A Logical Friendship

Posted on Thu Feb 17th, 2011 @ 2:56pm by Lieutenant JG Talri & Private 1st Class Trent Kushner
Edited on on Thu Feb 17th, 2011 @ 3:00pm

2,815 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: The Forests of Mythraeli
Location: Gym

:ON:

It was early in the morning on Talri's second day aboard the Calypso, and she had decided to start the day with a visit to the gym. Physical exercise, in Talri's experience, was a good way to focus the mind, and she intended to keep up with her regular practice of ke-tarya.

The gym was empty when Talri arrived, dressed in the light tunic and trousers she preferred for exercise. She made her way over to the mats in one corner and began slowly working through some set forms, concentrating on her breathing and the precision of her technique.

As was his normal routine, Trent woke early enough to head to one of the Fleet gyms on board the Calypso. Trent had found that, in contrast to the Marine gyms, the 'Fleet' variety gyms spread around the ship tended to be quieter in the morning. Today seemed to be the exception.

Trent walked in the gym he was accustomed to going to and was surprised to find someone had already beaten him to the mats. He stood in the doorway with a towel around his neck, simply staring at the Vulcan woman doing exercises as if he refused to believe someone else was in 'his' spot. He remained in that position for several more seconds trying to decide if he should try another gym.

Talri, aware that she had an observer, did not let the notion deter her, and continued to the end of her sequence. Then she turned to face him. Why was he staring at her so? She took a step closer. 'Yes?' she asked, thinking that he must want something.

"Huh?" He asked as he was suddenly aware that she was talking. "Uh, what? Me?" He quickly looked behind him to see an empty hallway. Realising that she was indeed talking to him, he quickly turned back. "Umm, no. I mean no I don't want anything ... Hi!." His words seemed to spill out of his mouth without thought. He clamped his mouth shut with concerted effort and squinted. He carefully modulated the next few words. "Yeah ... I don't do mornings."

'Hello,' said Talri slowly. 'It is morning, and you are here...' She shook her head. 'It is my mistake. I thought you wished to have my attention. Do you practise ke-tarya?' she asked then, in case it was that. It was unlikely, she knew, but he certainly wouldn't be the first human to have studied a Vulcan martial art, and it would be a valid reason for the staring.

"Noop." He said as he rocked back on his heels. He then suddenly became aware of the fact that he was still standing in the doorway to the gym. He quickly hoped into the room and allowed the doors to close behind him with a woosh. He looked behind to be sure the doors really were closed before speaking. "Uh, I practice Jujutsu. I've seen your form before... That is to say, I've seen 'ke-tarya' before. I've obviously never seen your form before... Not saying that I'm noticing your form...." He stopped and clamped his mouth shut again. "You know, why don't you show me a technique or two." He raised his eyebrows and smiled accompanied by a quick clap of his hands.

Talri blinked. 'I could...that is, I will show you if you wish it, but to perfect the techniques is difficult. I have studied ke-tarya many years and I am not close to expertise. I believe it fair to give you warning that I am likely not the best of teachers.' He seemed a little uncertain of himself, Talri noted, and she had already learnt that to humans with their easily-displayed emotions she could appear distant. 'My name is Talri,' she added, deciding an introduction was in order. 'I work in stellar cartography.'

"Trent." He said by way of introduction. "Marine Corps." He then threw the towel at the corner of the room where it ended up in a heap on the floor. "I work in... uh... Protecting your fleetie behinds?" He was borrowing a line he had heard a hundred times by other Marines before he caught himself. "Let's just forget I said that, okay?" He then took up a stance beside her and mimicked her positioning.

Talri made no comment on his ill-advised remark, secure as she was in the knowledge that she was far from being in need of his protection. Instead, she took up the basic stance, trying to decide how to begin. She had taught Liet and Amril the beginnings, yes, but she doubted that the same teaching methods would work for a Marine as for a four-year-old.

'Ke-tarya,' she told him, 'develops the deep link between the mind and the body. We will go through this first sequence slowly to begin with, and you should focus upon your breathing, and upon the stillness of your mind.' Without further preamble, she began a sequence of strikes and blocks that seemed to flow into one another. Although they were slow, her motions were extremely controlled and precise.

Trent followed the best he could in matching her moves. His form was sloppy, he knew, but for the most part he kept up with Talri. His tongue was certainly rogue, but the rest of his muscles responded well from years of training in his own arts. He made a mental note the differences from his practice and tried to see if perhaps there was a practical implementation in the field as he went through the movements.

"Ever actually use this in combat? Or is it more of a ceremonial thing?" He asked, as they began a new set of motions.

After waiting for an appropriate point to stop, Talri responded, 'I have not. That does not mean that I could not, only that it has never been necessary for me to do so. It is far from being a ceremonial practice.' She folded her arms. 'You did well. Imprecise, in parts, but excellent for someone with little experience of this. Perhaps-' she continued, thinking up what was for her a rather impulsive suggestion, '-if you wished to see its use in combat, you would one day accompany me to practise on the holodeck? I believe it to be superior to the holographic technologies I have previously used on my homeworld.'

Trent nodded. "That might be interesting." He agreed. "I'm always looking for ways to augment my fighting style." The exercises were waking him up and as such his speech was decidedly under better control.

He then tilted his head to the side. "So I take it you have never engaged in hand to hand combat? I mean for the real life and death type stuff?"

'Never,' Talri confirmed. 'The closest I have come would be sparring against a partner, but that is controlled. It is learning application of technique - certainly not life and death, as you put it. Does this surprise you?' she asked.

The Marine shrugged. "I guess it shouldn't, but it kind of does. Were you around for the Dominion War?"

'That war?' Talri had to think for a moment. 'I was not directly involved, no. I spent those years at Lihsi-vai - an isolated temple out in the middle of the desert. I wrote my second book there. I confess that wider events did not then concern me nearly as much as they perhaps ought to have done. I still had much to learn.' She paused for a moment, before asking, 'Did you fight in that war, Trent?'

Trent laughed. "You kidding? Nah I wasn't nearly old enough to enlist. I spent the war at home on earth. I wanted to, though, at the time I figured I would have made a difference. I also still had much to learn." He paused in thought. "If you could go back, would you have done it differently?"

Too young to enlist? It took Talri a moment to remember how different the human aging process was from her own. She was probably, she thought then, old enough to be Trent's mother, and the thought struck her as odd.

'That,' she told him, 'is quite impossible, and in that sense your question is irrelevant.' She couldn't quite leave it at that, however, and added: 'I do not believe I would act differently. Lihsi-vai was one of the more enlightening periods of my life. I would not be the person I am today without it, and I am not displeased with the person that I am. Regret is one of the more destructive emotions,' she cautioned him.

He wagged his head from side to side as she spoke. "Yeah I figured you would pull out an 'impossible' or 'irrelevant' on me. At least you didn't leave it standing." He commended. "As for regret being destructive, I don't believe it to be the case. I think having a regret or two defines us as the people we are. I also think that having them motivates us into taking action."

Talri shook her head. 'It is my belief that an excess of any emotion is destructive,' she said carefully. 'I do not expect you to share that belief. I do not imagine you have read Surak...our motivations, it would seem, differ. There is no harm in that.'

"What reasons do you have for assuming I have never read Surak? We have just met, you don't know me. Jumping to conclusions like that seems...Illogical." He clearly enjoyed saying that.

Talri raised an eyebrow. 'Have you read Surak?' she asked coolly.

"Noop, not a word." He said quickly on the heels of her question. "But I like that you took a shot." He continued doing some stretches. "Let me ask you, do you believe everything you read?"

Tilting her head slightly, Talri looked back at him. 'My conclusions were proven correct, were they not? No student of Surak's philosophy would define himself through his emotions as you just did. Besides, there are very few human followers of cthia. If it was an assumption, it was a logical one. As for reading and not believing? Cthia is not a religion. It is not understood on those terms. One might as well ask whether, having read of them, I believe in Alpha Centauri, or Earth. '

Trent held an awkward position during one of his stretches but continued to speak through it. "Your conclusions were proven correct because you guessed based off what I gave you, which wasn't much. I could have been a student. One can study something without believing in it. As for believing in it, I meant it less in a religious position so much as taking it as fact."

'Indeed.' Talri's hand went momentarily to the IDIC pendant at her neck, and she told him: 'I do not take as immediate truth everything that I read. I believe that you are being facetious to suggest it. However, when written statements are corroborated by lived experience, as is the case with Surak's writings, then why should it not be seen as fact? I have only to look at the way other societies function to see that our way is best for us. For Vulcans. For you and your society it may be different. I do not intend to dispute that, but I can speak from no perspective save my own.'

"I would never challenge that Surak's ways aren't best for Vulcans the same way that I would never challenge that a warrior culture isn't best for, say, the Klingons. The reason behind that is simply because we are all still here, sharing the stars, throughout centuries. If all other paths truly are foolish, then we would have either killed ourselves off or been destroyed by someone else long ago leaving only the Vulcan's behind. Your teachings suggest that our societies are flawed because they do not adopt Surak's path and it is proven though lived experience. I personally challenge that citing proof based exactly on that; lived experience."

'Illogical,' countered Talri, holding up a hand. 'That a society survives is hardly enough, else one might make the argument that Vulcan pre-Surak was acceptable and in no need of alteration simply because it still existed. There is far more to it than simple survival - and you misunderstand me. I did not call your society flawed. I believe that it has not yet reached equilibrium. There is a difference - and I do not believe that, based on my limited knowledge of humanity, wholesale adoption of cthia would be the way to remedy this. Surak, after all, said much in favor of diversity.' Debating him, Talri realized, was refreshing. She appreciated the challenge.

"But wasn't survival the catalyst for Surak's teachings to be adopted? Your people may likely have faced extinction from the violence that was happening, having been ramped up over hundreds of years. In that case, pre-Surak society wasn't sustainable. Humans too faced such extinction with our World Wars. We got through it, though, and we are at peace with ourselves having not denied our emotions in the process. Having both reached the same conclusions through different methods, I would say it is unfair to say we have not reached equilibrium; yours and ours are simply two different things. It's like comparing apples and oranges. Doesn't mean the orange is 'right' for being a different colour, taste and texture."

'Indeed not,' said Talri, 'but you are arguing at cross purposes. I never did say that you were wrong. Illogical, yes, and potentially destructive, but not intrinsically wrong in your beliefs, any more than, to use your simplistic analogy, an apple is wrong for not being an orange. A human is not wrong for not being a Vulcan. I must question, however, the notion that humans are at peace with themselves. Are you? I cannot imagine it, with all the unbalance brought by anger, or jealousy, or hate - but perhaps it is my imagination at fault here. Explain to me how you humans are peaceful and balanced, allowing such emotions as you do, for what is seen in the individual is reflected in the society.'

"By working towards a common goal, humans have achieved an extraordinary amount in the short time we have explored the stars. I dare say that it is our emotions that are the driving force behind that. Yes, emotions like anger and hate exist, but our balance is found in the other emotions we feel as well. We have to check ourselves, much like Vulcans do, just not to the point of denial."

'On Vulcan it is said that your people have achieved so much despite your emotional nature, not as a consequence of it.' She considered this a moment, before quoting to him: 'I am pleased to see that we have differences. May we together become greater than the sum of both of us. Surak first said it. It is equally true today.'

With those words Trent suddenly stopped what he was doing and turned his whole body to face Talri. "You know, I couldn't agree more." He allowed a moment to pass before he allowed a smile and then turned back to his exercises. "Yup, it's slated then, we can be friends."

Friends? Talri hadn't considered the idea, but she found herself nodding in approval. 'Yes,' she said. 'I believe that to be an appealing idea. Let us be friends.' She contemplated that a moment, the unlikeliness of it, but also how fitting it was. Yes, she thought, she would learn much here.

'I ought to go,' she told him then. 'My shift will soon begin, but perhaps I will find you here tomorrow?'

"Yep. I'm here every day around the same time...unless the replicator breaks...in which case I'll be late...I won't be able to do this again without a coffee." He grinned lopsidedly.

'There are many replicators aboard this ship. It is highly improbable that they will all cease functioning at the same moment,' said Talri with a knowing look. 'Ordinarily, I would take spiced tea and a light breakfast after my morning exercise. Unfortunately my timekeeping has been a little...imprecise, today. I shall see you tomorrow, Trent.'

Trent gave her a simple nod. "I look forwards to it, Talri."

:OFF:

Lieutenant JG Talri
Stellar Cartographer

Private First Class Trent Kushner
Marine

 

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