T'Lara
She looks around at the gathered guests and questions, not for the first time, the logic of these gatherings. She has attended many since her posting to Earth began and so far as she has observed few humans seem to genuinely enjoy them and few Vulcans seem to utilise the opportunity to interact with their host species. She nods a greeting to her Vulcan colleagues who are gathered at the edge of the room, passively observing the gathered humans, who talk loudly about a multitude of topics, very few which seem to be related to the reason for gathering here, and drink too many alcoholic beverages (the supply of which she suspects is the primary motivation for the attendance of most humans here) and studiously ignore the silent Vulcans.
Much has changed on Vulcan in the past month and word has come down from the new government, via the Vulcan Science Academy, that staff seconded to Earth can begin quietly pursuing opportunities for collaboration with both public and private organisations. In light of this information she makes the logical decision to attempt to engage some of the human guests at this function and enquire about their research interests. She meets with little success, many of the people gathered here are not scientists or engineers, but sales people. Their technical knowledge is somewhat limited and any probing questions into the specifications of their organisations' developments are crudely deflected.
She has lived on Earth for two years now but has had very little true contact with humans. She has attended meetings where they have been present, usually government officials, academics, or Starfleet personal, and has frequented these functions organised by trade councils, but, like the other Vulcans present, has rarely engaged any of the gathered humans beyond greetings and farewells. Tonight, she comes to the conclusion that she is woefully ignorant of the social customs of humans and finds their meandering topics of conversation illogical and their frequent use of idiom confounding. She had hoped her slightly unusual Vulcan nature would be an asset to amongst these more emotional people, but it seems that while other Vulcans may find her particularly emotional, humans do not.
She has always struggled with her emotional discipline, more than the average Vulcan. As a child her school reports would be filled with comments along the lines of 'T'Lara has a lively mind' or 'T'Lara approaches her studies with enthusiasm'. These were not compliments. Fortunately, her parents, who are slightly eccentric academics themselves, were extremely Vulcan about their daughter's unconventional nature as they did not seem to have any feelings about it whatsoever. They would simply advise her to be diligent in her meditation and, if she must have an enthusiastic, lively mind, then it was only logical to direct these attributes in the pursuit of excellence. It is also provident that, in addition to her emotional character, she is also extremely intelligent, so while her sometimes evident emotions may raise eyebrows amongst her superiors and peers, her academic achievements and logical reasoning are beyond reproach and, as such, she has been able to advance in her chosen career without difficulties.
She decides to attempt one more social interaction with one or more of the humans present, and if that proves unsuccessful it is logical to accept defeat this evening and apply herself to developing skills in conversing with humans before attempting anything similar again. She reasons that a change in tactics may be useful and rather than attempt to enter an established conversation she should try to engage an individual who is not already involved in a social interaction. She spies a likely candidate at the bar and reasons obtaining a drink for herself would be an excellent justification to take herself near enough to begin a conversation.
She approaches the bar with the intention of requesting a water, but at the last minute is overcome with some, not unprecedented, daring and decides to order something more exotic. She requests the drinks menu and turns it to the back where the non-alcoholic options are listed, dismisses the soft-drinks as disgusting coloured sugar water, and the dairy based drinks for obvious reasons and looks at the juices. She realises, once again, she has kept herself woefully ignorant about human culture as she has no idea what most of these fruits are. She turns to the man next to her, who she had been intending to engage in conversation anyway, and asks him what he would recommend she try.
When he turns to respond to her, she is quite surprised by his blue eyes. Blue eyes are almost unheard of on Vulcan, and she finds them almost disconcerting. He smiles at her in the typical way of a human engaging someone in conversation and asks what she likes. She admits quite frankly that she has only tried apples, oranges and bananas, of all the Earth fruits but was looking for a new experience.
He laughs, takes the menu from her hands and looks over the list. "Why don't you try pineapple juice. That's sufficiently different from apples and oranges to satisfy your quest for novelty."
She thanks him for his suggestion and while she makes the order she realises that this is the most successful conversation she has had with a human all evening and considers how she could capitalise on this excellent beginning. In the end she decides introducing herself is probably logical and turns to him again.
"I am T'Lara," she tells him with a bow.
He smiles at her, "Hello," then his eyes widen slightly and and all he says is "a ladybird."
T'Lara, quite taken aback at his apparent knowledge of Vulcan responds in her native language. "Ni'droi'ik nar-tor. Ri vesht fai-tor nash-veh stariben du Vuhlkansu."
He looks very confused for a minute "I'm sorry, I don't speak Vulcan." He tells her.
"Then how did you know my name means Lady Bird?" She asks him with a raised eyebrow.
She watches perplexed, when he begins to laugh. "I didn't." He tells her shaking his head in mirth. "You have a ladybird on your shoulder." He indicates her her left shoulder with his hand while he continues laughing.
"She looks to her shoulder and finds a small red dome shaped object with black spots, only to realise on closer inspection that it is an insect. "I see. I trust it is not dangerous?"
He laughs again. "No, they are harmless, it's considered good luck if one lands on you."
"The concept of luck is illogical, good or otherwise." She tells him.
He seems to find this amusing as well "If you say so, Ladybird. Are you going to try your drink?"
She picks up the tall glass of yellow liquid and looks quizzically at fruit pieces, speared on stick, that have been placed in the glass with the drink. "What is the purpose of the pieces of fruit speared on the stick?
He laughs again. He seems to find much of what she says amusing. "You know, I have no idea. It's called a garnish. I suspect the purpose is just to make the drink look good."
"Am I expected to consume them?"
"It's your choice. Most people don't seem to eat them."
"That seems an illogical waste of food."
"I couldn't agree with you more."
She considers the garnish for a moment before reasoning that there is nothing to suggest she should not eat it and bites a piece of the fruit off the stick, chewing thoughtfully. The human watches with amused fascination. She looks at the next piece of fruit on the stick. "This fruit is suspiciously bright red, is its colouration natural?"
"That's a maraschino cherry. It's a preserved cherry, I'm pretty sure the colour is not natural."
She decides not to eat the unlikely coloured cherry as she is uncertain what it has been preserved in or coloured with. She places the stick and it's remaining fruit on the napkin on the bar and takes a sip of the drink. Somehow the juice is both extraordinarily sweet and extremely astringent at the same time. She swallows and notices a residual tingling in her lips and tongue. The human continues to observe her with a slight twitch to his lips.
"I believe this fruit may be incompatible with my biology, I appear to be experiencing a slight pain reaction where it has contacted my skin." She tells him.
"That's quite normal. There's a chemical in pineapple that breaks down protein. Everyone has that reaction."
"I see. Intriguing." She puts the drink down not sure if she wishes to try more.
"So, what brings an adventurous Vulcan Ladybird, like yourself, out to an event like this."
She is aware that he is mocking her slightly but it is not aggressive so she ignores it. "I am a Materials Scientist, seconded to Earth by the Vulcan Science Academy. Heretofore, my role was primarily observational, but with the recent regime change on Vulcan there has been a move towards finding projects on Earth that may be suitable for collaboration."
She notices his attitude change. "A Materials Scientist, hmm, at an aerospace industry convention. What's your area of expertise?"
"Primarily, advanced composite materials for use in warp core construction. We are producing some light weight, low density, low volume materials with heat and radiation shielding properties."
"That's very interesting indeed, Ladybird. I think you may be good luck after all. I think I should introduce myself." He hands her a card as he gives his name and company.
She recognises both immediately. At first she is unsure why he would be interested in her research. His company is renown as a leader in the production of personal shuttles, the materials her department have been developing are far too advanced for the simple machines his organisation builds. But after talking extensively about his current project she realises she may have stumbled onto exactly the kind of undertaking she has been seeking.
By the end of the evening she is brimming with enthusiasm for this newly forming idea. She uses the time in the shuttle flight back to the Consulate to to compose a proposal for submission to her superiors. She knows that once she is back in her quarters she will need to meditate then review the draft again to ensure that her unVulcan-like eagerness has not been communicated in her work. This a habit she has cultivated since childhood, when her parents identified her nature and directed her not to fight it, but utilise it to her advantage.
She completes the draft in her quarters, lights her candle and settles onto the cushion. She can feel the excitement of what is potentially a new challenge and finds it slightly more difficult to reach her meditative space. She thinks about the blue eyed human and realises that by the end of the evening she no longer found his eyes so strange. She pushes the unwelcome thoughts out of her mind. For now she needs to be calm and breathe.
XXX
Soval
He sits at his desk and works through the tasks and messages that have built up while he was on Vulcan. He has of course been reviewing messages while on his home planet, but the ones he is dealing with today are those that were low priority or could not be delegated or dealt with in absentia. He also scans the new messages and identifies one from Captain Archer. Despite the claims by the Captain that he could rapidly obtain this information, the commitments by the Enterprise over the preceding month meant private communication was subject to the delays of the public subspace bands, which are significantly slower than the official methods. He reads the the message from the human, notes the information provided and sets it aside. While there is a certain urgency to following up on that matter, his formal duties must take precedence.
Logically, Vulcans have a finely developed system for indicating the priority level of their communications which allows him to read and and action the most important undertakings first. He spends the day at his desk reading, processing and filing while he works through the list. Working his way, diligently and systematically, towards the personal task that awaits him at the end of this process. He does not experience anticipation or apprehension about addressing the personal responsibility he has accepted, or impatience with the procedure he must complete before attending to it. He has applied simple logic to determine the order that these tasks have been assigned and it now stands only for him to complete the work.
The day draws on and his task is interrupted only by meals and occasional hushed conversations pertaining to his work and, by the time he reaches the lowest priority tasks the wall of fog that lurks on the coast has started to roll back into the bay through the Golden Gate. It is at this point that he reaches the message with the proposal from T'Lara. He reads her outline for a technology exchange with a human private venture and the assessment of the proposal by her immediate superior, all with total ignorance of name of the company in question. This is done deliberately to keep the reader focused on the individual merits of the project details without being swayed by the reputation of the company or individuals connected to it. It is perhaps a tacit acknowledgement that even Vulcans can be influenced by privately held stereotypes that frequently go unrecognised, although they would never admit to such.
He is intrigued by her proposal, and that a private company would be spearheading a project of this type. He is not surprised that T'Lara is the first to take advantage of the the relaxed rules around alliances with human organisations, there has always been a certain eagerness about her nature that wasn't entirely Vulcan in its expression. This assessment of the the author aside, the project is full off merit and the benefits for Vulcan of having access to the final outcome are undoubted. He responds to the message that contained the proposal, giving his authorisation for the collaboration to be developed and suggests a meeting the following day to discuss the process and details for the partnership. He then progresses to the final page so, in preparation, he can task his personal assistant with researching the background of the company in question.
His eyebrow raises with barely suppressed surprise at his recognition of the company name. He reopens the message from Captain Archer just to be sure the information provided by the human does indeed match that provided by T'Lara. He is aware that humans would be illogically compelled to conclude that the coincidence is more than just statistical chance and likely to attribute this outcome to the unseen hand of god or fate. But he is Vulcan and such flights of fancy do not fit into his worldview. After all, given the nature of the project that the former Starfleet Commander is working on, it was almost inevitable that it would come to Vulcan attention at some point. It is merely convenient that, in addition a potential stake in a project that could benefit Vulcan, it also provides Soval with the possibility of resolving a personal issue for his former protege.
It is at this point he realises his day's work is complete and he closes down his computer and tidies away the residue of his industry. He rises from his desk, crosses the office to the sideboard and takes out the bottle gifted to him by Captain Archer before they parted ways on Vulcan. He pours a small measure of the golden liquid into a glass and looks out the window to a sky lit equally golden by the setting sun. He does not even attempt to suppress the satisfaction of a day's work well done, of a lifetime's work successful. He is even satisfied that the situation facing T'Pol may be reaching its conclusion at this point in time, after the discovery of the Terra Prime infiltration on Earth and the exposure of the High Command treachery on Vulcan. The path for her and the Commander can only be easier with those two issues resolved. He takes a sip of the whisky, savouring the complex flavours and has to agree with Captain Archer, it does seem that some things, some circumstances are improved, not by action, but by simply letting them breathe.
XXX