Chapter 2: Can Vulcans have Blonde Hair?!

Next part is here. But I might tweak it... not sure. I wrote it on a 24 sleep deprivation thanks to work and school... so it might not be up to par for me...

I do not own Star Trek... sigh...

It was definitely NOT easy to get on board the Enterprise... that was for sure.

Temperance had been successful in her attempt to use the Red Matter to travel back in time. She had been injured, and her katra had been disrupted, but she had recovered soon, established a believable identity in this time and managed to get commission on board the Enterprise, which was returning for repairs and replacement crew members.

Temperance had debated about changing her appearance when she received confirmation of her orders to the Enterprise. It had been easy the first few weeks of arriving in this time to hide her Vulcan appearance... but people had begun asking questions. Whenever she looked in the mirror... she saw her Vulcan heritage. A wide forehead, slanted brows, and the trademark pointed ears. But she saw her human genes more dominantly. Blue eyes, long blonde hair that fell in curls over her shoulders, pale skin tone and even freckles over her nose. But she had chosen not to alter her appearance and deal with the questions.

What Temperance could not brace herself for was the shedding of every human mannerism she ever adopted throughout her life. She had to convince people she was mostly Vulcan. Especially when it came time to come face to face with her parents. She knew everyone would notice two obvious items. One: She was a blonde Vulcan. And two: despite her Vulcan features... she bore a striking resemblance to James Kirk. Thankfully, people would only acknowledge the latter when she and her dad would be in the same room. But it was still a subject she was unsure how to handle. Telling people her true identity was not an option right now. And her Vulcan genes screamed for her to not lie. "Vulcans cannot lie" only fell to those who had no other DNA mixed into their genetic code... but still.

She only hoped she would be successful in her mission. The reason she risked everything to come here...

To make sure her parents rediscovered their bond and live the happy life they had a right to have, despite if she would be born again or not.

She walked briskly to the docking bays on Starbase Orion, trying to make her way quickly through the crowd to get to the Enterprise. She had skimmed over her orders again and discovered she would be working tactical on the Bridge, relieving Sulu's shifts. But also be a back up nurse when sickbay would be slammed with wounded during missions. It brought her mind to replay all her earliest memories of the Enterprise crew, who she considered family. Uhura, Chekhov, Scotty, Sulu... Bones. All of them. Her thoughts were briefly pulled away from their deep path when a innocent Yeomen bumped into her, activating her touch telepathy. She shook off the feelings of nervousness coming off the Yeoman as he apologized and ran off. It was one thing Temperance never cared for as being part Vulcan. Her touch telepathy.

Her father had spent many years trying to teach her better control over her telepathy, but resigned to the fact her telepathy "had a mind of it's own" and was vastly stronger than his. He encourage minimum contact with anyone she was unfamiliar with. Which as a mostly human child was difficult for. She would often be in the care of her Godfather, McCoy when her parents had gone on away missions. And new crew members who were unfamiliar with her, or visiting aliens would express and often act on their desire to touch her somewhere on her person... And now she would have to cut off every possible contact so no one would find out her real identity.

She took on the Vulcan shortening of her name to T'Pren. And whereas in her timeline she was a Commander, here, she was an Ensign. She knew she must avoid mind melds with her father... and avoid her Father from her timeline like a plague.

Before Temperance knew it, she was on the Enterprise, trying to locate the turbolift in the large crowd of passing crewmen and repair people. But it was difficult with her short height and her need to avoid touching anyone, which was unavoidable.

"I dinna care if Admiral Archer himself ordered het, patrolling the Neutral Zone is suicide, Cap'n!" Temperance could not keep her feet moving even if she tried... Scotty's voice called her attention as she looked through the crowd for the Engineer,

"I understand your concern Scotty, but my hands are tied here." That voice...

"We JUS' got the Enterprise repaired! And Komack is sending us out to jus' ta get blown up!" the Scot's voice rose. Temperance's blue eyes could only stare at the man her once Uncle unloaded his concern on.

James T. Kirk.

Temperance felt a very strong wave of emotion hit her. A desire to run towards her dad, cry out for him, reconfirm to memory his scent... but she could not move, even if she honestly had to. Just seeing him had rendered her motionless and bustling with so much emotion a Betazoid could feel it from Betazed. James Kirk was now a man of 29, standing a good 5'9" in his youth. Eyes and face brimming with animation as he smirked at his Chief Engineer's rambling on. She had missed that smirk. Everything Kirk was doing, from the way he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, to the clenching of his jaw, she had missed.

"Canae help you, lassie?" Apparently she had been so swept up in her re-absorption of her dad, she did not even notice the two had nearly bumped into her until Scotty had noticed their was a body standing between them and the turbolift. She cleared her throat, voided every emotion from her face and voice before speaking,

"My apologies, sirs. I was trying to remember which deck the living quarters were on.." she attempted, though in her head she could hear "You Liar!" clear as day... Kirk and Scotty seemed to be examining her. Their eyes shooting from the top of her head, to her face, then down to her feet. They noticed. She was unsure how to brush of their staring... and neither seemed to be about to answer.

"Sirs?" she called, trying not to sound self-conscious... after all, Vulcans were not self-conscious. Finally, Kirk spoke,

"I was unaware Vulcans could have blonde hair." he said casually. Scott nodded,

"I know I neva seen one." he confirmed. Wow, these two really knew how to flatter someone,

"I apologize if my appearance is not to your liking sirs. I have met this reaction many times in my life, being as my mother was human and my father was Vulcan." She said, folding her arms behind her back. Okay, so it wasn't too far from the truth.

"No no, please. WE apologize for our rudeness, Ensign..." Kirk gestured towards her, physically asking for her name,

"T'Pren, sir." she offered, warily watching her dad's hand.

"T'Pren. Forgive us... but we have another half Vulcan on board but he looks... well, Vulcan-y." Kirk finished. Temperance raised a brow,

"I'm afraid I do not understand, sir."

"Forget het Lassie, dinna mind him. The living quarters are located on Deck 32." Soctty said, elbowing Kirk gently.

"Thank you sirs. Captain." She nodded once and hurried off as fast as she could.

Her emotions were skyrocketing and risking boiling over. She was so happy. But also she had never come closer to having a heart attack right then and there. She had forgotten what her dad's voice sounded like. Unravaged by age, it wrapped around her like a warm blanket. Lulling her into a deep sense of comfort and security. It took all her strength to not fall into his arms and weep her joy into his shirt. It had been too long.

And she was positive she now knew how her father must have felt when he encountered Kirk months ago.

As she rode the turbolift up to the living quarters, she couldn't help but noticed Scotty hadn't said anything about her resemblance to Kirk... did he not see it? In her timeline, Scotty had always been the one who made that fact like it was a curse, all in good humor. She decided to dismiss this for now. If she could avoid that issue, she'd welcome it.

She had almost forgotten what it had felt like being back on board the Enterprise. Her first home. She could remember running through the corridors whenever she got word her parents were off shift. They would often leave her in the care of her godfather whenever they both worked. That was when Temperance decided she wanted to work in medicine. She had learned how to set a hypo-spray before she had even learned to crawl, her dad often joked, however inaccurate it was. But soon into her adolescent years it was discovered she had an apt for tactics and strategies. So when she joined the Academy, she majored in both medicine and tactical which was a rare combination even in her timeline. She took a deep breath as she reached Deck 32, deciding to situate her quarters before finding her station on the Bridge.

Her next challenge was on the Bridge, meeting her Father of this timeline... then learning how to work with her parents without any inflection... should be easy, right?

Some of us might be disinclined... lol

Stay tuned