Enjoy!
Chapter 11
Telev sauntered over to the group, his arrival dissipating the tension that had been growing. He smirked at them in a very smug way and said,
"So… what were you talking about?" Shran shrugged,
"It doesn't matter, forget about it Telev." Telev's smirk widened and he rested a hand on Shran's arm. Shran's eyes flew to the hand and then back to Telev's face. His antennas poked forwards. Telev let his eyes sweep over the group, then he stared at Soval curiously.
"And who is this?" he questioned, his voice smooth and light.
"This is my son Soval." Shran answered, then he nodded to T'Pol, "This is Soval's mother, T'Pol. And no I am not involved with her. It's a very long story." Telev was amused,
"Well I look forward to hearing it." His dark eyes flew to T'Pol, looking her over curiously. She stared at him questioningly. Gral made a faint grunting noise. "I saw you and wanted to ask you if you were going to ever get back to me about getting together for drinks." His voice was directed to Shran,
"Oh right. I forgot." Shran muttered, looking down at Soval. "I've been rather busy these past few days."
"I can believe it." Telev eyed Soval again. "He looks like you Shran."
"Nah. He looks like my older brother?"
"Which one?"
"Trenach."
"Ah." Telev's smirk changed to a smile and he squeezed Shran's arm comfortingly. Shran's eyes twinkled briefly in gratitude. Soval kicked and hit Telev's arm. Telev was startled but amused. "He's a fiery one."
"He is isn't he!" Shran beamed proudly at Soval who smiled back with a slightly drooling smile. "He's going to be a handful when he's older. Crawling, walking, talking, fighting."
"Fighting?" T'Pol demanded far sharper than she should have for an emotionless person.
"Of course. He'll have to learn how to fight. It's part of being an Andorian." Shran said frowning at her.
"Aside from having a voracious appetite for… certain things." Telev smirked, and rubbed his hand over Shran's arm. Shran grimaced.
"He's not even a year old Telev. Don't get me thinking about that nightmare yet."
"Nightmare?" Telev gave him a confused look and Shran raised his eyebrows. Telev apparently understood what that meant, because his face cleared, "Oh, I see." and he gave T'Pol a funny look. She poked an eyebrow up questioningly but neither Andorian explained themselves. Gral grunted, eyeing Telev with great interest, looking between the two Andorians, as they seemed to be saying a lot more than their mouths were speaking. The Tellerite stroked his beard, seemingly mystified by Andorian relations, but very interested. Trip suddenly spoke up,
"Hey, do you remember me? Commander Tucker?" he seemed eager to open a new topic. Telev looked him over, doing it in a way that felt like the equivalent of a very thorough undressing.
"Of course, the man who literally got in the middle of a fight he shouldn't have." Shran rolled his eyes, clearly amused. Trip shrugged,
"Hey it worked didn't it?"
"I will admit it did, but you're lucky Shran had given me specific orders not to fire upon Enterprise." Archer raised his eyebrows at Shran who gave a reluctant shrug.
"Well trust me, it was a very valid warning to give to someone as trigger happy as Telev here."
"Me? Trigger happy. Ha! That's rich." Telev laughed, "You're more trigger happy than I ever will be." He bumped his hip against Shran's as he spoke, jostling the older man. Shran raised his eyes to the roof of the cave and said,
"I never said I wasn't trigger happy, I'm just saying you were the one who had to be warned."
"Well… I suppose it was tempting to just bat away the annoying thing with a few blasts. I'm not a patient man when it comes to my people who might be dieing."
"Spoken like a real Guardsman." Shran approved.
"Am I anything but?" Telev arched his antennas forward curiously with a smirk.
Shran sighed and shrugged, "You tell me."
Telev laughed, and his arm went around Shran's shoulders, giving him a one armed hug. Shran shook his head. "Look, why don't you join us tomorrow, help me teach these pink-skins about how to have a good time."
"Oh I wouldn't miss it!" Telev smirked, "Ambassador Gral, will you be joining us? I hear you're an excellent tenor."
Gral spluttered and Shran gave him a smirk, "Did you think I'd keep quiet about that?"
"I shouldn't have!" Gral exclaimed, his cheeks colouring under his whiskers, "Oh I'll get you for that Shran."
"Oh come Ambassador," Telev said, striding over to him and resting his hand on the shorter man's shoulder. Gral eyed it with some discomfort, "everyone has their embarrassing moments. Both Shran and I have, more often than not we've been together when they occur."
"Telev." Shran called warningly, "You like breathing?"
"Yes."
"Then back away from the pig, shut your mouth and you will continue to do so."
Telev gave a false, airy sigh and returned to Shran's side, making a show of pressing his lips together in a vow of silence. Shran shook his head. "T'Pol, I think we should probably talk."
"Agreed." she said rather firmly, clearly having been thinking about that very thing. Turning to her crewmates she said, "I will accompany Shran, and shall return to Enterprise later."
"That's fine." said Archer with an encouraging smile. "We'll see you later."
Trip was scowling at Shran darkly and Telev eyed the engineer with some suspicion. Shran ignored Trip, his eyes fixed on T'Pol. Gral just looked rather confused.
T'Pol followed Shran until they were in the park again and they found a quiet spot where they sat on a bench and she held Soval in her lap.
"We're going to have to learn to get along. Soval doesn't deserve to have two parents who are continuously at each other's throats."
"We are hardly at one another's throats constantly. We just disagree on many subjects."
"Well I don't think it should be on every little detail to do with our son's life." said Shran firmly, staring at the baby.
"We both want what's best for him. There's no dispute with that."
"Of course. If you're not dedicated to doing what's best for your child then you don't deserve to be a parent."
"I agree."
"But T'Pol, we both have different opinions of what's best for our boy. We need to be able to reach some form of compromise. And don't think I haven't been aware of the fact that when Enterprise leaves you'll want to take Soval with you. But I'm going to make it perfectly clear that just as I will not take Soval from you I won't let you take him from me."
"Then we may have a problem right there."
"No kidding." Shran snorted, "It's a rather big problem."
"Have you informed your government of the situation?"
"I have, or should I say, Sanakral has for me. Since he's on the government, he said he'd take care of it for me. What about you?"
"I informed Minister T'Pau about the situation and she told me she would speak to the council before telling me how this will be handled by the Vulcan laws."
Shran grunted and scuffed the ground with his boot.
"Politics are a nightmare."
"Yet you seem fated to being involved in them."
"Andorians don't believe in fate. We believe you make your own destiny, that nothing is predetermined." Shran gave her a fierce look, he seemed to have true passion about what he was saying and she could not fathom why he would feel so strongly over a single belief.
"I simply meant that you seem to have a talent for politics and it is useful since you continue to be involved in it."
"Well… if I had a choice I wouldn't. It gives me a headache, how everything is so… grey. Isn't that what humans say? Nothing is clearly defined, it's many shades of grey?"
"I believe that is what they say, it means that nothing is, as you said, defined, black and white. Everything is many tones of grey."
"Children are fortunate that they don't have to see things that way." Shran chuckled and he said, "My niece once said to me that children should rule the universe because they see things as one or the other and there would be no need for such messy things like politics."
"Did you explain to her that it would not be appropriate for a child to have any such control."
"No. Why destroy her belief? It's a fair point as far as I'm concerned." T'Pol and Shran stared at each other, and then they both looked away. "Damn this is so complicated." T'Pol had to agree.
Soval cooed as his antennas stroked his mother's arm and then he clapped his hands, beaming at the sound they made. Shran laughed and tickled him under the chin. Soval tried to grab his hand but only managed to latch onto one finger, which he tried to put in his mouth.
"Ah, ah, son. No." said Shran firmly, pulling his finger away. Soval pouted. Shran reached into his pocket and drew out something wrapped in paper. He opened it to reveal a small red sweet, which he placed in Soval's hand.
"He is too young for such sweets, he might choke." T'Pol said with a sharp look at Shran.
"As soon as that thing touches his tongue it'll dissolve. Relax." Shran gave her an irritated look. "I never choked on them when I was his age, and none of my nieces or nephews have either."
Meanwhile, Soval had managed to put the sweet in his mouth, although he may have just achieved it by accident. After a moment he let out a giggle and some red syrup fell out of his mouth.
"We should not indulge him with sweets."
"It's a single sweet, quit trying to tell me what to do T'Pol, and quit blowing everything out of proportion."
"I am not-"
"Yes, you are! Everything I've done today you've seen you've reacted like I don't know what I'm doing."
"I have not."
"Yes you have!" Shran's antennas were quivering with growing exasperation and T'Pol flattened her lips as she repressed her own irritation. She could not understand why Shran was so difficult or why he always seemed to, as humans would say, get under her skin. Logic told her his parenting was most likely sound from an Andorian perspective, yet she couldn't help but find herself trying to dictate to him how they should treat their son.
"According to Andorian law, I'm within my rights to claim full custody, despite the fact that I was not involved in Soval's conception. However, as I've said before I'd rather not do that, so we'd better figure out a good way of compromising or else our governments are going to get involved and I'd rather not have that occurring.
"Vulcan law states that although blood parents are within their rights to raise a child, in the end whatever is best for the child is the utmost importance."
"Now that I can agree with. But I hope you're not saying that it's better for Soval to be with you as opposed to me."
"I am his mother."
"So what? I'm his father. In Andorian society fathers are more involved than the mothers."
"On Vulcan parents share the parenting equally."
"In theory maybe, but not in practise!"
"I beg your pardon?"
"You can't honestly expect me to believe that Vulcan parents share everything to do with the child perfectly equal. It's just not possible. Between job hours, work outside of the job and the sheer fact of personality, there's never a perfect balance."
"You are using your judgement of your own people dictate how you see mine."
"No I'm not! Oh for the love of the spirits! Can we go two minutes without disagreeing on everything except the fact that we keep disagreeing?" Shran threw his hands up in the air and then scuffed the ground with his boot moodily. They sat in silence for a few minutes, the only sound being Soval's soft noises. "All right, we've both made it clear that neither of us wants to give Soval up."
"Yes."
"But let me ask you something." Shran's eyes had narrowed and his antennas were twitching forward. "Who do you think Soval is safer with?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Who do you think he'd be safer with?"
"If you are implying that I would harm my child-"
"That's not what I mean. I mean, do you think Soval is safer with you, on a Starship that has a terrible habit of falling under threat, or on a planet where yes he might hurt himself while he's playing or training, but where he's unlikely to run into life threatening dangers like an alien attack."
"Considering Andoria's streak of having vicious disagreements with other species-"
"T'Pol, you know I've got a point! Don't go picking at aspects that we can't control."
T'Pol fell quiet; unable to deny that there was some truth to what Shran had said. Enterprise did have a very back track record of running into danger. If she was honest with herself, if Soval had come to her before Enterprise had entered the Expanse, of course she would have given him to his father, but now…
"If you did leave Soval with me on Andoria, I would make sure you were as involved as possible." said Shran quietly, his eyes fixed on Soval. "I'd send you letters, telling you what he'd been up to, I'd send pictures and recordings of him too. I wouldn't cut you off from him."
T'Pol looked him in the eyes and she was surprised to see such a genuine look in the brown orbs.
"Thank you." she settled for saying, unsure what else to say. "However nothing has been decided yet." Shran nodded, "If this ends with Soval staying with me, I will make sure you are kept well appraised of his growth and activities."
"Thanks." he said gruffly. Shran suddenly looked her dead in the eyes and seemed to be thinking something even he couldn't quite understand. Slowly, he looked away, staring down at his hands. Finally he drew himself up and got to his feet.
"What if one of us tried to be reassigned?" he offered, frowning in thought.
"Reassigned?"
"One of us could be posted where the other is, then we wouldn't have to fight over who gets to keep Soval with them."
"I have already considered the matter." This was not a lie, it had indeed crossed her mind, several times in fact. "But I cannot just leave Enterprise, and you are not allowed back into space for half a year."
Shran blew out a huff of air, folding his arms as he scowled,
"I figured it was worth asking, I didn't really think it would work. I know you wouldn't leave your crewmates. I understand that." He pursed his lips, "I could ask the Imperial Council to let me join Enterprise in some fashion, although I've no idea in what way, once the half year is up. I bet pink-skin would love that." The scowl deepened, "Getting to order me about."
"Perhaps you could be an Andorian representative, then you would answer directly to the Imperial Guard, not Captain Archer."
"I'd still have to answer to him. He may be my friend but I'm not going to take orders from anyone but a fellow Andorian." Shran stuck his chin out to emphasis his stubbornness. He hardly needed to, T'Pol knew quite well what he was like.
"Do you have any other suggestions?"
"No. Do you?"
"Not at the moment."
Shran sat down again, and he reached out to let Soval squeeze his finger. Soval cooed softly, his little antennas whirling around and his feet kicking out. "In the end I suppose we have to… just decide what's best for Soval."
"We have different opinions of what that is exactly."
"Well… we'll just have to work something out. I mean I want Soval to grow up and learn how to fight like I did."
"I would prefer he learn the teachings of Surak, and when he is old enough, that he begin the training to suppress his emotions."
"Well… I won't say no to teaching him old Surak's teaching, since that's important to you, I guess." T'Pol felt the urge to roll her eyes but repressed it. "But no way in hell am I letting you teach our son how to repress his emotions!"
"It is an integral part of what it means to be Vulcan."
"Just as being passionate and emotional is part of being Andorian! If Soval hopes to be accepted by Andorians when he's an adult as an Andorian then he'll have to be able to fight and he'll have to be emotional."
"If he is to be accepted as a Vulcan by my people he must have his emotions suppress." Their voices, which had been getting louder, obviously upset Soval because he began to cry. T'Pol automatically began to jiggle him in his arms. Soval only cried louder and then he suddenly threw up all down his front. T'Pol was alarmed and looked to Shran for assistance. Shran rummaged through a bag he'd had over his shoulder and pulled out some tissue and began to clean the crying child up.
"Here, you get the rest of it, I'll get his extra clothes out." He passed the tissue to her and T'Pol wiped at Soval's mouth and under his neck.
It took them ten minutes to clean and change Soval together but the child did not stop crying. Shran wondered if he was hungry but Soval had no interest in the bottle when it was offered. T'Pol tried rubbing his back with his head on her shoulder but that didn't work either.
"Perhaps we should take him to a doctor." she suggested, feeling slightly panicked, something she was having difficulty repressing.
"We can't just bring him to a doctor after a little throwing up." sighed Shran, obviously racking his brain for an idea. T'Pol passed Soval to Shran but the Andorian had no more luck than she had. "Do you know what I think?"
"What?"
"I think our son has had enough of our bickering and wants us to focus more on bonding with him, as opposed to arguing."
"Do you think he is crying because he is in pain because we have yet to form a bond with him?"
"Maybe, I'm not sure."
"What can we do?"
"When you meditate, can you reach out with your mind?"
"Yes, sometimes, why?"
"I've an idea, but I'll need your help. Come on, we should go somewhere more private."
"Your home?"
"Yes. It's the best place. Let's go." Shran cradled Soval in his arms and T'Pol quickly swept everything back into the bag. There was a worrying sense of urgency about what was happening.
Shran kicked the door of his house open and then proceeded to direct T'Pol to a room that was clearly a training room. He deposited Soval, whose cries had not lessened, in her arms and she went into the training room.
T'Pol rocked Soval, staring into his face, which was a deep colour, all scrunched up as he howled. With her Vulcan hearing T'Pol could hear Shran kicking his sister and brother out of the house, promising an explanation later. A few moments later he returned and knelt before T'Pol.
"What is your plan?" she asked, wanting nothing more than to sooth the child.
"I want you to guide us both into a meditation, I've done a few before but never a Vulcan styled one. Never thought I'd willingly do one either. While we're doing this, I'll reach out to Soval, and so can you, and we can make a new attempt to form a bond with him."
"Will we not be forcing this upon him."
"We'll take it gently, but I don't know what else we can do. I'm not an Aenar, I can't just read Soval's mind or whatever."
"I can try but I do not know how effective my instructions will be. I have never guided anyone into a meditation such as the one you are suggesting."
"Well, as humans say, 'First time for anything'." Shran sighed, looking thoroughly uncomfortable. "I guess Soval should lie between us." T'Pol lay Soval on his back, his crying only increased. "Your move."
T'Pol drew herself up and assumed her usual meditation position. Shran copied her, after kicking off his boots.
"Close your eyes." she instructed. Shran narrowed his eyes at her and then shut them, his antennas reached out to her suspiciously. "Visualise your breath as a white light. Each time you breath in imagine that this white light is filling your body, and as you exhale you are releasing all tension, all anger. As you do this you will begin to feel calm and centred." Shran seemed to be doing as she instructed, his brow was creased in concentration. "When you are completely centred you will have reached the optimum state of meditation." T'Pol closed her own eyes and did the same.
As she focused, she thought of nothing but Soval, letting his cries help her concentrate on him.
Then… as she reached out to him she felt a sharp jolt, like she'd received an electric shock. Her eyes flew open and they locked with Shran's.
"Did you feel that?"
"I did."
"He's stopped crying." They both looked at the baby and Soval looked around, looking confused. "Maybe it's working."
"Here's hoping." They both reached out and let Soval grip their fingers, closing their eyes as they focused on Soval again. T'Pol suddenly felt like someone was pressing against her mind. At first she tried to push it away, more out of instinct than any other reason, then she relaxed her defences and felt the presence within her mind. She sensed confusion, distress, pain, sadness but also openness and need.
In her mind she saw a small thread, aquamarine in colour. Tentatively she reached out and saw her own thread, green, slowly stretching out and then wrapping around the aquamarine thread. As well as seeing it, she could feel Soval's mind connecting to hers. Then she saw a blue thread, slowly wrapping around the other end of the aquamarine thread.
T'Pol ignored Shran's thread and focused on tightening her own. Soval's mind was eagerly latching onto hers, and she could feel contentment coming from her son. Soval's grip on her finger tightened and she heard him coo softly. Finally her thread stopped tightening its hold and seemed content with the strength of its grip. Soval's thread was also halting its actions. T'Pol allowed herself to enjoy the link she had just formed with her son.
Finally she pulled away and opened her eyes. Soval was cooing softly as he stared up at the ceiling. Shran's antennas were moving slowly, as if he was sleepy. His brown eyes were clouded as he opened them.
"Well that seemed to work." he said lightly, "Must be because he's half Vulcan. I'd never have expected that to work on a full Andorian child."
"I thought you said a bond would take weeks to form with him. I can sense him now."
"Yes… but I'm only basing it on what I know of the bond. In Andorians it's built by emotional attachment."
"In Vulcans such bonds exist."
"But apparently they can be manipulated easier." Shran muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. T'Pol narrowed her eyes at his tone but she said nothing. The Vulcan picked up her son and he smiled up at her. Shran stared at him, seemingly lost in thought. "Can I show you something?"
"Of course."
Shran got to his feet and held his hand out to her. T'Pol took it, surprised both by the fact that he was offering her his hand, which would mean they would be touching skin and the fact that she had accepted it. Her skin tingled slightly at his touch, but he let her go once she was on her feet.
Leading her into another room, Shran pointed to a painting resting on a stand. T'Pol's sensitive nose told her it had just been recently painted.
It took a lot of control for her mouth not to drop open as she stared at a magnificent painting. It was just as the other Shran had described it in his letters.
"Senkrad did it this morning, it's good, isn't it?"
"Yes. It is impressive."
"I saw this when we forged the bond with Soval."
"Oh?"
"I saw the branches of my tree entwining with his, surrounding them protectively."
"I saw something much simpler but no less pointed."
"We'll have to be careful." Shran sighed, folding his arms.
"In what way?"
"If we're not careful we'll end up bonding to each other, not just Soval. I'm sure neither of us really wants that." T'Pol noted the grudging tone in Shran's voice as he said this and then noted the fact that she herself felt an odd sadness about the thought.
"It would be best. It would no doubt make things extremely difficult between us."
"Yes… it would." Shran sighed tiredly, and rubbed his eyes. "Can you sense it?"
"The bond?"
"Yes."
"Slightly, but I had anticipated it to be stronger."
"I think we just set up the base line. We'll probably strengthen it by spending time with him from now on."
"Good."
Soval let out a little noise and his eyes fixed on Shran. T'Pol obliged in handing him over to his father who grinned at him and held him in his arms with delight.
"He's got a bright spark in his eyes. He'll be smart."
"Yes… I believe he will be."
"Strong grip too… maybe he'll be a sportsman."
"Or an engineer."
"Or a Guardsman." Shran curled one edge of his lip into his cheek, "Or I guess he could join the Vulcan military."
"Perhaps he might join Starfleet. Become the first Andorian/Vulcan child to enter the academy."
"First? You think there'll be more?" Shran gave her a look of disbelief.
"There's no reason to assume Andorians and Vulcans won't procreate. Granted it may be in the minority, but there's no reason, with the future seeming so hopeful that our two species won't have such relations."
"Something tells me if that happens, they'll all look to us as the original couple even though we are not one."
"It is trying that everyone assumes we are married because we have a child together."
"Well… my people don't exactly make a secret of how we mate or reproduce."
"So I've noticed." T'Pol twitched her eyebrow at Shran in what was almost a playful way and Shran smirked.
"Unlike you Vulcans. You're so tight-lipped about your mating practises some people think you're made of the sand of Vulcan and that you just appear fully grown from the desert after a storm."
"Who would suggest such a thing."
"My grandsire for one." chuckled Shran as he rocked Soval in his arms, trying to get the baby to fall asleep. "That's what he told me when I was a child. Then again he also told me that the Aenar were life sucking ice demons."
T'Pol immediately thought of the young Jhamel and found that idea extremely preposterous. Shran seemed to know what she was thinking as he said wryly,
"He hasn't met Jhamel."
"Have you remained in contact with her?"
"Jhamel?" Shran's cheeks flushed slightly, "Yes, she's been assigned by her people to talk with my government. The Aenar have decided that despite the differences between our people… there's no point in being left out of the interplanetary relations anymore. As far as their concerned, they might not help protected their homeworld but they deserve to be involved in what sorts of agreements we make about it." Shran scowled, clearly he did not share in that view. "Jhamel has been involved in the talks, I sometimes see her when I'm working with Soval and Gral." There was a look on his face that told T'Pol there was much more to what he was saying than just his words.
"I see. If you see her, will you send her my regards?"
"Sure. I'd say she'll be glad to hear it." Shran looked down at Soval and smiled in a fatherly way as he saw Soval had fallen asleep. "I think this little one should probably be put to bed for a nap."
"Agreed."
"Why don't you take him tonight? I had him last night. May as well be fair."
"Are you certain?"
"Yes." Shran didn't look certain, but he held Soval out to T'Pol. "I have to go sort some things out with Ambassador Soval and Gral anyway. You'd do better with the time."
"Thank you." T'Pol took Soval into her arms, "Will I see you tomorrow?"
"I'd like that…" Shran shifted on his feet and then he said, "If you like we could go to a restaurant. We should probably learn to get along, it's obvious that we're going to have to be able to be around each other. May as well try to make it as… pleasant as possible."
"I agree. That would be… pleasant."
"So… 1400 hours? Best time for a restaurant meal, they'll be serving the midday meal by then."
"That is acceptable… we shall met you here?"
"Nah, I'll meet you at the platform." Shran leaned forward and pressed his lips to Soval's brow, "I'll see you tomorrow son." Soval snuffled in his sleep and yawned, before settling again. "Here, it's getting cold these days, I'll give you a blanket for him. Don't want him getting sick from the cold."
"I'm sure he's as resistant as you."
"Well even so." Shran gave her a soft silk blanket, but he seemed pleased by what she'd said.
They bid each other goodbye and T'Pol brought Soval back to Enterprise. As she laid him in the crib, and covered him with the beautiful blanket, which was black with stars covering it, she couldn't help but feel a surge of warmth as she thought about Shran. The Andorian was a good man, and he wanted what was best for his child. T'Pol realised then that she'd become very fond of Shran, somehow. But how fond exactly, she couldn't determine. And that concerned her.
Hope you all enjoyed that, next chapter is party time!
Reviews are like chocolate, I can never get enough of them. lol
Night's Darkness