JP Ensign Kudon and Lt. Cmdr. Deveau - "Collaboration Part II"
weissadam79
((Atmospheric Lab, Deck 510, StarBase 118))
DeVeau: Do you like to dance?
Kudon: Well, metal is not exactly the type of music to dance to. But come to think of it, I have never danced to any type of music before. What do you ask?
DeVeau: Just curious. So what type of things do you do when you have downtime? What floats your boat?
Kudon: What floats my...what?
Alora giggled and twirled around, this time in the opposite direction.
Kudon felt strange that she did the twirling again. As someone who chose emotions, coming from a culture that does not, he usually struggled with ambiguous social situations. And here he was not sure what the line was between professional and personal communication and behavior. He found DeVeau to be a very nice person, but nonetheless he felt awkward.
DeVeau: It’s an earth saying - it means, what interests you?
Kudon: Oh I see...I enjoy cooking a variety of different dishes. Sometimes I’ll replicate certain ingredients, but I like to make things from scratch as much as possible. It feels very creative. I like to cook dishes from a variety of cultures, not just Vulcan. I also read a great deal, about engineering of course, but I took a number of Academy courses on interstellar diplomatic relations, so I enjoy reading about how different planets, empires, and so forth both cooperate and compete with one another. What about you? What...floats your boat?
Alora grinned. A Vulcan who expressed emotions /and/ adopted idioms. She knew they existed, but she’d never met one before. Very interesting.
DeVeau: Oh, lots of things, really, but I’ll just choose one. Singing.
Kudon: How long have you been doing that?
DeVeau: Since I was born.
Alora grinned and shrugged.
DeVeau: My mom’s a musician, I heard it in the womb, evidently, I came out singing myself, so to speak.
Kudon: What is your favorite part about it?
That was not a simple answer. Alora leaned back further into the chair pondering the question. She forwent twirling about and, instead, just turned it from side to side a little as she considered the question. What was her favourite part? About singing?
DeVeau: I guess...being able to express one’s self in a way that’s augmented by the music. Pain is more painful, joy more joyful when music is added. And then...being able to become someone else and something else, even just for a little while. Not because I dislike myself, but because it’s interesting to explore different thoughts, ideas, and situations. Which...kind of goes along with another thing that floats my boat - acting.
Kudon: Wow, that does sound very enjoyable. You should get some of the other crewmates together and we could all do it as a group. I almost forgot to ask you, what kind of music do you---
He was cut off by the computer alert, just as DeVeau had earlier. The Klingon data had come in.
Kudon: The Klingons certainly sent us the data very quickly. It is not like them to be so immediately cooperative.
At once, Alora was all business. As much as she enjoyed learning about people, she also knew there was a time for chit chat, and a time for work. She eyed the data on the screen and nodded.
DeVeau: Sounds like they want to get rid of this stuff as soon as possible - which is understandable.
Kudon: What I’d like to do is have the computer translate it back from Klingon and then run our three models again.
DeVeau: Okay.
Alora didn’t argue though she was fully capable of translating it. Perhaps he wanted it written down, which she could understand.
As he started the translation, Kudon was starting to fill with excitement. There was just something about the combination of abstract mathematical analysis with real life data.
Kudon: Reverse translation complete. Ready to input the data into our three models. Let’s see what kind of light we can shine on this Death Fog.
Alora took a few moments to read over the information, though she chose to do so in the original Klingon.
DeVeau: Let’s input the data on all the models and see what happens. Best not count our chickens before they’re hatched.
Kudon: I agree that would be the best approach...I must say Commander, ::getting more and more animated:: and I think you can appreciate this as a Science Officer, there is just something so exciting about creating an algorithm and seeing it work in the real world. It may seem silly, but I actually am nervous about what the results of our models will be. Accurate, inaccurate? Worse, better? So many think of science and engineering as just brainpower, but there is real creativity and, dare I say, emotion involved. Don’t you agree?
So he had let her know about his emotions after all, albeit indirectly.
Alora’s verdant eyes twinkled. Little did he know she’d already seen that he allowed emotion - after all, Vulcan’s didn’t use terms such as ‘like’ and enjoyment when referring to themselves. That display, however, showed that he did indeed allow his emotions to the forefront for more than simply descriptive words. When she didn’t answer, too entertained by his excitement, he queried again.
Kudon: There must have been a time when you felt like this?
DeVeau: Oh definitely. And I agree. More creativity is needed than people suspect, you have to think outside the books, look at things from different angles - like an artist.
Kudon could not contain himself to sit down so he started pacing behind the chairs they were sitting in. He was about to respond to DeVeau when the computer did one final alert to indicate the three models had finished running.
Kudon: What are the results?
Alora didn’t answer right away. She perused the results for a moment, then turned to the pacing Vulcan.
DeVeau: It looks like a combination of our ideas would work best. It offers the most stability, and it actually speeds up the process by a whopping fifty percent!
Kudon: Fascinating. I think we should let Commander Galven know immediately.
DeVeau: Yes, yes we should. I also think we should run it through the holodeck and test it out that way, but I suspect we’ll get the same answer.
Alora stood, allowing the chair to finally go still.
Kudon: I must say, Commander, I have enjoyed working with you.
Still standing, Kudon put out his hand to shake hers, with a small, but quite obvious, smile on his face, thinking how their teamwork had led to potentially very positive results.
Alora’s smile lit up her face and she accepted the hand warmly, though surprised as Vulcans were usually uninclined to touch due to their telepathy. At least, that’s what her experience had been.
DeVeau: I feel the same, it was a pleasure working with you. I look forward to doing so more in the future.
Ensign Kudon
Starbase 118 Ops
Engineering Officer
O239703K10
&
Lt. Cmdr. Alora DeVeau
Science Officer
Starbase 118 Ops
M239008AD0