Assignments
Captains Log, Fleet Captain Charles Anthony Tucker III, November 3rd, 2156
The complete overhaul of Jupiter station has been finished. By incorporating Tellarite metallurgic technology, an evolution design of the non-organic matter re-sequencer, developed during our rebuild of space station Salem One, and Vulcan welding techniques, we are looking at the most sophisticated shipyard in all of the Coalition. The Andorians and Tellarites are chomping at the bit to inspect our handiwork in a bid to upgrade their own facilities to the same standard.
The five old Intrepid class ships we have docked to house crew quarters and recreational facilities have been overhauled by civilian contractors and especially the Galena is a piece of art. It is safe to say that we are the only space station that features an Olympic size swimming pool, a mud bath, an Andorian ice garden and even a small Vulcan monastery of sorts. It's basically comprised of an atrium, a communal meditation chamber with several private meditation chambers. Now all that's missing to turn it into a miniature version of P'Jem are some relics and a few priests. I've scheduled a communication with First Minister T'Pau and I hope she can help with that. With a little over 200 Vulcans aboard, by far the biggest contingent of non-humans, I want to have the best possible facilities to cater for their needs.
Three Mess Halls are available. With so many Vulcans aboard, we have decided to have one mess hall dedicated to Vulcan and other vegetarian food, we have one specializing in meat based dishes and one mixed selection galley. Personally, I'm looking forward to trying the recently finished wellness section. After working flat-out for 6 weeks, I feel an urgent need for some downtime.
I'm not really the type to toot my own horn, but my long-time misgivings about the level of engineering competence of permanent staff at Jupiter station were sadly confirmed. Last year they sent us out with a badly jury-rigged EPS grid that nearly blew up the ship and put me into a coma for two days and upon reviewing old maintenance logs, I realized that such a sloppy work was a frequent occurrence around here. I think Admiral Jeffries is still recovering from the shock over my complaint to Starfleet Engineering. As a result the permanent staff of the station was heavily restructured and spent most of the last 6 weeks in intensive re-training courses under supervision of Lieutenant-Commander Anna Hess, Lieutenant-Commander T'Len and Professor Solan.
"Computer, stop recording."
=/\=
"Greetings, Minister," Trip said with a nod, when T'Pau's face appeared on the screen.
"A formal address is not needed in a private conversation, krei Charles," she answered. "I understand it is human custom to offer congratulations for your recent promotion."
"Thanks, T'Pau," Trip replied and resisted the urge to grin.
"What is it you wanted to speak with me about?"
"Well, we could use a bit of help to make life more comfortable for the 200 Vulcans we have aboard," Trip explained. "We have constructed a small meditation retreat with a communal and several private meditation chambers, but I gathered we could provide better for the needs of our Vulcan workforce if we had a priest or two and maybe a few religious ornaments or relics to make the experience a bit more complete for them."
"A most interesting approach," T'Pau noticed with a raised eyebrow. "Even our biggest shipyards do not have more than a simple meditation chamber."
"Well, people on your shipyards aren't bombarded by alien emotions from humans, Andorians and Tellarites through working with them in close quarters. As the only human to be bonded to a Vulcan, I'm in a unique situation to know what the impact of foreign emotions feels like and I'm determined to make it as comfortable as possible for our Vulcan contingent to cope with these unique circumstances."
"A most thoughtful measure," T'Pau agreed and Trip thought he saw a fleeting smile on her face.
He reminded himself that despite filling the top spot in Vulcan's hierarchy, T'Pau's age of 34 years meant she was a young girl in her late teens by human standards, so her emotional control was not yet what would be expected of an adult Vulcan even though she looked like a grown woman. T'Pol had explained that the emotional control of T'Pau was exceptional for someone her age, but nowhere near fully developed.
"I do think, help can be arranged," T'Pau said after a moment of contemplation. "If the security arrangements and your schedule allow, I would wish to inspect this first jointly staffed facility as well."
"No problem from my point," Trip said. "We'd be glad to have you, but I would like to ask you to go through official channels. Soval can easily arrange a visit with Admiral Gardner. I bet some of the Starfleet higher-ups would like a meeting with you, too."
"Of course it will be arranged as an official visit. We would not wish to irritate our coalition partners by creating the impression of clandestine arrangements."
"That's settled then," Trip said. "'Looking forward to meeting you. Live long and prosper, T'Pau."
"Peace and long life, Charles."
The screen went black.
"Krei Charles, huh?" Hoshi giggled and looked up at him from under his desk, where she was cowering between his legs.
"Y'know hon, if someone walked in right now, we'd have a rather strange looking situation to explain," Trip quipped.
"It's not my fault that a certain Fleet Captain tried to rig his own communications console," Hoshi snorted and pointed at the opened panel that allowed a view at a twisted set of wires. "You might be the best with warp engines, but when it comes to installing subspace electronics, you better leave the job to someone, who knows what she's doing. I nearly got electrocuted just trying to keep the connection alive."
"Sorry Hoshi," he groveled. "And thanks for helping me out."
"You can bow and scrape later," she said with a mischievous grin. "I've booked the spa for us tonight. 2000 – don't be late."
"Ah, yes," Trip remembered. "T'Pol sold me off as a guinea pig for your neuropressure training."
"Exactly," Hoshi said crawling up from under the desk. "But don't pretend you aren't eager to try out the hot bath and the sauna. Your dad told me that you checked on the building process every single day."
"Busted," Trip admitted.
"And now get out," Hoshi ordered with a smile, pointing at the door. "I need about an hour to clean up the mess you've made of this console, so go out and pretend to be useful."
"Aye ma'am," he mock-saluted and left, still chuckling.
=/\=
"What do you say?" Malcolm asked as a wall of shimmering light divided the laboratory in two halves.
"You've invented the force field - again," Trip joked with a theatrical congratulatory gesture.
Suddenly he saw the artificial wall morph into a cube, hovering mid air.
"What do you say now?" Malcolm asked again – a bit more triumphantly this time.
"Ok, I'd say that's something else," Trip whistled. "Do you think we could seal cooling leaks with that?"
"Containing cooling leaks and EPS fires were two of the uses I had in mind with this one," Malcolm confirmed. "It's still a bit costly on energy requirements, but I gather that it is preferable to evacuating engineering if a pipe bursts."
"You bet," Trip said with a look at the schematics. "How strong is it?"
"Look at that," Malcolm said and pulled the phase pistol from its holster. Setting the weapon to kill he aimed at the cubic force field. The beam hit the outer surface, but was unable to penetrate it.
"I'd say that's strong enough. Not bad, Mal, not bad at all," Trip said admiringly.
"I must say, station life is growing on me," Malcolm admitted. "I finally have the time to work on some old research projects of mine. Starfleet even offered me a seat on the design committee for the new Mark IV torpedoes."
"Too bad you can't use the more fun parts of the facility," Trip said sincerely. "Hoshi booked the wellness section for us tonight and I think we could all use a breather."
"True," Malcolm agreed wistfully, but then started smiling. "But don't worry about me, mate. I'll get enough wellness tonight."
"Well I noticed Hoshi is in a good mood," Trip grinned knowingly. "Have you considered seeing a counselor about your aquaphobia?"
"Been there, done that," Malcolm said with a sigh. "I've tried acupuncture, hypnosis, counseling sessions – all to no avail."
"I was thinking about a Vulcan counselor," Trip said. "Your problem is deeply rooted and only a Vulcan could delve that deeply into your mind."
"Do you really think one of them would do that?" Malcolm asked. "As I understand, mind-melding is quite an intimate thing."
"It is," Trip said. "But so is getting naked, yet we do it at the doctors office if needed."
"I think I see what you mean," Malcolm said with a snicker. "Well, it cannot hurt to try, although I wouldn't know who to ask."
"If memory serves me right, T'Len was a counselor on her ship." Trip recalled.
"Vulcans need counselors?" Malcolm asked. "I cannot remember T'Pol ever seeing one."
"T'Pol has her bond-mate nearby," Trip explained. "Vulcan couples often serve on different ships though and a bond isn't a magical device that works over light years of distance. And even bonded couples sometimes need the help of a counselor to re-establish equilibrium."
"Sounds sort of difficult."
"It is, Mal," Trip agreed. "A Vulcan bond is constant work, but also the most satisfying thing I can imagine."
=/\=
"Ah momma, that was a great meal," Charles said admiringly. "You're fantastic."
"Glad you liked it," Cathryn said, smiling happily. Now that the biggest wave of hungry workers was well fed, she could take some time to enjoy a meal with her husband. "Did you know that some of the Vulcans eat sea food?"
"Means they live near the Voroth Sea," Charles said. "T'Pol told me their diet can be quite diverse based on where they come from and what is traditional in their clans."
"Do you think we can find out what their traditional food is?" Cathryn asked. "I'd like to have a few more of them in here."
"Getting into a competition with V'Karan's galley?" Charles asked with a grin.
"Not really," Cathryn denied. "But I want people to mix more. Most of the Andorians hang out at the steak house and the Vulcans mostly keep to the vegetarian mess hall. I doubt this is what they had in mind with the Coalition."
"Trok said you're making a brilliant krill-beast steak," Charles said.
"They seem to like it," Cathryn agreed, smiling at the thought of Andorians complimenting on her cooking. "But I cannot make it every day or I'll get into trouble with Mr. Snyder for stealing his steak house business."
"Maybe the three of you should start coordinating your menus," Charles suggested. "For instance V'Karan has Pesto Cavatappi on the menu today and you have Spaghetti Carbonara. Snyder has a Mediterranean grilled rib-eye steak. Our people had been hoping for some Italian food for two weeks and now they couldn't decide which one to choose. Would be better to not serve the same type of food on the same day."
"Good idea," Cathryn agreed.
=/\=
Trip was lying face down on the floor, out cold.
"Did I do that?" Hoshi giggled, slightly unsure of what to make of the situation. Just moments before Trip's body had gone limp and he would have fallen hard had T'Pol not caught him. She seemingly had prepared for an occurrence just like that one.
"Indeed you did. The neural nodes you stimulated instructed his neural system to enter a regenerative sleep," T'Pol explained. "He has worked excessively and is in urgent need of rest."
"I'm not sure this was the best idea though," Hoshi noted with a smile. "We can hardly carry a naked Captain home once our time is up."
"I have extended the booking until tomorrow morning," T'Pol said. "We will sleep on the loungers in here tonight. The warm temperature will assist me in finding sleep as well. You are welcome to stay, too."
"No thanks," Hoshi declined. "I wouldn't want to leave Malcolm alone all night."
"I too find it difficult to sleep alone," T'Pol admitted.
"That's not what I had in mind," Hoshi said with a giggle and watched T'Pol hoisting up Trip.
"I see," T'Pol acknowledged drily as she put Trip down on a lounger and covered his naked form with a light blanket.
"By the way," Hoshi remembered as she slid into the hot water of the bathtub. "Malcolm told me that Trip suggested seeing a Vulcan counselor about his water problem. Do you think you could help with that?"
"I am not a trained counselor. Mind-melding for therapeutic reasons requires more experience with the art than I possess," T'Pol admitted and joined Hoshi in her artificial onsen. "However, T'Pau will soon visit the station. She has a lot of melding experience and could provide an initial assessment of Malcolm's therapeutic needs."
"She's the First Minister, T'Pol," Hoshi said in astonishment.
"She is also a member of our clan and you and Malcolm are affiliated members through your status as En'ahr'at to Lorian. It would be an insult to her if we didn't ask her."
"It can't hurt to try," Hoshi said, lazily pedaling in the hot water. "He doesn't need to become a water rat, but maybe at least relaxed enough to come in here with me."
"That would indeed be a desirable outcome," T'Pol agreed, mimicking Hoshi's foot pedaling. "Trip voiced his concern that in the long term Malcolm could feel left out, if we meet in here every second day without him."
"I don't think he would see it that way, but I want to get him to at least come in here, Hoshi declared with a mischievous grin. "I have some ideas for using that sauna that I need him for and Trip can definitely not help with those."
"Indeed," T'Pol noted drily and raised a knowing eyebrow.
=/\=
Vulcan, 2 weeks later…
"Take a seat, daughter of our Clan."
T'Pau fought the momentary danger to let her surprise show. It was exceedingly rare that the Eldest Mother addressed someone in the modern dialect of the Khomi region, once the home of all members of Clan Sh'hiran'lin'iijyliunh'rei'iy'iukn'hy'wen'lhia'ehrm'n. Of course in modern society, where the Clans lived in peaceful coexistence, there was no need any more to separate from other clans and Vulcans settled in locations all over the planet, regardless of their bloodline.
The young leader refocused on her host, expecting a rather personal conversation, as in any other case T'Para would have addressed her in High Golic, as was her habit when dealing with Clan matters.
"I have donated the requested spiritual items and relics as well as a supply of J'Kah stones from our Clan's inventory. V'Mar is on his way to serve as the Eldest of the facility. Clan dvinsu zul-os-yon will also dispatch one of their Elders to serve on the station."
"That is agreeable news. I am convinced that krei Charles will appreciate your help."
"It is me, who shall demonstrate gratitude," T'Para dismissed the sentiment, much to T'Pau's surprise. Vulcans usually dismissed sentiments like gratitude as unnecessary. To hear the Eldest Mother using the concept in conversation was most unexpected.
"I have been in frequent contact with Charles over the last two weeks. He wished to be educated most thoroughly about the spiritual needs of Vulcans under his command," the matriarch explained.
"That does not sound like a logical decision," T'Pau argued. "If I am informed correctly, he has over 200 Vulcans on the station. He could have consulted with them instead of using subspace resources and taking up an unnecessarily significant portion of your time."
"Do not presume that time spent with Charles is wasted," the Eldest rebuked her sternly. "He contacted me as he considered me the most logical choice to ask for information on spiritual and ritual matters. I saw no reason to defer his inquisitiveness to someone else. As you will learn, he is a most fascination specimen and a source of enlightenment, especially as we Vulcans continue to explore, who we really are. I learned a lot about Humans by listening to his explanations and by extension I also gained new insight into our own society."
"I am unsure if I fully comprehend," T'Pau admitted.
"You are a very unusual individual, T'Pau-kan," T'Para said, removing the stern undertone from her voice. The use of a diminutive made T'Pau aware of the fact that the Eldest was entering into a very private discussion.
"You lost your parents very early. Your mother died in child birth and your father did survive the severing of their bond only by less than a week. Your En'ahr'at died in a sand fire after they took refuge in the T'Karath sanctuary, which unfortunately left you to be raised by Syrran, who was a great spiritual leader, but a totally inept En'ahr'at.
"I never got the impression that my childhood was lacking," T'Pau said defensively and immediately regretted her failure to keep the undertone of emotion from her voice and quickly added an apology.
"You are proving the truth of my assessment," T'Para dismissed the utterance. "For every other Vulcan of your age such lapse would be expected and an apology not even considered necessary. Nobody would expect a Vulcan to gain full emotional control before the age of 40. You did not learn to master your emotion, you were drilled to suppress them. I won't indulge in keeping a false impression. You are not the ideal candidate for leading the reformation of Vulcan society, at least not yet. You lack fundamental experiences from your childhood. You never rebelled against the Elders to learn that petulance is detrimental to the equilibrium within the families bond. You were merely trained to be obedient and were threatened with consequences in case of insubordination."
T'Pau listened to the lecture of the Eldest Mother with rapt attention. As the leader of the High Command she had not yet experienced such bluntness. She observed how the Eldest mother retrieved a number of PADDs and some unknown device from an old rack.
"These are images created with a device humans call a camera. It's only use is to preserve a copy of what your eyes are seeing. What do you make of it?" T'Para asked and handed her the strange device.
"Most peculiar," T'Pau admitted and inspected the device from all sides. "It would mean it is little more than a primitive scanner that is limited to the spectrum of visual light."
"As are our eyes," the Eldest continued. "This device is not made to create a three-dimensional representation of your surroundings. It was created for purely emotional reasons. Its sole purpose is to capture a moment in history. Humans use these images to remember the deceased or as a stimulant to recapture emotional moments. See for yourself."
T'Pau took the images and started scrolling through the collection. She stopped at a picture that showed the Eldest mother in meditation. She slowly began to understand what the Humans intended with the activity. A simple bio-sensor sweep would gather all the data needed to create a life-sized statue of the Eldest Mother or any other type of visual representation, but that would be an idealized facsimile. It would not recreate the appearance of the matriarch at a defined point in time, nor would it capture the colors and ambiance of her home at the same time.
=/\=
T'Para observed her charge patiently. It was obvious that the young one was exposed to many new impressions. She considered it almost perverted, how little of the struggle manifested on the outside. T'Pau was not a young Vulcan female; she was a young Vulcan female trained to appear adult. That could not be undone unfortunately. T'Para rued the damage done by T'Pau's upbringing, but if there was a chance to reverse at least some of it, Charles and the En'ahr'at of Lorian were the likeliest to succeed, even if it would mean for the young one to be 'thrown in the deep end' as Charles had put it, when he had agreed to help with T'Pau's cultural education. If his ideas were to be believed, it would be a sentiment to be taken literally.
An audible gasp alerted the Eldest that T'Pau had found the two visual copies of drawings from the clan's history scrolls. She realized that for the first time in her life she was satisfied to see an open manifestation of emotion, realizing that if T'Pau had brushed aside this deliberate cultural shock with trained ease as well, it would have been a reason for concern.
=/\=
T'Pau stared at the images before her. In stunned disbelief she scrolled forth and back between them, unable to accept what she saw.
The first picture showed an obviously ancient drawing of Vulcans swimming in a large body of water. Since the practice of swimming for recreational purposes had been abandoned centuries ago, she deduced it must be ancient drawings, probably from the earliest history of the clan.
"You appear troubled," she heard the Eldest note casually.
"Are these from our clan's history?" T'Pau asked. "I was under the impression that our clan did not exist until at least 300 years after Surak's death."
"These are indeed from the earliest scrolls of our clan and your knowledge of our time line is obviously complete, too."
"They do not wear any clothes," T'Pau stated the obvious.
"Of course not," T'Para answered and raised an eyebrow to express her annoyance. "Swimming in robes would be patently impractical, not mentioning the danger of drowning by being dragged under the surface by the heavy, soaked garment."
"I do not understand," T'Pau answered in confusion. "It is most inappropriate to expose one's body to the view of others and has been since the time of awakening."
"That is what 3 governments under Rihanssu influence wanted us to believe," the matriarch explained. "You cannot begin to fathom the amount of damage that V'Las and his two predecessors have done to our society. When I was your age, it was the most logical measure to just dispose of the robe if the heat became too oppressive. With our anatomy being ill-equipped to regulate our body temperature, bathing was the logical countermeasure."
"I do not understand," the younger woman said, looking at the second picture that showed an artificial body of water, inside a building of some kind. Vulcans were seated around it with others being inside the water-holding basin. "It was common for individuals to be in the presence of others in a disrobed state?"
"Of course; would you rather have each family build their own bath and thus waste sizable amounts of water? Each clan had a communal bath at their spiritual retreat where clansmen congregated to fight the effects of the heat at the height of summer."
"But why is it then considered inappropriate?" T'Pau asked, sensing that there must be more to this particular fact of Vulcan history.
"One hundred and sixty-nine years ago, I was about your age, Administrator V'Ses rose to power," T'Para reminisced. "As we now know, he was the first to collaborate clandestinely with the Rihanssu. One of the first edicts of his rule declared mind-melding a deviant practice. As a result the practice soon died out or was practiced in hiding by untrained individuals. With melding abandoned, Vulcan marriages ended up being a mere toleration of each other as no bond could be established between mates by a priest, as had been tradition since the beginning."
"With no bond to draw mates together, many started to sate carnal desires with others, who were not their mate. Illicit children were born; the very fabric of our existence was threatened. Soon the Science Directory started to disseminate the false teaching that these illicit couplings were the result of young males being exposed to the view of unclothed females and the practice of bathing in a public location, even among clansmen, was declared deviant, too."
"How could a whole planet be fooled like that?" T'Pau asked, not even trying to hide her disbelief.
"Very simple: Even when such practices were still common and accepted, they stayed within the clan. We were never like other species, who advertise their amorous achievements or discuss their family matters in public. The government used this to their advantage. Since intimate matters were not spoken about, everybody assumed that everybody else adhered to the new teachings and nobody wished to be caught in deviant behavior. Soon very few practiced the old ways, but many of our clan members were among those who did."
"For instance Soval, who practiced mind-melding in secret," T'Pau provided.
"Correct. It soon came to the attention of the V'Las government that our clan had one of the lowest mortality rates even during the most disastrous summer heat wavesand we were put under observation by the Ministry of Security. The reason for many of our clan surviving the disastrous heat waves 80 years ago was that most of our clan had not lost the ability to apply proper logic instead of blindly following what the High Command declared to be logical. While many others accepted death by heat-stroke, we just discarded the clothing that aggravated the effect of the heat and made use of the communal bath in our mountain retreat, away from inquisitive eyes and observation by the authorities."
"That way you did avoid discovery."
"We did not, unfortunately," T'Para explained. "We were denounced close to the time Earth sent out their Warp 5 vessel. Of course they could not cite our retaining of traditional practices and values as the reason for targeting us. It would have brought them to the attention of the people again and could have caused their revival. That is why V'Las used T'Pol and her part in the human mission as a convenient excuse for persecuting our clan."
"Outrageous," T'Pau said and could hardly contain her confusion and anger.
"Go, make use of my meditation chamber, child. You have been exposed to much new and confusing information," the Eldest decreed, when she saw that T'Pau was close to an outburst.
=/\=
In the privacy of solitude T'Para allowed her eyebrow to rise higher than would be publicly acceptable for a matriarch of her standing. T'Pau had now been in the meditation chamber for over four hours and she began questioning the wisdom of applying a strategy that Charles had referred to as 'knocking her over the head with it'. Maybe she had asked too much of the child?
Her thinking was interrupted by a calm looking T'Pau returning to the attic. A young one of her age should not be that collected after being exposed to such a cultural shock she thought for at least the fifth time that day.
"Have you re-established your balance, child?" she asked rhetorically.
"Indeed I have, but to my disappointment, I ended up with more questions than answers."
"That's what I have summoned you for. I shall answer your questions," the Eldest said and indicated that she should take a seat.
"I am unable to determine why you invested so much time in lecturing me about the subjects you chose. The question of bathing and the associated state of apparel will hardly present itself during my visit to Earth."
"I chose this topic as it was likely to challenge one of your most firmly manifested preconceptions. No other topic would have been able to elicit such a strong response. And you are mistaken – the topic of bathing will certainly become one you need to face."
"I do not understand."
"On the station you will encounter the En'ahr'at of Lorian – Malcolm Reed and his mate Hoshi. Malcolm is in need of help as he suffers a pathological fear of water as a result of traumatic experiences in his childhood. Only a highly skilled melder such as you would be able to initiate the first connection to his troubled mind and endure it without lasting effects."
"A Vulcan is perhaps not the foremost authority on how to deal with fear of water," T'Pau noted.
"Which is why I wish that you become familiar with the element," the Eldest decreed calmly. "You can only deal with the issue if you have experience with it. Malcolm's mate Hoshi has agreed to teach you swimming techniques."
T'Pau looked at her in terror. T'Para however ignored the openly emotional display and continued her explanation.
"You do not need to fear. Most humans wear specially fashioned items of clothing when bathing in public and T'Pol will provide you with suitable attire."
"It appears then that Humans have developed the same inhibitions then as we have in recent history," T'Pau noted seemingly unmoved, not aware that T'Para could easily sense the relief she was experiencing.
"Humans are much more culturally diverse than us," the matriarch lectured. "Some cultures prohibit baring one's body even in a family setting, while others, like the culture of Hoshi, consider bathing with clothes a foolish idea. There are even remnants of isolated populations in remote regions on Earth that spend their whole life without ever wearing any attire. So while your own inhibition will be strictly respected, you might be confronted with the fact that Hoshi refuses to wear anything while teaching you. If that makes you uncomfortable, ask T'Pol to teach you. Hoshi will take no offense."
"These are challenging wishes, Eldest."
"Indeed they are. But the only alternative would be to let T'Pol attempt the meld as she associates positive experiences with the element. But you know of the neurological damage the mission to the Expanse has left her with. I cannot risk further detrimental experiences."
"I shall endeavor to respect your wishes," the young woman acquiesced. "It may turn out a vital learning experience. Is that why you asked me to extend my stay on the station?"
"I asked you to stay with them for more than one reason. You are young and burdened with a sizable responsibility. It would be conductive to your continued well-being if you engaged in recreational activities. You also need to gain more first-hand experience with other races, Humans in particular."
"Will you provide me with guidelines as to which activities are acceptable? You made it abundantly clear that I was brought up with an excessively restrictive regime."
"There is no need for guidelines," T'Para replied, inwardly satisfied that T'Pau had allowed a hint of sarcasm seep into her voice. "Your four hosts will offer you suitable activities. Decide yourself if you wish to partake in any of them. Refusal will not be considered an offense. Learn by observing the life on the station, interact when interaction is offered. You will not be required to report back what transpired during your visit, nor will anyone else contact me to report any of your activities."
"That is a rather unusual request," T'Pau noted.
"The whole experience is designed to be unusual, T'Pau-kan. Your whole life you have been conditioned to follow rules and satisfy standards defined by others. You never learned to find out, who you are. I am sending you on an assignment with no guidance, no rules to rely on. You will need to find your own path to contentment.
"A most challenging assignment, indeed," T'Pau agreed.