"So…How long have you been here? In this academy?" Lara found herself frowning slightly as she asked the question, wondering if Romulans were even the sort of people to make small talk. For the past half an hour, Jo'rek had been sat demurely on his bunk, withhis eyes closed. She knew that Vulcans were a species with great interest in meditation, but as far as she could remember, Romulans were quite the opposite. She wasn't sure what it was, but Jo'rek didn't seem like the traditional Romulan.
Jo'rek opened his eyes slowly, turning his head to scan the room. Then his gaze fell upon her and his expression became utterly unreadable. "I have only been here a month," he then replied. "And you yourself have only just arrived. What are your first impressions?" He inclined his head towards her.
Lara pursed her lips and then forced a smile, crossing her legs where she sat. "It's different," she found herself saying. "I had never expected it to be quite like this. But I am determined, certainly. This base must be the envy of the Alpha Quadrant."
After she had said that, she could've sworn that Jo'rek had given a smile. A brief smile. But a smile – an honest, sincere one – on a Romulan must count for something.
"Did you grow up on Romulus?" he then asked, and she found herself surprised, but pleasantly so, by the amount of interest that he appeared to be showing in her.
She shook her head. "No. I was born on Beta Magnus IV." Seeing his vacant expression, she added helpfully, "It's a small colony near the Narcissus Asteroid Belt." And then she watched his face to see if her lie had stood up to the test.
Apparently it had. He nodded, said, "Ah,"and then looked briefly down at his work. "I was born on Romulus," he replied, his mouth a straight line, as if he was forcing himself not to let too much on. "As soon as I turned sixteen, my father took me here and I have been in training for five years." He swallowed, and from his anguished look, Lara could tell that Jo'rek did not thank his father for what had happened.
She wanted to ask if he liked it at the academy but lacked the temerity to do so. Anyway, asking too many questions would surely make her seem suspicious, so she would just have to wait.
Lara had taken to lying back on her bunk, twiddling her thumbs and blowing air through her lips. Her original plan was to get some exercise, particularly important as she had an endurance test coming up in a few days. She wondered what sort of chance a human had against a Romulan in such a test, but she wasn't prepared to place bets just yet. Any hope of rest, however, was scuppered when she saw how perturbed Jo'rek appeared.
He groaned in frustration and nearly threw his padd across the room, instead swearing under his breath. Still unsure of herself, Lara brought herself into a seated position and glanced over at him. "Is something wrong?" she asked, the question delivered in as blunt a tone as she could force. Her brain had been telling her to sound more compassionate, but she was in character now.
Jo'rek's eyes fell on hers and he brought a hand up to rub his temples. "No," he said shortly. "I am fine."
"You don't sound fine." As soon as the words had left her mouth, she clamped her lips shut. She was not meant to say that.
Curiosity consumed his face as he regarded her at that moment. Lara was vaguely worried that he would suspect something, but instead his mouth turned into a smile.
"What is it?" she asked again, not afraid of overstepping the mark.
"Nothing," he replied quickly. "I have something to do." With that, he jumped off of the bed and made for the door. Lara watched after him, utterly bemused.
Charles allowed his gaze to wander around his new dorm room. "What do you think Lara's up to?" he asked idly, the question not directed to either Seb or Data in particular.
Seb shrugged, but Data seemed more forthcoming in terms of an answer. "I suspect she is doing much the same as we have been: unpacking her belongings and acquainting herself with the facilities and surroundings." He paused. "However, I also suspect she is acquainting herself with her room mate."
Charles' eyes narrowed and he looked over at Data. "Did you see her room mate? What do they look like?"
Data considered a moment as his processors gathered the necessary information. "I believe he was male."
Seb raised an eyebrow when he caught sight of Charles' slightly suspicious look. "What's wrong with you?" he asked. When he got no response, he sighed and reiterated his thoughts. "Look, if you're that put out, why don't you go and make yourself known?"
Charles looked intent on considering it, but he didn't want to embarrass his sister. He glanced over at Data, as if the android could offer him some advice.
"I would suggest going to talk to Lara," Data opined. "If you are truly concerned for her well-being."
With that, Charles sprang to his feet and exited the dorm, arriving outside of Lara's room. He pressed the commpanel and Lara called out for him to enter.
"You don't look happy," he observed of his sister, catching sight of her crestfallen face.
Lara rolled her eyes and breathed air through parted lips. "I'm fine," she replied honestly.
"You are?" he pressed, his brows knitting.
"It's just… Jo'rek's been acting weirdly."
Charles' eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Who?"
She sighed and then amended her faux pas. "Jo'rek is my room mate. He doesn't act like a normal Romulan."
"And you do?" he asked pointedly.
"That's not the point. What I mean is, we've read about the Romulans who are self-centered and rude and dictatorial. But he's not like that."
"Is he nice?" The childish question was the embodiment of his brotherly concern for her.
It took her a while to decipher her brother's true meaning. "I mean… for a Romulan, he is."
Charles raised an eyebrow, evidently amused by her reply. "Oh," was all that he said, his mouth twisting into a smirk.
Catching onto his meaning, Lara moaned and gestured to the door. "Look. He's been out for a while. He might come back. I don't want him to be suspicious of us."
Charles was silent for a minute. "He won't be suspicious. After all, maybe he's not a Romulan anyway. Maybe he's on some sort of secretmission like we are. Or, like we're supposedto be." His voice inflected when he mentioned the word 'secret'; it had not quite sunk in yet.
"I doubt that."
"Well..." he began, and from his over-emphatic voice, Lara knew that she should brace herself for what was to come. "Maybe he likes you."
"Maybe he what?" she repeated, startled, if not confused.
"You heard what I said," he said simply, and then he made for the door, pressing the release button. "But I suppose that's not Romulan, is it?"
"Yeah, make fun of me," she snapped. "Why don't you go back to Seb and Data? Make the most of your time with them. I'll just sit here by myself."
"Come on, Lara," he finally said, his tone softening. "Don't be like that. But this isn't some sort of holiday home, you know? Who knows, you and… Jo'rek might become good friends."
She wasn't sure if she liked the sound of that. Whatever it was, she didn't think that she'd get the chance to find out.
Charles held back a snort as he caught sight of a Romulan entering the dorm just as he was leaving, and he gathered that it was Jo'rek. Jo'rek seemed to have noticed Charles, though he simply bowed his head respectfully… which annoyed Charles even more.
Jo'rek came into the room with a heavy sigh, his fingers resting on his greenish temples. Lara noticed that he had changed his clothing. He was no longer wearing the tight-fighting, broad-shouldered cadet suit. Instead, he was clothed in a much finer material, nearly latex. She couldn't stop herself from raising an eyebrow. It was still a strange sensation; it was not hereyebrow that she was raising, but a synthetic, pointed one.
"Do you wish to accompany me in training for the endurance test?" Jo'rek had asked Lara pointedly, outright, and she had been caught slightly unawares.
Fighting to cover up the confusion on her face, she smiled briefly. "If…Yes, of course." Then she looked down at what she was wearing. "Ah. I'll have to change first."
Hearing her say that, Jo'rek nearly blushed. And then he waved to the wash-room adjacent to their dorm. He cleared his throat and signalled that he would wait for her. So, Lara collected her training gear and slipped into the wash-room, returning minutes later.
As the two of them walked through the cavernous halls of the academy building, Lara found herself occasionally glancing over at her Romulan companion. He had a powerful stride, somewhat surprising considering his slight build. His hair was jet black, as it was with so many Romulans, but in conjunction with his facial features, it did not make him seem hard or menacing.
They reached the training ground, having walked in relative quiet.
"What should we do first?" she asked, looking around her surroundings. The brief survey had brought to her attention many things of interest. First, Romulans regularly exercised and trained. In hindsight, she supposed that that was hardly surprising, as they always seemed to be in peak physical condition. After all, Starfleet officers were expected to be fit and healthy and had to submit to numerous medical checks, so why should the Romulan military regime be any different?
Second, they seemed to interact with one another on a human level. They did not appear to be the cold, egotistical specimens that she had often read about in Starfleet textbooks. But then she was forced to correct herself on that. They only Romulan whom she had become even basically acquainted with was Jo'rek, and as far as she could tell, he was not a true Romulan. In blood and DNA maybe, but that was it.
Jo'rek cast her a look. "It is customary for each Romulan cadet to complete ten laps of the training ground each day."
Her jaw very nearly fell to the floor. Ten laps. Each day. That did not sound fun. She wondered if she would live through it. "Should we race each other?"
That appeared to amuse him. His mouth curled slightly in a grin. And then he subdued it. "If you wish."
They knelt into the starting-position, before bending upwards slightly and then setting off. For the first dozen metres, Lara genuinely enjoyed herself. It loosened up her agitated muscles and somewhat served to distract her from the hard fact that she was on a planet surrounded by Romulans.
"You are faster that you look," Jo'rek observed, and Lara cast him a devious smile, before speeding up her pace, until she was far ahead of him. He matched her speed with more than generous ease, but she wasn't annoyed.
When their ten consecutive laps were done, Lara flopped down on the ground, before being hauled up by Jo'rek's steadfast glare. Romulans did not lie down after a race, unless they wanted to show weakness. Lara at once sprang to her feet, and settled for stretching and rubbing her aching limbs.
Jo'rek seemed to be in some discomfort, and Lara took note of the beads of perspiration that had taken hold of his brow.
"I believe you won that," Lara congratulated him, once she had gotten her breath back. "Well done."
Jo'rek gave her a curt nod of appreciation, before taking the time to mention that the time had indeed passed them by. They were due for their first seminar of the day. Lara could have screamed: the planet's red dwarf sun had barely been in the sky for an hour and she had already run more miles than she cared to count. And now she would have to attend some teaching lecture that she truly didn't have to go to.