Misunderstandings and Reason

Posted on 13 Dec 2012 @ 6:56pm by Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Crewman Athlen
Edited on on 13 Dec 2012 @ 6:59pm

3,867 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo - Evelyn's Office
Timeline: MD13 1200 Hours

[ON]

Evelyn reviewed the incident report filed by Stone regarding Athlen's incident in the mess hall. Figuring Holliday would probably be speaking with Stone and learning about what happened through him, Eve decided to follow up with the other side.

She taped her commbadge. =^=Lt. Liyar and Crewman Athlen please report to my office.=^=

Athlen looked up across the desk where he was working, Liyar on the other side. Both were relatively silent, which was par for the course these days. The last few hours or so were relatively difficult to acclimate well. Liyar already had fielded several calls from the Rigelian Consulate, surprisingly he wasn't doing that bad. Even Vro ended up backing down.

"You know," Athlen was saying, "Whoever says you suck at this clearly has never met Councilor Vro." He grinned, but was promptly interrupted by the sound of a commbadge. Both of theirs. Coleman's voice streamed through. Liyar tapped his in return. "We shall be there promptly, Lieutenant." He stood, gesturing for Athlen to follow.

Evelyn nodded and relaxed in her chair and began thinking about how to deal with these two individuals.

The trip down the hall wasn't that far, since they were on the same deck, so Liyar reached forward and tapped the chime pad by her office door, Athlen behind him.

Her gaze shifted to her door as the chimes rang, "Come in."

Athlen sighed. "She's definitely going to be mad at me." He said to Liyar before the door opened.

"Why do you say this?" Liyar asked.

"Well... the last time she saw us, our positions were quite reversed." The door opened as he said that, rather dryly, and he walked in with Liyar behind him, sitting down on one of the chairs beside her desk. Liyar took the other.

"Lieutenant," Liyar acknowledged with a nod of his head.

"Hello, Lieutenant Coleman," Athlen repeated a little more congenially.

Evelyn looked at both of them. "What happened? I want the honest truth now. To hell with the reports, what happened?" Eve arched her eyebrow, "What were the two of you arguing about?"

Liyar tilted his head. "We were having a discussion."

Athlen sighed. "It was just about philosophy. It's a common thing." He scowled at the words of Stone. "Oh, and none of us suddenly decided to eat eachother and engage in a blood feud over it either. In the mess hall. Like you know, we both have mutual psionic permission." He referenced their meeting in the holodeck. "So I stood up, after saying he owed me a fight later, indicating t'an krila. In a joking manner. Which both of us understood because it's in both of our files. It wasn't threatening or hostile in any way. Lieutenant Stone, with all the brilliant comprehension of his namesake, decides that I am an immediate danger to Lieutenant Liyar and promptly slams me into the wall and declares that I am under arrest for assaulting a diplomat and threatening them to a duel. Oh, and he also adds that I'm under arrest for threatening him with a weapon and littering, which happens to be the bowl of soup that he knocked out of my hands and landed on Lieutenant Liyar."

"I see you are still highly aggravated at this," Liyar pointed out calmly.

"Yeah. You know, I am. I understand what you said," he maintained. "I'm at fault. I didn't realize that I rely on psionics too. I didn't realize that I should have made my intent clear, and I assumed people would understand my intent because it's just - so common in my culture that there's no reason to assume otherwise," Athlen granted with a nod.

"And that's my fault too. I should have known, I should have thought better. That people sometimes just rely on what I do and say, and not on what I think they should know. For example: Actual Starfleet Regulations. Actual Personnel Files, or you know, maybe the background of The only Southern Rigelian to serve on a starship or you know Actual Comprehensions of Jokes," the irritation bit through. "But yes. I get it. I made assumptions and operated on them. It's my job as a sociologist to understand all of this and I didn't because I didn't think about something that was, just, neurologically a part of who I am. And that is bad. I messed up with Stone. Everyone else might have gotten it from the demeanor alone, but he didn't. And I messed up with Aylin and Vro, and I put you," he looked at Liyar, "In a terrible position. So I'm a screw-up. I sent a note to Stone apologizing. He hates me, so I don't expect - anything. Which I," he broke off to growl.

And then turned back to Coleman. "I'm sorry. Sorry. While I was in the brig, they took my Heran, the bond-clasp. It has a psionic stone in it. My bond. With my betrothed. And it helps, me with my emotional control. And I am still, trying to get the control. Yes, I am still irritated, because I am not the only person in that mess hall who really messed it up! Lieutenant Liyar explained the situation to him in detail and he basically told Liyar to shove it. He took my bond-clasp while ignoring the medical symbol on it and refused to give it back until Holliday ordered him to. He arrested me for a joke that everyone except him got. So you know, yeah, I'm mad. He also said that t'an krila was going to lead to blood feuds and eating other species, so not only am I mad, I'm sincerely, thoroughly, utterly offended! He acts like he has the superiority to dictate to me what my culture can and cannot sanction!" he decided to take a moment to breathe heavily.

"He is not an authority on my culture, nor does he have any right to judge me or my fitness to serve, considering he is not a telepath! He ascribes motivations to t'an krila that cannot exist! Just because the southern hemisphere still practice child marriages, doesn't mean that I do. In fact, that is why I'm here!" he blurted out, gripping the edges of his chair with his fists so hard the knuckles were turning white. "I'm here to try and bridge the gap, to try and bring us into the fold, to convince Vro that it's possible - damn it!" Now clenching his palms in true fists against the edge of the chair, he was drawing blood from his palms, in green streaks. "And it's - hypocritical to suggest that Stone should know and learn if I don't know either. The difference, though, is that I actually want to learn and know, whereas he just makes judgments about what he thinks he knows. The hilarious thing is, t'an krila would help me deal with him. But he's so closed-minded--" he closed his mouth and shook his head, falling silent.

Liyar took the pause in Athlen's rant to clear his throat. "I believe Crewman Athlen may be taking this more personally than he is willing to admit."

Athlen shook his head. "I don't think Lieutenant Coleman is very interested in my personal history. But I think, that this stands alone in its own merit of being highly aggravating. I'm - dropping it. I'm dropping it. I'm done. I'm sorry." He sighed, and put his head in his hands, like he was attempting to ward off an emotional display. "I should be back, to normal, soon. Maybe a day. I'm sorry. I messed up. Liyar, had nothing to do with it, though."

Evelyn leaned back in her chair looking at them. "You know, I was anticipating this sort of misunderstanding happening on this ship. The irony of the situation is, I was expecting this to happen to him." She gestured to Liyar, "Considering his lack of experience with non-Vulcans. However it was you, Athlen; Mister Sociologist." Eve paused for a moment and then just started laughing.

Athlen gave Liyar and then Coleman an incredulous look. "Yeah. I'm sorry," he said quietly. "To Rigelians, t'an krila is like laughing at a joke." He indicated Coleman wryly. "It's just there. It wasn't that I expected him to understand Rigelians. But yeah, I expected him to understand the difference between a hostile threat to a duel resulting in blood feuds and eating him and, you know, a joking reference. Even if the reference wasn't understood, Liyar cleared it up. Which didn't seem to matter because apparently I broke Federation law by jokingly referring to a sparring match."

"Crewman, I need you to calm down." Liyar stared at him carefully.

"Yeah." He breathed in again. "See. This, this, is the problem." He swallowed. "This is pretty much why very few Rigelians serve. Because, we live on a planet where it's encouraged to just, say everything, get it all out. Here, you can't because you get thrown in the brig or court-marshaled. So t'an krila was put in as a way to stop all that. It's a kind of meditative spar. Liyar and I do it a lot, since, y'know... we debate a lot." He grinned, obviously without ire toward their debates. "Liyar was there during my Vor-ken-itarr. We didn't spar, just talked. I do recognize my part in it though. I don't think Stone will bother to reply to my apology but if he does, I hope maybe things can get resolved better. Maybe. I don't know. I'm just angry at him. Even if I was in the wrong, he didn't have the right to insult me about it."

Evelyn leaned forward placing her elbows on her table, looking at the Rigelian. "I'm going to say to you what my Mother always said to me when I would find myself in your situation." She looked at the young officer. "Get over it and quit whining about it. So you screwed up, no need to get worked up about it."

Despite himself, Athlen grinned. "Kaiidth, indeed."

Liyar blinked at the Vulcan sentiment attributed to one's mother's very abrupt advice. The Vulcan couldn't exactly fault the logic.

She stood up and walked around Athlen. "Now, this is what my husband used to do." She placed her hands on his shoulders and began to massage him. "You need to reflect and rationalize, not focus and obsess. So you spent a few hours in the brig, bright side this won't end up in your personal file."

Athlen relaxed, again, despite himself. Starfleet were not big on a lot of things, the casual contact he was accustomed to, among them. It was nice to just feel a connection to someone for a change. "It won't?" he asked, as her words got through again. Athlen was under the impression that Stone was in charge of that. And Stone did not seem like a very forgiving guy.

"Well, the Captain will have final say, but I highly doubt this misunderstanding will make it on that record. Afterall, how would it look on paper? A human misunderstood a Rigelian on a vessel commanded by an Orion. This ship is filled with species with multiple cultures and different ways of behaving. Starfleet tries to make a uniform code, but let's face it. Sometimes the feet don't fit the boots," she joked.

"I guess so. Stone thinks that I am looking for a cultural excuse to avoid responsibility for my actions." He said that with a roll of his eyes, but then glanced downward. "Do people really believe that?" he asked, for the first time looking rather doubtful of himself. He looked between Liyar and Coleman and slumped. "I have spent my adult life learning how people communicate. I was sent here because my clan considered me successful."

"One misunderstanding hardly constitutes a failure," Liyar pointed out, from experience of his own. "Sentient beings do not have the privilege of understanding between eachother one hundred percent of the time."

"Aren't we supposed to be in reversed roles?" Athlen grumbled good-naturedly.

"How you think I feel." Evelyn rubbed Athlen's shoulders, "I've served in Starfleet for over a hundred and fifty years, and they don't know anything about my people, hell they don't even have my physiology on file, they need to treat me as... an above normal human. Also it gets rather annoying, getting the same jokes about my age. I'm over two hundred years old, young in my people's standards, yet you get called Grandma."

Liyar tilted his head at that, looking between the two. "It may be beneficial to release the Diplomatic Detachment memos that are distributed amongst the crew of scientific survey vessels. Your previous diplomatic officer did not see fit to do so. However, given the diversity of our crew and the beings we will undoubtedly encounter, it is a logical precaution." He himself had read through them one hundred and sixty seven times. They were not eminently practical, at least for himself, but perhaps he could modify them, with the help of Coleman and Athlen.

Eve turned to look at him, "Yeah, I'm aware of them, hell I helped write a third of them." She sighed, "I'm getting too old for this." She walked back around her desk sitting back in her chair. "Looks like we're becoming the Three Musketeers huh?" she joked.

Athlen noted her sigh and body language. He frowned a bit, but figured the comment was rhetorical. Interestingly enough, he realized his Vulcan friend had an answer... which was, of course, somehow still relevant to the topic. Though, he still didn't understand what three musketeers meant...

"It is difficult to summarize the inherent differences among others," Liyar agreed. Even as a Vulcan, most people simply treated him as a Vulcan and not as Liyar, who is a Vulcan. The fact that Vulcans had a collective consciousness (and thus referred to being Vulcan) was only more confusing, he was sure, but still - he couldn't helped but be bothered. "My suggestion would be to modify it to state that: while interacting with other members of the crew and planetside, it is wise not to assume that someone has the same neurological and cognitive understanding and application that you do, even if they look the same as you. Judge everyone on their individual merit," he added, "And consider that while applying the mentioned cultural norms."

The ones he'd read mostly spoke about being sensitive to all species and included different forms of etiquette to different species, but he felt that was far too unhelpful to adequately prepare a crew for interspecies interaction. Aliens were not simply humans with Things on their foreheads. They were completely separate beings, with separate neurological structures and ways of thinking and feeling and communicating. Liyar realized, at that moment, with a blink only to acknowledge it - that he was finding his job actively engaging, instead of a chore. The blink again, and then... "What are the Three Musketeers?"

"I think the problem is, more than wording of the memos." Eve sighed, "one trait I always found attractive of Humanity was their curiosity. Every human wanted to learn something new, wanted to find out what makes a Vulcan tick or learn new cultures and ideas." She leaned back in her chair, staring up at the ceiling, clearly reflecting on her vast experiences. "The Dominion War hardened the entire Federation, almost crushed that curiosity I found so endearing." Eve returned her gaze to her guests, "Of course we could be blowing this one incident way out of proportion considering the past Jeremy Stone had."

"To be clear, I had brought it up independently of Lieutenant Stone's actions. It was your own statement which prompted it." Liyar could only rest his head on his fingers. The Dominion had changed him, too. Not in an overt way. Maybe not in a way even a psi-null person could detect. But his svi'kae shields were ... strong was not quite the word for them. Impenetrable. As a result. He breathed in calmly. ~~FLASH~~ground-splittingopen~~AAAAAAGH~~. Liyar looked up, as if contemplating Coleman's words. "I think -" ~~FLASH~~death-vortex~~BANG Liyar blinked. "- That one's past does not excuse one's actions in the present. I believe the point of our mission is to, as you put it -" ~~AGONY~~gripping-heavy-thousands~~FLASH~~ "- Learn new cultures and ideas, to be -" ~~SHRIEK~~blood-stonesfall-destroyed~~FLASH~~ "- Curious." He knew, though, that his own trust levels were not in the margin they should be. Even Andorians, who were part of the Federation, had him wary (~~FLASH~~i-will-always-watch--~~ --C'THIA! he roars in his mind. Not here.) He exhaled through his nose. The Vulcan tilted his head, in what was most likely the Vulcan version of a shrug. Whatever went on behind his eyes, didn't show in his movements or his expression.

Evelyn stared at Liyar oddly, her brow raised, "Everything alright up there Liyar? You have the same look I get when I get visions that I wish to avert from becoming reality."

Athlen looked over at him. His friend looked all right, but that weird energy. "I agree, you're..." he said he trailed off, letting the ebbing buzz of strangeness speak for itself.

Liyar had his hands clasped together, fingers weaving between one another unconsciously. He took a moment to blink (always with the blinking), stilled his hands and put them in his lap and nodded. "Yes, Lieutenant." (~~-creaks-metalclashmetal-----nothing~~) "I am all right." He looked around the room to realize both of them were staring at him.

Evelyn frowned, "Oh, you better not be on a verge of some sort of mental lapse where you go crazy on us. I want to know now if you are because I really don't want to deal with a crazy officer again. Oh I would hate it if it was the Rome all over again." Evelyn groaned.

"Go crazy?" Liyar repeated. He rested his chin on his fingertips, coming back to his eyes more fully. "I do not understand what has led you to this conclusion. I assure you it is incorrect." Well, one good thing could be said for Vulcans, they regained ground quickly. "I apologize if I appeared distracted. As you say, the Dominion War has given good reason for caution." Athlen's frown matched Coleman's, but Liyar was already apparently moving on. "Nevertheless, it is important to attempt to engender a more receptive mindset amongst our crew," he maintained.

"More like open minded," Eve commented and then sat up straight in her chair. "This is what I want the two of you to do; if you have an issue where you think it could be a result from cultural misunderstandings, contact me immediately."

Liyar nodded. "I regret that I did not inform you immediately," he said to Coleman, realizing that was their Starfleet protocol. "It was not my intention to dissent. I have spent the time between conferring with the Rigelian Consulate. Councilor Vro is -"

"Hotheaded, jerkish and evil?" Athlen supplied brightly.

"- Difficult."

"Vulcans, such a talent for understatement," Athlen pronounced with a smirk.

"Councilor Vro?" Evelyn tilted her head and a small smile appeared on her lips. "Next time you speak the Councilor, pass this along, Tatiana says hi."

"Tatiana?" Liyar prompted curiously. Athlen just had a silly little look on his face, which didn't exactly bode well... ever.

"I guess you can say it's my middle name." She smirked, "I wasn't always called Evelyn in my career."

"I assume that you and Councilor Vro are previously associated?" Liyar asked, though to what end he could not figure. Vro was a whirlwind of a character, raging and miserable one minute to ecstatic the next, and fiercely protective of his own people to the point of threatening war no less than five times during one comm session. Liyar mused briefly to himself that he must have set a record. The first lieutenant junior grade ever to successfully halt interstellar war five times in one single day.

"You can say that." She smirked, crossing her legs, "He's a very unique character, I found him quite... well I'll settle with I had no complaints."

"Indeed." The curve upward of both Liyar's eyebrows spoke for themselves. They really were very talkative.

Athlen just grinned. "Councilor Aylin is my superior on Rigel," he said, leaning forward to rest his hands on his knees. "From the Northern Hemisphere. He's so... uptight," he groaned. "And he hates me. I'm sure of it. He pins his beady little eyes on me and judges me. I can feel his judgy vibes over the comm line." Athlen fake-shivered.

"I'm sure you're overreacting." Eve replied shrugging before arching her brow, "I do wonder now though what the two of you say about me behind my back?"

"It would be unpardonable to discuss my superior officer - while they are not present - in a negative light," Liyar pointed out.

"Yes," Athlen said, shrugging, "But most people do it. It's in people's nature to bond over their superiors in their absence, especially if their superiors are awful. Fortunately," he beamed at Coleman, "Your superior is very nice, so you do not have that problem here."

"Yeah yeah yeah," Eve chuckled shaking her head, "what am I going to do with the two of you?" She grinned and then eyed Liyar, "Alright, you two are dismissed, but if I hear that one of you gets thrown into the brig again because of a conversation with the other one, I'll order you not to play with the other one for a week and ground you to your room."

Athlen laughed, while Liyar crossed his arms and stood, lending only further to the image of petulance. Which just made Athlen laugh more. "Thanks, Lieutenant Coleman," Athlen said, waving in her direction before popping out the door. Liyar merely bowed his head forward and gracefully (and not at all petulantly) followed behind.

OFF:

Lieutenant Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer/ 2XO
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Liyar
Diplomatic Officer, VDF/SDD
USS Galileo

Crewman Athlen
Sociologist, SCC
USS Galileo

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