Summary; expansion on my oneshot, xenophobia, where Mr. Spock is transferred temporarily under a xenophobic Captain Granby and can not communicate with Starfleet or Enterprise.

A/N: Does anyone know of any stories like this? If so, please tell me - I'd like to read one as well, but I couldn't find one, so I just had to write it instead. :) Hope you like it. And, to readers of my other stories, I know, I said I wouldn't be starting anything else when I need to update my other stories, but I couldn't help myself!

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek, characters, etc. I make no money off this.

Warnings: Language, violence, angst.

Chapter 1

Jim gripped his shoulder, eyes pained, but said nothing, only giving him a weak smile. McCoy looked awkward - sad but refusing to look regretful and give the 'hobgoblin' anything to use against him.

"It will only be a few months," McCoy finally said. "Don't get yourself killed or hurt where I can't patch you up, got it?" He shifted awkwardly.

"I will certainly endeavour to do so, Doctor." Spock said mildly.

They were all silent. Spock moved from the captain's grasp not his captain now, but he would always be captain and stepped onto the transporter, nodding to Mr. Scott, who saluted, eyes shining with sorrow.

"Energize."

A man Spock presumed was Captain Ganby smiled tightly as he beamed aboard the U.S.S. Defiant. He did not, despite the gesture, appear pleased, a contradiction which puzzled Spock slightly. The man nodded stiffly.

"Commander Spock."

"Persmission to come aboard, Sir?"

The Captain's smile seemed even more fake now. "Permission granted, Commander."

Spock stepped forward, garnering a flash of a salute from the ensign at the transporter controls, and turned to the captain for instructions.

Due to a rather strange series of events, Spock would be serving as the Science Officer temporarily on this ship, apparently because of some incompetancy in the department. He, as the most renowned Science Officer in the 'fleet, would head the Science Department for three to four months, depending on how much the department improved, at which point he would return to the Enterprise after appointing the most promising of the Science crew as the new Science Officer.

"I'll show you to your quarters, Commander." Ganby informed him, coldly. Spock nodded, and Captain Ganby abruptly spun and strode away. Spock matched his stride with ease, keeping right him. He could see Ganby's back stiffening, his stride increasing to a strange speed. His body language indicated anger. Curious.

Ganby stopped abruptly in front of a door. Spock halted seemlessly. Ganby pursed his lips. "These are your quarters. I expect you on the bridge in fifteen minutes for Alpha Shift. You can get settled in later."

Ganby left.

Spock raised an eyebrow at the captain's back, curious. Perhaps the captain was just in a 'bad mood', something which had happened on the Enterprise frequently enough. He dismissed the matter as irrelevant and entered his quarters.

They were strangely small, he noted with some surpise. He could not expect quarters befitting a First Officer here, of course, but on starships rank meant larger quarters, illogical as this might be. This was smaller than those he had had as an ensign. It was quite cramped. It was not at all befitting a Science Officer, but he was sure there was a logical reason for it. In any case, it was of no importance.

He deposited his bags on the floor, then went to the task of trying to neatly distribute his things in the cramped quarters. He would have to meditate sitting on the bed, he noted. There would not be enough room on the floor once he put his trunk there. He hung his lyre on the wall and glanced above him. His head nearly scraped the ceiling - he would have to be careful of that. He left the quarters now, heading to the bridge for his shift.

Ganby pursed his lips as he waited for the arrogant Vulcan to show up. The sight of his impassive, superior face in the transporter room had been disgusting enough, but he had tried to tell himself to keep calm. This Vulcan seemed determined to irritate him already, though. Hadn't he said to be up in fifteen minutes?

The door opened. Calmly, not at all apologetic, the half-breed stepped onto the bridge, attracting interested looks.

Ganby stood and stepped in front of him, and the Vulcan halted, raising an unnaturally slanted eyebrow. The bridge grew silent.

"Tardiness, Commander, will not be tolerated on this ship."

"I am not tardy, Captain." The nerve of him!

"Did I not say, Commander, that I wanted you up here in fifteen minutes."

"Indeed. It was precisely fifteen minutes past that when I stepped onto the bridge."

"So now you automatically know the time? Down to the second?"

The thing didn't even bat an eyelash. "Yes, Sir."

Ganby clenched his fist, furious. "I will not have my officers speaking to me in that manner, Commander! I want to see you after your shift to discuss your attitude - I don't know what they let you get away with on the Enterprise, but things are going to be different here."

Spock gazed up at him, face blank. "Yes, Sir, I do believe they will."

"So, how's the Defiant?"

"Different from the Enterprise," Spock said truthfully.

Jim grinned at him, though the image on the screen flickered slightly. Soon the ships would be so far apart that he would not be able to speak with those on the Enterprise like this. The Defiant would be exploring a completely uncharted region of space, and would have virtually no contact with anyone else.

He had only been on the Defiance three days, but it was certainly very different. The mood was more somber, it seemed to him. These people were on a long mission as well, for three years, and had been in space already for a few months. The humans on Enterprise he knew thought of the ship as their home, but he couldn't recall seeing any of the easy attitudes so common on the Enterprise here.

"Different."

"The crewmembers are strangely serious. Quite different to what I am accustomed to."

Jim stared at him a moment, then his lip started twitching.

"Jim?"

Unable to stop himself now, Jim let out his laughter. "Can't you see the irony there? A Vulcan saying the humans are too serious? That's not different, Spock, that's a sign of a serious problem if ever I've heard one."

"I did not say they were overly serious, merely moreso than the crew of the Enterprise."

"Sure, right." Jim grinned. "So, is that different in a good way? Should I be worried?"

"I can say truthfully that I prefer the Enterprise."

"'Course you can. Who wouldn't? Well, are you liking the Defiant, at least?"

That was harder to answer without upsetting his captain. "I find it... interesting." True enough. He was very interested in why the captain of this ship seemed to dislike him. Memories of his first day after Alpha Shift came to him.

"Sit down."

"I would rather not - "

"Sit."

Spock sat.

Ganby paced him front of him, redfaced, then abruptly whirled to look at him. "What do you think of us?"

"Sir?"

"You come up here, looking down your nose at all of us, like you think you're actually superior, as if anything could be farther from the truth. I don't want any more attitude from you, am I clear? None of your smart little comments. Stop trying to sound intelligent by 'correcting' by navigator one his calculations - and I know very well you can't be right about all those figures you gave him, don't even try to defend yourself - and stop making such a fuss on my ship."

Fuss? The only one who seemed at all affected by his presence was the Captain. He was silent as to his true thoughts, however, and said merely, "Yes, Sir."

"Don't you even try to talk to your superior officer in that tone!"

Tone? How was he to change his voice? And why was this important. Puzzled, he said, "Yes, Sir."

"Are you making fun of me?" Ganby demanded.

"No, Sir."

"Commander, you will show proper respect."

Was he not already doing so? His mind went back to a lesson on psychology, and he considered what he knew of Terran animals. Was his body language somehow lacking? He had deduced that Ganby wished to be shown that the other was his superior. His uniform alone said as much, which made this puzzling, but he decided to test his hypotheses. Terran animals sometimes bared their neck to signal submission, but he had never witnessed a human perform this action. There was something else... He lowered his eyes to the ground deliberately, and though he did not know how to change his 'tone' he instead made his voice softer. "Yes, Sir."

He felt Ganby's eye burning into his head.

Finally; "That's more like it. I'll teach you proper respect before you leave this ship, I swear it."

Spock was not one who put much store in intuition. He would, however, be remiss in saying that he did not feel that the words were disturbingly ominous.

"Well, I heard it's a good ship. Captain's supposed to be a good man, too. Wish you were back here, but you couldn't be on a better ship, otherwise."

The words were not comforting.

Spock's fourth day began with the Vulcan feeling strangely hollow. It was strange, knowing that he could not talk to Kirk or McCoy or anyone else on the Enterprise he had come to be fond of. This was emotion, he knew, and he would meditate on it later, but he had already come to terms, privately, with his strange feelings of affection for his crewmates that no Vulcan should have.

He put the strange feelings in the back of his mind as he ascended in the turbolift. When he stepped onto the bridge, he was sure that no emotions of any sort were visible on his face.

Captain Ganby did not acknowledge him, though a few others nodded politely, and he returned these. The Delta-Shift science lieutenant jumped up and saluted, holding himself rigidly, and Spock dismissed him. Keeping his eyes straight ahead, the lieutenant left. The Science crew, well aware of his reasons for being here, were all being overly polite and going to the extreme in everything they did, which had the unfortunate effect of making it difficult to really judge any of them.

Spock occasionally alerted the captain to certain matters he gathered from his sensors. The captain never once so much as looked and him, and the Commander was not spoken to the entire shift.

Every member of Science stood to attention as the temporary Science Officer entered the labs. Lieutenant Valit very much approved of him - much better than the last Science Officer. Valit had watched helplessly as the last one had let Science go to shambles. This one was much more serious, much more thorough and demanding in his expectations, and though some few might resent him Valit thought most would welcome the structure. Valit allowed a smile to grace his face as the Commander told them to return to their duties, standing to the side to observe. He didn't know how things would be when this one left, but for the next few months, at least, they would finally have a competent science officer, he thought, listening to the Commander quietly advising two of the officers on his right. Yes, he thought he was going to like this Commander Spock.

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