Out of This World

by Lady Dawson and EssentiallyRei

Chapter Two: Joni's Awakening

Deedle-let, deedle-let-let-let… Deedle-let, deedle-let-let-let… Deedle-let, deedle-let-let-let…

"Yeah . . . yeah. . . . All right!" Joni said louder every time as she woke up to the communicator chirp on her phone. She didn't remember setting her ringtone as the Star Trek communicator, but it was in her phone somewhere. Someone was calling her.

She reached out her hand, feeling for her phone which was usually under her pillow. It wasn't there. Instead she noticed how different her pillowcase, comforter, and bed sheets were. They smelled strongly of detergent and were stiff like they had been cleaned by industrial strength chemicals; the kind they used in hotels after a guest leaves.

This was not Joni's bed. Granted she had only laid claim to her dorm bed at the university for only a week now, she had brought her own sheets and comforter from home. Familiarity and comfort were very important to Joni.

Deedle-let, deedle-let-let-let…

Frustrated Joni sat up in the unfamiliar bed and blinked. It was almost completely dark except for a soft pulsing green light at the foot of the bed. Reaching for it, she found it was a tablet of some sort, simply made of glass and a metal handle. Under the pulsing green light that floated on the glass floated the green words: incoming call. She hesitated, but after another chirp from the device, she touched the glass where it pulsed.

The light expanded over the glass into a full colored screen and before her was an image of Zachary Quinto, in all his Vulcan and Spock glory.

"Cadet Joan," he started, revealing that it was more than an image.

Joan? No one called her Joan. Sure her birth certificate had the name Joan written out on it, but for as long as she could remember everyone, even her family, called her Joni.

Quinto raised his brow in his Spock way. "Cadet Joan, I expected you to be awake by now. Your Plasma Physics course is at ten-hundred hours. You have twenty-three minutes."

Joni stared at the screen like she was watching a YouTube video, not saying anything. It was simply a video; it had to be. Or she was still asleep and this was just an exceptionally vivid dream. She did often have vivid dreams; some even of Star Trek. However most of her Star Trek dreams were of Next Generation. She had never had a dream of the new Star Trek.

"We are still not on speaking terms," Spock said emotionlessly as he glanced away from his screen. He was silent for a moment, tightening his lips in almost disappointment, but not quite. When he looked back at the screen, he gave a firm look with his brown eyes. "Cadet Joan, your presence is required in my office at fifteen-hundred hours. I expect," he emphasized, "for you to be on time. And dressed." His eyebrow lifted again.

It was then that Joni realized she was in her underwear, and Spock could see her like that, leaning over the glass tablet in nothing but a bra and boyshorts, staring down at him. Before she could say anything, the screen minimized and Spock disappeared.

She quickly decided it didn't matter; this was all just a dream, and once she came to that mindset, she jumped up ready to play along.

"Lights," she called out, expecting the lights to come on. When the room illuminated, she smiled and pushed her long hair out of her face, stopping when she began to tuck the strand behind her ear. She touched the top of her ear again and froze—her ear was not round.

No. It curved into a point.

Searching the room, obviously a dorm and almost the exact duplicate of the one seen at Starfleet Academy in the 2009 Star Trek movie, Joni ran into what was the bathroom. In the mirror, she stared at herself with her brown eyes and pulled her hair back. She gasped as she traced her finger over the pointy edges of her ears, but it wasn't a gasp of surprise; more like a gasp mixed with disbelief and excitement.

She let out a laugh as she came out of the bathroom to examine her surroundings more closely. There was another bed on the other side of the room, empty and completely made like its occupant had already gotten up and left. Yet that entire side of the room was also untouched with no personal effects of any kind. Did Joni not have a roommate?

Maybe not, but the two things that were certain to Joni in this strange dream of hers were:

a) she was a Vulcan.

And . . .

b) she was a cadet at Starfleet Academy.


After a few minutes of fiddling with the glass device in her dorm, Joni had figured out how to use it quite efficiently. It was a lot like any tablet used in the real world. Except the operating system was clearly different and instead of the internet, the tablet connected to the Starfleet database. It gave her access to almost every piece of information she could hope for in a dream where the world was completely unfamiliar.

Okay, so maybe not completely unfamiliar. Joni knew a thing or two about Star Trek, and secretly, she did consider herself a Trekker—not Trekkie. All though, she never understood why some fans found the term Trekkie to depreciative. Trekkies were supposedly the crazy ones; Trekkers were the rational ones. It didn't make one bit of difference to her. A greater appreciation for Star Trek should be all that mattered.

In any case, any Trekker or Trekkie would have a panic attack if they were holding what Joni was holding in her hands; the glass tablet was a goldmine to any Star Trek fan.

In the end, after Joni had put on her red cadet uniform, it had taken her far more than twenty-three minutes to get ready. The cadet uniform was somewhat of a puzzle and she did have to play with the glass tablet before she found a map of Starfleet Academy in the database. It was the first dream that she had to work so hard to get where she needed to go.

Eventually she looked suitable for making her way across the academy. She looked better than cosplay and had even spent an extra ten minutes on her hair, putting it up into a bun to Starfleet standards; which she looked up on her tablet along with codes of conduct. Joni was already going to be late, so she figured she would take her time before leaving the dorm.

She left her dorm with her trusty tablet in hand, headed not for her class, but willing to do some good old fashion exploring; it wasn't every night that you went to bed and dreamed of Starfleet Academy. She decided she would start with the area listed on her tablet as the Central Quad. It was between the Command School and Medical School. Her quarters were apparently not far from either, which was well-off—Starfleet Academy was enormous.

It was upon entering the Central Quad that Joni saw and immediately recognized Captain Kirk. But it wasn't Captain Kirk. It was Cadet Kirk and he was in a red uniform like the hundred others walking to and from the buildings. He was standing and talking to another person she recognized: Leonard McCoy. Or better known as Bones—just Bones. How she recognized the both of them among the mass of red, she did not know, but she suddenly got the instinct to turn around and walk the opposite direction when Kirk made eye contact with her, brushed past Bones, and started jogging in her direction.

"Oh, no you don't," he hollered, catching up to Joni. "You can't get away that easily. You stood me up, Miss Vulcan."

Joni stopped, turned, and diagnosed Kirk. His eyes were a beautiful bright blue, but his face was sporting a few scratches and bruises. They looked fairly fresh, but she could tell that someone had done their best to patch him up. Yet the glassiness of Kirk's eyes also told Joni that he may be hung-over.

"I thought Vulcans couldn't tell lies," Kirk said with a smirk. "Do you have any idea what happened when you didn't show up last night? A few of my Tactical buddies caught up with me. I had no choice but to get more acquainted them."

"We had a date?" Joni asked very un-Vulcanly.

Bones now walked up to the two of them and Kirk gave him a side-glance and a chuckle before saying, "Can you believe this? I get stood up by a Vulcan and all she says is "We had a date?""

Bones critically looked down at Joni. "You were going to go out with this man?" indicating Kirk with a nod. "You have questionable taste for a Vulcan. Any human who goes out with this half-excuse of a decent guy has questionable taste, too."

"Thanks, Bones." Kirk responded sarcastically, lightly taking Joni by the arm and away from Bones.

"So are you going to help me, or not?" he whispered, leaning in close to Joni when they were out of reach of Bones. Kirk sounded desperate, though; not interested in romantics at all.

Joni looked back at Bones, who is shaking his head and walking away, before looking back and Kirk. "What was it that you needed my help with?" she said un-Vulcanly again. To Joni's knowledge, Vulcans didn't ask questions that sounded so stupid, but Joni really had no idea what was going on. This was a dream after all.

"The test," Kirk declared. "Are you really trying to play it off as you never saying you would help me find a way to beat your brother's test?"

"Wow, this is some weird dream," Joni blurted. She wasn't very good at this role-playing a Vulcan thing. "I mean I've had dreams with you in it before, but not this version of you. Your eyes are so puppy-dog-like. How could anyone say no to you?"

"Wait, wait." Kirk started to laugh. "You have dreams about me? Is that why you stood me up; because you actually like me?" He smiled like he was flattered. "I have to admit, I've never considered pursuing a Vulcan before."

"I'm not into the Kirk-types," Joni daringly replied. She wasn't lying, but she wasn't telling the truth either. How was it that her roommate Emily described him: handsome, street-smart, and an intelligent rebel without a cause. That made Kirk sound perfect, but Joni knew he was one disaster after another—one beautiful and dangerous, but also extremely lucky man.

Kirk flashed another smile. "Am I famous now?"

"You said my brother's test," Joni suddenly realized.

"Yeah," Kirk eyed Joni suspiciously. "You know, the other you," he teased. "The one with equally as pointy ears, but shorter hair and a more cocky and pretentious attitude than a Vulcan can account for. I mean, I've never met the guy, but I've heard academy stories from his students. Instructor Spock, or Commander, or whatever he is."

Kirk didn't notice that Joni was dumbfounded. Joni had gone to a completely different place. It was more than surprise, it was complete geekdom. She had awoken in her dream as Spock's sister.

"It's amazing that you two are twins. You are nothing like how I picture him," Kirk went on.

Twin sister! Joni was Spock's twin sister. It was more than Joni could handle. She started walking away with the one thought that she needed to go back to bed.

Kirk caught up to her again and apologized. "I didn't mean to offend… I guess you call it your Vulcanality."

Joni chuckled at that one, but then decidedly, and in a very Vulcanly manner, said, "I cannot help you cheat on the Kobayashi Maru."

"Cheat? Who said anything about cheating?" Kirk insisted. "I just want a few pointers. Look, Joan, wasn't it? Your brother's test seems to be the cheat. Or did he program a way to beat it? …Or not?" He stared at Joni with his puppy-dog eyes, looking utterly hopeless—beaten up, but determined.

"I'm going to say this extra slow to make sure you understand." Joni smiled at Kirk—a very un-Vulcan thing to do. It seemed to scare Kirk too, because he returned a puzzling frown. "I. Cannot. Help you …cheat," Joni finished.

She now carefully watched Kirk as he stared at her with an intense thinking face. It didn't take long for a twinkle to appear in his eyes. He knew exactly what he had to do.

AN: Okay, guys, I am severely disappointed by the lack of reviews. I mean, I know that there are people reading this because we got followers, but nobody can take two minutes to tell us what you think of this? Come on, pretty please with sugar on top? If you don't wanna be nice to me, then please be nice to my best friend. This is her first fanfiction, guys, give her a break!

Pretty please? Press that review button?

Lady Dawson