Chapter I The Academy
Uhura
Uhura walked briskly along the dark corridors of the huge Starfleet Academy compound. All the halls and corridors were deserted. No wonder, it was way past midnight and soon dawn would be breaking. She had spent another sleepless night in the long range sensor lab trying to intercept alien messages. It was not a duty, not an assignment. She volunteered because the task held fascination for her. It had been three nights in a row, a steady searching through the communication channels throughout this side of the galaxy - listening to snippets of conversations in many languages.
She's good at that. Her career path was towards communication officer, her subject xenolinguistics and she excelled at it, speaking many of the languages and dialects spoken by the members of the Federation. She felt a deep satisfaction whenever she's successfully intercepted messages and translated them. It could be useful intelligence for Starfleet, but that wasn't her primary motivation. Her main motivation was her passion for alien languages, her need to keep honing her skills. And of course, also her desire to serve in the new Starfleet flagship, USS Enterprise, due to have her maiden journey next year when she graduated. That ship would only accept the best. That's why she's been at it many a night. She knew she wasn't doing her body any favours by these long nights. Already she could feel cold creeping in. Before opening the door to her room she made a mental note to visit the clinic tomorrow for some vitamins to fortify her immune system.
She opened the door quietly so as not to wake up Gaila, her Orion roommate, but it turned out the stealth wasn't needed at all. Gaila wasn't there. She's probably out in a boy's room somewhere. Gaila was very promiscuous. She rarely spent a night on her own – usually she either spent it out at the room of the guy she happened to be seeing that week or she'd bring a boy (or boys) here, which Uhura hated. She'd been begging Gaila to stop bringing her boyfriends here. To Uhura, the room was supposed to be a sanctuary, a safe and quiet place where they could retire from the world. But with Gaila, bedrooms simply functioned as places to have sex. It's strange, because Gaila was a highly intelligent person - her career path was towards computer technician, she worked at one of the computer labs and Uhura understood she's quite good at what she did, not at all the empty headed party girl she was often thought of. Uhura felt it a waste of time to try and understand Gaila. Luckily Gaila respected her enough that she would only bring a guy here when she knew Uhura wouldn't be around. Which was still annoying, but something she had had to get used to, living with Gaila.
With a thankful thought that at least that night she could have the room all to herself, Uhura tossed her clothes carelessly on the floor and threw herself on the bed and immediately fell into a deep, dreamless slumber.
It seemed that she only had a few minutes of sleep when Gaila's cheerful good morning woke her up.
"Oh goodness, Gaila. Stop the racket. Keep your voice down! What time is it anyway?" she asked.
"It's already 8 in the morning, sleepyhead. Don't you have a class this morning with Mr Ice, that pointy eared favourite instructor of yours?" Gaila responded.
"Oh shit! I'm late!" Uhura said while jumping out of bed to the bathroom, swearing at herself for forgetting to set the alarm.
Half an hour later, out of breath and sweating, she crept into the back of the hall of Mr Spock's class, which is full of students. The guy whom Gaila called Mr Ice is a Vulcan. Or to be precise, half Vulcan half human. But it seemed that he inherited more Vulcan traits than human traits, not only his looks but his manner - he didn't smile, didn't understand or know how to joke, always serious, always kept his distance from everybody. But he's brilliant. Super brilliant, in fact. His brain worked almost as fast as a computer, it's encyclopaedic and it's always logical. Uhura heard that his intelligence is way above average, even among Vulcans. Some cadets called him Mr Robot because of his brain power, his demeanour and his cold and impassive face. But despite all the nicknames, he remained one of the most popular instructors. Somehow his Vulcan-ness drew the student's curiosity; there were very few Vulcans at the Starfleet Academy. In fact Spock was the first. Why a brilliant young Vulcan would choose to study at the Starfleet Academy instead of at the prestigious Vulcan Science Academy had baffled a lot of people. But Spock was an intensely private person. He would never discuss his history with anyone, so the students had to be satisfied with the gossip and speculations.
Uhura sat down next to a few girls a year her senior. They were all craning their necks, attention rapt at what Spock was saying. It had baffled the whole Starfleet Academy teaching staff how popular this young Vulcan was as an instructor. Perhaps he mesmerised them by the way he talked - precise grammar, perfect diction, dispassionate and clipped tone. One thing is sure, the students respected and trusted him because he's always fair and just, he didn't get angry or raise his voice. He barely left the Academy himself, only graduating two years ago and was still pursuing the post-graduate degree. But when he took over Professor Skinner's class last term when Skinner had to take time to rest due to a mild heart attack, suddenly the usually scary Advanced Computer Programming subject became less daunting. Spock had a knack for explaining the most difficult subject simply and succinctly. Somehow his brilliant brain could unravel the most complicated mathematical equations or computer codes and lay it down in simple terms for mortal beings like most of the Starfleet Academy cadets. He's so good they gave him 3 other subjects to teach.
Spock was explaining the wrong answers students made in the last exam, but his eyes turned briefly at Uhura when she came in. Which made her blood flow a bit quicker. She had a thing for intelligent men. If Gaila liked eye candy, flamboyant and brash guys, like their classmate Jim Kirk for example, Uhura preferred quiet, clever, brainy guys. Mr Spock definitely filled that criteria. Not that he wasn't attractive. Despite his pointy, Vulcan ears and strange hair style, he could be very attractive, Uhura thought as she looked on appreciatively at the instructor. He's lean and tall, back ramrod straight. And he's very strong too. She'd seen him on a hand-to-hand combat - an official competition, part of the curriculum - against one of the biggest brutes in his class. Even though Spock seemed small compared to the opponent, he seemed to win effortlessly. The competition was a bit unfair, really. Everyone knew Vulcans are a lot stronger physically than humans; why matched him against a human? They should have asked a Klingon to fight Spock. And how would it feel to be held by a pair of strong arms like his…..
Uhura shook her head to shoo away the images. Then she heard Spock's question.
"Something you disagree with, Cadet Uhura? You were shaking your head."
Uhura flustered, "Oh I'm sorry Commander. It was nothing. I was not properly concentrating. My apology."
Spock shot her a sharp and penetrating look and Uhura looked down to avert her eyes. Ugh that was embarrassing, Uhura thought. Better focus her thoughts on the subject on hand and concentrate. With that she delved into the lines after lines of computer programmes appearing in her computer screen.
At lunch time Uhura sat alone on a table near the window. She wasn't in the mood to sit with her classmates. Her thought wasn't at her food as she absentmindedly chewed and swallowed her lunch. It was elsewhere, thinking about the frequencies she needed to target tonight.
"Hi beautiful. Let me guess what you're thinking of. MMhhh…. me?" Suddenly the voice of the incorrigible James Kirk jarred her thoughts.
"Why don't you stop it, Kirk, you know I'm not interested. Go and flirt with Gaila and her friends." She answered coldly, but with a smile. Kirk likes women and he'd flirt with anything in skirt. He and Gaila would be perfect match for each other.
"Ah Uhura. You know me. Before I get to know your first name I will not stop." Kirk had this obsession about getting to know her first name. Uhura had never told anyone in the academy her first name - everyone called her by her last name, Uhura. Where she came from, first names were only used between people who are very very close. Or family. But she hadn't had anyone calling her by her first name for many, many years. "There you go again, dreaming, Uhura. You need someone like me to sit next to you and talk to you, you're too attractive to sit alone at lunch time."
Jim Kirk was a star student in his own way. He was clever and charismatic, but he had a tendency to avoid work. Somehow though, he always managed to pass all the tests. She wondered whether all of it was achieved honestly. He probably cheated, or helped by the many members of his 'gang'. Kirk was always very popular, both among girls and boys. The girls vied for his attention and the boys accepted him as their leader. A natural leader, that's what Kirk was. Flamboyant, confident, with an ego the size of a giant planet, brash, always taking risks - an adrenaline junkie, Uhura mused, but possessing a strange instinct to always make the right decision, and exceptionally good at thinking on his feet, very creative. He was brilliant in his own way. Or maybe he's just exceptionally lucky. But he's loyal and kind too, when he's not being a totally jerk by flirting right and left.
Kirk had been hitting on her since day one. In fact, since they first met at that pub in Iowa, where he, a farm boy, not yet a Starfleet cadet, was knocked to a pulp by Uhura classmates for flirting with her. They were startled to find out that he enlisted the day after, and even more so when they found out he was the son of George Kirk, the famous Captain of USS Kelvin who died saving the lives of many of his crew. It was probably hard to always be compared against such a heroic dad. Probably that's why Kirk was the way he was. Trying to prove himself and get out of the dad's shadow. Anyway, whatever Jim Kirk was, Uhura wasn't interested. Kirk was definitely not her type.
She finished her lunch in a hurry, paying no attention to Kirk's chattering next to her. Once done she just stood up, cleared her tray and went out, ignoring Kirk's protestations.
She stopped by at the clinic and asked from Dr McCoy some immune system boost. Leonard McCoy, the ever careful and kind doctor couldn't be more different than Jim Kirk. Yet they are best buddies. Unlike Kirk, McCoy was actually quite likeable. He always looked grim and serious - there was an almost permanent scowl in his face - but he had a huge stockpile of witty, very funny, often sarcastic, metaphors and quotes that would make her laugh, but today he was truly serious.
"You know, no matter how much fortifications I give you, if you don't sleep enough, you will fall sick, Uhura. You are no Vulcan. Mere mortals like us do need sleep." He said.
Uhura gave him an affectionate peck on the cheek, and he rolled his eyes. With a smile and a thank you Uhura left him. She had one more class today, her favourite, Advanced Phonology. Not only it was her favourite because it was her core skill, but it was her favourite because it was taught also by none other than Commander Spock.
Spock
Spock walked slowly to the second class he taught today, pondering on what they were going to discuss. He liked teaching Advanced Phonology. The class was much smaller than the other one, only 5 students. All very passionate about the subject and all worked hard to achieve proper understanding, not only good marks. It was truly a joy teaching this class. Joy, he mused. That's an emotion. Something that he shouldn't indulge in. As half human he's bound to be awashed in emotions like the humans around him. But as a Vulcan, he had to be disciplined enough to bury the emotions, to control them.
Whatever control he needed to assert over his emotions, he could not but admit that he looked forward more to this class than the other. In the Advanced Computer Programming class there were so many students, with different rate of intelligence. Some were born programmers who could grasp the concepts quickly. Some others needed close hand-holding all the way. He was always very conscientious though, resolving to make sure everyone in the class managed to follow and learn the modules properly. Still it took a lot of effort to provide guidance for everyone. Which made it easy to like the Advanced Phonology class better. The students were all excellent and bright and willing to work hard. They were more discussion colleagues than his students. Especially one. Cadet Uhura was an exceptionally bright xenolinguist. Her language skill surpassed his and it was always enjoyable to hold a discussion or debate with her.
Enjoyable, he mused, another emotion. But surely he could indulge in a benign emotion like this? Besides, it's academic discussion they were doing. It's logical to enjoy a profession one chose, he thought as he turned into the classroom and faced his students.