Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek or any of its associated content.
Nyota entered her father's spartan apartment and dropped her bags on the floor before flopping onto his long black sofa.
"Ny? Are you back from Iowa already?" Kiano, Nyota's father, asked from the kitchen. "How was it? Did you see the Enterprise?"
"It was great!" Nyota sat up. "Oh Baba, you have no idea! I'm going to be on that ship! If it is the last thing I do, I'm going to work on the Enterprise."
Kiano had never seen such a look of determination in his daughter's eyes. He nodded at her and told her that he believed her. Nyota told him about the trip. It was unremarkable beyond seeing the Enterprise in person and some local kid had trying to pick her up. Kiano raised an eyebrow at the last, but Nyota assured him that nothing had happened. Nyota had only been living with her father for a few months; however, life was so much better in San Francisco that Nyota felt at home. Nyota had gotten accepted to Star Fleet Academy in the spring and come to live with her father after her mother made it clear that she disapproved of Nyota's choice. She had no more coursework to complete for entrance to the academy, having completed all of her prerequisites during her first month in California. Her father, who was fairly well connected, had arranged for her to accompany an old acquaintance, Captain Pike, to view the most important ship that Starfleet would have.
Nyota had never felt so sure about something in her life. When she was not walking around the campus, imagining herself as a student, she was reading through the books that were on the syllabus for the classes she knew she would be taking. She had finished the textbooks for Basic Warp Theory, Stellar Cartography, Elementary Temporal Mechanics and, of course, the History of the Prime Directive. When she was not reading, she spent the balmy summer nights walking around the city. It was such a different place than the one she grew up in. Nairobi was a capitalist mecca, so it attracted any numbers of interesting people but San Francisco was different. The people in San Francisco seemed to work together so smoothly. She knew that the Federation's administration was based in the city and that the collaboration amongst the planets of the Federation had something to do with it; however, it seemed so much more genial than that. It seemed to Nyota that San Francisco was a model that the rest of the systems in the quadrant should be based on.
The best part of living so close to the Federation offices and Starfleet was that Nyota could practice her linguistic skills. Nyota spent most of her time as a child traveling with her father to various worlds and spoke most of the Federation languages fluently. She taught herself Romulan when she was nine years old and had practiced with her father's friend Tyvoc, who had been an intelligence officer during the Earth-Romulan War. There were other worlds that weren't Federation that she had less experience with-- Cardassian, El-Aurian, Bajoran and Ferengi were languages she had taught herself in the past year and she was still working on Klingon. Nyota watched people pass from the coffee shop window and wondered if any of them would like to talk to her.
The truth was that Nyota had not really met too many people since coming to San Francisco. She had some friends from her program at the local university back home; however, she had not anticipated leaving home so suddenly and had not been able to keep in contact with them. Nyota's father often invited her to events but Nyota was not sure they were the right place for her. She was, after all, just a student. Nyota was most comfortable milling around in libraries and museums or people watching. She was a student of Human and other natures before anything else. She loved watching the way that people interacted with each other and language was a large part of that interaction. Nyota had been drawn to exolinguistics since she had first learned what it was. She loved it. She embraced the idea of being able to communicate and facilitate communication between cultures. When Nyota had applied to Starfleet it had been the opportunity to be a bridge between two groups that drove her even though she did not have a clear idea what she would ultimately want to do.
Nyota spent a lot of time exploring the city both with her father and on her own. She loved wandering around by herself. She had not had any freedom to explore before she had moved in with her father and she could spend an entire day simply looking in the windows of stores or testing her understanding of conversations in Tagalog or Arabic. Most of the time, due to the city's often dreary summertime weather, Nyota found herself where she was today; in a coffee shop, watching the people come in and out, studying and sampling small portions of conversations.
Today there was a pair of Andorian clerks on the far side of the shop that were heatedly conversing about a topic that Nyota could not identify due to her timing in the conversation and there was a young couple arguing in French. Nyota was reading over an advanced phonology book that she had downloaded earlier in the morning. The familiar mist descended over the city and she ducked in to curl up in a soft chair, study and sip Jestral tea. Nyota liked to watch people but she never considered herself an eavesdropper. Usually, she just liked to see if she could pick up the nature of a conversation before she went about her own business. Today however, the couple that was speaking French were being rather distracting. They were arguing about the female's propensity toward infidelity. When the man, a tall blonde with vibrant blue eyes stormed out, Nyota reflexively looked at the woman. The woman glared at her and stalked out after the man. Nyota slid down in her chair embarrassed at what she had just heard.
"They were being very annoying." A man with a thick accent slid onto the sofa that was across from Nyota. "I think they were asking for us to listen to be honest." The man was young, no older than 25 and had heavy coffee colored curls that hung down to his bright green eyes that were framed by thick lashes of the same color.
"I wasn't trying to listen." Nyota said quietly.
"Of course not. They were forcing their problems on you." The man shook his head, his hair shifting as though it were dancing. "My name is Noah. Noah Eban. I did not mean to interfere with your studies. I was just somewhat disgusted by their behavior." Noah began to move back to his original seat.
"I'm Nyota." Nyota quickly offered her hand to Noah.
"Nyota? That's an interesting name. Noah and Nyota, very similar don't you think?" Noah sat back down and smiled one of the most dazzling smiles Nyota had ever seen. Nyota actually felt her cheeks go hot. "So," Noah gestured to Nyota's PADD, "are you reading anything interesting?"
"Huh? Oh, well yes. But probably only to me." Nyota was flustered. "It's just a copy of Advanced Phonology for a class."
"Oh that is very interesting. That makes sense. You obviously take an interest in language. Your English is impeccable and you could understand that couple." Noah nodded absentmindedly.
"Yeah." Nyota smiled widely. "I study a lot of languages." She paused and looked at Noah for some time. He was very handsome. "Your accent makes me think that you're from Tel Aviv? Is that right?"
"Yes! Well, actually, I'm from Giv'atayim, but you're very close. You were able to figure that out just by listening to my accent?" Noah's eyes sparkled in the rare ray of sunlight that passed through the window.
"Well, yes, it's something that I sort of do... you know, as a hobby I guess." Nyota looked down bashfully. "Maybe it'll come in handy one of these days." She shrugged.
Noah and Nyota spoke for a short while before a man in a very well tailored suit approached him. Nyota had not seen him come in but Noah seemed to know him. Noah very politely excused himself and told Nyota that he was interested in talking to her more if possible. He gave her his card and told him to call her if she felt like it. He left soon after, making sure to flash that smile at Nyota as he walked past the window. Nyota was happy that Noah was walking away because he would have been able to pick up her flush as he smiled.
When Nyota had gotten about a third of the way through the book, she looked up to see that it was very already dark. She wrapped up her things and wondered how time had gotten away from her. Part of it, she acknowledged as she made her way out to the street, was that she had been unable to focus on her textbook because of her interaction with Noah. He was very charming though, so she felt excused in that regard. He had not said much about himself; however, Nyota had discerned that he was a business man, that he traveled extensively and that he was in San Francisco for a big transaction. Plus he was perhaps one of the most handsome men she had ever met before.
Nyota had very little experience with boys. She had crushes on occasion, but she had yet to have her first kiss. Part of it was because Nyota was generally very focused on what she wanted. For the last two years or so, she had been focused on getting into Starfleet Academy. The other part was that Nyota was not really sure how to actually get from liking someone very much to getting a boyfriend, or even a kiss. Some of her neighborhood friends thought that it was because Nyota was slightly pushy. Nyota didn't think she was that bad, she had met worse for sure. Nyota did know what she wanted, she was stubborn and she did not tolerate certain things, like meanness or bullying, but she knew lots of women with worst personalities than her who had boyfriends. As Nyota rounded the corner to her father's apartment building she wondered if she should try to remedy this problem before she started school. It would be terrible to end up on the Enterprise, traveling to the neutral zone and dealing with life or death situations with absolutely experience of being in love. She was fairly sure that once she actually matriculated, she would have no time for romance. She didn't have time for romance as general matter though.
Over the next few days Nyota contemplated whether to call Noah. She changed the route of her morning run to pass the coffee shop that she had met him at. She absentmindedly fiddled with his card while she studied. Mostly though, she lay awake at night and wondered what his lips might feel like on hers. Of course, Nyota realized that nothing may ever happen. She really didn't know much about Noah and at the top of the list of things she didn't know was how old he was. Nyota had just had her 16th birthday and although she expected that she would probably befriend and, perhaps, date people older than her as she moved through her career at Starfleet, she had her limits. If Noah was much older than she thought, or didn't realize how young she was, there would be a problem. There might be any number of problems though and Nyota tried very hard to keep her expectations realistic; however, she still felt butterflies in her stomach whenever she went back into the coffee shop.
***
Spock missed the summer time emptiness of the faculty lounge. The academic year had not yet begun; however, most of the professors had started to filter back into the building, preparing their syllabuses, catching up on relevant periodicals and, unfortunately for Spock, replicating their lunches, holding loud conversations and making messes in the computer science department's faculty lounge. Spock had come to enjoy the faculty lounge on his own terms when only the departmental secretary would occasionally wander in, refill her mug with hot water for tea, and wander out again. Spock's office was satisfactory, of course; however, it lacked the space that Spock found preferable. The lounge, in the summer, turned out to be just as neat and orderly as his office, but he could spread his many projects out on the long table that Commander Chiu was currently sitting at with a dripping meatball hoagie.
Spock felt that Starfleet was a logical decision but he wondered if accepting the offer to teach from Rear Admiral Nunez had been wise. It had seemed so at the time. Spock had anticipated more time to pursue his own academic interests, access to top of the line research facilities and an opportunity to further his career in the process. Now, however, Spock was unsure if this was what was best for him. During the last semester his students had taken up far more time that he had accounted for, constantly asking questions, appearing at his door and catching him in the hallway. Spock did not actually mind these activities, it was logical to educate those who lacked education after all, but it certainly drained time from his academic research.
Spock had hoped to make headway on a paper about using computer modeling to facilitate the prediction of battle scenarios and he had also hoped to spend some time in the Federation Archival Library to study ancient communications between the Star Empire and Vulcan. Spock had thought the paper would be useful since there seemed to be, in the last 20 years or so, an upswing in the amount of unprovoked attacks on a number of vessels. Spock wanted to do the archival research in order to teach a comparative ancient literature class; however, he would be writing his own text, that is, if he ever had sufficient time to dedicate to it. Spock used his time efficiently but continually added more tasks to his already bulging responsibilities, thus pushing his extra-academic projects back further. In any event, Spock realized that he would have to push certain portions of his work back further. School would be starting soon and there would be students asking questions, performing dismally and professors allowing melted cheese to drip onto his PADDs.
Spock was less consigned to his fate when he got an email from the head of the Department indicating that he would be teaching different courses than he had prepared for. The email indicated that instead of teaching Advanced Computer Modeling, Intermediate Vulcan, Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Interstellar Algorithmic Function that he would be teaching all of the courses at the beginning levels. Spock took a short time to meditate before wandering into Admiral Erickson's office.
"Admiral. May I have a word?" Spock said quietly.
"Spock, if this is about your changed course load, I don't really want to hear it." Ana Erickson was a silver haired woman that never smiled. Spock would have appreciated this quality about her, however, it seemed that her lack of smiling corresponded directly to her lack of civility.
"Sir, I simply wish to know why such a change has occurred with so little notice." Spock stepped further into her office.
"It doesn't matter does it Lieutenant Commander?" Erickson kept her eyes on her screen, refusing to look up at Spock. "You are a member of this department and as such you will teach the classes that the department requires. You can take up any non-computer science changes with the language department, but as far as Computer Sciences, you do what we ask you to do. Otherwise it is insubordination, are we clear? You're not hear to tell me that you're incapable of doing the work you're assigned are you Lieutenant Commander?"
"No sir." Spock clasped his hands behind his back.
"Then you're dismissed." Erickson's looked up at Spock at last, a hard look in her eye.
Spock turned to leave. As he walked down the hallway Dr. Perlman, a civilian member of the faculty, caught up with Spock.
"Looks like you got stuck with the intro courses huh?" Dr. Perlman was an average looking man. He had average brown hair, brown eyes and was neither fit nor obese. He was utterly unremarkable; however, his mind thought in ways that no one else had in the last century. Spock found him to be quite interesting.
"It appears so." Spock looked at Dr. Perlman, he insisted on being called Seth but Spock never had. "It is not a matter of my inability to teach the class it is simply that.." Spock was cut off.
"It's that no one wants to babysit new recruits Spock. No one likes to teach the intro level curriculum. We all have to do it once. If you get on Erickson's shit list, well, then you might be stuck doing forever. You remember Lieutenant Commander Earl right? That's what drove him away. Never got to teach to people who could think for themselves. Listen, just use the same curriculum but chop the latter two thirds and go through the first part at a snail's pace. That's what I do. Prevents me from reinventing the wheel." Dr. Perlman clapped Spock on the back and sped off down the hallway.
Spock found himself unable to accept Dr. Perlman's advice. He had to reinvent the wheel. He used the last 6 weeks before classes began to completely rework his syllabi and lesson plans. Spock was also in the midst of programming the Kobayashi Maru so he only finished his revised plan for classes just prior to his receipt of the his class lists from the registrar. The lists were late because they had been submitted to Commander Chiu, the person who was originally slated to be teaching the intro levels. He did not even have time to look the lists over completely until the day that classes started.
Author's note: This is meant to be a sequel to First Contact. I think it'll work okay as a standalone story though, although it will necessarily reference events and plot points from First contact. Also, I'm still on the same timeline as most of the other stories-- hence Nyota's age.