Summary: When a new mission comes from Starfleet, the crew of the Enterprise have to rely on the expertise of young Ensign who has been in suspended animation for the last couple of hundred years, though problems may arise with her lack of hearing


Chapter 1: Haven't you heard?

My intercom buzzed and my hand instinctively reached for the button before my mind even processed that someone was calling me. I lifted my eyes from the paper work from a recent experiment I'd been working on, but unfortunately achieving no desirable results, to meet the face of my supervisor. Lieutenant Arthur Walters.
His warm smile made me smile in return.
'Hello Walters.'
'Hi there Kai. I wanted to inform you that your expertise is required for the next mission. You're to report to the bridge in 10 minutes, we will then be informed of the mission at hand in debriefing room 4 at a later time, but first you are to meet with the Captain and the away team. See you soon. Walters out.'
Even if I had time to reply, I could not have. I sat at my desk, mouth gapping open resembling a fish, slowly putting together what had just been said. I, Kai Ceril, was required for the next mission? Personally? For my expertise. Wow. At least it's not a mistake, Arthur is not the kind of man to make mistakes, though it's always possible. No, no, he said so himself, he used my name. Oh wow, I really got to keep it together, after all, I'm expected on the bridge in less than 10 minutes and I'm expected to perform my duties as per usual, no matter how awestruck I am.

I made my way through the Enterprises corridors, smiling shyly and nodding at fellow crew members, but generally keeping my head down and eyes on the floor, I mean I am still new to this. The ride in the turbolift hardly gives me enough time to collect myself and let wrap my head around the situation.
'Keep it together Kai, come on, it's only 1 mission, and it's not like seeing the Captain and his bridge crew is a big deal, everyone does, well almost everyone. I mean the Captain does make a point of trying to know everyone on board, but it must be hard with over 400 of us. Ok so not a big deal. Then why do I feel so nervous? Stop fidgeting with your hands, you don't want them to think you're too scared and can't handle this.'
My little pep talks helps a little, at least enough for me to appear calm and collected on the outside.
The lift jolted to a halt and makes that familiar whoosh sound as it opens to reveal the bridge and it's crew very obviously looking in my direction. I freeze, that is until I see Walters who offers me a smile and nod of encouragement, and holds his arm out for me to step forward.
'Ahh, here she is. Captain Kirk this is Ensign Kai Ceril.'
He motions towards the Captain who is standing in front of me grinning, in all his glory. His dirty blonde sun bleached hair styled to look messy yet would have taken time to perfect, his piercing blue eyes staring into me, as if to figure me out, and his bright white teeth.
'It's a pleasure to meet you. I am glad I can be of service.' I say, yet I did not mean for my voice to be so soft, nor did I mean for my gaze to drop from his eyes from panic. I extend my hand out and he takes it gently, they're warm yet rough, there's something familiar about them, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
'Like wise Ensign Ceril, we're glad to have someone with your knowledge on board.'
I take a step back after he has released my hand, almost retreating back to Walters, but I can't help it, he's the only one I know, and seriously, this is quite daunting.
'Well, I'll introduce you to the rest of the bridge crew here.' Captain Kirk turned his body to the helm, where an Asian man sat. 'That's Hikaru Sulu, our pilot, and next to him is Pavel Chekov, our navigator.'
The two wave and say hello, though it barely registers for me, but I still wave and respond. The Captain continues to turn before pointing to a gruff, older looking man. 'That's Leonard McCoy, our CMO, and the best CMO in the whole fleet.'
The Doctor appears pleased with this compliment, but doesn't let pride go to his head as he straightens out and offers a nod. 'He's saved my ass more than once' The Captain leansed in closely to say and smirks.
'Then we have our communications officer, Nyota Uhura'
A petite dark skinned woman stands from her post, removing the ear piece from her ear and walking over smiling. Wow this bridge crew sure do like to smile.
'It's good to see another woman on this away mission, plus I can learn quite a lot from you.' She says and offers her hand. I couldn't help but blush, the Enterprises communications officer, someone who excelled in all her xenolinguistic classes, believes she can learn from me? Interesting.
'Thank-you, I'm sure I can learn plenty from you too.' The lieutenant took her hand away and went back to her post. I look back over to the Captain who simply rolls his eyes and continues with his introductions.
'This here is Scotty, the best damn engineer I ever met.' The man has thin hair but a wide smile, and as he tips his head forward, holding his hand near his forehead, as if holding a cap, his lips move fast, but I can only make out bits of what he says. I know the words 'lass, good, meet, this, and exciting ship' are in the sentence, so I can pretty much figure it out, but not to appear rude by responding wrongly I simply smile back at him and nod.
'And finally Ensign, we have Commander Spock, my First Officer and the Chief Science Officer.'
My eyes turned to meet the dark brown, almost black eyes of the Commander. I am taken back for a minute, because although I scanned the room briefly, I had not able to focus on the Commanders appearance, namely his distinctly noticeably pointed ears and slanted eyebrows.
The tall man cocks his head slightly and raises one of his eyebrows.
'Something wrong Ensign Ceril?' He asks, his lips forming the words perfectly.
'Oh shit, I must have been staring, or looking like an idiot for him to ask that. Shit, shit shit!'
'No Commander.' I reply as I watch him walk up the two steps to stand next to the Captain. I extend my hand, like I had done to the others that had been close enough when introduced, but from the corner of my eye I see Walters hands move. I quickly jerk my hand back behind me and I can feel my cheeks flush.
'I am very sorry Commander.' I can feel my voice is quiet again but my eyes are able to stay focused. The eyebrow arches even higher and I can see the Captain has a confused face of his own.
'Why are you apologising?'
'I am unfortunately still not familiar with many difference races, and was not aware your species did not like contact due to being touch....telepaths.' I pause and stumble slightly over the words, not because they are new to my vocabulary, but because I have not used them in such a way, I mean until now I was unaware that any being could be such a thing, and I'm not entirely sure I understand what it entails completely anyway.
'It is quite alright Ensign, if anything I should apologise for seeming rude to declining such a common respectful human gesture.' Before I can reply with anything (though I didn't have anything to say) the Captain cut in.
'Wait, so you've never met a Vulcan?' I shake my head. 'Well, I guess you have now.' I nod. I really have no idea how to respond to these people, they are beyond my years, well sort of, and have so much more knowledge about the universe as it is than I ever could learn. I turned my attention to the Commander who began to speak.
'Your pronunciation and ability to communicate is quite remarkable Ensign.'
My heart fluttered and I could feel my face light up. I could hardly believe that the Commander had just said that to me.
'Well why wouldn't it be?' The Doctor asks slightly confused, yet smug.
'I'm deaf Doctor.' I stated simply. His face dropped.


A/N:

Ok so this be my first published story, not my first written, just the first I've decided to share.
This came to me while I was at work cause I'm starting a short course for learning Auslan (Australian Sign Language) plus I read a story where Kirk was deaf which was pretty damn and I suggest you read it
Anyway, please point any mistakes (cause I just know they're there such as my tenses, which I tried to fix as best as possible) and help me make this better :)

Thanks
-POM

erm yeah. *hides* be gentle with me, it's my first time.
more will be reveled (if you wish)