InsaneJournal

Who: Diana Prince and Nyota Uhura
What: The badass women of sci-fi & fantasy meet
When: Pre-dinner time, not long after Diana arrived
Where: A random hallway
Warnings: None
Status: Complete!



The Enterprise was unlike anything Diana had ever seen. Though she’d only had the briefest up close experience with the Kryptonian tech that Bruce had managed to aquire she could already tell it was different. Less organic, though very beautiful in its own right.

It was well beyond anything the world of men had devised. While it didn’t rattle around like any airplane, Diana was more sensitive to movement than a human and she could feel the very, very slight rumble of the ship’s engines through the deck.

She liked it. It was better than silence. The interstellar version of the waves rocking a ship.

Diana probably looked strange, standing in the middle of a hallway with her feet planted on the deck and wearing a 23rd century outfit that she looked very uncomfortable in. What she wouldn’t give for her wardrobe back in Paris.

A trip home had been nice, and it had felt good to be planetside for a bit. But there was nothing like that rush of getting back on board the Enterprise. Uhura had fought for her place on the ship and she never once regretted it, no matter how many rough turns her life had taken since. There just happened to be a great deal she left out of the stories she'd told her mother back home.

She was leaving the bridge, heading towards the mess hall after a rather uneventful shift, when she nearly ran smack into a woman. An incredibly strong looking woman who might actually have hurt her if she'd hit her. “Sorry!” She said immediately, skidding to a stop. It was still taking time to get used to so many new arrivals. While she enjoyed picking up all the new travelers and learning about their worlds, there were a lot of lost looking faces. This woman was definitely one of them.

“Did you need any help finding anything?” It didn't hurt to be polite.

Diana was startled. She turned, half reaching out to steady the woman. Her accent was hard to place. "No, I'm sorry. I was just standing here. Listening to the ship."

It might have sounded strange to most people, and Diana hoped this woman didn't think she was too strange. "I don't know much about this ship, or this world. I'm one of the newer arrivals. Diana."

She offered Uhura her hand.

It did sound a bit strange, but Uhura had heard more odd things in her time. Scotty himself had said things about listening to the ship, but she had a feeling he more meant the engines. And Spock could certainly blurt some strange things. And some amazing things. Right. Best not to be thinking about that.

“Diana, hello. I'm Lieutenant Uhura, I'm a...well, a local here, I guess you could say.” Which was still taking some getting used to. She was used to the Enterprise being the visitors, not the other way around. She accepted the offered hand.

“I don't know a great deal about the ship herself. The running of it and all. But I know this world fairly well. And many of the locations in it.” It was what she did. Who she was. She loved languages and cultures, embracing as many as she could manage.

Diana’s grip was strong, but not in that ‘showing off’ kind of way. Her smile was curious. “Where would your favorite place be, then? On this ship, or otherwise?”

She liked this Uhura already. Diana was usually good at reading people, though having the lasso usually helped. Which she wasn’t carrying on her, but that was besides the point.

A good officer would probably say the bridge. Which she did admit with a laugh. “I'm probably supposed to say the bridge. The Captain would likely prefer if I did. And I do, don't get me wrong, it's so busy and there's always something going on.” But her favorite? “The observation deck,” she finally decided. “The incredible view of the bridge without the command all around you. Much easier to relax.” And she did love being surrounded by stars. She didn't join Starfleet just to show off her skill with languages, after all.

“I could show you sometime.” Which was rare for her. It wasn't that she didn't like the new travelers. She just hadn't gone entirely out of her way to befriend them. She wasn't Kirk. His natural charm had won over half the new arrivals with ease. Even McCoy seemed to be adapting more easily to them than she was. But Diana seemed calm, almost like she was simply willing to let whatever happened, happen. Like she could handle anything. And in a place like the Enterprise, maybe that was needed.

“To see the stars unobstructed? I can understand why you’d say that.” Diana glanced around the hallway. There were no windows here, though she hoped there were in other hallways. “It might get a little claustrophobic otherwise. I’d like to see it. See if it really feels like I’m about to fall into eternity.”

For the briefest moment, Uhura closed her eyes. Even in that second, she could see the room, feel the open sky of the galaxy around her. “It feels like you're flying, without the need for a suit.” She'd never been one for spacewalks and the like, though she knew she'd do it if it was ever deemed necessary.

She also knew what Diana was saying. “You do get used to it after a while. The sterile feel. The white walls all around you. I feel badly for you all. We chose this. You just sort of got stuck here.”

Diana fixed Uhura with a kind smile. “I have known men who could touch the edge of space with their bare hands. A feat I’ve never tried myself. This might be the closest I’ll ever get.”

She reached a hand up, rubbing the back of her neck, her biceps flexing noticeably from the motion. “I can see how it might eventually grate on me. Even a city can feel alive.”

While Diana might not have the same attachment to Paris as Bruce had to Gotham or Clark to Metropolis, she understood that feeling. “But so can this ship. It’s not the white walls that make it a home. It’s the people within them.”

Uhura had come across many kinds of people during their voyages and even more since the nebula had brought their new arrivals. But she just couldn't wrap her head around what sort of person could just...go to space. To fly up here amongst the stars, unaided by the best ships the fleet had to offer. “I'll take the safety of the ship, thanks. It sounds far less traumatic. And dangerous. Though I have the feeling you're no stranger to danger.”

The woman was entirely muscle, a feat Uhura could only ever dream of achieving. No amount of time in the gym could give her a body quite like that.

“You already know the most important thing about ship life. We try to make it a home, here. There's social activities and friendships and relationships.” Some stronger than others, but she supposed that would be the case most anywhere. “It's a different environment, especially since we're all kind of stuck here. But somehow it works.”

“Not everyone can be a Superman,” Diana mused. She wished she’d gotten to know Clark better. That she’d met him before the battle with that monster. She liked to think he’d have been a friend. “I’ve faced a few battles in my time. But it’s always better to seek peace first. Do you have many friends on board? Someone special?”

Was shipboard romance even allowed?

Oh, she liked that. Uhura liked that a great deal. The Captain had come a long way from the kid who had picked fights in bars, but he still often seemed to choose fighting first. Peace was more her way. Not getting to the point of fighting made much more sense to her. “Peace should always be the first goal. Sometimes you have to fight for peace, though. That's when it gets complicated.”

Did she? Well. She'd only just met this new arrival. She wasn't about to start spilling details. “The crew is a bit of a family. We have our ups and downs just like anyone's family will. And sometimes we're closer than other times.” It was a vague answer, but hopefully got the point across. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk, per se. She was just still trying to adjust. Honestly, it would be wrong to just start throwing random life stories at the woman.

Even if the story wasn't random and helped to explain why Uhura tended to keep most people at arm's length.

Diana had said this to at least one person already, but it was no less true. "My people say don’t kill if you can wound, don’t wound if you can subdue, don’t subdue if you can pacify, and don’t raise your hand at all until you’ve first extended it."

She seemed to understand what Uhura was saying and her eyes twinkled. "That sounds complicated, too."

“Earth has a complex history. My people have often been involved in war. For centuries, we've worked towards peace and rarely did we succeed.” History was a part of culture and while Uhura enjoyed learning it, she didn't always like what it meant. “I think we could all learn a lot from your people.”

Laughing a little, she shrugged her shoulders, glancing down. “We're a complicated group. But I love them, the rest of the senior staff. Even when they're driving me mad.” Like brothers she didn't necessarily want but had.

"You've come a long way since my day. There was much I could see on Earth that we were still fighting for in the 21st century." There was something hard in her eyes, like the muscles were for more than just show. "We'd come a long way from my time in the First World War, but not far enough. That version of Earth could learn a lot from you."

Diana's expression softened. That too was something she was familiar with. And something she'd missed. Perhaps that was one reason it hadn't taken Bruce all that much effort to convince her to do the right thing again. "You're right. That sounds like family."

It was too soon to do so. She'd just met the woman, after all. But Uhura couldn't wait to grill her for details on the war. “You're from that long ago?” In fairness, she knew there were a few people from even further. Ones from other worlds, even. But it was fascinating.

The change in her manner wasn't lost on Uhura. “Is there no one you know here?”

There was no need to hide her history, not here, and not with some of the people she'd met so far. So Diana was truthful. She preferred the truth, anyway. "My mother was Queen of the Amazons, on an island hidden away from the world. We are … very long lived. A pilot crashed in the bay and I saved his life. We learned of a great war raging, and our entire purpose was to fight war and injustice. So I went into the world, to stop this war."

And yet there'd been other wars, and Diana's optimism and idealism had been badly damaged. "There are none from my world here. Neither those I fought alongside so long ago, or those who convinced me to fight again much more recently."

Fine. She could admit it. Uhura’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Queen of the Amazons?” It wasn't real in their world, she knew that, but it was real to Diana and that made her at least one hundred times more incredible. “So this makes you a princess?” The words were said with a playful little twinkle in her eyes.

But this wasn't the run of the mill princess from old storybooks. Even if she was beautiful and had apparently helped to save a man. As the best princesses did. “I imagine there will always be those who crave war. We apparently bred men and women to be weapons, in our past.” The reminder still angered her. She hadn't approved of the man or his choices, but she could at least understand Khan’s rage. “I think the important part is getting through that. Bringing peace back, first by words and then by force only if it's necessary.”

"Diana, Princess of Themyscira," She announced, laughing. Thus, Diana Prince.

"All men have the capability of holding evil in their hearts. But most have good as well. That doesn't surprise me. The monster I fought was bred in a vat, by a man who feared someone he viewed as akin to a god. When words failed, it was stop the creature, or watch people suffer."

“Not often I get to be in the presence of royalty,” Uhura announced, but the words were playful. For someone who was almost too serious, it was nice to be able to relax a bit. And she supposed, with the influx of travelers on the ship lately, the odds of running into royalty grew more every day.

It sounded complicated, the life Diana had led. But she knew and accepted that their lives on the ship might sound complex to others, as well. “Appealing to one's better nature should always be the first step. And we're getting there, I think. It just isn't always simple.”

“Yes, get it all out now,” Diana teased.

Even after a century away from home and the touchy culture of her people, she couldn’t help but put her hand on Uhura’s arm and giving it a squeeze. “As long as there are more people like you, you will get there.”

It was rare that anyone reached out to her. She'd fought long and hard to reach the point of senior officer and she had often had to keep her emotions in check to do so. But she smiled softly at the gentle squeeze. “You don't know that. I could be the meanest person on this ship for all you know.”

“Why do I have a hard time believing that?” Diana replied. “I find I want to believe you speak the truth. Though I could compel anyone, if necessary. I’d only need the lasso that came with me.”

It of course wasn’t something to be used willy-nilly, though Diana had always liked to have a little fun with it.

“You have a lasso that makes people tell the truth?” The words were blurted, Uhura’s eyes wide. “We could really have used that a few years ago. We were played with like toys on two different sides.” Of course, if they'd been taking on travellers then, they would likely not have been the ones going after Harrison. So maybe not.

“But no. You're not wrong. I'm hardly the mean one on board. Most of us tend to be very nice.” Usually. All things considered. Some were, of course, better than others.

“I do. It comes in handy on occasion, especially when information is critically needed.” Diana smiled, her eyes twinkling. “Or party games.”

Was she joking? The Lasso of Truth was a sacred object.

“I shall see. So far, that holds up. I’d say you’re a good sign.”

“If you're telling me you use that thing for some Amazonian version of Truth or Dare, I'm going to be highly disappointed.” But Uhura was sporting a smirking grin. She had the feeling that wasn't entirely the truth.

Her head ducked at that compliment and she found herself giving a bit of a giggle. “You keep putting that sort of faith in me, you may end up greatly disappointed.”

“I learned the hard way to not put all my faith in people,” Diana replied. “But I still have faith in them, as individuals and as a whole. Yourself included. Humans are flawed, as are other species. That’s what makes each person unique.”

Frankly, it was the flaws that Uhura found the most intriguing. Things that separated people but not in the wrong ways. Just differently. Everyone would have their faults. She knew she herself could be cold and standoffish at times. Also mouthy. That was taking a considerable amount of time to reel in.

“Then I still hope you're not disappointed. And there are many here who aren't entirely human. Hopefully they can fit into that for you, as well.”

“I had a friend from another world, though it was a brief friendship. And another friend who dressed like a bat to catch criminals.” Diana winked, tilting her head so her hair fell to one side. “Nothing would surprise me.”

“Who...dressed like a… But why?” For that, Uhura had to laugh. What sort of person did that? If one wanted to catch criminals, couldn't they just join law enforcement? It seemed reasonable.

Shaking her head, she grinned and shrugged. “Well, so far we haven't had any of those. We do have a man who wears a large black suit to keep himself alive. And several people with magic powers. Why not add in a bat costume vigilante to the mix?” A part of her hoped the man would arrive. Then Diana would have a friend from home, at least.

“You know, I never asked him. I just sort of accepted it. There was a Superman, why not a Batman?” She laughed. On the face of it it was really ridiculous, but there were plenty of strange beings from her world. A man who moved like a flash, another who swam like a fish.

“Is the Superman the one who can touch space?” A fact she still wasn't sure she was okay with. “If you're used to all of that and willing to just go along with it, you should do just fine here. That's the biggest adjustment for a lot of people and you're handling it well.” Even Uhura, native to this world, was still sometimes struggling with the fact that some of these people existed. But she thought she could be okay with it.

Diana nodded. “He was from a planet called Krypton. Bruce explained that because he was exposed to a yellow sun, it changed him. Made him impossibly strong and fast and durable. But Krypton no longer exists, so the Earth is his home now. He died fighting a monster that seemed unstoppable. I didn’t get to know him very long. But he seemed like a good man.”

As for the ship and the people on board, Diana was insistent. “As I said, you’re giving me a good impression.”

For just a moment, Uhura actually felt her heart twist for a man she hadn't met. “A...friend of mine lost his planet recently. He wasn't the only one of his kind left, thank goodness, but very few of them survived. I can't imagine being the only one of my kind. He considers Earth his home now, too.” She was sorry to hear about the man's death. It hardly seemed fair, especially when he was the last person from this Krypton.

A good natured roll of her eyes showed how she felt about being the sampling for the entire ship. “I'm but one person, and merely human at that. You've got plenty more people to meet, lots of them not even from this time.”

She knew some of that pain. While Themyscira lived on, she could never return. Never see her people or her mother again. But at least it existed. If something happened to it, Diana was sure her heart would shatter.

“I look forward to that too.” But still, she’d always have another woman’s back.

Uhura hesitated only a moment longer. “I was on my way to dinner. If you wanted, you could join me? I can introduce you around a little.” Then maybe, if they were both up to it, she'd show her the observation deck. She felt a bit like the woman might need that.

Diana’s smile could melt butter. “I would love that. I haven’t eaten since before the shuttle trip.” While she could go without food for an extended period of time, she preferred not to. Her metabolism tended to be on the ‘ridiculous’ side, at least compared to most people. “And I’m eager to meet your friends.”

There were entire species that didn't eat at all. Or ones who didn't eat for months at a time. That didn't mean Uhura wasn't going to blink at the revelation that the woman hadn't eaten in so long. “I wish I could go that long without eating. Those times when we're entirely too busy on the bridge and all of a sudden your stomach starts growling?”

Then again, she had the feeling Diana didn't know that feeling very well. “Well, let's get you fed, then. Hopefully we'll find something you like!”

“Do you think your replicators can produce Greek food?” Diana asked, falling into step with Uhura. She could really go for a gyro.