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The story contains contextual and thematic elements that may not be suitable to all audiences. This book is set in a science fiction universe but covers matters of human interactions and relationships that may not be acceptable to all readers. Language and graphic descriptions of violence are common and if this type of writing disturbs you or is unsuitable for viewing by you or your child(ren)/spouse(s)/dependent(s), please do not open this work. This work is replete with refrences and allusions to romantic relationship and human sexuality as part of the natural process of human socialization and may contain strong sexual content and descriptions there-of. Refrences to suicide, drug use, alcoholism, religion, and politics are also contained here-in. If any of these subject matters are offensive or inappropriate to either yourself or your child(ren)/spouse(s)/dependent(s) please do not view my work as I will not be held responsible for posting material you may view as inappropriate after you elected to open and read it.
Setting Disclaimer
This exists as a series of stand-alone blurbs meant to amplify certain concepts or ideas drawn from the Enterprise series as a whole and, specifically, the Infinite Diversities setting. That is to say, this is where I'll put all the bull that doesn't really belong in the story but I thought was just too much fun to pass up writing on.
Viewing Disclaimer
This is the last one...I promise. This work is best viewed at 1/2 justification. You know, those goofy little links at the top right corner of the page opposite the genre/title link bar. Seriously...I mean it, this definetly reads better at 1/2, but don't let me force you.
The heat of this place was definitely agreeable compared to the sort of tepidity she had experienced in the Northern California Clime that had been her first introduction to the biosphere for Earth. Why the Vulcan Embassy to earth had been built in such an area escaped her entirely, within the same territorial sub-division of the State of California there existed a desert that was a suitable simulacrum of Vulcan, the major city of San Diego lay close enough by to render the location a logical selection. The only thing that made this particular geographic and administrative territory unpleasant was the level of humidity. She was not even entirely sure why she had been tasked to come to the peninsular projection from the North American continent at all, Vulcan had surrendered in it attempts to guide, direct, or bully human progression when it became abundantly clear that it would be impossible due not only to human irascibility but also because technologically they were advancing at a rate that would likely have them overtake their neighbors within the half century.
Whiting Field Naval Air Station, Eglin Air Base, Cape Canaveral, it seemed like the entire Florida province was tied into the development of Military Command Starfleet's new warp five power plant. It was actually fairly remarkable that they had reached this point of development not even a full century after they first discovered faster than light travel and had done so with absolutely no outside help. Still, she wondered why she had to be exposed to these humans, surely it would have been more logical for a Vulcan her age to continue developing on her skill set and training on Vulcan itself or one of their few colonies. It was virtually unheard of to send an unattached female of her age to a planet as far away as Earth.
It was currently day four of the ten day conference and today was the first time since her arrival in Sausalito and her prompt shuttle hop over to Whiting Field that she had been able to avail herself of the local sights. She had not opted for the tourist attractions as human affections of that sort tended to be crass and insipid in her opinion. She was, however, finding the beach to be a strange combination of the familiar and the exotic, having taken the rather unconventional step of removing her shoes to experience this Earth sand on her feet and between her toes. Compared to Vulcan it was rough, coarse, much like she found most things on this planet to be. The Henderson Beach State Park was sparsely populated with beach goers, and she found she was not drawing a substantial amount of attention as she strode quietly along the ocean front. The knots of humanity she did see where mostly intent on their own business and she was prepared to experience and logically process the latent aesthetic pleasure of this place when he made eye contact with her.
How she had known the child was male was uncertain, perhaps because of the clothing selected for the child; humans still had a tendency clothe their children in a way that promoted gender norming and the lack of ostentation and shades used in the infants clothing seemed to indicate he was male. His unabashed willingness to stare not just at but, almost, into her also seemed like a decidedly male human trait. After making eye contact for a moment she looked away to continue onward with her constitutional, but she felt a strange sense of unease, almost as if being slowly unclothed, not by some lascivious assailant but rather by a being capable of seeing into her soul. Instinctively she turned her head to try to divine where the eyes were coming from to see the strangely knowing eyes of the human baby still fixed on her. She stopped again, making eye contact again, his parents and a sibling were about a dozen meters away, attending to some concern linked to the visit while the infant sat in the shade of a palm tree.
"It is impolite to stare." She commented dryly to the child, finding something intriguing in the clear and evident self confidence it displayed as he refused to take those twinkling eyes from hers.
A single amused and happy babble issued from the child's mouth as a smile added an additional layer of dimension to its face. The eyes seemed to take on a more pleased and mischievous element as a little giggle punctuated his nonsense aping of developed speech.
"You are completely unfazed by the concept of social propriety, aren't you? It is logical that you do not understand the concept of manners at your age."
He began to crawl towards her, moving forward a few feet before awkwardly pushing himself to his tiny feet, arms extended outwards towards her as he made a mewling sound, that quickly turned into more aped nonsense meant to approximate language.
"I am not your mother."
And it clearly did not care about that fact one iota as the piercingly blue eyes once again looked right into hers. An utterly illogical compulsion overwhelmed her, she had to pick up the child and hold it. Scientifically and mathematically speaking, a convergence of events could be preordained as a possible set of contingencies and events were set into place as part of the larger unknown construct...among many races this was called faith or fate. She chose to view it as an imperative from the larger driving dynamics behind the universe, it was the best way she could write off the illogicality of her decision.
She covered the few steps between herself and infant quickly, the transition from sand to soft grass all but ignored and she found herself inexplicably entranced by the eyes more than anything. She knelt and gathered the child in her arms, lifting him as she stood, finding him compliant and almost assisting her in the act, seating himself against her in a way that facilitated the hoisting of his tiny frame. His eyes never left hers, fixed so unfailingly it was almost if, in those big pupils and blue irises she could see infinity while he stared into her katra. It was fascinating, exciting, and just a little uncomfortable; this was the way katra tel-tor, how lovers looked into one another. A being had never looked at her that way before, and she found a strange feeling of longing from somewhere inside her, almost like a pain deep in the core of her.
When the tiny hands came up to plant the little palms and slightly curled fingers on her cheeks she felt the strangely undeveloped mind, bristling with strange instinctive knowledge brush against hers. No, not a mind...it was his soul, and as she felt it; primal and raw but somehow knowing and complex, brush hers, it was almost as if it took a part of her with it. For a moment she could feel a wave of experience and emotion, a sudden and impossibly complex surge of feelings, as if the course of a life-time rushed past and through her faster than she could even begin to analyze the compulsion emotions of fear and confusion, love and adoration, joy and bliss, confusion and resentment, cherishing and passion, and finally unrestrained loss. And as that tiny face remained locked on hers she could sense the strange little consciousness, incapable of even thinking a real word, yet it somehow knew and accepted it all.
She didn't remember setting the child down, didn't remember walking back to the resort that served as her lodging. She didn't remember entering her room and climbing into the shower, didn't remember weeping in confusion and desperation. When her balance finally returned all she knew was that she would have to return to Sausalito too seek the assistance of a priest in achieving nelaya. There was one thing that T'Pol was certain of; she would never allow herself to open up to a human life this again.