Chapter 4
Spock awoke feeling uncharacteristically groggy. He felt the soft unwelcome light of his room ache into his eye lids and pulled the warm covers back over his head. It was unusual for him to feel so sleepy when waking up, and he knew he had responsibilities awaiting him in the waking world.. but just five more minuets of soft cozy bliss seemed so inviting...
"Spock...Spock" He heard the sound of his own voice calling him in a whisper, the kind of whisper that was making no effort what so ever to actually be quiet.
"Spock, get up" He felt the covers being pulled from his grasp. He forced his eyes open and was at first startled to see his own face, leaning over him impatiently. He suddenly remembered what had happened the previous day, understanding why he felt so ... pissed off.
This explains why The captain was so unapproachable in the mornings, waking up doesn't feel easy for humans.
"Captain" he groaned rubbing his eyes "whats wrong?"
"What have i told you about calling me captain when were off duty?" She said "its Jane, Spock"
He looked at the clock on the bed side table. It was two hours earlier than she usually dragged herself out of bed. Thats Two extra hours he could have been sleeping. If he ever woke her like this all hell would breake loose.
He sighed what he promised himself would be his only sigh of the day, and got out of bed, still rubbing his eyes.
"Okay ca-Jane" He started putting on his boots, obviously showering wasn't an option today. "What do you have planned?"
"Well, I thought we could have breakfast early, before everyone else so we don't have to talk to anyone, that could be awkward, then call Pike and explain our situation" She made herself comfortable on his bed while he walked to the mirror to attempt to taim his hair "that way we have the entire rest of the day the try and fix this mess. Lucky for us we would only be star mapping, I think everyone will be able to handle that with out us if necessary"
By the time she had finished talking, he had combed her hair into a neat bun, with no strands hanging over her face like usual. She looked at him, frowning.
"you shouldn't wear your hair like that" she said "I'd never wear it like that"
He raised his eyebrow at her, which was oddly satisfying to Jane. She'd spent a ridiculous amount of time in the mirror trying to impersonate that eyebrow of his.
"This is the most efficient and time saving way to wear hair of this length" he said matter of factually "it was in the way yesterday a lot, it could be dangerous for the captain of a star ship to sacrifice their vision in the name of style"
While they were on the subject he flicked his eyes up to her hair. It was pretty messy and he raised his eye brow at her again. just when she thought it was already raised, low and behold he managed to raise it again, way to rub in the fact that she couldn't do it.
"well, I think you look better this way" She said, obviously aware that he was referring to how she had hers.
She could have sworn he rolled his eyes, before going into his bathroom to wash his face.
When he came back out and gestured towards the door, she looked him up and down
"you didn't change your clothes" She pointed out
"I assumed you would rather I didn't" he said, as they both made their way out of the room
She smiled, her earlier judgement of him confirmed "That's very respectful of you Spock"
When they had gotten their food, they sat on their usual table, only this time without the rest of the bridge crew and medical staff. Kirk often referred to it as 'the cool table' much to Spocks confusion and annoyance, all the tables were the same temperature.
They had both gotten their usual from the food replicator, Jane indulging in her sweet tooth, and Spock with what seemed like some kind of rabbit food.
It felt weirdly quiet, and Jane spent a moment wondering if Vulcans could sense awkwardness, before widening her eyes at the taste of her food.
"Oh my gob-" she said, her mouth full "That tastes so weird. I cant even explain what that tastes like"
"Its probably safe to assume that Vulcans and Humans taste food differently, Captain" He offered
She stuffed more food into her mouth "Jane" she corrected before waving at him to try something. He did, widening his eyes also at the bizarre new tastes he was experiencing. He looked up at her, surprise still eminent on his face. she beamed back at him, understanding the feeling.
"Fascinating" He said
"here, try this" she put some of her food onto his plate and he hesitantly tried some, aware that they had very different tastes.
His eyes widened again and he smiled and nodded at her in amazement, his mouth too full to compliment the food. She laughed at his rare enthusiasm and he pushed his plate to her , offering her to try some. She did and was once again amazed by the new tastes and sensations.
They then spent the majority of their morning replicating as many different types of food as they could think of. Each flavor was completely new, like seeing a new colour for the first time, you couldn't imagine it.
Jane was surprised by Spocks enthusiasm. she could have sworn that half the time he was... smiling, even laughing and displaying that witty sense of humor that she always knew he had, but kept hidden. If this was some kind of slip up, or wall he had forgotten to put up, there was no way she was going to say anything to remind him. Plus, their shift had technically started, and he hadn't called her captain yet.
"This is quite a situation you've gotten yourselves into" said Pike from the large screen in front of them, looking concerned and a little confused.
Jane wanted to point out that this wasn't something they'd 'gotten themselves into' but rather some kind of bug that her and her crew should have been warned about. But she held her tong.
"yes sir" she agreed. Each time she spoke seeming to almost baffle him. She was sitting casually, leaned back, but still somewhat professionally, Spock standing stoically beside her, as always. But Pike obviously wasn't used to the switch, seeing Spock- or what looked like Spock- behave casually in any situation was enough to throw anyone off.
"As we said, it happened when we beamed up to the ship. So were suspecting it has something to do with the transporter pad" She confirmed.
"Hmm" was his response, looking down in thought "Well, I've never heard of anything like this happening before Kirk"
She felt her heart sink. There goes any chance of a quick fix and explanation.
"I'll have a team do some research on it, and on the planet you were on" He offered "Did you get a maintenance report on that pad?"
"I got a report in from Scotty this morning" she explained "He double and triple checked everything, couldn't find a fault. We wont have anyone else using it though till we get to the bottom of this"
"That would be wise" He said. She was already frowning at the ground in defeat. "Look, I'll keep you posted if we can find any other cases of this, but Jane, this is very unusual. I don't know what kind of help we'll be able to offer you"
That was understandable, She knew deep down that if these kind of risks were associated with the transporters that would have been told.
"Okay , thank you sir"
He nodded at her and the screen went black.
She was too busy staring at the ground in thought to notice the silence that had fallen over them, and that Spock was looking at her with a worried expression.
He took a breath the say something but stopped, before trying again.
"Captain, it was unlikely that star fleet would have faced a similar problem in the past, thus solving our own." He eventually got out.
"yeah, I know Spock." She sighed "Its just that.. I have no idea what to even suggest now"
He frowned in contemplation, before looking at her for a moment, then pulling up a chair opposite her.
"Well, captain" he started "there is.. one option we could explore"
Thank you for the reviews! really means a lot to me
please let me know if you want me to keep this going
If i doesn't get much i a response im not sure how much i'll do, like i said, i haven't really planned it out. im not sure myself how their going to switch back or whats caused it but ive got a rough idea
I hope you like it though! thanks for reading so far 3