Chapter 3 - Places

Authors note: Thank you all for your reviews, they really motivate me to continue writing!

As I promised this chapter will explore Soltek's background a bit. It will also introduce Irina's friend Lamira Tash.

Irina and Soltek stood on a moon in the holo lab. It was a beautiful cratered landscape, a play field of black and white. And they could see the crescent of a green-blue planet just rise in front of them and further above the horizon was a brownish planet with a wide gray-blue ring system.

Soltek pushed a button on the portable control and everything vanished leaving only the dull hologrid.

'Call that last image up again,' Irina said, 'that was beautiful!'

Soltek raised a questioning eyebrow, but did as she asked.

She took a moment to really absorb the beautiful landscape, 'we should incorporate more of these holographic shots into the program, it's like one could take a hike through the galaxy and touch the surface of every planet and moon' she said while touching the cratered ground with one hand, 'it's wonderful'.

'It is not necessary to incorporate that much detail into the astrometrics data,' Soltek said, 'if someone does need to get acquainted with the dimensional relations from a specific point of view at specific coordinates the program can extrapolate and create an dimensionally accurate view without incorporated holographic photographs.'

'But it would just be computer-generated geometrical shapes, Soltek, the surface wouldn't be naturally depicted as it is, with all the craters and dust and stones...,' she said.

'This kind of detail is unnecessary for an astrometrics program. If you are interested in the exact surface structure of a moon you could still call up that information in the data base and look at the holographic photographs taken by the probes and away teams,' Soltek repeated his argument.

'Soltek, you don't understand,' she said, 'incorporating some of the photographs just makes the whole program look more realistic and impressive.'

'I don't see how satisfying your aesthetic needs makes an astrometrics program more realistic and impressive, the computations and navigational abilities of this program are extremely accurate and realistic,' he frowned, but didn't sound accusatory.

Irina sighed and put her hands on her hips. 'Soltek, do you remember that everybody said at the presentation that we should make the whole program more touchable?'

'Yes, I remember,' he said frowning. 'I believe we accomplished this with adding the holographic remote control and the holographic control stations. We even created a holographic runabout to simulate flight through the whole region. May I point out that all these additions are completely unnecessary to review the astrometrics data?'

She gave another sigh, 'yes, I know it sounds illogical to you, but we humans need that kind of help to really grasp abstract data – and I also really enjoy walking through a beautiful landscape, it would be a cool feature to the program which will encourage me to use it further...and we want to encourage people to use our program, don't we?'

He raised an eyebrow, 'interesting argumentation,' he seemed to consider this for a while. 'Since we are designing the program for the use of a variety of different species I believe we should take some of your human aesthetics considerations into account.'

She flashed him a smile and grabbed his left arm with her hand, 'everyone will adore it, you'll see!'

He watched her busy herself enthusiastically at the holo lab controls and noticed that her emotional outburst had triggered some kind of reaction in him. He suddenly felt slightly light-headed and there was a warmth spreading across his chest. He will need to meditate on this after his shift.

Soltek was sitting in his meditation corner on the floor of his living room wearing a Vulcan meditation robe. His quarters had a very practical look, he obviously wasn't much of a decorator, but there was one beautiful object in the middle of the living room table enhancing the whole room. It was a cube with a tiny holographic grid, which showed the solar system with all the planets, moons and Jupiter station in miniature. On the front surface was a red stardate and hour display. After a few seconds the holographic image switched to the Vulcan star system.

The beep of the comm disrupted Soltek's meditation. He collected himself for a second and then walked over to his desk activating the channel. His parents appeared on the screen.

'Greetings, son', they both said.

'Greetings, my parents', he replied.

'We have received your message, which is the reason of our call', his mother said neutrally.

There was a pause in which Soltek merely stoically waited for them to continue.

'Your message did not explain the reasons for your transfer to Jupiter station and since the transfer left you at a disadvantage compared to your post at the T'Kumbra we seek to inquire the reasons for it,' his father stated.

'I requested the transfer,' Soltek said without blinking.

His parents' eyes both grew wide and they raised their eyebrows, but then went back to their neutral expressions. 'Please explain your reasons,' his father said, his words sounding more grave than Soltek suspected he intended.

'I went to Starfleet to widen my knowledge as an engineer by exploring other cultures and their knowledge,' he explained slowly and clearly. 'In my years on the T'Kumbra I accomplished these goals only partially, I gained many new engineering skills, I was promoted and worked in different fields of expertise inside my profession, but I have not accomplished my goal of exploring the knowledge of other cultures. I seek to explore my profession from a different perspective and learn new skills from members of other species. Jupiter station offers the opportunity to widen my knowledge in a way the circumstances on the T'Kumbra would never permit.'

'By working with humans and similar species,' his father stated, although he remained civil Soltek could tell he strongly disapproved – not that he would have expected any different reaction.

'Yes,' Soltek said politely, 'two of my human colleagues have already shown quite different views on holographic programming as well as on philosophical matters.'

'Of course their views are different,' his father said, 'earth philosophy justifies the primacy of emotions, you are stating the obvious, son.'

'Their different viewpoint on emotions doesn't necessarily lead to faulty techniques in their engineering work,' Soltek replied.

'I am sure they must be capable of some limited logical thinking to have achieved warp speed at all,' his father said, 'but I don't see the logic in trying to learn from a species challenged by scientific and technological accomplishments Vulcans have mastered centuries before them – and despite what they have learned from other species after they started to explore the galaxy, they still cling to their primitive glorification of emotions.' He continued after a short pause, 'I certainly see the nobility in your predicament to explore different viewpoints on your field of expertise, Soltek, but these humans will never approach you with the same scientific openness concerning your culture.'

'How do you know this, father?' Soltek asked, now trying much harder to remain neutral in expression, 'you have never interacted with humans.'

'One does not need to touch a kervana stone in the midday sun to know one will get burned,' his father stated slowly.

'Soltek,' his mother interjected frowning, 'I did not expect Captain Solok to agree to this line of deduction.'

Soltek took a short moment to draw a breath and replied slowly, 'he did not agree on my reasons, mother, but he has granted my request.'

At that both his parents raised their eyebrows again.

Soltek anticipated that retelling the details of his conversation with Captain Solok would not help to further the argument. His former Captain had even been less acceptive of his reasons than his parents and had concluded that removing Soltek from his ship would improve efficiency.

But since his parents hadn't exactly inquired to hear the content of the whole talk in Captain Solok's ready room Soltek simply said, 'mother, father, I will remain true to the Vulcan way while I study the engineering skills and cultures of other species. If my research and experiments should prove insubstantial I can still return to Vulcan. In the meanwhile I am working on a scientifically important project to re-program a holographic library for astrometric data.'

'That is a valid endeavor,' his father concluded.

'Please keep us informed of your progress,' his mother said.

After the Vulcan hand greeting they terminated the connection. Soltek decided to take a meditative walk in the station's arboretum.

'Hey, Lt. Soltek!' someone suddenly shouted behind him after Soltek had been walking in the arboretum for approximately 17.5 minutes. He turned around to see a human woman in a training outfit with long black curly hair approach him.

'You are Lt. Soltek, aren't you?' she asked.

'Yes,' he replied.

'I'm Lt. Lamira Tash, I work at communications,' she said still panting slightly from the run. 'You work with Lt. Paranov, don't you?'

'Yes, Lt., I do,' he said, wondering what was the reason for her inquiry.

'Her birthday is next week on Friday and since she is new and doesn't have many friends on the station yet I'm planning a little surprise party for her after her shift. - I'm an old friend of her from the Academy,' she added.

'I conclude you tell me this to ask me to attend?' he asked.

'Yeah, that would be great!' she exclaimed, 'She has mentioned enjoying to work with you and a Lt. Barclay in holo engineering, I've already invited Ensign Creyo, Ensign Weisser and Lt. Han Tai from her astrometrics data lab.'

'Fascinating, I have never attended a birthday party...I believe it is customary to bring a gift?' he asked.

'Yeah, usually you pick something you know she'll like, it could be something related to a personal hobby or a subject she is interest in,' she explained. 'If you have no idea what to give her, I can help you find a present.'

He considered this for a short time, 'that will not be necessary, I already know what to give her.'

'Oh,' she said astonished, 'you're quick!'

'Simple observance and logical deduction,' he said.

'I should have expected no less from a Vulcan,' she said with the kind of smile Soltek had learned meant amusement.

'At which time and location do you plan the festivities?' he asked.

'Friday, next week, 1830 in music room 8 of the leisure center,' she replied, 'my boyfriend usually practices there with his band, but he won't need it on that day. I'll fetch her from work and bring her there under some pretense. Just don't tell her beforehand what we are planning.'

'I will refrain from actively informing her, but as a Vulcan I will not lie if she asks me directly,' he said.

The Lt. sighed, 'well, I think it is highly improbable that she will ask you that directly.'

'I believe, you are correct in that statement,' he said.

'Simple observance and logical deduction,' she said with another of those amused smiles.

He raised another eyebrow.