<strong>Day 1 - 1830</strong><br/><div class="floatright">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/3/3f/Yul_brynner.jpg)</div>Character: Dr. "Tiger" (Ty) Nadami (Lt. Cmdr. Aono Tsayafa Nadami), CMO<br/>Location:  Officer's Mess<br/>With:    Captain O'Connor<br/>Doing:  Serving up a<em>makhto</em>stew<br/>Tagging: Capt. O'Connor<br/><br/>Wearing his off-duty clothing, the loose belted tunic and trousers that had been high fashion in Deovand City when he'd left it, Nadami calls out from the mess kitchen: "Be right with you, Captain! It's almost ready!"<br/><br/>He savours the smell. He's sure he has the kel spice just right, this time, and the replicated makhto-bird meat has just the right texture and consistency. The key is to keep the kel in balance with the amount of sulfur; either can overwhelm the dish completely.<em>Even in cooking,</em>he marvels:<em>the Vulcans were mastering delicate balances long before Surak's creed developed. It really is instructive.</em>Sitting to one side of the stove, he has replicated gourds of the exact kind that the pre-Surakian Vulcans were supposed to have used in scooping the fiery, savoury dish out of a shared pot. He can practically taste the mouth-watering stew already.<br/><br/>Bustling out from the kitchen for a moment, he smiles warmly at O'Connor. "Thank you for joining me, by the way," he adds. "You're in for a treat. You wouldn't know it today, but I've found in my research that ancient Vulcan had one of the richest cuisines in the galaxy... despite the harshness of their world. Incredible combinations of flavour, you'll see what I mean in a moment."<br/><br/>As he takes her in, he can feel the same disconcerting<em>awareness</em>of her that had thrown him in sickbay... but something clicks in his mind as he realizes suddenly where it's coming from.<em>Neyenue.</em>The name of his estranged wife is a whisper in his mind.<em>She's just the same height and build as Neyenue. No wonder she brings up certain... feelings.</em>To have been with a Deltan priestess of Neyenue's beauty, grace and subtlety... something like that leaves a mark on even the most sophisticated Deltan man. And he had been very innocent indeed when he'd fallen in love with his Priestess, who still lives in his mind in the pristine beauty of her flowering youth. The physical similarity is more striking without Kelly O'Connor's duty jacket -- aside from her colouring and of course her hair, she's close enough in body type to have been practically cloned from a transporter pattern of Neyenue.<br/><br/>Paradoxically, working this out makes him feel more at ease. Knowing just where the feelings are coming from will make understanding and guarding against them easier. And he'll be much better able to help her through any impact of the so-called Deltan Effect, too. Grinning warmly at his Captain, he suddenly finds himself much closer to feeling truly comfortable in her presence...<br/><br/>... and that's when an awful stench of sulfur suddenly boils out from the kitchen in a cloud of smoke. The smile abruptly vanishing as he realizes he's left the stew on too high, he blurts out: "Um... just give me a moment, I just have to... make a little adjustment." And then he's rushing frantically back into the kitchen, turning the heat panel under his stew down as he frantically searches the spice bottles on the counter.<em>Dammit... where's that kel spice?</em>