Chapter Text
When Uhura was finally cleared to leave sickbay after treating her shock and mild concussion she had passed by Hemmer’s bed and spent a moment to linger at his resting form.
Christine had brushed by her to say that he was going to be okay. Healing had already been done on his hand and his temperature had been regulated to the Aenar baseline. He just needed to rest. Uhura was more than grateful for this reassurance but stayed a second after the nurse had passed back behind her to assist the next in a roomful of patients as the ship and sickbay’s capabilities still recovered from the Gorn attack.
The cadet watched Hemmer’s antennae twitch subtly as he slept. It wasn’t a fitful rest; it seemed deep. She took a moment more to...what? Stand guard? Keep watch? Perhaps both. Then she brushed the engineer’s light hair fondly before finally returning to her lower deck bunk to try to get some sleep.
The next day Uhura carried a tray in the mess hall. Both she and Hemmer were on medical leave to make sure they were well rested and physically fit before resuming their duties. The ship was limping back to starbase to get much needed repairs.
She spotted the Aenar at a table as she scoped out somewhere to sit. Nyota hadn’t seen him since yesterday. She was grateful to see him upright and seemingly active. The cadet shifted her path toward where he sat.
The pale engineer had a data pad he seemed to be thumbing through without looking directly at, perceiving the information in a way Uhura would probably never understand. In his other hand was a spoon halted in its journey by distraction from whatever information he had found.
Uhura cleared her throat as she approached his table.
Hemmer’s head twitched toward her and she might have been mistaken but she thought she might have seen an upturn of his mouth for a moment.
“You’re supposed to be resting,” he said looking toward her.
“I think I might be doing a better job of it than you...sir,” Uhura said easily and not without some cheekiness.
He groused a grunt back but the cadet was starting to find the act endearing.
“May I join you?” she asked.
Hemmer gave her a small nod and the cadet slid across from him. A connection had formed with what had happened to them both in the cargo bay. There was certainly something to having experienced a shared trauma and having been forced to work together so quickly.
“How are you feeling?” Uhura asked conversationally as she started in on her food.
“Fine,” the engineer answered automatically. Then he paused. “A little tired,” he confided.
“Your hand?” she said examining its hold on the spoon with amazement that it showed no signs of its former bruised and swollen state.
“Sore,” he admitted, putting down the spoon and flexing it. “But given the damage it endured I am very happy to still have full use. Dr. M’benga assures me the soreness is temporary. I suppose I will have to trust him...”
Small talk. It was like pulling teeth, Uhura thought. She sighed.
“And the engineering team that you’ve been overseeing despite being on ordered medical leave?” Uhura said, sliding a side eye to the data he’d obsessively been scrolling through.
Hemmer widened his eyes at her perceptiveness and forwardness. Her having been an eager to please cadet that was far too intelligent for his gauge on her maturity level and her timidness being frustrating at first, seeing her lead a conversation with a senior officer (despite them being both off-duty) was surprising and impressive. He huffed a small laugh at being called out.
He put the device down to focus on her.
“They are…” and he was searching for a word here that wouldn’t be read as judgmental, “...struggling,” he finally decided on.
And they were. Kyle hadn’t seemed himself and many of the crew had experienced some sort of emotional or physical trauma by recent events. Hemmer may have been brusque and quick to correct but he wasn’t heartless. Far from it.
“Yeah,” Uhura replied, understanding, “a lot of people are. This was...really scary.”
“Yes, it was,” Hemmer agreed, “but you excelled in many ways. I am personally appreciative of your actions. You persevered. You should be proud of yourself for that.”
“I am,” the cadet assured him with a smile, “Thank you.”
They sat in companionable silence for a while focused on their respective meals until Uhura’s curiosity got the better of her.
“Do you...you don’t remember our conversation before the medical team came, do you?” she asked.
“About my antennae?” Hemmer asked casually.
“Ah—yes,” she said unprepared for the bluntness. “I’m so sorry if that was intrusive. I didn’t—I was just trying to distract you--”
“It’s okay. I didn’t take offense. It’s a question I actually don’t hear very often. Many people don’t notice that I hold them still. I’m impressed you did,” Hemmer replied. “Though perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. You are very perceptive.”
“Wow, careful. You might earn the reputation of being a nice guy with all those compliments!” Uhura said with a laugh.
“I’m not...mean,” Hemmer replied, seemingly taken aback.
“Wha—no—I didn’t--” Nyota stuttered.
“I’m just...honest. Do people think I’m mean?” the engineer asked, eyes wide.
“Uh! I couldn’t...say. I didn’t intend—you’re not…” Uhura struggled.
Hemmer chuckled suddenly, “You humans are so easy to mess with…”
Uhuras face dropped.
“Oh, okay. Well that—that was mean!” the cadet exclaimed, pointing a utensil at him. “Ooh!”
She kicked herself at how easy she was baited...again!
Hemmer took another bite of what seemed to be some sort of fish stew around a staisfied smile. The smell wasn’t offensive, but it was specific to seafood.
“I don’t impress easily, Nyota,” Hemmer said softly.
“I’ve noticed,” Uhura responded.
“My time in the academy was not easy. I suppose I tend to hold others to higher standards because that was what was expected of me. But I’m aware that my experience was not like everyone else’s,” Hemmer said.
“How so?” Nyota found herself saying before she properly thought the response through.
The engineer took a breath as if deciding to continue.
Uhura readied herself preparing to backtrack her curiosity. More than anything it was her desire to know people and to connect with people that often got her in to trouble when she found that she’d crossed a line. Then he started speaking and she listened intensely.
“Andorians had already started to join and I was, and still am, the only Aenar Starfleet has yet to let join its ranks. Because my people have abilities that Starfleet and humans don’t exactly understand, nor at the time did they attempt to, and because it had been weaponized in the past--”
“Without your consent,” Uhura parried, knowing her history.
“It still caused suspicion,” Hemmer said. “I had to ride a thin line while at the academy. I found that if I did not do well in classes then suspicions were confirmed that Aenar are too sheltered or that my lack of...optical sight limited my ability to thrive and serve. On the other hand, if I suddenly started thriving passed a certain level I was accused of cheating by using my psychic and telepathic abilities, abilities that the academy refused to comprehend.”
“You couldn’t win,” Nyota surmised sadly.
“No, I couldn’t. It was around this time that it was requested I still my antennae as it made quite a few students nervous and gave teachers suspicion of cheating. I felt very discouraged,” Hemmer said.
“Not angry?” she asked. The injustice of such a demand resonated with much of human history and actions toward people they didn’t understand who they felt threatened by simply because of the way they looked. It was sad to hear it was still happening if not a little shocking.
“Pity, not anger,” he replied bluntly.
“I don’t understand,” she admitted, “that’s so unfair. Just because you process the world differently doesn’t mean you’re a threat. And if your abilities give you an advantage why not accept that to help Starfleet instead of trying to limit it just because they’re scared! Did you...try and tell anyone…”
“Yes,” Hemmer responded, and sighed resting on his arms across the table. “There were many at the academy that were on my side. But there were also several well-respected and connected people who they needed to appease. There had to be compromise. From me, mainly. So I gave them that. And I do not regret it. I had given up a lot to--” the Aenar paused, mouth working and ducked his head giving it a little shake and started to speak again, “I wanted to be in Starfleet badly enough and have since been fulfilled in ways I would have never experienced otherwise. It was worth it. I wouldn’t change it. Starfleet—this ship—is everything to me, Nyota. Prejudice exists but...I did not want it to prevent me from this. I can only hope in time it will get better for others like me.”
Hemmer spun his spoon around his food and took another sip of the broth.
“I apologize,” he said. “I’m sure that was more than...perhaps I should have shared. I am sorry if I crossed a professional boundary…”
“It’s okay,” Uhura assured him. “People...tend to tell me things. It’s not like I didn’t ask.”
“I believe you create a space where others feel comfortable talking and welcomed to do so. You are a good communicator. Very gullible, but…” Hemmer joked.
The cadet scoffed. She waited a beat then attempted to tell a joke of her own...in Andorian. She’d only heard it once.
Hemmer nearly choked on his food.
“Did I tell it right?” she asked.
“No!” he exclaimed, clearing his throat. “I know an Andorian that would be appalled!”
“Tell me how to say it, then!” Uhura demanded.
And for the rest of the meal neither one spoke of the past again, but instead weaved amid ancient Andorian idioms and euphemism to not only tell that dirty Andorian joke but more. And an Aenar joke that Hemmer made Uhura promise she wouldn’t repeat.