This plot bunny came about because of a picture I saw by lamamama on deviant art (lamamama . deviantart . com / art / IT - S - REGENCY - TREK - 131375236, just get rid of the spaces, go look at it NOW) and it struck me that hot damn, Amanda and Sarek really are the Darcy and Elizabeth of Star Trek. I have to do something about this!

However! While this is inspired partially by P and P, it is not exactly a crossover, per say. Amanda, for example, is not going to have four sisters, and the plot isn't necessarily going to play out exactly the same. Also, Jane Austen was something of a master of satire, which I am not, so I will not attempt to copy something that I will have very little chance of doing. Thus there will be no quoting of the book at length with some bits added in to make it sci-fi-y. (Pride and Predjudice and Zombies, I'm looking at you right now.)

However again! Everyone will be in regency dress, nonetheless. Tee hee.

Please bear in mind that this is a working first chapter, since I wanted to get it up as soon as I could; I will come back and make it better, and if you think it could be improved, please, tell me! I thank lamamama for the inspiration, and beg her not to sue the pants off me.


Chapter One

It was Lydia who first found out the news that there would be Vulcans present at the coming ball, and she was disappointed in the extreme to find that her roommates did not find the news nearly as thrilling as she certainly did; in fact that they merely looked up from their books one second, exclaimed at the news with far more calm than they had any right to, and went back to their reading the next second.

"And are you not more curious than that?" she cried, flinging herself down upon the sofa between the two to jolt them both.

"Lyds, dear-" Jane was always most polite when she was most annoyed, and never was she more annoyed than when she was interrupted doing something she loved- "please have no doubt that we share your intrigue; but please also remember that Vulcans are not exactly a novelty. You've seen more than your fair share of them yourself; I'm surprised they don't put up a restraining order to stop you lurking around their embassy."

"But never up close, and I have never talked with a single one of them! Only Mandy's had that particular honour."

"Say, rather, that I've stood in the presence of one precisely one time, and had perhaps two or three words directed at me, namely greetings and farewell. After all, Lyds, people like me do not talk to such people as they."

"Nonsense! I have never known you to be quiet on any subject when you have wanted to be heard!"

"Believe me, I can stay very quiet indeed when my appointment to a particular role is at stake; and being a temporary assistant to our honoured ambassador was not a chance to be thrown away."

But eventually Jane and Amanda were forced to concede that it would certainly be an interesting experience to actually see some of the Earth's beauteous saviour race in the flesh and very near to them, even if it was impossible that Lydia would have the chance to dance with any of them; "For all the dances that you like involve much touching of hands, and you know that they can't stand that."

To which Lydia replied, "Oh, I don't care about that, as long as I can look at them!" And they all laughed over her obsession with the aesthetic, before they began to discuss with varying degrees of enthusiasm what they would wear to this anticipated event.

Over the next few days the university came alive with expectancy as more information became known; that the Vulcans were attending as a mark of respect to Earth's new ambassador whose instalment the ball celebrated; that one of the Vulcans would be the race's own ambassador; that the ambassadors of Earth and Vulcan were old acquaintances; that besides the ambassador himself there would be another male and two females – that last piece of knowledge made all who were interested in the matter more excited than ever, for it was rare that female Vulcans made the journey to their own humble world. All this news drove Lydia herself near insane with joy and into a frenzy to choose the gown that would catch the eye of the visitors and maybe – just maybe – incite them to talk with her, perhaps even at length. Even Jane and Amanda's interest was peaked and they sent their best gowns off to be mended of whatever mishaps may or may not have befallen them, and showed them off in the privacy of their rooms and declared to each other than they 'would do'.

The day of the ball dawned, and when the evening came the students were ferried to the hall commissioned for the occasion. The excitement of the young people was near palpable as they engaged in dances that they had no heart for, waiting for the arrival of those which they had been promised that they would see.

They did not have too long to wait, for Vulcans are always punctual; at eight of the clock the ambassadors and their various parties made their entrances, accompanied by many whispers on the part of their human watchers. The excitement soon faded a little; while Ambassador Bing wore his outfit with all the panache of a cultured man of thirty five the Vulcan party was something of a disappointment when it came to fashion. The ambassador's aide, Soran, wore his coat and britches very ill and looked as uncomfortable as it was possible for a Vulcan to look throughout the evening and the ladies, while wearing their gowns with more flair and ease, looked so quietly put out by the whole business that it quite spoiled their loveliness which might have been enough to capture the hearts and other parts of nearly all the young men in the room. Only the ambassador himself was resplendent in his dark blue coat and with hair quite unlike the combed normality of his species, a curling not-quite mane that only enhanced his handsome and alien features. But this Ambassador Sarek and his entourage were soon avoided by all but the most assiduous of talkers, for it was as Amanda had predicted; none of them would deign to dance, not even the dances where no touching was required, and they spoke very little to those who were persistent and even less to those who were not.

Quite soon the novelty wore off and the students and the others who had been invited to the event were wondering why they had been so excited at all, when all these supposed saviours did was merely stand there and watch while taking no part in anything. Lydia was perfectly disenchanted, at least with these particular specimens for all that one of them was the Ambassador, and declared at least once quite loudly that she hated to think what balls were like on Vulcan, if indeed they had such things. Amanda was less disappointed than the rest, namely because she had not expected much from a race that showed little emotion and even less inclination to socialize, and she meanwhile had the pleasure of seeing Jane catch the attention of Ambassador Bing and hold it for much of the evening. Bing herself she liked, for he was doing his job and attempting to make a bridge between the two peoples – 'Though really,' she could not help but muse, 'you would think that, considering his job, this new ambassador of theirs would at least make an effort such as his so-called friend does!' And she condemned the ambassador in her own small way as well; not for behaving as a human would, for of course she could not expect that from such as he, but for not even making effort to understand this human event.

This condemnation became more personal, however, when while passing by Bing and Sarek to reach Jane on the other side of the room, she overheard this piece of conversation:

"Could you not attempt to dance, Sarek, at least once?"

"You know the answer to that, Bing?"

"You would not even make the effort with that young lady over there, the one in the blue dress?"

"Bing, I agreed to come to this…gathering. I did not, however, agree to subject myself to the business of entertaining and putting myself at the mercy of the whims and emotions of a mere child. Save your breath, I will have no part of this." And with that Bing obviously had to be content.

This of course left Amanda feeling even less generous towards the ambassador – no young woman of twenty who feels she has gained her adulthood and independence likes to be called a child, after all, and furthermore she had a suspicion that it was not only she who was labelled as a child but all in this room, in this city, on this world. Still, she had heard worse in her time and after all, he probably did not mean it as an insult – to him it was logical and true. It came into her head to turn and smile at the two of them as she went on her way, and so she did. Bing looked uncomfortable but smiled in return and raised his hand in reply. Sarek, of course, made no such acknowledgement, though if she had paid any more attention to the ambassador she would have noticed that his eyes – brown at first glance, but green when you looked closer – stayed mostly upon her through the rest of the evening.


Go to see the picture up at the top, and remember to tell lamamama that you like it! DO IT.