Author's note: Sorry for the little cliffhanger at the end of the last chapter. It just felt like a good place to end.
____________________
Getting to Know You
Chapter Six : Here, There, and Everywhere
Spock
He froze in confusion. Had he actually just touched the cadet's face? Highly illogical. He looked around at the other cadets, awake now and sitting up, looking at him with curiosity on their faces. "Is anyone harmed?" He thought that male cadet was in the medical group.
"Well, Cadet Ellery has a bad sunburn and for some idiotic reason that wasn't any sunscreen in the med kit. And we all have some minor skin abrasions from sliding around in the damn sand, but other than that we're fine. But I sure would like to give a piece of my mind to whatever total jerk decided to send a bunch of cadets out HERE!" McCoy's voice rose as his tirade continued.
Spock stopped him with an upraised hand. "You were not supposed to come here. There was a transporter malfunction which resulted in your being deposited in an unknown location. The controls in question caught fire and were not accessible to ascertain where you had been deposited. We have been working continuously since yesterday morning trying to find out where you were. And then we had to wait until the storm had passed." He stopped as the incredulous looks on the faces of the cadets finally registered.
"We weren't supposed to be here? No one knew where we really were? We could have died here!" Now that the danger was past, the blonde cadet broke down and sobbed.
Spock was extremely uncomfortable. He had no idea how to deal with the hysterical cadet. Fortunately, at that moment there was the unmistakable sound of a shuttlecraft landing outside. He rose from his crouched position on the floor of the shelter and opened the entrance curtain to allow the rescue team access. In moments, the stunned cadets were ushered aboard the shuttle, while the team that had arrived packed up their equipment. Spock stood hesitantly near the shuttle door not sure what he should do next.
"Get aboard, commander, we're all loaded and ready to leave." The pilot pushed past him to seat himself at the controls.
Realizing that he was holding up the rescue effort, Spock swung into the crowded shuttle and took the only remaining seat, pulling the door closed behind him. He buckled himself up as the entrance sealed and the liftoff checkout started. As the shuttle rose into the air, a slender brown hand rested lightly on his arm, carefully positioned on his uniform sleeve.
"Thank you so much for finding us. We didn't even realize that we were lost. A transporter malfunction does explain why we fell several centimeters when we arrived." Her voice was low enough that it was unlikely that the other occupants of the shuttle had heard over all the other noise and conversation going on. "How did you find us?"
He turned his head slightly so that he could see her face looking up at him. Too close. He clenched his jaw and strove to center himself. Her eyes looked into his, inquiring. "ah, we, uh, we had to free the electronic components from the melted plastics of the housing. Without damaging them. It was exacting work which took several hours." Ten point six hours of laying on his back with his face in the acrid odor of burnt hydrocarbons and his arms reaching above him slowly and patiently chipping away at the layers of melted plastic.
"But didn't the heat and plastic melted on the electronics damage them?"
"Indeed. There were an additional several hours of repair work necessary to enable extraction of the necessary data." Hours when he had forced himself to work slowly and methodically while inside something urged him to rage and scream and pound something into a pulp. Most illogical behavior.
"And then you finally got the coordinates and located us and the storm was still going on and there was no way to get to us." Her face looked thoughtful.
"That is correct." He paused, uncertain whether he should continue, but the cadet was still maintaining eye contact. "When the monitors indicated that the storm had decreased to the point where the transporter would function, I came to ascertain the condition of the cadets." He paused again. "The shuttle team followed." Once again he paused, uncertain of whether to continue. "I.. It is fortunate that your team managed so well and came through this ordeal unharmed." Surely that was sufficient detail to satisfy the cadet.
"Well, I want to thank you so much for all that time and work to find us. I really appreciate it. And I'm very glad to discover that we weren't supposed to be there. I did think that was a very difficult assignment." She smiled and withdrew her hand from his arm, turning to answer a question from the medic on her other side. For some reason, his arm felt bereft. Illogical.
Uhura
The debriefing following their return from that disastrous simulation had taken over two hours. Even though they had been provided with food and water, she was still exhausted from the combination of extreme heat, anger, terror, shock, and other emotions that ran through her. She needed sleep. She pressed the touch pad at her door and it opened on the sight of her Orion roommate and her current male toy in amorous action on the floor. "GAILA!" It was just too much. She stormed into the room, flinging whatever came to reach at the two cadets rolling about on the floor. Running past them, she flung herself through the bedroom and into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. Shaking, tears pouring down her face, she peeled her clothes off and set the shower for HOT. Standing under the pouring water, leaning against the shower stall wall, she let out all the suppressed tension from the preceding day. When the water finally changed to cool, she dried off, unlocked the door, and dropped down into her bed, asleep almost before she pulled the covers over her head.
***
Monday morning, Advanced Phonology class
Seated in her normal, center front seat, waiting for class to start, she found herself just a bit anxious. She wasn't sure exactly why. She was well prepared for the class, having completed all the required reading before leaving on that stupid simulation. She had rested all day yesterday and felt totally recovered physically. Maybe it had something to do with awakening in the shelter to the soft touch of warm fingers on her face. Nonsense.
Commander Spock strode into the classroom, and, as was his custom, positioned himself in the exact center of the open space at the front of the room. How does he do that without even looking at where he is going? He never over-shoots or misses that position by as much as a centimeter. Clasping his hands behind his back, he began to lecture. Quickly resuming her usual classroom efficiency, she began to take notes, missing the quick look he gave in her direction.
*****
Monday afternoon, hand-to-hand combat training
Commander Terrance, the head of combat training, proved to be an interesting instructor. He gave her many pointers about muscle groups and how they worked together. He offered minor corrections on some of her moves and gave her new exercises to strengthen certain muscles that he felt were not as well developed as others. At the end of their session she was sweaty and achy. He sent her off to swim laps as a cool-down exercise. In the locker room, she quickly changed into the maillot she kept in her locker there and plunged into the lap pool, choosing a lane near the right edge of the pool. It was as she was pushing off the side of the pool on her fifth lap that she felt someone else enter the pool. Smooth dive, she thought, barely roiled the water. And whoever it is can really swim. The other swimmer had already reached the other side of the pool and was returning. And then she paid no attention to the other swimmer as she continued to count laps. It wasn't until she climbed out of the pool after finishing her swim that she realized that the other swimmer so swiftly pulling himself through the water was the Vulcan instructor.
Spock
Monday morning, Advanced Phonology class
He strode into the classroom, stopped in his accustomed spot and turned to face the class. There she sat, still in the center front seat. Perhaps she did intend to stay there, then. Interesting. She had not been on the track this morning, either she did not always run at the same time or else she had not yet recovered from the events of last week. He gave no thought to the other members of her team, they were unimportant. Idle thoughts continued to run through his mind as he lectured, slightly distracting him. Perhaps he had not meditated long enough this morning, his center was not as calm as usual.
****
Monday afternoon, gymnasium
As he left the locker room on his way to the free weights, he observed Commander Terrance and Cadet Uhura in the far corner of the gym. Commander Terrance was using his hands to position the cadet's body into the desired position. For some reason this bothered him immensely. There was no apparent reason for his discomfort. Illogical. He continued on to the area where the weights were racked. None of the bars had the required amount of weight on them, so he begin adding weight disks to the ends of one of the bars. When he had the bar set up the way he wanted it, he began his workout. For some reason he could not define, he positioned himself so that he could watch the cadet's lesson as he worked. At one point, Commander Terrance's hand brushed the side of the cadet's breast and she flinched away. The weight bar crashed to the ground and he took a step forward.
"Hey, watch that thing! If you need some spotters, call out. That came damn near my foot."
Coming to himself, he quickly apologized to the man beside him and turned around so that his back was to the other corner of the gym before restarting his routine. That action had been highly illogical. He was much distracted lately. Obviously, more meditation was required.
After his weight workout was complete, he walked swiftly to the locker room, changed into swim briefs, and entered the pool room. As he strode towards the edge of the lap pool, he noticed that there was only one other swimmer in the pool at this time. He adjusted his position on the lip of the pool so that the lane he would swim in was further away. He was about to dive in when he realized who that swimmer was. She was very graceful in the water, her arms flashing into the air and cutting the water smoothly. Her strong legs scissored almost effortlessly, speeding her swiftly through the water. He admired her motions for a moment, and then dived in and began his laps.
***
Tuesday, 1400
Familiar footsteps in the hall outside his office alerted him to the approach of Cadet Uhura. He cleared the work from his desk and brought out the small container of tea leaves his mother had sent him at his request. As the cadet entered his office, he crossed to the mini-replicator and removed the pot of hot water. Carrying it back to his desk, he set it on the stone block he used to protect the desk surface. "Since you were so kind to share your mother's tea with me, Cadet, I thought perhaps it would be acceptable if I did the same." He measured out the precise amount of the fragrant mixture required and added it to the pot, setting the lid on to seal the steam inside.
"Oh, that smells very nice. Can you tell me what is in the mixture?" Her face was alight with interest. "And are we speaking Vulcan today so that you can teach me the words for these things?"
He had not realized that he was speaking in Vulcan. To cover his confusion, he switched to another Vulcan dialect. "I wondered whether you might have learned more than the formal dialect." He had wondered no such thing, but it seemed an acceptable gambit.
"I do not have nearly as much knowledge in the other dialects. It is very good of you to coach me in them. Can you name these objects for me so that I can practice the sounds?"
To his great relief she did not notice anything untoward, and the conversation continued on the subject of the tea and the items used to prepare it. When his internal clock informed him that the tea had steeped the proper amount of time, he poured out tea into his usual mug and another that he had brought from his quarters for this specific purpose.
She took the mug and inhaled the steam rising above it. "Oh, that's just lovely." Sipping slowly, she savored the flavors. "I can see why you liked Mama's tea, this is very similar." There was that glowing smile again. For some odd reason, he was pleased to have been the cause.
All too soon, their conversational practice was at an end again. It never seemed to last the amount of time his internal clock informed him had actually passed. That was extremely odd. There was no way the cadet could change the flow of time.