Posted by Ensign Elemirre Serinde (Engineering Officer) in Main Sim - CE Office
snip

“It’s a point of honor for the Andorians, marking their opponent or being marked in turn by a worthy opponent. They did try to keep it low injury but the tests of skills well they were rather determined on both sides to see who would win in all out. They got a rather lengthy lecture from the command staff afterwords.” Odina said lightly, she also told her brother he was lucky their mother wasn’t on the ship to see the duels he’d participated in. She had jokingly threatened to tell their mother but she would let her brother admit it himself.

El had a moment of perplexity; Odina sounded as though she approved of this battling. None of her staged duels per se were unsupervised and were not done out of animosity or out of settling a slight. Still she felt that any style of ‘Andorian’ duel of honor was one marked by intention to injure. How did ‘that’ work on an operating ship where teamwork and mutual trust were supposed to be present? How did one keep something like that to low injury when your opponent was intent to wound or more and where the weapons were ones that were not dulled or benign? El was unsure how much these Andorians were receptive to this lecture, however lengthy. She knew she would not likely give that much weight to a non human lecturing her of something that was not their culture or understanding. “Did that help?” she asked, her tone with a noticeable dubiousness to it.

“Far as I am aware yes, they respect the authority of the command staff. They consider the matter closed once a duel is finished regardless of who wins or loses, the tie on skills might be contested at a later time but for the moment as far as I know they’re working together as a team.” Odina said evenly, she had no problem with folks dueling as long they were all agreed on not trying to kill each other. A wound could be healed but outright violence she did not approve of.

El shook her head, her long pony tail softly swishing. “I don’t like it,” she said. ‘Passion is as a fire. It can keep one warm and cook with but it can burn and destroy and maim. These Andorians sound like they lean toward burning. Fires loosed are not controlled.”

But the mention of blind and telepathic and comparing with Vulcans perked up her ears. That was one thing that she was not at all happy with in this revealing of species outside of Earth. She had a fear of telepaths; they were only something fabled among humanity through the centuries but that it was real made her skin crawl. “They sound like faeries,” she said, but added, “I don’t think I like the idea of telepaths.” Someone poking about in one’s head was not something she relished. Especially with Vulcans. Were they listening to her thoughts in passing in her seeing them in her youth and then later at the Earth Beta station.
- El, Eng

“The Aenar I worked with always asked permission before they did any telepathy with anyone. It tickled my head honestly, they said I had a lot of musical thoughts that was pleasant for them to hear.” she shrugged softly, “I took it as a compliment. He said he would send me a letter but I have yet to receive it so either he was being nice to say it or he’s been extremely busy.” She did hope that Akeival would write though she was actually working on a letter for him herself but hadn’t finished it yet.

Ltjg Marshell
Chief Engineering officer

Still that assurance didn’t assure El. Her suspicion was that this tickling was based on them trying to make it seem like any intrusion into one’s mind would be felt so as to enable subterfuge at any other time with the excuse that anything they did would be felt. El had a distinct distrust of government, however benign they seemed on the outside. They were like a mug, clean and pristine and the drink sweet, but underneath it at the bottom was the layer of corruption and subterfuge. And with ‘gifts’ like telepathy that would be a tremendous under the counter use. She worked at smoothing the frown forming on her features. “You are musical?” she asked.
- El, Eng

“It’s was what Akeival said his impression of my mind was to his. He said some folks sounded like the roar of a wind tunnel while others were mostly white noise, they’re harder to read.” Odina said lightly still taking the words as compliment because she had no reason to believe otherwise.

Ltjg Marshell
Chief Engineering officer

El bit at a dirty nail and inspected it. She still didn’t like it. A mind read is still a mind read and who knew how deep they went in their thoughts. Between both these Aenar and Andorians she found she didn’t trust them. Too powerful on the one side with no (to her) boundaries and too erratic on the other. Anyone who could simply pluck out her thoughts was one to be avoided, and one who would fight for any slight was to be watched. Was Odina such an open book that she would think so lightly of having her mind probed and deepest secrets searched out? Or even simply passwords or tech designs and the like, plucked as easily as picking a fruit? Did Odina not have any secrets that she feared taken? Could such a one exist? “How long were you around them?” she asked “Were there many? What is their world like?”
- El, Eng

“I was on the Journeyman for a month and a half, there were I think there were thirty Andorians, and four Aenar. As for their home world it is according to them beautifully frozen with caverns and a wide range of wild life. I haven’t been there myself my brother said if they do a shore leave there he’ll send vids and what he can.” Odina said lightly with a smile. She would have to bundle up really well if she ever went to Andor, she liked cold weather but she wasn’t well suited to it for long periods of time.

Ltjg Marshell
Chief Engineering officer