Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek or any of its associated content.
Nyota lost her sense of time over the next few days. Without having to report to duty and with Spock's shift changing with the needs of the crew and ship, Nyota infrequently had any real idea of what time it was. One of the unfortunate aspects of living on a ship was that there was no sunlight to attach one's internal clock to. Spock was extra attentive. He brought her his logs and the communications logs to review at the end of his shifts so that she would not feel left out. He ordered her Linguistics journals and other publications that he thought would interest her. He even arranged for her to receive fresh pineapple grown on Xelax 5, knowing it was her favorite. If Nyota had not known better, she would have suspected that Spock was trying to make up for reprimanding her on the bridge.
Even though Nyota could not tell what time it was and even though Spock was doing a good job of distracting her, she felt the hours drag on. If she had been somewhere else, she might have scratched the days into the wall with a knife. She went through her grandfather's box and had found a number of interesting items. There had been a letter that had accompanied a medal of honor from his role in the Earth-Romulus war, although Nyota had not been able to find the medal itself. She suspected that her father or one of his siblings had it. She also found several old PADDs that she could not figure out how to get it up and running. She imagined that they contained downloads of newspaper clippings since the rest of the box seemed to contain nostalgic items from just after the war ended.
Nyota did not know much about what happened in her grandfather's life in the six years between the war and his meeting of Nyota's grandmother. She knew what happened after that, she had heard the stories from her father and all of her aunts and uncles. Charles met Kioni Obure when he went into a United Earth informational office to learn more about pilot training in the newly expanded Starfleet. Now that the Federation was alive, Starfleet would be looking for more service men and women. He saw Kioni, who was demurely assisting an elderly woman hobble to the information counter, and was awestruck. She was young, beautiful and most importantly kind to others. Nyota's relatives told her Charles had been somewhat scarred by the things he witnessed as a boy during the war and the thing that he wanted most in a woman was sweet disposition. He had planned to become an official helmsman but never went through with it, not wanting to leave Kioni's side. Charles was twenty two when he married Kioni and she was twenty.
Nyota had seen pictures of her grandparents, both dead before she was born, and had always longed to connect with them. Nyota always felt that her grandparents were the one thing that might have made her childhood happier. She was thankful for the childhood she had; after all, if she hadn't had it she would have never met Spock all those years ago. Still, Nyota had nursed a wish for a loving grandmother to dote on her and a grandfather to tell her stories. She had, at times when her father hadn't been able to take her with him, wished that her grandparents whose kindness and bravery she heard so much about, would have been alive to take her away. She knew her aunts and uncles but they had very different lives from their brother Kiano and the group of siblings were not close. Kiano had been the baby and was a different generation from his older brothers and sisters.
Nyota found a holophoto of Charles, Kioni and two men who wore long tunics. Nyota suspected that they were Vulcans. Even Nyota could see the resemblance between herself and her grandmother. She had a nearly identical build and smile. Nyota had also inherited her large dark eyes and, from what she heard, somewhat forthright demeanor. For all of Nyota's smallness of frame and pushiness her father Kiano had been nearly a spitting image of his own father. Both men had been built like bulldogs, shorter than average and heavily muscled. What they lacked in delicacy, however, they both made up for in personality the way Nyota heard it. While Kiano was gregarious and persuasive, Charles had been quietly sanguine and inherently calm in all situations. Nyota rifled through the box further and found that she'd seen everything it had to offer. Nyota turned and looked back at the old PADDs.
"Spock?" Nyota asked as Spock reviewed reports from the day.
"Ashayam?" Spock glanced over at her quickly before returning his attention to his work. He'd begun to call her ashayam in private since she'd become pregnant. Nyota appreciated the uniquely Vulcan affection.
"Can you look at these when you have a moment." Nyota waddled out toward Spock, her body unwilling to move against the strain of her pregnancy, and handed him the old PADDs. Nyota would not ever admit it to McCoy or Spock, but the pregnancy was finally becoming more difficult than Nyota could stand and she was glad not to have to report to the bridge. The idea of trying to put her boots on was torturous. Nyota couldn't imagine wearing them for a full shift.
"What are they?" Spock inspected the old units. They had to be nearly a hundred years old.
"They're PADDs that I found in my grandfather's box. I'm sure they're just news stories about his involvement in the Earth-Romulus war, but I'd like to see them." Nyota eased herself down next to Spock and placed a hand on his thigh. "I tried everything I know to get them going, but I couldn't get them to power on. I was thinking that maybe the power source was dead but when I looked at it, it wasn't anything I could recognize. I thought that maybe you would have more insight? You are, after all, particularly good at everything you attempt to do." Nyota beamed at Spock.
"Very well." Spock knew it was useless to try to attempt to resist Nyota's charms. Even though her body was strained and she was frequently tired, frustrated and now resentful at the order for bed rest, she still spent considerable effort doing things that she knew that Spock would appreciate. Every day that Spock looked into Nyota's eyes he knew why he had chosen her. Even through her complicated pregnancy, she still tried to be be cheerful and Spock was grateful. In truth, Spock had not planned for Nyota's pregnancy at this stage of their lives together; however, true to years of Vulcan evolution, pon farr had caused them to reject their usual preventative measures and a daughter had been conceived. The baby had not actually been conceived during the worst of Spock's time, but just as he was entering it. Still, the result had been the same. Spock's emotional control had faltered and his logic had been hidden in the swirl of passion.
Spock put his work aside and began to tinker with the ancient device. Nyota's first inclination was likely correct, so Spock inspected the power source. It was old and depleted, but not corroded. Spock crossed the room and asked the replicator to produce several compatible parts for the old device. After thirty minutes of making adjustments to the device Nyota heard it power on. She slowly walked behind Spock, who was now sitting at the small table, and looked over his shoulder. The screen flickered on, the resolution slightly primitive in comparison to the crystal clear lines on the PADDs that they used, but still fully functioning.
"Spock! You're amazing! Thank you so much!" Nyota wrapped her arms around Spock's shoulders and kissed him. Spock decided to relish the contact instead of informing her that he had merely gotten the device to activate and that he had yet to evaluate its functionality. Between Nyota's uncharacteristic surliness and the birth set to happen imminently, Spock did not know when he would have Nyota's unsupressed joy at something he did again.
"It appears to be a journal of some type Nyota." Spock continued to work on Charles Uhura's PADDs until he actually got them to work. As he tabbed through the entries and accessed the menu, he noticed that all of the files were organized by date.
"A journal? Really?" Nyota returned to peer over Spock's shoulder. "What are the dates that you see?"
"The earliest that I can see on this particular device is 2159. It is at least a full century old. The fact that this has remained in tact is fascinating." Spock cocked his head. "I suppose that the arid climate of Nairobi preserved the integrity of the circuitry. It appears to be fully functional now that it has been cleaned and power has been restored." Spock turned to look over his shoulder at Nyota.
"2159? That's during the war Spock. He had to have been what? 13? 14 years old? I don't even think T'Mana was alive then."
"She was a contemporary of your grandfather Nyota. If I recall correctly, they were approximately a two decades apart in age, perhaps less."
"No, I think you're right. I think T'Mana was born in 2121. She was just a girl by Vulcan standards wasn't she?" Nyota realized her mistake as soon as she said it. Spock looked up at her. "You're half human Spock. You matured at a rate that corresponded with Human standards." Nyota smiled at him weakly. "In any case, my grandfather was born in 2145 so those entries must have been when they drafted him to start looking for ships for United Earth's space fleet. Wow! This is probably everything that everyone in my family ever wondered about." Nyota let her excitement run into Spock's mind.
Reading through the journals was difficult for Nyota over the next few days. The initial entries were sporadic and, frankly, they'd been writing by a teenage boy that was preparing to go to war. Still, they were vivid and offered insight into the people in the war. As far as Nyota could tell, Charles had started keeping the journal when it had been discovered that he was able to sense enemy ships that were cloaked before any technology was able to pick their presence up. Nyota had no idea how her grandfather had managed it but it was something that had been consistent in all accounts of his role in the war.
Author's note: Thanks to ayachan1412 for being my beta reader. She is most excellent!
