Tev stomped down the corridor and wondered if he was making a mistake. He’d thought long and hard about this decision. However, logic seemed to play a much lesser role in this situation than he found comfortable.

Instead, his feelings demanded the overture, regardless of what his rational mind tried to say. Hence he stomped down the corridor, disgusted with his inability to simply say no. The simple fact that he had begun arguing with himself appeared to be a good indicator that he needed some type of resolution. But could this be what he was looking for?

He had already tapped the chime for the cabin Bartholomew Faulwell shared with Stevens before he could back out of it. A moment later Bartholomew stood before him, surprise spreading his features into a ridiculous parody of human emotions.

“Tev? What brings you here?”

Tev stepped from one foot to the other. “Well, if you don’t want me here, I’ll be going.”

“No, Tev. Please. That’s not what I meant. You just—you surprised me. That’s all. Please, come in.” Bartholomew’s tone, from what little Tev had been able to determine about humans in his time among them, appeared to hold no hidden agenda, just pure sincerity. As Tev entered the room, the cryptographer happened to catch a glimpse of the small package the Tellarite carried.

“What’s that?”

“This?” Tev said, raising the small box up. Why had he wrapped it? It made no sense. It didn’t change the value of the gift in any way. Nevertheless, it had felt important to do so. Like so many subtle things he’d missed in his time so far aboard the da Vinci, he’d begun to realize that sometimes the little things were important too. Just as a point oh-oh-five fraction of variance in a warp field could have devastating results, so too could coworkers have difficulties if they were not calibrated appropriately.

And sometimes such calibrations required a brightly colored bow.

“Here,” he said, without more preamble.

Bartholomew responded with an easy smile as he tore into the box.

“It’s nothing. Really. But, you’ve been nice enough to share your candy with me. I felt it appropriate to share something with you. A present, if you will.”

The human laughed. Not the brash harshness of mockery, but the hearty, good-natured laughter shared by friends. “You really didn’t need to do this. We’re friends.”

Tev felt a small warmth spread within him and realized it came of this small step of acceptance. Eventually he’d understand how to take such steps with Sonya Gomez, and with others. In the meantime, little steps.

Bartholomew finished opening the box and pulled out the chip. “Um, I don’t mean to sound dense or anything, but what is this?”

“I know that you enjoy writing letters. I also happened to hear from Dr. Abramowitz that you’ve created a program that will allow you to generate a replication of your letter. Well, this program will allow you to dictate the letters like a log entry, and when they replicate they’ll do so in your own handwriting.” It had been such a little thing and yet he felt immense pride.

The cryptographer held it up and smiled that easy grin again, then chuckled. “Tev, I appreciate this. I really do. But, well, it kind of does away with the whole reason for writing a letter.”

Tev blinked in surprise. It had never occurred to him that the human might actually enjoy such a laborious process as writing on paper when there were so many other ways to communicate.

Bartholomew spoke again, as though the silence made him uncomfortable. “Tev, I really do appreciate this. I know what you meant and I accept it.”

Tev smiled back. “Thank you, Bartholomew.” He reached out in the human gesture of a handshake. As he departed the room, he felt optimistic. He’d not quite gotten it right, but he’d tried nonetheless, and his error ratio had only been off by a small margin.

If he kept trying, he’d nail it.