snip

“The gravity’s wrong. It’s supposed to be 1G. Earth gravity. It’s 0.98G. My parents promised me home gravity. Everyone here is very military. I don’t understand. I am a Lieutenant junior grade. But everyone calls me Lieutenant. That’s wrong. But it’s also wrong to call me Alan and no one does that. Why is one kind of wrong right?” Alan was a strange man. He showed no sign of being unsympathetic or uncaring, but he seemed insular, like his mind operated within itself and didn’t notice fully or appreciate the people around him.

-Alan Dysart

T’Leia blinked and looked at Stovik without answering Dysart. She seriously wondered if the man was sane. How had a being who seemed to be so far from reality been placed on an Earth ship? Was the Earth Fleet that lax?

Commander T’Leia

Stovik caught T’Leia’s look and being the rational being he was, was able to glean the intent behind it. He looked back at Dysart and spoke softly. He too wondered how such strange humans were able to be stationed on a starship. First the CMO and now this strange human. Highly illogical.
“Ship gravity on Earth ships is kept slightly lower to lessen the damage to the skeletal and muscular systems of humans.” He answered without addressing the strangeness of the other man’s words. As he had with the CMO, he treated him as if he was perfectly logical.

Healer Stovik

Alan thought for a moment and then nodded. Then he looked quizzical. “Earth ships? Vulcan ships are different?”

-Alan Dysart

Stovik’s brow arched.” Yes, our natural gravity levels are higher as they match the gravity on Vulcan. It is what has given us greater muscular strength and bone density then humans.”

Healer Stovik

“Then why doesn’t the lessened gravity affect you more? If I can tell, why isn’t it hurting you? Or feeling strange?” He didn’t understand why the Vulcans seemed to set one standard that they didn’t need any help getting acclimated to life in space, where humans did. Why were they so different?

-Alan Dysart

“It does effect us in giving us greater strength in a lower gravity atmosphere such as this ship. Any other effects are overcome over time and adjustment.” Stovik said with a light shrug. “Just as humans seem to acclimatize over time.”

Healer Stovik

“In everything it seems you think humans and Vulcans are overly different. We are both warp capable societies from species born on minshara class planets.” Alan used the Vulcan word to describe their worlds. “Why are we different?” He didn’t understand the simple cultural differences. That humans were different for being emotional.

-Alan Dysart

Stovik’s brow raised a bit and he paused as he took a sip of tea before answering.”We are quite different physiologically, mentally and socially. The Vulcan species has many structural differences as well as copper rich blood which makes it a green color upon oxidation. Mentally we have a higher psi quotient due to an extra organ in our paracortex which allows for this. Our culture has evolved differently from Earth as well. We once were a savage and emotional species similar to humans but due to a collective choice made by our society, after almost decimating ourselves with our psi gifts, we chose a path of logic. ” This was a lot of information to condense but Stovik did the best that he could.

Healer Stovik

“Savage?” He questioned to himself. “My brain is different, I’m not like most people.” For the first time, he looked up at the two Vulcans. “Nam-tor du taran Vuhlkansu olau rai zherka na’ ek’? I ma tor is-tor ozhika tor ken-tor fan-vel, wi i fam dvun ma zherka. Tor ik yi tor me wuh ‘savage’?” (Are you saying Vulcans feel no emotion at all? I have to use logic to understand anything, yet I still have emotion. Does that then make me a ‘savage’?) It was true. Alan used logic much like a Vulcan. It was the only way he could live on his own.

-Alan Dysart

“Of course not. Rather we have chosen to use logic to control our emotions, or perhaps a better description would be that we have attempted to not allow emotion to control us. I was using the description of ‘savage’ to differentiate who we ourselves use to be not to convey any judgement on your species.” Stovik clarified. “Believe me, we almost annihilated ourselves.” He said all this cooly and dispassionately as if he was only reciting facts though deep within his dark eyes was a sense of, perhaps not sadness but definitely something akin to it as he considered his people’s history. He was a Healer and the thought of all the wasted lives in the history of his people was difficult to consider.

Healer Stovik

Alan cocked his head, clearly calculating through what had just been said. “Isn’t species an arbitrary barrier then?” This was the Alan who could function as an officer. Now he had a puzzle to solve, and it seemed to calm him. “Throughout human history, there are many instances of violence. Then there are people like me. Who can’t live alone without logic to make sense of the world. If I come from a historically emotional and violent species, but I function on logic, am I not more similar to you then to… the armoury officer?” He had learned to use logic to control emotional outbursts and to make sense of other people’s meanings in conversation. It was the only coping tool his childhood psychologists had found that worked.

-Alan Dysart

Stovik rose a brow as he considered Alan’s statement.”You could be quite correct. I think that many species use general rationalizations to describe other races. Perhaps for ease of identification. Klingons are a warrior like race, though as you have just noted, it is quite likely there are many among the race who are not. Vulcans are considered logical, humans as emotional. These are generalizations as I have said though, not indicative of every member of the race. ”

Healer Stovik