In Translation

The Universal Translator fails and French comes out of Tom's mouth, pristine, fluent French, and the bridge crew stare at him blankly. Academy graduates are expected to know enough Federation Standard to get by in a crisis but Tom swears up and down—en français—that he lost it all in prison.

"You're from San Francisco!" Harry accuses, in perfect Standard.

But if home can be exile by another name then the opposite can also be true, and Kathryn spent enough time in Marseille to understand.

"Emmerdeur," she murmurs fondly, and drags him off of the bridge by the arm.