Just as she said she would, Cadet Uhura arrived in Spock's office at 5:25 just as Cadet Morrison was leaving. They greeted each other briefly, apparently previously acquainted, before Mr. Morrison walked out through the automatic doors. Spock was working on his code from that afternoon but paused briefly to greet the Cadet as she entered and took her seat.
"Hello, Cadet. I trust your classes were enjoyable. I have a great deal of work to do but feel free to make use of my replicator, it can only produce molecularly simple foods but can be useful for light meals."
"Thank you, Commander. I have a lot of work to get to myself."
With that they lapsed into silence and worked on their respective assignments. After an hour of coding Spock decided to make himself a simple meal from the in-office replicator primarily intended for coffee. As he typed the information into the interface Cadet Uhura looked up.
She saw the codes and asked "Commander, would it be alright if you replicated the same for me? I would rather not make another trip to the mess hall and interrupt my working too much."
"Certainly, Cadet. May I ask what you are working on?" The first tray appeared with a glass of water, apple, and simple salad. He brought the tray to her and began replicating his own meal.
"Thank you and you may, Commander. It's an assignment for one of my Command courses. We are supposed to respond to a series of situational prompts like 'The ship is severely damaged, if you send the crew to emergency pods many will live but if you attempt to correct for the damage nearly all will live. What do you do?' I'm writing out pretty detail responses so it's taking me quite a while."
Spock carried his own tray to his desk. "It is good that you are giving such detailed responses, these are not questions answered simply. They involve the contemplation of life a death, they deserve much thought not quick answers."
"That's my thinking," she replied through a bite of apple. "I don't know if I'd ever be fit for a major command posting though, there is so much pressure just in a hypothetical much less the real thing."
"I do not know that I agree. You are intelligent and, as far as I can tell, level-headed. I believe you would do well in command." At this Ms. Uhura smiled and looked down to maneuver a forkful of salad.
Spock realized she would perceive his analysis of her abilities as a complement. He did not know how he felt about this. His deductions were logical but offering humans complements can be a dangerous endeavor.
"Thank you, Commander. I'm glad you feel that way." Once again they lapsed into silence and continued working while they eat.
Spock was almost finished with his coding for the night when a Red Alert Alarm sounded. Both he and Cadet Uhura leapt up in response. It was not entirely uncommon for the Academy to run Red Alert drills for both security and training purposes but they were always rather inconvenient. It was already late, nearly 11:00, and now Spock would not be able to return to his quarters for meditation until 11:45 at the earliest if the duration of prior drills was any indication of this one.
"This way, Cadet Uhura," he said leading her to the corner of the room. As they were not in a setting that existed on a Star Ship their duty was to take cover in some capacity. The idea here was that, in the event of a threat to the Academy, the student body would be prepared with safety measures in place.
Spock began pushing the corner of his desk so that there was only a small triangle of space between it and the wall. Ms. Uhura looked confused by his actions so he explained. "There is protocol for how to react to a Red Alert for every office given the dimensions, this is the protocol for this office."
He then jumped over his own desk, careful not to disturb any of his work. "We are supposed to crouch behind the desk and make the room appear empty." Even as he said this he saw the problem here, this was a very small space so that as they slid down they would have to be in contact of some kind.
Spock prepared himself mentally for the proximity of another's mind and proceeded to sit beside Ms. Uhura, backs against the wall, arms touching.
"Well this is interesting," Ms. Uhura said with a smile. "Oh sorry, I was being sarcastic I didn't realize for a moment. This is in fact a strange situation."
"Indeed," was all he said, slightly perturbed she felt the need to apologize for her way of speaking. "Cadet I do not wish for you to feel the need to apologize, you have done nothing wrong. Feel free to employ the use of sarcasm as you see fit."
With a slight laugh and a smile Ms. Uhura looked up at him. "Thank you, Commander. I will be sure to keep that in mind."
They sat in silence for a moment before Cadet Uhura spoke up. "Do you want to play Twenty Questions?"
"I'm afraid I do not know what that is," Spock responded, puzzled.
"Oh it's easy and super fun. One person thinks of something, anything, and the other person can ask them twenty questions to try to figure out what it is. Do you want to try?"
Not one for games but also not wishing to appear rude Spock considered the offer. He realized that if he rejected her offer she would likely be upset. He did not want to upset her so he accepted.
Ms. Uhura asked her questions first, the answer was a gauge boson. Next it was his turn and the answer was antimatter chamber. Then tungsten carbide, then communicator. For each questions Ms. Uhura became both more serious in her considerations and more relaxed in her behavior, laughing at each answer. It was as Ms. Uhura was questions him about dilithium crystals the Red Alert was called off.
As the stood and prepared to slide the desk back into place Ms. Uhura laughed. "That is perhaps the most scientific and intelligent game of Twenty Questions I've ever played. I had fun. Thanks for making that Red Alert not suck. Commander," she added as an afterthought.
"Yes I too found the game rather enjoyable. Surprising but the game is, at heart, an intellectual pursuit so perhaps logical that it would be pleasing. Thank you, Cadet." He looked at the time and saw it was nearly midnight. "Perhaps you should return to your quarters."
"Yes I'm pretty tired. I got most of my assignment done and it's not due for another week so I guess I was pretty productive this evening, all things considered. Goodnight, Commander." With that Ms. Uhura left his office.
It had certainly been a strange evening. He could have continued coding during the Red Alert but chose not to. Certainly it was a more logical pursuit to entertain the Cadet he would need to work with and spare her feelings had he rejected her offer of a game. Yes, he concluded that he had behaved logically.
However, on his walk back, he recalled a point where he had asked "Can it be repurposed to power a small craft?" and Ms. Uhura had laughed so hard her eyes began to water. (This was the communicator answer.) He had been fascinated by her laughter.
His mother rarely laughed, such a thing would have been frowned upon by other Vulcan, but he did not recall, on the few occasions she did laugh, that he had been so intrigued. Now he felt as though he were proud to have been the source of her amusement, an emotional sentiment. Worse yet he found himself wishing to hear her laughter again, wishing to see her smile and her eye light up. Now that he thought of it her eyes were particularly pleasing, almond shaped and deep brown.
These were dangerous feelings he was having. Mediation would have to be particularly long tonight.
