An Interesting Impression
Posted on 16 Mar 2012 @ 2:35pm by Crewman Nazhzhalh & Tarishiana Barel
Edited on on 17 Mar 2012 @ 1:17am
1,513 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Episode 00 - Pre-Deployment
Location: Science Lab 2
Timeline: MD04 1000
Nazhzhalh, or rather as he'd come to prefer since his time in the Alpha Quadrant just Ziyal, was having a bad morning. Thrusting himself out of bed and knocking over his entire cabinet of trinkets and belongings had not been the best way to start the day. While having seven different prehensile appendages was good for cleaning, he had broken two of his favorite holonovel discs.
The tall alien sighed, his facial tentacles drooping in sadness (though most people didn't really realize he was anything except Cheerfully Cthulhu), and his eyes blinking a little as he made his way down the halls, into the turbolift, down some more halls, through the glass doors, down more halls, and finally came to a halt in front of Laboratory 2. He perked up slightly as he entered, excitement overtaking him.
This was his first meeting with the science chief aboard the Galileo. He wanted to make a good impression. He'd only been aboard the ship a few days, and already the head of the department wanted to speak to him! Well, that wasn't really too surprising, most people wanted to speak to him. He was interesting, after all. (A fact that never ceased to preen his budding little egotism.)
Ziyal strode across the room and placed all four hands on a laboratory table across from a woman clad in science blues who he knew to be the department head. "Miss Barel," he greeted with a few gestures here and there of his two main arms, the clawed hands coming to tap against his face as he leaned over. He hoped the greeting was satisfactory. He had to memorize formal address at the Academy.
Warrant Officers can be called either Warrant Officer or Miss/Mister as acceptable forms of address... the thought floated through his mind unconsciously, in the garbled Federation Standard he'd been trying to learn as the rules were memorized over and over again. In his own native visual language, he thought, Of course, Master Warrant Officers probably prefer to be called ...well...oh, she's looking at me!
He looked up, blinking and making a noise of distracted sudden attention, and gave her his best sheepish expression. "I am Crewman Nazhzhalh, but Ziyal is acceptable too. Galileo's biotechnologist. It is nice to meet you!" he said animatedly. Almost abruptly, he thrust out two of his tentacle-claw arms, then immediately put one behind his back. One hand, remember. Two years on Earth and even the most basic human nuances still mystified him. He offered her a blink, one of his antennae moving vertically a little.
Tarishiana smiled as her the new member to her department. She reached out and shook the offered hand like thing. "I am Betazoid," she stared sweet, "So I appreciate how difficult it is to learn the customs of other cultures." She was impressed by his translator despite the fact that is lost most of the nuance of his spoken tongue. "Welcome Ziyal, you can call me Tarishiana or Tarish...Chief if you absolutely have to use rank or title." She gave him another grin.
"Ooooooh!" Ziyal whistled, flailing one of his clawed fingers slightly and slumping. The translator didn't provide a translation for that, as he added, "Chief... yes, Chief Tarish," he compromised in an unusual way. He noticed she was staring at his translation crystals and smiled.
The smile however turned out to be a blink. (This explained much of people's misunderstanding, no doubt.) Fortunately, the woman was a telepath, so perhaps she felt the smile. "The h'maik crystals translate my thoughts," he agreed, bobbing his head. There was no translation provided for h'maik however.
"I helped doctors at Starfleet Medical make it accessible to the Universal Translator." Another blink-smile. After that, he seemed to appear a little confused, which he also conveyed with a blink. It didn't look any different from his other blink. He gestured again and one of the tentacles on his face pointed at Barel as he spoke again. "Thanks!" he said, a little awkwardly.
She couldn't help but cock her head to the side slightly as she watched the various facial expressions of her new scientist. She knew which emotions he was trying to convey which was proof that her being a telepath was going to be useful. "One of these days you will have to let me hear your actual language...Being a xenolinguist I am fascinated by the structure as well as how you communicate with your translator. If you don't mind of course."
A few chirps and clicks could be heard as Ziyal modified the translator on his arm with one of his other tentacles. A holographic interface came up and he manipulated it again in a complex rhythmic sequence and his native language came through. It sounded like a mixture of whistles, hoots, chirps, clicks, clucks, along with some intertwined gestures flowing and feeding off of one another.
He tapped another button and a more familiar voice came through. "Most find the translator easier to understand." He clapped, and blinked in amusement. He gestured for her to follow him and he laid his arm out on the table, showing the interface structure. The holographic projection illuminated above his arm showing some alien looking mathematical schematics.
"The scientists on K'q'kwez'xi I-123'new'Qey--" he started, spitting out a random verbiage of syllables and consonants, "made it for me. I was born with thr'iee'mjs. It is a genetic defect..." Ziyal blinked a little. "It affected my developmental capacity. I had a hard time learning language. Now I know the language but I have a hard time translating my thoughts. It makes normal communication very difficult, so I kept it when I grew up. I am fourteen years old. How old are you?" he asked, tilting his head inquisitively, his antennae moving again.
Tarishiana let out a light laugh. In all the years she had been in Starfleet and all the questions he had been asked, she had never been asked her age. "I am twenty-nine." She said easily as she looked over the translator. It was far more sophisticate then once she had seen, but the mathematical language generators were very similar to the ones she had spent her career interacting with. "Amazing..." she said slightly distant with a large grin on her face. "I think you and I are going to get long amazingly well."
Leaning over, Ziyal seemed also in tune with examining the device, before he looked back up at the science officer when she spoke. "Those are the Universal Translator codes combined with the data matrices of my translator. These," he said, before he moved another piece along with his hand and showed her a series of complicated and completely unintelligible symbols, "are the native matrices." They were absolutely indistinguishable from gibberish.
"Most humanoids operate in series of base tens. W'qa'arr operate by dimensional clusters. We use mathematics to describe the functions of our environment," he rattled off enthusiastically, bouncing with happiness and sounding far from developmentally delayed.
"They form dimensional axes with the program and shape it via a neurotelepathic process. It's for that reason that only W'qa'arr can use native W'qa'arr technology. I have had to adapt most of my technology to be compatible with Federation mathematical matrices." He grinned, though it just looked like a complicated series of blinks and flails. "I hope we get along," he added chirpily. "Where do you want me to set up my laboratory?" he asked as he turned off the holodisplay monitor.
Tarishiana merely nodded as Ziyal explained the mathematics. She could read more of the icons then the new scientist gave her credit for, but it wasn't important. "You can set up in Lab 3, it is just you and a virologist in there....for now." She taped a few controls on her console. "You are all set up, when you get in there you are going to have set a security code to lock your station and keep any specimens under your control"
"Yes, Chief Tarish!" Ziyal whistled out obliviously, and gazed bug-eyed at the orders before he gave her a sort of gestural bow filled with far too many tentacles. "Thank you," he added again, and then sort of stood there unsure of what to do next.
Tarishiana returned with a slightly lean forward. "You are dismissed Crewman...unless you have any other questions." She was looking forward to what interesting interactions she would have with the members of her department and so far they were proving most enjoyable.
She was answered by a vibrant squeak, before the W'qa'arr crewman made his way out, his gait somewhat elegant but a little lumbering as he ducked through the doors.
MWO Tarishiana Barel
Chief Science Officer, U.S.S Galileo NCC-80010
CN Nazhzhalh
Biotechnologist, U.S.S Galileo NCC-80010
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