Armand J. Whitaker III looked on with curiosity as the young woman entered. He rose from his chair and held out his hand, his face sporting a well practiced smile.
“Welcome, Ambassador Sparkle. It’s truly a pleasure to finally meet you in the flesh. After all these weeks of written communications we didn’t know what to expect. Quite frankly, we in diplomatic circles were wondering if you might show up with two heads and four legs!”
He noted that the young woman hesitated a moment before grabbing his large hand in her own much smaller and distinctly lavender coloured one. However, her grip was firm and she looked him in the eye while shaking. From her violet eyes he glanced down to their clasped limbs. He realized that this might very well be the first time in history a human had touched a being from another world.
“The pleasure is mine, Secretary Whitaker. The diarchy of Equestria expresses its gratitude for agreeing to this meeting, and,” the woman smiled cheekily, “I’m sorry if my looks disappoint you.”
He laughed and gestured to the table and the chairs next to it. “Not all all, in fact I’m charmed! A lovely purple young lady is much preferable to a little green man in my book. Please have a seat. We apologize for the simplicity of the accommodations, but this is the best we could come up with on short notice in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.” He pulled out a chair and pushed it in for her as she sat down. The action seemed not to surprise her, he noted. Her strange hair colour on the other hand surprised him. It was indeed navy-blue, with purple and pink streaks, an odd affectation for a diplomat. He chuckled inwardly. As if the lavender skin was not unconventional enough!
She smiled as he took his own seat. “Before I came aboard, Princess Celestia asked me to thank the Captain of this vessel. Luckily I had the chance to do just that immediately upon my arrival. She is quite a nice mar...iner.” Whitaker could have sworn the ambassador blushed a pinker shade of lavender. What was that about? he wondered.
“I would hope so,” replied Whitaker. “She is the ultimate authority on a ship with enough crew members that it is of itself a small city. And she did manage your arrival with a great deal of aplomb.” He chuckled conspiratorially. “It’s not common on our world for diplomats to arrive via teleportation.”
The girl seemed even more embarrassed. “No, I guess not, Mr. Secretary.” She looked at her hands a moment, and then placed them on her lap, then looked back up.
The pair eyed at each other for a moment, each one sizing-up the other. Despite her charmingly open nature, he could perceive a keen intelligence in those eyes. He reminded himself that the ‘girl’ was an alien, and that all of this might just be an act to place him off-guard.
“Please forgive me for being brusque, Ambassador.” He leaned forward onto the table. “But the content of the message from your Princess was rather dire, and I must admit quite shocking to our government.” He noticed as she also placed her hands on the table, mirroring his pose.
“You have basically given all life on this planet an eight year death sentence. That is not easy news to swallow, nor is it something we would simply take as an article of truth from, forgive me for saying it so bluntly, an untrusted source.”
The young woman nodded, as if she had been expecting his comments. She placed one hand again in her lap.
“We understand that you would feel that way. That is exactly why Princess Celestia asked me to take on this task.” Her expression turned bashful. “I’m her majesty’s personal student, and as such I have been schooled in arcane matters of Dweonic theory and cosmology not accessible to other po... people.” Her other hand joined its mate on her lap. “I’m to meet with your leading physicists to explain the situation and provide them with the means of testing our hypothesis to your scientific satisfaction.”
“Yes, indeed, but even then, ours is not a race that gives up easily, Ambassador.” He smiled. “Perhaps it is part of Humanity’s distinctive charm, no? For once we have another intelligent race with which to discuss such matters. It would be a pity that it should only be so during the last eight years of our existence.”
The ambassador's eyes grew wide. “Oh, that is a pity. You know that hadn’t occurred to us. We’ve been in contact with other intelligent races since, well, forever.”
They have contact with other races! This just gets more and more interesting, thought Whitaker. He could not prevent a rueful smile from escaping his lips. “And I must admit being somewhat disarmed by the other intelligence's Ambassador.”
The blush returned in full bloom as the young woman again moved her hands onto the table. He noticed her fingers twitching hesitantly.
“You know, early in my career, when meeting foreign dignitaries I often had difficulty deciding where to put my hands.” He mimicked placing his hands in various positions, and then leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “It would appear you have a bit of the same problem.”
“You don’t know the half of it!” replied the young woman with a sigh. “Well, I suspect something our races have in common is the capacity to learn and adapt. My mentor the Princess has also given me the task of leading our efforts to find a way for humans to survive this convergence. We would very much welcome working with you in these investigations.” Her eyes and body language projected nothing less than earnest intent as she said the words.
“Then that is another pursuit we might hold in common,” said Whitaker. “Tell me, does your government have resources other than your no doubt very capable self to lend to this effort?”
The Ambassador sat up straighter in her chair. “Our Princess Celestia has had scholars working on this problem for over a thousand years, including one of the greatests of our entire history, Starswirl the Bearded.” She spoke faster now, and said the name of the scholar with deep reverence.
“A thousand years?” Whitaker wondered just how old this Princess Celestia could be. “Do our peoples count the years the same way?” he asked.
The young woman pondered a moment. “Essentially yes, but the relative passage of time has only equalized since the convergence started. Before that the actual rate of the passage of time could vary greatly between our universes. Chronodynamic studies by the Canterlot University Department of Physics have shown that the ratio can span several orders of magnitude in...” Her smile grew sheepish again as she interrupted herself.
“I’m sorry. My friends tell me I do tend to go on about these things. Only one of them seems to have any interest in physical laws, and in her case it appears to be just so she break them. I hope I wasn’t boring you Mr. Secretary.” The blush was back.
His laugh was genuine. “I think your enthusiasm is refreshing, Ambassador. You have already given me a lot to report to the President.” He rose and again offered his hand.”Thank you for your efforts on our behalf. I suspect you might need some rest before dinner.” He pointed to a woman in uniform. “The lieutenant will lead you to a stateroom that you can use.”
The ambassador had also risen. “Thank you, but that won’t be necessary. I also have to brief Princesses Celestia and Luna. I’ll return here in two hours.” She waved a hand. There was a flash of light from beneath her bangs and she disappeared.
Armand J. Whitaker III looked at the spot where Ambassador Sparkle had stood only moments before. He turned to the lieutenant. “This might take a bit of getting used-to!” She saluted as he left the conference room. A thousand years, he thought. What the hell are we getting into here?
Author's Note
This is a reboot of the whole Conversion Bureau scenario, as usual prompted by one of Krass McWriter's TCB events. Although the concept is intriguing I have so much else going on right now on the personal and work fronts that I don't have a clue when, or if, I'll be able to continue it. Renaissance Pony is about two thirds done, and I've already started working on a sequel to Mankind Triumphant - Relic (you guessed it: Mankind Triumphant - Icon). Please comment if you feel strongly about it either way.
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