"A mocha for Sarek," called the man behind the bar, sliding a tall, slender cup in his direction over the quartz countertop.
"Thank you," he replied, picking up the drink with eager hands, cupping the container and enjoying the sensation of heat against his chilled fingers. Earth was so very cold.
Amanda was already sitting down in a corner booth, sipping a cup of tea and studying the screen of a tablet with careful intensity. When he slid into the seat across from hers, she declared, "The radius of the Earth is 6,371 kilometers."
"I presume you tell me this based on the question you posed earlier, about being able to calculate the mass of the Earth?" he asked, taking a sip of his drink, which sent warmth spreading from his belly to his extremities.
"Yes, so what's the mass of this planet?" she asked.
"Perhaps you could tell me how you think you should go about calculating it with the data you just provided me."
"Are you that kind of tutor?" she scowled, pulling the PADD toward herself.
"Clarify."
"Are you the kind of tutor who's just going to sit there and offer positive affirmations about how I should think through the answer without offering me any real help? Because I can pull my hair out in frustration on my own time without an audience heckling me from the sidelines."
He set his coffee on the table, ignored all the euphemisms he did not understand, and gestured toward her PADD. "I am merely trying to gauge your current understanding of classical mechanics."
"And I asked you if you knew how to calculate the mass of the Earth because I'm trying to figure out if you're actually any good at physics."
Sarek repressed a small hint of annoyance at her intransigence. He just so happened to know the acceleration due to gravity at the Earth's axis was 9.83 meters per second squared because he'd seen it in a draft of a report on Cary Cartographic's satellite capabilities only that morning. Armed with that constant variable, plus the one she'd just given him about the Earth's radius, he began mentally placing the numbers into an equation, rearranging the terms for convenience, and sliding decimals and exponents until he arrived at an answer approximately three seconds later.
"I presume you prefer the answer in Standard metric because you gave me the radius in meters, so the solution is 5.982 septillion kilograms, or 5.982 times ten to the twenty-fourth power kilograms."
Amanda glanced down at her PADD, her eyes flickering in surprise. Her face froze then turned sour. "I bet you looked that up."
"I did not," he replied, quashing another twinge of annoyance at her implication that he would cheat or would be unable to solve a very simple physics problem.
"Oh, so you just did it all in your head in a matter of seconds?"
"Yes."
Amanda sneered, then closed her eyes and sighed. "I find that hard to believe."
"Why?"
"Because people aren't calculators."
"A very plain observation."
"So how did you do that then?"
"Because I have been trained since the moment I began learning to read to mentally solve mathematical equations and this particular problem was not difficult."
Amanda buried her face in her hands. "It is to me."
"Would you like me to explain how I arrived at such an answer?"
"Isn't that why we're here?"
"Are you familiar with the law of universal gravitation?"
"You mean like Newton's laws?"
"I believe Terrans have named a number of classical physics laws after the preeminent Terran physicist called Isaac Newton," he replied. "Could you specify which ones you're familiar with?"
"I know that every action has an equal and opposite reaction," she sighed, propping her elbow onto the table and leaning her face onto the palm of her hand. "Um, also, force equal mass times acceleration? That's the second one."
"Are you familiar with the law that states that every point mass in the universe attracts every other point mass with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them?"
Amanda's eyes slammed shut, creasing the skin around the corners. "I know the words you said were in Standard. I mostly know what all of them mean when said individually. But when strung together like that, they just sound like a bunch of gibberish."
Sarek took another long drink of his mocha, surprised that she could not grasp such a basic concept. He had learned about classical mechanics so long ago that the ideas seemed as elementary as the alphabet. He wondered if she were simple-minded or if the Terran educational system was sorely deficient.
"Do you understand what gravity is?"
"It's a force."
"General relativity would actually define gravity as a constant acceleration."
Her eyes narrowed. "You're splitting hairs."
Sarek cocked his head. "I do not underst—"
"You're making trivial distinctions," she interrupted.
"It is not trivial," he insisted. "There is a difference between force and acceleration. You yourself stated only moments ago that force equals mass times acceleration, and if force and acceleration are interchangeable, that would render the concept of mass as constant, and it is clearly not."
"I guess that's a fair point."
"It is a correct point," he insisted. "So I ask again, what is gravity?"
"It's a…" She waved her hands around in a semi-circle. "Well, you just said it's a constant acceleration."
"Yes, but what does that mean?"
She crossed her arms and placed her forehead on the table. "I guess I don't really know."
"Gravity is a concept that describes how energy, whether light or mass, falls along the bending of spacetime."
Her head jerked upward from the table. "What?"
The exasperation in her voice was evident, even to an ear untrained to detect emotion. In an effort to avoid frustrating her further, he thought of how he might explain it to a very young child.
"I presume you sleep in a bed?"
She scowled. "Yes. What does that have to do with physics?"
"Think of your mattress as spacetime."
Her expression softened at the prospect of an analogy. "Okay?"
"If you were to place a very heavy spherical object on your mattress, what would happen?"
"Like a bowling ball?"
"What is a bowling ball?"
"A heavy spherical object," she smirked.
"Then I suppose yes, like a bowling ball." His tone came out with an unusual lilt that mildly surprised him.
"Did you just get sarcastic with me?" she grinned.
"Sarcasm is illogical," he rejoined, lifting his cup to his lips to take a quick drink. "What would happen if you placed it in the center of your mattress?"
She sighed. "It would sink inward. Obviously."
"Precisely, because it has mass. If your mattress represents spacetime, the mass of the ball is creating a curvature within it."
"Okay," she said, taking a sip of her tea. "But how does that make gravity a constant acceleration?"
"Because unlike the bowling ball on your mattress, the Earth and other forms of energy that bend spacetime are not motionless throughout space and time. Are you aware of the definition of acceleration?"
"It's a change in velocity."
"Correct," he said quickly, relieved she at least understood that very simple point. "The bending of spacetime changes the acceleration of an object like the Earth, based on its velocity not only through space, but also through time."
Her nose crinkled. "This is starting to get very complicated."
Sarek sat back in his chair. He was uncertain how he could make his lecture any simpler. "What if we were to return to the mattress example?"
"If we must," she shrugged. "I do better with practical analogies anyway."
"Say you were to place another heavy spherical object on the mattress alongside the bowling ball, what would happen?"
"Um, I guess it would roll toward the other ball because the mattress is curved in."
"Possibly," he agreed. "But would it always do this?"
"I guess if they were really far apart or if one was a lot heavier than the other, maybe not."
"Exactly, you have just described the law of universal gravitation."
A glimmer of recognition entered her eyes. "That's the one where force equals the gravitational constant times the masses of both objects divided by the distance between them?"
"Divided by the distance between them squared," he corrected.
"Yeah, I know that one," she said, sounding excited.
He was skeptical, considering he'd had to correct her, but he was pleased that she was no longer glowering at every word coming out of his mouth. "How could you apply that simplified equation to determining the mass of the Earth?"
"Uh, well, you could…" She trailed off. "Wait, I don't see how you could, unless you were comparing it to some other object. And what would you do with the radius?"
"May I see your PADD?"
She slid it across the table. He searched for the holographic projection function and quickly generated a sphere. A small blue orb glowed between them.
"Instead of conceptualizing the force generated between two separate objects, consider that the Earth is an object that has spatial extent—that is, it takes up space across three dimensions."
"It's a three-dimensional object." She nodded eagerly. "Got it."
He used her stylus to mark the uppermost pole and center point on the holographic orb. "You agree that the distance between these points comprises the radius, yes?"
Her response was brisk. "Yes."
"Because a sphere is symmetric in all directions, the gravitational force at any point on the surface of this sphere going inward is equal, do you agree?" He moved the stylus around the orb for good measure. "You wouldn't argue there is more gravitational force here at the equator than there is here at the bottom pole, for example?"
"No." A spark flickered through her face, lighting it with palpable joy. "So I don't need two masses? I'm supposed to treat each point you just drew like an object in space?"
"Precisely," he said. He was startled by the sudden enthusiasm in his voice and judging by her raised eyebrows, so was she.
"So the equation still works with only one mass? It's okay to just get rid of one term entirely?"
"Only in the very special case of a sphere, because it is possible to regard these objects as mass points with the entirety of their mass concentrated at the center," he explained. "So if we place a point as physically far away from the center as possible while still being within the sphere, what we are essentially describing is a gravitational field. And using a known gravitational constant, plus the known values of the Earth's gravity at the poles and the Earth's radius, we could derive the mass within this gravitational field, which is equal to the mass of the Earth."
"Can I have it?" she motioned toward the stylus in his hand, which he offered to her.
She rearranged the equation and plugged in the relevant data. She was slow in her calculations and her notation was quite irregular, but with the help of her PADD's auto-calculate feature, she eventually arrived at the same answer he'd given her earlier.
"5.982 times ten to the twenty-fourth power kilograms," she declared. "Isn't that what you said?"
"It is."
She leaned back in the booth. "That was weirdly satisfying."
"Performing calculations?"
"The math isn't the hard part for me, or rather, not the hardest part. I can rewrite equations and crunch numbers, but I don't know what's going on half the time. I had never thought of gravity as a thing that bends spacetime and to be honest, I'm still not sure how it fits within the bigger picture."
"I had thought that was the purpose of my tutelage, was to illuminate the broader concepts."
A soft smile crested her lips. "What else do you have for me?"
They dove into a discussion of uniform circular motion and it slowly became clear to Sarek that Amanda's trouble wasn't an inability to understand the subject, it was merely that she'd been provided with equations and definitions but had never been taught to think abstractly about what the field of physics attempted to describe.
He was on his third mocha latte and feeling quite pleased when the barman approached. He dropped off another steaming mug of tea for Amanda and said, "I've never seen you in here this late."
He glanced at Sarek and back at Amanda and smiled. "I've been here past dark before."
"Yeah, but never past midnight."
"It can't be that late," she exclaimed, toggling back to the main screen of her tablet. "Woah, it is that late."
Sarek balked. "It is?"
"I really didn't mean to keep you here for three hours," she sighed, stuffing the PADD into her bag. She turned back to the server. "And thanks for the tea but I guess I should be going."
"We're open twenty-four hours and I'm here until 0200," he shrugged, heading back to his station. "No rush."
"I'm so sorry to have kept you out so late," Amanda sighed, scooting toward the edge of the booth.
Now that the topic had shifted from physics to more personal matters, Sarek was surprised to find his mind was having difficulty in forming independent, coherent thoughts. He wanted to tell Amanda he'd enjoyed their time together, but that would be inappropriate and besides, he wasn't sure how he felt about that. He'd also lost track of the time, which was unusual. He wasn't sure how he felt about that either. He especially wasn't sure how he felt about feeling about things.
"You should stay and drink your tea," he blurted, fighting to suppress a feeling of horror that his speech was slow and slightly stilted. Was he overtired?
"So you can earn another half hour of my time next Saturday as your public girlfriend?"
"I- I did not intend—"
"Relax, Sarek, I was teasing you."
He cleared his throat and took time to properly form the words he wished to convey. "I am unaccustomed to teasing."
"It shows," she laughed.
"If you wish to stay and consume your beverage, I will not consider it time you owe me at the barbecue." His voice was barely a whisper.
She shifted in her seat, sighed, and reached for the mug of tea. It pleased him. Why did it please him?
"I guess if I'm not being charged for this, I might as well," she murmured, taking a sip of her tea and locking eyes with him over the brim of the mug. "And I have to give you credit where it's due: you are a pretty good physics tutor."
"You are a decent pupil."
"That's debatable," she laughed.
"I gladly defend my claim," he insisted.
She pursed her lips, allowing her eyes to scan his face. "Maybe we should get to know each other a little better."
Their eyes met and much to his surprise, his pulse quickened. Seconds dragged by until she finally looked away. She set her mug down on the table with shaking hands, adding, "I just meant if we really wanted to pull off this whole fake relationship thing, it might be good to have a little background information about each other. People will eventually ask questions."
He wasn't eager to reveal many details of his life to her, but there was obvious merit in her suggestion. "What do you wish to know?"
Amanda faltered. What did she want to know? She liked him well enough but truthfully, she wasn't sure she cared if he liked old movies or hated eating lima beans or whatever. He was an interesting person, not to mention probably the smartest person she'd ever met, but she was happy to keep a certain personal distance between them. Still, the idea of exchanging a few nuggets of personal information had been hers, so she rambled off the first question that came to mind.
"Um…where are you from?"
"Vulcan."
"Oh really?" she asked, casually rolling her eyes, unsure whether at herself or at him. "I'm from Earth."
"Yes, I know."
She was having a hard time deciphering the expression on his face. He looked torn between being confused and being disappointed. "I know you know I'm from Earth. What I meant was, where on Vulcan are you from?"
"Are you familiar with Vulcan geography?"
"Not really, no."
"So my response would be irrelevant."
"Just tell me where you're from," she snapped.
"Shi'Kahr."
"Isn't that the capital?" she asked, thinking back to the days of elementary school when she forced to memorize such things.
He took a deep breath. "Shi'Kahr is the capital city of the planet where the government is situated, but it is also a state."
"So are you from the city or the state?"
"I grew up on an estate approximately sixty kilometers from the capital, near Vulcan's Forge."
"An estate?"
"An estate is a large piece of property, usually ancestral—"
She cut him off. "I know what an estate is. It's just not a term you hear thrown around much outside of old British novels."
He furrowed his brow. "Vulcans have never made the same efforts to bridge gaps in inequality as humans have, but our adherence to logic has never allowed for the creation of severe inequality that once plagued Earth. There is no poverty or want on Vulcan, but there are those who have considerably more than others."
"So you're wealthy?"
"It is not polite to speak of such things."
She chuckled under her breath. "Are you going to ask me where I'm from? Do you care?"
He reached for his mocha and found it nearly empty. "Where are you from?"
"New Chicago."
"Is that an off world Terran colony?"
"No, the old city was flattened to the ground in World War III. They built a peace park over the site and a lot of the survivors moved on and made a new settlement in Alaska."
"I see."
"I've actually never been to space," she admitted, raising her mug to her mouth. "I've always wanted to see it. It's on my list of things to do before I die."
Sarek offered a nod of his head. "I myself have traveled the quadrant extensively. There is a certain allure to being out amongst the stars."
"Is that why you chose to study them?"
The muscles in his face relaxed, giving him a momentarily warm expression. "Perhaps."
Their conversation began to fade and she wondered if a natural cue to say goodnight was forming, but her earlier conversation with Adam popped into her head. Before she could really consider the propriety of the question, she asked, "How old are you?"
"I am sixty-four, measured in your years."
She had been drawing her mug to her lips once again. She was relieved there was nothing in her mouth to spit out in shock. The man was only a few years younger than her grandfather.
"Your face suggests you are surprised," he continued. "If my interpretation of the arrangement of your features is correct."
"You don't look that old," she stammered, gripping the mug very tightly. Unsure whether she'd just accidentally insulted him, she added, "I mean, if you were human, which obviously you're not. I know Vulcans live longer. And I'm a terrible judge anyway because I'm only eighteen."
His eyes registered a tiny hint of surprise. "You do not look so young."
"Well, my birthday is in a few weeks. I'll be nineteen on the 12th," she replied weakly. After a long period of silence she asked, "Did I just make things weird?"
"We are of two different species," he said slowly. "We live our lives along different trajectories, maturing and aging at different rates."
"True." She took a long drink of her tea and watched Sarek fold his hands on the table. He was so prim, polite, and proper. Of all the people on this side of the universe, he was among the last she would ever peg as wanting a fake girlfriend.
"Can I just ask…why are we doing this?"
"Clarify."
"Why are we pretending to be in a relationship?"
"I have found that the females—the women—in my office began speaking to me less when they believed I had a girlfriend. This was before I understood the correct definition of the term."
"And you don't want women to talk to you?"
"The women in my work environment are very distracting and their constant personal questions often make it difficult for me to focus on my duties."
"So to avoid making friends at your job, you thought it would be easier to act like you're in a relationship with a college student?"
"Yes."
"How do you justify the logic in that?"
"When confronted with two illogical paths, one must choose the least illogical of the two."
"And this," she waved her hand back and forth between them. "This was the more logical choice?"
"There are other benefits to spending time in your company," he admitted. "I find you far more tolerable than most other humans I've encountered and you've taught me much about the planet and your species."
"I'm tolerable, huh? Am I supposed to take that as high praise?"
"Do you seek my admiration and approval?"
"Not really. But why the charade? Why not just tell people you're single and you don't like small talk?"
"I do not wish to be rude."
"You're such an odd duck, Sarek," she said with a laugh, consuming the last of the mug's contents.
"I am unfamiliar with this expression."
"I figured," she smiled. "Anyway, I really should get going."
"Should we plan to meet again?"
"I'm pretty busy this week," she said. "And I already owe you three hours of my time at this barbecue in exchange for your tutoring tonight. Besides, with how terrible I am at physics, I'm probably going to need so much tutoring that I can't really afford to pay you back timewise, unless you plan to fake marry me."
His face didn't move and she instantly felt embarrassed. "That was a joke. I wasn't insinuating we should get married or—"
"I am not in the habit of joking."
Amanda's face burned. "No, of course you're not."
"Would you like to leave now?"
They exchanged awkward goodbyes outside of Pete's and Amanda replayed their conversation over in her head several times on the walk home, cringing harder with each retelling. It was stupid enough to joke about marriage with human men—what had she expected from a Vulcan?
She was so wrapped up in her humiliation that she barely even noticed Mara's visitor when she opened the door. A roll of rich masculine vocalizations mingled with Mara's ecstatic shrieks drifted from the opposite side of the room, causing Amanda to instantly turn on her heel in preparation to bolt away from the scene. She'd walked in on Mara having sex more than a few times and even though Mara claimed it didn't really bother her, it bothered Amanda.
"Ugh, yes!" Mara cried. "Wait, Amanda? You're back! You remember Vedek, right?"
Amanda froze facing the door, recoiling at the thought of turning around to witness her roommate in the throes of lust with one of Sarek's friends.
"You can turn around, you prude," Mara said. "We're both dressed."
Amanda flipped around in surprise and found Vedek holding Mara's cheeks tightly between his palms. It seemed like it should be such a tender gesture, but there was no sweetness in the body language. Mara's deep breaths and arched back indicated his touch was supremely sexual. It was the most bizarre thing Amanda had seen in a long time.
"Uh, so…hey," she mumbled.
"Ugh, I lost our connection," Vedek groaned, stretching his hands toward the ceiling. A vibrant grin tore across his playful face and he leaned forward and passionately kissed Mara.
"Still, that was amazing," Mara breathed, tearing her mouth away from his.
"It's kind of late, don't you think?" Amanda asked, eager to remind them they had an audience.
"Yeah, I was wondering when you were coming home," Mara said, finally looking at her.
"I should get going, I have work in the morning," Vedek said, running his hands down the sides of Mara's neck, over her breasts, and down to her waist.
"Will I see you tomorrow?" Mara asked as he leapt off the bed.
"Yeah, maybe at your place?" Amanda added, giving him a curt smile.
He began pulling his shoes on. "Sure."
When the door closed behind him Amanda asked, "What was that?"
"Mind melding," she breathed, falling back on the bed. "Oh my stars. It is…wow."
"That whole-body orgasm thing you were telling me about?" Amanda muttered, sorry that she couldn't muster up more sarcasm.
Amanda began to undress, trying to fight her intense feelings of annoyance. This was her room too and just because Mara didn't mind if Amanda was in it while she entertained guys, it didn't mean Amanda didn't mind having them there. She'd had this battle with her roommate more than a few times and knew how pointless it was. But at least they hadn't been naked this time.
Mara was in the middle of prattling on about the merits of Vulcan men when Amanda turned and asked, "Don't you wonder if maybe he's too old for you?"
"No," Mara sneered. "And he can't be that much older than me."
"Sure he can," Amanda laughed. "Sarek is sixty-four."
Mara's jaw dropped. "Shut up! He is not."
"Yeah, he is."
Mara rolled onto her side, propping her chin in the palm of her hand. "Who knew you were into older guys?"
"T'Vara, Adam's girlfriend, she's fifty."
"You mean the model he's dating? No way. You're lying."
"I swear I'm not. Vulcans apparently have the secret to aging."
"So, your boyfriend is sixty and looks like he's in his mid-twenties," Mara mused. "How long do Vulcans live then, I wonder?"
She was about to correct Mara on ascribing boyfriend status to Sarek, but thankfully caught herself in time. Mara was very close to Vedek, for now, at least, and Vedek worked with Sarek. The whole point of her spending time with Sarek was to convince his coworkers. As she pulled her pajama shirt over her head, it struck her how complicated this was going to be. Their social circles were linked. How long would it be before Mara started insisting on going out together as couples?
She roamed toward the kitchen to get a glass of water and much to her chagrin, there were piles of mess everywhere. Amanda had cleaned only yesterday. A glass half full of brown liquid sat on the counter. She held it up and asked, "Were you drinking chocolate syrup?"
"That was Vedek's!" Mara called.
"Vedek drinks chocolate syrup? That's disgusting."
"He wanted a buzz," Mara shrugged. "I wasn't going to say no."
"A buzz?"
"Didn't I tell you Vulcans got drunk on chocolate?"
Amanda vaguely remembered their conversation from earlier. Then it hit her. Sarek drank mocha lattes like water. She started deliberating whether he was an alcoholic—or was chocoholic the correct term?—or he if just needed to be drunk to be around her. Before she knew it, she was doubled over laughing with tears streaming down her face.
A failing grade in physics. A roommate with no sense of boundaries. An unrequited love for her boss. A fake Vulcan boyfriend with possible substance abuse issues. How had it all come to this?