Title: Shaking It Off
Author: Penny A. Proctor
Contact: ejvoyager@columbus.rr.com
Part 1 of 1
Summery:  Sato reflects on her first mission aboard the Enterprise.

Author's Note:  Blame Djinn.  It was her idea: try to write a
reflection by one of the characters on the events of "Broken Bow."
This is short, but it's helping me get a feel for the new show. Only
time will tell if this is an accurate take on her character.


SHAKING IT OFF


From the personal journal of Ensign Hoshi Sato: 

No one else can feel the tremors from the engines.  Isn't that
strange?  We've been in and out of warp often enough now for me to be
certain; there is a definite shimmy above warp 3.5.  Apparently it's
normal. It's something I can get used to, eventually.  Probably.  I
mean, if it happens all the time it will start to feel routine and I
won't even notice it any more.

What really *fries* me, though, is that T'Pol assumed I was scared
when I pointed it out the first time.  Pointing things out is my job. 
I'm on this ship because of my ability to hear - and feel - nuances,
the small subtle things that others miss.  That's why I'm good with
languages.  The difference between an apico-deltal fricative and a
lamino-alveolar fricative can be the difference between welcome
compliment and deadly insult, and it's my job to point that out.  This
ship may be state of the art, but it's still metal and bolts and
unplanned shaking can be dangerous.  And when it's all that's between
me and the vacuum of space, well, I want to be certain everything is
running the way it's supposed to run.  That's not being afraid, it's
just being smart.

I admit, though, that I feel a little off-balance.  The translator
isn't working as well as I expected, and trying to interpret a
delirious Klingon while the Captain was demanding answers wasn't fun. 
Klingonese is sort of fun, though.  All those glottal stops and hard
consonants really put me in touch with my inner samurai.  It's
impossible to speak that language without feeling bigger, more
powerful.  I wish we could have stayed a little longer on QonoS so I
could pick up some more of it, but they made it pretty clear they
weren't interested in a chat.

So now we're out here, exploring.  Funny.  When I signed on for
Starfleet, I really didn't expect to be out here.  I thought it would
be a desk job in San Francisco, working on the translator program and
the linguistics data base, with the occasional field trip to Vulcan or
some other alien world with whom we've made peaceful contact.  Join
Starfleet and see the friendly, civilized galaxy.  It sounded just
adventurous enough to be cool and just safe enough to be comfortable.

Yet here I am, and it's not a friendly, civilized galaxy and it's not
safe or comfortable and I'm having the time of my life.  Not even that
snotty Vulcan can spoil it for me.  (I wonder if she speaks Navajo? 
Or Sanskrit?  It might be fun to drop a few lines in her direction,
nothing nasty, just enough to make her realize she doesn't know
everything.)  We're going to see things and hear things I can't even
begin to imagine.  With a few more languages in the database, who
knows, we might actually get that translator to work.

But no one else can feel the tremors.  I wonder why?