Thanks for the reviews that everyone gave me. I am glad that all of you thought that River is believable in this fic. That was one of the things that scared me the most. I wanted her to be as close to the series as possible while growing.

I should probably put up a disclaimer since I forgot to do that for the past couple of chapters. The characters and most of the plot is not mine and belong to the creators and the companies who paid millions to actually make movies and the TV series. Crud, I want that money.

Just a warning, this is rated M because I'm going to have a lot of cursing and a great deal of violence in this fic. There may be suggestive sexual scenes, but no actual lemon. My main problem right now is figuring out who or even if I want to pair River up. I'm currently stuck between two choices. First choice would be intense and would provide a great deal of comic relief, however I think some of you will disagree with it considering the age difference- sort of a taste of Mal and Inara. The other would provide the fic with a sweeter romance with just as much intensity like a Zoe and Wash taste.

Tell me what you guys want, but I promise you this- the romance will not take over this fic. This fic is about River Tam and her relationships with the people of this new world and her memories of her own world.

But for right now, River is going to hang out with Spoke and Pike.

A Reader in the Stars

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Chapter Three: A Little of S and a Little of Z

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Over the next term of Starfleet, River found herself having a decent time with Spock as her partner and friend. The two stuck together whenever possible and helped each other in their respective courses. Whenever Spock had to meet with the council over his teachings (apparently several cadets protested his teachings were harsher then necessary), River helped out by grading the essays, tests, or reports so her friend would not be burdened. In turn, Spock allowed her to drag him around outside of Starfleet campus to explore.

The first time they had time together, River dragged him to Chinatown where Spock found the area to be fascinating. Over 80 percent of the population was Asian in decedent and he discovered that he enjoyed the vegetarian Chinese cuisine. The half Vulcan also discovered that his female friend was fluent in Chinese. River chattered, cursed, and questioned in the language as a native instead of a second language. He knew his friend could easily learn a language in as little as a week and could perfect the dialect in as little as an hour, however she seemed comfortable with this language as well as the common.

River kept touching his hand in answering his questions without embarrassing him in front of strangers. She understood his peeve of being ignorant of something he knew he had no control over. She began to teach him the Chinese language mentally as they continue their outing.

They stopped at a small restaurant where it consists of a three counters with burners spaced out with the chairs. River had seen from the regular customers just what sort of restaurant this place was and she felt that this would be a good place for her alien friend to try out. Sitting together, River ordered in Chinese for a regular order for herself and that her friend was strictly a vegetarian. The owner was happy to serve a pretty girl who could speak Chinese and her friend.

The restaurant that they had entered was a hot pot or Huo guo eating house. It consists of customers having a pot and cooking their own vegetables and meats on their own. There were bigger pots where a family could share at a table and the environment was comfortable.

While waiting for their meal to cook, River took the time to think about her alien friend while Spock stared at his own pot in meditative silence.

Her first impression of Spock was that he could be an alien Simon. She could see it in his intelligence, his ignorance, and his manners and this all gave her reasons to stick close to her friend. However, over the weeks, she began to see something else in Spock. Due to his Vulcan heritage, Spock spoke his mind and stood firmly to his opinion. There were times where she notice his words tend to have a double meaning or a code that only she could understand. River once attended to one of the meetings over Spock's teaching and she had to keep her face still from Spock's heavily veiled insults to the board on their lack of sense in believing that the cadets could go out into the field with such low standards.

Simon would and could not be that devious on an everyday basis. He was too honest and honorable to live in a political world like Spock had been in Vulcan and now in Starfleet. She read his memories on his choice of attending to Starfleet instead of the Science Academy in Vulcan. She knew his life during his years as a cadet. There were few that befriend him, but most were older than he and were commanders in their own right.

This alien man, River realized, was similar to Zoe. The beautiful and deadly woman who always stood beside her captain through thick and thin. Loyal and a great deal of sense was her ways of handling things. Zoe was also cold in calculating at a situation whenever necessary. River could vaguely remember times before the Miranda event that broke most of her psychosis and one of those times was when Zoe had to choose between her husband and the captain. She choose to leave the captain who had a higher chance in surviving the wait of a rescue from the rest of the crew.

"It appears that our food is ready."

River looked up from her thoughts and saw that the beef had changed from light red to a gray.

"Jing cai! Wuo men chr fuan!" she said and with quick precision, had all of the cook beef on her plate. Dipping it into the soy based sauce, she hummed in appreciation. No matter what, she could doubt that she would ever took a meal for granted. Back in her old life, fresh food was sacred out in the Black. There were months at a time where all they could eat was protein mush.

Spock gave a nod before taking out his meal from the boiling pot. He had observed how the patrons were eating their meals and could state with confidence that he knew the proper manner in eating this type of meal. River gave a delicate snort at that thought.

Her friend was a mix of Simon and Zoe. This thought comfort her and discomfort her at the same time.

***

By the end of the term, River found a routine that began to bore her. All she could do was eat, sleep, teach, exercise, spar with Spock (he was the only one who could stand to spar against her evenly), wander around, poke her nose where it was not wanted, and repeat. The only breaks of monogamy was the occasional outing that she would share with Spock. This had caused rumors among the cadets that she and Spock were dating, sleeping, or something together. She could read the thoughts of the other higher ups however none of them had confronted her or Spock of their supposed relationship.

Both of them were the best that Starfleet had to offer so far in the new generation and there was no real evidence that could prosecute them before the board.

She was in one of the many gyms currently dancing to some old music from the early 21st century. The song seems like a slow one but she could sense the beat to be moderately fast. Kicking up her legs in the air, swaying her hips, lifting her arms in an arc, to the rest of the world, River was the personification of grace and poetry in movement. She knew she was gathering an audience with the rest of the world, however she did her best to ignore it all. Dancing was the one thing that this new world did not take away from her.

"Tam to Pike."

With a leap in the air, she landed next to her comm and answered.

"Captain Pike, another favor? Computer shut off music." River commanded.

"Nothing like that. You have orders. Mission to scout out new dilithium source in the Beta quadrant. You'll be under Captain Faulken's command along with Spock. They'll be leaving for a shuttle at 0800. Get packing."

River wrinkled her nose at that. This mission was odd.

"Insufficient amount of warning, sir."

"Sorry Commander, but all I can say is that it is urgent. All the details will be sent to you once you reached your quarters. Good luck."

With that, the comm shut off leaving River to puzzle at her mission. A normal mission would have given time to prepare both the people and the ships. This sudden urgent order meant that the ship was ready but the personnel was chosen at the last minute or ordered at the last minute. Whatever it was, she had a feeling that time was at the essence. Her mind wandered until she could feel Spock's mind. She could feel her worries in his mind, but he had push it back. Right now, he was thinking about what to pack, how much time he would be out in the space, and if he should settle his plans for next term's lessons.

River sighed at his thoughts. At least she could be able to discuss her thoughts with him later.

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Sorry if this chapter is shorter then the others. I had a hard time figuring out where to stop and I felt this was the best time. Tomorrow's chapters will be longer and with more action for sure.

Jing cai! Wuo men chr fuan! - Brilliant! Let's eat dinner! (this is as close of a translation as possible.)

I found a different site than you suggested wmonica and it's really good.

http: // fireflychinese . kevinsullivansite . net / phrase . html

This site rocks for all of the Chinese that's in Firefly.

Keep reviewing and I'm going to go watch Star Trek again!