The Extension of Logic

Posted on 08 May 2026 @ 4:23pm by Commander Suzanna Batenburg & Lieutenant Commander Riah Amberlyn XMD

2,160 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: The Starfall Carnival
Location: Starbase 369 :: The Vulcan Cafe'

// The Vulcan Cafe' :: Starbase 369 //

The Vulcan Cafe' was a smallish eatery on a corridor just off the outer edge of the Station. The back wall of the venue was an open viewport into space. There were ships and worker-bee pods visible, shuttling everyone from VIPs to repair crews around the exterior of the massive space station. Riah loved Plomeek soup, a Vulcan speciality that too many non-Vulcan cafe's or restaurants tried to improve upon with various modifications with spices and pretty additions of clusters of leaves to add some supposedly tasty speciality note to the flavor. She hoped this small, out of the way, hole-in-the-wall place would stick faithfully to the original recipe.

She greeted the waitstaff with her fairly limited Vulcan and was shown to a table near the viewport. There were 9 other patrons in the place; 7 of which were Vulcan. That was promising. It was quiet with a pleasant ambient Vulcan musical track playing softly. Thankfully, there was no loud chatter or the clatter of dishes to make it hard to think, much less talk to a dining partner.

Riah had invited LT Steve Remington to join her, but he had declined, as he had duty in the Science Labs for the current shift. They had made arrangements to meet for dinner somewhere else after his shift. So she had decided that a lighter mid-day meal was in order. Checking the Station's directory, she'd found this little cafe'.

Suzanna walked via the outer edge of the promenade, where fewer people were. Thankfully, it was relatively quiet, compared to when the carnival was very active. Even when she had lived her on the Starbase, while working for Adm Blokpoel, she had not been out and about much. In fact, her father had stated that since the Erasmus incident she had become people adverse. And perhaps he was right, since then, she had needed time to recover, mentally, strengthen her control. And she had done so by soley focussing on her Vulcan half, and its mental control. Her life had been her work in Science, and when she was not working, she was reading up in Science journals, meditating or sleeping. With the odd fitness and strength training thrown in.

Yet since she had taken the job as XO on the Arawyn, she had realised, she had to be more social. The job required it from her, yet she was unsure how to go about implementing it without losing the integrity of her mental control. As a first task, she had set herself was to have lunch on the station, instead of on the ship. There was this authentic Vulcan little restaurant, and that was a safe space to start. She turned the corner and there it was. Suzanna walked in, nodded in greeting and looked around.

As if on cue, Riah looked up as the Commander entered the establishment. Their eyes met and Riah smiled warmly and motioned to the chair at her table.

"Doctor," Suzanna said in greeting after having seen her and her gesture to join her. "Thank you," she sat down and looked out the viewport. "It is always busy here, a fascinating sight." Turning back to Amberlyn, "did you order yet, Doctor?"

"No, I just got here myself," replied Riah. "Have you been here before then?"

"Yes, I have," Suzanna replied. "It is the most authentic Vulcan food, and freshly cooked, that I have found on any Starbase."

"This is my first time. I'm hoping for unadulterated Plomeek soup and fresh croutons. I don't know what they are called in Vulcan, but those crisp little bites of bread. I know Vulcan's don't eat with their fingers, but I swear I could stuff those little bites into my mouth by the handful," she laughed.

Suzanna's features softened. "They do taste well. Kap-tor, they are called." The waiter came over, and Suzanna ordered, "A glass of savas-masu t'kaasa, and a bowl of fori shur for me."

"Your usual, Commander. We received a fresh shipment of Kaasa only yesterday." The waiter replied and turned to Amberlyn.

"A cuppa hot tea, a bowl of Plomeek soup and plenty of Kap-tor, please," Riah said smoothly.

"As you wish," replied waiter. "Anything else?" Assured by both Commanders, the waiter left the table for the kitchen.

"I'm glad we met. I've been thinking for some time that I should suggest we meet outside of the official auspices of business. I understand you were on Erasmus. My aunt, my father's youngest sister, who is also named Riah Amberlyn, she was in the Science Department, Zoology to be specific. Do you remember her?"

"You are most kind," Suzanna inclined her head at the first statement, as the doctor had continued, her expression froze, only visible to a trained observer, though. She had buried most of the Erasmus info deep inside, as a result Suzanna hadn't recognised the name before. It took a moment for her to pull the information and she looked at Amberlyn, "I do, She was a zoologist in the science department. And she survived the disaster at Lemina IV."

"She did," affirmed Riah. "She's currently stationed on Colony Camar on Revis 3 of the Camar System. She's running an extensive animal rehab operation there after a severe planet-wide drought devastated the natural populations of people and animals. She's been there for the past 7 years. There is some limited terraforming to regrow the forested areas, where many of the animals lived. I expect she will retire from there when the time comes. I think Lemina IV really shook her up. She and I chat occasionally. She never really talked about Lemina IV, but she left starship life immediately, in favor of Colony living, and preserving life, rebuilding life, became her passion. It still is."

"To include me," Suzanna added, her tone quieter. "It was a life-altering event for all involved. I also refrained from serving aboard starships until recently." She had not disclosed this in over a decade. The arrival of the waiter with their food and drinks interrupted any further elaboration.

The scent of the meal was lovely, not harsh or overpowering. "Thank you," said Riah, "Chaya t'not," Suzanna answered in Vulcan simultaneously. The server nodded politely and waited. Riah realized he was waiting for them to sample the food to see if it met their expectations and standards. She took a sip of the Plomeek soup and her heart swooned at the perfection of it. "Mmmmmm. Excellent. Thank you so much. Chaya t'not," she added as she picked up one of the bite of Kap-tor with her spoon. It was also perfect, toasted crunchy on the outside, slightly chewy but tender. "These are delightful."

Suzanna's expression softened slightly as she observed Amberlyn's clear appreciation of the plomeek soup. She drew in a measured breath over her fori shur, her tone quieter. "It carries the scent of home."

Satisfied that his guests were pleased, the waiter nodded with a softly spoken thank you and left them to the meal.

As that exchange was happening, Riah's intuition was actively replaying the short discussion about Lemina IV. She realized somehow this was a hard topic for the Commander and that she had likely been privy to a very private peek into the Executive Officer's personal life. She wanted to honor that in some way, recognize and express her gratitude, but was cautious about appearing too eager to dig deeper. Rather than speak now, she would wait for the balance of the conversation and meal to unfold.

Suzy took a measured sip of her juice, then tasted the soup. The flavour matched the aroma. It was, as she remembered, close to her mother's. "Did you attend the station's carnival?" Suzanna asked, her tone composed with a trace of warmth.

"Interesting. Yes, I did. Lt Remington and I made a sojourn late at night station time, after midnight. It was interesting. I stopped to get my Tarot cards read at the Fortune Teller. Steve, Lt Remington, also checked on his future with a view into the crystal ball. Silly and just for fun, but you know, my mother swore by The Cards, and she was a physician by training, though she only practiced for a little while before turning to art as her career. I could read cards before I was 10 years old," chuckled Riah. "This was a bit of an interesting Fortune Teller, though. She was surprised to have someone challenge her. She was using a mild hallucinogen smoke to relax her customers and then taking advantage of those she could, and sending the others away with a psychedelic experience. Whether that actually revealed anything close to their future is debatable. It was definitely a mind-game and just legal enough to pass muster, but not moral or ethical at all."

Suzanna raised an eyebrow at Amberlyn’s explanation. “Fascinating,” she remarked before taking another spoonful of soup. “What logic underpins the Tarot cards?” she asked with genuine curiosity.

“The idea is not to foretell the future,” Riah said. "That attracts visitors to Carnivals. The cards actually have more in common with a Rorschach Test, a window into the unconscious or if one is interested in oneself, into your own patterns of thinking, acting and reacting. The cards are centuries old, dating back to the 1400s on Earth. It started as an Italian parlor game.

"The cards have shifted in meaning some since then, particularly with the evolution of psychology. But the system is the same. The cards represent the life journey of The Fool, who is the user of the cards, who journeys through life with various challenges and setbacks and spring forwards. As you select cards, they are a window into how you deal with the depicted real-life experiences of challenges, setbacks, etc.

"It’s a complicated system, which is how I could tell this woman was just making up her system as she went along, depending upon what her client said or didn’t say. I called her on it. She was contradicting herself. I was nice, not hostile, but maybe she will think before she steps too far down the path toward deception, characterized by the card known as the Seven of Swords, which she thought she was pulling for me, but unknowingly it was about her."

Suzanna was familiar with the Rorschach Test, a psychological assessment developed on Earth by Hermann Rorschach in 1921. The method employed a series of standardized ambiguous inkblots to assess personality, emotional processing, and patterns of thought. “Fascinating,” she remarked, regarding Amberlyn with measured interest. “You appear highly versed in the practice of Tarot card reading.”

Riah nodded and took another spoon of soup, accompanied by a toasty crouton. “I’ve learned from my mother, who was a master at it. She’s a much better master with the Cards than being a master at mothering. But she’s a little different. I could read cards as well as Ma'dam Gaila before I was ten and if I had been as inept at it as Ma'dam, I think she’d have sold me to the Circus. I still have my first set of Cards, almost as worn as Ma'dam’s. If you follow the system, they are surprisingly logical, mathematical almost. And oddly, quite accurate in their results, because they reflect the inner workings of the mind choosing the Cards."

“I find the subject… intriguing,” Suzanna admitted. “Perhaps, at some point, you would be willing to conduct a reading for me.” She knew she would need to study the practice further. Her human side regarded it with open curiosity, while her Vulcan discipline remained more reserved. The suggestion of logic and mathematical structure behind it had, at minimum, rendered it more acceptable. “I believe I will avoid Ma’dam Gaila, however,” she added. A faint note of amusement entered her voice,

Riah chuffed a laugh. “Reading the Cards for a half-Vulcan Executive Officer of my ship? That sounds … interesting. And I would definitely suggest avoiding Ma’dam Gaila. My intuition says something dark hides in her tent with her. I felt distinctly relieved when I left that place. I don’t have anything I can really lodge a complaint about, but there’s something about her, something seriously spooky, not just the whole I can tell the future spooky.”

Suzanna raised another eyebrow at the remark. There appeared to be something distinctly unsettling surrounding Ma’dam Gaila’s carnival stand. The expression was unmistakably Human. Quietly, she categorized the location as one best avoided.
“Thank you,” Suzanna said, her tone warm by Vulcan standards. “The discussion has been both enlightening and enjoyable.”
She had finished her soup set down her spoon with deliberate care. “I will need to return to the ship shortly. Duty responsibilities await.”

~~~
Cmdr Suzanna Batenburg
Executive Officer USS Arawyn
Everything fits, otherwise we'll make it fit.
&
LtCmdr Riah Amberlyn, XMD
Chief Medical Officer
USS Arawyn

 

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