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Dedicated to Rishooter, co-author of this story, the plot of which we arrived at only after bouncing ideas off each other at great length.
Dedicated to MostDismalFeldsparkle, a generous contributor who helped me iron out some rough spots in the plot, and bailed me out with some elegant solutions when I stumbled in the process of said ironing.
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— Chapter 01 —
A week had just passed since the Enterprise's encounter with Skalaar, the Tellarite bounty hunter who had kidnapped Captain Archer in service to the Klingons, and T'Pol was back in Sick Bay now at Phlox's insistence, for a last physical after her regrettable encounter with an unusual microbe which had caused the Vulcan to enter an artificially induced pon'farr, a Vulcan mating cycle.
"Ah…" said Doctor Phlox, fumbling a bit with his handheld scanner. "Yes. Ah… excuse me."
Phlox was still a bit nervous around T'Pol since she'd offered herself to him sexually during her pon'farr, the Vulcan's offer preceded by a lazy catlike stretch, just before she'd said in a voice just shy of a purr: "You have no idea what you are denying yourself, Doctor."
Well, that much was true, reckoned Phlox, and frankly it was a topic he'd considered at length since the day he'd turned down T'Pol's sexual advances out of a surfeit of medical ethics. Still, he'd done the right thing in curing the Vulcan using a more conventional treatment… doing the right thing was not always easy.
"Well, all seems to be in order, SubCommander," said Phlox, "though my knowledge in the particulars of your condition is limited due your people's illogical reticence to discuss a normal biological fact that—"
"So I am cleared to return to duty?" said T'Pol, purposely cutting off the doctor's polite rant.
"Yes," said Phlox, "but since this was your first pon'farr, and an artificially induced cycle at that, we should monitor you for another week or two, just to make certain that all is well with you, SubCommander."
"Very well, Doctor," said T'Pol, sliding off the examination bed. "Thank you."
Phlox nodded and gave T'Pol a pleasant smile, then turned his back on her and began humming even before she cleared the Sick Bay, for he had to feed his menagerie of critters now, a task he actually enjoyed.
T'Pol went about her day then and though her first full day back on duty was a slow one, it was still preferable to lounging around her quarters round the clock, however pleasurable that had been the first three days. In fact, all things considered, life would be just peachy for the Vulcan now, save for one troubling fact: the pon'farr cycle, though aborted by Phlox's medicinal antics, had left behind a still measurable degree of physical discomfort, in the form of a constant low-grade level of physical arousal, punctuated irregularly by more intense flashes of sexual desire. Perhaps she should have mentioned this fact to Phlox, but T'Pol was embarrassed enough over the entire episode, illogical as that embarrassment might be, and T'Pol was confident that she could maintain control through meditation.
"Yes, best to forget it all and put this entire episode behind me now through discipline," thought T'Pol, and the Vulcan applied herself with a will to do just that by throwing herself into her work, and then working extra hours in Engineering, where her analytical skills came in handy to optimize the workings of the warp engines.
In any case, she truly enjoyed… that is to say, she felt properly motivated to work in Engineering, given the presence of the department's head, Commander Tucker, her closest colleague on the ship. Though T'Pol spent more time with Archer in the course of her duties, she spent the majority of her off-duty hours with Commander Tucker, when factoring in meal times, late night snacks, gym time, off-duty technical discussions, and all the other various mental maneuvers each used in order to justify spending time with the other during the course of each day, while maintaining the fiction that it was all just business.
T'Pol was honest enough with herself to admit that she felt some level of physical attraction to Commander Tucker, and perhaps it was unwise to spend time here in Engineering now, what with the last lingering effects of the pon'farr still affecting her to some degree, yet T'Pol was quite confident that she could control these effects, with an extra twenty minutes of meditation each night thrown in to make certain of her control. And meditate she did during the course of that week, all in order to maintain control, though truth be told, T'Pol did not feel herself making much headway in the process of taming her symptoms. Still, logic and discipline were the foundation of the Vulcan soul since Surak's coming, so T'Pol simply increased her meditation, and reasoned, quite logically, that the symptoms would decrease in time.
The following week, the second week since the onset of her artificial pon'farr cycle, caused some trepidation in T'Pol for her physical symptoms of sexual arousal only increased, rather than tapering down as she'd anticipated. She'd responded by ramping up her meditation to a solid hour daily, and that seemed to do the trick and stabilize her for now, though it did not abate her symptoms. All that would come in good time.
In any case, T'Pol was kept busy in Engineering, for Commander Tucker was to leave the Enterprise shortly for a month long exchange of personnel proposed by the High Command, who for some unknown reason was eager to expand and accelerate the process of integrating Vulcan officers into StarFleet as observers and advisers along the trail which T'Pol had blazed, while at the same time inviting StarFleet officers to visit Vulcan schools, military academies, shipyards and the ships of the Vulcan Navy. No one knew the Vulcan motives behind it all, save certainly StarFleet's Admiralty Commission, and though T'Pol was definitely not in that circle, she could not help but wonder at this abrupt change of policy on the High Command's part. And now, Commander Tucker was due to rotate out for a month long assignment under the auspices of the High Command, doing Human God knows what.
No matter, that month would go by quickly enough, and in the meantime T'Pol would aid Lt. Kelby in Engineering as needed in order to keep the Enterprise running in top notch condition. That meant a welcome and safe distraction from the sexual impulses still left her in the wake of her first pon'farr, for T'Pol felt zero sexual attraction to Kelby, even now. Zero attraction.
Still, it was with a sense of regret that T'Pol accompanied Commander Tucker as the man walked towards the Access Hatch of the Enterprise, where a Vulcan shuttle waited, docked with the Enterprise, to take Commander Tucker, as well Ensign Ekers from Tactical and Ensign Sallot from Medical, to the diplomatic transport which would speed them to Vulcan, and their new, month long assignments under the auspices of the High Command.
"You take care of my engines, T'Pol," said Trip, a warm smile on his face. "I know they're Kelby's responsibility, but I'll feel better knowing that you're looking in on him from time to time. The boy tries hard, but he needs the steady hand of a mature, seasoned, matronly, older, nay, senior, long in the tooth fem—"
"Enough!" said T'Pol, perversely pleased that Commander Tucker had chosen to get a few jabs in, even at the last moment, rather than tamely leaving her behind... that is, tamely leaving the Enterprise behind. "Rest easy, Commander Tucker. I will discreetly monitor Kelby on your behalf."
"Good," said Trip, and smiled again in response to T'Pol's understated nod, then gave her a half-assed ta'al, and boarded the Vulcan shuttle in order to depart the Enterprise.