AN: The official timeline implies that Spock hadn't served aboard a starship before the beginning of the 2009 film. That is one of the things that make no sense and therefore I am ignoring them (there is simply no way he would have got first officer-ship without having previous experience with serving aboard a ship. No way). It is also one of the things that would have been different if owned this. Unfortunately, I don't. You see? We'd all be so much better off if I did. Me in particular.

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"When did you start studying the Vulcan language?" Spock asked Nyota as they sat down to Sunday dinner, apparently missing the conversation topic of her classes during the weekend.

"When I was six years old," she replied. As she'd predicted, that answer was followed by a raised eyebrow.

"Fascinating. I wasn't aware they teach xenolanguages so soon at Earth's schools."

She shook her head. "Usually, they don't. There was precisely one school in the African Union which offered this."

"And why did your parents decide that was the school they wanted you to go to, if I may inquire?"

Nyota shrugged. "I was raised bilingual, speaking Swahili and English. My parents reasoned that with English, I will be able to communicate everywhere on Earth, and so they considered it reasonable to make me study some non-Earth language."

Spock tilted his head to the side. "That thought is only logical if they expected you to be frequently off planet, which, as far as I know, is still not the case for the majority of Earth citizens."

"Or if they expected me to spend a lot of time in cosmopolitan cities."

"You have just stated that you can communicate in Standard everywhere on Earth."

Nyota put down her fork and concentrated fully on the conversation. "That is correct. But it is courteous to be able to communicate with other species in their language, and it broadens the mind to know xenolanguages. My parents wanted to raise me in a cosmopolitan spirit, not as a terrocentric arrogant creature."

He remained unconvinced. "But couldn't the same argument be made for learning other Earth languages? Surely the hegemony of Standard is a form of anglo-centrism?"

She nodded. "Yes, but that is centuries old. The damage, if it is damage, is done already, and now English simply is the universal language of Earth." She paused. "I think my parents hope it will not at least end up being the universal language of the Galaxy, and they believe that making children study non-Earth languages is a step in that direction. Plus, I think they maybe expected me to study additional Earth languages when I got older. But I already knew two before I went to school, so it made sense to start with one non-Earth. They couldn't have known I was going to become so fascinated with xenolinguistics."

He inclined his head in acknowledgement of the presented argument. "And why did they choose Vulcan for you, of all languages?"

Nyota smiled: "Well, that was entirely logical, Esteemed Commander."

"That argument, I believe, is cyclical. In this sense, it is logical to choose Vulcan if you believe languages should be logical, which is by no means a belief shared by everyone."

Her smile broadened. "You are right, of course. It was a," a pun, but how to express that in Vulcan? "...a game with words on my part. The real logic behind it is that my parents would have wanted to pick one of the founding languages of the Federation, and well, would you really want to teach your six years old child Andorian or Tellarite?"

"Many parents would say they would not want to teach their children Vulcan either," he commented. "One of the objections against Vulcan training in logic I have heard more often is that we start too soon in training children, that we destroy their childhoods."

"That is certainly not something my parents would have agreed with. They never had a sentimental view of childhood. Of course they believed I should be able to relax and," here Nyota hesitated again, this time trying to find the proper way to express 'play' in Vulcan, "pass my time in enjoyable activities which are not dictated by logic, but then they believe the same about adults, so there is no difference. And apart from that, they think childhood is a preparation for adulthood, and as such, learning logic in early stages is beneficial. I believe that the discipline inherently present in your culture was actually an additional reason they wanted me to study Vulcan. And it meant I was in class with other students whose parents thought the same way, which made for a quiet, pleasant studying atmosphere. I'm very grateful to them for the choice."

Spock paused to consider. "It appears it was, indeed, very well thought out."

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Nyota wondered if it was just her impression or if the people in this semester's advanced SCPS were much less talented than in the last year's class. Three of the juniors from last year were continuing, and they were all right, but the rest...It was only the second lesson of the year, and already she was getting frustrated. At the moment, for example, they were discussing a recording which seemed trivial to her, yet the senior – senior! – Spock was quizzing about it was completely clueless. She was pretty sure this was basic SCPS material, at least to a degree. She supposed taking this course two years after the basic one made it a bit more difficult than her situation was, but still.

"So you have no theory at all?" The Commander was asking.

"Well, um, I guess there's a topological defect of some sort involved..."

Finally, Nyota thought, just as Spock said: "Correct. What kind of topological defect?"

The cadet shook his head. "I'm sorry, sir, I have no idea."

"Does anybody else have any theories?"

Nyota and the three seniors she knew all raised their hands.

"Ensign Shram?" Spock called on the young Andorian.

The student stood at attention. "I believe the message was deformed by a cosmic string, sir."

"Correct. How did you arrive at that conclusion?"

"It resembled other messages distorted by cosmic strings I have heard in your courses, sir," Shram recited.

Spock nodded. "That is a good enough way to identify it in practice, yes. However, for those who have less eidetic memory, would anybody be able to describe by what logical thought process can we arrive at that conclusion?"

This time, it was only Nyota who raised her hand. "Yes, Ensign Uhura?"

"What we have to look for, sir, is an indication of how many-dimensional the topological defect was. It shows in the way the message is distorted." She paused. It all seemed so very obvious to her, but since he asked for an explanation, she continued: "There are clear indications showing that what this message encountered was a one-dimensional disturbance..."

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"Do you feel thankful it is Friday already?" Spock asked as Nyota took the first bite of her steak.

She shrugged and swallowed before answering: "Not particularly. I actually like most of my classes. But I was glad in the morning, because we had our first simulation today."

He turned his eyes to her, presumably in curiosity: "How would you describe the experience?"

"It was extremely interesting. I mean, I have had my share of simulations of communication, of course, but the simulation of the entire bridge is another thing completely. Even though it makes me wonder – it will be several years before I'll be working on the bridge, it is really useful to have the simulations now?"

"Later, there will be no time for simulations," Spock said in his lecture voice, which was only discernable from his normal voice thanks to Nyota's exceptional aural sensitivity. "You will most likely not be going back to the Academy between your ship assignments. So the only chance you have of training is here. The instructors simply have to hope that you will not forget everything you learn before you find yourself on the bridge."

"It is true that I get simulation of what I will be doing in the communications department in my communications classes, so there's no need for core classes on that," she paused. "Esteemed Commander, you said that I will most likely not go back to the Academy between missions. What did you mean – most likely?"

"Simply that it is unlikely, but not impossible," he answered in the typical Vulcan fashion – exactly what she asked, but not her question at all.

She rephrased: "People do that sometimes?"

"I did."

"You did? Why?"

The normal voice was back. "I had been serving under Captain Pike before the ship we worked on was determined too old for use. The Captain was assigned to have the Enterprise when it is completed, and decided he wanted to spend the interim years on Earth instead of taking just one short assignment aboard another ship. I decided to follow his example and spend the years teaching at the Academy."

"Oh, I see. You mean as a teacher. You are in the interim years now."

"Yes."

"I thought you meant as a student. Since you talked about the opportunity of training in simulations..." she trailed off.

"The opportunity exists even when you are a teacher," he explained. "No one would deny me the option if I thought I was in need of some additional training."

Nyota smiled a little, wanting to test his usual Vulcan self-confidence: "But you aren't, I assume."

"I spent five years on the bridge of the USS Potemkin," he replied calmly as ever. "I do not think I am going to forget what I learned there in the five years I am scheduled to spend at the Academy."

She was surprised. "You spent so much time serving on a starship? I thought it was just a short period...how long exactly?"

"Six years, two weeks and seven hours."

Now she was downright astonished. "You were promoted to a bridge officer after a year of service?"

"One year, three months, eleven days and three hours, to be precise."

"That is...very impressive, Esteemed Commander. Not that I am surprised, but still." She was. If anybody could do that, it was him, but she didn't think it was possible in Starfleet at all, to skip rank so quickly.

"I was promoted because the previous science officer died in service. It is not a positive memory for me, Supervised Ensign."

"I grieve with thee," Nyota replied, immediately turning serious. "I did not mean to bring up unpleasant memories."

"It has been a long time. I merely wanted to point out that it was not on my merits that I got the promotion."

Yeah right, because I'm sure there were no senior scientists and so the task of being the science officer fell to you, a guy who was just a year out of the Academy. I'm sure it had nothing to do with you being a complete genius at all, Nyota thought sarcastically, but decided to let the matter be.

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AN: Supervised Ensign – actually an inaccurate translation of the Vulcan term putun-tor wuh-lan, which I made up, and which is supposed to be the counterweight to Nyota's pudor-tor zhel-lan – Esteemed Commander. Pudor-tor is meant to be used as a honorific by a person in an inferior position for a person in a superior position, and putun-tor is meant to be used the other way round. It's derived from tun, which is Vulcan for "watchful oversight; charge or supervision; attentive assistance or treatment to those in need; a burdened state of mind, as that arising from heavy responsibilities; worry" (quoted from VLD), so it could also be rendered as Watched-over Ensign or Cared-for Ensign, but those translations sounded too emotional in English, so I went with the impersonal Supervised.