Their young ward had been sedated for first phase of their trip, they figured the blast off would have been to traumatic considering the day she'd experienced. While she was out the family supervised her scans in medical bay.
"There has never been any creature with this biology recorded in our databases. Nurse T'Sala is currently cross-referencing with all known medical records we have access to. If you look at her genetic makeup, she is carbon based and she is similar to most other known humanoid species. The differences are in her blood, which gold based rather than iron or copper based. Examination of her skeletal structure agrees with Spock's deduction that she is within her first ten years of life."
"Doctor, what about brain development, can we detect any anomalies from extended exposure to cryogenics?" Amanda asked.
"None at this time," T'Sovik replied. "Admittedly, we do not any familiarity with her physiology, but based on small tissue samples all cellular growth and reproduction seems to be standard and stable."
"Projected life expectancy?" Sarek asked.
"The subject will reach maturity when she reaches about sixteen standard years of age. We cannot know her full life expectancy without more invasive study..."
"Which we have prohibited." Amanda interrupted, a hint of sternness in her tone.
"Yes ma'am, as I was saying we cannot know for certain, however based on the tests we have been able to complete she could life up to one hundred and fifty standard years."
"Is there any further information required to care for the child?" Spock asked.
"Yes, you should know that their planet's gravity is less than that of Vulcan and like human she will need tri-ox shots to help her lungs absorb oxygen in the thinner atmosphere. Also, Gemini Five's day is approximately six hours longer than a Vulcan day, there will have to be an adjustment in sleeping patterns. As it is, depending on how her metabolism processes the sedative, she will be awake in 4.2 hours."
Sarek nodded in reply. "Have the child brought to the main suite once her room is appropriately furnished."
"Yes sir," T'Sovik acknowledged.
"Sa-mekh, I am available to supervise the transfer."
"Very well Spock, see that everything is arranged to your ko-mekh's specifications." The teen nodded and the older two left them behind.
"You still don't think it is a good idea," Amanda said. "And don't tell me that you haven't made up your mind."
"Adun'a, for a species that is psi-null," Sarek began.
"We've been married twenty years, I can tell when you don't approve of something I'm doing."
"I merely wish to understand your motivation."
"Well bully on that because I don't understand it." Sarek posed his question to her with a raised eyebrow. "I really don't Sarek. It was just, as soon as I saw her, something told me that I needed to take care of her. Like she needs someone to look out for her. Humor me for a minute and imagine. If that poor child really is the last of her kind then she will need an advocate, who better than you to stand in as her guardian?"
"We shall see Amanda." He entered their quarters and saw the technicians from engineering were still assembling the required furniture for a child and moving their library to the main common area. "Until then I will concede that the child needs a care-taker and we are not close to any Starfleet personnel that are equipped to handle the current situation."
"Thank you dear." Sarek had learned fifteen years previous that it was extraneous to point out that thanks were illogical. "We'll need some portable terminals with translation software to help her communicate and probably a few toys to gauge her intellectual development. I'll get the toys if you program the padds Adun?" He nodded and set a requisition form so they would be delivered to the room.
Spock busied himself with school work while he awaited the girl's awakening. The dosage she'd been given would have worn off on a Vulcan child by now but it appeared their physiological differences allowed for the longer time it was taking her body to process the drugs. He noted the difference on the medical padd his mother had left to keep track of what treatments were safe.
"Kur as esu?" A small voice asked, interrupting his thoughts. She was sitting up with her hands clutched around her knees looking very uncomfortable. Spock suppressed a feeling of empathy, he was not fond of sick bay either.
"You are on a diplomatic ship en route for Vulcan," Spock replied.
"As tik suprato zodj Vulcan," the girl said, ducking her head as her ears dusted a darker gold. She looked around with questioning eyes. "Kokia tai vieta?"
"This is medical bay, if you can stand then we may walk back to our rooms where you will be staying." The girl cocked her head to one side, which Spock understood from earlier observation conveyed confusion. He stood form his chair and mimed the action with his hands. "Lamok, stand."
"Stovéti," The girl replied, also rising to her feet. "Lamok, stand." Spock nodded and paced a short distance away, then back. "Im'roi, walk, vaikscioti." She extended her arms and Spock helped her down from the high biobed so they could go back to their rooms. Her legs were still weak from her time in cryostasis, but she made it all the way back under her own power before tugging on his pant leg. "As pavargau."
"Do you need anything?" Amanda asked, kneeling down in front of the child.
"As pavargau," she repeated, she folded her hand and mimed laying down on them. "Man reikia miegoti." She closed her eyes with a small yawn and mimed the action again. "Miegoti."
"Sleep, yuk," Amanda translated. "She's sleepy. Adun, is her bed made up yet?"
"No, but we can make it while the child bathes and changes her cloths."
"Ok, I'll take care of that, Spock, can you make up the bed so your father can finish programming the language pads."
"Yes mother," Spock replied.
Amanda lifted the exhausted girl and carried her into the bathroom. "Come on you, lets get you cleaned and changed. You've had one big day haven't you?"
"As nezinau, ka jus sakote, bet jus skamba grazus." The girl replied as she let herself be carried, her head falling foreword to rest on Amanda's shoulder.
Thankfully the girl did not have any aversion to water as Spock had when he was a child, a trait form her Vulcan husband. Rather than bathe as efficiently as possible and get out of the water, she gently played with the water and seemed to be enchanted by the clear liquid. Amanda showed her how to wash her hair and then gently patted it dry with a towel. When that was done she was carted off to the newly assembled bed and went straight to sleep. It wasn't until the next morning that Amanda saw the child again, curled up in the chair and already awake.
"Good morning," Amanda said, briefly forgetting that the girl was not educated in standard.
"Good morning," she replied with a slight accent. "You sleep good?"
"You spoke standard!"
"I start learn," she smiled. "I break fast in kitchen and find lesson language."
"You're learning very quickly," Amanda said. "How long have you been at that?"
She turned back to her pad and typed in a few commands, the computerized voice read it out and the girl mimicked the sounds despite the heavy accent. "Thank you. I have been working on Standard for five hours." She turned and looked back at Amanda with more hesitant speech without the padd, showing that she was in great in of instruction for syntax and grammar. "It no easy, learning hard is. Vulcan hard more."
"Yes it is," Amanda said. "Do you have a name sweetie?" The girl cocked her head. "I am Amanda. What are you called?"
She keyed in a few more commands. "No word for name," she said quietly. "No name. I do not have one."
"Well, what do you think about the name Angela?" Amanda replied after a moment of consideration. "The name seems to fit you."
"Angela, I like it."
"Well Angela, what did you eat for breakfast?"
The newly dubbed Angela cued an order into the padd and pointed. "That."
Amanda sat next to the girl and leaned in to see the picture. "Terran apples, that's good but not very filling."
"Ap...ple...app...le," Angela screwed up her face in concentration as her tongue tripped over the double letter. "Word not easy."
Amanda laughed and wrapped her arms around the girl. "You'll get it. Are you still hungry?" She shook her hair. "Do you think you will be?"
"Yes," Angela replied, smiling and giggling a little.
"Ok, I will show you how to replicate something a little more filling and we'll have breakfast ready for the boys. Come on, show me what you understood with those language padds." Angela retained much that she learned previously, but her available knowledge was mostly restricted to objects that she could see and indicate.
Under the tutelage of her three companions, Angela was marginally competent in both Standard and Vulcan by the time their ship returned to the desert planet. It had only been eight weeks since the young girl had been found, and everyone who had met her agreed that she was a creature of great intelligence. Spock had taken to spending most of his days with her when he was going over his own work so that he could support her whenever she had questions about her own language studies. By the time the two departed for Vulcan's surface, Angela almost never left Spock's side. Fifteen weeks after Angela's discovery, she was fluent enough in both languages to begin higher training in grammar and dialect. Two weeks after that, Amanda was running out of things for the girl to read.
"We have to send her to school," Amanda said the next morning over breakfast. "I'm basically out of things for her to read and if she breaks into the encyclopedias of Earth I don't know when we'll see her again. That girl is worse than you boys when it comes to reading, and I didn't even know that was possible."
"I did not believe that the acquisition knowledge was not something to aspire to," Spock replied.
"You know what I mean." Amanda looked over at her young ward. "Would you be interested in going to school?"
"Yes," Angela said, her eyes lighting up in delight. "Thank you, that would be wonderful. Spock told me about the learning stations, they sound great."
"That's decided. Sarek, can you order the uniforms so they can be fit this afternoon? Spock, I'll send a requisition so that you can bring home her school files with you."
"Of course Amanda."
"Yes mother.