Over the course of the week, Amanda taught Elle conversational Vulcan and the basics of reading it. In English characters, not Vulcan script. Let's not get crazy here.

Vulcan was hard on the throat. Lots of hard consonants and what Amanda called 'fricatives'. Elle took to drinking hot tea after her language lessons to soothe her throat-fig leaf tea with honey and lemon. It was her mom's home remedy, from Elle's grandma. On the fourth day, Elle was able to drink it without feeling desperately homesick. She only felt terribly homesick, which was an improvement.

"Mene sakhet ur-seveh," Elle repeated slowly.

Amanda smiled. "Good job. Sounded like a native. Now, this is a big one. Arie'mnu."

"Passion's mastery," Elle said, remembering the translation.

Amanda blinked. "How- how do you know that?"

"That's what it means, right?"

"That's not the official translation, though," Amanda said. "You won't find that in a Federation database. How could you possibly know that?"

Elle forced down a blush. There was no way, no way, she was going to admit to owning one hundred and thirty Star Trek TOS novels, including all the ones with Vulcan as its main setting, or having practically memorized the bits of Surak's theology that were in those books, including the concept of mastery over one's emotions. That was fangirling too far. "I read it somewhere," she said finally, completely aware her ears were on fire.

Lady Amanda proved her diplomatic mastery by moving on from the subject and showing her how to actually pronounce it and recognize it in both English/Standard letters and Vulcan script. Then they moved on to the concept of 'cthia, or truth. "This is going to come up a lot, especially as you read the works of Surak and of others during the Reformation period. And, everything after that. Which reminds me, here." Amanda handed her a PADD. "These are the writings of Surak, in the translation that Sarek feels is most understandable and accurate for English."

Elle swiped to the title page. 'Translated by Amanda Grayson.' She looked up. "Is this you?" She started to grin. "That's so cute."

Amanda just smiled. "Sarek would die before admitting he's biased, but, not to brag, it is the most accurate translation. That's how we met, actually, arguing over a translation."

Elle would die before admitting she knew that because she read their meet-cute love story in a novel. "Awww," she said instead. "You're amazing, Lady Amanda."

The ambassador's wife just smiled graciously. She glanced at the chronometer and stood. "I'm going to meet Sarek for dinner. Join us?"

"No thank you," Elle said politely, standing to see her teacher out. "See you tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow," Amanda confirmed. "Good night."

"Night." Elle watched the door close, and plopped back on the sofa, excited to start reading. "You are such a nerd," she told herself mock-disgustedly. "This is why you didn't have any friends."

She spent the night reading and finally fell into an exhausted sleep at 0349.

Elle woke up in a panic three hours later. "Computer, lights!" she ordered, hoping frantically she was still in the same place. "Time!"

The lights came up, iluminating her bedroom in the Enterprise. "The time is 0612, standard ship's time," the computer announced.

She was still here. She hadn't died.

Elle took a few deep breaths to steady herself, and slid back under the covers. She grabbed the PADD again and started reading from where she'd left off.

Cast out fear. There is no room for anything else until you cast out fear.

She stopped, shaken. "How do you cast out a fear that's legit, though?" she asked the PADD. The text didn't say anything about that, just about mastering your emotions. What if you didn't know how?

Elle didn't go back to sleep.

-/\-

Two days later, the Enterprise arrived at Babel. Elle went to say goodbye to Lady Amanda and Sarek. "Thank you so much for everything," she told them, and gave Amanda a hug.

Amanda ignored Spock and Sarek's mildly scandalized looks and hugged her back tightly. "It was my pleasure, Elle. I left my comm address on the PADD so you can let me know how you're doing with your studies. And if you need anything, call me. I mean it."

Elle smiled. "Thank you." She looked at Sarek. "Live long and prosper, Ambassador."

He inclined his head toward her. "Peace and long life, young one."

Elle excused herself to let Spock say his goodbyes in private (private meaning Captain Kirk stayed for moral support), and started to walk back to her quarters. A vague sense of panic hit her as she realized that the Enterprise was going to be headed back towards Federation space, which meant she had less than three months to convince an entire organization that she wanted to stay on the Enterprise.

She entertained the notion of handcuffing herself to the warp core like an old-time suffragette or a protester and giggled to herself. Giotto would have an aneurysm and she would be kicked off the ship for sure.

"Elle!" Kirk called.

She paused and let the two officers catch up to her. "Captain?" she asked.

He was about to say something and then paused. "Are you all right?" he asked instead, frowning at her. "You have some pretty impressive dark circles under your eyes."

"I've been reading a lot," Elle said.

"The recommended amount of sleep for a human teenager is nine to ten hours a night," Spock said, raising an eyebrow.

Elle bounced on her toes awkwardly. "Um, I'll go to bed early, I guess."

"Talk to Doctor McCoy if you're having trouble sleeping," Kirk said, genuine concern on his face.

And tell him what? She was scared of the dark? Scared of dying in her sleep? Not like that hadn't already happened. "I will," Elle said, and could almost feel the whoosh of a chancla coming straight at her from her mother across the multiverse for lying to someone. She wouldn't be surprised if her mother right now wasn't reaching for her sandal in some automatic mom-response. The mental image made her snicker silently.

"Good. Anyway, now that our guests are gone and the ship is ours again, we can start your classes. On the computer in your quarters you'll find your schedule. If it's too much or you want to change the order of subjects, you can talk to Spock and we can find a schedule that works for everyone, all right?" Kirk gave her a stern look. "I don't want you to just agree blindly because you don't want to get in the way. This is all new for you and we want to help you get your feet in this century, not drown you. Understand?"

Elle could see in his eyes, he genuinely wanted her to succeed. She swallowed past the lump in her throat. "Thank you, captain," she whispered, glancing down.

He patted her shoulder in silent reassurance and said, "I'll see you tomorrow evening, then." And he and Spock moved on down the hall.

-/\-

Elle made a beeline for her quarters and pulled up the school schedule. "All right, what do we got?"

She sighed in dismay. A days and B days. Just like regular school. Even her homeschool program at home had A and B days. And there were no weekends in space! "This is why the gods have abandoned this timeline," Elle groaned dramatically, and got over it. "What do I have tomorrow?"

Federation History with Cmdr Samir, 0900. Ooh, she could sleep in. Or wake up early and do, like, exercise or something. Or, wait. The next slot was Gym, 1030, supervised by Giotto. Oh boy. After that, 1200, lunchtime in the mess hall under general supervision. She got an hour lunch, nice. Then from 1300 to 1430, Math (it didn't say which kind) with Chekov. Then straight to Engineering with Scotty until 1600. Federation Standard language lessons with Uhura until 1730, then dinner in the mess hall. After that, she had free time, although there was a note from Doctor McCoy that she'd better find herself a hobby, and he attached a list of clubs on the Enterprise.

B days were slightly more terrifiyng. Math at 0900, then Gym. After lunch, Elective with Sulu till 1430. Then she had Sciences with Spock (she was going to die). Then at 1600 Biology with McCoy (or Nurse Chapel). And after dinner, she had Federation Literature with Captain Kirk (depending on whether or not he was done with his paperwork).

This whole thing, of course, was dependent on whether or not the officer in question was needed on something higher priority, in which case Elle would be supervised by Maintenance or the yeomen. Or Requisitions. Or Medical. Whoever was free.

"Nothing like a good dose of uncertainty to start the school year," Elle said cheerfully. She glanced again at the list. Nothing said anything about school supplies. Did one need school supplies in the 23rd century? Guess not.

She still had the whole day to do nothing. So, Elle grabbed her sweater and put on her shoes, and went down to the rec deck where the games were. She joined a group watching some old-fashioned British murder mystery that took place on a 22nd century space station. BBC was still around, then.

Elle's eyes lit up as she realized the potential. "Doctor Who," she whispered, and silently squeed at the possibilities. She reached over a redshirt ensign for the popcorn on the table.