Title: Five Books.
Author: Linstock
Code: Uhura
Rating: G
Type: Humour
Warning: None.
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters or profit from this writing.
Prompt: This was written from an old Uhura is Awesome prompt, number 24: Five books Nyota will never delete from her space kindle storage allocation on ship's mainframe/personal PADD, and one she has renamed to "" because no one must ever know she loves it so.
A/N: I wrote this a long time ago. I'd never written on of those "five times" fics and this sounded like fun. Also, at the time, there was another fandom very much in the news... This is unbeta-ed, strictly for fun and I really don't mean to offend anyone! I held off on posting this when I heard one potential beta–reader's reaction {hangs head in shame} but I never deleted i. Now, like Nyota in this fic I am cleaning up my computer and thought I may as well post. So... in for a penny in for a pound ... I'll just hide behind the sofa while people throw things.
Five books.
Nyota sighed and looked at the flashing warning. Her personal storage allocation on the ships computer was nearly full. She was meticulous in maintaining the computer systems associated with her work. Her personal storage space was another matter, it bore a strong resemblance to that draw … there is one in every household … the one where people shove everything that doesn't belong anywhere else. The draw that sticks every time you try to open it, but can be counted on to hold a spare shoe lace or a screw "this long" when you need one.
She sighed; it was time to sort through the files. As usual she soon became distracted by the memories she stumbled over. She had totally forgotten those photos sent by her mother of last Christmas. All the family were there but so far away. Little Sis was getting so grown up and Baba was looking older. It would be so long before she saw them again.
Nyota's clicked on a folder named "party" and was suddenly confronted by photos of Galia and herself, obviously tipsy and blowing kisses toward the camera. Her eyes blurred and she wiped away the tears. God, how she missed Galia! Of course the folder was impossible to delete.
The sorting-out process was slow and at times painful, but in the end there was free space again and everything was organised. There were five files that Nyota never even considered deleting. They had survived several previous purges. They were all books and they were all staying, end of discussion…
Book one: Pride and Prejudice [Jane Austin, Galactic Press].
This was acknowledged by generations of readers to be the literary equivalent of comfort food. This was as essential as the bar of 80% Belgian chocolate hidden in her underwear draw to be used in case of emergency. It was a no brainer, it stays.
Book two: The Joy of Sex [multispecies edition, Orion editors ].
Nyota Uhura learned how to operate equipment quickly and knew how to do those things no one else could. For example, Nyota could set the com unit to automatically record incoming and outgoing messages, on specific frequencies, during given time settings, while she was using the live feed. Her secret was simple ... she read the instruction manual.
So it seemed reasonable to her when she started, well, using her body "fully", she should read the manual. The problem was her body didn't come with an instruction booklet. But Nyota knew how to research and research she did. She'd settled on "The Joy of Sex [multispecies edition, Orion editors]" as her instruction manual of choice. It worked very well, thank you.
She was realistic enough to realise that some of the activities in this book required discipline, practice and persistence to master ... a sense of humour helped too. Nyota Uhura was nothing if not persistent.
She came back to this text often, to check techniques and seek inspiration. It was absolutely invaluable, it stayed too.
Book three: The Universe in Verse. A collection of that best poetry from the known worlds [eds. Masters, T'forch and Kron. Oxford University Press].
Early in career Nyota discovered that if she wanted to know a race she needed to read it's poetry. She'd never understood Klingons until she read their poetry, the works celebrating battle and also their love poems, and, yes, there was a difference. It was a breakthrough moment; her Klingon epiphany.
She turns to this well read collection often, and it stayed too.
Book four: Healing teas. Cure you body and your mind naturally [Mbali Ndebele. Unites Africa Press]
Nyota is one of those people that others come to when they are in trouble or distressed. She makes them a cup of tea and sits and chats. They always leave feeling better. They put it down to her being such a good listener. She knows better.
From as young as she can remember her Bibi taught her about herbs and making teas. Even is space still blends her own, in her quarters precious storage space is given to her collection of teas and herbs. As she listened to the person seeking solace pour out their story she will add a pinch or this or that to the pot. When she pours out the tea it is tailored to that specific persons needs. This small book is full of annotations she has added over the years and represents both a link with her family history and part of who she is. It stays.
Book Five: .
Nyota looks over her shoulder guiltily.
When she was a love sick cadet this book had been a source of comfort to her. Nyota had stumbled across this old book from the 21st century while completing an assignment of the social influence of popular print media. In it's day this book had been a minor phenomenon, if you were female, impressionable and about 15 years old. Nyota had decided it would provide a good case in point for her assignment. She'd started to read fully prepared to be scornful and dismissive but was captivated. It was a story about longing, a passionate but chaste love that broke rules and stereotypes.
The main female character was a smart but ordinary girl. Of course Nyota understood how the female lead character was instantly captivated by the hero, who initially at least, appeared either hostile or oblivious. She related to heroine's obsessive yearning and struggle to not get lost in her longing.
The hero, well, he was beautiful, pale, superhumanly strong and fast, able to read minds, long lived, had [cough] unusual "vegetarian" eating habits, held his emotions in tight control and struggled constantly to fit into a world that didn't accept him. How could she fail to identify with their seemingly hopeless love story and how could she help but be embarrassed by identifying so strongly with a story like this?
As Nyota's one sided obsession with her linguistics professor turned into a student teacher relationship, then a personal friendship and finally a romance, her connection with the book just got worse. She learned the object of her affection had been acutely aware of her from the beginning and struggled with what he wanted as opposed to what he saw as ethical and right … just like it the book.
Every time she learned something new about the object of her affection it was mirrored in this benighted book. The hero spoke in a way that was often out of sink with those around him, he was brilliant and well read, spoke many languages, he played a musical instrument really well but never mentioned it. In the most embarrassing way possible Nyota found out that her love interest had acutely sensitive hearing. She still squirmed thinking about that! Like the hero in the book, her lead man was really good at practically everything he did; even kissing [oh God, especially kissing] but he still never allowed himself to loose control around her.
When the romantic lead in the book, and the one in her life, fell in love, it was absolutely, it was not an ephemeral human passion, it was an all consuming and eternal thing, and frighteningly, incredibly, unbelievably, her love loved her. Like the female lead in the book Nyota couldn't believe she deserved such a miracle.
Later, after they both survived tragedy, Nyota added two more similarities between the fictional and real life heroes, they both had trouble with their temper and they were both willing to sacrifice their needs for the ones they loved.
Nyota was not a fool. She knew that her man and the fictional hero were dissimilar in many ways, nonetheless this book had given her hope at a time when she had very little. Also, during the early times when she could not talk about their relationship to anyone this book had allowed her to feel that someone else understood. She knew if she ever forgot what her romance had been like in the beginning; what is to love with out hope, to yearn and despair, she had only to read this book to remember.
The book stayed. But if anyone ever knew she had a copy of "Twilight", she would probably die from the humiliation.
-/\-
AN: Now I have alienated everyone… I would still like to hear your comments. LOL.