Chapter threeeee we get a little more Spock in this one! I hope you enjoy it!
The next day Alex reported to the transporter bay to get up to the Enterprise, after checking in and getting clearance to get onto the ship she was given a transporter group number. It took a little time, but the crew of the Enterprise seemed to have this down to a science.
As she stepped onto the transporter pad she looked at the person next to her who smiled at her. "You okay?" she asked, noticing the hesitant smile Alex gave her back.
"This is my first time," she admitted.
"Just stand still," she assured her. "It'll be almost instantaneous."
With that there was a strange feeling, like the air around her had gone hazy, it felt like white noise and then she was in a room, the people around her stepping off of the transporter pad. Alex stumbled a little, the woman who had been standing next to her catching her arm.
"Well I did not like that." Alex shook her head.
"Well we're on board now," she assured Alex who shook her head and then followed the other woman.
"I'm okay," she assured the other woman who kept her arm on Alex's shoulder.
"Good," she smiled warmly at her as they approached the door, Alex was surprised to see Mr. Spock standing there holding what looked almost like an ipad but more technical looking as he spoke to people. "Go ahead," the girl smiled at Alex who smiled in return and then stepped up to Spock.
"Alex Rameriez," he spoke her name and the screen changed. "You have a PADD?"
"Yes Sir," she replied. "But I have no idea how to use it."
"I see," he hesitated before looking at the screen. "Scan it above this one," he directed her and after a moment of her digging through her backpack she found it and held it close to the one he held. After a moment some files popped up and she looked at him. "Press accept files." she did what he said and then nodded.
"Thank you Sir," she nodded to him.
"Ms. Ramirez, a moment," he requested as she started to walk to the door. She paused and looked over at him. "You will need to be able to use your PADD to work and it is imperative that all members of the ship know how to use the PADD. I will be available after 20:00 for instruction on how to use it."
"Yes Sir, Mr. Spock."
"You are dismissed."
After waiting in the hall for a moment the girl who had helped her came jogging over to her. "Is he going to stand there all day?" Alex asked as the two started to walk down the hall together.
"Oh no, the crew has been filing onto the ship for the past few days," she explained. There's only about fifty or sixty people who are coming on today."
"Well, at least there's that." Alex shrugged.
With the help of the kind girl from the transporter, who she learned was named Laura White, Alex was able to find her room. To her surprise it was bigger than her quarters on Earth, there was a bedroom, and a sitting room all to herself, with a small table, chairs and a shelf for what she assumed would be personal items.
After finding her way to the office where she could pick up her uniform she was given a package with the uniforms inside it and sighed. "Oh, and Alex Ramirez right?" the girl working in the office asked.
"Yeah?" Alex looked at her, away from the bag she was peeking inside of.
"The Captain left you a note," she said, handing it to Alex who took it, slightly more interesting in the note for the time being than the uniforms.
"Thanks," she said as she walked to the girl before turning and walking away, opening the note as she walked away. "Alex, report to me when you've had a chance to change into your uniform. -Kirk"
Alex made her way back to her quarters and opened her bag of uniforms, scowling at the dress she was supposed to wear, but put it on as well as the tights and the boots that had been included in her uniform pack. After putting them all on Alex moved to the mirror by the closet and picked up her hairbrush, brushing her hair into the tight bun she had worn every day in the Air Force, wishing she had a comb or hairspray to make the bun stay tight in its shape but deciding the next time they stopped somewhere where she could buy supplies she'd buy some.
After getting ready Alex went to the elevator, taking it to the bridge where she stepped off the elevator and then looking at the bridge for a moment she took it in. Everyone worked like clockwork, like they had been doing it for years- which she guessed they had been doing it for years. Everyone at their station, doing their jobs seamlessly as Kirk called to one of the men "Mr. Sulu, Warp two."
"Aye Captain." the man replied before hitting some buttons before she stepped forward.
"Captain." she called and he turned his chair, smiling when he saw her.
"Alex, welcome aboard." he said. "How do you like the uniform?" she looked down at the red long sleeved dress before back at him with a look of slight distaste.
"It's much different then my old uniform." she told him, not missing the look of amusement on Kirk's face.
"I understand," he nodded as she stepped closer to where he sat. "Come on over Alex, you'll want to see this." he told her as he gestured to the place next to him. "Mr. Sulu?"
"Captain?"
"Let's go." With that Mr. Sulu put the ship onto Warp Speed and they started to move for the first time in Alex's life. "Put the picture up." Kirk called to someone who put the picture up on the screen, Alex watching as the stars seemed to fly by them, her hand coming to rest on the arm of Kirk's chair as emotion swelled in her chest.
She was actually in space. When she was just in the halls or her quarters it was easy to think she was just on a cruise ship or something, there were no windows in her quarters, there were hardly any windows around, and yet seeing it, actually seeing space, it took her breath away.
Her heart ached for the people from her time who would have dreamed about seeing a sight like this, the people who devoted their lives to space and had never made it, and here she was, standing on a ship going faster than scientists in her time ever thought was possible, going to spend the next five years in space on a ship that she never could have dreamed of.
She felt a tear roll down her face as she was overcome with the emotion of it and quickly wiped it away, sniffling for a moment before looking at Kirk who was watching her with a small smile.
"Thank you Captain," she spoke softly.
"You're welcome Lieutenant," he said just as softly before she took a breath and then looked around the room, her eyes landing on Spock who had been watching her as closely as the Captain had.
"Mr. Spock, would you mind showing Lieutenant Ramirez what you're doing over there?" Kirk asked as he looked away from her and back at the screen in front of them.
"Not at all. Lieutenant?" Spock asked and she walked over to him, standing at the railing and holding onto it as she listened to Spock speak while also taking occasional glances out the window.
She really was going where no one had gone before.
That evening she was in the mess hall when she ran into Laura from earlier and was surprised when Laura waved at her and asked her to join her. "Thanks," Alex smiled softly as she sat down with her reconstituted food, a plate of spaghetti, a salad and a glass of water.
"Alex, these are a few of the girls from Operations," Laura said as she gestured to the two other girls at the table. "Mindy works in communications, and Mahasri is an engineer," she introduced them. "Alex is the girl from the past." she explained making Alex roll her eyes.
"Oh thanks for that Laura," she smiled. "I'm more than just that I swear,"
"Oh but I've heard of you," Mahasri said, pushing her long brown hair over her shoulder. "One of my aunties was in the hospital you woke up at."
"Oh great, someone who knows what a mess I was when I woke up in this century," Alex chuckled awkwardly, Mahasri shaking her head.
"No no, she said you were very well behaved for someone who woke up in a whole different time."
"Yeah, what's it like? Like, do you miss the past?" Mindy asked, Alex shrugging as she stabbed at the meatball on her plate and popped it into her mouth.
"Well," she said with a mouthful. "It's interesting. I woke up-" she swallowed and then took a sip of her water. "I woke up and pretty much didn't have a job, money, an identity, nothing." she said. "Back in my time people would pay thousands to be able to get a fresh start like that." the girls all chuckled then. "But I mean, do I miss it? Sure, if I could I'd have put all of my music and tv shows and movies onto like a flash drive or something so I could still have my favorite stuff when I got to the future, but aside from that," she said thoughtfully and then shrugged. "Nah, not really."
Okay that was an absolute lie, but there was no way she was going to tell these girls, these strangers that she was incredibly homesick. "Wow," Mindy said in a breathless way that made Alex stare at her with a little uncertainty. She'd later find out that was just Mindy's voice but when she thought it was a reaction to Alex saying she didn't miss home- well she wasn't a fan.
As the girls ate dinner and talked about their days Alex found herself trying not to be too interested in what they were saying.
Yes, her therapist said she needed friends, but who the hell could relate to what she had been through?
When she realized someone had been asking her a question she looked up and tilted her head. "Sorry?" she asked.
"I heard you got to go onto the bridge for take off?" Laura asked.
"Yeah, Captain Kirk invited me up." Alex smiled softly, thinking about the sight of leaving the earth and flying into space.
"Oh, the Captain is so cute," Mindy sighed with a dreamy sigh. "How did you get invited up?"
"Well he hired me onto the Enterprise," Alex explained. "I met him about five days ago."
"Five days ago?" Laura asked. "Wow, that's amazing, the Captain must really like you." Alex could see Mindy pout a little at that but she shrugged in response.
"The Captain is nice but I don't think of him that way." she said. "I feel like he'll be more of a brother type."
"Do you have brothers?" Mindy asked as Alex took a bite of her food and chewed before answering:
"Not anymore." the girls were stunned silent before Alex grinned. "It's okay to laugh," she told them. "It's been two hundred and fifty years."
"You're a little twisted aren't you?" Mahasri asked with a smile, Alex grinning in response.
"You kinda had to be to be in the Air Force." she explained. "I had to be comfortable about a bunch of guys all the time so I had to be kind of twisted."
"That's incredible." Mahasri said thoughtfully. "I'm sure there's so much you can teach us about the way things used to be."
"Anything you want to know, I'm happy to tell you." Alex said as she sipped her water again.
It was the wrong thing to say because the rest of dinner was spent answering questions about the twenty first century.
After dinner Alex sat in her room, plucking away at her PADD when there was a knock on her door. "Come in," she called, setting the PADD down, assuming it would be Kirk or Laura, she blinked when she saw Spock before remembering what he had told her earlier. It had been such a long day getting used to her jobs and then seeing space for the first time and everything that she had completely forgotten that Spock said he'd help her figure out the PADD.
"Come in Sir," she said, standing up quickly, standing with her hands behind her back, waiting for him to enter.
"You keep your quarters warm," he commented as he stepped into the room.
"Is it too warm?" she asked, she had forgotten that after dinner she'd cranked the heat up because her room had been so cold. Sitting in a tank top and shorts was much more satisfying when it was warmer in the room.
"It is actually still cool to me," he replied as he approached her table and she nodded to the chair he stood behind.
"Please, sit." she said and he did just that, Alex sitting back down in her chair. "I'm from New Mexico, born and raised, it could get to one hundred and twenty on a really hot day."
"On the planet I'm from-"
"Vulcan, right?" she asked and he gave a small nod.
"It can get to one hundred and fifty." he told her and she stretched slightly as she thought about that.
"Dry heat or humid?"
"Very dry." he replied and she nodded.
"Well, at least there's that, I mean imagine one hundred and fifty with like ninety five percent humidity or something, that would be literal actual hell." she shook her head. "So is Vulcan a desert planet?" she questioned as he reached over and took her PADD and looked at the mess she had been making of it.
"It is," he replied. "We have three suns."
"I'd love to see it one day," she commented as she leaned over to see what he was doing as he cleared out all the different things she had opened. "Also, if I'm asking too many questions, please let me know- I wouldn't want to overwhelm you." she added making him look at her briefly.
"I don't mind." he said after a moment. "It is not common for humans to be particularly interested in my kind, nor my planet."
"Well that's rude." she commented, tucking one foot under her opposite leg. "But you're also the first person I've met from another planet." she added. "So I may have a lot of questions for you."
"I have many questions for you and your time in the twenty first century."
"I'm sure everyone has a lot of questions, I should just host a Q&A for the whole ship." she joked lightly before looking at Spock. "Okay, show me how to use this thing, I'm sure you have more important things to do than to listen to my tight five."
"Your tight five?" Spock raised one of his pointed eyebrows and she chuckled slightly.
"It's an expression from my time." she explained. "It's like stand up comedy- you know what never mind, it's stupid."
"Explain." he encouraged, setting the PADD down and she sighed with a slight blush before nodding.
"So in my time we had entertainers called stand up comics, and before a stand up comic had a full show to themself when they were popular they would have to share stage time with other performers, other comedians, so they had to do five minutes of comedy- because there were usually people on after them the idea of the tight five came up, you have five minutes to make the audience laugh and that's it." she explained and Spock thought about that for a moment before nodding.
"Your species is one that enjoys laughter. It makes sense that some humans would be professionals at causing laughter."
"Well, some of them were funnier than others." she explained as she picked up the PADD. "What about on Vulcan?"
"We don't have comedians on Vulcan." he answered and she scoffed lightly.
"I mean, I probably could have told you that." she commented as she looked at him. "But I mean, do you have entertainers? People who act or sing?"
"Such vocations are considered illogical." Spock explained.
"So what do people do on your planet?" she asked and he looked at her thoughtfully before setting down his own pad.
"Some dance in ceremonies." he told her and she lit up, Alex couldn't sing, but she could definitely dance.
"Show me?" she asked and he gave her an exasperated look.
"That is a very personal request Ms. Ramirez."
"If you show me a dance, I'll let you ask any question about the twenty first century you want." she told him as she looked at him eagerly. "Please Mr. Spock? Please show me a dance?"
"I will show you one." he said after a moment of thought. "It is a dance we teach our children in nursery school."
Alex watched as Spock performed the short dance, of course if it was taught to kids in nursery school she would expect it to be short so the kids would be able to remember it. After he sat back down she grinned at him, resting her chin in the palm of her hand before gesturing to him.
"Go ahead, ask your deeply personal question." she encouraged him. Spock was silent for a moment before he looked over at her.
"Why did your people not respect you as a soldier in your time?" he asked and she looked at him, surprised before letting out a small sigh.
"You want me to explain the concept of sexism to you Spock?" she asked as she shook her head. "Okay."
It wasn't until later that Alex realized they never even talked about the PADDs because Spock had been asking her so many questions about her time in the military and she had been asking him so many questions about his time on Vulcan.
It was interesting though, somehow the experiences he'd had had been so similar to her own experiences and for the first time, Alex wondered if maybe she finally found someone in this century who understood where she was coming from.
Next chapter will be out soon!
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