He smiled at her as she looked him over, more out of instinct than him thinking it would have any effect on a Vulcan. “Not exactly,” he said slowly. He stuck his tongue in his cheek as he looked around the room. Now it came to it, it was a little hard to explain.

“We’re going to have a group of aliens visit. Vinashti, they’re called. They’re going to put a parasite in the warp engine and we need to get it out without damaging anything and without anyone knowing.” He stopped to breathe and hoped T’Lar wouldn’t be completely skpetical.

           zack just….. doesn’t see the point. it isn’t like they’re the only two people on the enterprise who aren’t meeting for the first time. but is there a real reason he hasn’t even acknowledged their past? is it embarrassment? he had been a child. a disaster even, an outsider in his own home, in crisis, desperately looking for something to cling to. he had found that in the teachings of surak, embracing vulcan culture, and t’lar had been like…. a hero to him. someone whose life he so badly wanted to have.

then she’d graduated the academy, and he’d moved to vulcan, and they never saw or heard from each other again. and now —

“i know that,” he says, eyes locked on the bones in front of him. “i’m almost finished.” finally, he seems to pick up on the fact that her eyes are on him, that he’s being scrutinized. she says his name and he finally looks up, almost irritated but working hard to not allow it to show. “thank you,” he says, now sounding more puzzled than anything else. “i suppose the last time we saw each other, it was uncertain whether i would even be accepted into the vsa.” there. an off-handed acknowledgement. “so your reaction is understandable.”

Interesting. He felt the need to point out that he knew what she was telling him. As if she had been challenging or patronizing. T’lar observed him carefully. That sort of reaction was a product of emotional insecurity. Hmm.

@svec-ferat-tlar

One of the problems with working with the Temporal Agency was learning who to trust. Fortunately, for this mission, he’d been given a name. Although nothing about why she was trustworthy. Or why they couldn’t have sent someone with the relevant qualifications to begin with.

He’d had a couple of days to settle in, meet the other engineers and do some research. Which was two days more than he had, really, but he’d been hoping to run into Dr. T'Lar in the meantime. Since he hadn’t, he’d gone to visit her in the lab during a time when he hoped she’d be alone.

“Hi,” he said as he entered and spotted her. She was Vulcan and he didn’t know her, so he skipped the small talk and preamble. “Are you busy? I’ve got myself in a mess and heard you were the best person to help me.”

    She had hoped to find some peace here, that she might simply disappear in the crowds but it seemed like her presence alone was asking for trouble even when angering someone was the LAST thing she intended to do. It had gone well for a while, enough time had passed without an incident that she had nearly believed that today would be a quiet day, that maybe the weekend would be an enjoyable one. It seemed that her one problem was that she couldn’t keep her mouth shut and her head low enough that she could PREVENT trouble however.

    When the fight started she tried to keep her actions limited, defend herself but tried to AVOID actually hurting the other woman. There was already enough bad talk about ex Borg and she refused to add even more fuel to these rumours if she could avoid it in any way. So she accepted the risk of being hit, of leaving this fight in a far more miserable state than her opponent because she knew she barely had any other choice. She didn’t want to be seen as violent, she didn’t want people to FEAR her even more than they likely already did. 

    While she had already been ready to accept that no one would come to her aid she was somewhat pleasantly surprised that at least no one decided this was the perfect moment to gang up on her and make sure she would never DARE return. The situation was still far from ideal but in her position she had to try her best to see things in a positive light. The true surprise however, came when another woman stepped between them and forcefully ENDED their fight. Tara had raised her hands in a defensive gesture to show she meant no harm but eventually dropped them when she realised that the woman was only keen on stopping the fight altogether. “ I — thank you.. ” She was a little bit out of breath and there was no hiding the sheer SURPRISE in her voice. 

     As thankful as she was however she HESITATED at first before eventually deciding she might as well follow the woman to properly show her gratitude for being saved from likely getting her nose broken. “ .. again thank you for breaking up that fight. I really thought I’d end up being the new entertainment for these people and breaking a BONE or two before they’d grow tired of watching me fight. ”

all star trek verses! mutuals only please!