Chapter 60 - Gossip and Girl Talk
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Nyota Uhura rose from a nap to find she'd been out a lot longer than intended. It appeared that Spock had turned off the alarm when he left so that she could catch up on her sleep. She stretched and smiled to herself, thinking about what she'd learned during what was now her favorite new game.
After showering and changing, she had dutifully reviewed the comm log and checked in with her department. Officially, the only news was that Allen was recovering and Spock had gotten a stash of data chips from Maldi's private vault. Unofficially, there was a lot of scuttlebut - some of it so outrageous that she nearly laughed out loud when Martinez relayed it. Nothing like a ship stuck waiting to stimulate the rumor mill. She decided a trip to sickbay - just to see how Allen was doing, of course - was in order.
When she got there, Christine had shoo-ed her away saying the doctor was busy with Allen. (But she also filled her in on some other things that both of them would make sure stayed out of the ship's grapevine). So, having some time before her next shift, she decided to head to the gym. A short workout followed by a soak in the whirlpool would be just the thing for the few kinks left over from a fairly aerobic game of 20 questions.
She met one of the Trubese heading out. "Greetings, Humlaalu. I understand you had a most exciting bout with Mr. Sulu. Were you seeking another to test?"
"Greetings, Ms. Uhura. I am considering. I have been observing Ms. Chandri practice. She is so calm at the table, but here she attacks even the droid with fierce intensity. I do not know how such things are with humans, but if one of my sisters practiced like that, I would find a way to provide her a male." Bright golden eyes looked up at Nyota inquiringly. "We owe Ms. Chandri a great debt for exposing the smugglers. Would it be appropriate to offer her one of my brothers?"
Nyota very carefully maintained a straight face. She had been offered a brother before word got out that she was happily and monogamously mated. "While a most generous impulse," she answered diplomatically, "Ms. Chandri does not want for offers of males." To say the least.
Humlaalu nodded and leaned closer, dropping her voice. "I have heard that the one escorting her when she was captured is very tall." There was slight purr on the last word.
Nyota thought, not for the first time, that gossip was in fact the one truly universal cultural constant. She smiled to herself. The Trubese were several centimeters shorter than most humans and considered 'tall' a particularly desirable male characteristic - 'poor Allen' was seriously purr-worthy! ...She wondered what the fur-covered Trubese would make of a full beard.
"Yes. In fact, he's very tall even for a human. And he has a lot more fur on his face than most human males." She pantomimed the idea of a beard.
"Indeed?" Humlaalu's ears perked forward. She liked that idea.
Nyota nodded. If she left things there, Selina's stock would go up a bit with the Trubese. But if the delegates were gossiping, she really ought to reign this in a bit. Unfortunately, the concept of 'just friends' between male and female didn't translate cleanly. She wasn't sure that all that clean a translation was completely necessary anymore, but still wished she'd spent a little more time reviewing this aspect of Trubese society. She ran a response, which was at least basically honest, through her head before replying in trubese. {There is a not-kinship-closeness between them, but they have not paired in many seasons.}
Humlaalu's head cocked slightly sideways. {Your insight is as always much appreciated.} She bowed in formal leave-taking. {I shall not keep you from your practice.}
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When she finished her workout, Nyota saw that great minds thought alike: Selina was up to her neck in the whirlpool, her head leaned back over the edge and her eyes closed in sybaritic pleasure. Nyota smiled to herself. If her friend were actually involved with even half the people on the rumor mill list, not to mention the more imaginative combinations (there were people in engineering who seriously needed a life), Selina ought to need a soak more than she did!
Selina's eyes opened as Nyota slid in beside her. "Nyota, I hope you slept well."
"I did. I hope you're not here because you're stiff from sleeping in a chair? Spock told us not to move you."
"Spock is considerably less valiant than the Ambassador thinks." Selina commented dryly. "But I am fine. Although he has been quite difficult since he awoke, Faf makes an agreeable pillow."
"You two seemed pretty agreeable last night." Nyota said slyly. "I was tempted to pull the curtain, just in case."
"Nyota!" She gave a recriminating frown, but it faded in the face of Nyota's grin. Selina sighed slightly. "He surprised me. And after six years, I had nearly forgotten how well he kissed."
"Only six years?"
"By now, I suspect you have realized that we fell off the wagon on the 'just friends' thing a few times before it stuck."
"Really stuck?" Nyota teased. "I mean, Spock looked away and he'd like you two to get back together."
"For all his efforts to push Faf at me, almost no one at the Academy knew we actually dated because Spock went all stiff if Faf even put an arm around me." She rolled her eyes. "But it does not matter. Faf remembers none of it, which is probably as well. I only wish Len would forget so he would stop being so gruff with him. He certainly deserved to be upbraided for trying to hide how ill he really was, but Len has not been his usual kindly self."
Nyota swallowed a laugh and Selina looked at her in confusion. " 'Gruff' is Len's default setting." Nyota told her. "He mostly does kindly for you."
"Jim said as much before." Selina raised an eyebrow. "Although the man richly deserved it, the way he blew up at Maldi's physician made me wonder if he had a temper to rival my own. That would not be a good combination."
Nyota raised an eyebrow back. "So you've been thinking about combining with Len?"
Selina narrowed her eyes. "You are being wicked. I do not even want to ask what you were up to with my 'brother' while he was supposed to be meditating."
Nyota grinned back very wickedly. "So...?"
She tilted her head. "I have never had a sister before. Surely this is not what I should expect?"
"I have two other sisters. Trust me, this exactly what you should expect. Unless you're Trubese." Nyota winked. "Humlaalu asked about offering you a brother."
Selina put a hand to her face.
"I told her you didn't need any more offers, very diplomatically of course."
"Thank you." Selina tapped a finger against her lips. "You wouldn't be too upset if I were to embarrassed Spock a little? It would be only polite to reciprocate and he would deserve it for helping Faf to hide things."
"She already knows he's mine. We'll think of something else. Now: Len?"
"You are extraordinarily persistent."
"All of my sisters are. Now quit avoiding the question."
"It is not just Len. For a long time after I lost David, I thought I would never think of anyone in that way again. But now..." Selina sighed and leaned her head back over the side, looking up at the ceiling. "It has been over two years since I have been with a man, Nyota, and it seems to be catching up to me. I have even, briefly, thought about Jim."
"No." She raised her eyebrows incredulously. "Humlaalu's brother might not be that bad, you know."
Selina suppressed a laugh and rolled her head over, smiling mischievously. "Jim does not kiss badly. He is not as good as Faf, but not bad." She made an exaggerated so-so face.
Nyota put her hand over her mouth to muffle a laugh. "Oh please, please, please, once you are both off the ship, let me tell him that."
"He'd already know if he hadn't been so focused on what he was thinking when I kissed him to rattle Maldi." She smirked slightly. "Hikaru has been telling tales out of school - Jim's first thought was not to think of other women, and so of course he did." She widened her eyes. "There have certainly been a lot of them."
"There's an understatement." Nyota gave up trying not to laugh. "But I guess Hikaru is out. How's Len on the kissing scale?"
"It would not be fair to compare." she said primly. "He was inhibited by the presence of a glaring Vulcan."
Nyota grinned impishly. "I could keep the Vulcan out of the way for awhile..."
"You are really being very bad today." Selina said with a slightly scolding look. "I am not ready to be in any sort of serious relationship again and Len, I think, is the serious type." She shook her head. "Besides, another doctor! Spock and Faf would never let me live it down."
Nyota looked at her slyly. "Do you really care what they think?"
"No. But, another CMO ...it would be almost impossible not to think of David at all the wrong moments. Given what I have heard of his divorce, I think Len would be hurt by that." She stared down into the swirling foam of the pool. "I do not think it would be helpful for me either."
Nyota put a hand on her shoulder and Selina looked up. "I am alright, Nyota. Faf refers to David sometimes as the ghost in my head and he is not entirely wrong." She cracked a wry smile. "There would be the advantage to considering Jim: he could hardly object if I were to think of other men!"
Nyota laughed. "And Faf?"
Selina looked up not-quite-innocently. "Would be one of the other men."
Hmmm. "And what would he do if you told him that?"
Her lips compressed in a thin line. "He would brush it off by making some obnoxiously self-deprecating joke about representing a lower bound - even though he has every reason to know better and to know that I hate it when he does that."
What would Gaila say? Nyota grinned. "Then how about just bumping him off the wagon again?"
"You are terrible." Selina widened her eyes. "Despite appearances, it is not that simple. He may tease and sometimes even flirt, but only because he is so certain it will not be taken as anything but a joke." She shook her head. "He was not himself last night. He was not even the self that he was then.
"And today I do not which self he is, but he is hiding something. Past experience would suggest that when I find out, I will be far more inclined to slap him than seduce him."
Nyota nudged her. "But you're a little inclined to seduce him..."
She got a face full of water in response.
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AN: Nyota has not had nearly enough time in the story lately. Had to correct that.
Females tend to be the more aggressive and in-charge gender among the Trubese, who are organized in matriarchal clans. (Yes, at some point one of them is probably going to make Allen blush.)
