As the world falls down (English Version)

Chapter 13

It had been four months since T'Dal had joined the Starfleet Academy. For a sixteen year old accustomed to a certain type of Vulcan production rhythm, it had not been easy to get used to the hectic life of the Academy, finding a hectic and stressful environment very different to the one she had experienced for most of her school career.

Thanks to the advice of her father and Rose, T'Dal decided to pursue a scientific career that would lead her to be a science officer like her father: it was not what she wanted but in some fields her knowledge was advanced and it was not logical. frustrate the studies done on Vulcan.

Rose had also let her know that it was possible to participate in one or more optional courses even though they were not included in her study program, so she T'Dal after talking to her secretary made a list, even if closely related to other faculties. She one day she asked the teacher of the diplomacy courses if she could participate, but the man advised her to follow them when she was further on with her studies, to fully understand the contents of the course. She had asked her father for confirmation and thus began to fill the days and stay on the books more than necessary, especially for a memory of her as well as hers.

«She'll get sick» McCoy said one night while she was staying at Jim and Spock's house, reporting what she'd seen from the tests, she looked like she was overloading herself with work. The good doctor had agreed with T'Dal, he would have made complete analyzes bimonthly, possibly every second Tuesday. She had noticed a worsening of her analyzes, speaking with Dr. M'Benga, the latter had confirmed that it was her stress and that she T'Dal lei should reduce the workload.

«I know, it's frustrating and I don't know what to do to help her. I think you got it from someone.» Jim said and then looked at Spock, silently asking for help since she had evidently taken that hard-working side from him.

«You can't, she's a Vulcan and as such she knows how to manage her school commitments.» Spock said deliberately silencing Jim's concern. Spock told himself that he would speak to T'Dal as soon as possible, unaware that the other two men also thought they were doing the same thing.

Spock knew very well that T'Dal was able to manage classes and study quite well, imagining that his adopted daughter often and willingly studied at night in her room at the academy, only returning home a couple of days and resting only to give a semblance of normality.

In reality, T'Dal had slowly withdrawn into herself, she didn't know how to talk about her problems with her adoptive father, nor with Jim about her whom she now saw as a father figure and she didn't know how to talk to him in appropriately. Her father was Spock had it been clear about her this years before her at her home on the planet Vulcan, outside the house she called him by name, but at home she didn't know if it was appropriate to call him "dad"? She couldn't find relief even talking to her paternal grandmother, Amanda. For T'Dal she had been like a mother and she referred to her, but she could not confess one thing that hurt her: she knew that for some she had entered the academy because of her parents and because of her being a Vulcan teenager female, if she had been a boy instead of a girl they would never have welcomed her. She felt that someone was wondering if Jim or her father had paid or put a good word on the commission. She normally she wouldn't have cared about it, but those innuendoes made her study harder even to be able to be more with her family, but she knew she was starting to ask too much of herself: she wanted to graduate from the academy in the minor time she could. Would she have made it in two years instead of four? That was illogical, but she wanted to prove that she was smart enough to do it on her own.

One of the positive things of that period, besides the fact that he was studying something she loved, was the friendship he had struck with Rose, the latter had introduced her to two of her friends, Paul and Daniel: if the former was studying to become an officer scientific and he was passionate about astrosciences, Paul had chosen the command section and Daniel was studying as an engineer instead.