Chapter 6

 

Four years later.

 

 

“See you in a moment!” Uhura called down the corridor to where Kez stood with an eyebrow raised, halfway through walking into her own dorm room.

Uhura passed into her own and swept into the bedroom area, pausing to regard her roommate who was sprawled over her own bed, only wearing underwear, in an unnatural pose, smiling too sweetly.

Uhura eyed up Gaila before proceeding to her bedside and unzipping her uniform.

“You’re back early; I thought you were working late.” Gaila said with another smile that made Uhura suspicious.

“I finished early. I was in the languages lab.”

“Oh, anything going on?” Gaila never inquired as to Uhura’s work.

“We were picking up some chatter about a prison escape and a stolen vessel that destroyed an entire Klingon fleet. Why do you ask?” Uhura continued to get undressed.

“Oh, no reason,” The green girl on the matrass said with what Uhura could only say was a fake yawn.

“I’m just so tired, been running simulations all week.”

Then Uhura heard it. Just faintly but still she heard it.

“Who is he Gaila?”

“Who is who?”

“The mouth breather hiding under your bed!”

Kirk shot up, naked apart from his boxers, “You can hear me breathing?” He said in disbelief.

“Get out!” Uhura demanded, kicking up Kirks clothes.

He scrambled from the room laughing and called over his shoulder, “I still need that first name!”

“Never.” Uhura said with a smile and sealed the bedroom door.

Kirk turned around and walked straight into Kez who had been waiting for Uhura in the corridor.

Kirk looked at his best friend and could only smile awkwardly as Kez looked him up and down.

Finally she rolled her eyes, “Kirk, what the hell?”

“Oh chill, I was just getting to know Gaila.”

“I don’t wanna know!” Kez said waving her arms slightly, “If you’re found up here looking like that you’re going to get kicked out.”

Kirk raised an eyebrow, “Please. No one ever finds out.”

Just then footsteps and chatter sounded from down the corridor as what sounded like a vast group of cadets walked up the stairs to their dorms.

Kez looked at Kirk who suddenly stuck out his lip.

“I’ll pay you back, but you know could you . . .” He drifted off when Kez grabbed his wrist hard and dragged him behind her to her own room, opened the lock and bundled him inside before following and shutting the door.

Kirk looked around the bedroom, two beds although Kez didn’t have a roommate, computer and desk full of paper work and then stacks and stacks of books.

“You ever thought of starting a library?” Kirk asked, picking up a book, flicking through its pages and then setting it down again.

“You ever thought of putting your clothes on?” Kez said sarcastically from within the bathroom before emerging again.

Kirk stood and spread his arms, “You gotta respect the body.”

Kez slumped onto her bed and looked at him before flopping backwards, “Just dress yourself Kirk, or do I need to call your mummy so she can help you?”

Kirk sniggered from the other side of the room, “Nah, thanks. I’ll manage.”

Kez was used to Kirk turning up at her bedroom door at all hours having been kicked out of one girls dorm room by her roommate or such. In fact she would have been surprised if Kirk had been through the whole girls block of the academy by now.

“You dressed yet?” She asked, looking sideways at where Kirk was just pulling his shirt on.

“I am, look I did it all by myself!” He said, flashing his usual smile.

Kez rolled her eyes again before Kirk continued.

“Look, I’m taking the test again tomorrow and I want you to be there.”

Kez looked at him then collapsed back again, groaning loudly, “Really? Again? So I can see you make a fool of yourself for the, what? Fourth, fifth time?”

Kirk sat on the edge of the bed, “This time I’ll do it though, honest. I have a plan.”

Kez looked at him from under her hands, “You have a plan? You.”

Kirk jabbed her leg, “Give me some credit, Stibs. Just be there yeah?”

Kez rolled her eyes, “Fine.”

Kirk laughed then jabbed her leg again, “Anyway even if I kill us all again, at least you’ll wake up again.”

This was his kind of joke but it just made Kez feel sick to the pit of her stomach. She moved her hand to the marks on her shoulder without thinking.

“That doesn’t mean I want to die in this world, you know.” She pointed out then added light heartedly, “I mean, imagine if you’re not there in the parallel reality I wake up in!”

Kirk pulled a wide eyed, shocked face, “Oh No! That’s a world not worth living in at all.” Then he got up from the bed and made his way to the door, listened then opened it a bit before adding over his shoulder, “Be there, yeah?”

“Yes!” Kez said for the final time.

“Ah, you’re the best Stibs!” Kirk said before slipping from the room.

“As you’ve said before.” Kez said slumping back against her bed again and rolling over.