We are now up to Forty chapters! Yay! As always, Enjoy.
Spock quietly took a sip of his drink. He was at a restaurant in New York with James, Leonard, and Emony Dax.
Emony laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh, that sounds horrible!"
"No, it's was hilarious!" said Bones.
"For you, maybe. It took me a week to get the green off my face." said Kirk. "And I never did get Finnegan back for that. I guess I never will now."
"Why?" asked Emony.
"Finnegan O'Hara is a senior this year." said Spock. "It is unlikely he and James will meet again."
"Too bad, it was kind of fun, all the pranking." said Kirk. "When I wasn't really mad at him that is. I guess I'll have to find some poor freshman to mess with next year instead."
"Please don't." said McCoy.
"Emony, perhaps you could enlighten us to some more facts about Trill and your life?" said Spock.
"Tell you about myself? Sure. I'm from a pretty average family, three kids. my siblings are both brothers, Tredran and Opilaz. Neither are joined, but Opilaz wants to be, when he's older. He's fifteen."
"I still don't get this joining thing." said Kirk. "You volunteer, train, and then get picked off so only the very best can have a sentient, non humanoid surgically grafted to their vital organs. And then this symbiont takes over?"
"Baisically, yeah." said Emony. "Call it a cultural difference. You humans-and Vulcans- do plenty of thigns I find odd."
"Oh, really?" said Bones.
"Yes, really."
"Like what?"
"Like, this-" she lifted up Kirk's drink and tapped the glass, sending up a flurry of carbonation. "We don't have 'soda' on Trill. And it's kind of wierd. Like tiny explosions in your mouth."
"Okay, but there's a difference between soda and a symbiont." pushed Jim, retriving his drink.
"True. And there's where there's weirdness." she said. "You think it's odd I have a 'slug' in my stomach, maybe I think it's wierd you don't." Jim grinned.
"You're good at talking."
"Remind you of anyone?" said Bones.
"How long will you be remaining on Earth?" asked Spock.
"About until the time all of you head back to school." she said. "I leave a day or two before Leonard."
"I've noticed something." said Kirk. "You call Leonard not Bones."
"That's because Dax is much nicer than you are." Bones quickly kissed her.
"You refer to Emony by her last name?" inquired Spock.
"Dax is the name of the symbiont. My last name is Derel."
"Huh." said Kirk. "Well, still easier to keep track of than surname-less Spock."
"I opted against using my mother's surname. On Vulcan, it is traditional to keep records of a person using their father's name as well as their own."
"Well then, Spock son of Sarek," began Emony. "If your done eating, I'm ordering dessert." she glanced at the menu. "Oh, Leonard! They have that thing I like!"
"What thing?"
"Oh, they don't have it on Trill, I had it first the day I came here. German Choclate cake."
Kirk just laughed.
"It was neat hanging out with Emony." said Kirk the next day, they were in San Fransico. Bones had been given the afternoon off and had come for a brief visit. "I really liked her. But I don't mean liked her, she's all yours, Bones."
"I'm glad, on both things." said Bones. "You leave tomorrow, right Spock?"
"Yes. I was supposed to remain on Earth until the hearing was finished. It was postponed until today. Look." he gestured to three young men leaving a Federation building. "That's them."
"Um, you two keep going, I'll catch up with you in the transporter room, okay?" he ran off toward the boys who had bullied Spock.
"We should go after him." said Spock, McCoy put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
"Don't."
"We both know that James is going to approach them, and probably hit one or more of them to make a point."
"Yeah, the point is he doesn't like people messing with his friends, and neither do I."
"I do not want him getting in trouble on my behalf."
"He's Jim Kirk, he could talk himself out of Hell and straight into Heaven, he'll be fine. Besides, he's not on duty and they probably aren't in Starfleet anymore." Leonard sighed. "look, this is going to sound strange, but Jim and I really do care about that you were being shoved around, we don't like it. It's done now, but that doesn't mean it's fixed in Jim's mind. He's taken it as his personal thing to make sure they don't bother you or anyone else again. And if you stop him, it's going to just stay in his head forever, like an affront on his honor or something." Leonard kept walking. Spock considered what had been said for a moment, and then followed.
"Hey!" Ensign Beardsley turned around and saw a handsome young man in a cadet's uniform run up to him and his two friends, Ensign Camarella and Lieutenant Smith. The cadet smiled.
"Your the people form Mars, aren't you?"
"Yes..." said Smith. the cadet stuck out his hand.
"Nice to meet you." Smith stared at the offered hand and then took it. Kirk swung around with his other hand and punch him in the stomach.
"Hey!" said Camarella. Kirk put up a hand, backing a few steps off.
"Gentlemen, you're in enough trouble as it is, don't add assaulting me to it. I haven't introduced myself: I'm James Tiberius Kirk, a friend of Spock's. And if you ever bother him or anyone else I again, I will find out and I will make sure a lot more happens than just a punch to the stomach and some lost commissions." Kirk turned on his heels and walked away.