Everything was calm and silent; you didn't hear a thing and frankly, you didn't care; you liked it that way, now. It made you peaceful; it made you feel safe.

You had been deaf for ten years now; the doctors said it had something to do with an electrical fire. You remembered your parents panicking and something long and black falling towards you…next thing you knew, there was an excruciating painful electric shock in your body and you haven't heard a single sound since. Every doctor and specialist who'd seen you throughout the next ten years of your life could not do anything to give you your hearing back; you didn't have the money to see anyone more professional, either.

The present day, you sat at your desk in your apartment, leisurely scribbling words and pictures down on a piece of paper humming to yourself, just to feel the vibrations of our voice in your chest.

You lived alone, an average student at Starfleet Academy; your parents had died in the electrical fire and you had no next of kin. You studied both engineering and nursing in the Academy, waiting with bated breath for the day that you would actually get assigned to a ship and have a job doing what you love and most important: you'd finally be able to touch the stars and hear their silent twinkling with your silenced ears.

The holidays were coming up soon and finals week was hell, as usual, for many people but not you, strangely enough.

You had, this year, gotten ahead in your studies and were vastly prepared for every test you had coming up; you'd already written your essays and finished all your projects. All this warranted hateful glares in your general direction and stressed words you refused to try and read on their lips—you could read lips quite well, actually—you mainly ignored these people and hardly ever let them get to you; it wasn't your fault they stayed up partying instead of studying.

No one quite understood you though, try as you might, you couldn't make yourself known to others; it wasn't that you didn't know sign-language, it was that no one else did and for that you'd get confused stares; no one waited around long enough for you to write down your question or a sentence as they walked away disinterestedly, figuring that you weren't worth the effort because you were different.

You were not bitter, however. You never held it against them or let yourself fall into self-pity because you never saw the point in it. You, instead, found little things in your life to make the sunshine in your face in the morning and the beams of moonlight at night mean something; your attitude was always pleasant, even in private, and you strained to see everything good in the world and just look at the beauty of it all. You were deaf and mute, not blind.

You worked at the local home for the elderly as a janitor, since you were unable to assist people verbally and listen. But the elders there loved and adored you and would chat with you when they could; they were, so far, the only kind souls you had the pleasure of meeting, other than the rest of the staff there. They didn't care if you couldn't reply with words and they always, always, thanked you for listening.

You looked up from your scribbles and eyed your clock. It was time to get to work. You smiled, even though you didn't feel particularly happy.

You stood and grabbed your bag, making sure everything you needed was there and left the apartment, closing the door behind you.

Suddenly you felt your senses grow hazy and fuzzy all over.

A golden-white light surrounded you and you could almost feel every single molecule in you break down; it didn't hurt but it felt very strange.

You breathing quickened and you dropped your bag before everything in front of you was engulfed by the light.

You blinked and everything around you was different, filled with uniformed people staring at you one by one with startled expressions. Two men looked familiar to you. You identified them quickly in your mind, remembering their famous faces from the news and even current history.

'Captain Kirk? Mr. Spock?' you thought incredulously.

One young man, in a yellow shirt, was staring at you with a particularly surprised very blue-eyed gaze; he looked…excited.

The sight of his face, blue eyes, and golden-brown curls made you blush against your will.

You watched his mouth closely as his lips began to move.

You could tell he had an accent.

"Weel…Heello."