According to my sources, Nyota Uhura was born in the United States of Africa, and her native language is Swahili - which is something I play with in this drabble.
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Words
As a child, her favorite word was barafu... a colorful, ringing expression for something far beyond her horizon. She wanted to see barafu, to feel and even smell it. Then eagerness, ambition and brilliance swept her away from home, and she finally touched her first block of ice.
Now she courageously hews a path through the harsh grammar of Klingon. She eats, drinks and dreams countless new languages, her head spinning with phrases and sentences.
But in his presence, her mind returns to the tongue of her birth.
He is not barafu. He is hekima moto – wisdom and fire.
