First contact

New Chapter 2

Amanda decided to drop all of her things off at her apartment before heading to a nearby dress shop to find something to wear tonight. Despite the fact that they barely knew anything about each other the young linguist felt a very strong pull to the writer of those e-mails. Even though she knew Jake this side that he had shown her feel like they were going to get to know each other all over again, like he was a completely different person.

In the end Amanda choose a trendy fashion boutique that she normally couldn't afford, but she wanted to look her absolute best for him. After trying on nearly a dozen outfits she finally found one that both fit her perfectly and wouldn't cause her to go hungry for the rest of the month. A gorgeous silver, cap sleeved, dress that reached the top of her knees and matching high heels that increased her height by five inches.

Amanda decided if she didn't kill herself in these things by the end of the night she would consider herself lucky. She managed to only stumble thrice by the time she made it to Teddy's, and she arrived with two minutes to spare. She walked in allowing herself to be seated. If he was really as awesome as she thought then she wouldn't need a fancy dinner, or any of the other trivial things that men do in order to impress and gain favor with women.

"Hello Amanda, you look absolutely amazing." Jake said sitting himself next to her. Which made her rather uncomfortable, she wanted to take the time to talk to him about well anything, everything. Yet he was here in her personal space, acting like it was completely normal for them to share such intimacy with each other. Which really surprised her, because mystery guy [Jake she had to remind herself] had seemed to be so far from reach in their letters, that he had a huge problem with his personal space being disturbed, yet here he was with a look in his eyes saying that they would become a lot closer before the night was through.

Amanda didn't know why but something in her told her that before she found out that her admirer was Jake she would have been much more interested in seeing where the night took them. Now however having Jake next to her, it was like she was transformed back into the properly raised young lady that her parents raised.

"Thank you, you look amazing as well," and she meant it, the translator had never seen her old friend look so dashing. He was wearing a button up, black shirt, with matching black slacks and a black sports coat. He clearly also went to a great deal of effort to show his duality.

"I know it's just Teddy's but I wanted to look my best for you." He said with an easy smile. The brunette smiled in return.

"So did I. Even though we have only exchanged a few e-mails, the ones that we did share, they moved me so deeply, showing me that totally different side of you-"

"Wait! What are you talking about?" He exclaimed looking at her like she had just told him she was a Romulan spy. She frowned slightly.

"The e-mails that you've been sending me saying that you were leaving the embassy and your horrible attempt at poetry. Listening to my problems…."

By the look on his face she could tell that he had no idea what she was talking about and she was embarrassed, God! What a fool she had been, the youngest Grayson should have known that it had to have been too good to be true. The sender of these emails was probably some weird, creepy guy and she had totally read this entire situation wrong in the extreme.

Amanda didn't know what to do, she jumped up from the table and practically ran from the diner. Once she was at home and changed into sweats and a long shirt she was so unbelievably disappointed today that she needed a major balm for her heart.

All she could think as she sat on the couch was about at least her roommate wasn't here to witness this horrible calamity. She could only imagine what the older woman would have to say about the events that had unfolded this evening. Luckily for Amanda her neat freak companion also happened to be a party animal and probably wouldn't even make it home tonight. Boy was the young college student hoping that luck would be on her side tonight.

Decidedly in need of comfort food she called the number to her favorite Chinese restraint to place a mother lode of an order. Fortunately she already had a gallon of ice cream in the freezer so she wouldn't need to leave her apartment.

Jake must have been just as shocked as she was, as he hadn't tried to come over or call. While she felt bad that she broke his heart, by thinking she was going out with her secret admirer, she still felt an overwhelming since of loss at the fact that she was once again so close yet so far.

Though as back in the diner she had thoughts of whether she was really ready to discover who this being was. Could it all simply be a ruse to play on a newer coworker, or had she been picked at random? She spent several minutes turning scenarios and situations around in her brain, but moping had never been one of her favored past times.

While waiting for her comfort to arrive she went to the one place that always eased her mind, work. Now was as good a time as any to finish some of the last minute paperwork that she was sure the Vulcans gave her, just to see how much paperwork it would take to cause a Terran to go insane of form-filling overload. She thought slightly amused. She logged into her email and seen a new email me safe from her mystery guy. For a moment she pretended to debate opening it, but her heart knew that she would. That there was no way she would ever hit that delete button. She knew that it was insane but she was good at reading people and she knew that this man, kind and honest, that he was used to thinking of others and putting their need before his own. He had really good soul.

Dearest Amanda,

It is regrettable that you are suffering so deeply. Mental trauma can affect a human's ability greatly, why did you not explain you were not prepared for such a large change in your life after, what I would believe to be such a life changing event? You may call me by any name which you believe fits me best, but fear not one day soon I will tell you my name and anything else which you wish to know about my person. As to your request about knowing more of my life, I am quite uncertain where to begin. As you deduced it is quite unlike me to share intimate details of myself with others. However I will endeavor to please you as much as it is possible within my power. I am the older of two sons. While teaching is not where you believe that you will be most content, I implore you to allow it to become a part of you. Learn from your time in this position, learn all you can and apply it to the area that would please you most.

-SSS

Amanda was in awe. He never said much, but what he said always left an impact on her. He was clearly not human, and if he was Standard was not his first language. He had yet to master her language she could also decipher that his letters were carefully chaotic, he was obviously intelligent, overly so even. The almost seemed to be a pattern between when he had breaks in thought. He was taunting her, triple "s" was some sort of hint; that he had three 'S' in his name when spelt in some language, That his name started and/or ended with the letter, that he only had three letters in his name. The possibilities were nearly endless. Which species valued their privacy, wouldn't have a problem with intergalactic dating, though it may not be his species it may just be him on both counts. She could drive herself crazy with what ifs and she knew it. She had to make some decisions on his character and go with it because the last two and a half weeks she been beyond trying to figure this guy out and it so far has led to nothing close to narrowing down who he is. What Amanda really wanted to know is what would force this man to go to such lengths to stay hidden? She hadn't decided if she thought he was the shy type, but was leaning towards most likely. She sat in her office chair thinking that she should have become some sort of profiler.

Then she could have seriously narrowed the list. She logged on to the Vulcan data base to try to sort out some answers, being one of the top linguists at the embassy defiantly had its advantages. she began to look up personal files even though she knew it would be strongly frowned upon, most obviously singled out beings by gender, all females out, males and duel gender species stayed. There was only one person dismissed from the embassy in the last week. It was Jake, so whoever was writing her, either hadn't left yet or was lying so she decided to play "Count the Species" of said males. One Andorian, 7 human male, which Amanda decided would make the cut, two Deltans, and fifteen Vulcans. The Deltans were out there was a very strict code of Celibacy for them due to their pheromones. It couldn't be a Vulcan, they would practically have to be V' tash (Vulcans without logic) to want to date outside their species, and Amanda had never heard of such a case. That surely would have made the news. But an Andorian required biological substances from three other Andorians to procreate.

There was no amount of genetic engineering that would create a child to such a union. Though Andorian were very much about action, triple S didn't have that air about him. Besides the way he spoke he sounded as though he didn't want anything other than a permanent relationship though he could defiantly be way.. they hadn't talked long enough on the matter for her opinion to be conclusive, but being Vulcan strangely enough really did fit the mold, the teacher wasn't sure how to feel about that. There was so little known about the species in general, let alone their mating habits. But the brown haired woman had so some pretty horrible stuff. The she clicked on the Vulcan link and read the list of names and job titles.

Seliek-Security, Sevelk- Ambassadorial Aid, Sarek- Terran Ambassador, Soran-Ambassadorial aid, Tuvak- Healer, Sediek-Lingist, Sevlelk- Ambassadorial Aid, Surek, skolar, skeven -PR department

Slievk, sharak, stekek, slevar all in transport department. Skelnar and skevet were also apart of the ambassadorial attaché.

Their files didn't indicate if they were married which she thought was highly unusual as everyone else's marital status' were plainly put at the top of their personnel page. Amanda was so frustrated she knew it couldn't be so easy but she had choose to hope against hope. She was at a dead end now. Vulcans were so private that their was no way she was going to figure this out without his help, though she now understood his need for caution. If she had been one of the those loose lipped girls, it would ruin the Vulcan in question. Though not listed in order of value each of these Vulcans were hand chosen to represent all that is Vulcan to her planet. Each of them held precious Vulcan secrets that could probably cause more than one intergalactic incident if they fell into the wrong hands. That was another question for someone she didn't know very well he was sure putting a lot on the line, that was the real question though, why? She moved to compose a new e-mail

Triple S,

Hello again, I have spent the last four hours thinking about you. My night was completely ridiculous it could only be true, it was absolutely outrageous. Someone asked me out on a date tonight and the pieces fit, well enough, to make me think it was you. So I said yes, logically. Which after a rather disastrous meeting/dinner I was rather disappointed that I had not found you yet. When I say rather, I mean a lot. I've been trying to figure out who you are and after narrowing down I understand why you are working to keep yourself unknown, from both prying eyes and myself. I worried of what should happen if our letters were ever discovered. I never thought about what it would be like to be with someone of your culture. It was like one of those things that never cross your mind because it would just be too far fetched. I now know that it's upon me, the choice, I don't know how to make a decision of where to go from here, because I know next to nothing about your culture. I find it amazing that it took me this long to get this far. I know that I shouldn't be so hard on myself, because I've had so much going on, but still… why did you choose me, I just don't get that. I mean I know that I have a lot going for me within my species, but it seems that it would be so much safer to choose someone of your own species. We are so different I have no idea why I would stick out in the crowd, not to someone like you. In response to your letter, I have one brother and one sister, bother older than I am by only a year, what do you do when your aren't working? Sincerely Amanda

The pajama clad girl hit the send button with an air of contentment. One thing that Amanda was extremely grateful for was not having to worry about Jake coming her all long, as she never gave him her frequency.

Amanda sat down in her most comfortable reading chair and began to wonder what it would be like to be married to a Vulcan, to live on Vulcan. Not that she was actually considering marrying this guy, mostly. Living on Vulcan, with no clouds or rain, no lush, green surrounding, Amanda didn't think she could ever love anyone enough to leave her entire family behind, yes Vulcan was the closest planet to Terra, but to move to another planet was a special line of crazy thinking. Besides it wasn't like Vulcans really needed linguists, what would she do with all of her spare time. While her husband was off being, by human standards, a workaholic?

Amanda normally would date several weeks if not months before she even considered a relationship to be semi-serious, however this time she didn't have such a luxury. She couldn't lead this poor guy on, who knew how Vulcan minds worked, especially when it came to dating? But if there was a chance that Vulcans did have feelings deeper than they've led humans to believe, which seemed to be the case thus far.

She couldn't let him to believe it was more than it was, which she couldn't do without figuring out where he stood in her mind, and what kind of potential he had with her, in her mind anyway. Judging by the hour it seemed that Max would be out all night again, which was great because she didn't want her roommate anywhere near the apartment while she was having this weird breakdown about how she felt like her life was going one step forward two steps backward. To listen to her cry about meeting someone so incredible, that with only a handful of emails it's like you've known them for years, but to not even know their name, nope she was very glad that she had the apartment alone tonight. That's what it was she thought. Her life had been reduced to some kind of reality show, pretty soon she was sure it would be talk show material

In the next three and a half months Amanda and triple S sent few but lengthy messages, slowly learning of each other. He told her of his son and his family obligations, of his very time consuming work, of what his planet was like thorough his eyes, which made her fall in love with the red desert planet than she had never stepped foot on, In the same way that she knew she was with a man that she had never touched. She spoke to him of her complex, social climbing parents and of her difficult relationship with her siblings. How every time she seen a Vulcan in the embassy she hoped that it was him and the he would finally reveal his identity. There was wasn't a Vulcan that worked at the embassy, that didn't leave for several weeks at a time, much to the coeds disappointment. Though in the last several months there had been an influx of Vulcans, with reasons equal to their massive numbers. Though for some reason she felt safe excluding them all from her hunt.

She was now much more aware of the comings and goings of the original 15 Vulcans on her list. It soon became clear that when he said he was leaving that she knew he literally meant he would be leaving the building, and not for an extended amount of time. Thinking about it always made her laugh. She wasn't sure if they were simply overly literal or carefully chose words to best lead them to their desired effect. Though Amanda was firmly leaning towards a bit of somewhere in the middle. Though it only made her smile because she knew that he would never do anything to harm her, well at least she was 95% sure.

She had already shared with him how she felt towards him, along with a great many other secrets, if he had wanted to hurt her he could have done so quite toughly by now. For the most part the linguist turned teacher kept her new look, taking time each day to enhance her eyes and lips, not wearing whatever happened to not have any wrinkles that week. She was still teaching at the embassy though mostly their students were children, usually Vulcan, so she was constantly on her toes. Especially considering they were used to learning via Learning Sphere. Which as she understood it was a hole in the floor that was operated by a teacher with a fancy computer and a projector of some kind.

She found that she really enjoyed teaching at the embassy though mostly three months ago she would have never considered becoming a teacher or leaving the embassy, but she planned to start taking classes in the coming fall toward becoming a teacher. There was something breath taking about sharing her knowledge with others. To have students who enjoyed learning as much as she loved to teach the material. The only real down side , Amanda felt was grading and lessons plans, well that and as soon as she learned to pronounce their names it was already time for her students to leave the class. She had no idea how much longer she would be teaching, but she hoped that wouldn't end anytime soon.

Between her time the her students and her letters with triple S, saying things like logical to other Terrans had been happening with a strange regularity. Triple S had also begun teacher her about the Path of Surak. She didn't follow it per say, but she did think that it was rather fascinating. He often sent her gifts, first flowers which she told him that she was opposed to flowers being gifted after they had been all cut up so can just die a week later, her mystery guy had been very pleased to hear this.

Though Amanda wasn't aware before that her interest in garden meant so much to Vulcans, he quickly let her on to the fact and how it tied into the teachings of Surak. The rest of her gifts were both logical and thoughtful. When she had no plans to eat due to her schedule a delivery boy was always sent to her classroom. How He knew that she wasn't going to eat that day was usually beyond her, as she stopped telling him after the first few deliveries arrived.

She had also received a piece of Vulcan Jewelry and a meditation robe, the robe she actually tried to used a couple of time before deciding that unless he taught her how to mediate she wound use it as a bath broth. He protested, though she could tell that he it for the joke that it was meant to be. She found that he was very good, at least though letters at indulging her silliness which was something that most Vulcans didn't do. It was the little things that convinced the new teacher that her secret admirer was truly one of a kind.

Amanda had be practically killing herself with all these extra hours. She had been so relieved when summer break hit. Only took two classing in the summer leaving her time to not be stretched quite so thinly. However all good things must come to an end, as her grandmother always said, it was now fall and she was back to full time. School Monday through Thursday with at least two classes a day and working six hour days Tuesday through Saturday and sometimes on Sunday. Amanda was walking towards the embassy exit when one of the ambassadors aids came up to her.

"Live long and prosper." she told him in her best accented Vulcan. To which he responded in kind. She already knew why he was searching the embassy for her, usually once a week, for the last month and a half. Ambassador Sarek summons her, usually on Mondays to check in and see how her classes are progressing, it seemed that things like clocking in and out didn't occur to him because he always finds for her after she had completed her day. Which usually lead to lessons on language or some aspect of her home world that he simply couldn't grasp. Not that she minded, not really, because she really enjoyed his personality, and a chance to relax and talk about her new greatest passion.

She nodded to him a look of understanding and was led to the ambassadors office. As usual once she arrived at his office Soran allowed Amanda to walk into the Sareks office without a formal announcement of any kind. The ambassador always left the door of his office open except when he's in the middle of a privet comm. or when he's in a meeting with her, well from her experience anyway. The one time that the ambassador was speaking with someone else in a official capacity the door had been open as well.

"Good evening ambassador." Amanda said with a glowing smile, wondering what they would be talking about today, as she closed the door.

"Greetings Amanda, I trust that you are well" he replied as he set the padd that he was working on aside.

"Yeah, today has been quite long, but good.

AN: so it's been so long I feel like I am jumping all over the place and there are shot gun sized holes in my story. I would love to hear some ideas on where to go from here. I have been typing a story that I wrote in the beginning of last year, and have finally caught up my ink and binary writing, so I'm not so sure how to get back into the First contact groove.

I would love to hear ideas on plot, and I'm not interested in hearing about my grammer/spelling mistakes unless your personally volunteering to be my Beta. Have a great day