A Woman's Touch, Chapter 2
Uhura climbed out of the flitter and planted her feet on the dry, rustly leaves that covered the forest floor. Looking up, she marveled over the size of the huge trees before her, towering over her head like solemn giants. The air was rich and promising, brimming with life and energy despite the silent, sedate setting, and she knew that she would like it here.
Saavik bounded out and ran to the front door of the small abode huddled by the edge of the forest. "Come with me, Nyota! See where we live!"
"Yes!" she laughed. Saavik's excitement was contagious. "I'm coming!"
She glanced over her shoulder to see Spock pulling her luggage from the flitter.
"Go ahead. I will bring your belongings," he said.
"Thanks. I guess I shouldn't keep her waiting."
"Please do not. She has awaited your arrival for over two weeks, and I believe that requiring her to wait another moment will tax her patience beyond endurance." He paused. "And mine."
Throwing a sympathetic grin in his direction, she hurried to catch up with Saavik, who grabbed her hand and pulled her through the front door.
"This is the big room. Over there is where we cook and eat, and over there is where we study. At night sometimes it gets cold so Spock builds a fire in the fireplace." Uhura struggled to take it all in as she was dragged through the house. "Over here is your room. My room is in the middle and Spock's room is in the back. You and I have to share a bathroom, but I do not mind. We have a garden behind the house and sometimes the little animals come and eat our vegetables, but I do not mind that either. Sometimes I catch them, but I do not eat the little animals. I also do not eat the big animals, but sometimes I think that they would like very much to eat me. I am too big and strong, though, and anyway Spock says that the large animals do not eat people."
As Saavik rattled on, Uhura took a moment to survey her surroundings with appreciation. The entire house seemed to consist mostly of one big area with a kitchen and table in the back right corner, a big fireplace dominating the right wall with a comfortable sofa and several chairs in front of it, and a desk and terminal in the front right corner by the window. The entrance and the three bedroom doors were all situated to the left. Spock wasn't kidding when he said that the house was small, but the roomy main living area gave the impression of spaciousness. Plus, she figured that they spent most of their waking time outside, anyway. Who wouldn't, with such a beautiful setting! She wandered to the back and gazed out the glass door at the well-kept garden and the surrounding flower-filled meadow, shaded here and there by the spreading branches of smaller trees.
Detecting a movement at her shoulder, she looked up to see Spock standing beside her. Saavik had not stopped her running commentary.
"I planted radishes in the garden and they are even bigger than the little radishes at Mr. Sulu's wedding. Spock says that they are too hot but I like them that way. One day..."
Spock met Uhura's eyes and murmured, "I am quite certain that eventually she will exhaust her supply of information."
Her voice also low, Uhura responded, "That's okay. She's a great kid, and I think I'm going to have a wonderful time here."
Saavik, clearly realizing that she was in danger of losing her audience, took Uhura's hand again and pulled her away from the window. "Come and see my room. I have a pet lizard but he is hiding from me at the moment."
Uhura smiled over her shoulder at Spock as Saavik led her away. Yes, this was going to be a terrific week.
...
Much later that night, Saavik had finally succumbed to the wearying excitement of the day and fallen sleepily silent. She had not wished to go to bed, though, and only Uhura's promise of a bedtime song had persuaded her to retire to her room. Spock sat, now, at the dining table and listened to Uhura's voice as it drifted from the bedroom. She appeared to be singing a song about a magic dragon, although he could not fathom the meaning of the words and was not certain he heard her correctly.
Soon, Uhura's voice faded away and there was a long silence. He watched Saavik's bedroom door and frowned slightly, wondering if Uhura had also fallen asleep, but eventually she reappeared and gently closed the door before joining him at the table.
"She's asleep. What a beautiful child."
"She is quite extraordinary. Would you care for a cup of tea?"
"Thank you, I'd like that very much."
He rose and filled a teakettle with water, activated the archaic old cooking pad, and placed the kettle on to heat.
"Your home is lovely," she said. "How did you come to find this?"
"It was actually easy. After some research, I determined that I wished to locate us on Dantria IV and contacted an agent here. I described what I wanted, and she immediately recommended this house. I knew as soon as I viewed the holovid that it would suit our purposes perfectly." While he spoke, he opened a canister and pulled out two teabags. "I must apologize for the quality of this tea. I would prefer to serve you a Vulcan variety, but Saavik took it upon herself recently to prepare my tea and I have as yet been unable to replenish my supply."
She waved her hand. "Oh, I'm sure this will be just fine."
The kettle whistled, and he poured the water into the mugs. "At any rate, we have lived here for 6.6 months and have found it quite satisfactory. Saavik enjoys the forest setting, and the isolation allows us to concentrate on the areas of study which I have deemed most appropriate for this stage of her education."
They were quiet for a few minutes while the tea brewed. He glanced at Uhura and saw that she appeared to be lost in thought. Perhaps it was time to tell her something of Saavik's background.
He discarded the teabags, placed one of the mugs before her, and sat across from her with his own.
"You are wondering how I have come to find myself in the position of caring for a young child."
With a guilty start, she met his eyes. "Yes, that's exactly what I was wondering, but I really didn't want to say anything. I mean, I figured that it was none of my business, and that you'd tell me what I needed to know when I needed to know it."
He nodded as he formulated his thoughts.
"Saavik lived the first nine or ten years of her life with virtually no contact with other beings. I must be approximate about that number, because I do not know exactly how old she is." He glanced at Uhura to judge her reaction. Her face had become very still. "What little contact she did have was hostile and abusive, and she was left to fend for herself in an inhospitable environment at a very young age. I really know very little about her life before I met her."
Uhura looked at him with pain in her eyes. "She was abandoned?"
"Essentially, yes, which one might conclude was fortunate, when one compares abandonment to the fate she would have suffered if she had not been abandoned." He hastened to add, "I must point out that the adults in question were not Vulcans."
"I assumed that. What brought the two of you together?"
"I regret, Nyota, that I am not at liberty to discuss all of the details, but suffice it to say that we found one another. She had no one, not a soul in the entire universe, so I took it upon myself to become her guardian." He looked at his cup of tea. "I have no doubt that she would be better off with a 'true' family, but I find that I cannot bring myself to alter her situation."
Uhura reached across the table and touched his hand lightly with her fingertips. When he looked up, he was surprised to see her eyes brimming with unshed tears.
"I think that she's lucky, Spock, so very lucky, to have someone like you. It's obvious that your relationship is special, and I feel honored to have been allowed to share in it, even in this small way. Thank you."
Swallowing past a sudden constriction in his throat, he attempted to lighten the mood. "You may not agree with that statement by the end of the week. Raising Saavik is a constant challenge."
She gave him a wry look, clearly signaling not only that she didn't agree with him, but that she knew perfectly well he didn't agree with those words himself. "I've never known you to back down from a challenge," she said teasingly.
"True. But I fear that this time I may have met my match."
She smiled but had to quickly stifle a yawn before she could continue. "Oh, sorry, it's been a long day."
"Yes, and I am certain that you are ready to end it." He stood and picked up both mugs. "Are you in need of anything before you retire?"
She shook her head and came to her feet. "No, not a thing."
"Very well. Goodnight, Nyota. I will see you in the morning."
"Goodnight, Spock. Pleasant dreams."
He watched her until she vanished into her room, and then he raised an eyebrow, turned, and busied himself with tidying up the small kitchen.
...
Uhura woke the next morning to the sound of birdsong. Stretching, she opened her eyes and noticed a dash of color against the bright sunlight, and she was charmed to realize that the sweet little serenade came from her own windowsill. When she sat up, her tiny visitor saw the movement and flitted away to safety.
Snuggling back down into her bed, she could tell by the muted sounds outside her door that the others were already up. Her trip had been exhausting, though, and she decided that she wouldn't feel too guilty if she caught just a few more winks.
Suddenly, she became aware of something crawling on her bare arm. Unable to suppress a shriek, she bolted upright and brushed it off. A little brown lizard darted away and froze, as still as a statue, on the side of her bed. It studied her with its shiny black eyes, and she sighed in relief.
Shaking her head at her own foolishness, she almost jumped out of her skin a split-second later when her door flew open and Spock burst into the room. "Nyota! Are you..."
She pulled the covers up to her chin as he backed away in confusion. Saavik peeked out from behind him.
"Forgive me. I thought that you were in distress."
Although she was hugely embarrassed, she couldn't help but laugh. "Sorry! I was half-asleep and felt something crawling on my arm. It startled me."
"My lizard!" Saavik pushed past Spock and came over to the bed. "You found my lizard!" She picked it up and cradled it gently in her hands.
Spock took another step backwards and, one hand on the doorknob, motioned with the other for Saavik. "Once again, I apologize for the intrusion. Come, Saavik, we must leave."
Her attention still focused on her prize, Saavik walked past Spock. Before he could follow, she turned back to Uhura.
"Nyota, could you tell me if you see my other pet? It is an insect, and it is slightly larger than my lizard."
Uhura's eyes grew big as Spock placed a hand on Saavik's shoulder and forcibly removed her from the bedroom. Meeting Uhura's gaze briefly in apology, he pulled the door shut. In the instant before it closed, she heard his last words.
"Saavik, I have asked you not to bring insects into the house unless you keep them in a suitable container."
She jumped out of bed and yanked the covers back. Nothing. Oh well, it was time to get up, anyway. As she gathered her toiletries and took them into the small bathroom, she wondered what other surprises the week might hold.
...
"Lightning bugs?"
"Yes, that's what we called them. Of course, we didn't have lightning bugs where I grew up, but sometimes we would visit my great-aunt, and I can remember spending many cool summer evenings running around in her back yard, having a contest to see who could end up with the most in a jar."
Uhura smiled as she watched Saavik rolling this bit of information around in her head. The three of them were sitting tiredly on the steps between the back porch and the yard, listening to the night sounds and gazing at the stars. She figured that this was part of their nightly routine, for Spock and Saavik had both gravitated out here in what seemed to be wordless agreement as soon as each had completed what were evidently his or her evening chores.
"What did you do with them after you caught them?"
"Watched them for a while then let them go."
Saavik nodded wisely. "That was The Right Thing To Do. I let the little animals I catch go, too."
Uhura got the definite impression that this was a running theme between Spock and Saavik, so she decided to reinforce it.
"Yes, it's good to let the little animals go. They have their homes just like you do, and you wouldn't want to take them away from their homes."
"That's what Spock says. He let me make a new home for my lizard, though."
Spock, who had been silent throughout this exchange, spoke up. "Saavikam, I would assume that your lizard is hungry. Perhaps you should catch his supper."
"Oh yes, I almost forgot. I will be back soon, Nyota!" In a whirlwind of motion, Saavik ran off toward the dark woods.
Watching her go, Uhura asked, "Spock, is she all right in the woods by herself at night?"
"Yes. When we first came here, she would vanish for hours at a time without telling me where she had gone, and I became quite concerned on a number of occasions. In the beginning, I attempted to restrict her nocturnal explorations, but I was mostly unsuccessful. Our compromise came when I realized that the best approach was to channel her excursions. If she leaves with a finite goal in mind, she is more likely to return in what I deem an acceptable time frame."
Uhura shook her head. "I'm impressed, Spock. No offense, but you're probably the last person I would have expected to see raising a young child, and here you are, a veritable expert on child psychology!"
"I would hardly go so far as to claim expert status. Saavik and I have simply learned to approach life on a day-by-day basis. It never fails that the moment I reach a level of relative comfort, something happens to throw my sense of equilibrium into turmoil."
"That's pretty typical."
"So I have gathered."
They sat quietly as Uhura listened for any sound of activity from the nearby woods. Either Saavik had gone far away, or she was utterly quiet on her nocturnal bug hunt. She smiled fondly, imagining Saavik prowling around the dark trees and underbrush, confident and entirely fearless. Funny how she could already summon such a perfect mental picture of the little girl; even though her visit had just begun, she felt like she had known her forever. Rubbing her aching leg muscles, she figured that it was probably because the child had packed at least a week's worth of activity into their first day together, and the entire 'getting to know you' process had been accelerated. In any case, she couldn't believe how soon she had become attached to this quick, bright, impulsive bundle of sheer energy.
"So," she said. "Today we picked berries, worked in the garden, took two long hikes in the woods, prepared three meals, chased after a fugitive lizard, looked up and memorized the scientific classification of twenty species of wildflowers, waded in the pond, and categorized a boxful of rocks. What's on tap for tomorrow?"
"More of the same." At Uhura's weary groan, he added, "Although hopefully at a much slower pace."
"She's going to wear me out!"
"Yes, she does tend to have that effect on anyone who attempts to keep up with her—"
Saavik chose that moment to dash out of the woods with her fists clenched. "Nyota! Let's go feed my lizard! And after that, tell me more about lightning bugs! Do you want to see my leaf collection?"
Spock continued, "—although it would appear that I have been given a reprieve."
Uhura came to her feet with mock exhaustion and grinned as Saavik took her by the hand and dragged her into the house.
End chapter 2