0545.

As the sun shined the faintest rays of light just over the eastern horizon signaling the impending sunrise, Commander Spock rose from yet another dreamless slumber. Vulcans don't dream much and vivid dreams are rare. Silently and efficiently, Spock readied himself for the first Monday lecture for the intermediate xenolinguistics class under his instruction this semester. At 0600, clad in a crisp and freshly cleaned black instructor's uniform, Spock made his way to Hoshi Sato Hall across the campus on foot.

The sky around him glowed a muted peach that faded into lavender then indigo the farther from the horizon it was as the sun had not yet peaked above the urban skyline of San Francisco. Aside from the faint beating of his feet on the pavement, Spock walked in silence, alone. It was peaceful, no hurried throng of cadets going about their business in every direction possible as was the usual for this area of campus as the cadets were still sleeping peacefully in their beds. Well, all but two.

Some ways away, Spock spotted two young men rushing in through the academy gates on the eastern side, coming from the city. The two men quickly grew nearer and nearer, the lighter-haired one appeared to be towing his darker-haired friend who stumbled often and laughed, likely intoxicated. Not that that former was much better off. They both hastily and clumsily made their way towards the cadet dorm building next to the staff on-campus living site. Much to Spock's chagrin, the two cadets narrowly missed barreling into his right side, sending a gust of air straight into him, because of all the trajectories they could have chosen, they chose the closest-running path parallel to Spock's own. Spock turned around to reprimand them for their carelessness, but as he turned, so did the fair-haired human and his eyes were greeted to a happy set of cerulean eyes, giving Spock pause. Is it possible for a human's eyes to appear so blue? Fascinating, Spock thought to himself.

Distantly, he heard a hurried and noticeably slurred, "Oh, uh, sorry, sir! -Bones, quit tripping me!- Yeah, sorry!" directed at him. Spock nodded absently and the two men whipped around and continued their clumsy journey. Spock quickly came to, turned around, and continued on his way to the Hall, quashing the odd tingly feeling in his gut.

Sitting in the small office that was connected to his lecture hall, Spock allowed himself the liberty of a light meditation to fill the remaining hours until his first round of students showed up for class at 0800 as he had not yet had student work to grade.

0745 hours.

Slowly, but surely, the first students trickled into the hall, then the rest of the students later on. The majority of the seats were filled. The students appeared to favor the middle rows with comparatively fewer students occupying the first row, one of which he recognized from his Introduction to Xenolinguistics class last semester, Cadet Nyota Uhura, an exceptional student in communications track with a highly sensitive ear for language, particularly Vulcan.

0759.

Spock made his way from the office, seeing from his open door that his entire class had settled in their seats and he could prepare to introduce himself to his fresh batch of students. Spock, known to be a stickler about attendance with his zero tolerance tardy policy (meaning late is the equivalent to absent and don't bother trying to come in) and not one to live down his reputation, strode over to the entrance and held his hand up to engage the door's locking mechanism. At that moment, he heard quick footfall. Next thing he saw was a blur of red and gold rush past him and into the classroom before he engaged the locking mechanism. He turned to address the class. He was met with yet another familiar face, one he did not have a name to pair it with. The fair-haired cadet clad in red with the impossibly cerulean eyes flashed him a quick, bright smile as he easily sank into a front row seat. It appeared and vanished so quickly that Spock briefly wondered if he had imagined it. Illogical, he thought to himself and raised an eyebrow as he broke the eye contact he hadn't been aware that he'd been maintaining with the fair-haired human. In the corner of his eye, Nyota rolled her eyes in exasperation and crossed her arms as she sat in her chair.

0800 hours.

"Good morning, cadets. My name is Commander Spock and I am your Intermediate Xenolinguistics instructor for the duration of this fall semester. Over the course of the coming twenty weeks, we shall cover the morphological, phonological, phonetic, semantic, and pragmatic similarities and differences between the various major languages spoken by the numerous members of the Federation. This course is designed to further your knowledge of linguistics in general and to familiarize yourselves with all major languages. For those of you specifically on the communications track, this course will be your final precursor before you specify the language family you plan to specialize in for the duration of your time here at Starfleet Academy following the conclusion of this semester. You will have a choice between the following language families: Vulcan, Romulan, Orion, Klingon, Betazoid, Ferengi, and Iconian. During this course, we shall spend 2.85 weeks on each language family furthering the study you started in Introduction to Linguistics," Spock paused a moment, "Before we commence the first lesson, are there any pressing questions?"And as the last syllable left Spock's mouth, Uhura's hand rose confidently into the air. "Cadet," he acknowledged.

"When will we get to the Vulcan unit, sir?"she asked, sticking her chin out slightly and leaning forward onto her desk, peering at him through her lashes. She addressed him in this manner often when she took his Intro class last semester. It seemed to bother some of her former classmates and she never paid them any mind. Spock replied, unimpressed,

"We will begin that unit 12.28 weeks into the semester," he paused, scanning the relatively still cluster of students in his lecture hall for a hand in the air. No one else raised their hand to speak. Spock opened his mouth to start his lecture, but the fair-haired cadet in the front row raised his hand slowly, peering around to make sure no one else had their hand raised. Spock nodded, the muscles around his mouth and neck seemed to stiffen as he made eye contact with those cerulean eyes, transfixed. Those eyes.

"From my experience with other instructors here in the past, they all are a bit different in terms of grading policy… What's yours?"At this, Spock stayed silent a moment longer willing his mouth to comply with his brain. Success.

"Late work is not accepted with the exception of medical absence or family business. Your grade in this class is heavily dependent on spoken tests and written exams, both of which are taken twice in person. These tests comprise 90% of the grade with outside work comprising the remaining 10%. The class is not graded on a curve. I do not round up percentages. And there are no extra credit opportunities."

"Thank you, sir," the fair-haired cadet replied,grinning slightly.

Humans smile for the most unusual reasons. I see nothing humorous in my grading policy. Fascinating. Spock bowed his head slightly in return then straightened and started the day's lesson on Iconian syntax.

1100.

Spock was once again sitting in his office moments after he ended class for the day, the students hurrying out of his class. Spock overheard their complaints about the workload drifting through the doorway as they passed. He was definitely not one of the super easy instructors that didn't work to challenge his students. They are students at Starfleet Academy. These young humans and others will be the future of their fleet as will the classes that follow them. A lot of homework never hurt anybody.

"A moment, Commander?" A familiar shrill voice chimed. Uhura stood, leaning against the door frame, ankles casually crossed.

"May I help you?"

"Yeah," she sauntered over to his desk, sitting on the armrest of the visitor's chair. His eyebrow flicked slightly.

How peculiar to not use the chair for the purpose it was intended for.

"So… How was your break between now and the end of the summer semester?"

"Rather uneventful I remained on campus,"he replied, piquing Uhura's interest.

"You didn't go back home to Vulcan to see your family... or perhaps an intended?"

"No, my presence was not required on Vulcan," which she knows was his way of saying, "No, I didn't feel like seeing my family and I was not needed by my telsu because I do not have one."

Oooh, she thought, no intended? Maybe I don't have to pretend that this commander isn't the finest Vulcan I've ever seen. "Oh…. uh, today's class was super interesting, as always. You always give a good lecture," she said emphatically, twirling the end of her long ponytail that draped itself over her left shoulder daintily, " I found your analogy for memorizing the complex sentence structure variations between the ancient Iconian dialects. I look forward to the rest of this semester."

"I thank you."Spock felt the slightest bit uncomfortable with the awkward pacing of conversation. There were lots of pauses in between everything they said. It always felt as if Uhura wasn't sure what to say even though it also appeared that she may have had something to add. This perplexed him.

Nyota, your time is now! "So, I have a lot on my plate this semester with extra classes because I'm looking to get ahead on my credits… I was wondering if I could spend some time outside of class on a schedule to go over the material and any help on the homework you can offer…? So I can stay on top of my workload."

"A logical choice, Cadet. My daily office hours are 1500 to 1700 hours on the weekdays and from 1200 to 1500 hours on Saturdays. Do not hesitate to visit during the specified hours," Spock peered at the chronometer on his desk, "Unfortunately, I must cut this meeting short. There is a department meeting that I am required to attend in 9.73 minutes," Spock said as he rose from his seat and straightened his uniform jacket.

"Oh, yeah, no problem, sir. I'll be on my way then. See you tomorrow," and with that she bowed her head slightly before walking quickly out to outdoor hallway. As the door to Spock's lecture hall slid closed, Nyota rounded the corner and leaned against the wall, a bright smile gracing her face as she clasped her hands in front of her chest in delight, repressing the urge to squeal. She stayed that way for a moment or two before carrying on to her next class.