"Sit down" she said, and gestured to the chair across from her. "Tell me something I would not find in your personnel file."

“I’m glad you approve,” Avery said referring to the bottle of ale.

He sat there and thought for a few seconds. “Not in my file, huh? Here’s a couple things for you. Dogs and cars. I have an affinity for both. I love dogs-I’ve had several as pets when I was younger. And I enjoy driving and fixing 20th and 21st century cars. Automobiles. Holographic simulations, of course. I’m not sure where in the alpha quadrant I would be able to get my hands on a muscle car. Now, I gave you one, you tell me something about where you grew up on Romulus.”

T'Vara poured two measures of the ale into the glasses on the table with the unhurried precision she brought to most things and pushed one toward him before she answered.

"I did not grow up on Romulus" she said. "I grew up on Verath IV. A fringe colony that the Empire established and then largely forgot about. By the time I was born the support infrastructure had been reduced to quarterly supply runs and a garrison of six soldiers who were there because someone had decided the posting was an appropriate consequence for something they had done." She picked up her glass. "It was not a comfortable place to grow up but it was an honest one. You learned quickly what things were actually worth and what things only appeared to be worth."

She looked at him with the direct quality she brought to most assessments. "Dogs and cars" she said. "I am not familiar with either. We did not have access to Federation cultural references on Verath IV and my education after leaving the colony has been primarily medical." She paused. "Explain them to me. Start with whichever one you consider more important."

“I’m sorry, I did not realize that. Romulus’ loss is our gain I would say. You should be proud of what you accomplished,” Morgan said before taking a sip of the ale.

Avery swallowed and allowed the taste and aroma to permeate his palette and nostrils. “This is not the first time drinking this despite it being illegal in the Federation. It’s remarkably smooth and well balanced. I like it. Back to the topic at hand. Dogs are Earth mammals, genus and species canis familiaris. Many are domesticated and make terrific pets and companions. There are literally hundreds of breeds. Cars, also called automobiles, were a means of transportation on Earth. Consisted of an internal combustion engine and driven by a single operator with foot and hand controls. With the development and proliferation of starships and transporter technologies, they became obsolete. In the 20th to mid-22nd century, cars were the primary mode of transport. Collecting and maintaining them became popular hobbies.”

T'Vara picked up her glass and took a measured sip of the ale, holding it for a moment before swallowing. It was good. Better than she had expected and the Vethari mineral quality was identifiable in a way she had not anticipated. She set the glass down. "The Federation's ban on this is one of the more intellectually inconsistent positions I have encountered from an organization that claims to value cultural understanding. Banning Romulan ale for political reasons while presenting itself as culturally open suggests the appreciation has limits determined by convenience rather than principle."

She took another sip and looked at him. "The medical training was not a choice in any formal sense. The colony medic was the only person on Verath IV who could keep people alive when things went wrong and things went wrong regularly. I had no particular interest in medicine at thirteen. I had an interest in not watching people die from things that were fixable." She said it without self pity, just the clean delivery of a fact. "I did what the situation required."

"The cars interest me" she said. "A mechanical system operated entirely by one person with no automated assistance between the operator and the machine. The feedback would be direct and the consequences of error entirely your own. I understand the appeal of that." She picked up her glass. "I have never had a pet. On Verath IV we did not have the resources for animals that served no practical function and after I left I was never in one place long enough for it to be reasonable."

Avery felt his facial muscles pull his mouth into a grin, but didn’t want to give his feelings away just yet. He was intrigued by her interest in cars. “I just happen to have a Holodeck program I brought with me. We can go for a drive with the top down. Perhaps I can even teach you to drive.”

"A holodeck program" she said. "You brought a personal holodeck program aboard a privateer vessel in the Gamma Quadrant." She said it without judgment, just the clean observation of someone filing a piece of information that told her something specific about the person across from her. "That is either a very considered priority or a very instinctive one."

She picked up her glass. "I would like to learn to drive" she said, and the directness of it was entirely characteristic, no preamble and no qualification, just the statement of a thing she had decided she wanted. "I will tell you when I am ready. It will not be long." She looked at the viewport for a moment and then back at him. "The consequence of error being entirely your own is not something that frightens me. It is something I find clarifying."

She refilled both their glasses and set the bottle back on the table and looked at him with the direct quality she brought to most things. "We have been here long enough that food is overdue" she said. "What would you like to eat? I will defer to you on that since you offered to cook earlier and I redirected us here instead."