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Post by dragonfan on Mar 26, 2007 11:09:12 GMT -5
Title: One Universe Over Fandoms: Star Trek : The Original Series, first five years and Enterprise, first season Disclaimer: I do not own anything or anyone from the Star Trek universes; past, present or future. I am merely borrowing them. Summary: In an infinite number of alternate universes, two Starships named Enterprise meet. The meeting has vast consequences not only for the future of one universe, but for two crew members personally. Warnings: In this story Kirk and Spock are bondmates, but this is only a plot device so that they can explain certain things to T'Pol and Trip. I personally hated the way the series 'Enterprise' took Gene Rodenberry's vision of Vulcans and their history and threw (nearly) everything that was cannon out the window. So meet the crew of the Enterprise NX-01, just one universe over! Rated Tover all Chapter 22 is rated R
Chapter One
The crew of the Federation Starship Enterprise considered temporal and spatial anomalies old hat. As explorers of uncharted areas they tended to run into them frequently. This however, was the first time that they had run into one that was both. They had been thrown out of their own reality and into a very close alternate reality and about a century into the past.
The reason that they knew this was because they had run straight into the first Starship to be called Enterprise; literally. It had been a head on collision and right now Scotty and Commander Tucker were running their people flat out trying to make repairs. Spock and SubCommander T’Pol had their hands full examining the anomaly. While their scientific and engineering crews were so busy, Captains Kirk and Archer were sitting in the Federation’s Enterprise mess hall having lunch. They knew better than to get in their officers’ way.
“A federation of different planets structured in a similar manner to the old United States,” Archer said as he shook his head. “That sounds a lot like something I’d like to see happen here.” He glanced one more time around the mess hall, checking out the crew members. While only two members of his crew were alien, here the numbers were far higher. They even had an alien that looked like nothing more than a giant pan pizza made out of rock to him!
Jim Kirk grinned, knowing what he was thinking as he looked at the Horta Ensign who was currently dipping a burnt out something or other into something that Jim didn’t want to look at too closely. It wasn’t that he was squeamish, just that he tended to wonder what things aliens were eating tasted like. Scotty had a deal with the medical department that oversaw the crew’s diets. Any metal or alloy parts that he couldn’t salvage went to the Ensign. His diet was made up of metals and lacked certain elements that couldn’t be replicated. “His name can’t be pronounced by humans so we call him Jake. He thinks it’s funny.”
Archer shook his head. “And T’Pol says that our universes are so close that the only difference she can find is that I have a different cook on board my ship than the one your Captain Archer did?”
Kirk nodded as he took another bite of his sandwich. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you. Because this is an alternate universe we know that we aren’t in our own past. We also know that certain things are going to happen in your future because the events that led up to those events haven’t changed.” Kirk sighed, this wasn’t easy to talk about both because of Vulcan rules of privacy and because he was meddling. If the consequences weren’t so dire he wouldn’t have said a word. But he, Spock and McCoy couldn’t sentence T’Pol or Commander Tucker to death because of information that they didn’t have, information that the men from the Federation did have. They also had the necessary skills to correct the upcoming situation.
“You are going to lose T’Pol and Tucker,” Kirk decided to just stick to the facts and let Archer think what he would. “Their deaths seriously undermined the effort to establish our Federation. It took a valiant effort on the parts of the respective diplomats to correct the damage done. They died because they are bondmates. That is that they are married in the Vulcan fashion by a permanent mental bond. When one half of a bonded pair dies, quite often the other dies as well from the shock.”
“Are you sure that this is going to happen to my T’Pol and Trip?” Archer interrupted urgently. They were both friends of his and he didn’t want to lose them. He didn’t want to lose any of his crew period.
Kirk nodded. “Spock is not only one of the strongest telepaths on my ship he’s also one of the strongest to ever leave Vulcan. He’s also T’Pol’s great grand nephew, her older sister T’Pau’s grandson. He’s more aware of the personal history than most people. He personally checked to see if your two were bonded and they are.” Kirk waved off the objection he could see forming. “He didn’t have to invade their minds or privacy to check. Bonded couples give off a kind of resonance in their mental signature. Telepaths can’t help but pick those up, mostly as background noise but it does mean that he was able to pick up the fact that they are bonded.
“Now, they don’t know about it because this is the first time a non-Vulcan has ever formed a spontaneous bond with a Vulcan. It is very rare but it does happen. There are less than a handful in the current Vulcan population that I am aware of. T’Pol and Tucker need to go and see a Vulcan healer as soon as you can get them to one. He or she will be able to establish that the bond is a spontaneous one and not one that T’Pol established deliberately. That is the one piece of information that needs to get back to Vulcan and to Earth; that it was something that happened because their minds are especially attuned to each other.”
Archer shuddered. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if anyone thought that T’Pol had deliberately bonded with Trip. She was in enough trouble with her people for just wanting to stay on the Enterprise instead of leaving to get married. “There are still so many bigots out there,” he whispered. He knew that there were as many Vulcans that didn’t approve of Humans as there were Humans that didn’t approve of Vulcans. Oh they said it differently, couching their bigotry in isolationism and other such political stances, but it came down to the fact that they just didn’t like the fact that the other existed. It wouldn’t surprise him a bit to find out that someone of either race had killed both Kirk’s Trip and T’Pol for daring to get married.
Kirk wasn’t surprised that was the conclusion that Archer had jumped to. He remembered what the political climate was in this time from his history classes at the academy. As long as Archer was thinking about the political reasons he wouldn’t bother to ask about Vulcan biology which had been the cause of his Commander Tucker and SubCommander T’Pol’s deaths. Separated by the distance between their two home planets and unable to get to each other, T’Pol had died from an unconsummated Pon Farr, the Vulcan mating cycle. Not that it would have helped if they were in the same house either, as a Vulcan female could not complete the Pon Farr until she conceived a child.
According to McCoy, that was not an option with the state of this universe’s current medical technology. Vulcan/Human hybrids, such as Spock, had to be genetically engineered in a lab. McCoy not only had access to the necessary technology, he also had the necessary skills as he had consulted frequently with the doctors who had made Spock possible. As the first Vulcan/Human hybrid to reach physical maturity, Spock was considered to be the first success of the genetic engineering of hybrid offspring.
“How am I going to lose them?” Archer wanted to know.
Kirk shook his head. That was something he didn’t want Archer to be thinking about. “I’m not going to tell you. I’m going to tell Commander Tucker myself. Spock is telling T’Pol right now. The only reason you were included at all is that you are their Captain. They need to hear this from us. As I said, Spock is family and as I’m Spock’s bondmate I can talk to Tucker about what it means to be bonded to a Vulcan better than they can.”
Archer started in surprise. “The two of you are bondmates?” While he had noticed that the two men had an exceptional rapport, something he envied, he hadn’t thought that either man was involved with the other.
Kirk smiled, that was a frequent reaction when he had to explain his and Spock’s status. “It was something quite similar to the situation that T’Pol and Tucker find themselves in. Spock and I had to mind meld too many times in the line of duty. When his betrothal bond was broken our bond took over. As it saved Spock’s life and I spend more time with him than I do anyone I might have married I don’t think it is that bad a situation. The difference is that T’Pol and Tucker haven’t melded and that the spontaneous bond took precedence over her betrothal bond naturally.
“Now, since my CMO isn’t very busy right now, he’s volunteered to do a check up on them to make sure that nothing is going wrong with the physical aspects of their bonding. That isn’t really a primary concern but he can also take some samples and genetically engineer some children for them before we leave, as long as there aren’t any unforeseen complications.”
Archer was stunned. “He can do that?”
Kirk nodded. “The medical technology wasn’t available in our universe until fifty years ago but in the last decade it has become quite common for starbases and the larger starships to have such medical tech on board, especially if there are people of mixed heritage serving in the crew.”
“By mixed heritage, you mean people whose parents aren’t the same species?” Archer asked as they got up to turn their trays in.
“Yes, it isn’t common but statistically people of mixed heritage are more likely to go into space and even more likely to end up in Starfleet.” Kirk placed his tray into the recycler and then led the way out of the mess hall. “Because of both their unique medical needs and the difficulty in meeting the various medical needs of more than a few species on any one given ship, Starfleet tries to make sure that our sickbays are as up to date as possible. Our doctors have also had to use the tech for other things such as engineering cures for alien viruses and the like.”
“Well, I know that Trip would want to have a family if it was an option,” Archer admitted. He also knew just how much in love his Chief Engineer was with his First Officer. What he didn’t know was how much that love was returned. Would T’Pol reject Trip even with this Vulcan bond thing?
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As the Federation Enterprise’s computers were far superior to her own, being more than a century advanced in technology, T’Pol had agreed with Spock to retire to his quarters to work on the problem of the anomaly. There was no question of impropriety as Spock was not only bonded, but a member of her own family. She did find it however a bit unsettling that her grand nephew was older than she was. Spock wasn’t that much older, only a decade, but she still found it unsettling. While T’Pau was the eldest of their parent's children and she the youngest, her sister had only given birth to her nephew Sarak twenty years ago!
They sat facing one another across a desk fitted with two terminals, his configured for his own use and her configured for his bondmate's. The advances in technology were enough that she found herself suppressing feelings of intimidation as she was aware that this computer had not been upgraded. Spock was this ship's Science Officer and it was only logical to for her to be slower due to the differences in technology. The thought did not help her feelings of inadequacy, especially as they both occupied the same positions on their respective ships, Science Officer and First Officer.
Spock, knowing what he did of his family’s history knew that T’Pol would be unaware of her bond with the human engineer at this time. He wondered how to break the news to her. He decided that the best news would be to be blunt. He knew that he would have to show her the bond before she would believe it. As there had never been a bonding of this kind before she would need to have evidence. “T’Pol, I have personal information that you require. It is one of the reasons that I asked you to work in my quarters at this time.”
T’Pol considered this for a moment, not taking her eyes off of the sensory readings that she was analyzing. There was only one response that she could give. “Within the family is silence,” she said in Vulcan.
Spock nodded, she would listen now. “My psi rating is very high, high enough that had I wished I could have been accepted at the temple as a mind healer. What I knew of family history caused me enough concern for your health that I checked to see if your situation was the same as my universe's T’Pol. It is the same. You and Commander Tucker share a Pudvel-tor katelau tel.” (literal translation: chosen mate bond)
T’Pol froze for a fraction of a second before returning to her analysis. “That is not possible, Commander Tucker is Human.”
“Your bond with Commander Tucker is the first such bond in this universe but it is possible to have a Pudvel-tor katelau tel with a non-Vulcan. There are four such bonded pairs living on Vulcan in my universe. Two of those pairs are Human/Vulcan pairings. The first successful genetic engineering of a child between two spouses of differing species was first achieved sixty years ago. The oldest Vulcan/Human hybrid was born fifty years ago and has successfully passed into adulthood with little more than the expected difficulty that any sentient experiences at that time.” He did not bother to explain that the sentient in question was himself, nor how his betrothed’s rejection had resulted in his becoming bonded with his Captain. It wasn't completely unprecedented after all, just rare.
T'Pol paused the display she was reading. This was a far more important matter at the moment and deserved her direct attention. The analysis could be taken care of by another portion of her mind. "You are certain of your facts?" she asked. She did not bother to ask why he had included the information on genetically engineered children. To anyone who knew the facts of Vulcan biology the reason was obvious.
Spock nodded. "The T'Pol and Commander Trip of my universe died of complications of Pon Farr. Doctor McCoy is aware of the situation and has offered to engineer children for you and Commander Tucker as his duties are light at this time."
"When my mother told me of the possibility of the Pudvel-tor katelau tel she said that those who are blessed with it are drawn to meld with their bondmate. I have felt no such compulsion." T'Pol pointed out as she looked over the desk at Spock.
"The bond is recent. As it grows stronger the compulsion will begin. From the strength of the bond at this time and the length of time you have served on board the Enterprise, I was estimate that the bond began to form from your first physical contact with Commander Tucker," Spock said. "I would estimate that you should begin to feel the compulsion to meld in one year, three months and six days."
"Commander Tucker should be made aware of this situation," she said. She had no idea of how he would react. While they had become better acquainted since she had decided to stay on board Enterprise rather than return to Vulcan to marry Koss, he still confused her frequently.
"Captain Kirk is planning on informing him. As he is my bondmate, we felt that he would be the most appropriate person to give him the information. He has also informed your Captain that the two of you are bonded as you will need to see a Vulcan mind healer as soon as possible. He allowed Captain Archer to draw his own conclusions as to why our T'Pol and Charles Tucker died."
T'Pol considered the information and then returned to her work. "That is logical." As long as she did not meld with Trip before she was seen by a healer, the healer could confirm that she had made no attempt to bond with him. That would make more than just her family more comfortable with the situation. Her decision to not go through with her wedding to Koss had most of the Vulcans who were aware of her concerned that the Humans had irreparably damaged her logic. That had been the real reason for Koss' family's demand that she return to Vulcan for the marriage in the first place. They had been concerned for her trapped among the Humans. But if she truly was bonded to Trip in this manner, then all of Vulcan would understand that her logic was intact. The Pudvel-tor katelau tel would demand that she remain with her chosen mate until they wed and the bond was finalized. No one would dare to interfere with two who were thus bonded.
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Post by dragonfan on Mar 29, 2007 8:35:49 GMT -5
Chapter Two
Captain Archer hadn't been the only one of the bridge crew to see the name of the other ship. Hoshi Sato had as well. So rather than getting the other Enterprise's comm officer confused as to who she was, the hail she sent was a simple, "Hey, you guys ok over there?" in English.
To say that Lieutenant Uhura was startled was an understatement. She, like the rest of her bridge crew, had known that they had hit another ship. But no one had realized that it was a Federation ship. "This is Lieutenant Uhura of the Starship Enterprise. We're fine for the most part." That was true. Other than a few minor hull breaches, things jarred out of alignment or shorted out all over the ship and a ton of minor injuries they were fine. In fact there was nothing that Scotty and his repair crews and Dr. McCoy and his couldn't handle.
She heard a slight giggle in a female voice that was trying to remain professional. "This is Ensign Sato, also of the Starship Enterprise, only we're the NX-01. So where does your Enterprise come from? By the way, my Captain has his hands full right now but I'm sure he's going to want to talk to your Captain as soon as possible." Hoshi signed off. This was going to be an interesting conversation. That Enterprise was huge, larger than anything Earth had been able to build to date. They had to have come from one of the colonies started by the old generation ships before First Contact.
The crew of the Federation Starship Enterprise considered temporal and spatial anomalies old hat. As explorers of uncharted areas they tended to run into them frequently. So it was with a sigh that Uhura turned to Captain Kirk and explained to him that she had received a hail from the Enterprise NX-01. The very first Starship built by Humans before the Federation was founded some ten years later and just over one hundred years in their past.
Kirk sat in his command chair and cursed. He hated temporal anomalies with a passion. He could feel his bondmate's agreement, although Spock was deep in his work figuring the anomaly out. "Mr. Chekov, help Mr. Spock figure out how to get us back to where we belong, hopefully without disrupting the timeline." That was always the biggest problem. The other was of course the damage that they had and that they might have done to the other ship. "Uhura, do we have visual communications?"
"No sir, audio only. Our systems are fine, but theirs are damaged."
Kirk nodded, that was to be expected. The first Enterprise hadn't had shields for quite some time after she had been launched. That would mean that while their shields protected them from a direct hit; the other Enterprise would not have had that advantage and would have taken the impact from the collision directly on their hull. He got up to walk over to Uhura's station but before he could get there Spock interrupted, "Captain we are not in our own universe."
Kirk switched directions mid-step and headed for the science station. "Tell me," he ordered.
"I have scanned the Enterprise NX-01. There is a .00001% variance at the molecular levels that indicates this is parallel universe."
"Great," Kirk muttered as he rubbed his eyes. "Not only have we been thrown back in time but also into another universe. At least we don't have to worry about messing up our own timeline. Keep working on our little entry point problem." Kirk knew that if that wasn't shut down, then they'd really be in a mess. "Uhura put me through to Captain Archer. At least, I hope its Captain Archer. With that small of a variance it should be this universe's version of him."
She nodded, "Aye sir. Ensign Sato said that he had his hands full at the moment but she was certain that he would want to talk with you as soon as he could." Kirk simply nodded and leaned against her station. There was nothing else he could do at the moment. His officers had everything else under control at the moment and he was too sore from being bashed around in his chair to wait sitting down.
Hoshi turned to Captain Archer after receiving Uhura's hail. Just like Captain Kirk, he too was standing by his ship's comm station and nursing a few bruises. "I have the Enterprise NCC-1701 on audio sir, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk. Sorry sir, but we still can't get visual."
"That's fine Ensign, it isn't like we haven't done this before." He waited until she gave him a nod, "This is Captain Archer of the NX-01."
"This is Captain Kirk," Kirk responded. "Sorry to barge in like this, Captain but we really didn't have much of a choice. Our opponents didn't give us any warning. And as you can see, I hope, the combinations of our weapons had an unexpected effect."
"Yeah, that was kind of hard to miss," Archer said. Archer remembered what the rift had looked like as it had opened. "So if you don't mind my asking Captain, where are you and your crew from?" He hoped that they knew because he had never seen or heard of anything like that tear in space. From the look on T'Pol's face as she did her best to examine the phenomenon she hadn't heard of anything like it either.
"Well, if my Science Officer is correct, then we're from the next universe over in the branches of alternate realities. We're also from about one hundred years in the future from our Enterprise NX-01." Kirk hoped that wouldn't shock these people too much. He didn't know if they were even aware of the fact that alternate realities were real.
Archer turned to T'Pol in shock. "Is that even possible?" he asked.
T'Pol turned her scanners. While she was not able to confirm whether or not the other Enterprise was from an alternate universe, she was able to tell that there were Vulcans on board the other ship. In fact, not only were there Vulcans, there were also Andorians, Tellerites, and members of half a dozen other races that she recognized as well as another half a dozen life signs that she didn't. "Although I cannot confirm his assertion Captain, I can confirm that this Enterprise has a mixed species crew, including Vulcans, Humans and other races I recognize, has more advanced technology and personally sir, I do believe that we would have had a visit from a certain crewmember if they were from our timeline."
Archer grimaced. He too, did not enjoy visits from Crewman Daniels, who was a Temporal Agent. He really did not understand temporal mechanics and the intricacies of time travel. He also did not want to run into a situation that required that he learn more than he already knew. "Lieutenant Reed, have your people be on the look out for Daniels just in case."
Malcolm nodded and sent out the alert. His security forces didn't know why Daniels was so important, but they did know that he tended to show up when the stuff hit the fan, so to speak. They already had their orders when it came to him.
Archer once more turned to Hoshi. "Ok Captain. My Science Officers says that it's possible, so I'll take your word for it. How badly damaged is your ship? I seriously doubt my engineering teams have the technical know how to help yours with repairs but we do know where you can get supplies if you need them."
"Thanks for the offer, but my Chief has repairs under control. I would like to offer crews to help with your repairs though. After all, we were the ones who hit you," Kirk offered.
"That sounds like a great idea to me Captain," Archer replied. "Would you like join them in coming over? I have had enough experiences with time travelers to know not to ask if I can join you on your ship."
Kirk laughed at the annoyance that could be heard in Archer's voice. He too had far too much experience with time travel. "The good news here is that since we're from another reality, we can throw that rule out the air lock. Send Lieutenant Uhura your transporter room coordinates and she'll send you ours. When the engineering crews have finished beaming over, then you can come over here. Does that sound alright?"
"That sounds like a fine idea," Archer said making sure that Kirk didn't hear the spiders crawling up and down his spine at the idea of casual use of the transporter. "Archer out. Don't start Lieutenant," he waved at Malcolm without turning around. "I know and I won't go over there without you." 'Sometimes it sucked to be the Captain,' he thought. But the rules were the rules and although what evidence they had said that the other Enterprise was friendly, didn't make it so. They had learned that much over the last six months.
Malcolm nodded and thanked God silently that his Captain was finally beginning to realize that security was important. "Yes sir," he said and sent the message to his second that he and the Captain would be leaving the ship while repair crews would be sent over from the other ship. "Let's hope we don't end up regretting this," he whispered to himself. Then he started running the things that could go wrong through his mind. He needed to be prepared for every eventuality.
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Post by dragonfan on Jul 12, 2007 7:28:35 GMT -5
Chapter Three
It turned out that Captain Kirk was among the first members of his crew to transport over to the NX-01. But the first one off the transporter pad was neither the Captain nor a repair tech. He was a doctor if Archer was to guess as the first thing out of the Human man's mouth was a demand to know where the sickbay was. He was loaded down with equipment and the man and woman who followed him (both Human and wearing the same color blue tunics as part of their uniform as the doctor was) were loaded down with large boxes. "Malcolm," Archer snapped out and ordered him to take the man down to sickbay with a toss of his head. There was no way that he was going to turn down medical help, especially medical help that was much more advanced than what was available to Phlox.
"This way sir," Malcolm wasted no time. He too understood what a difference a doctor from a hundred years in the future could do. And right now Phlox needed the help. Although they did not have heavy casualties, there were several crewmen who had been seriously injured when bulkheads had crumpled with the impact. That part of the ship was sealed off now and had most of the engineering crew working on repairs.
While Archer and Malcolm were busy, another man came directly up to Trip. "Commander Tucker, I'm Montgomery Scott, Chief Engineer. You can call me Scotty. Our scans showed that your engines are off line as well as the damage we did to your lass's hull. The next group over are hull specialists. They'll have her hull fixed as fast as is mortally possible."
"Call me Trip," he said as he shook hands with the other engineer. "Are you sure your ship is going to be alright without you? Not that I don't welcome the help, but I don't want to pull you away if your ship needs you." He was going through the motions even as he made the offer because he already knew the answer. He knew that look on a man or woman's face. The man was itching to get his hands on Trip's engines. His mother might have raised him as a gentleman, but his father was the one who had raised the engineer.
"Ach," Scotty waved the politeness aside. "All we've got to do over on my lass are a few run of the mill repairs. Now, an off line engine from another universe, that's a challenge!" Grinning in complete understanding the two left the transporter room and Archer heard Trip call down to Engineering for a guide for the repair crews that would be transporting momentarily.
Shaking his head at how quickly the room had been emptied of four of the six people transported, Archer turned back to the two men who were left. Both wore the black boots and pants that seemed to be the standard for the uniforms these people wore but while one wore a blue tunic similar to the doctor and his two people, the other wore one in a gold color. The one in gold was Human; the one in blue was Vulcan. Archer wondered who they were. "I'm Captain Archer," he said as he held out his hand to the Human.
"I'm Captain Kirk and this is my First and Science Officer, Mr. Spock," Kirk said as he shook Archer's hand.
"Welcome on board," Archer said and nodded to Mr. Spock. He never could get his hand around the sign native Vulcans used to greet and say good bye to one another, but he had learned that a polite nod could work as well.
As they greeted each other, the engineering ensign assigned as a guide to the 1701's repair crew entered the room. Just after the woman entered the room at a run, the first repair crew transported over. The inevitable shuffling happened, the repair crews heading for the damaged decks and Archer taking Kirk and Spock up to the situation room. None of the men were surprised to find T'Pol there and waiting with both the casualty and damage reports.
While Kirk and Archer were prepared to settle down and go over the reports, Spock did something that surprised the rest of the group. He greeted T'Pol as a member of his immediate family. Although she was surprised at his actions, T'Pol returned the greeting, crossing her hands at the wrist and pressing her palms to his. The contact was enough for both telepaths to learn that they were of the same family, within the same bloodlines and clan. It also gave Spock information that T'Pol would need to know if she was to survive. It only took a moment for him to share the information with his bondmate. Kirk gave Spock the faintest nod to tell him that he would come up with something before the small group dove into learning as much as they could about the current situation.
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While their scientific and engineering crews were so busy, Captains Kirk and Archer were sitting in the Federation’s Enterprise mess hall having lunch. They knew better than to get in their officers’ way. “A federation of different planets structured in a similar manner to the old United States,” Archer said as he shook his head. “That sounds a lot like something I’d like to see happen here.” He glanced one more time around the mess hall, checking out the crew members. While only two members of his crew were alien, here the numbers were far higher. They even had an alien that looked like nothing more than a giant pan pizza made out of rock to him!
Jim Kirk grinned, knowing what he was thinking as he looked at the Horta Ensign who was currently dipping a burnt out something or other into something that Jim didn’t want to look at too closely. It wasn’t that he was squeamish, just that he tended to wonder what things aliens were eating tasted like. Scotty had a deal with the medical department that oversaw the crew’s diets. Any metal or alloy parts that he couldn’t salvage went to the Ensign. His diet was made up of metals and lacked certain elements that couldn’t be replicated. “His name can’t be pronounced by humans so we call him Jake. He thinks it’s funny.”
Archer shook his head. “And T’Pol says that our universes are so close that the only difference she can find is that I have a different cook on board my ship than the one your Captain Archer did?”
Kirk nodded as he took another bite of his sandwich. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you. We know that we aren’t in our own past. We also know that certain things are going to happen in your future because the events that led up to those events haven’t changed from our universe to yours.” Kirk sighed, this wasn’t easy to talk about both because of Vulcan rules of privacy and because he was meddling. If the consequences weren’t so dire he wouldn’t have said a word. But he and Spock couldn’t sentence T’Pol or Commander Tucker to death because of information that they didn’t have, information that the men from the Federation did have. McCoy also had the necessary skills to correct the upcoming situation.
“You are going to lose T’Pol and Tucker,” Kirk decided to just stick to the facts and let Archer think what he would. “Their deaths seriously undermined the effort to establish our Federation. It took a valiant effort on the parts of the respective diplomats to correct the damage done. They died because they are bondmates. That is; they are married in the Vulcan fashion by a permanent mental bond. When one half of a bonded pair dies, quite often the other dies as well from the shock.”
“Are you sure that this is going to happen to my T’Pol and Trip?” Archer interrupted urgently. They were both friends of his and he didn’t want to lose them. He didn’t want to lose any of his crew period.
Kirk nodded. “Spock is not only one of the strongest telepaths on my ship he’s also one of the strongest to ever leave Vulcan. He’s also T’Pol’s great grand nephew, her older sister T’Pau’s grandson. He’s more aware of the history between those two than most people. He personally checked to see if your two were bonded and they are.” Kirk waved off the objection he could see forming. “He didn’t have to invade their minds or privacy to check. Bonded couples give off a kind of resonance in their mental signature. He picked up on it when he and T'Pol greeted each other."
“Now, they don’t know about it because this is the first time a non-Vulcan has ever formed a spontaneous bond with a Vulcan. It is very rare but it does happen. There are less than a handful of bondmates in the current Vulcan population that I am aware of that have bonded due to spontaneous bonds. T’Pol and Tucker need to go and see a Vulcan healer as soon as you can get them to one. He or she will be able to establish that the bond is a spontaneous one and not one that T’Pol established deliberately. That is the one piece of information that needs to get back to Vulcan and to Earth; that it was something that happened because their minds are especially attuned to each other.”
Archer shuddered. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if anyone thought that T’Pol had deliberately bonded with Trip. She was in enough trouble with her people for just wanting to stay on the Enterprise instead of leaving to get married. “There are still so many bigots out there,” he whispered. He knew that there were as many Vulcans that didn’t approve of Humans as there were Humans that didn’t approve of Vulcans. Oh they said it differently, couching their bigotry in isolationism and other such political stances, but it came down to the fact that they just didn’t like the fact that the other existed. It wouldn’t surprise him a bit to find out that someone of either race had killed both Kirk’s Trip and T’Pol for daring to get married.
Kirk wasn’t surprised that was the conclusion that Archer had jumped to. He remembered what the political climate was in this time from his history classes at the academy. As long as Archer was thinking about the political reasons he wouldn’t bother to ask about Vulcan biology which had been the cause of his Commander Tucker and SubCommander T’Pol’s deaths. Separated by the distance between their two home planets and unable to get to each other, T’Pol had died from an unconsummated Pon Farr, the Vulcan mating cycle. Not that it would have helped if they were in the same house either, as a Vulcan female could not complete the Pon Farr until she conceived a child.
According to McCoy, that was not an option with the state of this universe’s current medical technology. Vulcan/Human hybrids, such as Spock, had to be genetically engineered in a lab. McCoy not only had access to the necessary technology, he also had the necessary skills as he had consulted frequently with the doctors who had made Spock possible. As the first Vulcan/Human hybrid to reach physical maturity, Spock was considered to be the first success of the genetic engineering of hybrid offspring.
“How am I going to lose them?” Archer wanted to know.
Kirk shook his head. That was something he didn’t want Archer to be thinking about. “I’m not going to tell you. I’m going to tell Commander Tucker myself. Spock is telling T’Pol right now. The only reason you were included at all is that you are their Captain. They need to hear this from us. As I said, Spock is family and as I’m Spock’s bondmate I can talk to Tucker about what it means to be bonded to a Vulcan better than they can.”
Archer started in surprise. “The two of you are bondmates?” While he had noticed that the two men had an exceptional rapport, something he envied, he hadn’t thought that either man was involved with the other.
Kirk smiled, that was a frequent reaction when he had to explain his and Spock’s status. “It was something quite similar to the situation that T’Pol and Tucker find themselves in. Spock and I had to mind meld too many times in the line of duty. When his betrothal bond was broken our bond took over. As it saved Spock’s life and I spend more time with him than I do anyone I might have married I don’t think it is that bad a situation. The difference is that T’Pol and Tucker haven’t melded and that the spontaneous bond took precedence over her betrothal bond naturally.
“Now, since my CMO has the skills they'll need, he’s volunteered to do a check up on them to make sure that nothing is going wrong with the physical aspects of their bonding. That isn’t really a primary concern but he can also take some samples and genetically engineer some children for them before we leave, as long as there aren’t any unforeseen complications.”
Archer was stunned. “He can do that?”
Kirk nodded. “The medical technology wasn’t available in our universe until fifty years ago but in the last decade it has become quite common for starbases and the larger starships to have such medical tech on board, especially if there are people of mixed heritage serving in the crew.”
“By mixed heritage, you mean people whose parents aren’t the same species?” Archer asked as they got up to turn their trays in.
“Yes, it isn’t common but statistically people of mixed heritage are more likely to go into space and even more likely to end up in Starfleet.” Kirk placed his tray into the recycler and then led the way out of the mess hall. “Because of both their unique medical needs and the difficulty in meeting the various medical needs of more than a few species on any one given ship, Starfleet tries to make sure that our sickbays are as up to date as possible. Our doctors have also had to use the tech for other things such as engineering cures for alien viruses and the like.”
“Well, I know that Trip would want to have a family if it was an option,” Archer admitted. He also knew just how much in love his Chief Engineer was with his First Officer. What he didn’t know was how much that love was returned. Would T’Pol reject Trip even with this Vulcan bond thing?
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Post by dragonfan on Jul 12, 2007 7:29:12 GMT -5
Chapter Four
As the Federation Enterprise’s computers were far superior to her own, being more than a century advanced in technology, T’Pol had agreed with Spock to retire to his quarters to work on the problem of the anomaly. There was no question of impropriety as Spock was not only bonded, but a member of her own family. She did find it however a bit unsettling that her grand nephew was older than she was. Spock wasn’t that much older, only a decade, but she still found it unsettling. While T’Pau was the eldest of their parent's children and she the youngest, her sister had only given birth to her nephew Sarak twenty years ago!
They sat facing one another across a desk fitted with two terminals, his configured for his own use and her configured for his bondmate's. The advances in technology were enough that she found herself suppressing feelings of intimidation as she was aware that this computer had not been upgraded. 'Spock is this ship's Science Officer and it is only logical to be slower due to the differences in technology,' she told herself. The thought did not help her feelings of inadequacy no matter how hard she tried to suppress them, especially as they both occupied the same positions on their respective ships, Science Officer and First Officer.
Spock knew that T’Pol would be unaware of her bond with the human engineer as it was too weak at this time to register in her conscious mind. He had the responsibility of informing her as he was the first telepath to become aware of it. More importantly, she was his father's mother's sister and it was something that she should be told from a member of her family. He decided that the best way to break the news to her would be to be blunt. As there had never been a bonding of this kind before in this universe she would need to have evidence. “T’Pol, I have personal information that you require. It is one of the reasons that I asked you to work in my quarters at this time.”
T’Pol considered this for a moment, not taking her eyes off of the sensory readings that she was analyzing. There was only one response that she could give. “Within the family is silence,” she said in Vulcan. She was referring to the Vulcan tradition that anything personal said within the family was ever repeated to outsiders or even to each other unless it was absolutely necessary.
Spock nodded; he knew that she would listen now. “My psi rating is very high, high enough that had I wished I could have been accepted at the temple as a mind healer. What I knew of family history caused me enough concern for your health that I checked to see if your situation was the same as my universe's T’Pol. It is the same. You and Commander Tucker share a Pudvel-tor katelau tel.” (literal translation: chosen mate bond)
T’Pol froze for a fraction of a second before returning to her analysis. “That is not possible, Commander Tucker is Human. Our relationship is also far too confrontational to make such a situation possible."
“Your bond with Commander Tucker is the first such bond in this universe but it is possible to have a Pudvel-tor katelau tel with a non-Vulcan. There are four such bonded pairs living on Vulcan in my universe. Two of those pairs are Human/Vulcan pairings. Having a confrontational relationship with a Human does not preclude friendship with that Human, nor does it preclude the possibility of bonding with that Human. Dr. McCoy and I have just such a friendship, although I would never wish to be bonded with him," Spock admitted.
"The first successful genetic engineering of a child between two spouses of differing species was first achieved sixty years ago. The oldest Vulcan/Human hybrid was born fifty years ago and has successfully passed into adulthood with little more than the expected difficulty that any sentient experiences at that time.” He did not bother to explain that the sentient in question was himself, nor how his betrothed’s rejection had resulted in his becoming bonded with his Captain. It wasn't completely unprecedented after all, just rare.
T'Pol paused the display she was reading. This was a far more important matter at the moment and deserved her direct attention. The analysis could be taken care of by another portion of her mind. "You are certain of your facts?" she asked. She did not bother to ask why he had included the information on genetically engineered children. To anyone who knew the facts of Vulcan biology the reason was obvious.
Spock nodded. "The T'Pol and Commander Trip of my universe died of complications of Pon Farr. No one was aware of their bond until it was too late. That is the reason that I opened my awareness to discover if you were bonded or not and if it was to Commander Tucker. Doctor McCoy is aware of the situation and has offered to engineer children for you and Commander Tucker as his duties are light at this time."
And they were light because of the five seriously wounded crewmen; all were now in stable condition and well on their way to recovery. The only thing Dr. McCoy was doing was exchanging medical knowledge with Dr. Phlox and making regular check ups on his patients. His exact words were when the situation had been explained to him were, "Get those two in here!" He had then turned around and began giving detailed information to Dr. Phlox about Vulcan/Human mating, pregnancies and expected growth of hybrid offspring that he could think of.
"When my mother told me of the possibility of the Pudvel-tor katelau tel she said that those who are blessed with it are drawn to meld with their bondmate. I have felt no such compulsion." T'Pol pointed out as she looked over the desk at Spock.
"The bond is recent and currently is no stronger than a betrothal bond. I could find no other trace of a bond. As it grows stronger the compulsion will begin. From the strength of the bond at this time and the length of time you have served on board the Enterprise, I was estimate that the bond began to form from your first physical contact with Commander Tucker," Spock said. "I would estimate that you should begin to feel the compulsion to meld in one year, three months and six days."
"Commander Tucker should be made aware of this situation," she said. She had no idea of how he would react. She turned back to her duties to give her time to consider the situation. While they had become better acquainted since she had decided to stay on board Enterprise rather than return to Vulcan to marry Koss, he still confused her frequently. Her thought of Koss reminded her that Spock had said that he could find no trace of her betrothal bond to him. She was hard pressed to suppress a sigh of relief. Even though she found Commander Tucker to be overly emotional, stubborn and possessing a rather strong personal smell, bonding with him would be far preferable to bonding with Koss. She found thoughts of Koss to be distasteful. Bonding with any male of any species would be preferable to bonding with Koss. She was fortunate that this situation would release her with no insult to either of their families.
"Captain Kirk is planning on informing him. As Jim is my bondmate, we felt that he would be the most appropriate person to give Commander Tucker the information. He has also informed your Captain that the two of you are bonded as you will need to see a Vulcan mind healer as soon as possible so that your bond may documented. He allowed Captain Archer to draw his own conclusions as to why our T'Pol and Charles Tucker died."
T'Pol considered the information. "That is logical." As long as she did not meld with Commander Tucker before she was seen by a healer, the healer could confirm that she had made no attempt to bond with him. That would make the Humans more comfortable with the situation. The Vulcan people would find the situation fascinating, she did not doubt. If she truly was bonded to Trip in this manner, then all of Vulcan would have to adjust their thinking about the Humans. She and Commander Tucker however would be spared the intense scrutiny of two worlds. They would be staying on Enterprise. The Pudvel-tor katelau tel would demand that she remain with her chosen mate until they wed and the bond was finalized. No one would dare to interfere with two who were thus bonded.
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Post by dragonfan on Jul 12, 2007 7:43:24 GMT -5
Chapter Five
Trip wasn't happy and wasn't afraid to show it. "Captain, I don't have time! I have blown out relays all over this ship, not to mention all of the crumpled bulkheads and the like. That's what happens when a ship gets hit with one that's four times its size! I just thank God that my engines were off line and we were dead in the water. If they hadn't been we wouldn't be here!" he huffed as he dragged his head out from under a power relay that he had just finished repairing. "I know that it wasn't anybody's fault but I've got too much to do to make time for chit chat!"
"He's right sir," Scotty chimed in from where he was kneeling on top of the warp engines. He was busy replacing crystals and tickled to have the chance to do it. Lieutenant Hess was right next to him, watching in awe. The only person she had ever seen that had this sort of hands on talent with warp engines was her own Chief Engineer.
"Try it now!" Trip called up.
Kirk sighed. That wasn't something he could deny. This Enterprise didn't even have shields to soften the blow his ship had dealt her. Fortunately he was very experienced with Starfleet Engineers and he wasn't the youngest Captain in the fleet for nothing. "I understand that. I just need to talk to you privately. Is there an out of the way repair that you can work on? I may not be an engineer, but I can hand you tools," he offered. "I wouldn't be asking this if it wasn't of the utmost importance."
"Ok, that I can do," Trip agreed. He gathered up his tools. "Hess, I'm going to check on the plasma conduits."
"Understood sir," she said and reorganized her PADD with the repair list. She wasn't at all put out about getting to know Scotty better while Trip took on the repairs in the cramped Jeffries tube.
Trip hit a comm unit on his way out of main engineering and spoke to Hoshi. "Hoshi, if anyone needs him, Captain Kirk is with me. We're going to be out of communication contact for a while in the Jeffries tube above the starboard plasma conduit so send someone down if you need either of us."
"Understood Commander," Hoshi said. She wondered why Captain Kirk was helping Commander Tucker. He wasn't an engineer.
Trip led Kirk down to the Jeffries tube and crawled in ahead of him. The shaft was a tight fit for the two men, but Trip knew just how to situate them both so as to make the best use out of their respective jobs. So he stopped Kirk at the access panel, crawled forward and then turned himself around so that he was lying down in the proper position to remove the panel before starting on his repairs.
He removed the hatch and handed it to Kirk. "Here, set that up against the wall out of the way and hand me that scanner." He pointed at the device on the top of the tool kit.
"Here you are," Kirk said. He was thankful that the best engineers were like Vulcans and able to multitask several very intricate things at once. "All right, now what do you know about Vulcans, customs and marriage practices?"
"They have arraigned marriages that are set at age seven. And it's a big insult for a person to reject their parent's choice," Trip recited. He knew that much from learning about T'Pol's betrothal and her decision to stay on the Enterprise.
"Do you know that Vulcans are touch telepaths?" Kirk asked.
"Yeah, that's why they don't like to be touched. I found that one out a while back." Trip smirked as he recalled the lecture Hoshi had read Malcolm over a bit of gossip he had tried to pass on to her over lunch. "Hand me that spanner," he said as he passed the scanner back.
"Good that gives me a starting point" Kirk said as he switched tools for the engineer. "When Vulcans are betrothed, they are brought in front of a priest and a mental link is set between the children's minds. That is the betrothal bond. Under normal conditions, the betrothal bond will become a marriage bond when the couple gets married through a deeper mind meld. Vulcans consider the bond between mates to be sacred. Interfering in someone else's bond is one of the very few offenses that can still get you executed on Vulcan."
"Oh sh*t, don't tell me that I'm going to get executed for telling T'Pol she shouldn't have to go back to Vulcan to get married to that guy Koss if she didn't want to!" Trip asked. He didn't let his worry extend to his repairs. He kept his hands steady and working.
Kirk laughed, "No, because you didn't try to break her bond. You just told her to go with what she wanted. I'm talking about actively interfering, like a telepath going in and trying to break a bond. The only ones allowed to break a betrothal bond are the two adults involved. No one is allowed to break a marriage bond."
"Ok, so if I'm not in trouble for messing around with T'Pol's bond to Koss, then where are you going with this?" Trip asked.
"I'm telling you this because there is another type of mating bond. It only happens to someone who is either unbonded or has a betrothal bond, not someone who has a full marriage bond. It is rare and is considered to be the most sacred type of bond that a Vulcan can have. It is called the chosen mate bond. What happens is that a spontaneous mating bond forms between two people whose minds are especially attuned to each other. If the people involved are already betrothed, the spontaneous bond will overwhelm and break the betrothal bonds on its own." Here Kirk paused. He had already seen that Tucker and T'Pol were working on a similar relationship to Spock and McCoy's. He wasn't sure that this news would go over too well. "You and T'Pol have begun to form a chosen mate bond."
That did what the imagined threat to his life had not. Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III stopped working.
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Captain Archer and Lt. Malcolm Reed were in the captain's ready room going over the repairs to the ship's weapons systems when Trip walked in. Or rather he stumbled in. Archer and Malcolm watched as he went directly to the maintenance hatch for the communications circuitry where Archer's secret stash of scotch was hidden. He grabbed the bottle, twisted the top off and took a large gulp before replacing the hatch. He did not however, replace the scotch. That he took with him when he went to sit down on the other side of the table from Archer next to Malcolm. "Why do these things always happen to me?" he moaned.
"What happened this time?" Malcolm asked concerned. He couldn't imagine what could have happened to Trip now. They were in the middle of repairs and he should have been too busy for any sort of accident/medical problem/female interaction that Malcolm knew to watch out for. He knew the list both from experience and the tall tales he had been told from those who wanted him to be aware of just how much a trouble magnet one particular Starfleet Engineer could be. The man had a history going back to junior high school it seemed and as the Enterprise's Armory Officer it was his job to make sure that Trip landed in as little trouble as possible.
Trip put his head down on the table. He didn't want to look anyone in the face when he told this one, not even his two closest friends. "My dad's gonna kill me. Hell, I ain't even sure my momma's gonna leave anything left for him to kill!" he moaned.
Archer, who thanks to Captain Kirk knew what was coming, started to snicker. "It isn't that bad, Trip."
"Jon, this makes getting pregnant look like a splinter!" Trip moaned before taking another swig from the bottle and setting his head down on the table once more. He had never been able to live that one down and when this one got out!
'Whatever happened this time should be really good,' Malcolm snickered to himself. Struggling to keep the smirk off of his face, he laid a hand on Trip's shoulder. This was obviously one of those times that rank could be laid aside. Besides if he insisted on being properly military right now there was no way he'd ever find out what happened! "I'm sure that he's right, Trip. It can't be that bad."
"Malcolm, T'Pol's and my subconscious decided to go and get hitched without asking us!" Trip growled. That did it for Malcolm's reserve. He joined Archer in fits of laughter. "It ain't funny guys! Vulcan's don't get divorced. Once you're hitched that it." That silenced the laughter abruptly. "Yeah, now you're getting the picture." he grumbled before taking another gulp of scotch.
"Isn't there any way the two of you can get out of it?" Malcolm asked seriously. This was an altogether different situation. Not that he believed for one minute that they should get divorced. The last few months had shown him that those two not only deserved each other, they were also madly in love even if they didn't know it.
"Nope, and any telepath who tries to break a 'chosen mate bond'," Trip made quote marks around the name, "is committing a death sentence felony under Vulcan law."
If there had been any laughter still hiding in the two men, that silenced it. "Why on earth would it be a death sentence felony?" Malcolm wanted to know. He hadn't known that Vulcans even had crimes they considered serious enough to have a death sentence for. They were all what he called modified pacifists; they wouldn't harm others until they had been attacked. Of course they weren't stupid enough to think that they wouldn't be attacked either, given their planet's history. That was why they maintained a military. They just watched and waited for their opponent to make the first move before they crushed them.
"The telepathic bond between mates is considered sacred. Anyone who tries to break it not only harms the bondmates involved, possibly even killing them, they are also going against hundreds of thousands of years of religion and custom. The bond goes so far back into Vulcan pre-history that no one knows when it got started." Trip sighed, "Basically when a marriage bond is completed the mates become almost a single entity, mentally speaking; or at least as close to it as is possible in this universe."
"Captain Kirk told me that if one half of a bonded pair dies, then most of the time the other dies as well from the shock," Archer murmured.
"I don't doubt it," Trip said. "It must be like having half of your soul ripped away." He sighed and rubbed his face. It wasn't like he hated T'Pol after all, he just wasn't sure he liked her some times. Ok, a lot of the time but it had to get better right? His and her minds had gotten along well enough to get them into this mess. "Dr. McCoy is waiting for me down in Sickbay. He's going to see if he can engineer us some kids in case we decide later we want them." He screwed the cap back onto the bottle and shoved it over to Archer. It wouldn't do to go over there drunk and he still had more repairs to do.
"What do you mean by that, in case you want them later?" Malcolm wanted to know.
"He's going to give us embryos in stasis boxes. That way T'Pol can carry the kids to term when we're ready. It also means that while he'll make sure that the embryos are viable, they'll still be young enough that they can be terminated if we don't want children. They'll only be a few hours old when they go into stasis. They'll still be at just the mass of cells stage, so we won't have a problem with termination." At that stage both of their cultures did not consider them children yet as they were incapable of independent movement. Trip knew though that they would be having the kids in spite of that fact. Somewhere at the base of his gut, the idea of his wife having someone else's kids when she could be having his didn't set well. This was the only time the technology would be available to them, so they had to do it now. He'd better get over there and let the docs get to work.
He also hadn't been joking about his parents. While his father's views about Vulcans were softening, (mostly due to his letters about his own growing respect for T'Pol) it was the thought of telling his mother that he'd gone and gotten married without telling her that really had his stomach in a mess. Well, that and the scotch. There was also the fact that this was all happening too fast. He just wished that he and T'Pol had more time to work on their relationship before getting hit with this.
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Post by dragonfan on Jul 12, 2007 8:33:46 GMT -5
Chapter 6
Although their patients were recovering nicely, neither Doctor Phlox nor Doctor McCoy wanted to leave Sickbay before they had recovered. That meant that Commander Tucker and SubCommander T'Pol were asked to come to the NX-01's Sickbay for their exams. Reassured that the exams would not take long, they complied while Captains Archer and Kirk met with Mr. Spock and Mr. Scott. They would join the conference when the exams were complete.
Trip found that he couldn't look T'Pol in the face. It didn't help that she was staring at him like he was some kind of new science specimen that she had picked up off of a new planet somewhere. Of all the things that he had thought about doing with the woman, having kids wasn't one of them. That was one of the reasons he was so abrupt with the doctors when he was told to get up on the biobed. "Can you make this quick, doc? I got a ton of work to do."
Dr. Leonard McCoy wasn't the small town, hillbilly sawbones he pretended to be. Not only did he have multiple medical degrees, he also had a ton of experience in interspecies interaction, from 'hi I'm about to kill you' to 'gees you're the sexiest thing I've ever seen' and everything in between. Tucker and T'Pol weren't the first couple he'd seen who had been thrown together unexpectedly into a marriage. From what he could see of their body language, he figured these two had a pretty good shot. "Don't you worry son," he said turning on the charm. "Your part in all of this is going to take just a few minutes. I'd recommend that you start reading up on Vulcan culture and history as soon as you can though. There's a lot that Vulcans don't talk about outside of their families that you're going to need to know in the future."
T'Pol was still learning about Human body language, but she understood the look Doctor McCoy shot her when he said this. On the one hand, she was relieved that he was not going to explain in front of everyone about Pon Farr. On the other hand, it was clear that he expected her to inform Commander Tucker about it, something that she really did not wish to do.
"Sure doc," Trip said. He didn't know what Dr. McCoy was talking about but he was sure that T'Pol did. The way she looked right now was almost identical to the look she was wearing when they'd had their talk about her engagement. Trip watched carefully as Dr. McCoy proceeded with his scans, more interested in the machinery the doctor was using than in what was actually happening. True to his word, Dr. McCoy's scans only took a couple of minutes. But then to Trip's embarrassment the doctor handed him a sample jar. 'It isn't like you didn't know this was coming,' he though to himself as he left to fill the jar.
T'Pol got onto the biobed as Trip left the room. "I thank you for your discretion doctor," she said. She had noticed the Human courtesy facilitated interaction among Humans in a way that she still did not quite understand.
"Of course SubCommander," he said. "You realize of course that he does need to have that information."
"Yes, I plan on ensuring that he is given the proper information after our bond is confirmed. Although Spock has informed me of its existence, I still do not believe it is possible. Commander Tucker and I are far too often adversaries for me to consider us to be compatible as bondmates. Spock tells me that such a relationship is possible for a Human though. Do the two of you really have such a friendship?" T'Pol asked.
McCoy grinned. He had wondered when someone would ask about that. "We are indeed friends but most of our arguments aren't just for fun. There is a real medical reason for them." He turned a more sober face to T'Pol. Hopefully he could convince this young woman not to make the same mistake that Sarak had. "Spock needs to express his emotions but he was raised as though he was a full Vulcan."
"He is not?" T'Pol was stunned. She hadn't been aware that Spock could have been anything else.
"His mother is Human. And living as a though he wasn't half Human has put a great deal of stress on the Human parts of his biology, such as his digestive systems. You see a Human literally needs to express his or her emotions or the stress of suppressing those emotions can lead to some serious medical problems. Since I came on board the Enterprise and we started our adversarial friendship, his stress levels have dropped by 50%." McCoy was actually proud of that. It hadn't been easy to get Spock to let loose even a little. "Now, mind you, he's as much Vulcan as he is Human, so having him really let go would be a very bad idea. But he does need to let his emotions out a little bit just as a stress relief."
"As he was genetically engineered, why not eliminate those systems that would be affected by emotional control?" she asked. The idea that Humans needed to express their emotions was something she had never considered before. As emotional as they were, she had often wondered how they had managed to come as far as they had without assistance. Perhaps there was something she was missing in this equation.
"Because some Human biological systems are much more efficient," Doctor Phlox said enthusiastically. "Especially the digestive system. A Human can survive for almost a month without food while a Vulcan can survive for only about a week and a half. A Human requires far more water of course than a Vulcan, but a Human can digest things that contain water that a Vulcan can't. In fact, a Human can eat a much larger variety than a great number of species. Having to live a little more emotional than the average Vulcan shouldn't be a problem." Phlox didn't see it as one and couldn't believe that any physician would either. But apparently someone hadn't listened to those who had designed the poor man.
Trip walked in for the last part of the conversation. To his embarrassment, filling the jar hadn't taken long, mostly because the picture he'd gotten into his head of T'Pol in the decon chamber had helped. He wasn't sure how to deal with that. On the one hand, this woman was supposed to be his wife. On the other hand, this was T'Pol! She was the most frustrating and infuriating woman he knew. He knew he had a tendency to fall for strong women but she was a Vulcan. And he had to admit, if only to himself, that she had become less of 'the Vulcan' to him over the last few months than simply T'Pol, a fellow officer.
The knowledge that Spock was half human was actually comforting to Trip. He had talked to Scotty quite a bit about their situation and Scotty had absolute faith in Spock to come up with the answer of what was needed to close the rift before it destroyed both of their universes. According to Scotty, Spock was one of the smartest men in Starfleet and without a doubt he was the best First Officer. Their crew had been to the Klingon Homeworld to Hell and back again, several times, because of the senior officers without failing their missions or loosing too many members of their crew. If his kids could be even half as good a person as Spock was, then he wouldn't have to worry too much about them and T'Pol he was sure would see the logic in raising them to express some emotion. He wouldn't be stuck in a house full of non-emotional Vulcans, all looking down on him for venting.
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Post by dragonfan on Jul 12, 2007 8:44:48 GMT -5
Chapter 7
Trip was glad to put the doctors' visit behind him. He and T'Pol arrived in the situation room and immediately dived into the problem of the rift. "Here is the data we have collected on the formation of the rift," Spock said as he started the simulation.
"Closing the rift will require an implosion," T'Pol began only to be interrupted by Trip.
"On both sides. Scotty whatcha got that can do the job on your end?" he asked.
Archer stepped back to watch as Trip, Malcolm, Scotty and Lt. Kyle, the 1701's Weapons Officer, started throwing around weapons specs, power equations, fuel components and Lord only knew what else as they quickly left him behind. He did notice however, that T'Pol, although few would realize it, was not pleased to have been interrupted. 'Trip's in the doghouse again and he doesn't even realize it,' Archer thought, hiding a smile. He knew that they didn't realize how often they acted like they were married. Then he sobered as he realized that to Vulcans, they were. 'Then again, maybe he's provoking another fight. I swear those two enjoy fighting with each other more than any other couple I've ever seen.'
Trip and T'Pol's 'discussions' had already reached legendary status on board. Officially he had to ignore the crew's betting pool on the outcome of the fights between the two senior officers. Unofficially however, Archer was the score keeper for Ensign Sato who had been persuaded to keep the record book. This served two purposes. The first was that it created an informal connection with his crew, one that let them see him as human rather than a figure head. The second was that if there was ever a fight that the crew shouldn't know about he could make sure that they didn't, at least as long as Trip and T'Pol behaved themselves in public.
Archer's musings were interrupted when Kirk leaned over to Spock and said, "I thought they weren't far enough along to hear each other's thoughts yet."
"Not with any consistency yet, however both spontaneously following a single thought process is inevitable now that they are aware of the bond," Spock informed him. Archer wondered who that information was for. They were certainly bonded enough that they didn't need to speak out loud to each other. Then he looked over at T'Pol. Although she wasn't participating in the quiet discussion, he could see the minute relaxation of her shoulders. It seemed that Trip would get away with it this time.
In no time at all the four men had the plans for the weapons they needed worked out. "Sirs, we need to switch around a few components but we can have the torpedoes we need built within six hours," Scotty said. He turned to the Science Officers. "How long before the rift is critical?"
"Six hours, thirteen minutes, eight seconds," both Vulcans answered.
"Don't waste time here," Archer said to Trip and Malcolm.
Kirk merely said, "Go Scotty." Scotty grabbed Kyle and they ran for the turbolift. Malcolm and Trip were already at their stations, pulling up component lists and sending orders to their people on where to deliver the parts.
"T'Pol keep an eye on that rift," Archer ordered. "Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, it has been a pleasure to meet you and your crew." He shook hands with Kirk and nodded to Spock. As much as he would like to spend a few more hours with Kirk, the sooner the 1701 left, the better for both universes and they all had work to do. With the safety of both universes safe in the hands of his crew, Archer needed to check on those who weren't up to their elbows in the current crisis.
His first stop was Hoshi and Travis. He found them in the mess hall discussing the implications of the 1701's integrated crew and government. "It's not just that they've explored so much farther than we have Travis," Hoshi was saying. "It's the fact that they've done it under a single unified government that still allows each planet internal autonomy. They don't try and force one species to follow the path of another. They accept each other's differences and try to work out compromises for interstellar laws."
"I just can't see our Vulcans going for it," Travis protested. "Not now, maybe in a hundred years when we prove that we're not going to cause an interstellar crisis by bumbling around out here."
"Actually," Archer said as he slid into a seat next to Hoshi. "Their Federation was created about ten years after their NX-01 launched. I think that we have a good chance of making it happen here, maybe even sooner because we know that it's possible."
Travis shook his head, "I don't know sir, I'm stuck on the Vulcans. I just can't see Soval or any of the rest of them admitting that we have a place out here in the universe, especially after they've held our space program back a full generation."
"I think that's because we still don't know each other well enough," was Hoshi's opinion.
"We've know about Vulcans for nearly seventy five years!" Travis protested.
Archer waved him down. "Why do you think that Hoshi?" he asked. He had a great deal of respect for his communications officer and he could tell that she was on to something, although he didn't have the faintest idea of what that was. She just had the look on her face that she got when she was about to pull a rabbit out of a hat that he didn't even know was there.
"Well, I've been thinking about this for a while now as I've gotten to know T'Pol a little. I think we've been dealing with at least a couple of mistranslations and miscommunications. The first one I think is purely a mistranslation. The concept that Vulcans don't have emotions is plainly wrong. I think the way to describe the concept properly is that they've learned to control their emotions to a far greater extent than we can imagine, so much so in fact that they can't imagine dealing with them in any other way. And any sort of public display of emotion is considered, well the nearest I can figure its like running around nude, screaming at the top of your lungs in the middle of the Earth Government Assembly. You just don't do it."
Travis and Archer couldn't hold back their snickers at the image. Hoshi grinned and continued. "I'm pretty sure that there is a cultural miscommunication going on too in our dealings with them but I can't put my finger on it. There is something in the body language of the Vulcans I've dealt with but the trouble is that it is so subtle I'm having a hard time defining it."
"Hoshi, you may be on to something. Try to get to know T'Pol better, spend more time with her. I'm sure that she'd be interested in your theory." Archer was tempted to say something about T'Pol needing to learn how human women dealt with their men, but held back. It wasn't a good idea to let that cat out of the bag just yet. "Trip, Malcolm, Scotty and Lt. Kyle have a plan to close the rift before it goes critical in just over six hours. What I need to know is do the two of you need anything in the next six hours? What about your departments?" he asked changing the subject.
"Communications is fine sir," Hoshi said. "We're still missing a few relays but nothing that's going to be critical in the next few days."
"The repairs have been finished on the hull and Helm is ready to go sir," Travis said.
Archer knew more than most how integrated a ship's systems were. If one section wasn't ready, it affected every other system it was connected to. But that didn't mean that they couldn't function without being 100%. They just had to be careful. "That's good to know. I'm not sure what the effects will be other than closing the rift, so batten down your departments and warn your people to be on the look out for anything. I need to check in with the other department heads." With that, he got up and left them to finish their discussion.
He then went on to check with as many department heads as he could. Trip and Malcolm were busy and he didn't want to interrupt. Besides, if their departments needed something they already had carte blanch to take it. T'Pol would tell him if Science needed anything. She'd be insulted if she thought that he believed he needed to check up on her department. Archer paused, going back over his thought process. Hoshi was right. He'd learned that because of the interaction he'd had with his First Officer. In Human cultures, checking with your department heads was both necessity and a form of politeness. Humans needed to know that their Commanding Officer cared enough to ask. For Vulcans, it meant that the Commanding Officer thought that a department head was incompetent enough to need checking. The last department on his mental list was Sickbay. "Hello Doctor," he said as he entered.
"Hello Captain!" the eternally cheerful Phlox called. He bustled out of his office and over to Archer. "I do realize that you are terribly busy with this rift situation but I'm very glad that you could make some time to come down here. Dr. McCoy is an amazing physician and medical researcher. But I know before I get into that, you'll want to see the crewmembers." It was an almost universal trait he'd found, of Humans that were in charge. They needed to personally see any of their people who were injured as soon as it was medically advisable and as soon as they could get away from their other duties. He though that the tendency had something to do with their culture. The parental figure of a group was viewed as uncaring if the checks were not done. 'Amazing how similar some things are, regardless of how many light years apart the species and cultures evolved,' Phlox thought to himself. 'Parental concern in almost universal among higher life forms and almost every culture has some way to express that concern, even when there is no direct genetic link between those interacting.'
Archer smiled, pleased that the doctor hadn't wanted to talk to him first. That meant that there was nothing seriously wrong with his crew and that what Phlox had learned from Dr. McCoy could wait. Phlox wasn't a man to hold back where his patients were concerned. Of the five crewmen who had been seriously injured, all were well on their way to recovery. After speaking with each of them, Archer turned back to Phlox.
"Alright Phlox," Archer sighed. "I know I've left the Medical department until last but I figured you'd have your hands full and I didn't want to get in your way." He sat down on a chair next to the counter where Phlox was working, exhaustion oozing from every pore.
"Nonsense Captain, I know you're the one who has had his hands full. It isn't easy trying to run this ship, play nice with visitors, make certain that your ship's repair crews have everything they need to make sure that your ship isn't about to be destroyed and deal with what amounts to a family crisis all at the same time," Phlox said, waving his finger at Archer.
Archer laughed. "Yeah, that's one way to put having two of my senior officers get married without anyone realizing it, including them!" He sobered and leaned forward. "How are they? They're both too busy rushing around trying to deal with the repairs, closing the rift and each other to talk to me and I don't want to push them right now. They've got too much on their plates as it is."
"Medically speaking, they're both fine. This is going to take some time for both of them to adjust to the situation and I'm certain that the ship's betting pool is going to get quite a workout over the next few months. There are bound to be more than a few fights between them as they settle down into being bonded but I think they'll make the transition well." Phlox hesitated and then decided that the Vulcan mating drive was confidential medical knowledge but that he could express his concerns without getting into that. "The one thing that I am concerned about is that while Humans and Vulcans are compatible, you might want to be aware that SubCommander T'Pol is much stronger than a Human." He looked at Archer intently.
At first Archer didn't get it. Then he blushed bright red as he realized what the doctor was trying to say without spelling it out. "I'll keep that in mind Doctor," he said.
"Well, other than that I have no concerns about the two of them medically or emotionally. Their children are viable and safe in the stasis chamber I have right here." Phlox gestured at the blue box that sat on his counter. It was a chamber that Dr. McCoy had given him so as to increase the chances of the children's survival until they could be implanted in their mother. "Dr. McCoy has been more than helpful. Why he," Archer settled down to listen as Phlox carried on about what he'd learned from the other doctor. While he knew that it was going to take quite a while for the doctor to run out of things to say it was a far more pleasant duty than sitting on the bridge wondering if two miracle workers from two different universes were enough to keep both of their universes from being destroyed.
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