Post 23

Posted on Thu Feb 12th, 2015 @ 9:01pm by Captain Christina Curtis & Doctor Maya

Mission: Begin with a Bang
Location: Captain's Mess, Discovery NX-04, At Warp
Timeline: May 14th, 2155 - 1800 hours

Christina was the first into the captain's dining room, having politely nodded and spoken with a few of the crew members who were eating in the main mess next door on her way through. She still had the feeling that it would be a little strange to have a dining room all to herself, though she knew that it was a Starfleet tradition - even the smaller ships in the fleet had a separate area for the captain to eat, and it was the usual place for any ship's guests to dine when formal dinners were arranged. She had been a regular occupant of the room on the Saratoga, as part of the tradition of the dining room was for the captain to share evening meals with their first officer, but it had always still been Captain Brody's dining room.

For the room's inaugural meal, she had continued with tradition and invited Commander Cayne to join her, and had also decided to invite Doctor Maya as well. She hoped to build a working relationship with each of her officers onboard in the months and years to come, and a good start to that was sharing a meal with them. Doctor Maya was the only non-human onboard, and so would likely be the most distant crew member for her to try and bridge that gap with; she was - as the doctor herself might have said - the logical first invitee.

Commander Cayne entered only a few minutes after the captain had settled herself into her seat, and nodded in greeting to her. "Captain." The table had obviously been set for three, and he moved to take the place on the far side of the table, with his back facing the stars. He had already eaten his first meal aboard the ship, having slept onboard since his arrival three days ago, but this was the first he had seen the inside of the captain's own private dining room.

"Commander," Curtis replied, allowing her thoughts to settle back in the here and now. "I hope you're hungry. I hear that Chef has decided on going all-out for our first meal in here."

"Famished," her executive officer lied. He had a reasonable appetite, but he wouldn't have described himself as starving just yet.

Just then the door chimed.

"Come in!" the captain called.

The door slid open to reveal the Discovery's only extraterrestrial crewmember, Doctor Maya of Vulcan. The slender woman was dressed in a flowing white gown that barely covered her shoulders. "Good evening Captain," she greeted in a calm musical voice. "I trust I am not late?"

"Not at all, doctor," Curtis answered, gesturing towards the seat on the opposite side of the table from her own. "Please, take a seat." As she lowered herself down into her seat, she heard the door behind her open as Chef's two assistants came in bearing their meals. "Ah, what do we have here?"

Curtis' meal was relatively simple to look at, but Christina knew that in no way implied that its taste would be similarly plain. A thick slab of rump steak took up the majority of the plate, cooked medium-rare; brown on the outside, with defined lines on the top as a result of the grill, but still pink and juicy in the middle. Almost as satellites to the star of the steak were five new potatoes, half a grilled tomato, a grilled mushroom and assorted salads.

Cayne's meal was along similar lines; a shaped dish sat atop his plate, full of the contents of one of Chef's chicken and mushroom pies, with a lid of crispy pastry. On the plate next to the dish was a healthy portion of thick fries and salad.

Speaking of salad, that was what Maya was having along with a hot bowl of fried rice and a bowl of what looked suspiciously like kung pao chicken without any chicken. The greenblooded physician nodded and stood before her meal. When Cayne gallantly pushed her chair in Curtis could tell that her executive officer was a whole foot taller than the little Vulcan.

"Thank you, crewmen," Curtis said as Chef's two assistance made their way out of the dining room.

"Thank you for inviting me," Maya said while picking up a pair of chopsticks. "It is indeed an honor to sit at the captain's table."

"Not at all, Doctor," Curtis responded. "I find I agree with Captain Archer's assertion that on missions such as Discovery's, it's important to get to know your crew on a personal level, as well as a professional one. We're likely to spend a great deal of time together, and I think that sharing meals together every now and then helps to ease things along."

"I agree," the little Vulcan nodded serenely. "For all intents and purposes, we are all family now."

"I like that," Curtis said, tilting her head as she considered that. The doctor was right; the crew would be living together aboard Discovery potentially for years to come. They may not be linked by blood, but they would have to look upon each other as family if they were to get along for such a long period of time; and potentially rely on each other for their very lives. She couldn't help but let her thoughts stray to the ship's first task; one that had a definite risk of life to it. Raising her glass of wine from the table, she tried to pull her thoughts back to the here and now with a toast. "To family."

"To family," Cayne agreed, raising his own glass.

"To family," Maya repeated stiffly as she mimicked Cayne's actions.

"So, Doctor; what part of Vulcan is it you're from?" Cayne asked, as he began to tuck into his meal. He'd had a look through the Starfleet records of most of the ship's crew as its first officer, but he hadn't had chance to read up on the doctor considering her late arrival to the ship.

"The Eithnir Province," she replied as she picked up her chopsticks and her bowl of meatless kung pao. "I must confess that it is a bit of a backward and traditional region. I suppose that every world must have them. I wasn't born in the actual city, but in the rural village of Ní Bhraonáin. I suppose you could say I grew up in the doonies," she said before she used her chopsticks to shovel spiced vegetables into her mouth, although what she meant by 'doonies' was anybody's guess.

"There are a few places on Earth that are still like that," Christina said, taking a guess at what the doctor meant by 'the doonies'. "I visited a place called Bhutan a few years ago - they were the last country in the world to introduce televisions in the late twentieth century, whereas in most countries they had proliferated to almost every household decades earlier. They're still one of the last places on Earth to adopt new technologies - I didn't see a single piece of technology newer than the turn of the century there. But it is such a peaceful place; greenery everywhere, and so peaceful. They're the only country in the world to actually measure national happiness as part of government policy."

"My government did not measure 'happiness' like the government of Bhutan," the little Vulcan admitted. "On my world, the open display of emotions is considered the symptom of a neuropsychiatric disorder. I cannot truthfully say that I have ever met anyone from my home world who could truly be described as 'happy,'" she admitted before taking a sip of water.

"That's something I've never quite been able to get my head around with Vulcans," Cayne admitted, after swallowing a bite of his meal. "If you're never happy, does that mean you're all... miserable? Apathetic? I just don't see how you can be... nothing. Surely you have to feel something, at least some of the time."

"You bring up a very interesting point," Maya agreed. Although her tone was conversational, she seemed more animated, even going as far as to gesture with a finger. "It is entirely possible that by giving up our emotions we are also surrendering our motivations. It is very telling that in your language, the words 'emotion' and 'motivation' have the same root word that means 'to move'. It is possible that by suppressing our feelings that we risk being unable to feel, a word that describes using a sense, a faculty by which the body perceives an external stimulus. By denying ourselves the distraction of internal stimuli, we may be blinding ourselves to what truly exists."

"Have there been any studies on Vulcan to explore that theory?" Christina asked. She knew that were it Earth, any possible theory about anything would gather a group of curious individuals who would try and conduct case studies and experiments to prove or disprove the hypothesis, but she supposed that that behaviour itself stemmed from an emotion; curiosity. There was another issue with Vulcans studying whether their suppression of emotion was a hindrance too. "Aren't any groups which strayed too far from the accepted teachings of Surak and experimented with their emotions were considered almost as exiles or outcasts?"

"Indeed they are," Maya replied. "They are given the pejorative term 'V'tosh ka'tur', that translates loosely into your language as 'Vulcans without logic.' They are considered crass and mentally unstable, but I wonder if they are simply trying to find themselves. Divorcing ourselves from a part of our ourselves seems belittling when one considers it, even though there are sound medical reasons for doing so." Despite the subversive content of her words, the little Vulcan's tone remained casual and conversational.

"Well I'll give you this; you definitely seem to be one of the most open-minded Vulcans that I've ever met," Cayne remarked, before finishing off the last bite of his pie and taking a sip from the glass on the table in front of him. Turning his attention to the last few fries and pieces of salad, he continued. "Admittedly I haven't met many, but those that I have met seem to be very set in their ways. Emotions are illogical, no two ways about it and all that stuff."

"Closed-minded Vulcans tend to stay home and not visit other worlds," Maya explained. "One could assume that is the same for any species. But you have a point about emotions being illogical. Nearly all documented cases of it have led to negative consequences. But would a positive result be recorded by my civilizaton?"

Cayne shrugged at the question, not able to think up a response that would be short enough to let him get going but thoughtful enough to be of merit to the conversation. "Well, I hate to eat and run, but I've still got some things to do in the armoury before I turn in for the night," the tactical officer said, standing as he finished his meal and dabbing the crumbs away from his mouth with a napkin. "I've just finished realigning the forward proximity sensors, and there are a few other things that I want to see to before testing the targeting systems tomorrow morning. Give Chef my compliments."

"Of course, Commander," Curtis said, standing out of politeness to see her dinner guest off. "Just don't work too late. If you're testing the firing systems tomorrow, I don't want you asleep on the job."

Cayne chuckled. "Aye, Captain."

Maya had also stood up out of politeness, although whether that was the way she was raised or whether the little Vulcan was merely mimicking the captain's actions was unknown. "Until tomorrow, Commander," she said as she clasped her hands together and graced him with with a formal nod.