp.

I heard T'Lin say into her commbadge, "We have medical emergencies. We need that security detail now!" Somehow, she was able to sound emphatic without letting emotion into her voice.

I didn't have too much time to ponder the issue however. I was quite busy ducking. I was finally able to slip out just as the security detail slipped in. I watched as they fired their phasers at her. The phasers were set to stun—dead men don't tell the truth.

They fired shot after shot at her but she progressed. I ran towards the turbolift, but I saw out of the corner of my eye the guards resetting their phasers to a higher setting.