Chapter Text
“Uhura?”
She swiveled her chair around to face the captain. “Yes Ma’am?”
The captain chuckled, “It’s too late on alpha ship for you to be so formal.”
“ Meaning it’s too late for me to forget the manners the academy instilled in me. Sorry captain- I meant Fitzgerald” Uhura loosened her shoulders and tried to remember she didn’t have to be so perfect anymore. “You had a question for me, right?”
“Oh I almost forgot. You transferred from the Enterprise right?” Fitzgerald was looking down at her padd, reading yet another report, so she couldn’t have noticed Uhura spine stiffening.
“Yes, why?” She must’ve let the shock change her tone, because Fitzgerald actually looked up from her reports with confusion.
“Is something the matter? I know you transferred onto this ship pretty quickly, but I thought you just wanted a more stationary vessel.”
“It’s just been a while since anyone mentioned the name to me. But please do go on.”
Fitzgerald gave her a look of concern but continued “We’re meeting up with them to refuel their supplies. Are you sure you’re okay?”
Uhura knew from her 3 years of experience of working under Fitzgerald that she was fiercely protective of her crew. The Starcatcher was her family. And any sign of her past with the Enterprise would warrant at least an hour long conversation (therapy session), and definitely some hugging(the type of hug that left you gasping for breathe).
So she just nodded.
“Good. Because they also require a translator and you know you’re one of the best.”
Uhura slightly regretted not telling her then; but it had been 3 years. How bad could it actually be?
Bad. It could be really bad.
She had been on the Enterprise for approximately 5 minutes when ‘Captain’ Kirk demanded a translation of the native’s communication.
A communication in a language that was not only unfamiliar to Uhura, but also a language that only had a slight resemblance to one that Uhura had barely had access to during Freshman year, as it was in a family of languages that hadn’t thoroughly been studied due to problems accessing speakers as a result of the First Directive. She requested more time with the communication, for obvious reasons, and Captain Kirk actually stormed off the deck.
She wondered if this was just a terrible nightmare. The consternated look on the Fitzgerald’s face was the only proof that she wasn’t dreaming this. Fitzgerald, raised her eyebrows, and mouthed “You’ll explain later” and then hurried after Captain Kirk.
This of course left her with alone with the third highest ranked person on the ship.
Spock.
If the circumstances had been different this would have been useful. Spock’s experience in xenolinguistics was extensive to say the least. But Spock also got unnervingly factual when annoyed. The last time they had worked together he had insisted on correcting her entire translation due to a punctuation error.
They didn’t have time for him to be that persnickety. There was an interaction on the planet that was rapidly becoming a hostage situation and weirdly enough that left little time for the particulars of periods to actually be a matter of primary concern.
So she just worked silently on the transmission and asked the communications officer that had been appointed after she resigned to see if there were any noticeable trends in hostage situations of tribes of this type. All while Spock somehow managed to look over her shoulder while being more than 4 meters away.
She worked steadfastly, and after about 3 hours had managed to come up with a passable response to the communication in the form of trading 3 boxes of produce, and 1 sword for the hostages. Kirk had returned at about hour 2 with Fitzgerald at his heels, and the glare that he had been steadfastly aiming at her seemed to hesitantly relax with the return of the hostages. He even managed to grudgingly thank her at the end, something clearly forced upon him by Captain Fitzgerald (using the look that had earned her the nickname ‘Captain Steel’)
That did nothing for Uhura, as her emotions for the last few hours could better be described as uncomfortable, and this did nothing to make it better.
The fact that Captain Fitzgerald promptly filed a report about the impropriety of Kirk’s behavior just made her feel even more anxious (the five minute hug and the promise to “make it right” she had been given by Captain Steel, after hearing about how she had earned the hatred of Spock and Kirk also didn’t help).
The look that Sulu gave her when she recounted the whole thing once she returned to the Starcatcher just confirmed her fear that this was only going to make the whole situation worse. Just when she thought she had finally escaped it.
This time Uhura did have words and it was “Qu'vatlh”