Title: A Pragmatic Theory of Truth

Chapter: 1 of 25

Genre: Romance

Summary: One and a half years before the destruction of Vulcan, Spock meets an extraordinary young cadet during a lecture at Starfleet Academy. Their initial encounter is brief but intense, and affects both of them in ways they could never have imagined.

Disclaimer: We do not own the characters, unfortunately.

Authors' notes Thanks to blueeyedsecret

This is our first multi-chapter Spock/Uhura fic, but it has been completed for a while. We are currently already working on follow-ups, so there's no need to worry that this might never be completed. We're just editing it chapter by chapter and having it beta-read now and should post a new chapter every few days.

Chapter 1

(revized)

There were one hundred and forty-six people in the auditorium that morning when Spock held the first academic lecture as a guest speaker on his shore leave on Earth. His human colleagues had - teasingly so, as he assumed - asked him if he was nervous to speak in front of such a large group for the first time. But nervousness would have been illogical. In fact, it was a feeling completely alien to him. He had prepared the lecture thoroughly, had revised and memorized its key points the previous evening and was confident that he would not encounter any difficulties he could not handle. And so far, seventeen minutes into the lecture, he found that he hadn't been wrong. As a cadet himself, only a few years ago, he had listened to many similar lectures and knew what to expect. In fact, if he were to experience an emotional aspect of the event, it would only be a sense of honor and satisfaction that he, at the young age of twenty-five, had been asked to give this semester's introductory lecture on Xenophonology.

Pressing the button at the control panel to change the presentation on the screen behind him, he let his eyes wander through the rows of mostly young cadets, some older instructors and even high-rank officers that had come to listen out of curiosity and interest, and went on with the next subject matter.

"Pitch differences are also used in language to mark off larger phonological and grammatical units than the word, such as phrases and clauses, and to distinguish between different types of such units. Here the variations in pitch do not affect the lexical meaning of utterances, but convey other types of information such as questioning, anger, politeness, etc. This phenomenon is called intonation.

Standard English uses a falling pitch sequence at the end of neutral declarative phrases.

However, this does not apply to all Terran or alien languages. The rules of stress, intonation and rhythm vary in each language and must therefore be analyzed separately to thoroughly understand not only the lexical meaning of a word, phrase or clause but also the intention of the speaker."

"Like Klingon always sounds angry," a male human cadet sitting in the third row said, earning faint laughter from his fellow students.

Spock raised an eyebrow and replied: "jIH Har tlhIngan DichDaq Qoch tlhej SoH."*

"It is not only the rhythm, though," another student now said, looking from Spock to the cadet that had spoken first. "The Klingon phonemes sound harsh to the human ear because of their more palatal and guttural attributes."

He had noticed her before, throughout the lecture, sitting in the first row and following his words attentively. Every once in a while when his gaze had come to rest on her, as on every other listener as well, she had smiled slightly.

"Precisely," he said and nodded at her which made her smile again, averting her eyes for 1.5 seconds and flushing slightly.

"The temperament of a language is determined by a combination of phonetic and phonological attributes and is strongly dependent on the personal linguistic background of the listener. What sounds violent to the human ear may sound weak to that of a Klingon. A strongly emphasized sentence in Vulcan may still sound monotonous to an Orion."

"Which means there is no way of really knowing what an alien is talking about if we haven't studied their language and culture for a long time," a young woman from the second row said, suppressing a yawn.

"A certain amount of in-depth study and observation is required to achieve a sufficient level of understanding, yes," he replied, being quite certain that her sounding bored and cynical was not due to cultural misinterpretations.

"Let us examine the following examples that should make it clearer."

The chart in the background changed again, accompanied by a sound file that started resounding through the speakers.

On Vulcan, a lecture like this would have taken a completely different course. None of the listeners would have dared speak if not asked or not pointing out something of great importance, which rarely ever happened. Somehow, maybe also because he was used to it from the other side, Spock found this more interactive method of teaching intriguing and in its own way highly efficient. At least humans, and many other species that were represented in the auditorium today, seemed to reach a deeper and quicker understanding for a subject matter that way because personal interaction would be rooted more deeply into their memory than pure listening.

As he continued to speak about phonological patterns in Klingon, Vulcan, Orion and other languages, Spock looked through the rows of seats, fascinated by the many different appearances of the listeners. While Vulcans and many other species – some of which were represented here today – did differ in skin tone and facial features to some extent, too, the diversity among humans in particular seemed much broader. Within his audience today, he saw a young man with black hair and features recognizable as East Asian laughing at a woman with bright red hair but features that would have made him guess some South-East European ancestors, if he remembered his anthropology studies correctly. His gaze traveled across two pale blond girls with fair skin and light gray eyes, looking so similar that they were, in all likelihood, twins , and, unless they dyed their hair which was another for him not fully understandable human habit, that was a rather rare look. Next to them sat a man with curly black hair and dark complexion, possibly with ancestors from the Middle East, North Africa or even India. It was most fascinating to guess the various possible influences and origins in humans, although, after asking - which he rarely did - he often found out his initial assumption had been wrong. Something that should frustrate him as a scientist but never did.

Next to a man in his late thirties with brown hair and Slavish cheekbones sat a young woman, whose big dark eyes were focused on him attentively, while many of the other cadets had started to become restless. His eyes focused on her long brown legs for a moment before he continued his observations, presuming an African ancestry in this case, although, of course, it was impossible to tell whether she was born in the United States of Africa or in any other part of this planet. And while most of the listeners had either engaged in quiet conversations with their neighbor or busied themselves with their PADDs, others simply yawned when he reached a more analytic part of the topic and an Orion woman had even left together with a dark-haired human male, she was among the few that seemed to give him their undivided attention throughout the whole hundred and twenty minutes.

When he reached the end of the lecture, precisely one minute before the bell would resound, he stepped closer towards the rows of seats, his hands folded behind his back.

"Thank you all for listening," he said. "I do hope to have given you a useful introduction to the subject you will be studying with Commander Forsström this semester. If you have any further questions I will be available for the next thirty minutes after this lecture." He nodded as the cadets started applauding politely, most of them, however, following what he had observed during his time as cadet countless times and leaving the auditorium as quickly as possible.

The young woman from the front row, however, remained in her seat, shaking her head at her companion who rolled her eyes and quickly left with the majority of students. Chewing on her bottom lip, she stood and initially looked indecisive about what to do, taking a step towards the exit, before pausing, casting a quick glance in his direction before smoothing her uniform and walking towards him.

"Excuse me, Commander?" she said softly, looking nervous as she swallowed. "Cadet Uhura, sir. I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your lecture. Especially your… umm… imaginative use of Klingon earlier to demonstrate the phoneme inflection differences."

Spock raised an eyebrow at her as they stood near the speaker's desk. There were only two other people, keeping their distance but looking like they were waiting to get a chance to talk to him as well.

"You speak Klingon?" he asked, somewhat impressed. "You are no first semester student then?"

Uhura flushed then, a deep pink that spread from the center of her cheeks outwards, her eyes slightly downcast . "I speak a little Klingon, along with some Orion, Trill, and so far two Romulan dialects. Uh – sorry, Commander, I didn't mean to sound like I'm boasting, but languages are sort of my thing," she replied smiling a little. "And, no I'm not a first semester student, but I heard that you were giving the lecture so I managed to grab a seat."

Again, he raised an eyebrow, less at the fact that she had specifically come to see him but more at the list of linguistic skills she had already acquired. "You are majoring in Xenolinguistics, I assume? Yet Vulcan was absent in your résumé. Are you taking Commander Willard's beginner's course the following semester?"

She shook her head, her long dark ponytail flicking over her slender shoulders. "Stariben nash-veh Vuhlkansu," she replied, fluently with only a slight trace of accent. She continued in Standard "Sorry, Commander, I'm showing off again. My friends tell me it's an annoying habit I have." Pausing, she seemed to consider her next words carefully. "I overheard Commander Forsström saying that you've been working on translation algorithms to compare emotional intonations in languages. That sounds intriguing, though a lot of hard work."

"It requires very thorough and time-consuming studies, yes. However, if I succeed in developing a computer algorithm that autonomously applies the phonological knowledge we have today to hitherto unknown alien languages, I do believe it will be of great benefit in the communication with new species," he explained and regarded her for a moment. She was an attractive young woman and definitely had a striking charisma, showing both intelligence and ambition as well as a certain amount of modesty that did not make her appear like she was 'showing off' but actually genuinely enjoying the intellectual topic. "I presume my research will still take a year or even more, depending on how much time I have between my future assignments."

"Future assignments? So you're not staying here at the Academy then? That's a sha-," she stopped suddenly, as though noticing for the first time that there were other people within listening distance of their conversation. Looking a little embarrassed, her eyes widened and she lifted a hand to stroke her earring as she regarded him, her teeth nipping her bottom lip a little. Blinking she realized that neither of them were speaking and coughed quietly. "I mean, it's a shame that I… we… the Academy will have to wait for the findings of your research."

Tilting his head slightly he looked down at her face, wondering what exactly she was thinking. He could clearly sense some level of fascination and interest from her. If it was about his person or his research he could not tell, but he wanted to find out.

"Cadet Uhura, since I have the evening free to my disposal before I have to resume my duty on board of the Enterprise tomorrow, would you like to join me in the cafeteria for me to introduce the subject matter more deeply?" It was a polite, perfectly appropriate offer between two scientists. "Of course, if the two gentlemen have no objections after I have spoken to them as well," he added, nodding in the direction of the two people still waiting for him and indicating to them that he would be with them shortly. First, however, he wanted to hear her answer.

Her face flushed, this time the color spreading down her neck and underneath her uniform collar, as her eyes widened even further. Her lips parted and moved almost of their own accord, as though she were speaking silently. After a few seconds she seemed to gather her thoughts and nodded at him. "Yes, Com-," her voice came out slightly hoarse, and she cleared her throat before continuing. "Thank you, Commander. I'm flattered that you asked. I'd be delighted to join you… if you're certain you have the time?"

He looked at her with one deliberately raised eyebrow, wondering if maybe he should come to the conclusion it were both aspects that intrigued her, both the knowledge and the person that provided it. "Yes, I am certain."

- TBC -

*I believe the Klingons would disagree with you