Chapter Text

Incompatibility

June 2373

This story takes place a few weeks after the conclusion of Eternal Flame and after the events of Love’s Battleground.

It was all rather childish but that didn’t stop her from finding amusement in watching the games that Laas and Gene Edison were playing with each other. Apparently, they had decided to keep their relationship a secret for now and even avoided being seen together in public as much as possible.

Louise of course knew about them. She was the Bajoran’s best friend on Eagle and had been instrumental, or at least that’s what she told herself, in bringing the two together.

She sat alone at a table in the lounge area of The Nest, Eagle’s foremost place for rest and relaxation, and had been watching both the Bajoran security chief as well as first officer for the past fifteen minutes.

They both sat at opposite ends of the lounge, seemingly involved in entirely different conversations with entirely different people. And yet every so often they would make eye contact, and a small smile would creep on each of their lips before they quickly turned back to pretend that they were entirely focused on the people they were sitting with.

LaA excused herself from her friends and headed for the bar alongside the far wall of the Nest. A couple of minutes later, Edison did the same. He stepped up right next to where she had taken a stool, quickly finished his drink, and then left the lounge seemingly without having exchanged more than two words with the security officer.

Another couple of minutes passed before Laas stood and hastily headed for the exit as well. Louise smiled knowingly.

It was all rather silly, she decided and turned back to the large padd she had brought with her and the reason she had come here in the first place.

The screen displayed a technical blueprint of Eagle’s main engineering deck. All the usually hidden conduits and manifolds were highlighted. Ever since she and her team had started to use a new, more efficient warp core intermix formula, system diagnostics had shown an increased discrepancy in electro-plasma flow levels on deck twenty-four.

 At the moment the irregularity was still within tolerance levels but it was steadily rising and eventually would lead to a failure of the entire EPS distribution grid throughout that deck and quite possibly all over the ship. She had to find the source of the problem quickly before Eagle would come in danger of suffering a catastrophic power failure.

She had decided to meet up with Lieutenant Commander Xylion, chief science officer, to get to the root of the problem.

Lou didn’t say it much but she admired the tall Vulcan greatly. He had a razor-sharp mind but like most of his people, he lacked interpersonal skills. He had come a long way since first arriving on Eagle two years ago, she thought. He was still a rather private man, usually preferring the solitude of his quarters to more social places like the Nest but he had begun to inspire more confidence in the men and women who served with him.

“Lieutenant.”

Louise looked up from her technical diagrams and smiled broadly. “Xylion. Take a seat.”

He sat down opposite the much younger engineer.

“How are you?” she said, still smiling at him.

He seemed to consider the question for a short moment before he replied. “Well.” His facial features remained unchanged, however, and didn’t betray the fact that he thought the question to be entirely redundant. But he had learned that it was a question humans were fond of asking, usually expecting a reply such as the one he had just given.

“That’s great. Would you like a drink?” she said and gestured to her kava juice that sat in front of her. “I can get you something if you like.”

“That will not be necessary, Lieutenant. You have indicated that you require my assistance.”

She nodded quickly and slid the large padd across the table. “I just can’t make sense of these readings and I thought maybe a pair of fresh eyes would help.”

She watched him carefully as he began to study the diagrams. She couldn’t deny that she felt herself strangely attracted to the dark-haired Vulcan and not just because of the man’s keen intellect.

She had first realized that she held more than a professional admiration for him when they had teamed up a month earlier to successfully repel a mercenary attack on Eagle. A group of pirates had taken the ship by utter surprise and taken hold of main engineering. She and Xylion had been able to slip into an adjacent room undetected and had eventually come up with a plan to take back the engine room.

She still remembered how frustrated she had felt at first by being forced out of what she considered her natural domain. But more than that, she recalled how well she had worked with him and the exhilaration she had felt when their plan had finally come together and they had regained control.

Xylion had been uncharacteristically open to her suggestions and she wanted to believe that it had been more than professional courtesy.

“Interesting.”

The sudden exclamation brought the engineer back into the present. “What do you think?”

“It would appear the electro-plasma distribution levels are directly linked to the change of the intermix formula.”

She nodded. “Yes. But how is that possible? The formula is way inside tolerance levels. It shouldn’t change flow consistency.”

“Indeed,” he said and continued to study the padd.

She understood that any relationship with a Vulcan would encounter obvious challenges. After all, they didn’t believe in showing any emotions and preferred a lifestyle based on pragmatism. But whoever said that she needed an emotional relationship, anyway? She thrived on working with machines after all and she had always preferred the simplicities of dealing with computers as opposed to the many quirks and inconsistencies sentient beings were so prone to.

Xylion looked up from the diagram and straight into her bright blue eyes. For a moment she flushed. Had he realized her ulterior motive for asking him here?

“Have you attempted to lower overall core output levels?”

“Up to thirty-five percent,” she said a little bit too quickly. “No change.”

Xylion nodded and returned his attention to the padd.

Louise had wanted to gauge the seemingly minuscule chances that the Vulcan might have similar feelings for her. But how was she supposed to find out the feelings of a man who made it his primary ambition in life not to show any?

“I was thinking that perhaps there is a malfunction with the EPS conduits on that deck,” she said, never taking her eyes off him while she spoke.

“Unlikely. The chances of all the conduits on a single deck to malfunction are infinitesimal. Unless,” he said and looked up, “you have recently replaced the conduits on deck twenty-four.”

She shook her head. “No. But perhaps there is a problem with the valves. They could be damaged or unable to handle the new formula.”

“According to your diagnostics, the valves are operating at optimal efficiency,” he said as he looked over the padd again. “Have you performed manual inspections?”

“Not yet,” she said seconds before a sudden idea popped into her head. “Perhaps you could help me with those. I could use an extra hand,” she said with another smile. She quickly regretted it. She was surely coming on too strong now.

“One of your engineers would be better suited for that task.”

She nodded slowly. “Of course”, she said as he returned the padd. “Anyway, thank you for taking a look at this.” Louise took the padd back but avoided eye contact with him now.

“There is another possibility that might explain these symptoms.”

She looked up with a quizzical expression.

“The new intermix formula consists of a highly condensed, inter-modulated deuterium stream, correct?”

She nodded.

“Most EPS conduits constructed before stardate 48321 are layered with a polymer consisting of duranium and oxidized tellurium.”

“Isn’t oxidized tellurium near indestructible?”

 “It is. But it does have a weakness.”

“A modulated deuterium stream, reacting with anti-matter and dilithium could create an impure tellurium source all on its own,” she said as the thought popped into her mind.

“Attempting to channel tellurium through a tellurium layered conduit –“

“It would corrode the tellurium layer which could cause all kinds of irregularities in the plasma flow,” she said with unexpected euphoria as if she had just solved the mysteries of life itself.

“Correct.”

“But why only on deck twenty-four?”

“I am not entirely—“

She cut him off again. “Main engineering. It’s closest to the source.”

He nodded.

“I’ll need to replace the EPS conduits all over the ship with non-tellurium layered ones. That way we can continue to use the new formula and take full advantage of the increased power levels.”

“That seems to be the most logical solution.”

Louise smiled again. She didn’t need any more proof. The two of them thought alike and when their minds were combined there was nothing they could not accomplish. If that productivity was true when they were working on technical problems, why couldn’t it work on a more personal level as well?

“How does that drink sound now?” she said with a widening smile.

He did not reply right away. And she could tell that somewhere buried deep inside his iron-clad exterior he felt the same pride at solving this puzzle that she was experiencing. She knew right then and there that she had a shot at getting past the Vulcan's well-trained defenses. It was a long shot, of course, but there had to be something there she could work with.

“I am afraid my presence is required in the science lab,” he said after what seemed like a second’s worth of deliberation.

“I understand,” she said, trying hard not to let her disappointment show as he left his seat.

“I will attempt to accommodate your request if you should require any additional assistance,” he added just before he turned and began to head to the exit.

“Commander?”

Xylion stopped to look back at her.

“Thanks.”

He gave her a curt nod and then made a quick beeline for the doors.

She watched him leave with mixed feelings. Her meeting had certainly been a success as far as her technical issues had been concerned but she felt she had come nowhere closer to address her more personal feelings or for that matter to discover any kind of feelings Xylion may have had.

“Another one?”

She looked up at the bartender who had managed to step up to her table without making a single sound. She recognized the dark-skinned man immediately. He had come aboard only a few weeks earlier and he was already the talk of the ship. It seemed as if nobody knew much about him, in fact even his race seemed a mystery. He was not very tall but he wasn’t short either. His eyes were similar in shape to humans of oriental ancestry but the white, bony ridges that covered most of his otherwise bald head made it obvious that he was not from Earth.

He gestured at the nearly empty glass of her Bajoran juice.

“Sure.”

As if he had anticipated her answer, he replaced the empty glass with a full one he had brought on a tablet. “I must say, I haven’t seen old Xylion make such a hasty retreat since the time we ran into a pack of le-matya during a trip to the Forge.”

She looked at him. “I had no idea you knew Xylion that well.”

He nodded. “Oh yes,” he said casually. “We’ve had our share of adventures.”

“Really? Bensu, right?”

“That’s me.”

Her eyes wandered back to the now-closed doors of the Nest. “Well, I bet he never tried this hard to get away from another person.”

Bensu took the seat Xylion had vacated. He seemed to ponder her statement for a moment and then looked back at her. “I think you’re right.”

“I thought so,” she said with a sigh and dropped her gaze toward the tabletop.

“Oh no, you misunderstand. That’s a good thing,” he said with a remarkably wide smile.

“How so?”

“Well, Xylion is usually incredibly focused and collected. I’d say you must have had quite the effect on him for rattling him the way you did.”

Her blue eyes sparked. “You mean he might actually like me?”

“I wouldn’t rule it out entirely,” he said. “Of course, it’s hard to tell with Xylion. Many probably haven’t taken much notice but he’s a changed man since K’tera passed away.”

She remembered. About a year earlier Xylion’s fiancée K’tera, had been killed on-board Eagle and from what she understood, he had been with her until the very end. She had never really considered how such a loss would have affected a Vulcan. He hadn’t really seemed different to her after the incident but now she began to wonder.

“How exactly do you know him, anyway?” she said. It suddenly occurred to her that it was rather strange that Bensu knew so much about the Vulcan science officer. Bensu looked like he was in his early thirties, not much older than herself. Xylion was in his late seventies and the bartender spoke about him with a fondness of a childhood friend. Vulcan physiology was of course different to that of humans which made them appear much younger than they were. Perhaps the same was true for Bensu. But even that explanation only served to raise more questions.

The sound of breaking glass prevented the bartender from replying right away. He looked around and found that one of the many patrons in the Nest had accidentally dropped his filled glass onto the floor, creating a small mess.

He turned back to Louise. “That is a very long story. And sadly, as you can see, I do not have the time for long stories right now,” he said and stood up. “Perhaps some other time. For now, you should take comfort in the fact that if nothing else, you succeeded in putting a small chink into Xylion’s seemingly impenetrable armor.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “A small success then.”

He nodded. “I’d say so. And in these times, we can use all the success stories we can get, I fear.”

Louise noticed Bensu’s expression darken and she thought she knew why. The recent war with the Klingons was still fresh on everybody’s mind and tensions ran high with several other powerful empires throughout the galaxy. “Let’s hope the worst is behind us.”

But Bensu didn’t seem comforted by the sentiment. He didn’t say anything but his facial expression made an obvious statement all by itself. As if he knew something she didn’t. As if he was absolutely convinced that in fact, the opposite was true. As if the truly dark times had not even yet begun. She sincerely hoped she was reading him wrong.

Bensu seemed to sense the discouraging messages he was sending and swiftly formed a reassuring smile. “As far as your mission is concerned, know that I’m most definitely rooting for you and a happy ending,” he said and then speedily departed to assist the clumsy crewman who had dropped his drink.

She looked after him with hundreds of questions remaining on her mind. But mostly she wondered what exactly a happy ending for her and Xylion would look like.