First Contact

Posted on Mon Feb 13th, 2023 @ 5:32pm by David Meddows MD-Ph.D. & Doctor T'Mora & Lieutenant Laviana zh'Nolon MD & Vasha

2,087 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 2: Rendezvous At Starbase 10
Location: Tanalus V
Timeline: 2267

Dave Meddows had promised Vasha a lift to Tantalus V rather than make her wait for the twice weekly interstellar 'prison ship' to make the trip there and to that end had borrowed a small civilian spaceship 'from a mate' and made sure that the authorities on the Tantalus V Penal Colony and Psychiatric Research Centre were fully expecting them

"Of course, I used drive one of these myself before the accident..." he was bragging as he slipped the XL5 from warp into impulse. "But the missus took it all in the divorce settlement."

The idea that he might eventually get back together with Mrs Meddows and the kids was the only thing that had stopped him making a move on the bizarrely attractive alien. Then again, he always had been a bit of a xenophile.

"I'm telling you, this T'Mora bird, she's the one for you: exactly fits in with your research profile. Only thing is, she's never taken a research assistant on. You know what these sniffy Vulcan types are like!" he shrugged. "Must've seen something she really liked in your résumé"

"Oh, I don't mind at all! So long as I have someone to shadow and teach me more I'm quite happy." The tall, gangly Kelpien woman smiled brightly as she sat in the passenger's seat nursing a cup of tea. Fredalia tea, sweet, aromatic and a daily reminder of home. She seemed quite comfortable in her dark green tank top that let her toned arms and shoulders show in all their glory and jeans, which she found quite a bit less comfy than the simpler cloth skirts she used to wear, but certainly flattered her long, shapely legs well. Her leather shoes were worn and used but comfortable and made walking easy as they had since she'd first gotten them.

Dave, in his regulation blue UFP Psychiatric Services overalls, with their distinctive Hand-Holding-a-Dove symbol, looked at Vasha's rigout. Sure, she was rocking that retro early 21st Century look, but this was a Federation Scientific Institute they were going to, not a cosplay party.

"Could you please tell me more about doctor T'Mora, please? I'd like to know more about who I'm working with." She stood to refill her cup of tea, only to bang her head for possibly the fifth time this journey. "Ouch."

"Watch your head! Oh, too late." Dave glanced up from the controls.

He shook his own head. "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched, she might just want to interview you. But I've read some of her recent papers. In one of them she talks about the impossibility of a 'perfect intellectual and logical mind', by which she means her Vulcan mind, of course, being able to properly study the primitive, emotional mind in other words, people like me!, due to the lack of empathy in the former."

He glanced up at Vasha again.

"Well, if it's an empathic being she's after, I know one who's just banged her head for the sixth time and spilt horrible flowery tea on the carpet of a borrowed space ship." he told her.

In response David received what could only be described as a stereotypicsl look - which, by the way, seems to fit nicely even on suitably non-humanoid features like hers. "I'm sure she'll be quite interested to learn more, as much as she might like to act like she isn't." She said, tone somewhat less chipper than before. "I've learned that Vulcans can be that way if they so choose, all in the interests of seeming logical of course."

"Of course!" laughed Dave. He hadn't been at all bothered about the tea, of course, which the highly empathetic Vasha should have picked up on.

Ducking her head she proceeded to pour herself yet another cup of 'horrible flowery tea', as her pilot had oh so kindly put it. "How long till we reach, by the way?"

Meddows checked his instruments.

"Two more cups and eleven headbangs should do it" he replied.

____________________

Dr. D. Meddows had once been an intern on Tantalus V, but he had also once been a patient, and the Penal Colony cum Research Centre's high security became a little confused when they announced themselves before getting permission to land. To passers by, once in the base, he and the tall lugubrious Vasha looked like just one more psychiatrist taking just one more poor demented patient for 'treatment' in Doctor Tristan Adams' 'special chair'.

"Of course, this is all custom built you know!" Dave explained to Vasha, waving airily to the plain, dull walls and ceiling of the corridor as they walked along. A particularly intelligent and knowing looking member of staff passed by and Dave stopped him and asked: "Excuse me, old son, where is Doctor T'Mora's office?"

The man looked Dave up and down "Huh, hello Meddows, you in for treatment or are you doing the treatment?" he grunted an pointed the way. "Haha! Bit of a comedian, that one!" Dave laughed nervously.

Well, one thing was for certain: odd as Meaddows was he certainly seemed to know his way round the place. Vasha tried her best to look and act normal as they traversed the hallways of the facility, winding through corridor after corridor following the staff member's instructions. She certainly seemed excited when they reached a door labelled with her mentor's name at last; she turned and glanced down at her companion. "Well then, I suppose this is it." She said. "Thank you for bringing me here, doctor Meaddows. I'm sure we'll see each other again someday." And hopefully you won't be quite as impolite as you were this trip, she didn't add.

"Oh, yes, good luck!" Dr Meddows grinned and held out his hand for the strange earth custom of shaking hers. He had one last thought before they parted. "Oh, Vash', let me know if she hates you, and I'll give you a lift back! I'm off to have a look at this Chair thing of Tris' Adams'" he waved.

"It doesn't matter if she hates me, she's stuck with me," Vasha did not add as she politely shook his hand and let go to allow him to depart. What a strange man, she thought. No wonder the attendant they'd encountered earlier had made that quip: he baffled her, and that was consisdering she'd been educated in psychology and behavior for six years now.

The Door to Doctor T'Mora's office was as grey and anonymous as everything else on the base, but for some reason seemed to resonate a sense of foreboding. Well, there was nothing for it. Taking a deep breath Vasha took a step forward.

When this door swished open to allow ingress, Vasha was greeted by the sight of a petite Vulcan woman still very much in her youth, for 35 was no age for a Vulcan.

"Greetings, Vasha of Kaminar" she said simply, looking up at the tall Kelpien.

"Hello!" Vasha made no attempt to hide or conceal her excitement as she stepped forward through the doorway and let it hiss closed behind her. "It is an honor to be working with you, ma'- doctor. Doctor T'Mora." Despite herself Vasha couldn't help but look down at herself and feel somewhat self-conscious. This institute was all gray and foreboding and serious, and the instructions she'd received from her professor said to dress casually for her first day at work - in that sense she likely stood out even more, possibly moreso to a Vulcan.

And possibly also to the random facility staff she'd seen staring at her rear end.

T'Mora looked at the big gangly creature coldly.

"Really? Why is that?" she asked, almost tonelessly. She seemed less interested in the casual nature of Vasha's apparel as the words she had spoken. Vasha would ever find her thus.

Vulcans were usually rather toneless and formal and to the point and Vasha had learned that about them living with one or two as classmates back on Earth. T'Mora hardly bothered her at all, though she did harden her tone a tiny bit to accommodate the nature of their relationship. "I'm sorry. I'm just excited to have a well-established psychologist as a mentor, and, well, I'm new to the wider universe in general. I know Vulcans are some of the best in what they do, and I'm sure the same goes for you."

The Vulcan neither nodded nor shook her head, neither smiled or frowned: but this was not playing games or trying to be mysterious. In fact, she gave Vasha her thoughts immediately and very frankly.

"You will be useful to me as a research assistant, bodyguard and fitness and martial arts consigliere. It would be logical to try each other's company for the next month here on Tantalus V, after which we can decide if the partnership will be fruitful. There are then a number of field visits I need to make before undertaking a research project I have been planning for some time: the study of a microcosm of the more privative species in a high pressure situation: the crew of a Constitution type star craft."

She waited to see if the exotic creature had anything to say about this.

Since when had she signed up to be a bodyguard? She was to be the doctor's PA of sorts, an intern to use the old Earth term. Not that she couldn't do the job, just by looking at her toned limbs you'd think she'd do quite well at it - but even then!

The pang of irritation she felt upon hearing that swiftly melted away, replaced by wonder, amazement and strongest of all, joy. "A Constitution class ship? The kind Starfleet uses for its flagships!?" She could barely contain her excitement. Starfleet vessels were veritable microcosms of people in their own right, which meant more opportunities to explore and mingle around! Surely on a Constitution class those opportunities had to be simply innumerable. "Oh, my goodness. I would love to embark on that project with you, doctor. I am so looking forward to seeing where this relationship goes..."

Even though the Vulcan seemed to think of her as a tool, or a slightly annoying servant that she could make do all the things she didn't want to do. 'You will be of use to me'. Goodness gracious.

There was a flicker, the sallow skinned woman with the pointy ears nearly raised an eyebrow. Nearly.

"There is an important additional factor, Vasha." the doctor said dryly. "You are an emotional, perhaps over-emotional creature. I have studied reports of your species. Impulsive, headstrong, curious, empathetic... above all empathetic. It is important that while you are with me that you should not feel in any way obliged to suppress those... feelings" she said that f-word like it was the f-word!

"You must not take my calm appraisal of your actions as any sort of admonishment, your emotional behaviour and the effect it will have on others will form the cornerstone of my research. I shall also value your emphatic abilities. You can report the feelings of others where I cannot, Vulcans being no longer hampered by such privative impulses." T'Mora told the Kelpien, evenly.

"Thank you! I'm just glad to help." Vahsa found it funny that T'Mora researched emotions and behavior for a living and yet seemed to dislike emotions as any other Vulcan did. What a paradox. "So, um, where and when do we start?" She was truthfully looking forward to seeing where she'd stay, but that was second fiddle to whatever else the doctor wanted or needed to do.

T'Mora glanced up and down Vasha's towering form, as if she was already collecting data from a specimen. "We will commence work tomorrow. You have quarters assigned, I shall have an orderly escort you there. Do you have luggage?" she asked.

"Two bags on the transport I took here." Watching her new boss' eyes traverse her tall, gangly yet strangely shapely body made her feel a bit like she was being appraised like a specimen or another of her patients - but she shrugged the feeling off. It was normal, she reckoned. Vulcans tended to be ever so coldly, logically analytical. "If you'll let me go get them and get settled in now." She wondered what her quarters would be like. Spartan perhaps, grey, not all that much furniture or color. But hey, it'd be home at least.

 

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