Fic: "A Day in the Life of an Overachieving Communications Officer"
I lost sleep last night to bring you this lovely little one-shot. Enjoy. I certainly did.
Fandom: Star Trek 2009
Title: A Day in the Life of an Overachieving Communications Officer
Characters/ships: Uhura, ensemble, established Spock/Uhura
Rating: PG
Word count: about 2,400
Summary: Uhura being a BAMF on the job and with her crewmates. What it says in the title.
Author's notes: Written partially in response to this meta on what sorts of work Starfleet communications officers might actually do, and partially in response to the prompt: "It's a real burn, being right so often.", at the where_no_woman Firefly themed drabble challenge. Obviously my drabble got a little out of hand. No beta on this one, so mistakes are mine. And if J.J. and company can get away with having Chekov graduate the Academy the same year as Kirk, then I can get away with making Janice Rand an officer instead of a yeoman. So there.
A Day in the Life of an Overachieving Communications Officer
"The Captain has been irritable lately," said Spock, before taking another bite of the noodle soup he preferred for breakfast.
"Hmmm," murmured Uhura, sipping her coffee. She didn't much want to spend her breakfast--one of the few times of the day she had to relax--discussing the moody temperament of Jim Kirk.
Spock, however, seemed oblivious to her preference. "I believe he is still frustrated by the professional obligations that prevent him from pursuing a romantic relationship with Lieutenant Rand. He is allowing that frustration to impact his behavior."
Uhura closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath. It was only 0542 and she could already tell it was going to be a long day.
***
As always, starting at 0600 hours Uhura spent one and one half hours of her morning reviewing reports from her subordinates, organizing the data, finishing any needed translations and correcting any translations her staff screwed up. Then, promptly at 0730 she had her daily meeting with the Enterprise intelligence officer, Lieutenant Janice Rand.
That morning, just like the past ten mornings, all of their talk was about Klingons.
Janice shook her head. "I don't like these communications we intercepted. The buildup of Klingon ships near the Archanis sector can't mean anything but trouble. They might be preparing an attempt to retake the sector. I'll need to report this to Starfleet Intelligence right away."
Uhura nodded. "I'll set up a subspace conference for you as soon as I get to my station. What does the captain think about all this?"
Janice froze, staring absently at the wall of her office. "I'm not sure what he thinks."
Uhura closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. Why didn't this surprise her? After a moment she opened her eyes and caught Janice's gaze. "I take it the captain's been avoiding your daily briefings lately?"
Janice's lips were tight, and she nodded curtly. "Ever since he found out about me and Riley."
"Oh, God." Uhura could feel a headache coming on.
"What does he expect?" said Janice, dropping her controlled veneer. "Did he think I'd stay celibate just because I can't be with him? I'm not the kind of girl who can live with self-denial. He knows that. But he's acting as if I betrayed him when I was never really his in the first place."
Uhura rubbed her temple. "This is unacceptable. How does he expect to keep running this ship effectively if he's not up to date on the latest intelligence?" Kirk could be such a child sometimes. She'd hold it against him if he wasn't such a good leader in most other ways.
"Hell if I know." Janice shrugged. "I send him daily reports, but I have no idea if he's been reading them."
With a sudden gleam in her eye, Janice leaned toward Uhura. "Could you find out for me? You know, make sure he's reading the reports?"
Uhura sighed. Somehow, these sorts of tasks always fell to her. "Okay. I'll check up on it."
"Thanks." Janice grinned. "I can always count on you."
***
The senior staff meeting at 0830 was the usual banter-filled boys club. As the only female among the senior staff, Uhura usually did her best to smile and laugh along with all the teasing and inappropriate jokes, but today she wasn't in the mood. And she seriously doubted that anyone but Spock noticed.
"I'll be setting every hand I can to work on the weapons upgrades," said Scotty. "We can have the whole job done by this afternoon."
Kirk shook his head. "Not every hand. You have got to get someone to fix those sonic showers on deck five crew quarters. I'm tired of all the complaints."
"Yes," piped in Sulu. "I'm on deck five, and it sucks having to go up two decks to shower."
"Scaring people off with your stench, are you?" teased Scotty.
"Look who's taking," Sulu shot back.
"Okay, okay," said Kirk, raising his hands. "I think we can all agree that you both stink."
Everyone but Uhura and Spock chuckled.
"Now, how about those sonic showers?" finished Kirk.
"I'll make them my first priority," replied Scotty.
Uhura clenched her teeth before speaking up. "Captain, is that wise, given the Klingon situation?"
Kirk looked at her blankly.
She was going to have to help him along a little. "The Klingon build-up near the Arkanis sector?"
The light seemed to finally go on in his head. "Yes. Of course. Lieutenant Sulu's stench must have driven me to distraction." He turned to face Scotty again. "Belay my previous orders, Mr. Scott. I think you should get that weapons upgrade completed ASAP. The sonic showers can wait until first thing in the morning."
"Aye, sir."
The rest of the meeting proceeded smoothly, and Kirk dismissed them at 0900. Uhura hung back. "Can I speak to you in private, sir?" she asked Kirk.
"Certainly, Lieutenant." He waited for the rest of the senior staff to leave the conference room before adding, "Thanks for bailing me out on the whole Klingon thing."
She gave him a pointed look. "I take it you haven't been reading Lieutenant Rand's intelligence reports?"
"I do. Just . . . not every day."
She arched an eyebrow at him.
"Which is a very bad habit that I need to change immediately," he added.
She continued to glare at him. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"
He nodded warily. "Permission granted."
Uhura relaxed her stance. "Just because you can't sleep with Janice is no reason to avoid your intelligence officer. You need to get over it and go to your daily briefings. And if you don't, Janice and I will start holding our daily meetings in your quarters so you don't miss out."
Kirk's eyes flashed with indignation. Uhura respected him as commander and didn't like talking to him this way. Unfortunately, sometimes he still acted like the same arrogant attention-seeker that he'd been at the Academy. When he did that, he needed an old friend to talk some sense to him--whether she wanted to or not.
"Point taken, Lieutenant."
"You'll start your daily intelligence briefings again?"
His nostrils flared. "I'll speak to Lieutenant Rand about it before the end of the day."
"Thank you, sir." Uhura nodded, hoping the worst of her day was already behind her.
***
At 1300 hours, right after her lunch break, Uhura held her daily communications staff meeting. She liked to call the meeting her gossip hour.
After getting through the business-as-usual, the communications staff (ten women and three men) liked to chat about the lives of their fellow crewmembers. After all, they were the ones to schedule, route and transmit any and all personal messages being sent or received. It seemed only natural to take a healthy interest in what those messages were about.
Ensign Denora reported that Dr. McCoy just got published in another medical journal. Ensign Rogan informed the group that Lieutenant Oranga was scheduling a leave of absence to go surfing on Avaria Prime. Lieutenant Rafiella told them that Commander Spock was involved in another virtual chess tournament (something that Uhura already knew, but never would have shared). And Ensign Porter told them that their hopes of being resupplied with real beef at Starbase 16 were in vain--the shipment was running three days late and wouldn't reach the Starbase until after they left.
Lieutenant Seleski's news was more somber. "Ensign Helburg's been getting more frequent messages from Earth. I think his father's taken a turn for the worse. He might not have much longer."
Uhura nodded silently. Ensign Helburg's father had been dying of a sudden and incurable disease for the past four months. Helburg had hoped to get leave soon to say goodbye in person. If things were really going downhill fast, he might miss his chance. "I'll talk to him later. Maybe I can arrange a live subspace call for him."
All crewmembers were allotted a fixed amount of time for personal live calls each month, and Helburg had already used up his time. Maybe the captain would make an exception.
"Well, I have a little news, too," said Ensign Tuffala, smiling deviously. "Ensign Chekov's girl back on Earth finally dear-Johned him."
Several of the other girls began to banter about Chekov's rocky love-life. After a moment, Uhura spoke up. "I assume you got this information directly from Ensign Chekov?" she asked Tuffala.
The girl's mouth hung open for a moment. "Well. . ."
Uhura's eyes narrowed. "You know I have a very strict hands-off policy when it comes to incoming personal messages, Ensign. We are professionals, and we do not sneak peeks. If I ever, and I mean ever, find out you've been violating that policy you will be transferred to engineering to do grunt-work for Mr. Scott for the next two years. Is that clear?"
Ensign Truffala nodded, looking more than a little scared. "Yes, sir."
"Good. And that goes for the rest of you, too."
The meeting didn't last long after that. Sometimes Uhura hated being in charge. Sometimes she loved it. Today, she just wished she'd stayed in bed.
***
Uhura received the call for the Enterprise to join the reinforcements in the Archanis sector less than an hour after Scotty finished the weapons upgrades. She'd never been happier for those daily senior staff meetings.
***
Uhura grasped her ear piece, re-playing the last bit of static. There was a pattern there--she knew it.
She fed the transmission through her console and went to work. Less than four minutes later she spoke up.
"Captain," she called.
"Yes, Lieutenant?"
"I just intercepted an encrypted transmission from the Klingons."
"Have Mr. Spock decrypt it for you--"
"Already done, sir," she said, trying not to smile. "It's orders to rendezvous in orbit of Archanis 8 in one hour."
She turned to look Kirk in the eye, and the side of his mouth curved up in an approving smile. "Contact the Endeavor and tell them to meet us on the dark side of Archanis 7 immediately. When the Klingons get to Archanis 8, we'll have a little surprise waiting for them. And Lieutenant? Make sure you send it with an encryption that the Klingons won't be able to break."
As she turned back to her console she finally let herself smile. "No problem, sir."
***
After the Enterprise and the Endeavor disabled four of the six Klingon ships, Kirk was able to talk them into accepting a diplomatic solution to their problem. It reminded Uhura why she respected him so much.
As she finally stood to leave the bridge, he stopped her. "You did good work today, Lieutenant."
She forced a tired smile. "Thank you, sir."
He nodded. "And when did you become a cryptologist?"
"It's just a little something I've been working on in my spare time, sir." In other words, she worked on it every night she could force herself to forgo an extra two hours of sleep in favor of studying with Spock before bed for the past eight months.
Kirk grinned at her. "Keep it up and pretty soon you'll be running this place."
"I'm glad to hear we agree on that point, captain." She was pleased to hear him laugh. He must have forgiven her for the reprimand about Rand. "Oh, and I have two more little things I need to talk to you about," she drew closer to him.
"Yeah?"
She lowered her voice. "Ensign Hagland's father is getting pretty bad. Will you grant him the extra time for a few more live calls?"
"Absolutely," replied Kirk. "Give him all the time he needs."
This time her smile was genuine. "Thanks. And, if you get a chance to have a drink with Chekov, it would probably cheer him up. His girlfriend finally dumped him."
Kirk folded his arms and looked across the bridge at the young Ensign. "Poor kid. It was doomed from the start. Long distance relationships never work out. Sure. I'll find a way to cheer him up."
Uhura wasn't sure she liked the mischievous gleam in Kirk's eyes, but this time she was going to leave well enough alone.
***
Spock joined her in the turbolift. "Your level of tension and exhaustion appears higher than is usual at the end of the day. Would you like me to administer a massage to ease your tension before you sleep?"
A massage sounded like heaven. "Would I ever." She closed her eyes for a moment, imagining the bliss of his fingertips digging deep into her shoulder muscles. Then she sighed in resignation. "But my day's not done yet. I have one more meeting."
Spock raised an eyebrow, but remained silent.
She brushed her fingers lightly against the back of his hand. "I'll see you in less than an hour, okay?"
He nodded. "Very well."
The turbolift stopped at her destination, and she left Spock alone to continue on to their quarters.
Uhura walked down the hall and stopped in front of the door to one of the small crew quarters. She pushed the chime.
A moment later the door slid open to reveal Ensign Helburg. Only twenty years old, he'd left the Academy eight months ago with his father in perfect health. The shock of his father's sudden illness had been hard on him, and he wasn't taking the separation from his family very well.
"Hey," she said. "I have some good news. The captain has granted you as much live call time as you need for the next few weeks."
He flushed red, and turned his face away. Uhura thought she could see a few tears welling in his eyes.
"Thanks. Thanks," he muttered.
She took a deep breath, wishing she could talk herself out of what she was about to do. "Do you want to talk?"
Helburg shook his head. "You don't have to do that."
"But you do. Come on. Let's sit down." She stepped inside his quarters and headed for the nearest chair, wondering if she'd really be back to Spock as soon as she'd promised.
In the end, it didn't matter if she would. She did what needed to be done, because if she didn't, no one would.
Maybe she'd have time for the massage tomorrow.
Fandom: Star Trek 2009
Title: A Day in the Life of an Overachieving Communications Officer
Characters/ships: Uhura, ensemble, established Spock/Uhura
Rating: PG
Word count: about 2,400
Summary: Uhura being a BAMF on the job and with her crewmates. What it says in the title.
Author's notes: Written partially in response to this meta on what sorts of work Starfleet communications officers might actually do, and partially in response to the prompt: "It's a real burn, being right so often.", at the where_no_woman Firefly themed drabble challenge. Obviously my drabble got a little out of hand. No beta on this one, so mistakes are mine. And if J.J. and company can get away with having Chekov graduate the Academy the same year as Kirk, then I can get away with making Janice Rand an officer instead of a yeoman. So there.
A Day in the Life of an Overachieving Communications Officer
"The Captain has been irritable lately," said Spock, before taking another bite of the noodle soup he preferred for breakfast.
"Hmmm," murmured Uhura, sipping her coffee. She didn't much want to spend her breakfast--one of the few times of the day she had to relax--discussing the moody temperament of Jim Kirk.
Spock, however, seemed oblivious to her preference. "I believe he is still frustrated by the professional obligations that prevent him from pursuing a romantic relationship with Lieutenant Rand. He is allowing that frustration to impact his behavior."
Uhura closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath. It was only 0542 and she could already tell it was going to be a long day.
***
As always, starting at 0600 hours Uhura spent one and one half hours of her morning reviewing reports from her subordinates, organizing the data, finishing any needed translations and correcting any translations her staff screwed up. Then, promptly at 0730 she had her daily meeting with the Enterprise intelligence officer, Lieutenant Janice Rand.
That morning, just like the past ten mornings, all of their talk was about Klingons.
Janice shook her head. "I don't like these communications we intercepted. The buildup of Klingon ships near the Archanis sector can't mean anything but trouble. They might be preparing an attempt to retake the sector. I'll need to report this to Starfleet Intelligence right away."
Uhura nodded. "I'll set up a subspace conference for you as soon as I get to my station. What does the captain think about all this?"
Janice froze, staring absently at the wall of her office. "I'm not sure what he thinks."
Uhura closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. Why didn't this surprise her? After a moment she opened her eyes and caught Janice's gaze. "I take it the captain's been avoiding your daily briefings lately?"
Janice's lips were tight, and she nodded curtly. "Ever since he found out about me and Riley."
"Oh, God." Uhura could feel a headache coming on.
"What does he expect?" said Janice, dropping her controlled veneer. "Did he think I'd stay celibate just because I can't be with him? I'm not the kind of girl who can live with self-denial. He knows that. But he's acting as if I betrayed him when I was never really his in the first place."
Uhura rubbed her temple. "This is unacceptable. How does he expect to keep running this ship effectively if he's not up to date on the latest intelligence?" Kirk could be such a child sometimes. She'd hold it against him if he wasn't such a good leader in most other ways.
"Hell if I know." Janice shrugged. "I send him daily reports, but I have no idea if he's been reading them."
With a sudden gleam in her eye, Janice leaned toward Uhura. "Could you find out for me? You know, make sure he's reading the reports?"
Uhura sighed. Somehow, these sorts of tasks always fell to her. "Okay. I'll check up on it."
"Thanks." Janice grinned. "I can always count on you."
***
The senior staff meeting at 0830 was the usual banter-filled boys club. As the only female among the senior staff, Uhura usually did her best to smile and laugh along with all the teasing and inappropriate jokes, but today she wasn't in the mood. And she seriously doubted that anyone but Spock noticed.
"I'll be setting every hand I can to work on the weapons upgrades," said Scotty. "We can have the whole job done by this afternoon."
Kirk shook his head. "Not every hand. You have got to get someone to fix those sonic showers on deck five crew quarters. I'm tired of all the complaints."
"Yes," piped in Sulu. "I'm on deck five, and it sucks having to go up two decks to shower."
"Scaring people off with your stench, are you?" teased Scotty.
"Look who's taking," Sulu shot back.
"Okay, okay," said Kirk, raising his hands. "I think we can all agree that you both stink."
Everyone but Uhura and Spock chuckled.
"Now, how about those sonic showers?" finished Kirk.
"I'll make them my first priority," replied Scotty.
Uhura clenched her teeth before speaking up. "Captain, is that wise, given the Klingon situation?"
Kirk looked at her blankly.
She was going to have to help him along a little. "The Klingon build-up near the Arkanis sector?"
The light seemed to finally go on in his head. "Yes. Of course. Lieutenant Sulu's stench must have driven me to distraction." He turned to face Scotty again. "Belay my previous orders, Mr. Scott. I think you should get that weapons upgrade completed ASAP. The sonic showers can wait until first thing in the morning."
"Aye, sir."
The rest of the meeting proceeded smoothly, and Kirk dismissed them at 0900. Uhura hung back. "Can I speak to you in private, sir?" she asked Kirk.
"Certainly, Lieutenant." He waited for the rest of the senior staff to leave the conference room before adding, "Thanks for bailing me out on the whole Klingon thing."
She gave him a pointed look. "I take it you haven't been reading Lieutenant Rand's intelligence reports?"
"I do. Just . . . not every day."
She arched an eyebrow at him.
"Which is a very bad habit that I need to change immediately," he added.
She continued to glare at him. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"
He nodded warily. "Permission granted."
Uhura relaxed her stance. "Just because you can't sleep with Janice is no reason to avoid your intelligence officer. You need to get over it and go to your daily briefings. And if you don't, Janice and I will start holding our daily meetings in your quarters so you don't miss out."
Kirk's eyes flashed with indignation. Uhura respected him as commander and didn't like talking to him this way. Unfortunately, sometimes he still acted like the same arrogant attention-seeker that he'd been at the Academy. When he did that, he needed an old friend to talk some sense to him--whether she wanted to or not.
"Point taken, Lieutenant."
"You'll start your daily intelligence briefings again?"
His nostrils flared. "I'll speak to Lieutenant Rand about it before the end of the day."
"Thank you, sir." Uhura nodded, hoping the worst of her day was already behind her.
***
At 1300 hours, right after her lunch break, Uhura held her daily communications staff meeting. She liked to call the meeting her gossip hour.
After getting through the business-as-usual, the communications staff (ten women and three men) liked to chat about the lives of their fellow crewmembers. After all, they were the ones to schedule, route and transmit any and all personal messages being sent or received. It seemed only natural to take a healthy interest in what those messages were about.
Ensign Denora reported that Dr. McCoy just got published in another medical journal. Ensign Rogan informed the group that Lieutenant Oranga was scheduling a leave of absence to go surfing on Avaria Prime. Lieutenant Rafiella told them that Commander Spock was involved in another virtual chess tournament (something that Uhura already knew, but never would have shared). And Ensign Porter told them that their hopes of being resupplied with real beef at Starbase 16 were in vain--the shipment was running three days late and wouldn't reach the Starbase until after they left.
Lieutenant Seleski's news was more somber. "Ensign Helburg's been getting more frequent messages from Earth. I think his father's taken a turn for the worse. He might not have much longer."
Uhura nodded silently. Ensign Helburg's father had been dying of a sudden and incurable disease for the past four months. Helburg had hoped to get leave soon to say goodbye in person. If things were really going downhill fast, he might miss his chance. "I'll talk to him later. Maybe I can arrange a live subspace call for him."
All crewmembers were allotted a fixed amount of time for personal live calls each month, and Helburg had already used up his time. Maybe the captain would make an exception.
"Well, I have a little news, too," said Ensign Tuffala, smiling deviously. "Ensign Chekov's girl back on Earth finally dear-Johned him."
Several of the other girls began to banter about Chekov's rocky love-life. After a moment, Uhura spoke up. "I assume you got this information directly from Ensign Chekov?" she asked Tuffala.
The girl's mouth hung open for a moment. "Well. . ."
Uhura's eyes narrowed. "You know I have a very strict hands-off policy when it comes to incoming personal messages, Ensign. We are professionals, and we do not sneak peeks. If I ever, and I mean ever, find out you've been violating that policy you will be transferred to engineering to do grunt-work for Mr. Scott for the next two years. Is that clear?"
Ensign Truffala nodded, looking more than a little scared. "Yes, sir."
"Good. And that goes for the rest of you, too."
The meeting didn't last long after that. Sometimes Uhura hated being in charge. Sometimes she loved it. Today, she just wished she'd stayed in bed.
***
Uhura received the call for the Enterprise to join the reinforcements in the Archanis sector less than an hour after Scotty finished the weapons upgrades. She'd never been happier for those daily senior staff meetings.
***
Uhura grasped her ear piece, re-playing the last bit of static. There was a pattern there--she knew it.
She fed the transmission through her console and went to work. Less than four minutes later she spoke up.
"Captain," she called.
"Yes, Lieutenant?"
"I just intercepted an encrypted transmission from the Klingons."
"Have Mr. Spock decrypt it for you--"
"Already done, sir," she said, trying not to smile. "It's orders to rendezvous in orbit of Archanis 8 in one hour."
She turned to look Kirk in the eye, and the side of his mouth curved up in an approving smile. "Contact the Endeavor and tell them to meet us on the dark side of Archanis 7 immediately. When the Klingons get to Archanis 8, we'll have a little surprise waiting for them. And Lieutenant? Make sure you send it with an encryption that the Klingons won't be able to break."
As she turned back to her console she finally let herself smile. "No problem, sir."
***
After the Enterprise and the Endeavor disabled four of the six Klingon ships, Kirk was able to talk them into accepting a diplomatic solution to their problem. It reminded Uhura why she respected him so much.
As she finally stood to leave the bridge, he stopped her. "You did good work today, Lieutenant."
She forced a tired smile. "Thank you, sir."
He nodded. "And when did you become a cryptologist?"
"It's just a little something I've been working on in my spare time, sir." In other words, she worked on it every night she could force herself to forgo an extra two hours of sleep in favor of studying with Spock before bed for the past eight months.
Kirk grinned at her. "Keep it up and pretty soon you'll be running this place."
"I'm glad to hear we agree on that point, captain." She was pleased to hear him laugh. He must have forgiven her for the reprimand about Rand. "Oh, and I have two more little things I need to talk to you about," she drew closer to him.
"Yeah?"
She lowered her voice. "Ensign Hagland's father is getting pretty bad. Will you grant him the extra time for a few more live calls?"
"Absolutely," replied Kirk. "Give him all the time he needs."
This time her smile was genuine. "Thanks. And, if you get a chance to have a drink with Chekov, it would probably cheer him up. His girlfriend finally dumped him."
Kirk folded his arms and looked across the bridge at the young Ensign. "Poor kid. It was doomed from the start. Long distance relationships never work out. Sure. I'll find a way to cheer him up."
Uhura wasn't sure she liked the mischievous gleam in Kirk's eyes, but this time she was going to leave well enough alone.
***
Spock joined her in the turbolift. "Your level of tension and exhaustion appears higher than is usual at the end of the day. Would you like me to administer a massage to ease your tension before you sleep?"
A massage sounded like heaven. "Would I ever." She closed her eyes for a moment, imagining the bliss of his fingertips digging deep into her shoulder muscles. Then she sighed in resignation. "But my day's not done yet. I have one more meeting."
Spock raised an eyebrow, but remained silent.
She brushed her fingers lightly against the back of his hand. "I'll see you in less than an hour, okay?"
He nodded. "Very well."
The turbolift stopped at her destination, and she left Spock alone to continue on to their quarters.
Uhura walked down the hall and stopped in front of the door to one of the small crew quarters. She pushed the chime.
A moment later the door slid open to reveal Ensign Helburg. Only twenty years old, he'd left the Academy eight months ago with his father in perfect health. The shock of his father's sudden illness had been hard on him, and he wasn't taking the separation from his family very well.
"Hey," she said. "I have some good news. The captain has granted you as much live call time as you need for the next few weeks."
He flushed red, and turned his face away. Uhura thought she could see a few tears welling in his eyes.
"Thanks. Thanks," he muttered.
She took a deep breath, wishing she could talk herself out of what she was about to do. "Do you want to talk?"
Helburg shook his head. "You don't have to do that."
"But you do. Come on. Let's sit down." She stepped inside his quarters and headed for the nearest chair, wondering if she'd really be back to Spock as soon as she'd promised.
In the end, it didn't matter if she would. She did what needed to be done, because if she didn't, no one would.
Maybe she'd have time for the massage tomorrow.