We Meet Again (Part 2)

Posted on Sat Aug 22, 2026 @ 11:32pm by Lieutenant T'Lul & Lieutenant JG Anson Lee
Edited on on Sun Aug 23, 2026 @ 6:21am

1,837 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Jubilee
Location: Chief Counselor's Office

[LAST TIME ON WE MEET AGAIN]

“Well, at least you admit you’re an ass.” Anson picked at some dirt under his fingernails. They were on a space station, and still he ended up with dirt under his nails.

T'Lul raised an eyebrow. She did no such thing. This ensign certainly liked to view the world with his own set of rose-colored glasses. "So?" the Vulcan encouraged.

“Hmmm?” Anson gave her a bland look. Boring. The goal was boring, he reminded himself. He’d failed so far, but he could always try again. After several seconds of her expectant look, he added, “So… What?”

"So would you like to try a new way of communicating? I would like to understand you better."

[AND NOW FOR THE CONCLUSION]

The counselor apparently didn’t listen to herself, either Anson thought. It was always he was “illogical.” He wasn’t understandable. He was the problem. Do it differently. Explain yourself. Explain, explain, explain. Explain what? When he pointed out what he’d just said, she glossed over it, convinced she knew exactly what was going on, while getting half the details wrong, and assuming his memory was the issue. She probably thought serving crappy tea, chamomile instead of chrysanthemum, was an example of how considerate and flexible she was being, instead of an example about making assumptions.

Anson forced himself to take a deep, slow breath and continued to study his nails. He tried to keep them neatly trimmed. Once, back at the Academy, he’d badly scratched his partner with the ragged edge of one of his nails during a hand-to-hand exercise. Since then, he’d done his best to avoid anything like that. They were due for a trim.

The counselor watched as Anson started to prevaricate and procrastinate, giving his answer again. She prompted him again, "Will you give it a try, Anson?"

He fought the way his jaw wanted to clench. "I'm good."

"So, is that a no, then?" T'Lul asked, her voice laced with a practiced tone of disappointment.

Anson's eyebrows climbed his forehead, despite his efforts to keep his face neutral. "I have to explain that to you, too?"

"It was unclear, so yes," T'Lul answered, her eyes looking rather innocent.

"What part didn't you understand?" he asked, his tone almost sickly sweet.

"Your response to my question, 'Will you give it a try?'"

"Maybe you need to try a dictionary." This whole thing was getting ridiculous.

"And once again, you refuse to answer a question directly. Why?" T'Lul inquired.

"Seems fair when you didn't exactly answer mine."

"What question was that?" the Vulcan asked, raising an eyebrow.

Anson rolled his eyes. "Now you're just being purposely dense and wasting my time."

"An accusation without basis," T'Lul answered. "I cannot understand why we cannot agree on a method of communication so that we could better understand one another. Nor do I understand why you avoid answering questions. Quite illogical."

"Right. Because if you don't understand, the issue must be with me." He'd answered her questions. Well, most of them. I don't want to answer was its own sort of answer.

T'Lul did not want to tell Anson that the onus upon someone trying to communicate was on them to make the listener understand. Anson had no interest in listening, just ranting. "I do not understand where you derive that inference. I said nothing of the sort."

It was tempting to get up and bang his head against the wall. “I answer your questions, and you tell me I haven’t. You demand explanations with no indication of what needs to be explained. What the hell do you want from me?”

"And therein lies the issue, Anson," T'Lul replied calmly. "We have a failure to communicate. This is why I keep asking if you would be willing to try another method of communication so that we can better understand each other. It is a yes or no question but to date, you have never given me a yes or a no."

“I answered your questions. It’s not my fault you don’t listen except for what you want to hear. Seems like it’s an issue for you to solve, not me.”

T'Lul shook her head. "I see. It appears that you merely wish to continue to blame me for not understanding you. Communication is a two-way street, Anson. We both are hearing things differently and believe we are speaking plainly. That, however, is obviously incorrect, because if we were, this discussion would not occur. I wish to bridge the gap. You again have refused to answer a simple 'yes' or 'no' question. Would you be willing to try another method of communication so we can better understand each other?"

He gave her an unimpressed look. "Are there really people stupid enough to agree to that? To giving you wide open authority to do whatever you want in the name of 'communication'?"

"Exactly what do you believe is my ulterior motive here, Mr. Lee?" T'Lul inquired. "I have no insidious motives. I merely wish to communicate effectively to eradicate any misunderstandings." There is a level of paranoia here that may be concerning. I may have to explore this more and potentially inform the Captain.

"Great. Then you'll have no problem telling me what you want to try. And then I can tell you yes or no."

The Vulcan counselor, were she human, would have rolled her eyes. Control issues, clearly. "It is called mirroring. For example, if I were to utter a sentence, you would repeat back what you thought you heard from me. I would verify whether you heard me correctly and if not would try again. Once there is understanding on the mirrored statement, you could then respond and I would mirror your response. Are you willing to try that?"

"Did explaining yourself hurt?" Anson asked. "But, fine, whatever."

He then added, speaking slowly, "That was a yes."

T'Lul ignored the insult. Engaging it would not be productive. "Thank you for your willingness to communicate in this manner until we can better understand each other. I am first interested in understanding why you did not follow up with me after our meeting regarding the time displacement issues and Marnie. Would you please explain that?"

"Am I supposed to answer the question or repeat it back to you?" Because if he got it wrong, the control freak of a counselor would find a way to blame him. Again.

"Please restate what you believe that I said and then if I confirm that you have heard what I said, then I will let you know and you can answer the question. I will then restate your answer until we both have the same understanding and then we will continue to repeat the process until we are done with our conversation."

"Fine. You want to know why, when you said you'd follow up with me, I didn't follow up with you instead."

T'Lul was not completely certain what that was supposed to mean and already Anson did not follow the instructions of mirroring. "I do not believe that you put into your own words what I said. However, I believe that I understand your answer to be that you believe I did not follow up and so you did not follow up with me. Is that correct?"

"No. Why would I follow up with you, when you said you'd follow up with me? That's redundant."

"Why would you follow up with me when I said that I would follow up with you?" T'Lul mirrored. "I did follow up with you. We met in the Arboretum. And when I did, you became rather irate. I did what I said I would do."

"You skipped over the part where you wouldn't leave me alone at the Marine Ball." A confused look crossed his face. "Aren't Vulcans supposed to have a good memory?"

T'Lul blinked once and tilted her head. "You waved to me at the Marine Ball, which I took as an invitation to come and speak with you. I then inquired about your conundrum about your girlfriend and you told me that you had not solved it. I offered to help by accommodating communication, which apparently flustered you. Then you brought up someone named Johnson and complained more about Vulcans and then insulted me, as you did here, again with your question. Perhaps you feel free to continue the insults as I am Vulcan and cannot be upset by such words." T'Lul's eyes widened as if she had an epiphany. "So, you DO feel comfortable with me," she concluded.

Anson blinked. Blinked again. "What? No. A room full of people and you thought I was waving at you? I do know multiple people on this station. And the whole ex-girlfriend problem has been solved by what I wanted to do, which is nothing."

"You looked in my direction and waved," T'Lul answered. "You did not indicate that you had not," she replied simply. "So, you broke up with Marnie. Were you able to determine if you had done it before you left the station in this timeline?"

"Again. Room full of people. Many of whom were standing near you." He rolled his eyes. "And, yes, we were broken up before I left for DS5."

"I see," T'Lul responded thoughtfully. "Are you saying that you were embarrassed?"

"Only second-hand for the way you're now just taking guesses."

"What do you mean, 'second hand' and 'taking guesses'?" T'Lul asked tilting her head to her left.

He noticed she'd already abandoned her attempts as mirroring and 'another method of communication' after being so pushy about trying it. "What do you think I meant?"

"I do not know what you meant, hence the questions."

"It means I'm embarrassed for you, because you can't even stick to your 'other way of communicating' for five minutes." How had she managed to graduate the Academy, when she was so bad at this?

"You abandoned it prior to my doing so and since it appeared that we were communicating better, I saw no need to continue utilizing it. However, it appears that I miscalculated. It also appears that when you get frustrated, your defense is attacking others. Curious."

"This, again," Anson mumbled. He stood up, brushing his hands along the sides of his pants. "This is a waste of my time. I have better things to do than indulge your... whatever this is."

"And then the predictable deflection when you have something undesirable pointed out about yourself," T'Lul replied sagely. "Now I understand your illogic. You would rather be miserable and blame than take any affirmative action to improve yourself." She nodded, having reached her conclusion. "You are welcome to waste your time elsewhere. Should you desire assistance, I will be available."

Anson shook his head. Vulcans were arrogant, but T'Lul took it to another level. "Yeah, whatever."

Lt. Jg. Anson Lee
Asst. Chief of Security
DS5


Lieutenant T'Lul
Chief Counselor
Deep Space 5

 

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