Author's notes:
Mwuahhaha! I'm going to have a lot of very, very geeky and evil fun! You are all warned! I've watched lots of trek and will put my knowledge to good use!
I based a lot of this on how my university system works in terms of graduates continuing to work for the uni and grading and demonstrating undergrads. I cannot imagine Spock, if he were a full professor, getting involved with an undergrad, that would just be wrong... but PhD students and postdocs at my uni constantly go out with undergrads and it's no problem, even if they are marking their work. All very common and legit.
My uni's also a perfect model as it's an all science uni, hehe.
Oh, and of course I own nothing. Spock and Star Trek TOS & XI movie etc are Paramount's (Or whatever it is I'm meant to say here). This is all just about me having some evil fun with their characters!
And again: geek alert! ;-)
One Big Party!
Chapter 1: Tedious lab work
"You must shield your equipment from all external noise, cadet Uhura. I suggest you adjust your experiment accordingly and start again," said Spock pointing out some large spikes in her readout, which Uhura swore had not been quite such a common feature in the previous few days' readings she had taken.
"I have adjusted for subspace interference as well as magnetic...," Uhura stopped as realisation dawned on her. She looked up at her Vulcan laboratory demonstrator and said: "I haven't compensated for the shot-noise interference from the Z-pinch, have I? And there is a lab demonstration for the 'Fusion Physics' class today, isn't there? They've turned on the Z-pinch device and that has messed up my data."
"Correct," he answered.
Uhura waited until he was out of earshot until she let out the long sigh she had been suppressing. She buried her head in her hands. It was going to be a long day in lab.
After about a minute, she shook her head. No point in wasting time, she thought. Better get to work on that missing shielding straight away.
"Hey, what's up? What fault has he found with your experiment?"
Uhura looked up, "Oh, hello, Tim! Sorry, you took me by surprise. I was busy taking apart my subspace signal amplifier."
She sighed again, rather theatrically this time, and then answered, "I forgot to shield my device from shot-noise. Anyway, how's your project going?"
Tim laughed, "Ah, not much better! My experiment is completely, and I mean, completely shielded from all noise! Well, sadly that also means I can no longer get at it either and the demonstrator says I have to re-tune my subspace receiver. Oh well, what can you do? He's found faults with everyone's project."
"Really? That does make me feel slightly better about my own error. At least we will all have wasted an equal amount of time. Do you think we'll all get an extension?" Uhura asked.
"Uhura? You realise our demonstrator is lieutenant commander Spock? He won't have pity with us. Damn, I so wish I was in the other lab group," Tim answered.
"Yeah, the work the other lab group are doing is about ten times easier I reckon. But also a hundred times more boring from what I gather," she said while starting to unscrew the casing around her signal amplifier.
"Pffff... I'd rather have easy, boring work and a good grade. Anyway, I was saying... the other group's demonstrator is part of Professor Pickoring's research group. They're all really relaxed I tell you. After lab, they all go for a drink or two down at the bar with their demonstrator and the rest of Pickoring's researchers. Can you imagine Spock drinking a pint with us down at the bar?" Tim said.
This made Uhura laugh loudly.
"Exactly," Tim said and pretended to pull out his hair in a dramatic gesture.
"Still," he continued, "I'm being serious. We're really missing out. The other group might end up knowing less communication physics, but in the end, they are the ones who'll know their superiors personally. They're making a lot of good connections within the academy."
Uhura frowned. Tim was right of course, they were missing out in that respect. On the other hand she could not recall ever having had a more capable lab demonstrator. Xenolinguistics was one of the most demanding courses at the academy if taken seriously. Not only did the cadets have to be proficient in many different alien languages, they also had to know all the Physics relating to subspace communication and many computing techniques for the analysis of the signals.
Most lab demonstrators didn't have a clue about the physics they were teaching, having relied purely on their linguistic skills to pass the undergraduate courses. She had also seen them grading cadets' lab reports at the bar whilst clearly drunk. Reports she and her fellow cadets had spent days writing! No, she was very glad to have Spock as her demonstrator. He had a broad scientific background, and had specialised in astrophysics. He had only joined the Xenolinguistics department recently on a inter-departmental research project.
"Tim, you know, I am nearly frustrated enough with this project to agree with you... but only 'nearly'. Do you remember all that time we spent on the previous lab report only to have that jerk skim read it and give us all some sort of average grade and no real feedback? Besides, once we are in space, our technical skills might be just as important as our linguistic skills," she said finally.
"Yeah, but that all seems such a long way off," Tim answered, dismissing her arguments with a sweeping hand gesture. "For now I'll just wish the Vulcan version of the plague on him."
"Well, let's wait and see what grades we get on all this before you seriously start thinking about a career in bio-terrorism," Uhura said, chuckling.
"So, how about a drink after labs?" Tim asked, "Some of the others are also up for it."
"When have I ever not been up for a drink after class?" she replied. "Tell you what, though, if you can persuade the lieutenant commander to come with us, I'll invite my roommate along too. And don't look at me like that, this is a small department and gossip travels faster than the speed of light. Come on, I dare you! And I promise... "
"Dare me to do what? Kidnap our demonstrator? Cause that's about the only way I can think of getting that stoic Vulcan down to the bar," Tim interrupted her.
Uhura was impressed. He'd only blushed ever so slightly when she had started to talk about her green-skinned room mate and he had recovered very quickly. Admittedly, only by stopping her from talking about her some more.
"On the other hand," and now Tim had to interrupt himself because he was laughing so hard, "he's probably never had a single drop of alcohol in all his logical life, so just one drink should get him absolutely wasted. Oh, it would be so hilarious!"
Three hours later and Uhura was just completing the final calibrations after installing the new noise shield when Tim showed up again. He had a big grin on his face.
"You are not going to believe it," he whispered.
"What is? You seem very excited! Tell me!" she said already grinning. She didn't have a clue what he was going to tell her, but Tim's good moods and his excitement was always incredibly infectious.
"He said 'yes'. Can you believe it? Oh, I am going to get him so drunk! Spock is going to have the worst hangover ever tomorrow, this will be A W E S O M E!" Tim said, underscoring his excitement with appropriate hand gestures.
"See you and Gaila down at the bar in one hour!" Tim said, already rushing off again, leaving Uhura alone with her project work.
Who'd have thought it? All they had to do was ask him, she mused. Then again, she estimated that he was only about three years older than themselves. All the other researchers his age went out drinking and socialised. The air of competence and calmness that he exuded set him apart from his peers though, and also made him appear as if he occupied a totally different social sphere – one filled with old, grumpy professors. That thought made Uhura laugh. It also made her realise how wrong they had probably been about their demonstrator. He was Vulcan, that was all. As a species they were simply very calm and logical. The thought of him spending all his spare time with the likes of grumpy old gits like Professor Hartree, a man who cared more about Quantum Physics than he did about his own wife, was actually hilarious in its absurdity.
to be continued: next scene, a bar! :-D
Reviews very much appreciated of course!