WIP From And Her Heart Was Then Quicksilver (soulmark AU), for @uhuramonth
"Well, unfortunately, whatever triggered this latest reaction is a mystery to me."
"Could be dust," the patient quips. "It's usually dust."
"Starfleet Headquarters are not renowned for being particularly dusty."
"Maybe not. But-"
"Your tricorder results were inconclusive, so we're going to run some tests-"
"Bloodwork?" Kirk groans.
"Only to see what could have caused-"
"- Yeah, yeah." Kirk lies back on the bed. "But, really, I feel fine now."
"That's because you're in a sterile environment, and-"
"- So, you agree, it could be dust?"
"– You know it's standard procedure to update your list of allergens, so nothing like this happens again."
"But it will happen again, and honestly, I'm used to it. Can I please continue with the open day? I-"
"- Mr Kirk, if you try to leave that bed, I'll have to call the Admiral. Now, wait here."
Vrushta strides from the cubicle, and Kirk rubs his face with exhaustion.
"Well, this was a mistake," he mutters.
Nyota frowns. The Admiral? If Kirk is related to someone in Starfleet, that may be where she recognises the name from. Still, she moves closer to get a better look at him. He looks pale and sickly, and something catches the light.
She studies the side of his face. He has a silver mark on his right cheek- not scratches, like hers, but one large, shiny mass.
He turns to her. There's a glimpse of gold-
She steps back behind the curtain, breathing fast.
Amina laughs, and peers through the gap.
Her eyes widen.
"Nyota," she says, "His marks are like yours.”
Day 10 of Uhura Month! Today's promot was favourite femslash or fluffiness, so I picked my favourite fluff trope (sharing a milkshake/soda/whatever) and making it femslash. Have some Randhura. Uhurand?
For Uhura Month @uhuramonth day 4, prompt: “Diplomacy”, here's chapter 1 of “The Fabric Of Her Life”
Summary: When a first contact mission goes wrong, Kirk is incapacitated, and Nyota must navigate an unfriendly planet without the aid of a universal translator.
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: Gen
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series (Movies)
Relationship: James T. Kirk & Nyota Uhura
Characters: Nyota Uhura, James T. Kirk, Spock (Star Trek), Hikaru Sulu
Additional Tags: Universal Translator Malfunction, Captivity, Hostage Scenario, Endometriosis, Medical Negligence, (past) Medical Negligence, Trans James T. Kirk
Note: This fic includes mentions of past medical negligence, themes of ableism, ableist character(s) & microaggressions.
Chapter 1: Silk
“Now, , you've read my report, but let's go over the salient points again.”
Ambassador Vodel wears an outfit made entirely from tie-dyed fabric. It's a style popular with most civilians they encounter in deep space, though, if it weren't for these pre-contact briefings, Jim would have no idea what passed for fashion on Earth right now.
“The Ignee have been warp-capable for twenty years, but their maximum warp speed is equivalent to our zero-point-five.” As Vodel struts, the silk swishes importantly. “Like humans, they were spacefarers long before they discovered warp tech- but, unlike us, they'd already colonized every M-Class planet in their solar system when they did so. We encountered one of their manned ships on the edge of Federation space, and it's still there, I very much suspect! The ship maintains constant communication with Igneous-Delta through radio contact alone, but don't ask me how. Naturally, they were a little surprised when we contacted them via subspace, but their instruments picked it up well enough. I imagine it was like receiving the Wow! signal, only a little less…” He waves a hand. “... You know.”
Jim doesn't. “I'll bet they were surprised when your ship turned up, too.” He says.
“Well, quite. Shooting across the galaxy in a fraction-of-a-fraction of the time it takes them to do it, I'm sure they were amazed.” He turns his head. “I think that's why they're so receptive to us.”
“Why wouldn't they be receptive?” Jim shields his eyes as they round the corner, and overhead lights begin their simulated sunrise. The corridor paints Vodel’s robes magenta.
“Well, I thought they were Luddites at first, you know. My crew disagreed, but they came around to my way of thinking: absolutely zero evolution of warp technology in twenty years, zero progress in communications, their planetary servers are still entirely dependent on Ethernet- they'd love this ship, all these datacards…!”
Kirk maintains a blank face. “Speaking of which, my head of communications mentioned-”
“- Ah yes, the lovely Ms Uhura. I do believe my Yeoman is busy replicating a new stack of cards as we speak. As for your chief science officer-”
“And first officer-”
“Two very demanding titles! How peculiar, to have them both filled by one person... But, I suppose he is Vulcan, isn't he?”
“Yes,” Jim says, forcibly. “But-”
“-Well, tell him we haven't got any botanical readings. We did the preliminary atmosphere checks- the safety checks, and all that. The air is fresh, the ground is walkable, and- although we don't have any Vulcans on our crew- if you're in the habit of sending two of your most senior roles on an away mission at the same time; I'm sure he'll be perfectly safe.” He chuckles at his own joke.
“We need that information to plan our away team.” Jim says, levelly.
“I'm afraid I don't follow.”
“Your Conditions Report was missing key allergen information.”
“Allergen information?” He clicks his tongue. “Ah, yes. On a starship this size, I suppose you can't afford to be as discerning with your personnel, even if you are the flagship.”
Jim stops moving. “What?”
Vodel is halfway down the corridor. “Stars below, have I hit a nerve?”
Jim blinks. “Perhaps you should continue briefing me.”
“Well-” he hesitates. “Yes.” He hums. “The Ignee are incredibly concerned with honesty, purity and truth.”
“Meaning?”
“They dislike deception. Their reaction to subspace was proof of that.”
“They thought you were deceiving them?”
“Orbits, no! It's stranger than that. They thought we were defying The Natural Order.”
Jim frowns at him.
“It's just like I told you!” Vodel flourishes. “Their social model revolves around complete transparency, and- apparently- talking through a microphone obscures that.” He scoffs. “With that attitude, it's a miracle that they developed narrowband radio at all. It's why I insisted on accelerating second contact; we weren't getting anywhere over videocall- though, aside from a few superstitions, they're really quite harmless.”
They arrive at the landing bay, and Vodel puts his hands on his hips. “Now, I would stick around, but you're the best in the fleet! Not to mention the fact that each bridge member is a specialist in their own right, and- my my my- I dare say that the other deep-space ships are very jealous of you!”
“Thank you,” Jim says, fimly. “I understand you have an emergency to attend to on Hydrox V?”
“Oh, yes. Their previous leader died of illness, and there's distrust among the temporary government. You have no idea how deadly these disputes can become.”
“Hmm. It's fortunate you were nearby.”
“Undoubtedly!” He beams. “Now, where is that yeoman…?”
His crewman appears at his shoulder wearing a cream-colored hijab. “Ambassador?”
“Ah, splendid! You've calculated the telemetry, then?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Excellent! Well, come along, then; that internal conflict is hardly going to solve itself…”
The yeoman flashes Jim a long-suffering smile as they pass a datacard to him, then vanish as quickly as they arrived. Vodel follows in a flurry of chatter and fabric, and his clothes glow like dying embers. In the sudden silence, Jim is left in an empty corridor as the lights turn from pink to blue.
He pinches the bridge of his nose, and leans against the nearest wall unit.
“Bridge?”
The speaker crackles.
“Have you finished with our charming ambassador?” Nyota says, neutrally.
“Yes, he's returned to his ship.” He pauses. “How come none of the diplomats we meet are ever diplomatic?”
“Oh, he seemed sufficiently diplomatic, Captain.”
Jim smirks, and slots the datacard into the reader. “Is there time to analyse this before we leave?”
“I'll put an ensign on it.”
Jim nods, and turns away.
“Wait!” Her voice brightens. “It's the glyphic data which got lost in the transfer. It'll help me calibrate the universal translator for written documents.”
Jim narrows his eyes. “So, nothing pressing, then?”
“Well, I might help that ensign with it… It's always good to know if something's a marriage document before you sign it.”
“Hey. That was a Declaration Of Betrothal, and I've told you I'm sorry.”
“Well, you still refuse to follow through with it. It hurts my feelings, that's all.”
He smiles. “I'll make it up to you.”
“Mr Spock has suddenly become very interested in the scanner unit,” Nyota says, in an undertone.
*
“No warp-capable society is ‘harmless’, Captain,” Spock announces as Jim steps out of the turbolift.
“Good morning to you, too, Spock. I assume this means you've read the ambassador's report?”
Spock raises an eyebrow. “Twice, Captain. Ambassador Vodel's research was remarkably concise.”
Jim's face twitches. “Yes, I've heard. We can send an away-team to complete the additional readings we'll need before the diplomatic team beams down.”
Something flits across his face. “The scans were at Doctor McCoy's insistence, not mine.” He places his hands behind his back. “He would, however, find such an oversight disturbing.”
“‘Disturbing,’ Spock?”
“The ambassador is unable or unwilling to accommodate the extra environmental scans, thereby putting its crewmembers at risk… An emotional being such as The Doctor would find that disturbing.”
“Ah, I see. It's kind of you to look out for his feelings that way- and logical, of course- but I'll deal with him.”
Nyota smiles to herself as she analyses the glyphic data.
*
The away team assembles in the transporter room, and splits into two groups of six. The first contains Jim, Spock, Hikaru and Nyota, with science officers Stevenson and Imada rounding up the back. The second group is comprised mostly of redshirts.
For this outing, Nyota has donned a command-gold uniform instead of her usual red, and Hikaru has changed into science blues.
There are two additional communications officers in group two, one of whom is an ensign. Jim frowns, but doesn't comment on it. Instead, he turns to Nyota.
“Lieutenant Uhura, do you want to brief us?”
“I do,” she smiles, and addresses the crowded room. “The Ignean lingua franca draws influence from almost five hundred others, some of which are pidgin forms from their off-world colonies. Their sentence structure is flexible, and often changes depending on context.” She glances at Jim, then back to the group. “Most sentences take the form of Object-Subject-Verb, but not all of them. The Universal translator is still learning their language- as am I- so it won't always be able to rearrange their sentences in real-time, as many of you may be used to. For those of you who may have skipped your rotation in comms, you may not be aware that OSV is the rarest word-order structure found on Earth. So, if anyone has any difficulty understanding what they're hearing: see me after class.”
There are several chuckles.
Jim smiles. “And, if in doubt, let our linguists do the talking.”
“Right,” Nyota beams. “That's all.”
“One more thing-”
“I have a briefing,” says a gruff voice behind them. Doctor McCoy stands in the doorway, wearing medical scrubs and a scowl. “Make sure you scan any flora before you approach it, no matter how familiar it looks.”
“Thank you, Bones,” Jim interrupts him, and signals to the rest of the group.
Bones harrumps loudly as the officers takes their places on their respective transporter pads.
“And, before we beam down-” Jim turns to Nyota again. “A question from someone who may have skipped his rotation in comms…”
She smiles. “Captain?”
“If the universal translator isn't drastically changing its output, will the Ignee be able to understand us?”
“So long as we keep contractions to a minimum, I don't see why not.”
“You mean 'do not see why not',” Kilgore reminds her.
Nyota points to her. “You are sharp, ensign. This is why I brought you along.”
“I am glad we worked this out before we beamed down,” Hikaru says.
“Technically, the universal translator will not have any issue working out contracted speech on our end,” Stevenson says, playfully. “But it may help to reduce lag.”
“Yes.” Nyota nods. “Fascinating.”
Bones looks aghast. “Lord help me, Jim, one Vulcan's enough, and now there're five of them!”
When Jim Kirk goes missing in Yosemite National Park, Nyota Uhura goes to the park to investigate his disappearance. Along the way, she meets with old friends, and makes a new one in Christine, a strange yellow eyed woman who lives in the woods, and is perhaps more than she seems.
Uhura Month Day 12
Prompt: "Supernatural AU"
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Words: 45231
Rating: Teen+ Audiences
Relationship(s): Christine Chapel/Nyota Uhura, Janice Rand & Nyota Uhura, Leonard "Bones" McCoy & Nyota Uhura, Hikaru Sulu & Nyota Uhura
Characters: Nyota Uhura, Christine Chapel, Janice Rand, Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Hikaru Sulu, James T Kirk
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