A/N: Jon gets to see a side of T'Pol he's not very appreciative of and he has to acknowledge that his crew is getting a wee bit out of whack. This is an adaption of Favors' excellent story "Soul Search Complete", which you can find over at "House Of Tucker"
Chapter 37: As The Crow Flies
Teo Torriate konomama iko
Aisuruhito yo
Shizukana yoi ni
Hikario tomoshi
Itoshiki oshieo idaki
It was the first time she heard her husband sing, and if T'Lara's enthusiastic participation on the 'dance floor' as the humans called the area designated for that activity, was any indication, he appeared quite talented too. Instead of ostracizing ensign Sato for her foolishness her human crew mates had supported her all the way through her therapy, most of them her brother and the captain. When Phlox had announced her fit for duty again the crew had spontaneously organized something called a karaoke party. She had still misgivings about letting T'Lara partake in too many human rituals, but right now the child was too pleased and disallowing her to participate in the human dancing ritual she apparently enjoyed so much would lead to conflict with Charles. Of all potential partners her adoptive daughter could have chosen, her current one, Lieutenant Reed, was perhaps the most unexpected. Considering that the song her husband and his sister were performing, came from the Lieutenant's home region was perhaps a reason for his uncharacteristic expressiveness.
The recent events did of course have repercussions for ensign Sato. Although Phlox had managed to break the substance addiction in only three weeks, there would be regular checks and her accumulated stash of substances had been destroyed. The young human had exhausted her financial savings for nothing, but seeing her now, renewed, and happily singing with Charles it seemed to her that the lost monetary resources was the least of the young woman's concerns.
According to the human database, the concept called karaoke came from ensign Sato's home region, however the music to which every participant sang did not come from an electronic device, as was usual according to the documentation. Instead it was performed by the 'Loose Screws', a peculiarly named group of musicians who all worked in Charles' engineering department.
Currently Charles and Hoshi were occupying the stage, performing a song that according to Charles' prior announcement was nearly two-hundred years old. It was performed in English but also featured two verses that were sung in ensign Sato's native language. Wanting to please his sister he had spent several days on learning the perfect pronunciation of the words with the help of ensign Rao, who came from the same region.
I was still a fascinating sight, seeing how obviously displayed her Adun's emotions were in his eyes. Ensign Sato was not much different. As they held each others hand and sang to each other, T'Pol doubted that either of them was aware that they were surrounded by nearly sixty other humans. They only had eyes for each other and there was no doubt about the deep affection they had for each other. Without knowing Charles emotions and thoughts from several mind-melds, she would have been led to believe that the young human female could take her Adun away from her, but his affection for Hoshi was exactly the same as for his other sibling – Elizabeth. She wondered if Charles was even consciously aware any longer that Hoshi was not a biological child of his parents. They began another song, this time rather rowdy and again in a foreign language that the UT needed a few seconds to detect.
"Volle Granate, Renate, Renate, Renate, Renate
Volle Granate, Renate, Renate, Re-na-te
Volle Granate, Renate, Renate, Renate, Renate
Volle Granate, Renate, Renate, Re-na-te
Alle riefen, wenn sie in die Kneipe ging :
"Nati, du kannst Hüften schwing' und die Dinger waggeln,
Oh oh man"!
Her Adun and Hoshi were singing in a language called German, spoken by the two members of Engineering who supplied the ship with alcoholic beverages. They held each other by the had, singing enthusiastically. According to the UT the song was about a woman called 'Renate' belonging to a clan called 'the vikings', and allegedly she was perpetually inebriated, quite violent and expected all males who came in contact with her to sport an erection at all times, at least that was what the claim 'she preferred warriors with solid lances' suggested. It was certainly well that T'Lara was not wearing a UT headpiece right now and she began to understand why Charles had made sure to take it off her before the evening began. She doubted he would have had allowed the child to stay if there was even a remote chance of her understanding what kind of vernacular was in use. For T'Lara there was only relatively pleasant music on display, performed by her beloved adoptive father, with words that sounded like complete gibberish.
Wir saufen den Met bis keiner mehr steht
Unser Häuptling heißt „Rote Locke"
Wir verbrauchen viel Frau'n und tun Leute beklau'n
und hau'n uns reichlich auf die Glocke
Wir verbrauchen viel Frau'n und tun Leute beklau'n
und hau'n uns reichlich auf die Glocke
There was obviously more information to disseminate about this peculiar clan called the 'the vikings', as according to the latest presentation of Charles and his sister they had a rather promiscuous nature and not exactly a habit of asking before 'borrowing' property, celebrating their success by exacting violence among themselves. Apparently their habit of plundering the region from which Lieutenant Reed came was the 'first recorded case of extreme shopping' according to Charles' prior announcement, a statement that made no sense to her whatsoever. But then Charles had already imbibed several beverages...
She could see that Charles' diligence in supporting Hoshi throughout the therapy had had a positive effect. The only thing she didn't understand – why was Charles speaking so many languages all of a sudden? While she had willingly relinquished much of the time she had wanted to spend with him, in order to support Hoshi, T'Lara had not been quite as easily accepting of the fact that her adoptive father had been missing often. For a start, she was still too young to understand what had happened to her 'aunt Hoshi'. It was testament to her Adun's devotion to their adoptive daughter that he still found enough time to spend with the child. She had no doubt that he would have preferred to spend some of it with herself, engaging in sexual relations, but for both of them the child's well-being had absolute priority over sating their intimate desires. She did doubt however, that she could make it through this night, and although it was a Wednesday, his sister had made it clear that she did not expect him to accompany her, having occupied so much of his attention before.
-=/\=-
"We cannot meld today, Adun," she growled, and ripped his uniform off his body, destroying it in the process. "Tie me to the bedposts and ravage me or we'll have a tragedy at hand."
Thankfully her husband remembered what to do when she was overcome by her base instincts. Equally destroying her attire he forcefully removed it from her body, growling, and he shoved her forcefully onto the bed, much harder than he would ever do if it wasn't needed to deal with her unrestrained desires..
Swiftly fixing her arms to the bedposts, he imposed himself upon her and entered her forcefully. That was the last T'Pol remembered before the night descended into a series of frantic and violent physical encounters.
-=/\=-
"I apologize," she offered when his eyes opened the next day. The fact that they were resting on the floor because their bed had not survived the rigors of last night was testament to the ferociousness of their repeated couplings.
"Are you uninjured?" she asked.
"Just a little sore," he groaned, but his attempts at standing up resulted in him falling to the ground again. "Okay, maybe more than a little sore," he muttered in obvious embarrassment about his helplessness.
"Stay where you are," T'Pol said and rose to get the massage oil.
"Well, not that I can walk anyway," he groaned.
-=/\=-
"Stop it!" Jon ordered when Malcolm and Travis couldn't stop cackling after Trip had somewhat awkwardly staggered off the bride into the turbo lift. Everybody had a pretty good idea what had left the chief barely able to walk, but he knew that it not only inconvenienced the ship's science officer, he could also see that Hoshi, on her first day back on duty, was barely able to fight the tears, knowing that her therapy was the reason for separating Trip and T'Pol long enough to cause a rather explosive night of something they didn't want to known too many details about. The request form for a new bunk that T'Pol had presented with a pronounced blush in the morning was indication enough that Trip had gotten a very practical demonstration of what it meant to be married to a Vulcan.
For the moment though there were more urgent matters to deal with. Their dilithium stock was running low and with none of the rare material available on Earth they had to find some of it out here. A warp five engine was not only faster than the engines of other human ships, it also consumed an amount of the rare material that was proportional to the speed advantage.
-=/\=-
"Come," he groaned when the incessant door chime woke him up. He shook his head when a look at his clock told him it was three o'clock in the morning. The door opened and T'Pol walked in. If she hadn't been Vulcan, he would have thought she was pissed off.
Scratch that, she is pissed off, he thought with a shiver.
"The analysis you asked me for, captain. The dilithium deposits are of sufficient quality," she said gruffly and handed over, no, actually she shoved the PADD into his hand.
"T'Pol, I'll look at it in the morning."
"It is morning," she insisted. Her hands were crossed in front of her chest and she still looked like he should be happy that she wasn't carrying a sharp object.
"I'll look at it a little later in the morning then, T'Pol."
Her nostrils began flaring and for all intents and purposes, his Vulcan science officer looked ready to blow a gasket, quite explosively too.
"T'Pol what's wrong?"
"What's wrong, Captain? You were so desperate to get this analysis you saw fit to interrupt my free time with Charles at 2147 and sixty-three seconds. I believe you should look at it now."
Shit, he thought to himself. She doesn't only look furious, she is furious.
"T'Pol, you could have said something," he ventured carefully.
"Perhaps I should have," she answered curtly and stalked out of his quarters.
"Phlox, could you spare a minute?" he asked into the intercom after T'Pol was hopefully far enough away from his quarters to pose an immediate danger.
-=/\=-
"I believe we have happened upon a problem of Vulcan biology that they are not too keen on advertising to a wider public," the doctor explained after Jon had given him a run-down of the strange incident with T'Pol. "Commander Tucker and Commander T'Pol have only recently began to engage in sexual relations. As this is not done on Vulcan with anyone but your mate, it causes changes in the female's hormonal constitution. To put it simply, in the first year after their bonding, Vulcan females feel a heightened urge to mate, separating the mates in the wrong moment as you have done unwittingly is not a good idea."
"She could have said something, you know?"
The doctor snorted. "Captain, how would you feel about walking up to your superior officer having to admit that you have an overwhelming need for intimate attention, hm?"
"If you put it like that doctor..."
-=/\=-
"T'Pol anything on the sensors?" the Captain asked. Neither of them had mentioned the nightly incident and in light of Phlox's explanation he didn't feel like aggravating her any further.
"The sensors have problems penetrating the nebula. We have barely enough capacity to avoid colliding with anything solid. The distress call ensign Sato has picked up is however clearly originating from within the nebula."
"Travis take us in, one-quarter impulse."
"Aye, sir."
"Need help, attack, no warp drive," the UT made of the repeated automated message.
"Captain, I'm receiving coordinates from the satellite. They are less than a light year from here," Hoshi reported.
"Transfer them to Travis. Lay in a course, maximum warp."
{c}*****
They were descending down to the planet, with Travis at the helm of the shuttlepod, Captain Archer and Hoshi in case a linguist was needed. Trip was there to check if the dilithium they had found would be pure enough. According to T'Pol there had been no life signs in the vicinity and they walked out of the shuttle, scanning for the rare metal that they were about to steal without asking anyone on the planet for permission. It was strange to receive an emergency call with nobody there.
An inertial damper had conked out and Trip had gone to work immediately. A minute later some sort of eagle that looked like having been put on a copier with a 300% setting, and crossed with a stork beforehand, descended on them, grabbed the chief and flew off. They shot at it but the stun beams left no impression on a flying creature the size of a two story house.
The only thing Jon could remember was Hoshi screaming in terror.
{c}*****
He'd been so shocked, Malcolm Reed had taken control and directed them back to the ship. Jon crawled out of the shuttle last, knowing that when T'Pol would realize that Trip didn't come back with them, doom was impending. With a sickening thud that robbed him of his breath he landed against the bulkhead.
"Where. Is. Charles?"
"T'Pol, he was..."
"You left him the hell down there?" she screeched, completely beside herself.
Oh fuck, he'd never heard T'Pol swear before.
To his surprise Hoshi growled something in what he surmised to be Vulcan. T'Pol froze and folded like a cheap suit.
"Anyone with an idea?" he croaked.
"Situation room," Hoshi said. "And Captain, if I were you, I'd hope that this thing wasn't hungry, or I don't know who beats who to the punch. You would survive neither my nor T'Pol's answer."
With that she stalked off.
"Don't expect help from me," Malcolm replied dryly, not sounding too pleased about this mess either.
He had utterly failed as a captain. So much was sure.
{c}*****
"An oversized eagle?" Phlox asked.
"Oversized is good." Malcolm snorted. "That thing had a wingspan of at least fifteen meters.
"What was its color?" Phlox asked.
"Orange head, bright blue neck, the rest was a rather drab brown," Hoshi replied. "Huge beak, a bit like a giant stork, not a hooked one like a predatory bird?"
"These creatures are not supposed to be in this part of the quadrant?" the Denobulan wondered.
"You know them?" the captain asked.
"Avendeeds, yes. But they are a pre-warp species, at least they were a year ago."
"What do you know about them?" T'Pol seethed and Jon grabbed his weapon, he had seen T'Pol this out of control before.
"The only thing I can tell is that most likely Commander Tucker is still alive. Due to their bird-like ancestry, Avendeeds have two weaknesses – engineering, since they have no hands, and medicine. Was there anything to alert them to the fact that Commander Tucker was an engineer, was he carrying tools?"
"He used them," Hoshi said in tears. "The inertial damper had failed and then this thing just snatched him."
"Avendeeds call them 'makers'," Phlox said. "They just helped themselves to one."
{c}*****
"I Mistril, who Tupple?" a giant bird asked him.
"The fuck?" he shot back "And why am I the hell naked, tied to this table?"
"We need model of maker. Who Tupple? You speak in sleep of her."
"What do you need to know that for Tweety?" he growled.
"Give pain!"
He screamed in pain when he felt a nasty burn in a region than no one but T'Pol should ever see, let alone touch.
{c}*****
Everyone jumped when T'Pol screamed on top of her lungs and fell over. Jon collected her, but the Vulcan was barely lucid.
"Right," Malcolm said. "I know you don't like it Captain..."
"In this case I do," Jon said cradling the shivering Vulcan. Hoshi bumped him aside. "You don't wanna know what happens if she perceives you as a danger," she said. Jon stepped back, intimidated by Hoshi's fierce scowl.
{c}*****
They descended back to the planet carrying EM39's, pretty much the most devastating hand weapon humanity had to offer this side of ship mounted phase cannons. Jon had not been convinced that taking T'Pol down here was a good idea, especially as Hoshi hadn't been helping. The Vulcan and the ship's coms officer looked ridiculous, wearing a head-band with a rising sun around their heads, according to what he knew, a combat sign of Japanese forces in world war two. T'Pol was out to kill someone and they had been doing that a little too much lately. Overall he had the impression that half the ship was out of control at the moment. Hoshi and T'Pol certainly were.
Still, they charged into the compound and feathers were flying as Malcolm, Hoshi and T'Pol shot everything on sight, the deadly fire burning through the bodies of the bird-like aliens. He tried to intervene, but as they came into a large room, all Jon could do was double over and vomit explosively. Trip was lying, seemingly dead on a flatbed, his lower body region swollen and bloodied. Beams of fire went through the room as T'Pol screamed in agony.
"HOLD FIRE!" Malcolm called out. Jon was still retching. How the fuck did Malcolm take that as just a day in the office? Only now he realized that they were surrounded by giant birds.
"You Tupple," one of them growled. "You show us how to make makers or you all dead."
"I'll send you to your fucking maker!" T'Pol screamed in a bloody rage and throwing her rifle away she advanced on the bird. "You have stolen and killed my mate!"
Oh shit! Jon thought. Where had T'Pol learned to swear like that?
"He your other? Now he mine! You show me how make makers!" the giant bird replied in equal rage.
"Then fight!" the Vulcan screeched. Before he could even grasp a thought T'Pol was already clawing feathers and pieces of meat out of the giant bird with her bare hands.
Shit, that were now TWO people on his ship he should never ever piss off. The giant bird and T'Pol were engaged in a viscous fight. The oversized hen was trying to claw T'Pol, but she had already crushed one of those bird feet beyond description with the attacker barely able to stay upright. The most vulnerable part of the bird seemed to be the head and he nearly vomited again when T'Pol climbed up the bird's body and twisted its head clean of the neck with large spurts of blood shooting out of the severed connection. The dead body of the bird fell over forwards.
Never, ever, fight a Vulcan over her mate!