Getting to Know You

Chapter Fifteen : You Should Hear How She Talks About You

Spock

She has just left his office when the message chime sounds. When he answers it, there is the Commandant. "Are there any students in your office, Commander?"

"No, sir. I am alone."

"Good, then we can talk plainly. We are setting up some maneuvers that we do not want the cadets to know about. They will be set at night and the cadets will all be woken stealthily by the officers to which they are assigned for these maneuvers. I would like you to take one of the teams."

"This sounds interesting. I am one of the chaperones for the Oxford Invitationals this year, however, if there is a conflict in the time."

"No, this will happen in just a few days. We have kept it entirely under wraps because we really do not want the cadets to know about it. There is a feeling in some circles that cadets are leaving here without some of the training that they really need. So this will be an exercise in secrecy and stealth. There will be a meeting here in my office tonight at 1900 to set up the final details and assign cadets to the team leaders. I expect to see you then."

"Yes, sir" After the Commandant signed off, Spock sat considering. This might be a very interesting assignment.

****

Spock sat in the Commandant's office with the other officers who would be leading teams. There would be ten teams, each with specific objectives. His team would be assigned to infiltrate the Medical Center and rescue hostages held there. He would have to collect the assigned cadets from their dorm rooms, beginning at midnight, send them to a rendezvous point, meet them there to assign tasks, and then complete the assignment before dawn. He would have ten cadets on his team. There was no guarantee that any of them would know each other or have prior experience working together. He was to choose one cadet to be his lieutenant. Each of the other team leaders had received their instructions and it was now time to select the cadets and assign them to teams. Only cadets with excellent records were being considered. The computer had searched the cadet records and isolated the pool of prospective candidates. They were now being sorted, based on prior experiences. For this first exercise of this type, some consideration was being given to the cadets prior training. After there had been time to assess the outcome, further exercises would be planned where the students were selected at random.

The lists of selected candidates were printed out and distributed. He took the list he was handed, with his name printed at the top, and scanned the list. There, at the bottom, he saw a familiar name - Cadet Uhura was assigned to his team. There was no question in his mind as to who his lieutenant would be.

***

Three days later he received the simple message "Tonight is the night." He found that he was looking forward to this novel experience with a great deal more anticipation than seemed logical.

***

He dressed in black pants and long-sleeved, high-necked shirt. He fastened a utility belt at his waist and filled it with tools that he felt would be useful. When his internal clock told him that it was exactly midnight, he used his code and overrode the lock on the door to her room. With absolutely no sound at all, he crossed the study area into the bedroom and knelt beside her bed.

Nyota

Encased in sleep, I feel heat near my face. Someone calls my name in a soft whisper. I mumble something indistinguishable. "Shhh" Two fingers touch my lips, so softly. Without thinking, still asleep, my lips part and I suck those fingers into my mouth. A sharply indrawn breath, barely audible. My tongue glides softly over those sensitive fingertips, sucking gently. There are choked sounds from a clenched throat. This is such a lovely dream. The tip of my tongue tantalizes those warm fingers, stroking gently, sucking. The fingertips twitch against my tongue but do not withdraw. There are more sounds, so quiet only I can hear them. The fingertips of his other hand ghost gently against my cheek. Surprise night maneuvers, Cadet! forms clearly in my mind. Oh, crap! This is NOT a dream!

She bolted upright, the covers falling to her waist. There was his face, only centimeters from hers, a finger laid across his lips. He was dressed all in black. What on earth was going on?

So softly that she could barely hear him, he gave her orders. "Get up and dress - black fatigues if you have them. Equipment - small flashlight, communicator. Meet me at these coordinates." He passed her a very small data chip - one which would fit the slot on her communicator. "There will be others coming - keep them quiet and hidden. Make no unnecessary noise." With that he rose and slipped out of her room, out through the outer door, which closed behind him without a sound.

Quickly she slid out of bed and slipped into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. With absolutely no noise at all, she braided her hair into one long braid, twisting it and securing it tightly to her head. After taking care of other necessary functions, she turned the light off before opening the door. Creeping over to her closet, she drew out her recently obtained black fatigues and dressed. She added a black of black rubber-soled shoes. Tucking the required tools and a couple of other things into her pockets, she slipped out of the room and through the outer door. As she did, she slid the data chip into her communicator and read off the coordinates. Using her communicator as a guide, she slunk off to the appointed meeting place, keeping to the shadows as she went.

Spock

When she sucked his fingers into her mouth, he almost came undone. Her tongue glided over his fingertips, sucked gently on them, stroked them. He suppressed a groan with great difficulty. Sweat broke out all over his body. His nerves were on fire. He clenched his teeth, his jaw muscles straining. He had never felt anything like this in his life - he hadn't even dreamed about the sensations that were flooding his body. He had made a grave tactical error in touching his fingers to her lips. He twitched his fingers against her tongue, striving to signal her to stop. She did not stop. That something in the pit of his belly awoke in a fervor. He gasped, failing to remain entirely quiet. He must make her stop! He finds he cannot speak, his throat is frozen, his mouth dry. She is still assaulting his fingertips, making lazy circles against them with her tongue. Doing the only thing he can think of, he brings his other hand to her cheek and focuses firmly, suppressing all thoughts except those necessary. Surprise night maneuvers, Cadet! He sends to her and feels her shock as she realizes she is not dreaming.

She rears up in her bed, releasing his fingers. Shaking, he looks into her eyes and lays the damp fingers against his own lips. Smelling her on his fingers, his heart lurches. Steeling himself, he whispers her orders, then turns and leaves her quarters.

Outside, he leans against the wall for a moment, trying to quell the sensations flooding through him. He has other cadets to wake, he does not have the time to analyze all that has happened.

Uhura

Arriving at the designated coordinates, she looked around, assessing the surrounding vegetation for hiding places. She flattened herself behind a small bush, becoming practically invisible. After a few minutes, she saw another cadet slipping through the trees, glancing down periodically at the communicator in his hand. When he arrived at the center of the small clearing, stopped, closed his communicator and stuck it in his pocket, she whispered, "Hide."

Immediately, the cadet dropped to the ground and began worming his way in her direction. "What's going on?" Came a low whisper.

"Maneuvers. Quiet. Hide. Wait."

The cadet slid past her into the small trees and bushes, stopping when he could barely touch her ankle, and buried in his face in his arms with his hands down his sleeves, becoming almost completely invisible.

Every few minutes another cadet showed up, until there were ten of them hiding in the thicket. There was no sound from any of them. With her eye shield in place to hide the whites her eyes, she scanned the direction from which they had all come, being careful not to move her head. Nothing. Now what? Just wait.

From the left she heard a faint whisper of sound, leaves sliding against each other. She froze. Very, very slowly she turned her head. There, about two meters away, someone was coming, bent low to the ground. A single ray of moonlight through the trees lit the curled edge of a pointed ear. She relaxed a bit, but not much. Looking in his direction, she silently flipped her eye shield up, counted to ten, and flipped it back down. In a moment, he crouched down beside her. Putting his mouth almost against her ear, he whispered "Very good, Cadet. Thinking of the eye shield was exceptional. Are the others all here?"

"There are ten of us here."

"Good. We will move out in a moment. How do you have them organized?"

"The first one is here behind me, touching my left ankle. The others are strung out behind and to the sides of him - each one just barely in reach of the next."

"Commendable." His voice was so low she had to strain to hear it. "We have hostages to rescue. At the Medical Center. Take the first five and go to the south side of the entrance. I will take the others to the north side. Stop when you are half-way there and give the plan to your group."

She listened carefully to his orders. Then she twitched her ankle to warn the cadet behind her. Slowly and carefully she turned around and crept back until she was level with his face. "Bring the next one forward. Five of us will go off together."

One by one, the cadets slithered forward until there were five of them huddled together. To the side, she saw Commander Spock touch the next cadet and start them off in a different direction. She led her group off away from the small clearing towards the Medical Center. Halfway there, she halted them in a group of small trees and relayed the plan.

When they arrived at the Medical Center, she concealed her group outside of the ring of light at the entrance, on the south side as directed. Then she waited for the signal. After several minutes had passed, she saw the small blinking light of a hand-flash just outside the ring of light on the other side of the entrance. She touched the cadets on either side of her in the pre-arranged signal and they all ran quickly towards the entrance, meeting the remainder of their group as they all rushed into the building. She veered to the left with her group, making for the room she had been given as a target. Once there, they quickly freed the 'hostages' and hurried back out of the building, making for their rendezvous point. When the other half of their group met them with the remaining hostages, Commander Spock pulled a signal box from his pocket and thumbed the button on top. A cone of light sprang forth into the sky.

"You have completed your assignment Cadets, with three hours of time remaining. I congratulate you on a job well done. You may relax here until the monitors arrive, but please remain quiet. Other teams may not have completed their assignments yet."

All ten cadets melted down to the ground, disappearing between the rocks and bushes. The 'hostages' sat down on the ground in a group, keeping themselves separate from the cadets. Commander Spock simply vanished.

It wasn't until the monitors showed up, took everyone's ids, dismissed them and left with the hostages that he appeared again, right at her shoulder. "It is very dark outside, Cadet. I shall escort you to your quarters."

Smothering a laugh, she headed back towards her dorm with his warm body striding close to hers.

Spock

He walks her back to her quarters. It is his duty to protect her. This does not seem at all illogical to him any longer. Tomorrow he will tell her how admirably she has performed.

When he reaches his quarters he does not stop to remove his clothing, dropping immediately to his meditation pad, but he does not meditate. Instead, he looks at his fingers, remembering the sensations caused by her tongue, remembering the scent of her on them when they were wet. He tries to analyze the sensations that flamed through his body at her touch, but he has nothing to compare them to, nothing to judge them against. Most inexplicable. And that something is still there, stronger now.

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Author's note: I am having so much fun writing this :-) And I am loving the reviews - so glad you are enjoying reading what I'm writing!