A/N: A somewhat silly chapter :P Enjoy.


Professor Clayton had a reputation for being one of the harshest professors in the Academy. His incredibly formal manner and strict marking criteria struck fear into even the most seasoned cadet. For the last month, Bones had not found much evidence for the claim. As he observed Professor Clayton walk into the lecture hall for the Ethics class, he seemed like a gentle and wise old man.

Bones had been enjoying his second year Ethics class for the last month. It was an interesting course and Bones was actually quite good at it. The classes weren't organised by tracks so there was a mish-mash of people from the academy. Bones made it a habit to sit with young Pavel Chekov whilst in the class. Jim, Hikaru, Christine and Uhura were all in the other class.

Pavel seemed to like having Bones around and they had easy conversations.

"Oh no," Pavel said leaning over to Bones. "Here he iz."

Professor Clayton began the class.

"Good morning class," he said clearly, pushing his glasses onto his face. "Today, we will be focusing on the ethical questions associated with the Prime Directive. The Prime Directive is our guiding philosophy as Starfleet officers. History has proven to us how necessary the Prime Directive is. However, compliance with the directive can often be seen as unethical. Can anybody tell me of an instance where the Prime Directive was upheld even though there were dubious ethical problems?"

The class murmured among themselves but nobody offered an answer to the professor.

"Very well, I'll pick somebody. You," he motioned. "Yes, you, the young one in the third row."

Pavel's face drained of colour. He looked down, avoiding all eye contact with the professor. Bones nudged his elbow to get him to say something.

"I am wery sorry professor," Pavel replied, still not making eye contact. "I do not know."

"You're 'wery' sorry are you?" Professor Clayton said smugly.

"Da."

Pavel flushed bright red as he accidentally reverted into speaking Russian. Bones observed a line of sweat that marked Pavel's face.

"Cadet Chekov," Professor Clayton said impatiently. "You are to use Standard whilst in this class, is that understood?"

"Y-yes sir." Pavel stammered.

"It baffles me why you're parents even taught you Russian! The language is almost obsolete and spoken by so few-"

The professor was cut off when Bones stood up from his seat and stared down at the professor. Pavel grabbed Bones' wrist and looked up at him with pleading eyes. He shook his head vigorously, but Bones would not be deterred. He shook Pavel's hand from his wrist.

"You listen to me, Professor! This kid is barely 15 years old! He's in a place filled with adults and is probably as nervous as hell! Are you seriously going to pick on him for the way he says things? For the way he was raised in his culture? You wouldn't pick on a Betazoid for having an accent would you? So why pick on this young human? "

Clayton narrowed his eyes at Bones. He then looked to Pavel, whose mouth hung open in shock.

"Cadet McCoy, you are dismissed from this session."

There were was a rumbling chatter in the room at that announcement. Bones pulled his shoulders back, giving the appearance of confidence and went to walk out of the room. He looked back to Pavel and gave him a slight nod; Pavel looked like he wanted to cry.


"I told you that guy was a dick, Bones. I had him for one of my Command classes last year. We gotta get back at him for it!"

Jim was gesticulating wildly as he pulled back his bed covers and slid in. It was 11pm, and both of the men were truly exhausted from their days.

"How?" Bones asked. Jim opened his mouth with a smirk on his face but Bones cut him off. "Without getting another reprimand or being expelled Jim."

Jim's smirk vanished.

"You're no fun sometimes." He said as he lay down on his pillow.

Bones shifted in his own bed and tried to get comfortable. The events of the day had particularly unsettled him- he wasn't used to being the 'bad boy' in the class.

"Computer, lights off." Bones ordered.

"Fuck!" Jim suddenly said. "I have the best idea!"

Here we go.


The preparations had been made. Jim, Bones, Pavel and Hikaru sat smugly in their seats. They were in the presentation hall for a special seminar by Professor Clayton. There were a few admirals in the room and some foreign ambassadors who had come in for the seminar. The topic was supposedly Moral Relativism and Foreign Diplomacy but the gang weren't particularly interested in the topic.

They saw the professor walk into the hall, adjusting his dress uniform as he did so.

It turned out Pavel was pretty good at playing with Universal translators. As Bones found out, there were many settings that it could be used on. The translators could be set to translate into many different languages. The academy ones that were placed in the microphones were almost always set to translate into Standard but they could be changed. For this seminar, it was not on at all since the professor was a native Standard speaker, but the men had decided to change that.

Professor Clayton stood on the podium and took hold of the microphone.

"Good morning Admirals, Dignitaries and Cadets."

"Now." Pavel whispered to Hikaru. Hikaru tapped a button on his PADD subtly. Jim and Bones were grinning like idiots, drawing a lot of attention to them. Neither of them could bring themselves to care.

"Сегодня я буду говорить с вами о морального релятивизма и-"

Jim stifled his laughter by putting his hand over his mouth in a very non-subtle way.

Clayton knit his eyebrows together. There were murmurings around the room and some very confused looks from the admirals. Clayton fiddled with his PADD for a moment before continuing.

"извините меня, я потерял ход мысли"

Clayton's face drained completely of colour. He started fiddling with the microphone as he endured the crowd's confused stares.

"Is that man speaking Russian?" Bones heard an admiral ask to someone a few rows back.

"The translator wasn't set up for him; he's a born Standard speaker." Was whispered back.

"Then what the hell does he think he's pulling!?"

Hikaru and Jim's faces finally broke into fits of laughter. Bones couldn't help but grin widely, stifling his laughter. Pavel suddenly stood up and showed the most confidence Bones had ever seen in the young man. His shoulders were back and his jaw was set; the boy's mouth held a small smirk.

"I believe ve vould all appreciate it Professor," Pavel started with sheer determination. "if you spoke in Standard for the duration of this seminar. It baffles me as to vhy you vould use such an obsolete and unspoken language for this meeting."

At that point, Bones broke into absolute hysterics. Pavel had replicated the condescending tone of Clayton so perfectly and confidently. Bones was surprised that he could be so amused by a boy half his age. Hikaru and Jim followed suit with Bones. They achieved some disapproving looks from the admirals but a few turned heads and smiles from cadets. An admiral finally stood up to put an end to the nonsense.

"Lieutenant Commander Clayton, I believe this seminar should be rescheduled for another time."

Clayton looked down onto the lectern and seemed to be composing himself. He then forced out an answer.

"Da."

Pavel, who was still standing, almost doubled over with silent laughing and raised a cocky eyebrow to the professor. Clayton hurried off the stage and out the door.

"If they found out we did this, we're in such deep shit." Bones whispered to Jim. Jim nodded and shrugged.

"Tweaking the universal translator to only translate into Russian is hardly an offence Bones."

"Yeah, but embarrassing a Starfleet Academy professor in front of admirals and dignitaries sure is!"

Jim shrugged again and leant over to his other side to shake Hikaru's hand in congratulations of their successful scheme. Bones observed Pavel; he was acting like he achieved a significant milestone in his life and he sure as hell had. Bones leant over Jim and Hikaru to ruffle Pavel's hair.

"Didn't know you had it in ya kid. Impressive job!"

Pavel beamed at Bones' praise. The four men congratulated each other on their success as the rest of the room filed out.

Friends. This is what I have here.

That was the day Pavel Andreivich Chekov became fearless amongst his adult comrades. Bones would see how that gathered confidence would allow him to become a hero in the troubled years that were to follow.


A/N2: I have no comprehension of Russian whatsoever. All translations provided by google translator so I'm sorry if you can understand Russian and it makes no sense :L