A New Day Coming
Chapter 11 : Black Magic Woman
Spock
StarFleet Academy, San Francisco, Earth
Late October, 2257
Spock
Nyota is not well. She is ... irritable. There are dark circles under her eyes and her usual vibrancy is missing. She mutters to herself as she works, finally jumping up and storming out of the office. In a few minutes she is back, unwrapping a chocolate bar. She sits at her desk and begins to work again, nibbling on the chocolate. After a while she calms down and concentrates better.
Spock observes. He has seen this behavior before. He recalls prior instances, analyzing all the data. There is some cyclical reoccurrence --- ahh. He tucks this knowledge away until the time has come to use it.
***
He came into the office, wet from the soft rain falling outside. He seated himself at his desk, out of sorts from the damp. She came up behind him and began to rub his hair with the small towel she kept to dry the tea cups after she washed them. He held his breath in astonishment, but did not berate her. The tips of her fingers brushed against the edges of his ears, causing shivers of something to run down his spine.
He is still trying to recover his equilibrium when Captain Pike enters the office, sitting down in the chair on the other side of his desk. "Good morning, sir."
Nyota turns in her chair. "Good morning, Captain Pike." Without asking, she retrieves the tea pot and begins to make tea.
Captain Pike is grinning from ear to ear. "We got ten new cadets from that recruiting trip I dragged the two of you on. Both of those computer geeks I wanted and that young linguist, as well as a couple of great engineers and a physicist. Great job!"
They murmur something about being glad to help, while Nyota pours out the tea. He does not think this is the real reason behind the captain's visit, and he is not wrong.
"Once again, Spock, it is time for a staff meeting. Same place and time as last year. But there will twice as many people there this time."
He is not pleased. Last year he almost made a major error in judgement. Only Captain Pike's quick thinking had prevented him from doing something quite rash. He is not sure whether the captain would be able to restrain him under similar circumstances this year. He is casting about for some possible way to refuse when he hears the captain continue to speak.
"Cadet Uhura, are you familiar with the annual Halloween street party?" The captain knows quite well that the cadet does, having seen her last year, so why does he ask such an illogical question?
"Oh, yes, sir. My friends and I go every year."
"I'll look for you then, on Saturday. I always like to see the people under my command taking advantage of free time to let off steam."
"Under your command, sir?"
"Well, not definitely yet, but your name is on the list to be considered, Cadet." Captain Pike smiled at her. Nyota smiled back, elated. "Just be sure to keep getting those excellent grades and your name will stay up there near the top of the list." The captain finished his tea and left the office with a wave.
He had never had a chance to protest attending. He is irritated. This is illogical and not productive.
***
It is Saturday evening. He must leave his research and dress in something casual and go sit in the loud music and drink inferior beverages and watch too many people being loud and exhibiting behaviors in public best performed in private. If he had been a human, someone observing him would have called him grumpy. Because he was half-Vulcan, he was trying extremely hard to hide these trying emotions and present his normal calm exterior. Even the prospect of seeing Nyota dancing with her friends did not help, for there would surely be many human males around her, trying to get her to dance with them, trying to touch her.
He stood in front of his closet, looking at the clothes within. Finally he selected his dark navy slacks and the turtleneck pullover that matched them. Then the light blue shirt to go over. Remembering how Nyota had rolled his cuffs, he looked in the bathroom mirror as he copied her movements, trying to see whether he liked that look. He decided that it contributed to the 'casual' look he had been commanded to achieve and left the sleeves rolled. He was as ready as he would ever be, so he straightened himself up and started towards the street party.
Nyota
"Come on, girl, pick out some party clothes! It's time to go dancing!"
Gaila was ready to go and Nyota still couldn't decide what to wear. She knew Spock would be somewhere down that street, sitting with Captain Pike and the other officers that had already been picked for the Enterprise. She assumed that Spock was to be the Science Officer, although he had not talked about it at all. As often as she had mentioned how badly she wanted to serve on the Enterprise, she could not understand why he had not mentioned it. But that didn't matter now. What did matter was that he would be there - and she wanted to look just right. Not too revealing, but just enough. She stood in front of her closet in her plain white underwear, trying to decide what to wear. Apparently he had been there last year too, but she knew she hadn't seen him. She had probably had too many beers to drink last year - this year she was going to keep it to one. She sighed heavily.
Gaila came over to help. She started pawing through the closet. She pulled several things part way out and then changed her mind. Finally she found something and held it out. Nyota wasn't at all sure, but Gaila insisted that she try on the chosen garment.
"Gaila, that's not going to be warm enough."
Gaila pawed through drawers and held up a bodysuit made of almost transparent lace. Nyota looked at it - well, it was actually warmer than it looked, and it would cover her from chin to ankles and wrists, so the lesser amount of coverage from the dress Gaila had chosen wouldn't matter nearly as much. She stripped off the dress, pulled on the bodysuit, put the dress back on. Even before looking in the mirror, she knew by Gaila's reaction that this was the right outfit to wear.
***
Nyota, Gaila, and several other female cadets wandered down the street, dancing, talking, waving at friends engaged in similar activities. Although each had a bottle of beer clutched in her hand, they weren't actually doing much drinking this year. They were just cruisin'.
They were almost to the Galaxy Pit when she saw him. He was sitting one of the tables out front of the Galaxy Pit, next to Captain Pike. They were facing the other way, so he did not see her. She got jittery - what if this went the wrong way? She turned to Gaila, whose face was alight. Okay, she was going to get some help here, then, whether she wanted it or not. "Oh, Gaila, I'm so scared." She whispered.
"Girl, you got to get over that. Now wait, they're starting a new song. We'll just dance right on down there. You keep your back to that table until the next song, got it? Give him some good butt swinging." Gaila was getting excited.
The girls set their empty bottles down on the next table and started dancing. She whirled around so that she was facing the opposite side of the street. If her heart pounded any faster, it might just beat right out of her chest. She was glad they had started several tables back so that she had a chance to get the beat set and lose some of her self-consciousness. She let the music take her, swaying and stamping, jiggling her bottom in circles. Those belly dancing lessons she had taken in high school were finally good for something.
Spock
He sat at the table with Captain Pike and the other men who had been selected as officers for the Enterprise. He carried on 'small talk'. He nursed one barely acceptable beer - he did not want to have to drink another. He barely paid any attention to the people dancing in the street until he heard the men on the other side of the table start calling, whistling, stamping their feet. Apparently, there were some girls coming down the street dancing, that they felt were remarkable. He barely suppressed a sigh. Then the first of the girls in the group came far enough down the street that he could see her. That was the Orion girl who was Nyota's roommate. No, it couldn't be. He lifted his head to see a vision in pale lace and red ruffles dancing only a few feet from him.
She was wearing some kind of garment that covered her whole body except for hands, feet, and head in a lace so pale that it was almost transparent. It clung to her, revealing much more than it hid. Every curve, every muscle definition, was accentuated. Over this she wore - he guessed it must be a dress - that seemed to be a collection of short, red ruffles. As she dipped and swayed and circled in front of him, the ruffles swung back and forth, accentuating her perfect round bottom. The dress back went no higher than her waist. He could see, as she twisted, that the front of the bodice was also covered in red ruffles, what there was of it. She shook her bottom and all the ruffles wiggled.
His mouth was dry. His body was damp.
Her arms were lifted above her head, Her hands clapped to the rhythm. Her feet stamped on the ground, making her whole body shake. She swung her bottom back and forth, tilted her shoulders backwards, so that her pelvis thrust forward. Her hair swung back and forth, revealing and disclosing her slender back.
He was going to disgrace himself. There was no doubt of it. If even one young man tried to touch her, to get close to her, he was going to rise from where he sat and pummel him. He gathered himself together, ready to defend her.
Beside him, he heard Captain Pike speaking as if from a great distance. "Say, isn't that Cadet Uhura dancing? And that same Orion girl we saw last year? Do you think you could get Cadet Uhura to introduce me?"
He turned his head to the captain in shock. Introduce him? Captain Pike wanted him to go up to Nyota and ask her to introduce her roommate to the captain? About that time the music stopped and the captain gave him a little shove. "Go on, do your captain a favor. I'd really like to meet that Orion girl."
In disbelief he found himself staggering to his feet just as Nyota turned around. She was so close to him that he could smell her - not just her normal scent, sweaty from dancing, but something else, too, something he didn't recognize. She was breathing hard from the exertion, making the little red ruffles bounce up and down. Seeing him, her face lit up and she gave him a big grin. He was finding it extremely difficult just to breathe.
Behind him he heard the captain again, urging him on, wanting an introduction. He found himself trying to talk. "Ny... Nyota." He took a very deep breath - he had made an error - he should not have called her that here. "Captain ... Pike would like ... an introduction ... to your roommate." His hands, clenched at his sides, were shaking.
Nyota swiveled around, calling her friend, then turned back. Gaila came over to the table and Nyota introduced her. The next thing he knew, he was being ordered to bring two more chairs to the table and Gaila was sitting next to the captain, while Nyota was sitting next to his chair. He collapsed down into his chair - he was so close to her that if she turned towards him, she was going to - did, brush against him. Her face was so close, too close, not close enough. Those little red ruffles were crushed against his arm. He could feel the swell of her breasts against him. The temperature must have gone up at least ten degrees in the last few seconds.
She leaned just a bit closer to him, looking right in his eyes. Then she spoke very softly, in Vulcan. "Did you enjoy my dancing, Spock?"
She could not have said anything that would have surprised him more. Thoughts circled wildly in his head. She had known that he was watching her? She wanted him to watch her dancing like that?
While he sat there stunned, the captain and the Orion girl got up and left the table arm in arm. The others at the table started getting up and leaving, as well. He could do nothing except stare at Nyota, until she said another thing that he did not expect.
"Could you please escort me back to my dorm, Spock?"
There was nothing he could think of that he would like better.