Elnor floated in the free fall room with his class partner, a half-human, half-Vulcan girl. This was a different girl than the one who had returned his greeting when he left campus for his treasured weekend with Picard and Laris. He was seriously considering asking the computer database just how many half-human, half-Vulcan girls were attending Starfleet Academy. There seemed to be a lot of them. Were human/Vulcan matings now a common thing? Close to his own age, her name, S'ong, made him wonder if her human parent and her Vulcan parent had reached a rather unusual compromise when naming her. Regardless, he found the sound of her name pleasant, although even if he hadn't he was learning to repress his natural inclination towards Absolute Candor. He hated having to refrain from bluntly stating what he was feeling, but doing so simply wasn't working with most of his classmates.
"Acclimatization to Working in Zero Gravity Conditions" wasn't his favorite class at the Academy, but he found all the training he had with the Qowat Milat nuns served him well with that, too. Spinning in midair as he lined up his blade to neatly severe someone's head wasn't that different from spinning in free fall while trying to perform other precision maneuvers. S'ong wasn't faring as well. She was closing her eyes for ever-lengthening periods of time in an attempt to keep from spewing her stomach contents. Elnor sincerely hoped she hadn't eaten much before this scheduled practice session. In the interest of giving students room to maneuver without constantly crashing into each other, the instructor had paired them off in twos to use the room. At least if she did vomit, Elnor thought, the contents should be easy to avoid.
As they maneuvered their bodies around one another, S'ong, with her eyes closed most of the time, called out to the upper classman who was assigned to observe the newbies and make sure no harm came to them. "Hey, Ensign Cadman, to get the bonus points for this class for spending the most time in the Zero Gee room, are there any activities we're forbidden to do?"
Cadman, having been asked this question many times by many students, replied dryly, "You're forbidden to sleep in the room or to engage in any activities of a sexual nature." Man, he wished they would read the rules instead of asking him!
"Well then," S'ong said to Elnor as she opened her eyes for an instant, "we might as well get out of here. I don't think I can stand being in this room for another minute!"
Back in the normal gravity hallway, Elnor puzzled over her question, then decided to bluntly ask, "Did you have either of the forbidden activities in mind as a way to tolerate being in the Zero Gee room for a longer period of time?"
She didn't look at him as she answered, "I had thought it might be easier if I could sleep in the room, but you never know . . ." She tossed her long hair over her shoulder as she quickly turned and walked in a different direction towards her next class before Elnor could say anything else.
The possible implication of her unfinished sentence slammed into his mind. He came to a complete stop in the hallway. Had she just propositioned him? What should he do about it if she had? Did he want to do anything about it? "This," he thought to himself, "is one disadvantage of having been raised by nuns!"
Resolving to ask Laris about this situation during his next weekend visit, he turned in a different direction from the route S'ong had taken and headed to his next class.