Upon his return to the station Tarik was rewarded for his efforts on the rescue team with duty as Officer of the Day. All of the trivial day-to-day business of running the station, thus, devolved to him. It wasn't something he normally enjoyed, but this time (perhaps because of the holiday season) it was substantially less annoying than usual.
The day was just winding up when one final person entered the duty office. It was an Engineering crewman.
"What can I help you with, yeoman--" Tarik asked, struggling to recall the name of someone he'd never met before.
"Kaplan, sir. Aaron Kaplan. I feel a bit awkward about this, but I've been asked by a number of other station crew members to bring this up."
"Go ahead, Kaplan, I'm listening," Tarik said, noting that the young man looked as though he were afraid of being eaten alive for what he was about to say.
"Well, it's about these holiday celebrations that are going on. I don't know how much you know about them, seeing as how you're not from Earth, but not all of us celebrate Christmas and some people are feeling, well..."
"Left out?" Tarik finished for him.
"Exactly."
"What do you propose to do about it?" Tarik asked.
"Me, sir?"
"One of the first principles of leadership is to seek opportunities to take initiative insofar as your position permits. If you feel that a particular cultural or religious persuasion is not being adequately represented here, then you are more than welcome to address that problem within the confines of the regulations."
Kaplan looked visibly relieved. "Thank you, sir! We don't require much; there's only about a hundred of us -- a small meeting hall for the next eight days would suffice."
"Eight days?"
"That's how long Hanukkah lasts, sir. We felt it especially appropriate to celebrate it this year, seeing as how we've driven off an invading army just as the ancient Israelites did, and we didn't have everything we needed but somehow we pulled through."
"Indeed," Tarik said, deep in thought as he handed Kaplan a PADD containing the order authorizing his group to use a conference room. "I was unaware that there were so many Jews on the station. Do you have a place of worship here?" Among other things, Tarik had ended up with the unenviable task of ensuring that the multitude of religions and philosophical schools represented on the station had equal access to facilities.
"No, sir. We sent for a rabbi but then travel to the Briar Patch was shut down. That was just before the Mullurans tried to attack the station. No rabbi, no synagogue."
"Find yourself another rabbi, and I'll see to it that space is allotted for this -- synagogue?" Tarik asked, a little uncertain of the term. Kaplan nodded.
"Thank you, sir! You are more than welcome to attend our festivities! They'll be at 2000 hours at -- oh! I guess you know that already!" Kaplan said as he left the office.
Tarik, out of curiosity, pulled up the files on the Jewish religion. He smiled as he read the history behind the Festival of Lights. Yes, Kaplan's right. That is rather appropriate for our situation. But someone's going to have to check those dreidls to make sure they aren't rigged. Can't have crooked gambling on the station, after all! he thought has he calibrated his tricorder for the task to which he'd decided to appoint himself. Besides, those latkes sound good!
As he closed up the duty office, Tarik noticed a number of other celebrations being planned. A banner on the Promenade advertised a Bajoran festival planned in two weeks' time. He overheard a number of the darker-skinned humans discussing a celebration called Kwanzaa. The Vulcan kolinahr school was even getting into the act, collecting charitable donations in the name of Surak -- charity, of course, being an eminently logical thing to do. Everyone's getting along and having a good time. As long as we're operating on that basis, everything's fine.
Everything was fine, that is, until someone started to make some noise...
"You people are corrupting us!" a human yelled at a group of G'kar merchants who were discussing plans for their own Sun Festival. "The Federation was pure and strong before we started letting mongrel races like yours in! We could have done quite well without you!"
Ancestors preserve me! Essentialists! Tarik groaned. He was about to step in when someone else did...
The Essentialist loudmouth collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Tarik immediately looked around for a weapon, but found none. Instead...
"Tiyanna -- did you do this?" he asked sternly.
Tiyanna looked down at the deck, downcast. "Yes... I'm sorry... but he was being mean!"
"Honey, if you see someone being mean like that again, tell your mom or me, or Uncle Paul. Don't do this again; you'll hurt someone!"
"But he was being loud and nasty!"
"Honey, I agree. He was not a nice man. But that's for the grown-ups to deal with. Besides, even people who are loud and nasty still have a right to talk," Tarik said as the Essentialist got up off the ground, shaking himself.
"You finished yet?" Tarik asked. "Because I don't think your group has a permit to proselytize. And no group on the station is authorized for harassment."
The man glared at Tarik and Tiyanna, then left, his tail decidedly between his legs.
"Are you mad at me?" Tiyanna asked innocently.
"Not exactly. You just need to learn better judgment. We'll work on that. But don't use your powers again unless your mother's around. It's too easy to get out of control."
"Okay. It won't happen again...," she said.
"Come on. Let's go home. We're going to have fun tonight!" Tarik said excitedly. Tiyanna immediately smiled and hugged him.
Off in a corner, Felix smiled.