Chapter Text
Jamie T. Kirk jogged to school in the misty early morning. She was accompanied by Spock who easily kept pace with her as a sleek black cat. Together, they wove through the neighborhood and crossed the main thoroughfare of downtown, already busy with commuters on their way to work.
Jamie only slowed as they neared the school, nestled on a quiet side street, to let Spock leap into her bag before stepping onto school grounds.
“I’d offer to carry you the whole way, but you clearly have stamina to spare,” Jamie said silently as Spock made herself comfortable.
“I’m adapted to a significantly thinner atmosphere.” Spock’s answer echoed dryly in Jamie’s mind, but she had the impression Spock was secretly pleased.
“An artificial atmosphere?” Jamie said as she jogged across the schoolyard; she could only assume that such an advanced space-faring civilization would of course have moved on to colonizing and perhaps even terraforming other planets.
“No, Vulcan is not an empire; it does not aim to expand or colonize.” Spock seemed somewhat affronted but not seriously offended.
“My mistake,” Jamie said with an easy smile as she pushed open the doors to the school, but she had to ask, “Not even scientific outposts?”
Before Spock could answer, she abruptly drew Jamie’s attention to a young man standing on the other side of the entrance way, watching everyone who came through the front doors. He was too old to be a student, and a little too formally dressed.
“Must be more security after the incident last week,” Jamie said silently, and nodded to the young man as she passed with a wry smile.
“Yes,” Spock said, but she still seemed uneasy.
Jamie lingered in the hallway, just out of sight of the entrance way, and pretended to search for something in her bag. “Could he be an impostor sent by someone else? Like Mr. Seven?”
Spock hesitated. “It’s unlikely; his thoughts are not shielded any more than any ordinary human.”
“We’ll just have to be careful not to raise any suspicions,” Jamie said wryly, and continued up the stairs to class.
She took her usual seat, and Nyota Uhura, in the desk next to her, greeted Jamie with a quick smile as she got out her things for class.
It wasn’t long before the bell rang, and the teacher, Mr. Stocker, tried to get the class’s attention. “Before we get started there’s someone I’d like to introduce.”
Standing behind Mr. Stocker was a girl with very short hair, wearing the school uniform, but clearly too young to be a high school student.
“This is Charlie, a prospective student visiting for the day. I hope you all make her feel welcome. Now,” Mr. Stocker awkwardly changed subjects, “for today’s warmup.” He quickly scrawled a few equations on the chalkboard.
While the rest of the class reluctantly started on the warmup assignment, Mr. Stocker led Charlie over to the empty desk just in front of Jamie’s, next to Hikaru Sulu.
“Nyota, Jamie, Hikaru,” Mr. Stocker said, “I know you’re all busy with school work, but between the three of you, we were hoping you could take Charlie under your wing, and show her a typical day for a student.”
“Sure,” Hikaru said, “Charlie, I can show you around.”
Meanwhile, Nyota and Jamie exchanged a glance, both thinking of their already sizable workloads and busy schedules. Mr. Stocker looked at them expectantly.
“I don’t mind her tagging along to class, at least.” Nyota finally said with a smile despite her initial reluctance. “It’s always nice to have a fresh face around.”
“Between the three of us, we’ll manage,” Jamie said.
“Good,” Mr. Stocker said, “I knew we could count on you. And Charlie, if there’s anything you need, you can ask anyone, and I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to point you in the right direction.”
With that, Mr. Stocker left Charlie to get situated while he hurried off to help the students who already had their hands raised with questions about the warmup.
“What’re they doing?” Charlie asked, peering around at the class with an almost wary curiosity, as though she’d never seen high schoolers before and didn’t know what they might do.
“It’s a derivative,” Hikaru said, waving Charlie over to see her notebook. “This equation is for a curve.” She sketched it out on the page. “We’re trying to figure out the slope.”
Charlie seemed to think for a moment. “The answer is three-ex-square-plus-two-ex-plus-five.” She recited it like it was some kind of code.
Hikaru, Nyota, and Jamie all exchanged a look of surprise.
“The answer is correct.” Spock said.
“Charlie, you’re full of surprises, “ Nyota teased, “sneaking a look at the teacher’s papers.”
Charlie glared at her. “I didn’t.”
“However you did it, you got it right,” Hikaru said, having quickly solved the problem herself.
“It is not only her talent for mathematics which appears to be unusual for a human of her age,” Spock said. “She is able to shield her mind, if not to the extent of even a young Vulcan or of Mr. Seven.”
“Is she human?” Jamie asked Spock. Aloud, she said to Charlie, “What middle school did you learn that at?”
“I’m homeschooled,” Charlie said—a convenient answer.
“Her readings appear to be human, if with some subtle abnormalities,” Spock said. “Regretfully, Mr. Seven transported away too quickly for me to scan him, so I don’t have any data from him for comparison.”
To Charlie, Hikaru said, “I bet you’ll like it here if you give it a chance.”
Meanwhile, Jamie said silently to Spock, “It’s a good thing we’ve been tasked with keeping an eye on her after all.”
The bell rang at the end of class and everyone eagerly stopped what they were working on and hurried off to the next class.
Meanwhile, Hikaru turned to Charlie. “Want to come with me to English class? We’re reading Frankenstein; it isn’t exactly thrilling, but it is a classic.”
“I have a lab in physics,” Jamie said, “that may be a little more exciting.”
Nyota gave her a look of surprise, and Jamie didn’t blame her; if not for Jamie’s suspicions, like Nyota, she would have been more than content to leave Hikaru to it.
“A lab?” Charlie said warily. “I guess that would be alright.”
“More fun than Frankenstein,” Hikaru assured her. “You’ll have to tell me how it is; I’m in the afternoon section.”
With that they all finished gathering their things and went their separate ways. Charlie kept close to Jamie as they weaved through the crowded hallway to the physics classroom. Charlie took the seat next to Jamie at one of the several large lab tables, and they didn’t have long to wait before the bell rang and class began.
“As we discussed yesterday, today we’re doing the lab on circular motion and centripetal force,” Dr. Marcus said from the front of the classroom. “Go ahead and partner up and get started. And I know it’s exciting that you get to play with toys in class, but be careful where you swing those things so you don’t take out somebody’s eye.”
The students quickly rearranged themselves to partner up with their friends and took out their lab notebooks and got to work.
Jamie turned to Charlie, her lab notebook already out. “How’s your classical mechanics?” Her tone was light, more teasing than probing.
“I can do it,” Charlie insisted, eyeing the strange assortment of lab materials set out on the table; weights, and narrow plastic tubes, and little rubber balls on strings.
Jamie motioned for Charlie to go ahead, her lab notebook open to the diagram of how to put the apparatus together. Meanwhile, on the opposite page, Jamie answered the questions that made up the real substance of the assignment.
“This is more like it,” Charlie said as she threaded one of the strings through a plastic tube. “Better than spending hours sitting and writing things.”
Jamie saw the opening and took it. “Do your parents teach you?”
“My guardians,” Charlie said carefully.
“I’m sorry,” Jamie said, and she knew better than to press any further, even though Charlie only shrugged. Instead, she asked, “Do you live nearby or will you have to bus in?”
“Not too far.” Another short, guarded answer, and before Jamie could ask more, Charlie held out the completed apparatus. “I’ve finished it. What do we do with it?”
She had threaded a string through a plastic tube so the rubber ball hung from one end of the string and a weight hung from the other.
“We spin it,” Jamie said wryly.
“Spin the ball? I thought you weren’t supposed to be able to-“ Charlie cut herself off.
“To what?”
“Never mind,” Charlie said, embarrassed at the obvious slip up.
“Go on,” Jamie insisted.
Charlie glanced out of the corner of her eye at the other students starting the experiment and imitated them, holding the tube with the ball coming out the top and the weight coming out the bottom and spinning it in small quick motions to send the ball spinning out the top, which in turn lifted the weight on the bottom.
Jamie gave her a look; that wasn’t what she had meant, but she couldn’t exactly argue with Charlie doing the assignment. So, Jamie just said, “Keep it steady while I take measurements.”
Jamie picked up the stopwatch and kept a close eye on the string as it swung in circles. First, timing a single complete rotation and then quickly counting the marks along the string to determine how much the rotating ball was able to lift the weight. However, as she counted, the string suddenly began to slide, swinging out further until the weight had been lifted to the bottom of the tube.
“I said keep it steady.”
“I am!” Charlie snapped.
Jamie gave her a look of disbelief, but it seemed that Charlie had at least gotten the message, as when Jamie tried again, the string’s rotation remained perfectly consistent, without any fluctuation at all.
“Why here?” Jamie asked, deceptively casual, as she took down the measurements in her lab notebook.
“Why not?” Charlie was clearly still on edge, her voice a little too loud. “You don’t think I’m good enough for a place like this?” The ball on the string swung wildly even though it didn’t really look like Charlie was spinning it at all.
However, Jamie did not relent. “What brought you here?”
“You’ll see!” Charlie’s words were punctuated with a sudden clattering, quick enough to be mistaken for an echo, but for an instant, everything on the shelves shook as if in a minor earthquake and the plastic tube snapped in Charlie’s hand.
Everyone in the room fell silent at the outburst and their classmates turned and stared.
“Sorry,” Jamie said to the rest of the class with a smile, “clearly I need to be more careful. Thank you for the warning, Charlie.”
Charlie shot her a glare, but her classmates seemed to accept it and returned to their work, and even Dr. Marcus seemed to accept it enough not to say anything, though she kept an eye on them for a little longer.
To Spock, Jamie said silently, “That wasn’t an earthquake, was it?”
“No, I detect nothing of the sort,” Spock said. “In all probability, it was Charlie.”
“It’s almost like what happened to Gary. Moving things with his mind.”
“There are some similarities, but her energy signature is much less erratic. Perhaps more consistent with prolonged low-level exposure whereas Gary received a single more powerful dose—if it is the same phenomenon.”
Before Jamie had the chance to give it much more thought, Charlie said, still glaring at her, “What makes you so special anyway?”
“What do you mean?” Jamie tried to keep her tone light, but she had a distinct feeling it was more than just Charlie’s frustration talking.
But Charlie didn’t even seem to hear her. “How do you do it?”
“Do what?”
Charlie just gave her an almost reproachful look.
Jamie could feel she was close to something, but Charlie clearly didn’t want to say more. So, she took a gamble and asked casually, as though the question had only just occurred to her, “Do you know Mr. Seven?”
“No.”
Charlie could have just as easily been lying just to be contrary as telling the truth, and it was impossible for Jamie to tell.