Chapter 9: In the Green Leaf

When she went to the Green Leaf she wasn't sure she wanted to talk about what had just transpired between her and Soltek or rather get it off her mind, talk about something else and just pretend it hadn't happened. Things had been happening so quickly, she had never seen it coming, how could she, the guy is a Vulcan...

Lamira was already waiting for her in front of the Green Leaf. They hugged each other shortly and then went in. It was rather full being Friday evening, but they spotted two people just leaving a table in the left corner at the window with a beautiful sight of Jupiter's rings.

When they sat down, Antamo saw them and immediately hurried over to their table. He was wearing a colorful suit in blue, red and yellow which looked good on his tanned skin tone. He had his chin-long curly black hair open and gave them a wide smile.

'Hello, Ladies! What a pleasure to see you, Lamira! And...Irina! Isn't it? You're new at the station, but I've seen you at lunch here a couple of times with Lamira and that Vulcan colleague of yours, Soltek was his name?' he smiled.

'Yeah, that's his name,' Irina answered, 'you have a good memory'.

'My physics teacher wouldn't agree with you on that', he replied with a wide smile, 'but it's hard to forget two people with such pretty faces and smart minds'. He glanced around quickly as if someone might tell him off for flirting.

'I get a Green Leaf Elixir, please' Lamira said unimpressed, 'and remember not to put that much sugar in it, sweetie,' she added with a humorous twinkle in her eyes.

'Oh, so you like it with more juice!', he answered grinning back at Lamira, who gave him a stern look, but still with a small smile around the corners of her mouth.

'What would you like?' he asked turning to Irina, but his good-natured smile instantly vanished and he looked solemnly into Irina's eyes. 'Wait' he said, 'I know just the thing for a little love sickness, my dear.'

When he was gone, Lamira started the conversation: 'So, what happened between you and Soltek?'

Irina sighed, 'You were right, he has...feelings for me.'

'He confessed!?' Lamira asked astonished and forgot to close her mouth.

Irina felt herself blush, 'no, not like that – or at least not in human words...he sort of said something between the lines I didn't understand...'

Lamira looked at her with curiosity, 'And then what?'

'I confronted him about the situation at my birthday party and he explained to me why Vulcans don't touch...I mean why they don't touch usually...or don't touch in public anyway' Irina stammered.

'Because they are touch telepaths?' Lamira said frowning.

'Yes', Irina said taking a deep breath.

Antamo approached their table and put down Lamira's green cocktail and a brown one for Irina which was obviously based on chocolate. 'Irina, dear,' Antamo said looking her into the eyes, 'don't worry, this Vulcan fellow is so madly in love with you, he'd do everything for you - just tell him what you need.'

Irina sighed, 'I wished it was that easy, but thanks.'

'You'll find out how to get along with his logic,' he gave her an assuring grin and headed off. They looked at each other rolling their eyes at Antamo's bartender counseling and then started to sip their drinks. The chocolate cocktail was delicious.

'Irina,' Lamira frowning, 'did something else happen than just this talk about telepathy?'

'You could say that!' Irina answered in a sharp tone, 'but right now, I don't know if I want to kiss or slap him for it!'

When Irina had told her the chain of events, Lamira stared at her open-mouthed for a few seconds and then broke out into howling laughter.

'What's so funny?' Irina asked not in the mood for jokes.

'You actually made out with a Vulcan without realizing it! I knew it! That's why he suddenly fled from your party!' Lamira exclaimed so loud that the people from the tables nearby where staring at her and then she had another fit of laughter. When she had calmed down, she added: 'You know that's just like what ole Professor Stintson has warned us in Alien customs at the academy about romance with members from other species.'

Irina sighed, but then started to giggle.

'He also said a few words about telepathic species,' Lamira said.

'Yeah, I remember, I just never connected the words romance and Vulcans, my mistake,' Irina replied and broke out into laughter herself.

'It would also seem far fetched to me, if I hadn't seen the way he's looking at you,' Lamira said.

'Honestly, Lamira,' Irina replied, 'I thought you were just pulling my leg.'

'This really hit you out of the blue, you never suspected anything?' Lamira asked.

'How could I from a Vulcan!? - Now I think of it you could even argue that I took the initiative and tried to seduce him,' Irina said in a low voice slightly shocked.

'Only because you didn't know he'd get so excited just from caressing his hand...that's just wow, the way men think or sometimes don't is just amazing,' Lamira shook her head laughing. But then she gave Irina an assessing glance, 'you do have feelings for him...that's why you did that little experiment with his hand today...don't tell me you're that naive!'

'I...I'm not sure what made me do it...but I do like him somewhat, at least I care for his friendship,' Irina answered with an insecure voice and realized that she started to blush.

Lamira grinned, 'I had the feeling you had a crush on him since I saw the way you teased him at lunch.'

'It's all just so strange, I mean how can he possibly have feelings for me? He's a Vulcan!' Irina said confused.

'Irina, he's not your ruthless previous CO. He's a smart and friendly young sweetheart and has just demonstrated how much he is head over heels for you despite all his logical training - just forget the pointed ears and take him!' Lamira said.

'They are hard to ignore!' Irina replied and then sighed, 'It's much more complicated than that. I still can't believe this is happening. I mean maybe he did try to show me his...feelings...with the birthday gift and other stuff, but I never saw it because I would have never expected it.'

'Hey, just take it one step at a time,' Lamira tried to calm her down, 'ask him out on a date and get to know him better. It didn't sound to me like he was pushing you?'

'No, he said himself, he had researched human culture and found out that we built relationships via complicated courting rituals or something...,' Irina frowned in concentration trying to call up his exact wording.

Lamira laughed, 'now that sounds Vulcan alright! - You're his science project!' And she threw another fit of laughter.

Irina took a deep breath.

When Lamira had calmed herself she said, 'I guess it's a bit awkward to discuss feelings with a Vulcan?'

'Yeah, I still have nightmares with Katok telling me that I forgot to do something because I was too involved with my illogical human emotions and that I'm the reason the ship will blow up!' Irina shook her head.

'As I said, Soltek isn't Katok. Have you ever talked to him about your feelings and watched how he reacts?' Lamira asked.

'No, but what if he can't handle it and runs away?' Irina asked.

'Then at least you know what he can or can't handle and you can both work out a way to deal with it,' Lamira said.

'Did you ever have any cross-cultural differences with Kalm? Or isn't there much difference between humans and Bolians?' Irina asked.

'There are some differences - and if he had ever pulled a stunt on me like that hand-thing without telling me it turned him on, I would have certainly slapped him' she answered giggling, but then she turned serious: 'Kalm isn't Vulcan, he never had a problem to tell me straight what was going on in his head - or any other parts of his body,' she rolled her eyes, 'Bolians are known for their directness, Vulcans on the other hand don't even talk about any feelings, at least not openly, I'm sure this relationship is as difficult for him as it is for you. He has researched your culture, but that doesn't mean he will be able or even want to act like a human'.

'Yeah, that might get difficult...,' Irina answered, 'now I think of it I had the nagging feeling that there was more between me and him, but I was too blind to see it.'

'Irina, if you already know he's in love with you, why do you need him to say it?' Lamira asked.

Irina stared at her open-mouthed. 'Wouldn't you?'

'Hey, I'm not the one in love with a Vulcan!' Lamira exclaimed, 'look, it seems to me that he did what he was able to and showed you his feelings in some weird Vulcan ways, and there are two more people, Antamo and me, who can testify that the guy is madly in love with you and we're both pretty good judges of character. Why not act on the assumption that he's really serious and watch what happens from there.'

Irina stared at her for a few moments and then concluded: 'Oh god, Lamira, I'm in love with a Vulcan, I just don't know what to do!' She put her face into her palms.

'Stranger things have happened!' Larima cheered grinning, 'the logical course of action would be to first find out more about Vulcans.'

Soltek couldn't find much peace in his meditations that evening. Irina's behavior had been very confusing. He had clearly sensed her desire to be his mate when they had touched hands, but why had she insisted on pretending it had never happened? This was exactly the kind of illogical human behavior which made it hard for Vulcans to understand humans at all. It was never logical to pretend something didn't happen.

He stood up and walked over to his console and continued his research on human courting behavior to find out what had gone wrong. It was not logical to retreat now his suspicions about her intentions had been confirmed. It might be necessary to simply go through the usual steps humans do to built a relationship regardless of how ineffective and redundant they seemed to him.

He had already given her a gift she appreciated very much, but she had expected to be informed of his interest, which he hadn't done clearly enough. But she knows now, he thought and realized that feelings of exposure, embarrassment and rejection were stirring inside him. He was getting more and more emotional because of this. He must not loose control. Logic was his anchor. He would remain calm and plan the next logical step.

Irina and Lamira were sitting in front of the console in Irina's quarters with Lamira avidly pushing buttons while Irina was pouring herself a straight vodka.

'File restricted to medical personnel and command staff?!' Lamira claimed out in disbelief. She continued to browse through the library menu, 'there's another restricted file, I don't believe it! ... There's info about Vulcan marriages, but that's just as much as we've learned from Stintson.' She tapped on the search field and typed in some characters which resulted the console to announce another finding with a beep. 'There's another restricted file on Vulcan telepathy in relation to sexuality...no surprise your sweetheart has issues talking about his feelings, just look at this mess! They're all a bunch of crazy prudes and censor everything!' she said rising up from the console and walked over to the replicator. 'Computer, a mint tea, please!'

'It's okay, Lamira' Irina said, 'I don't think this would help me anyway, I already know a lot about Vulcans.'

'When I got together with Kalm researching Bolians really helped me to understand him better, there are so many levels in which you can encounter differences - it's not just the sexual stuff that's often a bit different when you're involved with a member of another species...there are also tiny details about facial expressions and what they mean or how Bolians emotionally react to certain situations and there are a lot of differences on which kinds of steps people take to built a relationship.' She took her cup of tea and settled back in front of the console. 'Holding and caressing hands might just be one of the first steps for humans, but it might be one of the more advanced steps for Vulcans for example. If he doesn't openly tell you these things you have no means to know - other than trial and error,' she chuckled, 'but since there's nothing about their intimate behavior on file - at least not for public view - you might still get something useful out of a general article about Vulcan psychology or about how their culture views relationships.' She took a gulp out of her tea cup.

'Thanks, Lamira, I think I'll just start with a general introduction to Vulcan culture, maybe it will help sort things out,' she said.

'I know a padd can't tell you how you feel about him, but you might be able to deal better with his behavior if you understand his culture better.' Lamira pushed some buttons and transfered a file to a padd. 'Try this one,' she handed Irina the padd.

'How to be a Vulcan,' Irina read aloud, 'sounds slightly humorous'.

'You can use a little humor right now, girl,' Lamira said.