"Lt. Uhura was right. Your fluency for module 3 Vulcan is satisfactory," Spock pronounced.
Elle cleared her throat and resisted the urge to squeal. Instead she said, "Wait. You doubted Lt. Uhura?"
"I did not," Spock said firmly, and added, "I am aware of adolescent humans' predilection to sow divisions amongst their parental figures."
Elle gave him an innocent smile and didn't reply. She handed him back the PADD with the Vulcan language class on it.
He tapped a few buttons and handed it back to her. "You are approved for Module 4."
"Yay," Elle said, scanning the lesson titles. This one had more Old High vocab and a lot more philosophy/poetry/culutural essays in it.
Spock handed her another datapad. "Instead of today's science lesson, you will be taking this placement test."
"Placement test?" Elle echoed, accepting the datapad automatically. "Into what? Did I finally make it into high school?"
Spock gave her a stern look. "I am also aware of adolescent humans' tendency to self-deprecating humor, and it does your psyche and your self-worth no favors, ax'nav."
She stared at him, her cheeks hot. "What?"
He raised an eyebrow at her. "I was not aware you were hearing impaired," he said.
Ouch. Elle ducked her head, her instinctive self-doubt easing a bit. She looked through the placement test headers. "What curriculum is this for?" she asked instead. She came to the essay questions section. It was all in Vulcan. "Spock. Spock. Is this a placement test to the VSA?"
"It is," he said.
"I may not be a 21st century idiot anymore but I'm definitely not VSA quality," Elle said, dropping the PADD on the counter like it was a scorpion. "And I'm not even sixteen!"
"The placement tests are not logged in VSA records, only the entrance exams are," Spock said calmly, "and many times ones grades and accomplishments are sufficient for an invitation without having to apply, in any case. This test is merely to measure your growth and provide a metric for your future classes, as the VSA is the highest standard of education in the Federation excepting Star Fleet Academy."
"So you don't want me to join the VSA," Elle asked, suddenly needing clarification.
He met her gaze, his eyes gentle. "I want you to do what you feel is best for your education, your happiness, and your future as a mission consultant to the Enterprise and the Federation, regardless of anyone else's preferences."
She gave him a smile. "Can I hug you?"
He rolled his eyes ceilingward. "A brief hug," he said, and when she hugged him he patted her on the back.
"Not to interrupt this incredibly tender moment," McCoy said from the doorway, where he was in fact interrupting this incredibly tender moment, "but I need your sign off on departmental transfers, Commander."
Elle went back to her datapad, but she didn't miss the fond smile McCoy was giving both her and Spock as the two officers discussed transferring a couple of exobiologists from Starbase 4.
"And we shall arrive at the site of the distress call in four hours," Spock reminded McCoy.
"Sickbay will be ready," McCoy retorted. "Don't you worry your pretty little head about it."
Elle choked on a giggle.
-/\-
"What are you making?"
"A tribble. For Captain Kirk."
Lt. Riley huffed a laugh. "Playing with fire, aren't ya?"
"He can't not accept it," Elle said, grinning fiendishly, and began to wield a texture-scraper to create the fur.
"Sickbay to Elle."
Elle answered the page. "Elle here, Bones, what's up?"
"Can you come down here?" McCoy asked, tense.
She frowned. "I'll be right there." She put everything away and hustled down to Sickbay. "What's wrong?"
"Elle have you been in Sickbay at all today?" Bones asked, looking solemn.
"No," Elle replied. "Today's not my Bio class. What's wrong?"
"Every since we came back from the planet systems have been glitching and now everyone's rifled through the medical stores," McCoy said, and gave her a stern parental look. "Do you know anything about it?"
Elle shook her head. "It wasn't me," she said honestly.
"All right then," he said. "Can you help the nurses do inventory? Whoever it was is gonna get an earful if they took anything."
"Sure." She went to join Chris and Lia in the medical supply rooms.
The lights flickered as they scanned item inventories and cabinets. "Another malfunction?" Chapel asked.
"Have we tried turning it off and on again?" Elle joked. "Everything in this cabinet's accounted for, Nurse." She heard the captain talking in the main ward, and then he was gone. She moved on to the next cabinet.
The all-call clicked on. "All hands, intruder alert. Intruders are aboard ship, unable to be detected by instruments." The comm crackled with heavy interference, shrieked, and cleared. Uhura forged on. "All hands to be issued phasers and communicators. Maintain alertness. Repeat, all hands to be issued-" The comm shrieked again and fell silent.
Elle shared a nervous glance with Chapel.
"Come on, Elle." Nurse Chapel took Elle's hand, and within minutes, Elle was strapping a phaser and a communicator to her waist. The belt was the smallest size they had, and it was still loose on her hips.
Lt. Martinez frowned at the sight. "We'll need to make you a custom equipment belt and holsters."
"Maybe after the intruders are dealt with?" Elle asked.
Martinez squeezed her shoulder with a bracing smile and went off to issue phasers to more crewmen.
Elle looked down at the phaser hanging off her waist and took a deep breath.
Something buzzed near her ear.
She swatted absently at it. "Bones, I'm fine," she said.
"Well that's good to hear," he said, from the other side of the room.
She looked up, startled. "Were you just scanning me?"
"No." He frowned. "Why?"
"I felt, like there was a bug or something. Does the Enterprise have bees?"
"If they did I feel like you would've found them already, the way you and Sulu carry on about your earthworms." McCoy grabbed a tricorder and scanned her head. "Well you're not hallucinating. Same as Jim. Nothing wrong with you."
Elle bit her lip, scowling. This felt familiar, something itching at the back of her mind as persistently as the buzzing in the air. "I guess." She checked the chrono. "I've got math with Ensign Rohan, can I go?"
"Nurse Chen, walk with Elle to her class," McCoy ordered. "I don't want you wanderin' the corridors alone, Elle."
Nurse Chen walked her to one of the break rooms used by Ops, and Ensign Rohan smiled at her. "Ready to talk about imaginary numbers?" he asked.
Elle groaned. "Sure, why not? We've already got imaginary insects, apparently."
He pulled up an instructional video made by a cheerful woman in a colorful classroom. "This professor explains it much better than me," he said.
They watched the video. "Why does this make sense?" Elle asked, scratching her head with her stylus. "It shouldn't make sense but it does."
"See?" Rohan said. "Now work on this problem and I'll make us some tea."
Elle made it through the first few steps of the math equation and paused to drink her tea. She wrinkled her nose. "It's kind of bitter," she said.
Rohan frowned and took a sip of his own tea. "I didn't oversteep it," he said. "There's nothiiiiiiiiiii-"
Elle blinked. She blinked again in shock as Rohan seemed to slow down and freeze, teacup held in mid-air. "What..." She shook her head, trying to clear the sudden blur out of her eyes. "Ensign?"
The world tilted underneath her feet and she gripped her head as a sharp pain lanced through her brain. The world went black.
-/\-
The world faded back into normal speed, full of sound and fury and a face full of carpet.
"-no right to transform anyone else!" The captain was shouting. Why was he shouting?
"But it's a child!" said a pleading, feminine voice. "We haven't seen a child in so long!"
"Even more reason to leave her alone!" Kirk retorted. "If anything happens to her-"
Elle blinked fully awake, rolling away from the captain's angry voice. "Wha's goin' on?" she mumbled. Her limbs felt heavy, uncoordinated, and then a second later she felt fine.
"Easy," Kirk said, helping her sit up.
She shrank back into his side when she caught sight of the three humanoids standing above them. "What's going on?" she asked. "I was just doing math with Ensign..." She trailed off.
Ensign Rohan sat at the table, holding a communicator to his mouth, alarm on his motionless features.
Elle turned back to stare at the three intruders dressed in silver fabric. Scalos. Buzzing. Slo-mo. "Oh," she said, her cheeks burning at her own stupidity. This was an episode, and she'd totally missed it.
"It's all right," Kirk said, squeezing her shoulder gently. "We've been accelerated to their speed. It's all right."
"We didn't mean to frighten you," the woman in charge said, looking terribly earnest. "It's only, we've had no children in so long-" She held out a hand to help Elle up. "Come, what's your name, child?"
"My name is Elle." She got up on her own, ignoring the woman's delicate frown. "What do you want with me?"
"Nothing, just, oh, you're so young." The woman cupped Elle's face in her hands. "So fragile."
Elle pulled away from her and hid behind Captain Kirk. "Well if you were just gonna stare at me creepily you didn't have to speed me up, too," she pointed out.
"Now, of course, you have even more reason to help us, captain," one of the men pointed out, giving him a Look.
Kirk frowned and put an arm around Elle protectively. "Don't you dare threaten her. She has nothing to do with this."
The woman stepped forward and tried to pet Elle's hair again. "You're so young," she said again. "You will be the most treasured of our new civilization."
Elle shrank backwards. "Listen, lady, you may be competing for skimpy clothes with Wonder Woman but I only accept the baby reaction meme from the modern Diana Prince and not some Alvin backup singer."
The woman frowned. "I believe our translators are malfuctioning," she said.
Kirk snorted.
Elle scooted around behind him and frowned from behind his shoulder. "I meant, don't touch me."
"It's all right," the woman said gently, "we won't hurt you. None of us will hurt you. I'm Deela, the queen of the Scalosians. We're taking you and Captain Kirk to our home planet to live, won't that be nice?"
"No," Elle said, "I want to stay here."
"That can be arranged," the grim man said.
"No," Deela said sharply. "If this isn't viable, we need a younger generation to carry on."
Elle shook her head. "Viable for what?"
"Their men are sterile," Kirk said grimly. "We've been recruited to assist. They're gonna deep freeze the Enterprise and keep us, apparently."
"I will probably make you a princess," Deela told Elle, "keeper of all the knowledge in case I and my sister die before we bear children. It will be so nice to have a young one around."
Elle stared at her. "You're gonna Stockholm Syndrome me?"
"It happened to Compton," Kirk said. "If you don't burn out right away you adjust to the change and become, complacent, with it."
Elle shook her head. "I don't want to."
Deela gave Elle a beatific smile. "It's all right, child. Go to your quarters, pick out what you'd like to bring to Scalos. We'll be going down soon and I'm sure you'd like something of your own to bring with you."
"She needs a guard," the stern man said.
"Oh, Rael, please, what can she do?" Deela waved a hand. "Run along, now. I have to speak to Captain Kirk."
Elle hovered uncertainly.
"Go on," Kirk said, giving her a significant Look that read 'go find Spock'. "I have to speak to Deela."
Elle wrinkled her nose at him as in the next second he turned on the flirtatious charm. "I changed my mind, you're definitely Obi-Wan," she muttered, hurrying from the room before Rael the Grim could change his mind. "Flirting with your enemies. Ew."
She walked through the hallways, gingerly weaving around crewmen frozen in various postures. Where would Spock be at this time? She went to the computer panel on the wall and tapped at it.
It didn't register.
She tapped at it again. Nothing. Was it too fast for the sensor to catch it? She pressed her finger on the activation sensor for what seemed an eternity.
The wall panel activated.
"If I have to type out 'where is Commander Spock' it's gonna take me an hour," Elle realized. "I can probably search the whole ship by then."
So she did. Whatever modifications the Scalosians had made masquerading as "malfunctions" had fixed the doors and lifts to respond to them. Thinking of turbolifts going the same speed as Elle herself freaked her out so she took the stairs and ladders instead.
She found Spock and Bones in one of the Medical Labs, clustered around a cup of coffee and a mug of tea. Elle's mug of tea. They must've realized by now that Elle was gone. How long had she been unconscious from the transition? Never mind.
Elle stood right next to Spock. "Spock," she said slowly.
He tilted his head but it didn't seem to register.
She tried again. "Spock, it's me, it's Elle, I'm right here, me and Captain Kirk are on the ship but we're sped up."
No change in movement but as she watched with bated breath, his face changed to the beginnings of a microexpresion: suspicion.
Okay. He could hear her but he probably thought she was an intruder. Think, Elle, think. She paced the length of the lab. What could she use to communicate with them? In the episode they'd figured it out from Captain Kirk's recording on a data disk, but that was too slow. What else?
She rifled through the lab and the surrounding labs and offices, trying to find something to use. A stack of flimsi caught her eye. Paper. Of course. Of course. "Modern problems require modern solutions," she murmured to herself.
Except that in the 23rd century, flimsi came out of printers for hardcopy data. Nobody used pens or pencils.
Elle tried the synthesizer. It didn't react to her button-pressing. "Ugh."
She went through the rooms again, and found a tube of lipstick in a drawer in one of the nurse's offices. "Needs must," she said, and grabbed it. It was a deep red.
By the time she was done, the medical lab looked like a scene from a horror movie. "It's not blood, I swear," she murmured apologetically, as she covered all the surfaces in the room with flimsi and began to write out the details of the situation with the lipstick. On the last paper she wrote, "Please hurry, a'nirih." Hopefully that would be enough to convince Spock it was really Elle.
She set the lipstick down directly in Spock's eyeline, and left before any of the Scalosians could come looking for her.
Her stomach grumbled and she made her way to the rec deck. The synthesizers wouldn't accept her voice commands but hopefully someone had food on their tray that she could swipe.
Lt. Erickson had a bowl of stir-fy and rice. Elle picked it up. "Sorry," she said. "I'll get you a new lunch once this is all over."
He didn't reply. He couldn't.
Elle left the rec deck, unnerved by the unnatural stillness of her friends and family. Oh, they were moving all right, if you stayed still long enough to watch them, but it was an agonizing process categorizing their actions, millimeter by millimeter.
She found an unoccupied mess hall and sat down to eat. She should've swiped something to drink, too.
One of the Scalosians entered the room as she finished her food. "Come with me," he commanded.
"Why?" Elle shot back.
"It's time for us to go down to the planet."
"I don't want to," Elle said. "Where's Captain Kirk?"
"He's with Deela. Come along."
"No," Elle said, lifting her chin. "I want to go down with Captain Kirk or not at all."
The Scalosian gave her a tired sigh and tapped his communicator. "Rael, the girl doesn't want to go without the captain."
"Leave her," Rael said tiredly. "I'll get her in a moment when Deela is ready to go down."
"Understood." The Scalosian smiled at her. "Don't worry. It won't be long." He left.
Elle stifled a shudder. She'd have to play keepaway from Rael until Spock and McCoy managed to make some sort of antidote.