AN: Someone commented in a review that while gossip is not basis for a disciplinary board judgment, it can be basis for investigation. Well...
Also, further down, there's another example of what would be different if I owned this. I still don't.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
A fortnight later, on a similar way across campus, Commander Spock turned to Nyota and said: "It might amuse you to know that I was summoned by the head of my department yesterday in the matter of supposed misconduct."
"Amuse?" She stared.
"Yes, amuse, because it was merely a formality. There was an anonymous letter stating that our relationship is irregular. According to the regulations, she was obliged to investigate the matter. It was very simple, really. I explained what gave rise to the suspicions, she commanded me on my willingness to take on duties outside my normal teaching schedule to work with gifted students, and for form's sake, she looked at the sensor lab security tapes. Seeing that the most exciting thing we did in there was discussing what we heard, she apologized for bothering me, and that was all."
Nyota shook her head. "I'm still sorry you had to go thought that."
He raised his eyebrow. "There is nothing to be sorry about. It was interesting to find out how such an investigation works, something for which I would normally have no opportunity."
She couldn't help but grin at this typical Spockiness. "Well, I'm glad there's a positive aspect to it somewhere. I'd like to know what kind of people it was who wrote to your department head. I can't imagine anyone doing that."
He tilted his head. "Perhaps they believed they were in the right. If there indeed were some irregularities in our relationship, it would certainly be right to report them."
Nyota shook her head. "I cannot agree with you here. I wouldn't do such a thing, not unless it was clear the teacher was acting unfairly as a result."
"Such rules exist to protect the cadets. I am not certain you can imagine how easy it is to abuse your power as a teacher. It is a thin line every one of us is walking, and if someone takes such a big step over it, it must be stopped."
"But what if the relationship is consensual, and it doesn't influence the teacher's or student's duties in any way?" She persisted.
He was adamant. "No. If it is a matter of serious, long-term relationship, they can wait for the student to finish his or her education."
Nyota simply had to ask: "And if it is just a matter of consensual intercourse?"
He looked at her sideways. "Surely a student and a teacher can deny themselves that much?"
"Oh, I'm certain they can – even though my Orion roommate might disagree. I'm just asking, why should they?"
He paused, then said: "I confess to be somewhat surprised to hear you advocating such liberal views."
Nyota laughed, a little embarrassed. "Oh, I do not live by them myself, not by far. But I don't see any principal reason why others shouldn't. I still insist that if I couldn't see any concrete harm, I would not report a fellow student or a teacher for misconduct."
"Do you place no value on following rules, as such?"
"Of course I do. I expressed myself badly. I personally would follow the rules, and I would encourage anyone else to do so, and I would probably chide them if they didn't. But reporting someone is another matter. There is something abhorrent about it, which makes it justifiable only in serious cases."
"This view is deeply human, I believe."
Nyota shrugged. "In spite of all my affection for Vulcan, I do not pretend to deny what I am, Commander."
"I would not wish for you to do so."
They walked in silence for a while. "It brings to mind another thing I wanted to mention," he said at length, when they were approaching the lab. "Do you wish to meet on Thursday?"
"Yes, of course. Why not?"
"It is February the Fourteenth, Ensign."
"And...oh! The Valentine's Day!" Nyota was a bit astonished he even realized. "Thank you for your consideration, but I have no plans, so I'd like to meet as usual. That is, of course, unless you have other plans? I would not presume to..." There must have been some reason why he knew about the holiday.
"I have no plans."
"Good. That is," she blushed, "I'm glad I will be able to at least enjoy your pleasant company."
"The pleasure is all mine."
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
It turned out Spock wasn't the only one who assumed she wouldn't have class with him on Thursday.
"You are not spending Valentine's Day in the lab!" Gaila almost shouted.
"Yes, I am."
"Over my dead body."
Nyota sighed. "Look, even if I wanted to take you up on your offer of arranging a date – which I am not saying, not at all, by the way – I already told Spock I would meet him."
"You can cancel it."
Nyota shook her head. "No, I can't."
"He'd understand," Gaila insisted.
Nyota sat down on her bed, feeling a bit tired. "I'm sure he'd understand, but it would be highly impolite. I owe him so much for consenting to tutor me in his free time, I'm not going to treat him this way. Plus, I actually like spending time with him, so chances are I will have a better time in the lab than I would have on any date you'd arrange for me."
Gaila put her hands on her hips. "You, Nyota Uhura, are a lost case. No wonder people are saying things about you when you meet with Spock on Valentine's Day."
Nyota let out a breath and laid down, staring at the ceiling. "Don't even remind me of that. Just today, he told me someone sent an anonymous letter to his head of department and he was called to her office."
Gaila stared. "You're joking."
"No."
She sat down on the bed next to her. "Oh my God, I'm sorry. What happened?"
Nyota closed her eyes. "He actually treated the whole thing like one big joke. Said it was a formality and it was interesting to find out how such processes worked."
Gaila laughed. "That's Vulcan sense of humour for you. Never makes a joke in his life, and suddenly a disciplinary hearing is the most amusing thing in the whole universe."
"It wasn't a disciplinary hearing, he just talked to his superior," Nyota muttered. Now that she thought about it, she wasn't sure she wasn't slightly offended that he treated the idea that he could be romantically involved with her like such a joke. She shook her head. She was being absurd. It wasn't like she wanted to be romantically involved with him, and after all, he was a Vulcan. It really was ridiculous.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"You once mentioned that you found your knowledge about my home disproportionate to mine about yours, and that you set out to make it right. I believe I have a similar quest in mind now." Nyota stated during dinner on the so much discussed Thursday. The cafeteria was almost empty, since most students were eating out, and it was pleasantly quiet. "You know precisely where I was born, what schools I studied...I only know you come from Vulcan and who are your parents, that's all."
"What do you desire to know?"
Nyota considered. "Well, where exactly are you from, to begin with?"
"I was born in Shi'Kahr, although as a young child I have lived on Earth for a time, when my father was posted here. Since the beginning of my schooling, however, I have lived in Shi'Kahr again."
She tried to remember. "Shi'Kahr...that's right next to The Forge, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"So the proper heart of Vulcan...how does Lady Amanda deal with living there?" She was curious.
"I realize it is not probably easy for her, however, she never complained," Spock stated.
Nyota smiled a little. "I imagine she wouldn't. So, school in Shi'Kahr...what about college? I must have read it in your CV, but I don't remember."
"Shi'Kahr Academy, too."
"So you basically just spent your entire life in Shi'Kar, and then suddenly moved to Earth and started the Academy?" Nyota clarified.
"Yes."
And he'd thought she might have had trouble with moving to America. "It must have been...difficult to adjust."
"It would have been difficult to adjust regardless of how much I moved in my youth – I was changing planets and cultures."
The indirect admission that he had, indeed, had a hard time of it, made Nyota feel a pang of sadness. She sighed. "You should be teaching Interspecies Ethics, you know,"
His eyebrows went up. "How did you come to that conclusion?"
"Well, you have mixed heritage background and you have lived for years among a different species, and you have mostly successfully adapted. You are bound to know something about it." She sighed. "Commander Jones, on the other hand, gives the impression that the only alien he has ever seen was E.T. the Extraterrestrial."
One of the eyebrows continued even higher. "Thank you for your trust, but I think I will keep to my own specializations. Agreeing to such an argument could be dangerous."
"Why?" Nyota was confused.
"This is Starfleet Academy. Most courses here deal with non-terrans one way or another. You could make an argument that I should teach Advanced Phonology, for example, because I have learned a foreign language nearly perfectly, in spite of having a differently formed pharynx. It is a slippery slope. I would be teaching half the courses at the Academy before I could object."
She laughed. This was definitely a joke on his part. Amazing. "Well, keep to your sciences, then," she replied, "but bear in mind that generations of students are going to pay for it by being hopeless in interspecies ethics. The next diplomatic scandal Starfleet causes is going to be your fault."
Spock grew serious, as far as Nyota could tell. "Is Commander Jones really that bad?"
She nodded. "Worse. You don't want to know."
"Would in this case your dislike of reporting be overcome, if someone complained?" He enquired.
She thought for a moment. "Yes. Yes, it would. There are very few subjects at the Academy which I consider as important as interspecies ethics, and so I think it is a serious thing that the course is not taught well."
Spock just inclined his head in response.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
AN: I have said this privately in a couple of review responses, but I'll say it again here, since I've gotten this far in the story. The official information says that Spock taught Advanced Phonology and Interspecies Ethics. Apart from that, he programmed the Kobayashi Maru test (because obviously linguists and philosophers are precisely the people you ask to program something), and he is a science officer, so he must be a natural scientist, too. Now, I know Spock is a genius, but this is simply not how it works at institutions of higher learning. You specialize in something. I guess you can have two specializations, if you're good and they're not too far from each other (even though you'd still be better in one than the other), but you don't just teach everything. So I ignored what the official website said and kept just science and programming, because they are what is mentioned in the films. However, I couldn't really help myself and had to put in this little sarcastic dab at their idea of Mr. Spock Knows Everything Best.