Authors note: This is a short chapter, but I promise more will come soon... :)
After the party Irina arrived tired at her quarters. She immediately went over to her com station checking for a message from Soltek. And there was a written one:
I am well. I hope you had a pleasant birthday party.
She immediately wrote a response:
I'm glad to hear you're okay and I really like your present, can't wait to try it out. Would you come with me?
When she was about to press the send-button the thought crossed her mind that she was actually asking him out on a date – or at least if she would see it from Lamira's point of view. She quickly dismissed the thought as silly and sent the message, but the thought came back while she got ready for bed and it kept her thinking after she had deactivated the light.
What if Lamira wasn't just pulling her leg? What if she had seen something Irina had missed?
Would she with Soltek...?
She rolled her eyes at herself. It was really silly. How could a Vulcan possible have that kind of feelings? If Lamira hadn't talked that way, she would have never ever considered something like this.
She sifted mentally through her experiences with Soltek, looking for any sign that there was more to his behavior than curiosity and maybe the Vulcan equivalent of good colleague-ship. He had shown a lot of consideration towards her, but it was hard to imagine his neutral scientific mind containing any ulterior motives, motives she would maybe have suspected a human guy of if he had given her such an elaborate self-created gift...
She'd like to think that Soltek maybe had some faint emotions for her as a friend he cared for, but even that could just be wishful thinking on her part - a human-centric interpretation of his behavior like one of her alien-customs professors had warned them against. It could all just be a logical effort to shape their work-relationship as smoothly and effective as possible.
She wasn't even sure if she hadn't already crossed the line by assuming his friendship and hugging him. She would have never done something like this with the Vulcan colleagues on the Asteria. If she had hugged one of those pointy-ears her Vulcan superiors might have abandoned her on an uninhabited planet to live among primitive monkeys... Soltek must think she was completely crazy, over-emotional and impulsive.
But then most of the time he didn't seem bothered by it, he had even started to tease her back. Maybe he was simply curious and non-judgmental.
Soltek had doubled his meditation regimen. It wasn't logical to let things get out of control like this.
He knew the fault wasn't Irina's. From what he had observed about human behavior they touched much more casually than Vulcans do. Touching hands is a common greeting for humans even among strangers. He considered that skin contact might be different for humans because they had no telepathic abilities.
Her touch had been more than casual though. The hug has been a clear demonstration of affection and when she had touched his hand he had gotten a telepathic taste of her. It hadn't been just like any touch of a colleague handing him a hyper-spanner. She wanted him, he had sensed that. And the most astonishing thing was that she didn't just want, but she wanted him. It had never been that way with T'Punh, she had only wanted to still her need.
He should quit this line of thinking. It only got him further out of control. He already showed signs of infatuation. He might even be half-delirious and imagine things. He should take a step back now. She won't be working with him for the next week because the astrometrics team was still processing the corona data. He should use that time to get his mental discipline back to normal. He can still consider her later, but in a more logical state of mind.
Keep watching out for updates, I plan on finishing the next chapter at the weekend!