5Chapter 1: A Change of Scenery
"Bye Momma. Goodbye Daddy" I gave them both hugs when they dropped me off at the train station before the sun came up over the Appalachians. I took one last look at my home in West Virginia. I was heading to StarFleet Academy in San Francisco. I would miss my kin and the holler where I grew up, but my parents and I reckoned it was time for me to go out on my own and get book read. I sighed, "Take care of my flowers, please?" I asked before I had to scurry off.
"Of course, honey, don't worry." my Momma, Anna, said knowing exactly what I meant when I asked that. I had a special, secret garden that only my Momma and Daddy knew about.
"I love y'all and I'll be sure to comm with you at Aunt Jeannie's and Uncle Mark's after I get settled.
"We love you too, baby girl." my Daddy, Jeff, said. "Dawn, remember to try and find a church to attend while you're there, or I'll be sending you recordings of my sermons each week."
"I'll try, Daddy." I said as I gave him and Momma one last hug and kiss goodbye.
Holding my poke with the sandwich Momma made and a bottle of water in one hand, I drug my luggage to the train with the other and had it taken to the luggage car. I gave the station master my ticket and shuffled down the aisle to an empty seat and sat. I rubbed the silver locket that hung from my neck between my thumb and index finger and prayed to God to give me boldness in this new part of my life and to give me comfort because I would miss my family dearly.
It took almost 8 hours to get out of the mountains and into California. It took another 20 minutes to get to the railway station and then half an hour by taxi to get to the Academy. I only had 10 minutes to get to the cafeteria where I would find out my dorm room assignment, key code for my room, and my class schedule for the first semester.
In a sea of 200 new students, I was the only one of my kind and from the looks I was getting, everyone else knew it too. It's not too often someone sees a green girl with red hair and pointy ears. I wanted to hide, but I couldn't until I got everything from the staff member who suddenly asked my name. "Davis, Dawnaka Rose" I answered almost too quickly.
"I'm sorry," the staff member said looking at me like I had 3 heads, "could you repeat your name please?"
I did and thanked him as he handed me my information on a data PADD. I walked back out of the door I came in from while trying to figure out how to read the map to find my way to my dorm across campus. Not really watching where I was going, I nearly walked right into someone and I quickly apologized and continued walking to my dorm that I had finally located on the map.
I was assigned to Cunningham Hall, 1st floor, room 26. Dragging my luggage into my new home-away-from-home, I saw there were two beds, lofted, with a desk, chair, and dresser under each. There was a replicator on one wall and the closet was opposite it. Being that this was a first year cadet's dorm, there was a community bathroom. I was very thankful that dorms were separated by gender. I prayed that my roommate would be non-existent, but that prayer was answered by my room door wooshing open and an Asian girl coming in with a half a dozen suitcases. "Thankfully, I don't have to worry about which bed is mine." the girl stated and then laughed.
"I'm Keri Suzuki" she introduced herself while organizing her bags.
"It's good to meet you. I'm Dawnaka Davis, but please, call me Dawn."
"A Southerner, huh? Where are you from?"
"I'm from West Virginia, close to Bluefield. But hardly anyone knows where that is." I told her while her back was still turned to me.
"I'm pleased to meet you, Dawn." she said as she turned around to extend her hand for me to shake it. Then she looked at me and saw I was Orion. What she missed were my ears that I had hidden under my long hair. I raised my hand in Ta'al.
"Whoa. Not just Orion, but Vulcan too, and Southern. Just what did Dr. McCoy think of you?"
"Who is Dr. McCoy?"
"You haven't been to medical yet? You need to go for inoculations. There are so many different people here from different places, you don't want to catch something accidentally. Do you know where it is?"
She showed me where it was on the map and pointed me in the right direction. It took all of 5 minutes to walk across campus to the medical building. After being checked in and escorted to a bed, I was told that Dr. McCoy would be with me "as soon as possible".
A man with dark brown hair and stormy blue eyes walked towards me with a PADD in his hand.
"Alright then, I'm Dr. McCoy and you need just the basic hypo-sprays and you can get going, Cadet Davis."
"It's nice to know there's another southerner around. Kindred spirits, my Momma would say."
Dr. McCoy looked up from his PADD finally and smiled warmly.
"Well, how… woah. How did I miss this in your file? Sorry, that was rude of me."
"It's alright Dr. McCoy, I get that a lot." I sighed and shrugged my shoulders.
"No, it's not alright. Where are you from?" he asked as he injected a hypo-spray into my neck.
"West Virginia, close to Bluefield."
"I've not heard of it."
"Not many people have."
"Well, there you go. If you ever need anything, you know where to find me."
"Thank you Dr. McCoy."
"You're welcome, now get going. Classes start early tomorrow."
Trying not to make eye contact as I made my way back to my dorm, I started thinking about home and how I was already missing my family. Part of the reason I was at the Academy was so that I could learn more about my heritage. It was hard growing up being both Orion and Vulcan. I had no idea who my real parents were, the only thing I had from them was a letter requesting that I not try to find them. During my early teens, I started developing touch telepathy and my emotions became increasingly out of control. Not knowing beforehand what they could be facing as I got older, my parents had to do some research about how to teach me to control my emotions and the emotions I felt from others. They did their best, but it just wasn't enough and I hid myself away a lot so I didn't have to worry about accidentally bumping into someone. I could feel tears starting to well up and I knew I had to get back to my dorm as soon as possible. I couldn't let anyone see me like this. Even for someone who is part Vulcan, showing emotion to anyone other than my parents was disgraceful. At least, to me, that's how it felt.
"Cedet!" a voice called out from behind me. I wasn't sure to who until I looked up and almost walked out in the middle of a busy road. The voice caught up to me and I gazed at my shoes.
"Cadet, are you well? Cadet, you will look at a superior officer when spoken to."
I looked up into a stern face with emotionless eyes and shivered. I felt like I couldn't breathe from trying to control the emotions that dared to spill over my cheeks. My eyes were misting over and I couldn't see well, but I knew if I blinked I would be done for.
"Yes, sir. I'm fine, sir." My eyes must have conveyed the pleading in my head for him to not ask anymore.
"Very well Cadet…?"
"Davis, Dawnaka. Sir."
"Very well Cadet Davis. Back to your dorm and pay attention to where you're going. We don't need any casualties before the year has even begun."
"Yes, Sir. I'm sorry Sir." I whispered as I choked down the growing lump in my throat.
"You are dismissed Cadet Davis."
At that, I turned around, looked both ways and crossed the street back to my dorm. Thank the Lord, my roommate wasn't there. I locked the door and let the tears fall. Half an hour later, my roommate still hadn't come back to the dorm. Probably out partying before the school year starts, I guessed. It was still early enough back home that I comm'd my Aunt and Uncle's house.
"Hi Dawn! Mark, hun, go get Jeff and Anna!" she yelled to my Uncle who was apparently in a different part of the house. "Hang on, hun. Your folks are coming."
"Thanks Aunt Jeannie."
As soon as Momma got there, she took one look at me and knew I had a meltdown. "Oh, baby girl, tomorrow will be a better day." She knew I didn't like to talk about my overactive emotions, but it was a comfort to know that I could talk to her when I needed to.
"I'm sure it will be, Momma. Thanks." I gave her a kind of forced smile.
"What is your class schedule like?" Daddy asked trying to change the subject as quickly as possible.
"Oh, well, hang on. Let me pull it up real quick." I got my PADD out of my bag and opened my class schedule.
"On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I have Botany 101, Intro to Starfleet (that's a class all the first years have to take), and Xenoanthropology 101. On Tuesday and Thursday, I have Intro to Vulcan, and Physical Education."
"Sounds like you've got a full course load there" Uncle Mark stated.
"Yeah, I have Intro to Starfleet at 0645 hours. I'm not looking forward it at all. I've had a long day and I still need to eat supper."
"Okay baby girl, you still have our comm schedule we agreed on?" Daddy asked. I nodded that I did. "Good."
"Hey, Daddy, could you send me your sermons each week? San Francisco is huge and I don't think I'll be able to find a church out here."
"I can do that Dawn. We all love you very much. Try to make at least one friend while you're there. We'll talk again in a month."
"I love y'all too. Bye-bye." I ended the call and decided I didn't really want to eat, so I gathered my things for a shower and made my way to the communal bathroom. There were only two other showers running when I got there. As soon as I got in, the other showers turned off consecutively and the duration of my shower was spent alone. Back in my room, I laid out my uniform for tomorrow. Red uniform and green skin. Great, I wondered how many Christmas color comments I would get tomorrow.
Six AM came way too soon. Coffee I thought to myself. I need coffee. I got up and got ready for my first class that I just knew was going to be incredibly boring. I had just enough time to stop and grab a cup of coffee and a bagel at the cafeteria before class.
I found the building that Intro to Starfleet would be held in. The Science building, why was it in here? The classroom was on the second floor and I was, of course, the last one to walk in. I felt all eyes on me. Quickly I scanned the room and found an empty seat in the back. If I start to doze off, hopefully the professor won't notice, I thought as I silently made my way to the chair.
A minute after I sat down, in walked a tall man wearing a grey professor's uniform. He had dark brown, almost black hair. Then I saw his ears. He's Vulcan. He's actually Vulcan. Something about him looked familiar, but I couldn't place it until he spoke.
"Good morning class. I am Professor Spock. This is Intro to Starfleet. In this course, you will be learning the Prime Directive as well as other codes and protocols…" He's the one who stopped me from walking into the street yesterday. The rest of the class was spent with Professor Spock going over the syllabus for the semester and me rubbing the silver locket that always hung around my neck.
Botany with Professor Murray and Xenoanthropology with Professor Tak went much the same way. Stares from my classmates, syllabi being reviewed, and me, nervous about being in a new place, hoping I could pass all of my classes, and praying that I could keep my emotions under control. Botany gave me a little peace when I learned that we would be exploring more efficient ways of caring for plants foreign to Earth. Part of me began to think of my secret garden back home and how much time I would be spending there over my breaks. My longing for my garden almost had me crying. I had to pull myself together quickly or I would meltdown in public.
"If you ever need to let your emotions out, you can, but make sure you're alone or with someone you absolutely trust." my Momma told me when I was thirteen.
Physical education was my first class Tuesday morning. The Professor, I don't remember his name, told us we were in charge of our own class time. We had to do some sort of physical activity but we had to log all of our hours and if we didn't meet the required hours by the end of the semester, we would fail the class. Well that's easy, I thought. Running was my choice of exercise back home and running in the mountains just helped me increase my endurance level. It's so flat around here, I hope I don't get bored. I was glad I was in my workout clothes. I started jogging around campus, but I couldn't help but notice that almost everywhere I went, I was either stared at or people would avert their gaze. I found myself becoming annoyed and angry and that made me want to run longer than necessary.
Intro to Vulcan, also taught by Professor Spock, was after lunch. I had quite a lot of down time on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I realized, but that time would be spent doing homework and studying for exams. This was one class I was looking forward to. I had always been interested my heritage and where I'm from, we don't have access to a ton of information. I knew about Orion and Orion women and that part of my heritage just didn't appeal to me. I had been raised with more respect for myself than that. I knew a few basic things about Vulcan. I knew that it was extremely hot compared to Earth, I knew that there was a High Counsel, and I knew about the Nero Incident. Intro to Vulcan would not only teach me to read, write, and speak the language my biological father spoke, but I would also learn some of the customs, history, and geography of both Vulcan and New Vulcan.