Four Pointy Ears

Posted on Tue Sep 20th, 2011 @ 8:45pm by Senior Chief Petty Officer Julia Neral

Mission: Tomorrow's Arizona
Location: Holodeck
Timeline: Current

Julia dug the toes of her right foot into a small crack in the rock face and reached with her left hand for a slight outcropping she had spotted just recently. She got just enough of a grip with her fingertips to pull herself upwards and grab onto another hold.

She had desperately needed a break...too many days in a row spent analyzing data from their Borg encounter. It was fascinating, but the repetition quickly became tedious, the effect compounded by the necessity to sit in front of a screen for hours on end.

All the new information that she was able to add to the language database had been another redeeming quality of the task (more than one new tongue had already been added to her list...but still, she need to do something active, something that required more muscle memory and instinct rather than higher cognitive functions.

A quick but challenging climb up some Vulcan cliffs seemed to fit the bill quite nicely. The heat would have been excessive for the average human, but Julia, dressed appropriately and with Vulcan blood in her veins, found it to be quite tolerable.

She was just preparing to execute a rather tricky maneuver to get past the ledge above her head when the holodeck doors opened and a figure appeared beside her. Or rather, appeared to hang in the air directly behind her.

"Just a minute." Julia got a grip with her feet in the crack that ran vertically to her side, at least as best as she could, then judged the distance to the ledge. With a sudden burst of power, she went for it. To her observer, it must have seemed reckless but to her it was an instinctual calculation. Her fingers safely found purchase and she scrambled upwards.

The frame of reference of the newcomer shifted so that they were relatively face to face. Few members of the crew were actually at her eye level when they stood on flat ground.

Julia had thought she had recognized the voice, and now she recognized the face. "Good afternoon Petty Officer T'vran." He was a friend of the family- not a blood relative, but his family had close ties to her father's line. Older than herself, around 50 or so- he was still relatively young for a Vulcan and retained the same youthful appearance that Julia herself had.

"Greetings, Senior Chief." His tone was respectful and measured, as always, but Julia knew him well enough to sense the sort of resigned amusement with which he regarded her current antics.

"What did you need?" T'vran had joined Starfleet only recently, having spent most of his earlier career working as minor bureaucrat on Vulcan before his interests turned elsewhere, leading him eventually to Starfleet. There he had declined a commission, for similar reasons that had led Julia on her current path. She liked him better than many other Vulcans, he was somehow less...rigid.

"I did not mean to...interrupt, but I wanted you to review the chemical experiment I was running. However, if you are busy I can speak to you later." He paused and looked pointedly at her less than professional state of dress.

"No, no I was about done anyway. If you'll give me a moment..." Julia spoke to the computer, and the uniform she had discarded earlier appear on the ledge next to her, neatly folded and spotless.

Putting it on, she walked out the door beside him, looking reasonably presentable. At least, no one would guess she had just been indulging in some recreation. Time to see what he needed.