Bare These Bones

Shake It Off

Vahl'Sai counted the new faces that had been added to her class that were actually on time, watching as they spoke and waited for her to draw their attention. They stood in the gymnasium of the school, the large room able to accommodate all of them. She noticed right away when James .T. Kirk flaunted his way into the room, grinning at the female group that stood nearby.

This will be an interesting term, she thought to herself as she looked away from the womanizing male. She had been in his classes before and had avoided him—as the humans would say—like the plague. When a couple of the guys toward the back of the growing crowd began to horse around and begin mock fights, she brought her hand to her lips and blew the air from her lungs over her tongue and strategically placed fingers to produce a sharp, resounding whistle.

The crowd went silent as people stopped mid word in their conversations, looking over to her with wide eyes. "Thank you," She said, easily projecting her voice loud enough. "I would like to welcome all new cadets to the class, I am Commander Vahl'Sai—and no you may not call me Commander Vahl." She could hear some of the students that had already been in her class laugh at her words. "I am sure that you have all asked someone else in the class already if this class is easy. The answer is no."

"Got that right," One of the males in the back called, making her grin slightly to herself.

"Anyway, we'll be starting out easy so that everyone can become used to the work. I will only do this for a week, don't expect this to be easy term. Now, who's up for a run?" She asked, hearing some people groan at her question. "Would you rather spar?"

"My jaw still hurts, no thanks."

"Thank you, Cadet Namashi, for your input. If you wish to speak, raise your hand."

The class was too large for everyone to be running laps along the outlining track, so she instead split them in half—the first group ran the track for a half hour while the other half would begin muscle training. She was going to beef them up a bit in the first couple of weeks before they moved along to self defense training.

She had gotten many dirty looks because she put the people that avoided one another the most in groups so that they wouldn't feel inclined to speak to each other instead of doing their work—which had happened many times and tended to irk her more than most things on this planet. The people that were running the track didn't need as much supervision as the ones that were using the weights and other equipment to work out, so she tended to veer to that group.

Spotting Cadet James .T. Kirk beginning to pump the weighted bar of the bench press made her shake her head. He didn't have someone spotting him. Stepping over to him easily, she noticed that he was pressing over eighty pounds. He didn't seem to be exerting much stress on the presses, but she knew that that amount of weight could tire out a human's arms quickly and often end with them losing the ability to raise the bar high enough to put it back in its holdings, resulting with it, instead, landing on their head or throat.

"Cadet Kirk," She said, taking the bar in on hand at the center and pulling it up to put it back in place, she watched his eyes widen as he quickly sat up, turning to face her. "I can't allow you to work on the bench press without a spotter," She began, but he was still watching her in shock.

"What are you?" He finally asked, his voice holding a note that struck a cord inside of her.

"Cadet," She began coldly. He seemed to notice his mistake and quickly stuttered to explain.

"Sorry, that came out the wrong way. Didn't mean it, I swear!" He said quickly, holding his hands up in silent surrender. She straightened her posture slightly until she stood at her full height of six feet, her demeanour turning cold. It was just like her first days at the Academy.

"Please move along, cadet." Turning to the other students, she stepped away from the bench press and the soon to be official Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise. She could hear him curse from behind her even when she was yards away from him, her back to him and her attention diverted.

After thirty minutes, she told the people on the track to stop running and begin to walk to slowly cool down their body temperatures. They were huffing and puffing, pressing their hands on cramps in their sides with sweat coating their skin. She tended to forget that running for thirty minutes break free could tired them out much faster than her kind. Sahvarian's were built to be athletic. Sahavarian's were built to be predators.

"Commander," A voice called from behind her. A young cadet was standing at the bench press that she had kicked Jim Kirk off of earlier in the class, looking slightly timid. "I can't find a spotting partner, could you spot me?"

"Of course."

Moving to standing at the head of the work out equipment, she waited for the girl to get herself into a comfortable position on her cushioned bench. She received a nod once she was and prepared herself for if the girl needed any help. She would quickly glance up every once and a while to make sure that the others were doing their own work, but her attention stayed mostly on the girl she was helping.

She made it to sixty presses of thirty pounds before she began to tremble. She gasped when she wasn't able to push the weight up again, Vahl'Sai's hands already there taking the bar from her and raising it back up to its holdings.

"How strong are Sahvarians?" The cadet asked curiously between huffs of breath.

"Roughly five times stronger than the average human when trained. If not trained, only around three times stronger," She explained, watching as the girl nodded along. Walking out to the space between the fitness room and the track, Vahl'Sai whistled again, drawing the attention of the people on the track. Making a turning gesture with her hand, the people slowly began to make their way toward the fitness room while the other group put down their weights and turned off their equipment.

She watched as the new track group began to jog slowly, the weight work already having warmed up their bodies. She let the group that had just gotten off the track take a moment to cool down and drink some water before they moved on to their own work for the remainder of the class.

~ ҉ ~

Holding an apple between her teeth as she collected her things from her office, ready to head back to her apartment like dorm inside of teachers quarters, Vahl'Sai was unprepared for when someone requested entrance into the office. She wasn't expecting someone to be there so late, even the Admiral had come earlier in the evening the previous night. Pulling the apple from her mouth, she granted the visitor entrance.

"Commander."

Looking up from her work, she couldn't deny that she was surprised to see Jim Kirk standing just inside of the doorway to her office. Straightening her posture, she quirked an eyebrow at him curiously, placing her snack down on her desk top.

"To what do I owe this visit, Cadet Kirk?" She asked evenly, seeing the upward tilt to one corner of his mouth.

"You remind me of Spock sometimes. But, that's not the reason. I came to apologize. I don't want to have a Commander that can work me to the bone in a fitness class having a grudge against me." Smiling slightly at his reason, Vahl'Sai knew that she wouldn't have been able to deny wanting to make him work a little harder than the others. "Sometimes I have no brain to mouth filter."

"Indeed," She agreed, turning to resume placing her things in her bag. "Was that all?"

"Actually, I was wondering what you were. Not trying to sound offensive again, but I've never seen someone lift ninety pounds with one hand before." Kirk moved forward toward the Commander's desk, noticing that she was relatively neat, except for a few reports thrown about that she had been working on before she began to pack away her things.

"Have you ever heard of a Sahvarian?" She asked, looking up to him with her deep emerald eyes. Kirk paused a moment at the sight of them, wondering what could have caused the colour. Green eyes weren't unknown, but they were rare on Earth now and never as bold as hers were.

"Briefly, a friend of mine wouldn't shut up about the class that she wanted to take to learn Sahvarian. Never looked into the race before," He admitted, watching her hands fluidly slip things inside of her bag or desk drawers.

"I am the only Sahvarian at Starfleet. We are new to the Federation and I was—I suppose—a test for my people if we would be an asset to the Federation," She explained. "My people are even stronger than Romulan's and Vulcan's, depending on the training." Kirk grinned as he thought about what it would look like for Spock to get his ass kicked by a woman and had to repress a laugh. Coughing discretely to stop the laugh Vahl'Sai looked up to him curiously.

"Well, I'm sorry to have taken up your time, Commander," He said as he moved to depart, pausing just before the door. "Commander, how long have you been in Starfleet?"

"Less than three years," She answered simply. "Have a pleasant evening, Cadet."

Recognizing the dismissal, Kirk smirked to himself as he walked out, Vahl'Sai watching his back until her door closed behind him. Why would he ask her how long she had been in Starfleet? Most of the cadets already knew that she would probably still be in the classes with them if she hadn't known the material so well and had been asked to become a temporary Commander.

Shouldering her bag, she took a bite out of her apple as she was making her way toward the door, the juice flooding her mouth. The flavour wasn't as potent as the fruits on her planet, but she still enjoyed the food immensely. Her people had extremely sensitive taste buds and it made their food so much more enjoyable for them.

Typing in her lock code, she turned on heel and made her way down the hall, noting that the sky was a bright reddish orange as sunset came over the campus. Striding easily across the same courtyard that she had been running through the night before, she spotting Jim Kirk sitting on one of the stone dividers, speaking with a friend of his that was dressed in a similar red uniform.

Taking the steps two at a time, she didn't look back when she suddenly heard Kirk hush his words into whispers, the distance between her and them making it hard for her to understand what they were saying. Giving up on trying to understand why he was suddenly secretive toward her, she continued to her own room, finishing off her fruit and disposing of it before she entered the lift to take her up to the top floor.

Ta-da, second chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it, I'm going to try and have the next chapter up against really soon, but it all depends on the reviews I get! I can see how many people are reading the story, so I know there should be more reviews. Reviews give me a push to write more and update, because that actually makes me feel like people are reading the story!