Tripping Over Tongues

[Mila]

Mila and Solia had been working for what seemed like hours. Now that Solia had at least a basic grip on Mila's language, Mila was attempting to do the same for Solia's. They had fled sickbay in an attempt to not monopolize the poor doctor's time, but Mila seemed to have boundless reserves of energy.

"Your boat. Is bigger and...handsome, yes?" she said, as the two walked down one of the corridors. "My boat is...small. And easy."

Well, she was trying.

[Lt. Solia Vex]

"Handsome indeed." she grins. She can take a good enough guess at what she's trying to say and her way of using the words she has is oddly charming and resourceful. "Room for a lot more people. Sorry we lost your ship. You wouldn't happen to have a way of tracking it?"

[Mila]

Mila holds her arms up in an X.

"No. We could not find it. There is a tool still alive. Your computer is....broken?" she tries.

[Lt. Solia Vex]

"Ah, you're using the same kind of principles that makes you invisible to our scanners to cloak your ship? Clever."

[Mila]

Mila nodded her head, pleased Solia seemed to be understanding.

"Yes. We have found ourselves secrets. You can not feel bad if you stay with the Romulans. That is why we save us from someone who wants to talk up."

[Lt. Solia Vex]

"You... kept secrets from the Romulans? Or stayed hidden from them? I'm sorry, I don't quite follow. What is 'talking up'?"

[Mila]

"Talking up..." Mila said, tapping her lips as she thought. "You. Starfleet. You are looking for someone new, yes? You have to find something new about it. That is what you are doing. You find something new, and you talk them up. Ka'yun do not talk up. Now we know that our neighbors can hurt us. We are hiding up.

Romulans make...bad neighbors, yes?"

[Lt. Solia Vex]

"I see, I see." she nods. "You've been staying hidden because of the Romulans. Except with Romulus' sun going nova things have been changing. Not all Romulans are bad neighbors anymore and there will probably be a lot more ships around. You can't make friends if you stay a secret." Somehow this conversation feels like it's above her rank. This is getting dangerously close to proper First Contact talk rather than meeting an individual of an unknown race. Not that Mila seems like an official diplomat either but how much does she really know about her and her people?

[Mila]

"Maybe my people say that it is good. We are using ourselves alone. We do not need help."

She paused, as they continued to walk.

"I do not know. I think you are different. I think you are..." she trailed off, looking for the word. "Stupid? But, it may not be bad for people to be stupid," she nodded. "May not be bad, yes."

[Lt. Solia Vex]

"Stupid, huh?" she grins slightly. "You probably mean brave but maybe sometimes that's the same thing."

"Alone can be dangerous. And sad? On my planet it's a great honor - and great luck - to be chosen to never be alone. We choose to let two beings become one." she says, moving her hands together and interlinking her fingers. "Makes us greater than any one of us could be. That's why my name is Solia-Vex. Solia." she says and gestures at her face and down at the rest of her body. "And Vex." she says, tapping her chest just underneath her ribcage.

[Mila]

Mila, who was a good six inches shorter than Solia if she was anything, crouched over a little further, and held her face maybe a couple inches from where Solia was pointing. "There is another you? Under your shirt?"

[Lt. Solia Vex]

"Inside of me. We're one now. Solia gives us legs and knowledge of the stars and Vex..." she pauses briefly. "Would have given us all the wisdom and memories of those it joined with before but Solia is it's first host. But it still let's us think from a different perspective, question things. And you'd think memories of swimming through lightless caverns wouldn't be worth much but it did make us one hell of a pilot." She opts to stop herself there. This is hard enough to explain across language barriers without getting into the expectations of Joined Trill being, well, wiser than her. Leaders, negotiators, genius scientists or philosophers

[Mila]

"Vex is the pilot," Mila said, nodding slowly. "And so Solia is the pilot, too?"

[Lt. Solia Vex]

"Basically, yes. And Solia trained to be a scientist and a leader so Vex is too. Although as a whole I sometimes feel it's more pilot than officer."

[Mila]

Mila scrunched her brow, confused. "So...Solia is not pilot then? Solia is scientist. Vex is pilot? That is..." she said, pursing her lips, trying to understand through the language barrier.

[Lt. Solia Vex]

"Solia is the scientist, Vex is the pilot. Solia-Vex is both. We are one now and we're better because of it." she says, repeating the gesture of interlacing her fingers and gripping her own hands.

[Mila]

"That is not..." she frowned.

"It is...stupid, yes? Something is a thing or it is a different thing. How can it be two things?"

[Lt. Solia Vex]

"Plenty of people change as they get older. This really isn't much different, just more sudden. Or maybe you can think of it as me being a new, third thing."

[Ravi Nakamura-Zapata]

Ravi had no sooner thought about checking on the progress of Vex's attempts at communicating with the mysterious Mila when he heard them down the corridor. Sure enough, there they were around the bend. He wasn't exactly eavesdropping, because his ears couldn't help but pick up nearby conversations.

"Besides, people are never just one thing. In a broader sense anyway," the big furball supplied as he jogged up from behind.

[Mila]

Mila frowned a little bit at that. "People are....a person has a job. They have a job and they are the job. I am an....engine-maker," she said, after a pause. "That is me."

"Ravi, yes? You are that one?"

[Ravi Nakamura-Zapata]

"The one and only." He smiled toothily. "Around here it's usually Lieutenant Nakamura-Zapata. But that's a mouthful so I just tell them to call me Ravi. It saves time better spent elsewhere."

"So... If you take your job as your identity, I take it your people greatly value hard work? I grew up on a farm colony, so I can respect that."

[Lt. Solia Vex]

"Wait, you're confused because I've specialized in two different fields, not because of the symbiont?" Solia blinks in confusion. "Every cadet rotates through most of the fields before they decide on a track. How else would you decide what to do?"

[Mila]

"You test. You test early, yes? You see what you do and what you are not doing good. And then they check, yes? They think forwardly, about...what needs you to do. What everyone needs you to do. And then they guide you through....fields? Your...field?" she said, trying the word Solia used. "And that is your job. Hard work! Good work. Ravi knows, yes?"

[Ravi Nakamura-Zapata]

"Absolutely." His smile changed into something more contemplative. "Though I suppose if Federation society worked like yours I'd be a farmer right now."

He chuckled. "Well, maybe not. Being big and strong could have made me a security officer anyway."

[Lt. Solia Vex]

"But what if that isn't what you want to do? It's the same kind of expectation that pushed me towards diplomacy and leadership just because I'm Joined."

[Mila]

"You work to help others, yes? You do what others need and what you can do," Mila said, trying to explain. "And then others help you. All spots...taken? Everything runs."

[Ravi Nakamura-Zapata]

"All of that is just as true for us as a crew. We just also believe in choosing our own path. But that doesn't mean we don't have to prove ourselves capable, and not only in our chosen job but in whatever unexpected situation we might find ourselves in."

"... which happens like once a week in this line of work," he joked.

[Lt. Solia Vex]

"Of course we help each other but in ways we chose. And only those who want to. No one is part of Starfleet only because they're a great scientist or engineer. They're here because they chose to be."

[Mila]

"And that! That is the stupid, yes? Things need to happen. And people need to make things happen. So people must be put in places to succeed, yes?"

[Ravi Nakamura-Zapata]

"That's what the chain of command is for, to put the right person in the right place at the right time with the right goal," he tried to explain. "The Federation values freedom over pure efficiency. You're free to think it's stupid, but it's part of why we don't interfere with the cultures of worlds both members and not. As little as possible, anyway."

[Mila]

"Yes! Command chain," Mila nodded. "They...they use the tests. And the planning, yes? To make sure people are where they to best be. Right person, right place, right time. Makes things be...better. Run with no problems," Mila said, still occasionally hesitating between ideas.

[Lt. Solia Vex]

"What if they don't want to be what they're assigned to?"

[Ravi Nakamura-Zapata]

"Yeah. We find that people who aren't happy with their job tend to be less efficient. But I suppose that depends a lot on how the person's species thinks. It's definitely true for humans, and the Federation headquarters is on their homeworld so their way of thinking is pretty ingrained in the organization."

[Mila]

"Yes! That is it, too," she said, pointing at Ravi. "People are good at what they do if they want what they do, yes? So testing works there, too."