"En…Ensign Knight, reporting for duty… Sir."
"What did you do with your orders, Ensign Knight?" Spock was gingerly uncrumpling her notice, eyeing her, eyebrow raised.
"I… er… almost lost them on the shuttle, Sir." She squeaked.
"Please see to it that you are more careful, Ensign Knight." The detachment in his voice was all too familiar, and yet, she somehow felt the sting of disappointment as she eyed her orders, now smoothed in his hands.
"Of course, Sir."
"Please take a seat at your station, Ensign. You should be familiar with the tasks to which you have been assigned. I will have some projects within the week for which I may require your assistance. I trust you will be able to balance these priorities?"
"Of course." Arietta's hand drifted up toward her hair, before she caught herself and shifted, hoping Spock had not noticed. He, of course, had.
"There is no need for you to be nervous, Ensign Knight. If you have any questions, or require assistance, I am reachable by communicator. But I expect, given your record, that you will perform your assignments admirably."
"Thank you, Sir." Arietta sighed and took a seat at her console. It was going to be a long day.
Thankfully, the job to which Arietta was assigned was all too familiar to her. She might no longer be working with holodeck simulations, but the strings of code that she endlessly tweaked and checked served as simulations within the ship's computers, constantly updating and maintaining the giant servers which fed the various laboratories with information. The project she would eventually be assigned to full-time would be a collaborative effort between the natural sciences and engineering, programming simulations of possible atmospheric and geologic conditions into the sensor array, in order to improve sensor functionality.
Commander Spock left Arietta at her computer banks, indistinguishable from any other. He stepped silently into the turbolift, detatchedly murmured instructions to the computer. He found himself at the very back of the turbolift, head tilted against the wall, dark eyes closed, stilling his mind.
There was something about this girl that was… intriguing. On paper, she was brilliant, accomplished, the perfect candidate for the job ahead of her. In person, on the other hand… He found, somewhat in spite of himself, that he was far more interested by the Ensign Knight whose orders arrived dog-eared and who frequently ended conversations with a mumbled "dammit…" than the Ensign Knight dutifully typing lightning-speed code corrections at her console.
It was just as this thought crossed his consciousness that the turbolift came to a brief halt, and Nyota Uhura stepped in beside him.
"Bridge." She said quietly, before returning the lift to silence.
Spock had stood, tugging down the hem of his uniform, expression as neutral as it ever was.
"So… I hear you had a long weekend." Uhura wasn't looking at him. This was a human habit he felt he might never grow accustomed to.
"It was… interesting."
"Jim's not exaggerating then?"
"I would not go that far."
She smiled. He allowed the brief feeling of relief to make itself known in his mind, before tamping it down.
"If it was even half of what he asserts it was, I'm sorry I missed it."
"I highly doubt you would have found the evening in question to be very entertaining."
The pair rode in silence for a moment, punctuated only by the softest momentary rustling.
"What's that?" Uhura asked, as the turbolift doors swept open onto the bridge.
He looked down. He was still holding Arietta's crumpled orders.
"Nothing." He said, dismissively, tucking them into a pocket.
"…And they say Vulcans can't lie." She smiled slyly, stepping off the lift.