Exeter Symposium (Part 8)

Posted on 04 Mar 2016 @ 8:09am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Oren Idris Ph.D. & Petty Officer 1st Class Rebecca Williams
Edited on on 04 Mar 2016 @ 8:12am

2,231 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: Jupiter Station - Deck 75, Auditorium 4
Timeline: MD 82 - 1250 hrs

Previously, on Exeter Symposium (Part 7)...

As there was a sudden outburst of wolf whistles and cheers from the crowd, Dru took Markum's hand in her own before clearing her throat and turning back to the assembled crowd and trying her best to recover. "So...ye..." She cleared her throat for a moment before squeezing the chief's hand and regrouping herself, "I guess that's what happens when I ask for someone to volunteer to be a case study."

As laughter rang out through the stands, Dry cleared her throat as she noticed movement to her side. "Right...I apologise I wasn't able to give as much time as anticipated to questions but I will be available during the next lunch if you'd like to try and find me for further conversation."

Smiling her appreciation as the crowd once again applauded, Dru hurried off stage dragging Markum in her wake. She needed a serious chat with this man...he need not think he was going to get off lightly for what had just happened.

Should have given him the engagement ring.....Greg thought.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

12:50: Idris' Presentation

As his name was called, Oren closed his eyes for a moment to center his thoughts on the upcoming twenty minutes. Running through the highlights of his speech quickly, he let out a long sigh, metaphorically ridding himself of all other burdens before stepping onto the stage and giving the awaiting mass of people a friendly, polite smile in greeting.

He glanced at the door he’d just walked through, the same Dru had used only moments earlier, before turning back to the crowd.

“I almost feel bad for my topic of choice after such an uplifting presentation,” he admitted, allowing the group a moment to settle before continuing.

“Before the symposium began this morning, my colleagues and I were backstage, all of us trying to make sure we had all of our notes, praying that the equipment we’d commissioned for our presentations wouldn’t die on us half way through,” he explained, smiling widely at the memory.

“But most of all, we all hoped that our presentations would be memorable. That they would somehow affect even a few of the people listening; that it would make them think about what we said, even for a moment. My presentation to you today will be about why that is.”

Oren paused in the center of the stage, looking out at the audience, any hint of nervousness gone and his tone of voice steady and confident. Although he knew the topic of his presentation was morbid and a stark contrast to his fellow crewmembers, Oren continued in the same upbeat tone and loose body language.

“The average lifespan of this room is…” Pausing, Oren surveyed the room briefly before answering. “Let’s say two hundred years, give or take fifty or so. Two hundred and fifty years is a long time, objectively speaking. Personally, I can’t even wait ten minutes for my tea to cool before taking a sip and burning myself. Time is relative and people perceive time by comparing it to their lifespan so that it’s proportional and our first years always seem much longer than later years. To a one year old child, a standard year is their entire life and, as they age, the same time interval becomes an increasingly small fraction of their life overall.

So, by that theory, waiting twenty four days for something when you’re five is like waiting a year when you’re fifty-four.

“As people get older, they subconsciously or even consciously become more aware of their own mortality and their biological clock running out. This is where most ambition comes from.“

His words hung heavily in the air among the silent auditorium and Oren began to feel slightly nervous as he continued on to the next segment of his speech.

“Although I’m sure you will leave this room believing my subject to be morbid and maybe even out of place among the various topics discussed today, but my goal is not to bring to light how short your lives are.” As soon as he’d said those words, Oren knew he’d made some kind of faux pas but moved on quickly. It was definitely not the right time for humor.

“It is to point out how important uniformity in lifespan is in interspecies interaction. All of today’s presenters wish to be remembered because you are their peers. People roughly their age working in similar fields. You’re their friends and their family; people they’ve known most of their lives or their careers, whether it’s personally or by reputation. Perhaps your mentors are listening, or speaking today. But within that bubble of a joint lifespan is every interaction that has shaped you.

“But what happens when you don’t fit in to that uniformity? I’m sure you’ll point out that a Vulcan lifespan is almost double that of a Human or a Betazoid, but what about a species that lives ten times as long as the average Alpha Quadrant species?” Oren let the question rest on the audience before continuing.

“For those of you who are unaware, I am El Aurian and my people have been known to reach an age well beyond eight hundred years and, so far, few cases of death by natural causes has been recorded. Whether this is because we live much longer or the deaths have simply not been reported once they occur is unknown. But what is known via my own research is the affect living among shorter lived species has on the psyche.

“My own experiences, growing up among Bajorans, Betazoids and a number of other species has shown me just how much it means to have the people around you age the same way you do. Unfortunately, most species aren’t even aware of this, which is why I decided to discuss it today.”

Running a hand through his hair to push it away from his face, Oren began his presentation properly.

“One of the most important and yet least understood areas of psychology concerns the role of friends in our lives. Early friendships play a vital role because they occur while key developmental changes are taking place. They help teach us some of those important life skills but also shape our life. We see ourselves in our friends, in children the same age. People are comforted with that feeling of being among others like you. Even if you grew up in a colony among species other than your own, experiencing childhood with other children is key in proper development of social skills.

“Eventually, as we grow, so do our friends and we reach adolescence at roughly the same time. As we all know, puberty is a hectic period for most species that experience it and having a peer group to share those experiences with is vital in growing feelings of acceptance, self confidence and even developing romantic relationships, should we wish to. People tend to pick friends who are similar to them. This fact falls under the general proximity rule of close relationships, in that like tends to attract like. Because we fall prey so easily into this similarity trap, it is important to try to stretch yourself to learn from some of those opposites.

“Still, in my experience as a researcher in the field of anthropology, I’ve noticed that most people who were born on their home planet, no matter which it is, tend to gravitate towards their own kind when in unfamiliar environments. When their own species isn’t present, they tend to stick to species with the same morphology or cultural philosophy. Morphology seems to play a larger part, but my colleague, Lt. Von Haeften already touched on that. There is nothing inherently xenophobic about this phenomenon; it’s simply psychology at work. Our minds are programmed to reach out to those we consider similar to ourselves.

“The skills that a person develops interacting with their peers are regulating emotions, developing joint attention, inhibiting impulses, developing language and social skill, imitation, understanding the relationship between cause and effect, and that’s just to name a few. These are all vital skills that most, if not all, of you have learned from the people around you.” Feeling like he might be losing them slowly, Oren pressed his hands together in front of him.

“Looking at it from another angle, let’s say you were born on El Auria…The only non-El Aurian in the town you were born in.

“You grow, you meet friends, then puberty hits. Suddenly, you’re growing, your body is changing, your hormones are out of control,” he paused, glancing at the group. “But you’re the only one in town who is going through this.

“Sure, your parents help but who wants help from their parents during puberty? You look to your friends, but they don’t know what you’re going through either. They just think you look weird. You look different than they do. I’m not here to teach psychology, I leave that to those more proficient in that field, but we all have a vague idea of the effect such isolation has on an individual.”

“By comparison, imagine aging slower than everyone else. Either way, it’s difficult to keep up. Our minds are programmed to try and mature at a certain pace, but for that to happen properly, the mind needs to be stimulated by certain experiences. It’s natural for someone live close to people our age and mindset. With them, we mature and go through the same stages of life. We grow up, we go through some form of education, we form bonds, we marry, have children. All of these joined experiences are what create cohesion within a peer group.

“So, as we…” Oren was suddenly interrupted by a movement in the corner of his eyes. A stern looking man walked onto the stage and Oren leaned in to him. The audience watched as Oren pulled away from the man after having him whisper something in his ear. He grinned sheepishly at them.

“Um…” he began, his voice much higher than it had been during his speech. He was blushing. “It seems that, as some of you who have been to my presentations before know, I’ve been running my mouth again and we seem to be out of time.” Though Oren felt mortified, the fact that he looked like a scolded teenager seemed to lighten the mood somewhat and he felt no ill will from the audience.

“Well, I’ll just surmise, then,” he said apologetically, glancing at the man standing by the stage, ready to rush him off.

“Within a species, the lifespan on an individual is oftentimes pushes aside as an unimportant factor in the development of a culture. But how close the end of that lifespan is to an individual drives them to act in certain ways. The Ocampa species of the Delta quadrant, who only live nine years or so, certainly have a different outlook on life than my own people, who live for centuries. For us to develop as beings with confidence and integrity, it’s important to keep in mind these differences and to develop understanding that each species, depending on their lifespan, perceive many things, time included, very differently.

But however you perceive it, I hope you will not consider the time you spent here at this symposium to be time wasted, because I certainly don’t. It was an honor to present for you, and I hope I may do it again, hopefully in a more timely manner.

Thank you.”

With that, and a flash of a smile, Oren gave the audience a small bow of respect before making his way off the stage.

Rebecca watched as the El-Aurian walked off of the stage. She was the first to admit that some of that the man had been saying did go over her head but some of it actually she found she could relate to. The talk had opened her mind to think more about herself and her interactions with other people...both in the working and personal environment.

Pinching the skin between her nose, the yeoman considered that perhaps she should have ran at the same time that Holiday had, the last thing she needed right now was a moral dilemma.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lt Min Nicholas
Chief of Operations
USS Galileo

PO2 Eva Mercy
Propulsion Specialist
USS Galileo
[PNPC Min Nicholas]

Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy
Chief Counsellor
USS Galileo

Petty Officer 2nd Class Rebecca Williams
Yeoman to Captain Holiday
USS Galileo

Lt. Jared Nicholas
Language Specialist
USS Galileo

Lt. j.g. Naois Mercy
Counsellor
USS Galileo
pnpc Tyrion

Cadet SO Wintrow Paragon
Support Craft Pilot
USS Galileo
pnpc Tyrion

Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USSGalileo
as herself and some temp NPCS
(signatures for all PCs and NPCs)

Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

...and other assorted Galileans

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