T'lyn sat down at the bar next to Tendi. "Lieutenant Junior Grade D'vana Tendi, who was that?"

"Oh, hi T'lyn! That was Ensign Guz! She's an engineer on delta shift. She was just telling me about the history of prewarp Ni'var space exploration. Oh! I think you'd like her!"

"Were they not a Mellanoid Slime Worm?" T'lyn said.

"Yeah! Well, she actually prefers to be called a Mellanoid Slime Girl, but that sure is the species she is," Tendi said, smiling.

"Intriguing. Mellanoid Slime Worms have no sex, so it is implausible that they would be a 'girl,'" T'lyn said.

"Hahaa, that's what they uh, said about meee," Tendi said, grimacing.

T'lyn's eyes widened, almost imperceptibly. "I apologize for the faux pas, lieutenant. I have not met many transsexuals in the Vulcan Research Fleet."

Tendi cringed to herself at the choice of words. "Heh. yeah. i mean. but maybe you just, ah, didn't realize?" she said, rubbing the back of her neck.

T'lyn's eyes widened enough to be noticeable. "An obvious possibility, one that I should have been aware of. Thank you lieutenant for widening the scope of my worldview."

Eaurp Guz peeked out from behind a waiter, too shy to approach. Oh well. Someone else has already stolen her seat. Guz started to turn away, defeated, but she ran backwards into a waiter, shouted, slipped out of her boots, and dropped her drinks. Tendi and T'lyn had turned around just in time to see the cataclysm. Guz was lying in a puddle of slime and drinks, and Tendi tried to keep herself from laughing. T'lyn wondered if the coloration on Guz's face was from the drinks or if mellanoids had some form of color-based emotional response.

Tendi, still giggling, stood up from the stool and helped pull Guz off the floor. "You--you alright, Guz?"

Guz stared down at the floor, hair dripping down. Tendi dragged her by the hand to the bar. "Guz! This is T'lyn. She's my study buddy! She's great!"

Guz bubbled slightly. "Um. Hello."

Tendi smiled. With any luck, two of her BEST FRIENDS would soon become BEST FRIENDS too, and they could all be BEST FRIENDS together!

"Ensign Guz. I am T'lyn." T'lyn's eyes narrowed slightly, cursing herself at yet another instance of social awkwardness, "As you. Know. As Lieutenant Tendi... Said."

Guz blinked. "*Lieutenant* Tendi?" Guz said, whipping her head to stare at Tendi's neck. "WOAH! You got a promotion!"

"Hence the pip--" T'lyn said.

"Aw what how did I not notice I'm so sorry Lieutenant," Guz said, sliding off the chair and standing at attention.

"At ease, ensign," Tendi said, giggling, "you don't have to call me that, you can just call me Tendi, haha!"

"Right. Of course. I'm an idiot," Guz said. "It's the--I just--I Don't sleep."

"Lieutenant Tendi told me you were explaining prewarp Vulcan spaceflight. Have you heard of the recent paper by Sulerok et al about the--"

"THE UNCOVERED LANDING SITE AT T'KHUT'S NORTHWESTERN-KAHTIL VOLCANIC PLAINS! YEAH! IT'S SO COOL! THEY PICKED IT UP FROM THE FLUORIDE CONTAMINATION IN THE LOCAL ASHES!"

"Wait wait," Tendi said, "Fluouride? Like *Hydrogen* Fluoride?"

"There is substantial evidence that early Vulcan astronautics involved heavy use of oxygen diflouride as an oxidizer, due to the increased specific impulse," T'lyn said, "however, the risk of environmental catastrophe is so high that it would be illogical for such propellants to be used in the Surak Epoch."

"Hydroflox has a specific impulse gain of approximately four percent, maybe even up to five percent with the right intermix ratio!"

"Hydroflox?" T'lyn said.

"Yeah yeah it's the cool way to say it. It saves time, it's like 'kerolox' or 'hydrolox'. Hydroflox," Guz said.

"I prefer to maintain linguistic precision when I speak. I am in no hurry."

Guz blushed, put her hands in her lap, and said, "yeah, no, that's cool too," she said. T'lyn mentally registered that Guz in fact *could* change the color of her face.

"So they used Hydroflox shuttles?" Tendi said.

"They apparently used Hydroflox EVERYTHING. And it was a spectacular wreck! Not as bad as the atomic era, though," Guz said.

"Radio-isotopes decay. Fluoride contamination had to be dealt with when Surak's followers inherited the ruins of the planet," T'lyn said.

Guz's smile softened. Guz wasn't sure what she said that made T'lyn dislike her, like so many vulcans always seemed to. Guz stayed silent for a few seconds, and T'lyn, sensing the conversation had come to a natural end, stayed silent as well.

The tension, such as it was, seemed to build, until Tendi couldn't take it anymore. "Soooo... are we all besties now?" She said, grimacing in her special little awkward faux-smile way.

Guz and T'lyn looked at each other. Guz averted her eyes quickly, and T'lyn kept staring for a few seconds. "How long have you been infatuated with Lieutenant Junior Grade Tendi?"

Guz pushed herself back from the bar, fell back onto the floor, and picked herself up. "I'm going to go to Deck 19 to recalibrate the engineering section stability augmentation system now."