"Jim, I never signed up to be a damned school teacher." Grumbled Chief Medical Officer Leonard McCoy as he loaded up medical supplies for the next five year mission.
It had been six months since Yorktown and the beloved USS Enterprise had finally been rebuilt, the crew reassembled and supplies restocked. With an unfortunate number of their crew members killed by Krall, there were many options to consider when staffing the vessel.
Captain James Kirk had, with advice from Spock and, ironically, McCoy, decided that becoming a training vessel would be an ideal solution without straining other Starfleet vessels.
McCoy cursed his agreement to the decision as soon as he found out he would be in part responsible for training a fourth year medical student.
"I can assure you that she is incredibly competent. In fact, I believe she is currently top of her class." Spock assured him, manually unloading a series of vials with samples of various antidotes and inoculations.
"A woman? Just what I needed. As if you two don't make my job hard enough." McCoy complained once again.
"I think you will find her very easy to work with. As a half betazoid she has no need or understanding of dishonesty and is very aware of other individual's feelings." Spock tried to assure him.
"A damned mind reader too, just perfect."
Kirk looked over at Spock, rolling his eyes in thinly veiled amusement. "You'll figure out an arrangement. Besides, after she graduates she will be reassigned, unless of course we decide to keep her permanently."
"Yes McCoy, you are, after all, always noting how unsatisfactory your work life balance is." Spock said, returning Kik's eye roll with a raised eyebrow.
"I hardly think that means we need a whole other doctor onboard." McCoy complained.
A cough came from behind them and they turned to see a young woman, likely in her mid 20s with wavy blonde hair and the signature black eyes of a betazoid. "Fortunately for you, I'm not quite a doctor." She put down the box of hyposprays, straightening her red cadet uniform. "Yet."
"Welcome aboard cadet, I trust you found your quarters easily." Kirk asked.
"Thank you Captain. Actually I have yet to go to my chambers. I wished to introduce myself to Dr. McCoy and offer my assistance." She turned to McCoy and smiled, hoping a friendly introduction may alleviate some of his apprehension. "I am Cadet Claire Jolie, reporting for duty." She extended a nervous hand.
McCoy grunted in greeting, shaking her hand unceremoniously before grabbing the box of hyposprays and storing them in the appropriate cabinets.
Spock turned to the new recruit, noting the slight look of disappointment on her face. She was, in his assessment, perhaps too sensitive for the environment on the USS Enterprise. "Cadet." He said, briefly acknowledging her.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Commander." Claire said, choosing not to extend her hand, knowing the intimacy this gesture indicated in Vulcan culture.
"While I more than appreciate your dedication, your official duties don't begin until tomorrow. I believe your first task is helping Leonard confirm that all the medical files are up to date." Kirk said.
"Yes, I suppose there's no point in me being here right now." She smiled nervously, tucking a wave behind her ear. She had forgotten to get a haircut before being assigned to the Enterprise and was very aware that she was outside of regulation with her breast length tresses.
"I believe Commander Spock is on his way to the bridge, perhaps he can point you in the direction of crew quarters." Kirk suggested.
"I do not believe the cadet requires assistance to operate a lift." Spock said, his head cocked to the side.
"No, but she could use a kind welcome to the ship." KIrk gave him a pointed look.
Spock nodded curtly and turned to Claire. "If you are ready, I believe it would be prudent to leave Dr. McCoy to arrange the sick bay independently."
Claire looked around, noting the disarray with a certain level of dismay. She wanted to observe restocking in order to be more useful in the future. There was nothing she hated more than having to ask where things are. She glanced at Spock and smiled, happy to feel that he didn't share the same dismay as McCoy did in her presence.
Vulcans had always been difficult to read, with their emotions typically firmly ignored if they even had them. She was aware that Spock was half Vulcan. He was, after all, quite famous in Starfleet. It seemed being half vulcan made him not necessarily more emotional, but certainly his feelings were a bit closer to the surface. Occasionally she could read emotions, and sometimes even full thoughts if they were directly about her, but more often than not the thoughts moved too quickly to make much sense of at all.
If Spock's mind was a quiet desert, the captains mind was a raging ocean. His emotions were as variable as any human she had interacted with and perhaps a bit more intense. And very loud too.
Spock began walking toward the lift, expecting Claire to follow. As she walked away from Kirk she caught a flash of attraction coming from the captain. She unconsciously pulled down her skirt again, aware that the tight material liked to ride up as she walked.
'Typical that the ship I get assigned to has a perverted captain.' Claire thought. 'Damned uniform.'
Claire stood uncomfortably next to Spock in the lift. It took only a moment to reach the floor with crew quarters. They began walking down the long curved hallway together before Spock interrupted the tense silence.
"It is my understanding that you are half betazoid. Your race is not common among Starfleet personnel."
"Neither is yours," Claire said a bit too shortly, before hastily adding "Commander."
"It was not my intention to offend." Spock said, wondering what he could have said to irritate the woman.
"No, it's not what you said. You were thinking about how betazoids are supposedly a very sexually promiscuous group of people. It's an assumption I have had to often prove wrong." Claire said.
"I assure you, I was merely recollecting what I have learned about your people." Spock said, an eyebrow raised.
"I would request you try to remember that I am half human, just as you are. I was raised on Earth by my father and have had very limited interaction with other betazoids. I do not follow their traditions or their religion. Whatever information you have would best be ignored in my case." Claire said, trying to be composed despite her own feelings of frustration.
"Perhaps I should make myself more clear. I had made no assumptions about you. Nothing you have done has indicated to me anything other than normal sexual behavior."
"I hope nothing I have done has indicated any sort of sexual behavior."
"Your red nailpolish-" He started.
Claire cut him off. "Matches my uniform and is in regulation."
"Yes. You are correct." He decided, realizing he was not doing well at reading the social situation.
"I think you will find that I am characteristic of a betazoid in only a few ways. I'm uncommonly honest, have moderate telepathic ability, especially with other telepathic individuals, and I value art immensely, even for a betazoid."
"Do you belong to one of the houses?" Spock inquired.
"My mother was a member of the third house, the House of Health. Though I was conceived prior to her Phase. My father lost favor a few years after I was born and she married again." Claire commented.
"I understand. A common practice among betazoids." Spock said, nodding.
"Perhaps, but no less difficult for a young child."
Spock was unsure how to respond, choosing instead to change the subject. "How are you finding the Enterprise."
"It's quite beautiful. I always saw myself being sent to some far off base after graduation, and that may still happen, so I'm very happy to be assigned to a Constitution-class vessel."
"According to your file, you should have any choice of assignments after graduation." Spock said, confused by her assessment of her options.
"You didn't read very closely then." Claire said, her eyebrow quirked upward.
"I admit that I did not read past your scores." Spock said, displeased that she had pointed out a lapse in his usually very thorough investigation. There were over sixty new crew members, many of them cadets, and he had not had time to read through all their files.
"My scores are the best part of my files. I admit I do not have a great history with authority."
"Captain Kirk had various physical assault charges against him, all dropped. I can assure you that Starfleet is willing to overlook many things in the face of genuine value."
"Oh no, I mean I haven't had a great history with Starfleet authority." Claire cracked a smile at this. "I may have pissed off Admiral Marcus at one point. Before I went down the medical track they were considering me for psyops, for obvious reasons."
Spock looked at her with interest, indicating a desire for her to continue.
"In retrospect, he probably should have known it was a bad idea to have a telepath in his presence when he was keeping a 300 year old warlord a secret." She laughed. "Unfortunately, I only got the impression that he was warmongering, something I think most people around him could see. I should have kept that to myself but of course I said something. I ended up being reprimanded formally for disrespecting an Admiral of Starfleet. I ended up going into medical after that, essentially starting over my academy training."
"Based on your files I am confident you will make a perfectly serviceable doctor."
"Serviceable. That's the goal." Claire said cheerfully. "I believe these are my quarters." Noticing the door on the left which was labeled clearly with her name.
"I expect I will see you again soon." Spock said professionally, a bit off put by her candor.
Claire, sensing his feelings, smiled politely. "Of course. I promise to be less… chatty. I'm getting used to not being among peers."
"I will excuse it for the time being. You will find that the captain is especially lenient with his senior officers."
"As a cadet, I don't think I have earned that right."
"I hardly think it is a right earned by rank. I am under the impression it is earned through familiarity."
Claire nodded in understanding. "I'll see you soon I suppose."
Spock bowed slightly, turning around and heading back toward the turbolift.
Claire examined her new quarters. The room was quite small, but at least she didn't have a roommate.
She found cohabitating with anyone to be quite difficult, especially with her sensitivity to strong feelings. During her first year with Star Fleet she had been paired with an Orion woman who not only had many boyfriends over the year, but many extremely unfaithful boyfriends. She often found the emotional regulation of having a roommate so sexually and emotionally active to be more challenging than the course work, switching between hearing the lewd thoughts of her various beaus and then the inevitable emotional breakup. After that she had requested her own room, even offering to work on campus to make up for the additional cost.
Her room on the Enterprise consisted of a dresser and desk built into the wall, a full bed that would fit her slim body, but she had a hard time imagining a larger crew member would be comfortable in the bed, and a small half divider between them, presumably to create a separate space for entertaining. Claire had a difficult time imagining entertaining in such small quarters, but hoped she'd have the opportunity to anyway.
A door to her left led to a shared bathroom with a sonic shower and toilet, one she presumed she shared with another cadet. She lamented the loss of her bathtub, one of the only luxuries she had in her very outdated studio at the academy, but was otherwise pleased with the arrangements.
Claire pulled out her PADD, wanting to go over a few things before she began unpacking. Her schedule over the next week seemed sparse, mostly due to the fact that McCoy had yet to assign her any duties at all. She hoped that it was because he wanted to see where her skill level was at, and not due to an underlying desire to avoid working with her.
She had a few proctored classes and had even managed to sneak in an upper level of computer science into her schedule, but even those classes only took up around eight hours of her week. Her schedule did note that she was expected to be in the sick bay at eight AM sharp the next morning. She hoped that Dr. McCoy would rectify the situation upon her arrival.
Claire then turned to the task of turning her drab quarters into something even remotely tolerable. She had no windows. As an interior facing room she only had the stark white walls of the ship.
'This won't do at all.' She thought, tinkering on her PADD until she saw the lighting in the room change to a mix of purples and blues, making the walls and the room appear more colorful.
While unpacking her wardrobe, Claire also laid out a few decorative pillows and hung up a replica of her favorite painting: The Bed by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Her desk was relatively clear of items besides a picture of her father and her hugging. She considered for a moment making a trip down to the greenhouses to see if she could put together a bouquet to add a bit more color but decided it would have to wait. She was quite tired and she wanted to give herself a haircut before reporting for duty tomorrow morning.
Claire hoped she would have the opportunity to visit any number of planets, picking up small trinkets on the way to make the space more her own.
It was an exciting time in her life. Though she had traveled to Betazoid a handful of times in her life to visit her mother and her other siblings, Claire had otherwise not been able to explore the universe in quite the way she wanted to. She would not let a smarmy doctor get in the way of her enjoyment.
Or a judgemental Vulcan for that matter.