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Chapter 7: Late Night Chess

Amanda spent the entire walk back to her rooms giving Kirk a piece of her mind.

"How am I ever supposed to fit in here if you keep doing stuff like that?! Now she hates me. And for good reason, I look like a total brown-noser."

Kirk rolled his eyes, "She's a brown-noser. She can relate."

"Yeah, well, if I had any hope of getting along with her it's probably gone now."

"Not a big loss."

"Why're you so rough on her? She seemed…nice enough."

"Lieutenant Uhura is good at what she does, and our relationship has improved considerably since the Academy, but she can still be incredibly irritating."

"She dump you or something?"

He looked at her with annoyance. "Noo she didn't dump me. I was uninterested."

She scoffed, "Yeah right. You're interested in anything that moves."

"For your information, she and Commander Spock have a bit of a – rapor."

Amanda's eyes widened. "You mean they…"

Kirk only cocked an eyebrow slyly.

"Wow."

Well, now she felt even worse for Uhura. A relationship with a Vulcan was no fun, and they didn't last long. It was more like Uhura was in a relationship and Spock was getting some kicks.

"But anyway," Kirk told her as they rounded the corner, "I have a present for you."

He put his hand up to open the door to her room and Amanda was greeted by a massive impact knocking her backwards followed by a wet sensation on her face.

"Dante!"

Kirk smiled as the dog expressed his excitement at being reunited with his owner. "See, you can't be mad at me now."

"You're right." She laughed between dog kisses. "This is the best present ever." Standing up, she dusted herself off and guided the dog back inside by his collar.

"You just have to make sure he doesn't attack anyone while on board."

"Pff. Dante doesn't attack people." She dismissed Kirk's stipulation with a wave of her hand as Dante jumped up onto her bed.

Amanda and Jim had a cup of coffee together and discussed old times. He left after a while and Amanda attempted to get some rest. Sleep wouldn't claim her, however, and she grabbed a data assistant and used its virtual map to find a rec room on the ship. There she proceeded to play a virtual game of solitaire.

"A bit late for games, isn't it?"

She spun quickly in her chair to see Commander Spock standing in the doorway. He looked as though he had not been sleeping at all and didn't in fact require any sleep. He seemed fresh and as awake as if it had been 3 PM rather than 3 AM. She pulled her robe closer to her instinctively.

He was surprised to see her in this state. Her long brown hair was undone, falling over her shoulders down to the middle of her back, held away from her face with a purple and white braided headband. She wore purple satin slippers, a robe, and, he assumed, a nightgown hidden underneath it that matched the headband. She reclined casually in her chair, emitting an unassuming grace that he hadn't seen since his mother died. Interestingly enough, her name had also been Amanda.

"You seem to be everywhere on this ship, Commander." She said once she got over her surprise. She turned back to her game, which she was rapidly winning.

"I was monitoring the ship's populace when I noticed the presence of an unidentified passenger in Rec Room 5. It was necessary that I investigate."

She nodded, "Of course."

In truth, Spock was stretching the facts. The screen had not indicated an unidentified passenger – it had indicated Amanda Kirk. He was curious as to why she was up so late, and decided to seize the opportunity to get to know her better.

She finished up her game. "Well, I guess I'll head back to my room. Sorry for disturbing you."

"Can I interest you in a game of chess?"

He gestured towards the strangest chess board Amanda had ever seen. "I'm afraid that I don't know how to play," she admitted reluctantly. She knew how much Vulcans prized intelligence and she was ashamed to admit that she knew less than he did. But then, why should what he thinks bother her?

"I'm not an unsatisfactory instructor."

They settled down on either side of the highly stacked chess game.

"Now, as you can see, there are seven levels. There are three fixed levels four squares long by four squares wide, and four movable attack levels, two by two. If you were to look at the board from above, it would look much like your standard chess."

Amanda nodded, but her forehead was creased in concentration.

"The principles are basically mathematical. You place the white here and the black on a secondary level. The pieces move as they do in traditional chess but with the exception that they can also move up or down."

They played for a few minutes and Amanda gradually worked up to it, but she still had no real strategy. Spock would correct her if she was about to make a mistake and ask her to rethink her logic.

As much as she hated to admit it, she was actually enjoying the game. Amanda was not someone who liked to be corrected, but for some reason, after the first couple of times Spock corrected her, she didn't mind it anymore. She laughed at her own short-sightedness and was thoroughly entertained by the complexities of 3-D Chess.

Spock liked Amanda's laugh. He found his own mouth twitching up just the slightest bit at its corners when she shook her head and moved her piece back, only to make a similarly ill-advised move once more.

"Well, I figured this would be one of those things that wasn't really as complicated as it looked." Amanda told him once the game was over and he had won a decisive victory, "But I was wrong."

"It will come with practice. If your progress in Starfleet is any indicator of your aptitude, you will have surpassed me in a very short time."

"Ah yes," Amanda shook her head, "And then I will never play it again."

Spock cocked his head to one side. "Indeed."

She smiled tiredly at him and stood up, pushing her chair back. "It's past my bedtime."

"Mine as well, I am afraid. May I escort you back to your quarters?"

"I'll be alright, thanks." She told him as they proceeded towards the door. She figured they had been friendly enough for one evening. No need to stretch the acquaintance further. That would only get her into trouble.

"Well then," he turned towards her in the hallway, "It was a pleasure."

"Likewise."

Amanda started towards her room, turning back briefly to watch the Commander's retreating form. She didn't know why, but she felt her distaste towards Vulcans ebbing a bit.