I Naviganti 3: "Prkori (Diversities) - Fourth Universe"
by Monica MicioGatta
Dedicated to my Mother
Author's Notes: «Star Trek: Enterprise» and its characters are not mine. I used them only to enjoy myself and I'll bring them back at home before midnight. No payment was received for this work. T'Mir, Izar, Surek in this story are my own creation.
I'm writing my stories in Italian because this is my native language and I enjoy doing it (and Seti - my best friend and my first betareader - doesn't want to read them in English). I'm trying to translate them into English, because my friend Mihaela told me there's a lot of people who would like to read it, and Asso and Seti agree. So if you like them, please, let me know. There's no reason to continue in translation if no one is interested in them.
This story is partially set in an Alternate Universe.
There are some references to the stories «Eternal Warrior» by Stub and Quills and «Gateway» by Quills. All the similarities to other stories are accidental.
Many thanks to my best friends and first betareaders (in Italian) Seti and Franz, to Asso, Opalsmith and all the «How cute is Connor Trinneer/Trip Tucker?» fans on TrekUnited who supported me in this work, in particular to Tishkajaku, who patiently betaread my first work.
Charles "Trip" Tucker looked down at the child in his arms. Her black, short and unkempt hair fell lightly on her eyes, but he did nothing to take them away. Her happy expression and the light rhythmic breathing told him she was sound asleep, her head resting on his shoulder and her lips slight parted.
He turnt off the PADD from which he was reading a fairy tale and set it on the bed.
He and T'Pol had become parents seven years before and T'Mir was still the only child aboard of Enterprise NX-01.
Slowly, trying not to wake up her daughter, he stood up. He knew that the precautions were virtually useless, since T'Mir seemed to have a heavy sleep, and for this Trip, given his past insomnia, was grateful.
That evening, however, the child was very upset.
T'Pol wasn't fine and T'Mir seemed to suffer more than her Vulcan half wanted to show. For this she had permission, with her mother's agreement, of falling asleep in his father's arms in her parents' big bed.
He entered the small back room, layed her on the bed and tucked the blankets. He stared at her for a long time, almost to convince himself that she really existed. She was so beautiful and sweet.
Reluctantly he left the girl to her dreams and returned to his room. He picked up the PADD. He had read far to the middle of T'Mir's favourite story, "Puss in Boots", when she fell asleep.
He wondered where it came from her passion for that story.
It was probably because of Athos, Captain Archer's cat. T'Mir had a strong passion for that animal. And T'Pol contributed subtly, for more than once she had appreciated Vulcan gifts in terran cats.
Tucker, however, had concluded that the story of the Puss in Boots was terribly cynical and seemed to reward the clever, rather than the good, as usually happens in fairy tales.
Cinderella and Snow White symbolized the women's fashion, but they were both good on the edge of idiocy.
Prince Charming and the various princes were the embodiment of human courage and of course they were absolutely good and defeated foes.
But Puss in Boots didn't. He was a cynical liar, a bully, a profiteer. He did it for the sake of his good and clumsy "master", but he had mounted, in the true sense of the word, an entire castle of lies based on stupidity and carelessness of others people.
While the stories usually had the moral "be good and your dreams will come true," "Puss in Boots" was more of a "learn to pretend and to take advantage of the stupidity of others and you will be successful." And Trip had no doubt about that: Puss in Boots was right. Life was as the cat said, not like poor Cindarela was dreaming of. That girl was so unlike that even the prince himself called her with that stupid nickname, if as the girl was still struggling with ash and pots, even if she was a princess now.
Yeah, the cat was right.
Even T'Pol said it.
He sighed.
He wanted to go to her in the sickbay, to know how she was, but he wouldn't want leave T'Mir alone.
The problem, fortunately, was resolved quickly, because T'Pol entered their quarters few minutes later.
«Well?» He asked immediately. «How are you?»
Eight years earlier, Trip and Hoshi Sato had been victims of a based silicon virus, taken in a Klingon dump. It was still a mystery how they were saved. Tucker remembered how Hoshi had vomited in the decontamination chamber. And when T'Pol that morning had threw up the whole meal, he had trembled.
«I'm fine.» She said. She sit on the bed and slowly took Trip's hand in hers. «I'm pregnant.»
Trip stared for a moment. «For real?»
T'Pol nodded. «The news does not make you happy?»
He gently pulled her towards him, to kiss her. «Of course! I was afraid something serious.»
«Pregnancy is a serious matter.» She said.
«Yes, I mean... something bad.» He held her close to him. «T'Mir will be happy... I call her? She wanted a little sister so much.»
«No.» T'Pol replied. «Let her sleep. Also because... it's a male.»
«Well, I think she will still be happy.» Trip smiled and lay down. «A male... that's great.»
«You said once that you preferred females.» T'Pol said.
«As a first child.» He lied. In fact he had always thought that he wanted a son, even two, but once T'Mir was born - or rather, when they discovered the conception - he was so in love with his child that he had forgotten his dreams of a beautiful garden with Ruby on and two little males to play baseball with. Also because there were no gardens to the Enterprise. «As second child a male is a perfect.»
«Why do I fell that you're lying?»
Trip sighed. «To you does the gender of child count so much?»
«It would be illogical.» she said.
«Well, it can seem strange,» he laughed. «but in this case would be illogical also for me.»
The Vulcan sat on the bed and closed her eyes. «Charles Tucker IV?»
«We had said once we would have broken the tradition.»
«So we have to find a name.»
Trip put his fingers through her hair. «Did Phlox made his genetic investigations?»
«He will have pointed ears, your hair, your eyes and green blood.»
Trip grinned. He had hoped that the two children had the same blood. To be unique was not ideal. On the other hand he had to appreciate the fact that the boy will would have T'Pol's ears and his eyes. In fact, he had actually hoped that T'Mir had blue eyes. Despite everything, his blue eyes were always very popular, and with T'Mir's black hair, which came from a few recessive Vulcan characters in T'Pol that were elbowing their way out, would have made an amazing contrast.
Not that he did not love his daughter's brown eyes, of course.
«Do you think the tale of "Puss in Boots" is really educational?» he asked.
T'Pol opened her eyes and looked at him with a trace of astonishment. «What do you mean?»
«Usually the stories have good people in them. The Puss in Boots is... is evil.»
«He's not evil. He fights for his...» T'Pol stopped and remained silent.
Trip opened his eyes and looked at her. «His?»
«How was described in the book by Sepulveda?»
«"The little seagull and the cat"?» Their daughter was mad about that too. But it was understandable. T'Mir itself was a little seagull in the middle of the cats in the port. That book was the exaltation of tolerance, universal brotherhood... and the search for self and identity.
«Yes, that one.» the Vulcan said. Once she compared the Earth-Vulcan relationship to the one between the villagers and Frankenstein creature. Reading the book by Sepulveda to T'Mir dozens of times, she was convinced by now that the relationship was more akin to that between the cats and the little seagull, at least for the small community aboard on Enterprise. Everyone on the boat loved her.
Even so, she thought, T'mir had Trip's character.
Yeah.
All on the board had always loved engineer Tucker. And had hated her for so long.
Once this thought did not hurt, now she felt a twinge in her stomach. Blame the trellium-D, the damage it had done. She took a deep breath and thought of unconditional love that Trip gave her, Archer's loyal friendship, all the times that the crew had worked hard for her, for her daughter.
«Domestic human.» Trip said.
«And are there also wild humans?»
He smiled. «Ah, this bad habit of making jokes that you took up from me...»
«I think Puss in Boots made life better for having deceived his domestic human, which might otherwise die. Perhaps the old father purposely left the cat to him because he knew the cat would bring luck to his last child. And the cat did what he had to.»
«But by deceit. Hath been eaten an ogre.»
«He removed the wicked. He's done nothing less than the prince who kills the witch to save the beautiful girl in the castle.»
Trip nodded and kissed her forehead. «I the same consider that fairy tale cynical. Do you think cat's owner's bigger brothers will work together? One has the donkey, the other the mill.»
«It would have been the logical thing to do.»
«Yeah,» Trip smiled. «It reminds me a think Elizabeth told me when she returned from a trip to Spain. In Majorca, at the time of the feuds, tradition required that the first child had the rich farmland. The second had the mountains, where he could be kept pastures. The third, the most unlucky, was given the beach, where you could not grow or graze. With the advent of tourism, the descendants of these third children, have made a fortune.»
T'Pol opened her eyes. «Are you thinking about having a third child?»
Trip smiled slightly. «At least I would not mind the preparatory phase.»
She shook her head and stood up. «I'll see how's T'Mir.»
(To be continued...)
I'm looking for betareaders to take care only of the language and grammar, not of the plots. :)