Chapter Three
First Tests

Commander Charles Tucker had taken a late morning in, after the extensive work he had done the previous night after saying 'goodnight' to their new 'guest' and then resuming his duties; after a delay of several hours; in the Engineering Room. Now dressed and ready for work, he pushed the button to open the door to his quarters and almost collided with "Tia."

The young Auran was just reaching for the annunciation button and stepped back in even greater surprise. Recovering her composure quickly, she smoothed the material of her dress.

She reached out and took his right hand, bringing it up so she could place her lips to his inner wrist for a brief moment. It was not a kiss, just a touch of her lips before she let him go. Not knowing what to do, he did not try to copy the gesture.

She smiled up at him. "Good af-ter-noon Shar-les." She enunciated very carefully. So carefully in fact that he looked at her closely.

"Is something wrong?"

"No thing wrong is, Shar-les. I … I … I am ..." She floundered for several moments, and then stamped her foot in frustration. "Fringat!"

"Tia …" He began apprehensively, noticing that several passersby had turned in response to her fiery expletive. "Is something wrong with the UT?"

"I Hoshi asked to off it switch." He realized that her lips were matching her words; she was actually speaking English, though with a very distinctive Auran accent and syntax.

"Why?"

"I… I…" He noticed in her hesitation that they were not alone. Several who had stopped had not resumed their course.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" He asked in irritation, his implication clear; 'If you don't have a post, I'll find one for you'. The corridor emptied in short order. "Come in, please." He stepped back, ushering the pretty Auran into his room. She stepped past him, embarrassed and humiliated.

"I your friends shamed have."

"Don't worry about them. There's no problem. But why would you do this?"

"Wanted I your tongue to dres – to 'learn'. I do want to on an ut depend not."

"On a what? Oh, the UT." She nodded. "You don't want to depend on a UT. Well, I can sure understand that." She looked very uncomfortable. "Won't you sit down?" When she was settled, he asked: "So, what have you learned?"

"My mouth shut to keep."

He laughed before her forlorn expression registered. "I'm sorry, Tia, I didn't mean to laugh. I wasn't laughing at you." She shook her head, looking down.

"Foolish I am. Ready not, but gisnart … but fool. Wait could not. Used ut to me give words, rehearsed when to the Bridge Hoshi went this ilinta, but balys … knotted my tongue."

He sat down opposite her. "You're not a fool. I can understand you. What is it you wanted to say?"

After a few seconds she looked up, took a deep breath and steeled herself. But then she looked away again. "Fringatye. I gendlerrs duplendi am!"

"No. I really want to hear. What did you rehearse?"

x

When with his silent encouragement she could meet his eyes, she took a deep breath, steeled herself again and began to recite. "'Good af-ter-noon, Shar-les. I am want to at speak you my own words in, not those of an ut, becase I to understand be off Enterprise want. I ask have Hoshi Sato me to English teach, that may I you speak to and to know what you say is it'."

Her relief at reaching the end is palpable. "Well, I think that's just fine."

"Did I right it say?"

"You said it just fine." She smiled, and to Trip it seemed to light up the entire room. "I'd love to help teach you."

"I would it love too. Teach me to please."

"'Please teach me to?'" She nodded. "Requests, like questions, come up at the last syllable." He looked at the chronometer on the wall. "Tia, I would love to start now, but I have to get ready for my shift."

"That is … all right?" He nodded. "Hoshi me is my room in meeting after linch."

"Linch?"

"Daai. We at breakquick meet did, now the second part of her shaft she me with spend."

Trip tried to bite his lip without her seeing it. "Breakfast and lunch."

"Breakfast and lunch," she repeated gratefully.

'This is going to be interesting,' he thought, standing up. "How about if we meet in your quarters at 19:30 and we'll go over what you learned."

She smiled shyly. "I would that like much, Shar-les."

"Then it's a date."

The look she gave him was confused indeed.

xxx

Trip did not see Tia for the rest of the shift, but could barely get his mind off the enchanting young woman. Of course, from the moment he had laid eyes on her, barely two days ago, she had captivated him. Now, she engaged his thoughts even more intently. He told himself that he was flattering himself, but there seemed to be some bond between them that he could not quite define. She had told him now that she was learning English so that she could speak to him, not so much to others, but to –

'Come on, Charlie-boy, get your head out of the clouds,' he admonished himself viciously. 'She is just a friend, and a lost soul at that, and what interest would she have in an old Southern boy like you? Wake up and smell the deuterium, for Christ-sake.'

xxx

Captain Jonathan Archer spotted Hoshi further down the corridor as he headed for the Mess Hall and dinner in the Captain's mess, and for just a moment he indulged in an appreciative view of her trim figure as she walked ahead of him. Catching himself with a silent but stern reprimand, based mostly on what any member of his crew might think if they saw the look in his eyes, he called out to her. She turned, and he carefully schooled his expression.

"Oh, Captain, hi." It was far from the snap-to-attention and salute that might have been the response on another ship, but to him it was far more in keeping with his preferred style of command, so long as when the shooting started –

"I was just coming to see you. We didn't have any time to chat today, but T'Pol told me about your extracurricular duties." She had come late for her shift and then taken the afternoon 'off' from her duties to devote to Tia's training, had taken an hour off for her own dinner, and was now just on her way back.

"Yes, sir; though I guess, if you come right down to it, the Bridge would technically be 'extracurricular'."

He nodded. "I never thought of it that way, but you're right." He fell into step with her. "So; how's it feel to be back in the classroom?"

"Good. Tia's a very good student. She learns quickly and is very motivated."

"I wonder how much of that 'motivation' has to do with our Chief Engineer."

Hoshi looked up with a grin. "A lot more than she's going to let on."

"So, a match made in heaven?"

"You've known him longer than I have. You tell me."

"I will when he figures it out."

They stopped before a particular crew quarters. "I was just about to go in for another lesson."

"I think I'll stop by and say 'hello', see how she's getting on. That is …" he gave her a sidelong glance, "if it's all right with the teacher."

She grinned. "I think we can find some time in the class schedule. Besides, I'm sure she'd relish a chance to try out what she's learned." Hoshi pushed the button beside the door, and a buzz sounded inside. "She's really developed quite well." The door slid open, and Hoshi saw Archer's face freeze. She turned, saw Tia standing in the doorway –

The lovely Auran was wearing a pale blue skirt, and nothing more.

x

"Wrenaouq Archer!" she exclaimed delightedly. She took his hand, raising his inner wrist to her lips for a brief touch before releasing it and continuing in as delighted a tone. Archer was too stunned to move.

"Dampris qulara alyanti –." She halted herself sharply, noticing and completely misinterpreting their expressions. "Captain Archer, Hoshi, good evening," she enunciated the greeting carefully. "Will you klusel … come in?"

She was mildly surprised by the slightly stunned looks on the faces of her guests.

"I… I have to be … on the Bridge," Archer temporized. "I just stopped by to see you – to see how you were… coming along," he finished lamely, eyes locked very carefully on hers.

"Cusla …" She started to exclaim, but then cut herself short. "I well am, Captain." She spoke carefully. "I since morning study have."

"Well, I'm, err, glad to see you - you've been … practicing. If you'll excuse me, I have to … go to the Bridge …"

"Oh. May losdrio li … I come?" She corrected herself. She did not quite literally leap at the opportunity, but her voice and expression carried her feelings.

"Er…"

"I have inside this palysre … this quarter all daytime been, except when with Shar-les I was, and when last I saw the Bridge it was very…"

"Perhaps another time, Miss Anlor. At the moment, it would be a bad time. I'm heading to my quarters for a shower."

"But I thought you say did that you were going 'have to go to the Bridge' edal… um, to be."

"No…" Though he kept his eyes very carefully locked on hers, he could not miss seeing all of her. "I think a cold shower is more in order. Excuse me, please."

Very carefully avoiding lowering his eyes, Archer turned and walked as sedately as he possibly could, leaving Hoshi with the Auran.

Somewhat more subdued at the unusual event, she asked: "Wrong something is?"

Hoshi nodded, stepping inside. "Very, very wrong."

x

When the door slid shut, Hoshi thought quickly about how she could tell the woman, without turning on the UT, just why the Captain had been so distressed. Her words came out in a distressed rush. "Tia, you - I don't know a lot about your world - all right, I don't know anything about your world - but I heard about what happened in the Sick Bay the first day you were aboard, and someone should have spoken to you and I guess it's up to me."

Tia put up her hands defensively. "Hoshi, you too fast speak. Trinasli nyasi … I understand do not."

Hoshi sighed. Should she say it in English, try to convey it in what Auran she knew, or turn on the damned UT? "Tia, you cannot go about that way."

"What way?"

"These!" She cupped her own breasts. "No, those." She pointed in response to Tia's look of incomprehension. "Tia, you cannot …" By main strength she shut herself up, seeing that Tia clearly did not comprehend. "Look, Dr. Phlox told me about what happened in the Sick Bay, when Commander Tucker was there. You took off your clothes right in front of him. And now you meet us at the door, meet Captain Archer at the door, and stand there with your breasts … stand talking to him with your breasts … expos …" She could see she was simply not getting through to the girl. "Tia, a woman does not allow a man to see her breasts. Or her vagina."

"Her what?" Hoshi pointed at the appropriate part of the girl's anatomy. "Why not"?

"Be –." Suddenly Hoshi was caught up short.

x

In that moment she realized that the reasons that were patently obvious to her; that she had learned years ago from her own mother long before she even had any breasts of her own; were human, Earthwoman reasons. Her mind flashed over so many reasons; and every one she thought of, and had to reject, was based upon human conceptions of sex, modesty and privacy.

But the young woman before her was an Auran; and Hoshi realized she simply did not have an answer for her. She wanted to give her an intelligent reason, not a 'knee-jerk' reaction, but the truth was that she couldn't think of one. She couldn't even reconcile her own reactions to the custom of topless bathing being all right in the Mediterranean countries on Earth itself. What could she say to actually impose human standards on someone who was not human?

She realized she could probably think a lot more clearly if the woman in question were not standing before her almost naked. "Look, I'll be glad to tell you; but could you first put something on? A top?" Tia looked uncomprehendingly at her. "A shirt? At least a bra?"

"Yes, Hoshi." She answered, somewhat more subdued.

As the Auran started to turn, Hoshi looked upward imploringly. 'Oh, Mother. Where are all your Mother/daughter talks now?'

"Hoshi?" Tia had hesitated.

"Yes?"

Tia turned back to her, quite lost. "What is a 'bra'?"