Subsolar Whispers

Part 1

"You know, I'm not sure I like the new uniform design."

Uhura smiled, looking over her shoulder at the young man on her left. "What's not to like, Lieutenant?"

Thomas didn't turn to look at her, keeping his hands and his eyes on the boards in front of him, but Uhura saw his head shaking. "I think it's the colours, mostly, ma'am. I miss the red, gold, and blue. They were all over the recruiting office and I got used to them at the Academy. But a year after I graduate, poof, gone." He sighed. "I guess it just seems like we're all the same now. Tan and grey, well, grey-blue. Not that exciting."

With a shrug, she turned back to her own boards, one ear still monitoring communications traffic. And there was a lot of traffic. Even if the new space dock wasn't quite half complete, there was a lot of activity to keep track of. Ships and construction crews, plus normal traffic in, around, and between the various stations, civilian and military, with the regular interplanetary and interstellar traffic added in. It wasn't exactly alert status on the Enterprise, but it could certainly keep you busy, and everyone in the Admiral's communications group took a turn at the boards. "Well, not that I don't miss the miniskirt for its freedom of movement—" no sarcasm there—"but I do feel like the new uniforms look a little more professional. That said, yes, Lieutenant, I miss the colors too." She didn't mention that there was a little white in the mix too, at least for medical staff. It wasn't the same.

Behind her, a door swished open, and reflection from the polished upper surface of her primary board showed her enough detail that she turned around and stood to attention immediately. Two other communications officers, and four techs, caught the motion either by sight or by sound and immediately followed suit. "Admiral on deck."

Barely five foot two, the greying, wrinkled little man somehow commanded respect just by being in the room. Uhura didn't need to see the admiral's braids to be swept up in the self-confidence and command presence of a man who been wearing a Starfleet uniform of some colour longer than she'd been alive. The fact that he ran the whole show was almost secondary.

The admiral shook his head. "As you were, please. I'm certain you have more important things to be doing." His expression didn't change, but she didn't think she imagined his eyes twinkling as they found hers before she managed to sit. "Kon'nichi-wa, Uhura–san. O'genki desu ka?"

Hands at her sides, she bowed, hoping it was something close to Japanese normal. "Genki desu, okage samade. Kon'nichi-wa, Nogura-sama."

Nogura's bow did not go past his neck, but she read the formality there without difficulty. "Thank you. My office, Commander. 1300 hrs."

Uhura felt her chest tighten a little, like she'd just been summoned to the headmaster's office for no apparent reason. Which, she supposed, she had. "Yes, sir."

The Admiral nodded and his eyes swept the room. "The rest of you, I thought I said as you were." He spun on his heel and stepped back into the corridor. Uhura heard four footsteps before the door swished closed.

Thomas swallowed loudly, and stared at Uhura. "Um, not to step over a line here, Commander, but how many languages do you speak anyway?"

She smiled, heart still beating a little faster than it needed to be as she slipped back into her chair. "Not as many as you seem to think, Lieutenant, and never enough. But sometimes you don't need that much to get by. Wakarimashita? Do you understand?"

Thomas shook his head. "Not really, commander, but I think I'm learning. Slowly."

"Well, in that case, Lieutenant, you have the con. I have a meeting to prepare for, and I don't have any idea what it's about." But she'd certainly do her best to be prepared to answer whatever the Admiral felt like asking her.