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Posted by Ensign Hawkeye Logan (Medical Officer) in 20:00 hours in Ensign Logan’s quarters with Zachariah Cobb teaching him how to play Kal-Toh

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in 20:00 hours in Ensign Logan’s quarters with Zachariah Cobb teaching him how to play Kal-Toh

“Anyways sir are you ready to be taught how to play Kal-Toh. Would you like me to get you anything else to drink before we start. Earl Grey tea? Coffee? Vulcan tea? More whiskey? And yes I’m that kind of Vulcan that is willing to go on with a list of drinks of my knowledge.” He mentioned all that to the captain before starting.

“Very generous of you,” the captain nodded with genuine gratitude, before raising his already empty glass. “If more whiskey is on offer then I would be a fool to say no.”

“Anyways, this game, Kal-Toh. Is more about patients and practice. It involves logic. You have these things called rods. We use these rods to make the correct shape and try to beat your opponent that you’re playing against,” he then started to explain the game to the captain. “Let me show you captain before anything happens. There are two ways where this game can go. There is the winning way or there is the losing way. If you go by the losing way it’ll fall apart and will not be completed. If you go by the winning way then the shape that it’ll make is the winning shape.” He then finished explaining it to the captain hopefully he’d understand. Mr. Logan then went back to the replicator and got Romulan Ake and a couple of glasses to drink it out of. One glass for the captain and one for himself. He then started to pour the drink for them both and he then sat back down.

Ensign Logan

“Aye, I think I understand,” he rubbed at his beard in contemplation of the matter. “Or if I don’t then we shall find out soon enough. So, how do we begin? And what are the rules, if any?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

“I’ll talk to him as soon as I can sir. But thank you for the idea. I know with most Vulcans they like it in the dark.” He then mentioned to it. “You would be a fools to say no. So I’ll go ahead and get you another thing of whiskey. I know you humans love your whiskey.” He added. When he got the whiskey he then came back to the captain and gave it to the captain as he sat.

“Thank you,” Cobb accepted the drink with genuine gratitude, before savouring a large mouthful.

He then said “Sir it is a very competitive game like solitaire. You have to use logic for this game. Like I said it’s a strategic kind of game. You have to be careful with how you place your piece. If you place it in the wrong spot, then the game will fall apart. If you put it in the right spot then a shape will form. You have to think a little long and hard in order to know where to put it and put think your opponent.”

The old man shook his head. “I’m not sure I will ever reach the level of being able to out-think one such as yourself, Mr Logan. But that is perfectly okay. I have no desire to become a champion. If I can go five minutes without the entire thing collapsing in a heap then I shall call it a victory,” he laughed.

As Logan finished his Vulcan tea while discussing it with the captain he then went back to the replicator to get another tea and grabbed it out of the replicator. As he realized that the captain isn’t Vulcan he knew it would be a little bit of a concept for him to understand.

He then asked the captain “If you were a Vulcan captain. Would you actually understand it a little?” He then asked. When he sat back down and sipped his drink, he then notice that the captain is satisfied with his explanation that Logan knows a lot.

Zachariah frowned. “I don’t believe I am in a position to say, considering I have never experienced the mind of a Vulcan.” He sat back and, while sipping at his whiskey, gave the matter several moments more thought.
“But then I don’t consider us quite so different, Mr Logan,” he decided after a time, “do you? It is merely a matter of discipline and control that gives you the upper hand?”

“Sir permission to say that your games are confusing. Would you like to teach me how to play your games if we have time for it sir.” Logan asked as he sipped from his tea again. As he noticed that he sat there perfectly calm with no hesitation. He knows that humans has feelings that they have to show and that they they have to use their emotions.

Ensign Logan

“As you will no doubt have gathered from our encounter with Carroll, I am no expert at games, Mr Logan,” he chuckled, the memory of his disastrous performance at checkers still fresh in his mind. “I can hold my own well enough at pool or at poker. But to teach it to a man as skilled as yourself? I daresay I would be climbing way above my own station, if you get my meaning.”

Still, the offer for shared activity was one the captain found hard to resist. And after several moments of contemplation, he appeared to land on an idea.
“I’ve got it!” Cobb leaped to his feet with the excitement of a child on Christmas morn. “Are you free tomorrow at this same time? If so then perhaps you would be good enough to meet me at the holodeck. And I will show you the kind of games that I enjoy to pass the time.”

“Yes sir I am free tomorrow at the same time. I am willing to meet you at the holodeck sir.” He sat there for a little and then smiled.

Then, his attention returning to their current activity, the captain once more took his seat and then reached out for one of the long, slender playing pieces. Holding it up to the light between thumb and forefinger, Cobb studied it as he might a newly-commissioned stem bolt, before turning eyes on Logan and asking, “Right then. Who goes first?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

“Sir. As a suggestion to a newly member to Kal-Toh I say you go first. Like I said you are just new to this game. So you can go first captain.” He said to the captain. Logan was nice enough to actually let someone new go first. That’s what he was trained for. It is something that helps the newby of the game.

Logan

“Ah, erm…” Cobb mumbled, turning the metal stick over in his fingers, “that’s very kind of you, lad.”

Bringing the stick over to the base, he hovered it in several different positions, before choosing a spot on the outer edge and standing the piece up at a 45 degree angle. For a moment, his fingers remained in place, afraid that, if he let go, the piece would just roll away and onto the floor. Then finally, and with eyes closed, he withdrew his hand and reached for the whiskey.

“Your move, Mr Logan,” he announced, eager to see the Vulcan’s own strategy at play.

• Captain Zachariah Cobb