Unifications (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 20 Aug 2024 @ 8:54pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Lieutenant JG Selon Illialhlae

2,545 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 20 - Reconstruction
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 3, Mess Hall
Timeline: MD 02, 2210 hrs

[ON]

The mess hall's slim double doors hissed open within deck 3 and Galileo's red-collared captain quickly walked inside the mid-sized crew dining area within the Nova-class starship. The hour was late in the evening and aside from four other new junior enlisted personnel present who'd yet to be introduced to the her, Commander Morgan Tarin found the cafeteria to be pleasantly sparse. She'd missed the dinner serving due to her administrative work - of which much remained - and now midrats were the only fresh non-replicated food available. Not the greatest selection yet sufficient enough to tide her over until she retired to her quarters for the evening.

She walked up to the buffet line and procured herself a tray, cutlery, a bowl and a plate, and several napkins before moving down the line. Several ladles of chicken noodle soup filled her bowl along with a small prewrapped package of fresh fruit. A single serving of dessert - upside down apple tarts - was placed on her plate, and she declined all of the specialty hot beverages available. Water was easy enough, as boring as it was. Her hazel eyes swept the room and identified a table in the furthest corner from the door at which to sit. Away from any distractions or uninvited guests.

Selon was not given to late night meals, he preferred not eating after 1700 hours but the circumstances of the transfer from the Yuron had thrown any sense of regular schedule out the window. He had skipped both lunch and dinner to first pack his bags and then deal with the processes of onboarding on to the Galileo such as getting his physical done and getting a handle on things in the planetary development lab. Suffice to say he had not eaten in over 12 hours.

Walking through the doors to the mess hall Selon's green eyes were alert to see who else was up at this hour. The change over to third shift would happen within the hour so surely others would be up but Selon did not know the crew well enough to know who. These people would probably be common sights in his life though, since they would share a duty shift. Looking around Selon espied only five others though even this was enough to make the mess hall feel lively at this hour. The enlisted personnel, who he remembered from the Yuron were huddled around a singular table but it was the red collared woman in the corner, shorter than himself but still somewhat tall, that truly caught his eye. It was Commander Morgan Tarin, commanding officer of the Galileo.

Selon debated what to do as he gathered food. It did not take a telepath to see that Tarin's isolation from the junior crew was not an attempt to maintain proper emotional distance. Well, it was, but it was purposeful in this instance. Grabbing an extra helping of fruit, Selon decided to intrude slightly upon the Captain's solitude.

"Commander Tarin, Selon Illialhlae," Selon introduced himself but left his body language closed as came to rest with his tray in front of the Captain's chair, his body turned half away from her as if he would continue on his way at any moment. "I won't intrude but I wanted to introduce myself."

An interruption occurred less than two spoonfuls into her small meal. Her brown hair-covered ears picked up the voice which spoke to her then her gaze traveled up to a tall blond, green-eyed Vulcan. Or Romulan? Not Vala, Serran or Sera. Her brow tightened while she attempted to discern this new unfamiliar crew member's identity which was exacerbated by his lack of Starfleet uniform. Then he introduced himself and she recalled his name from the large list of recent personnel transfers earlier during the day. "Illialhlae...from Nimbus? Planetary science?"

Selon smiled. "Yes." Impressive... Not everyone had Selon's elephant memory when it came to trivia like that, though she obviously struggled to recall it, Selon was surprised Commander Tarin had learned it in the first place. "Though I've spent more of my life in London or just outside of it." Selon heightened his accent to illustrate his Home Counties upbringing, contrasted with the Commander's own thick accent from across the Atlantic.

She set her spoon down into her soup bowl then motioned to one of the vacant chairs at the table. "Have a seat. You're a long way from tea and crumpets," remarked Tarin in her distinctive dry inflection and medium-pitched tonality. "I hope your journey here was stimulating," she added in a healthy dose of deadpan sarcasm.

"It was actually." Selon nodded, shifting his body to take a seat across from Tarin and ignoring her quip about British culture. Perhaps she was not so standoffish, mayhap that was just her face? His neuroticism ran wild second-guessing himself, wondering if her deadpan delivery was actual sincere concern. "Lieutenant Kov is an excellent conversation partner and I had the chance to get to know some of the other transfers." He said as he gathered laid out his utensils and took a bite of a banana.

Her slim eyebrows raised ever so slightly at the mention of the other new officer who she'd recently briefed in her administrative office several hours prior. "Mister Kov...the new Klingon chaplain?" she identified. "He and I met earlier today. I think the term 'unorthodox' doesn't quite do justice to a man of his biological heritage and physical form." She returned her attention to her meal and took her spoon again before scooping another mouthful.

"If one assumes that a Klingon cannot be a priest and that priest cannot devote time and care to develop his physique." Selon's eyes peered over the rim of his cup as he took a gulp of his drink. Yes, Hovar was a singular man but in him Selon did not see incongruity with his many traits. Physicality was a large part of Klingon culture, while he may have abandoned traditional Klingon religion for Catholicism it was clear he did not leave the entirety of his heritage behind. It was unusual hearing such... essentialism from a fellow Starfleet officer, Selon was unsure if the Captain meant anything by it.

"Anything is possible, Mister Illialhlae. Infinite diversity in infinite combinations," she remarked in between a mouthful of soup. "Isn't that a core Vulcan philosophy?" Her shrewd gaze stared at the man's high cheekbones and angled jawline while noticing the green tint to his skin's complexion. "And isn't that a direct contradiction of a Romulan's unwavering loyalty to their race and empire? And superiority?"

"How one interprets that principle has been one of the central debates of Vulcan philosophy for over two thousand years." Selon's mind and posture snapped into academic mode. Partly as a response to the Captain's... probing but also her invoking of questions of philosophy and ethos. "Romulans believe in letting their passions rule them, to dictate the paths of their lives, resenting any fetters put upon them. Both peoples believe they have found the 'truth', the way things should be. It is that conviction that manifests as arrogance and I've found it in many people." Selon bit into an apple, the green of the skin nowhere near the color of either his eyes or the faint cast to his features, but perhaps illustrating a point.

A short silence ensued while she seemingly-dismissively ignored his comment and continued to eat her large bowl of soup. It was quite tasteful, she had to admit. The young Orion sous chef certainly possessed culinary talents. "And how arrogant are you, being a product of both? What's your 'truth'?" she then asked, her eyes still focused on her meal.

"Need I be arrogant at all?" Selon put to the Captain. It was a simple question and Selon had been tempted to follow it up with a longer diatribe but for some reason he chose reticence. Suffice to say it the monologue still rambled off in his head. Pride was certainly one of Selon's weaknesses. Pride in his intelligence, surety in his own abilities and knowledge of his deficiencies were not traits he learned from some genetic wiring in his Vulcanoid physiology. Arrogant? No he wasn't arrogant, but he was beginning to suspect Captain Tarim was. No, she wasn't either. Nor was she tactless, and despite her curt manner she was not exactly blunt. Provocation, was that her goal or her means? Selon wondered...

She lightly shrugged her shoulders, her hazel gaze irises again training on him. "Logic would assume so. But then again, logic is fallible, and I'm not in the habit of making assumptions. You are a scientist, however...and to believe some of those like you don't possess a healthy ego would be disingenuous. Each member of this crew wouldn't be here if they weren't the very best Starfleet and the Federation has produced. Including you." That was perhaps the closest Tarin could ever come to delivering a personal compliment. "Speaking of which, why are you here, lieutenant? Aboard Galileo."

Flawed logic. Selon had been endlessly warned Humans were prone to it. He was always surprised to see it however.

"Because I am given to believe I came highly recommended." Selon's face molded into a wry smirk as he took the opportunity to take a cut and a bite out of his meal. "The Galileo might not be a top of the line Explorer like the Oakland but she is a ship with a dedicated mission that appealed to both my ambitions and my expertise." It was not often Selon mentioned, even in vague passing, his career goals. It was certainly the first time he had mentioned them since applying to serve on the Galileo. "Most of the stars and therefore the planets of the Pleiades are young, too young for complex life to have evolved. But the area of space beyond it is much, much more diverse and relatively uncharted. We might find a new thriving new civilization or a long dead one, fortunately I'm an expert in both."

He was a sharp officer, that much Tarin could admit. The Pleiades Cluster was indeed a stellar nursery which was an astronomer's greatest dream, yet it contained few, if any, mature worlds. "Galileo is one of the finest starships I've served aboard." The comment came directly in response to the qualifying remarks Illialhlae had just made about their vessel. "Our job's to perform detailed survey and scouting operations - not to coast across the quadrant on some leisurely star trek. We're hands-on and we do the real work coveted by many within the scientific community...within your community. I'd say you came to the right place." Tarin finished her bowl of soup then began to fork several pieces of fresh fruit into her mouth while glancing around the mess hall which was beginning to thin out.

"Tell me about these ambitions of yours," she then asked after a short pause. "Did you come all the way out here in the hopes of finding a major discovery to then get published so you can make a name for yourself within greater Federation academia?"

"I'd like to think I already have." Selon could make a show of his ego being wounded over Captain Tarin had not read his selected publications but somehow she didn't seem like the type to have subscriptions to the journals he had been published in. "My book on planetary unifications just had its second edition, perhaps I could send it to you?" He was similarly only half serious, though it would be interesting to hear what the Captain thought of it. "As for what I hope to find here, I'm trying very hard to balance my expectations. We might find nothing worthy of me writing an article but that doesn't mean we won't find something interesting or... harrowing. The Galileo's logs made for very interesting reading on the way here." Selon recalled his conversations with Selok about what the crew had been through and wondered how much had changed in the six months hence.

More pieces of fruit popped into the captain's mouth while she chewed the wet and flavorful morsels. She considered his explanation while mentally taking note of several new additions to eventually add to her private notes concerning his service record. "Planetary unifications... I'm not familiar with that field. Elaborate," she prompted while biting down on a delicious watermelon cube.

For whatever reason enthusiasm at the chance to talk about his chosen field of study did not take hold of Selon. He was guarded when it came to Captain Tarin and that itself did not set him at ease. "Exactly what it sounds like, how does a society, still based in the cradle of its homeworld, come to be unified as it prepares to encounter, or does encounter, the wider galaxy?" He took a bite of his own cubed fruit while he let the question linger in the air for a moment before continuing. "Is it violent, peaceful, bit of both? What comes after? What are the ramifications? What are the particularities of how political and economic questions are addressed? What about cultural considerations?" Selon continued listing off rhetorical questions and then stopped, wanting to see how the Captain addressed any of them.

A small private glance up to the science officer's face betrayed the tiniest portion of the captain's true questioning. "It's not our place to babysit growing civilizations or interfere with their development. Observation is our prerogative. Do you concur?"

"The very act of observation is interference, the observer effect is as true in a cultural context as it is in physics." Selon was a little too proud of that answer but he didn't let the conversation linger for long. "But that's not quite what you asked... If you're asking what my interpretation of the Prime Directive is, it is a liberal one. From the moment they apply warp physics a civilization is no longer isolated, no longer alone. They will have to come up with answers to questions and problems both old and new. They will ultimately have to arrive at their own conclusions but in doing so they will be curious to know what conclusions others have come up with, and I believe that curiosity should be encouraged."

"There's an old Human adage...'curiosity killed the cat'. I trust you're familiar with it," she esoterically countered before bringing another block of fruit into her mouth and chewing. "But you're wrong." The words no intellectual enjoyed hearing rang as clear as ever even between chews while her eyes snapped back up to his. "The Prime Directive - General Order 1 - isn't open to interpretation. It's Starfleet's guiding principle and is quite clear: we shall not interfere with other cultures' and civilizations' developments...often times whether they're warp capable or not. If you believe benign observation in itself crosses that boundary...let's just say I expect more from Starfleet science officers than pretentious exposition."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

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CMDR Morgan Tarin
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Selon Illialhlae
Anthropologist
USS Galileo-A

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