Disclaimers, etc. in chapter one.
Author's Note: Many apologies for the long delay here. I've somehow lost the knack of avoiding all my real life chores in order to do fanfic, but I have today off and figured I'd take advantage of it. It's a little short, but hopefully you'll prefer a little something to a whole lot of nothing. Many thanks as always, reviewers!
When Phlox sent word that Bethany was ready to depart sickbay, Trip stood up quickly, intent on escape. Jon nodded his permission, so he escorted Russ out.
The sheriff was quiet and clearly preoccupied as they walked along to the turbo-lift. He didn't even appear to be taking in his environment with any curiosity. "You all right?" Trip asked.
"You tell me," Russ said. "Is there any reason I shouldn't think all hell is about to break loose?"
"Well… it's going to be a lot of change, all right," Trip said. "But most of it will be for the better. Better food, better health care, better education, better standard of living all round…"
"But none of it by our choice."
Trip grunted. "Earth had a democratic government. I don't think her survivors are going to willingly give up that tradition. We just need to get everyone settled in."
"Settled in where?" Russ growled. "All the best land is already taken."
"Your settlements are clustered in only a tiny portion of the planet," Trip said. "We know how to put colonies on lifeless planets without breathable atmospheres or natural water supplies, and we don't even have to worry about that here. It'll be fine."
He hoped like hell that was true.
They stopped in front of the doors into sickbay. Russ took a deep breath and straightened, visibly clearing his expression before they went in. "How's our patient, Doc?" he asked brightly, smiling at Bethany, who didn't return the smile.
She was, if possible, even paler than she had been on the planet. "Dr. Phlox here tells me I'm a Skag," she said, and scowled.
Trip winced. He'd never heard her use that term before, especially with that tone of hostility.
"I said you are part Skagaran," Phlox said. "One quarter, as it happens."
"How's the gunshot?" Russ asked Phlox.
The Denobulan waved his hand dismissively. "She'll be fine."
"Good," Russ said gruffly. "Ready to go home?"
"Home to where?" she said bitterly. "Skagtown?"
Russ regarded her for a moment, then turned to Phlox. "Would her Skagaran part cause any problem for her having a baby with me, assuming she wasn't completely opposed to the idea?"
Bethany's mouth fell open. Trip stared in surprise, too.
"None that I can foresee," Phlox said. "If it were difficult, there wouldn't be much, if any, evidence of interbreeding at all in this population, but there's been quite a bit of it, based on what I've seen so far."
"Good to know," Russ said. "You ready?" he asked Bethany.
"For a baby?" she squeaked.
"No, for going home," Russ said. "I think anything else would require a little more privacy than we've got at the moment."
She just stared at him, clearly a bit dazed.
Trip grinned. "Come on, then," he said.
x x x
Trip cleared his departure with Malcolm, who was in command on the bridge. Russ's comments about privacy had gotten him thinking, especially since he had a sense that wherever T'Pol was, she was still riled up, so he called her, too. "I'm ferrying Russ and Bethany down to the planet," he said. "Want to come along?"
There was silence on the other end. Probably the request did not strike her as an efficient use of two senior officers' time.
"I'd enjoy having some company on the ride back," he added.
"I'll meet you in the shuttle bay," she said.
x x x
North Star's dun-colored planetscape filled the shuttle pod's front viewport. It was a monotonous desert compared to the sparkling jewel of a planet Humanity had evolved on. But that no longer existed, and Trip supposed there was little point now in comparing them. He thought about asking T'Pol if this planet reminded her of Vulcan, but decided she'd probably had more than enough reminders of her home today. He was burning to ask about her mother and Soval, but knew it must wait until they were alone.
He didn't look back to where Russ and Bethany were sitting, but he heard no conversation. The shuttle pod could use a rear-view mirror for the passenger compartment, he decided, although in this case the only good reason for it was his own nosiness. Immediately behind him, T'Pol offered only the normal reports that would come from someone manning sensors.
He flew in over Main Street. It would probably not look like this for much longer, would it? Unless, perhaps, the powers that be decided to preserve this as a sort of heritage zone: See where the planet's first Humans lived!
The powers that be… He wasn't used to thinking that way. Just what gave Harris and Forrest the right to decide what would become of these people and their town, anyway? And how could they be so certain their decisions would be the best ones?
He set the pod down next to Bethany's rooming house, and stood up.
Russ got up and offered his hand to Bethany to help her rise to her feet. "We're not going to say a word about any of this – right?" Russ said. Perhaps it was meant for all of them, but he was looking at Bethany.
She looked sharply at him. "Which part of it?"
"The Skagaran part of it."
Her lips pursed. "I've never been much of one for keeping secrets."
"Humor me, then," he said. "I've never seen much point in borrowing trouble."
"There's no need for either of you to rush into anything," Trip said to both of them, and grinned. "Unless, of course, you really want to!" He saw them out, then closed the hatch behind them and regarded T'Pol where she still sat.
"Their relationship appears to have encountered some changes," she observed.
"Phlox told Bethany she was part-Skagaran, and all Russ wanted to know was whether it would prevent them from having babies."
T'Pol raised an eyebrow.
Russ hadn't seemed rocked in the slightest by the news. Perhaps she was already such a Skagaran-sympathizer that it hardly mattered. Or perhaps he was just in love.
Would he and T'Pol ever be able to have a baby? That seemed a lot less likely, at least not without an awful lot of high-tech interference. Skagarans at least bled the same color Humans did.
Well, whatever. Maybe they could adopt.
"What happened with Soval?" he asked.
T'Pol glanced at the pilot's seat but, for once, forbore from reminding him that they should be on their way back to Enterprise. "He told me that my mother has joined a dissident group known as the Syrrannites. They believe that Surak's teachings have been misinterpreted over time and that we need to return to his original text, which is – perhaps conveniently – nowhere to be found. Soval seems to believe that it is because of this affiliation that the High Command recently accused my mother of stealing classified information and moved to arrest her. Like other known Syrrannites, she went into hiding." She removed a necklace she had tucked under her uniform top and handed it to him. "This is a map. He says she gave it to him – and that she wants me to find her."
He fiddled with the odd piece of jewelry until a complicated holographic image arose from it, notated with unreadable Vulcan text. "And will you?" he asked, with a tightening of his chest.
"I am not eager to do so. You yourself have remarked that I have great difficulty in parting from you."
"Yes," he said. As unnatural and even alarming as her uncharacteristic dependence was, he had gained certain benefits from it, such as the general impression that his girlfriend wasn't going to up and abandon him anytime soon.
"Soval also told me that my mother believes that the Syrrannites have information that could stop the war with Andoria."
He breathed in sharply. That raised this to a whole other level. "Do you believe him?"
"He has never lied to me before."
"Doesn't mean he's not doing it now."
"I know."
Trip knew where this was going. What was their little speck of a romance next to the possibility of preventing an intergalactic war? The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and all that. He sighed and sat down in the pilot's seat. "You're going to go?"
She was silent for a moment. "No."
He blinked. He hadn't expected that answer.
T'Pol turned her attention to the sensor panel. "Perhaps we should return."
He turned around and ran through the checklist for launch, a fast and mindless routine, especially with T'Pol on board to help.
He should be relieved, shouldn't he? She was staying with him!
But he wasn't relieved.
This was all wrong.
To be continued...