A Pragmatic Theory of Truth - 18/25
Jul. 4th, 2010 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leandraholmesTitle: A Pragmatic Theory of Truth
Chapter: 18 of 25 (1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17)
Word count: 2274 (~ 55,000 in total)
Authors:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
petbubble and leandralocke
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG - NC-17
Summary: One and a half years before the destruction of Vulcan, Spock meets an extraordinary young cadet during a lecture at Starfleet Academy. Their initial encounter is brief but intense, and affects both of them in ways they could never have imagined.
Authors' notes Thanks toblueeyed_secret for beta-reading.
This is our first multi-chapter Spock/Uhura fic, but it has been completed for a while. We are currently already working on follow-ups, so there's no need to worry that this might never be completed. We're just editing it chapter by chapter and having it beta-read now and should post a new chapter every few days.
The story is also online at Fanfiction.net
Chapter 18
Spock knew it was difficult for humans to hide their emotions, especially if they were of the positive kind. He had often observed his class mates, colleagues and these days students grinning from ear to ear - almost literally so - when something especially pleasing had occurred in their life. Love life. He did not possess the same ability as his first year room mate Bill McPhee had ("Oh, do you see that grin? Someone got laid last night.") but he was fairly certain there were several indicators that were quite obvious to the more than averagely perceptive humans, since they could compare it to their own behavior in the same circumstances. And he was furthermore quite certain that the same also applied to Orions. So even though he and Nyota had not yet exchanged intimacies on such a level, he did notice that Gaila kept throwing glances at him and Nyota from time to time, her forehead crinkled, eyes slightly narrowed and a sly smirk on her features - thankfully when no one else seemed to be looking.
Standing at his desk, his hands behind his back, he addressed his class after the twelve minutes he had given the students to prepare today's experiment.
"While listening to the transmission sample you will encounter a certain number of anomalies," he said, not yet mentioning how many, as the experiment was a preparation for their upcoming course exams. "The objective of this experiment is for you to be able to identify their possible origin and character. Please listen to the sample closely and completely one time before you start a deeper analysis. If you have any questions raise your hand and I will come to your desk."
He watched as Nyota immediately inserted her earpiece and closed her eyes, a habit he noticed she displayed when she wanted to pay close attention to aural input. She claimed that with her eyes closed she could see things with her hearing, which helped her concentrate.
“Errr, Commander Spock? Sir?” cadet Foster spoke timidly. She sat with her hand in the air, waving it to attract his attention as well as speaking. “Commander? Exactly how many do we have to hear? What’s the pass rate for this test? Errr…sir.”
Spock noticed a certain level of slight exasperation whenever dealing with this particular student who seemed mostly absent-minded and often needed repeated explanation. He quietly walked towards her and spoke with lowered voice in order to not disturb any of the other cadets that were already concentrating on the audio sample. "This is no test, cadet Foster. It is merely a preparation for the upcoming exam and will not be graded. Me telling you how many anomalies there are would be counterproductive since you have to practice identifying them on your own."
Foster initially looked puzzled and a little disappointed at his explanation and stared at him with furrowed brows. “Oh. Oh…right. Hmmm,” and with that she seemed to forget he was there and stared at her PADD before picking her earpiece up, humming under her breath.
Most of the remaining students had successfully been able to ignore cadet Foster’s interruption, though there was still some shuffling in chairs as they settled. Nyota, however, had been watching his interaction with the cadet. She had settled in her seat in her usual relaxed pose, legs stretched in front of her, ankles crossed and to a casual observer looked like she was absorbed solely with the recording. However she had turned her seat in his general direction, and had her eyes half open, her index finger tapping randomly on her PADD screen.
Although it was a completely different situation he could not help but be reminded of the previous evening when at least some features of her expression had been the similar. The half-opened eyes, forehead slightly crinkled, even if it was in concentration now and not the strain of building lust.
Only when his peripheral vision caught sight of a movement did he realize that he had been looking, even staring at her for longer than would have been wise. And he was almost thankful that it was Gaila whose arm was raised while all of the other cadets were occupied with their work and not paying him attention.
"I am sorry to disturb you," she said, her voice barely raised above a whisper when he reached her desk, but there was something slightly mocking in the tone of her voice. "But I was curious if we were allowed to use computer programs to verify our findings. I've been working on a matrix that seems to be really useful."
Even if she didn't seem like it on first impression, Gaila was exceptionally clever when it came to programming. Still, Spock raised his eyebrow, somewhat impressed that she would develop something that was more efficient than their regular academic software. "You will not be allowed to use it in your exam," he said. "However, if it helps you understand the possible errors you have made you may proceed."
As Gaila grinned at him and nodded, he heard a slight cough behind him and saw Gaila’s eyes flicker in that direction before her grin grew wider. Her PADD screen flashed to indicate a message had been received, though there was no accompanying beep, given the nature of the class. Gaila continued to smile, ignoring the flashing PADD either intentionally or because she just hadn’t noticed it.
The cough was repeated, this time more forcefully. Nyota had turned round in her chair, her PADD in her hand and was staring…almost glaring at Gaila, hand raised to her mouth as though she was about to cough again. As Spock turned she dropped her PADD, fumbling to catch it before it hit the floor with a clatter. “Shit,” she mumbled as she bent forwards to pick it up.
Since it was slightly out of her reach, however, unless she pulled her chair forward which would cause even more noise and attention drawn to her, Spock quickly reached the device and handed it back to Nyota. A little too quickly, he realized when their fingertips unintentionally brushed for a second, and he felt low level irritation, which he assumed was aimed at the Orion, along with a high level of sexual satisfaction and a flicker of arousal. “Thank you,” she mouthed, almost silently though she kept her eyes averted from his.
"Please, proceed," he said outwardly calm at both Nyota as well as the other cadets that were watching the scene, but inwardly he needed to force his thoughts to stay focused on his work, which included paying equal attention to all of his students. He deliberately looked at two other students for a longer than usual time, and instead of returning straight to his desk took a detour through the rows of seats, looking over the shoulders of a few cadets as they were working.
Nyota had settled back into her ‘listening position’, though this time her eyes were open and she was tapping at her PADD, her lips pursed. She now had her back to her Orion friend, and a small flush was creeping up her throat. Spock saw her PADD flash almost immediately as she stopped typing, and he watched as she sat upright, took her earpiece out and laid it on the desk beside her, her eyes flicking in his direction after she had read whatever was on the screen.
He would have to ask her later what exactly this had been about. At present, however, there was no way he could find out, and in this case it was probably also wise not to admonish these two of his students for sending messages to each other while they should be concentrating on their exercise. It would not only draw attention to them, but might also raise suspicions if any of the other cadets were as perceptive as Gaila. It was that prospect that immediately allowed him to focus solely on his professional tasks instead of letting his thoughts stray to anything else that was clearly inappropriate in the present situation.
The remaining thirty-seven minutes of the session passed without further distracting events, except for cadet Foster asking two more questions and Wesson almost 'throwing a fit', as he himself had moaned out in exasperation as he could not figure out half of the anomalies. By the time the class ended, however, he had all their results on his PADD and would spend the free period before his next lecture to evaluate them.
As the class gathered their belongings together Nyota nodded in his direction, with a slight smile on her face, though there was a tightening around her eyes that indicated some level of stress. Her nod was nothing new – in fact she had made such a gesture, either arriving or leaving, since he had taken over the class. The unusual aspect of her behavior was that she ignored Gaila, leaving instead with Wesson, chatting loudly and offering him some general assistance as they both left the classroom.
Spock heard someone clear their throat and looked up to see the Orion student standing by his desk, tapping her nails against the PADD in her hand almost impatiently.
“Yes cadet, how can I help you?” he asked politely as the last of the students were filing out of the room.
Gaila smiled at him quickly, raising a finger to imply that he should wait as she looked over her shoulder at the remaining students leaving the classroom. She waved and winked at several classmates, male and female alike, along with promises of messages and meetings for coffee. As the door closed behind the last student, she turned back to face him, an unusually serious look on her face.
“I know you know that I know, Commander,” she said quietly, yet firmly.
Spock looked at her for a moment, his eyebrows quirking upward involuntarily. And he had to admit, despite the fact that it was futile to regret the unchangeable, that he did feel slightly uncomfortable with this conversation topic.
“Thank you for the information,” he said, not knowing what else he could tell her regarding the matter. He certainly did not want to discuss it, and it would be a completely inappropriate request to stress his hopes for her to keep their secret which would put her in a situation that could be regarded as abuse of power by him as her instructor. He did not, in any way, want to imply that there would be consequences for her were she to decide to bring the matter to the dean.
Her head tilted as she regarded him for a few seconds before she smiled brightly. “You’re welcome, Commander Spock,” she replied. Her eyes flickered to her PADD, and she tapped the screen a few times, the tip of her tongue escaping the corner of her mouth as she concentrated. “And as much as I technically should report such knowledge to the Academy…,” she continued as she used her index finger to scroll down the screen. “But I also love Ny like a sister and am a sucker for illicit romances. So, word to the wise? I’ll tell you what I just told her – keep it out of the classroom, off campus, and if you hurt her, I’ll hunt you down. Okay?” She tilted her PADD towards him and showed him the message she had earlier sent to Nyota.
You and him are way too obvious, girl. Been there, done that – tone it down & keep it out of the classroom. BTW don’t fuck in these chairs – way too uncomfortable.
Spock tried to ignore and at best even forget the second part of the message. He knew he simply had to accept that some things that seemed inappropriate or even impossible to him, such as discussing private matters of this kind with anybody, were completely normal to humans, especially if they were as close friends as Gaila and Nyota. The first part of the message, however, did surprise and even slightly alarm him. Had he really been so careless and so suspect in his behavior? Replaying the previous lesson in his mind he came to the conclusion, however, that it was mostly Nyota’s blushing and smiling (in combination with his reaction to it) that could have given them away.
“Thank you for the advice,” he said earnestly. “And… I appreciate your concern for her as well.” He needn’t add that it was not his intention to hurt Nyota.
Gaila nodded and continued to smile at him. “Honestly, Commander – you’re not that obvious. Just Orions can pick up on…these kinds of things, and I don’t want someone else noticing and feeling they have to report you. ‘Cause as an instructor, you’re pretty cool, you know?” she giggled slightly, her teeth bright against the green of her skin. “Plus I’m still intrigued how Ny managed to snag you when I couldn’t.” With that she winked at him, picked up her belongings and turned to leave the room.
Spock stared after her for a few moments until he shook his head slightly. He was relieved that Gaila was proven to be such a loyal and true friend to Nyota, flattered – if in a slightly irritated way – about the compliment, but most of all, he was glad he had not known the arguable pleasures of being ‘snagged’ by an Orion. He very much preferred a particular human.
~ TBC ~
Chapter 19
Chapter: 18 of 25 (1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17)
Word count: 2274 (~ 55,000 in total)
Authors:
petbubble and leandralockeGenre: Romance
Rating: PG - NC-17
Summary: One and a half years before the destruction of Vulcan, Spock meets an extraordinary young cadet during a lecture at Starfleet Academy. Their initial encounter is brief but intense, and affects both of them in ways they could never have imagined.
Authors' notes Thanks to
blueeyed_secret for beta-reading. This is our first multi-chapter Spock/Uhura fic, but it has been completed for a while. We are currently already working on follow-ups, so there's no need to worry that this might never be completed. We're just editing it chapter by chapter and having it beta-read now and should post a new chapter every few days.
The story is also online at Fanfiction.net
Chapter 18
Spock knew it was difficult for humans to hide their emotions, especially if they were of the positive kind. He had often observed his class mates, colleagues and these days students grinning from ear to ear - almost literally so - when something especially pleasing had occurred in their life. Love life. He did not possess the same ability as his first year room mate Bill McPhee had ("Oh, do you see that grin? Someone got laid last night.") but he was fairly certain there were several indicators that were quite obvious to the more than averagely perceptive humans, since they could compare it to their own behavior in the same circumstances. And he was furthermore quite certain that the same also applied to Orions. So even though he and Nyota had not yet exchanged intimacies on such a level, he did notice that Gaila kept throwing glances at him and Nyota from time to time, her forehead crinkled, eyes slightly narrowed and a sly smirk on her features - thankfully when no one else seemed to be looking.
Standing at his desk, his hands behind his back, he addressed his class after the twelve minutes he had given the students to prepare today's experiment.
"While listening to the transmission sample you will encounter a certain number of anomalies," he said, not yet mentioning how many, as the experiment was a preparation for their upcoming course exams. "The objective of this experiment is for you to be able to identify their possible origin and character. Please listen to the sample closely and completely one time before you start a deeper analysis. If you have any questions raise your hand and I will come to your desk."
He watched as Nyota immediately inserted her earpiece and closed her eyes, a habit he noticed she displayed when she wanted to pay close attention to aural input. She claimed that with her eyes closed she could see things with her hearing, which helped her concentrate.
“Errr, Commander Spock? Sir?” cadet Foster spoke timidly. She sat with her hand in the air, waving it to attract his attention as well as speaking. “Commander? Exactly how many do we have to hear? What’s the pass rate for this test? Errr…sir.”
Spock noticed a certain level of slight exasperation whenever dealing with this particular student who seemed mostly absent-minded and often needed repeated explanation. He quietly walked towards her and spoke with lowered voice in order to not disturb any of the other cadets that were already concentrating on the audio sample. "This is no test, cadet Foster. It is merely a preparation for the upcoming exam and will not be graded. Me telling you how many anomalies there are would be counterproductive since you have to practice identifying them on your own."
Foster initially looked puzzled and a little disappointed at his explanation and stared at him with furrowed brows. “Oh. Oh…right. Hmmm,” and with that she seemed to forget he was there and stared at her PADD before picking her earpiece up, humming under her breath.
Most of the remaining students had successfully been able to ignore cadet Foster’s interruption, though there was still some shuffling in chairs as they settled. Nyota, however, had been watching his interaction with the cadet. She had settled in her seat in her usual relaxed pose, legs stretched in front of her, ankles crossed and to a casual observer looked like she was absorbed solely with the recording. However she had turned her seat in his general direction, and had her eyes half open, her index finger tapping randomly on her PADD screen.
Although it was a completely different situation he could not help but be reminded of the previous evening when at least some features of her expression had been the similar. The half-opened eyes, forehead slightly crinkled, even if it was in concentration now and not the strain of building lust.
Only when his peripheral vision caught sight of a movement did he realize that he had been looking, even staring at her for longer than would have been wise. And he was almost thankful that it was Gaila whose arm was raised while all of the other cadets were occupied with their work and not paying him attention.
"I am sorry to disturb you," she said, her voice barely raised above a whisper when he reached her desk, but there was something slightly mocking in the tone of her voice. "But I was curious if we were allowed to use computer programs to verify our findings. I've been working on a matrix that seems to be really useful."
Even if she didn't seem like it on first impression, Gaila was exceptionally clever when it came to programming. Still, Spock raised his eyebrow, somewhat impressed that she would develop something that was more efficient than their regular academic software. "You will not be allowed to use it in your exam," he said. "However, if it helps you understand the possible errors you have made you may proceed."
As Gaila grinned at him and nodded, he heard a slight cough behind him and saw Gaila’s eyes flicker in that direction before her grin grew wider. Her PADD screen flashed to indicate a message had been received, though there was no accompanying beep, given the nature of the class. Gaila continued to smile, ignoring the flashing PADD either intentionally or because she just hadn’t noticed it.
The cough was repeated, this time more forcefully. Nyota had turned round in her chair, her PADD in her hand and was staring…almost glaring at Gaila, hand raised to her mouth as though she was about to cough again. As Spock turned she dropped her PADD, fumbling to catch it before it hit the floor with a clatter. “Shit,” she mumbled as she bent forwards to pick it up.
Since it was slightly out of her reach, however, unless she pulled her chair forward which would cause even more noise and attention drawn to her, Spock quickly reached the device and handed it back to Nyota. A little too quickly, he realized when their fingertips unintentionally brushed for a second, and he felt low level irritation, which he assumed was aimed at the Orion, along with a high level of sexual satisfaction and a flicker of arousal. “Thank you,” she mouthed, almost silently though she kept her eyes averted from his.
"Please, proceed," he said outwardly calm at both Nyota as well as the other cadets that were watching the scene, but inwardly he needed to force his thoughts to stay focused on his work, which included paying equal attention to all of his students. He deliberately looked at two other students for a longer than usual time, and instead of returning straight to his desk took a detour through the rows of seats, looking over the shoulders of a few cadets as they were working.
Nyota had settled back into her ‘listening position’, though this time her eyes were open and she was tapping at her PADD, her lips pursed. She now had her back to her Orion friend, and a small flush was creeping up her throat. Spock saw her PADD flash almost immediately as she stopped typing, and he watched as she sat upright, took her earpiece out and laid it on the desk beside her, her eyes flicking in his direction after she had read whatever was on the screen.
He would have to ask her later what exactly this had been about. At present, however, there was no way he could find out, and in this case it was probably also wise not to admonish these two of his students for sending messages to each other while they should be concentrating on their exercise. It would not only draw attention to them, but might also raise suspicions if any of the other cadets were as perceptive as Gaila. It was that prospect that immediately allowed him to focus solely on his professional tasks instead of letting his thoughts stray to anything else that was clearly inappropriate in the present situation.
The remaining thirty-seven minutes of the session passed without further distracting events, except for cadet Foster asking two more questions and Wesson almost 'throwing a fit', as he himself had moaned out in exasperation as he could not figure out half of the anomalies. By the time the class ended, however, he had all their results on his PADD and would spend the free period before his next lecture to evaluate them.
As the class gathered their belongings together Nyota nodded in his direction, with a slight smile on her face, though there was a tightening around her eyes that indicated some level of stress. Her nod was nothing new – in fact she had made such a gesture, either arriving or leaving, since he had taken over the class. The unusual aspect of her behavior was that she ignored Gaila, leaving instead with Wesson, chatting loudly and offering him some general assistance as they both left the classroom.
Spock heard someone clear their throat and looked up to see the Orion student standing by his desk, tapping her nails against the PADD in her hand almost impatiently.
“Yes cadet, how can I help you?” he asked politely as the last of the students were filing out of the room.
Gaila smiled at him quickly, raising a finger to imply that he should wait as she looked over her shoulder at the remaining students leaving the classroom. She waved and winked at several classmates, male and female alike, along with promises of messages and meetings for coffee. As the door closed behind the last student, she turned back to face him, an unusually serious look on her face.
“I know you know that I know, Commander,” she said quietly, yet firmly.
Spock looked at her for a moment, his eyebrows quirking upward involuntarily. And he had to admit, despite the fact that it was futile to regret the unchangeable, that he did feel slightly uncomfortable with this conversation topic.
“Thank you for the information,” he said, not knowing what else he could tell her regarding the matter. He certainly did not want to discuss it, and it would be a completely inappropriate request to stress his hopes for her to keep their secret which would put her in a situation that could be regarded as abuse of power by him as her instructor. He did not, in any way, want to imply that there would be consequences for her were she to decide to bring the matter to the dean.
Her head tilted as she regarded him for a few seconds before she smiled brightly. “You’re welcome, Commander Spock,” she replied. Her eyes flickered to her PADD, and she tapped the screen a few times, the tip of her tongue escaping the corner of her mouth as she concentrated. “And as much as I technically should report such knowledge to the Academy…,” she continued as she used her index finger to scroll down the screen. “But I also love Ny like a sister and am a sucker for illicit romances. So, word to the wise? I’ll tell you what I just told her – keep it out of the classroom, off campus, and if you hurt her, I’ll hunt you down. Okay?” She tilted her PADD towards him and showed him the message she had earlier sent to Nyota.
You and him are way too obvious, girl. Been there, done that – tone it down & keep it out of the classroom. BTW don’t fuck in these chairs – way too uncomfortable.
Spock tried to ignore and at best even forget the second part of the message. He knew he simply had to accept that some things that seemed inappropriate or even impossible to him, such as discussing private matters of this kind with anybody, were completely normal to humans, especially if they were as close friends as Gaila and Nyota. The first part of the message, however, did surprise and even slightly alarm him. Had he really been so careless and so suspect in his behavior? Replaying the previous lesson in his mind he came to the conclusion, however, that it was mostly Nyota’s blushing and smiling (in combination with his reaction to it) that could have given them away.
“Thank you for the advice,” he said earnestly. “And… I appreciate your concern for her as well.” He needn’t add that it was not his intention to hurt Nyota.
Gaila nodded and continued to smile at him. “Honestly, Commander – you’re not that obvious. Just Orions can pick up on…these kinds of things, and I don’t want someone else noticing and feeling they have to report you. ‘Cause as an instructor, you’re pretty cool, you know?” she giggled slightly, her teeth bright against the green of her skin. “Plus I’m still intrigued how Ny managed to snag you when I couldn’t.” With that she winked at him, picked up her belongings and turned to leave the room.
Spock stared after her for a few moments until he shook his head slightly. He was relieved that Gaila was proven to be such a loyal and true friend to Nyota, flattered – if in a slightly irritated way – about the compliment, but most of all, he was glad he had not known the arguable pleasures of being ‘snagged’ by an Orion. He very much preferred a particular human.
~ TBC ~
Chapter 19
