Grace Note (Fermata) [Tina; Darcy]

[loyalty_ever]

He'd never been able to keep from being curious. Even if it would have been more prudent to keep his head down and not look and not ask. These people were friendly, in their too-open, too freely given way. And except for the red uniforms lurking near every bend in a bulkhead, they were even niceNice, and utterly vague when he made any reference to

Comments

[rn_chapel]

The hydroponics lab the other day had been surprisingly pleasant. Very bare-bones, not really designed for visual appeal, but restive. There was something nice about growing things, even when they were mostly lettuce

[loyalty_ever]

How did they work out alternating veins in the leaves like that? Maybe if he applied tr'Nevyn's uncertainty compensation to the...

Hands to ourselves was more than just politeness, down past social reflex and into automatic. Ayel jerked backward, arms behind his back to keep from overbalancing or hitting the poor woman he'd almost walked into.

...And her baby.

"Not your fault," he said immediately, with a shake of the head. A little wide-eyed. "I wasn't looking--you both are all right?"

[rn_chapel]

Tina smiled. "Perfectly fine. Lighting-fast reflexes to the rescue."

She didn't recognize the man she'd almost run over, but he looked familiar. Not another Spock, she was almost certain. She hoped not another Spock...

"I'm Tina, and this is Darcy," she said. "Hi."

[loyalty_ever]

"Fortunate," he said. "Just in time."

Tina. There was--no, he didn't know that name. He was just surprised by how easily humans gave them away.

"Hello, Tina. I'm just visiting, and thought I would explore. This is remarkable." He just managed not to wax poetic over the equations that must have gone into the turf alone.

"Hello, Darcy." She was very small, very young, so he pitched her greeting softly. He was grinning despite himself.