Author's Note: You know, you're right Kendra, T'Rith does seem a lot like a female name and the whole 'T' thing is usually associated with women names. I think that when I came up with the name, I must have been thinking of Tuvok and got it mixed up.
I was going to have written this yesterday and then post it, but it was my birthday (Happy B-Day to me! 2/25) so I couldn't. But it's up now and all is well. Hope you like it.
Summary: Are the Ambassador's really observing Trip and T'Pol or are they doing something else to find out what they need to know? And what is that?
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Chapter 13:
Annoyances and Observations
**Engineering**
White hovered over him as he tried to realign the warp coil. It had been like that everyday for the past three days they had been there; Trip attempted to work and White hovered over him like a humming bird, never leaving his side.
"Will you stop it!" Trip finally snapped. "I'm trying t' work here but with you standing over my shoulder all the time, I can't!"
"Sorry," White said as cowered back away from Trip.
"Sir, would you like me to work on this. Maybe you should go get something to eat. Your shift will be over soon." Everyone had figured out or been told what the two ambassadors were doing here. Lieutenant Oteara was the only one brave enough to go talk to Trip once Ambassador White had pissed him off.
"Thanks, Lieutenant." Trip headed for the door so he could take her up on her offer of using his extra ten minutes to get a quick lunch. "Oh, no you don't. You're not coming with me!" Trip said when he saw White following him to the door.
"My orders are to observe you. I cannot do that if I can't see you."
"Darn shame."
"Besides I want to talk to you," White stated in such a frank way Trip was stopped.
"Whatever." His pace quicken as he reached the turbolift. He told it his destination and when the doors opened, he walked straight to the Mess Hall, trying to lose White but not very successfully.
When they entered the Mess Hall, it was quiet and almost empty; just how Trip liked it. He walked over to the food dispensers and got a ham and cheese sandwich and cup of tea (a habit T'Pol gave him). Then he walked over to an empty table and sat down to begin eating.
White followed suit and sat across from him. "You really love her don't you?" Trip looked up, a little shocked he would ask such an intimate question. "I had to listen to the conversations between the Captain, Admiral Forrest, and Suval. The way you spoke, stood, how you appeared to be upset at yourself when you almost made T'Pol's mind up for her. Only someone who loves her would do that."
Trip looked down at his food before he gave up and answered. "Yea, I really love her. I don't know how or when it happened, but I do. And for me, that's all that matters."
"Yea, but you do know she can't love you back."
"That bullshit. I know she has emotions; all Vulcans do. They just suppress 'em. They feel everythin' we do, they just don't show it or express 'em the way we do."
White took what he said into consideration. "Yea, but what about all those dumb rituals they do. I mean they spend a good deal of their time meditating. They have arranged marriages and do you even know how they get married?"
"Yea, of course. And a lot of their rituals aren't stupid; some are kind of interestin'," Trip said, not really paying attention to White or the meaning of why he was asking the questions.
"And if you do get married, what about children. There's a good chance you can't have them."
Trip practically choked on his drink. "Children? We really hadn't talked about that. Who knows, it's not like anyone's tried before." White just shrugged and ate some of his own sandwich, thinking about what Trip just revealed.
**Mess Hall, One Hour Later**
T'Pol was having about as much luck and fun as Trip. Only she got the more interesting part. T'Rith would often stand on the opposite side of the room, observing her from afar. Then he would start to edge closer, but just enough to make it go unnoticed. Then, after about an hour of that, he would be looking right over her shoulder and asking her questions on what she was doing and more.
Interestingly enough, for a Vulcan and even in some human terms, he asked far too many questions. In T'Pol's personal opinion, T'Rith had many unVulcan like traits, but none quiet that obvious to Humans.
She had thought she had finally lost him after using a very complex route to the Mess Hall, but even then he found her. The Mess Hall was filled with only twenty or so people when T'Pol walked in. She had hoped that there would more people to hide herself in but instead she merely sat at the empty table in the back.
The doors opened and T'Rith walked in. After searching the room's inhabitants, he walked over to the corner and sat down, uninvited. T'Pol's eyebrow arched at his action, but luckily he did not catch it.
"The route you took to get here was most fascinating."
"Really?'
"Yes, you walked around nearly every deck just to get here. Did you forget the deck it is on?" T'Rith voice was almost mocking and T'Pol knew it was to try and get an emotional reaction from her.
"No, I simply had an errand to run and I could not fine the person in which I needed to speak to." T'Pol's answer was supposed to sound as smug and sarcastic as his last comment was.
"Really, I never saw you communicate with anyone about any such thing. What was it about?"
"None of your business."
"Then would I be privileged enough to know who you were looking for that you evidently could not find?"
T'Rith was beginning to really irritate her and it was becoming harder to suppress. She sighed as she quickly picked a name from the mental list of the crew she had in her head. "Ensign Rolarias," she picked an ensign that had a science background incase he was thorough enough to check.
The time he noted that it took her to come up with the name and the way she hesitated before answering, suggested to T'Rith that she was lying. "I am beginning to suspect that you may be more like your human friends than you know. Lying like that," T'Rith said in an honest tone.
"Perhaps, and perhaps you are begin to allow yourself the same thing; letting your emotions slip into your voice." T'Pol had not missed any of the sarcasm, smugness, or anything else escape his mouth and entered her ears over the past few days and she would not be letting him either any time soon.
If T'Rith wasn't Vulcan, the look on his face could only have been described as shocked, but he is Vulcan so that's not how I can describe it. But T'Rith was very taken aback by it. "Yes, you have been around the humans for far too long. Their inferior believes and sarcastic retorts are now something you use in answering a question that one of your own people ask. Most fascinating indeed."
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You know, writing T'Rith is a lot of fun. You kind of get to let all of his annoying personality traits out just to write him; it's fun.
Anyway, please R/R.
