Enchanted To Meet You
There I was again tonight
Forcing laughter, faking smiles
Same old tired lonely place
Walls of insincerity,
Shifting eyes and vacancy
Vanished when I saw your face
All I can say is it was enchanting to meet you
- Enchanted; by Taylor Swift
August 2223 - 4:30 EST; Planet Earth, Starfleet Academy, San Francisco
Amanda hated these kind of things. Being dragged from home to sit and make "small talk" with potential donors and other Federation scholars or dignitaries. More than half of them could barely understand what she was saying when she explained her idea for building a universal translator. A few seemed to understand that it was going to be a device to help people of different species understand each other upon First Contact, if they could build up enough linguistic data for the device to form educated guesses on what the other being was saying. This didn't, of course, cut out a need for an actual linguist to be part of a First Contact team, it was just supposed to help make their job easier by helping them decider the new language fast, and then to a low them to upload it so that anyone with the translator can hear the new language as if it was being said in their own primary language. Sadly, people were either thinking it was a ridiculous device that would never work, or that she was trying to put linguists and communication officers out of a job.
After several hours of uninterested toffs, or toffs getting upset with her "progressive attitude," she had walked to the back of the hall, away from the large cluster of chatting people. Now she was seated on an uncomfortable plastic seat at the back of the Conference Hall, that overlooked San Francisco Bay. She was tired of all the vacant eyed people and the crap coming out of their mouths. If she could have, she would have simply left. Unfortunately, Starfleet had requested she remain and continue to chat up the rich visitors in the hopes they would provide further funding for her research and the research of other scientists working for, or in conjunction with, Starfleet. She was cursing herself for ever agreeing to work with Starfleet on her universal translator, but they had access to the largest collection of accurate language databases, both for Federation and Non-Federation languages. It was data that she absolutely had to have in order to make the translator possible.
Taking a drink of water from the glass she had snagged off a passing servers tray, Amanda looked back over the crowd, hoping to find something interesting. Although the clothes varied greatly in style, pattern, and color, she found very little of interest there. She sighed gustily and took another drink, quietly wishing she had grabbed a champagne flute instead.
Across the hall a pair of intense dark eyes met her own, causing her breath to catch in her throat. She swallowed thickly, a shaky hand setting the glass of water down on the small table beside her. She couldn't look away from those dark eyes. There was something about them. They were drawing her in like a black hole swallowing light. They were unlike any eyes she had seen before, and yet...they felt familiar. Did she know this person? Had they met before?
Without thinking it over, she stood, brushing her hands down the length of her shimmery dark blue gown, her before weaving her way through the crowd towards those eyes. She felt someone try to grasp her hand, but ignored the pull and continued on. She was aware of people calling her name as she passed, and she waved vaguely in their direction. The crowd was thick and the room quite large, and quickly it began to feel like on of those dreams where you could never reach the other end of the room. Certainly, it felt like she had been walking through the crowd for several minutes now!
Finally, an eternity later, she exited the crowd on the other side of the room.
There at the very edge of the crowd stood a tall man with short black hair, with hints of gray at the edges. He was wearing a tailored pair f black pants with a long robe-like jacket, also black, over top of a cream colored shirt. Instead of buttons the jacket seemed to have hand embroidered Vulcan calligraphy along the outer edge which drew the eye along the long length of the man toro so, making him seem even taller.
Her heart was pounding in her chest as she approached him. Those eyes which had captivated her from across the room, felt even more intense up close. She was well and truly captured in them now. The building could be burning to the ground around her and she didn't think she'd even notice.
"Hello," she said in a husky voice.
"Greeting," the Vulcan replied, one elegant eyebrow arching up momentarily. "You are Amanda Grayson. The woman who is attempting to build a universal translator."
"I am," she replied, a smile stretching across her face. If anyone could understand the significance of her idea, it would be a Vulcan. "You know about my work?"
He inclined his head in a slow graceful movement. "You are working with Hoshi Sato, who is known to my family."
Amanda blushed, glancing down at her feet and pushing a long strand of her brown hair behind her ear. She should have known he would have known Hoshi. The woman was famous after all. It should have been her here attempting to wrangle more funding for their project, but Hoshi was getting older now and she had earned the right to ignore these kinds of events.
"Are you related to T'Pol?" Amanda glanced up, meeting those eyes again.
"Very distantly. She is an acquaintance of my mothers."
"Oh," Amanda licked her lips. "That must be nice."
The Vulcan arched his eyebrow again, watching her. "You do not appear to derive enjoyment from this...party," he said hesitating over the last word with obvious distaste.
"I'm not, no." She looked about the room and scowled. "I don't much care to explain the importance a Universal Translator to people who seem more interested in what dress I'm wearing."
The Vulcan inclined his head in agreement. "It is a failing of many species."
"Not just humans," she teased.
"No," he replied in a level voice.
She smiled up at him. "I suppose I have been a bit rude. I've come over and started talking to you without even any kind of polite introduction."
He arched that dark eyebrow again and Amanda wondered what would happened if she just leaned up to lick it. "You already know who I am. But I've not asked for your name."
"I am Sarek."
Her eyebrows went up. "The Vulcan ambassador?"
"Indeed," he replied.
She blinked but looking at him she still got the impression that he was amused by her. He didn't have any of the tells a human man would have, but there was just. Something about. The arch of his eyebrows and the sparkle in his eyes that gave her an unwavering impression of amusement.
"Well, it's very nice to meet you Ambassador Sarek."
He inclined his head again and Amanda wondered if there was some unspoken law on Vulcan that stated which body movements were required to answer a statement, or emotional moment generated in a conversation with a non-Vulcan. The almost eleven like race seemed to have at least a partial language formed solely by the tiniest of body movements. It could simply be an accidental interpretation on her part, but all the Vulcans she had met so far, not that there were many, seemed to use the same degree of head tilt, or arched eyebrow to convey the same meanings to what they said, or in some cases, didn't say.
"Have you found anything of interest in the various projects mentioned at this convention?"
"There have been several ideas put forth that would benefit from continued funding."
"Oh," she inquired, pleased that at least someone here was paying attention to what ideas were being put forth. "I do hope mine meets with your approval."
"Indeed it does. A universal translator would be an invaluable piece of technology for any diplomatic meeting. To allow a greater understanding between races is the goal of any ambassador, or Starfleet officer."
"Well, I'm glad you at least understand the importance."
"Do your fellow humans not comprehend the importance of the project Hoshi Sato and yourself have begun?"
"Maybe. The communications officers and the command teams from Starfleet certainly do, but the people here who simply provide grant money...not so much. It's not as interesting to them as some of the other ideas being put forth to them. After all, how can a universal translator compare to something that can terraform a planet, or re-create long extinct species like dinosaurs and other megafauna?"
"I have heard there was a movie in the twentieth century that explored the problems of such an idea."
"Yeah, but humans love dinosaurs. The idea we could recreate them is exciting. Even I will admit that." She looked across the room to where the three man team of scientist proposing the plan were regaling an enraptured audience of wealthy benefactors. "They have stated the best way to avoid the problem is to raise the animals on another planet that is uninhabited. Of course they've also stated that to ensure they have enough long term funding to protect the device and use it for other species Federation wide, they should turn their 'dinosaur world' into a theme park. So they haven't totally learned from the movies."
"The technology of the Federation is far more advanced than it was in the twentieth century. They should be able to provide adequately secure holding pens, as well as other security measures to protect the scientists and potential visitors."
"Shoulda, coulda, woulda."
"I do not understand that reference."
Amanda shook her head and walked further away from the crowd, hoping that Sarek would follow. She quietly lowered herself to one of the cushioned couches along the back wall, pleased to note that when she looked back up Sarek had indeed followed her. This conversation was turning out to be better than any she had hoped to have as the little 'meet-and-greet' party Starfleet was throwing.
"What I mean by that statement is they need to think over the 'Should I do this,' 'Could I do this,' and 'Would I accept any fallout from my choice.' I think all scientist need to consider these possibilities before acting on their ideas. If they all did, and do, we might not have had a Eugenics War."
"An admirable point of view."
She smiled and patted the empty space on the couch next to her, signaling him to take a seat beside her. He glanced down at her hand, waiting for her to move it back to her lap, before he carefully lowered himself onto the seat. She smiled as she watched him, noting how he was more careful than she had been in making sure the line of his clothes were not ruined by his sitting, nor that his posture suffered in any way. His long fingered hands were deftly straightening out his clothes as she watched, and when she glanced back up she noticed a slight green blush on the high arches of his cheekbones.
He was adorable.
Looking back to the crowd to give him a chance to get himself back in order, Amanda thought about how she very much wanted to spend more time with this Vulcan. She had never thought that before. Not that she had met a lot of Vulcans before, but she had a few. None of them seemed even as remotely interesting to her as this one did. Perhaps it was that he had more contact with humans and as such had unconsciously picked up on some of their habits, or that it made him approachable than the others, or maybe it was just that he was a total 'silver fox.' Honestly, she didn't really care as long as he continued to talk with her so she didn't have to fall into a coma from sheer boredom.
Glancing back at him, she asked, "Have you seen much of the city yet, Ambassador Sarek?"
"No." He looked back at her, something in his eyes saying there was something he was thinking about regarding her. "I have spent the majority of my time on Earth with the walls of various consulates, and on Starfleet grounds."
"Well," she replied. "That's a pity. The city is quite lovely and there are a lot of historical sites that survived the Eugenics War and World War III. Far more of those types of places survived here on the west coast than they did in other areas of the former United States."
"I shall endeavor to acquire the time to see these locations."
She smiled up at him, lost for a moment in the depths of that penetrating gaze. "I'd be glad to show you."