TITLE: Dear Annie ("The Seventh")
AUTHOR: Mara Greengrass
AUTHOR'S E-MAIL: fishfolk@ix.netcom.com. Feedback is better than chocolate.
PERMISSION TO ARCHIVE: Yes, just let me know.
CATEGORY: Gen
RATINGS/WARNINGS: G
SUMMARY: Hoshi writes home after the events of "The Seventh."
DISCLAIMER: Enterprise and all its crew belong to Paramount and many other entities with expensive lawyers. I am making no profit from this story.
NOTES: Thanks to Captain Average, for smoothing out some ragged prose in this letter and for the proxemics suggestion (which he made last week, but I used to better effect this week).
* * * * *
Dear Annie:
I've decided that it's finally time for me to learn to take my relaxation when I can. No, we didn't get shoreleave again, sad to say, but we got a few days of a break while Sub-commander T'Pol was off on some sort of mission for the Vulcans. I still don't know what, and I doubt I ever will, because neither she nor the Captain told us what they were doing.
(Thanks for sending me the journals and newsletters, by the way. They arrived just in time for our little break, so I'm almost caught up. I was especially amused to see that picture of Amani receiving his award. Have you ever seen him grin that hard? Good for him!)
In any case, while I was reading "Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Strategy Use in Egyptian Arabic and Vulcan Refusals," T'Pol took the Captain with her on this mission, along with Travis as a pilot. After the Enterprise stopped at this uninhabited planet, they took cold weather gear, and the three of them, for all intents and purposes, disappeared.
Malcolm was so frustrated by the whole situation, he was actually speechless. I can't imagine what it must be like to be the security officer and have your two top officers take off and refuse to tell you where they're going. I would hate to have been the equipment in the gym, because I suspect that's where he took out his frustrations.
I couldn't decide whether to feel bad for Trip. I'll admit that it was frustrating not to know why we were here--and the man *is* a bigger gossip than I am--but he did have a bit too much fun with being acting captain. Well, for a little while.
Of course, when the Vulcans showed up, he got his comeuppance for teasing me, because we couldn't admit that Captain Archer was off with T'Pol. I stalled them and called Trip in the Captain's mess, where he was eating with Malcolm and Phlox. I wouldn't have even done that, except that the Vulcan captain really wanted to speak with Captain Archer. Well, Trip said he'd get back to me.
So, there I was, with impatient Vulcans banging on my figurative door and he wanted to get back to me? I knew he'd give in eventually and talk to them, but the harebrained scheme he came up with made me feel like we were back in college...y'know, he reminds me of you sometimes.
I should have seen it coming, but I didn't: He pretended to be Captain Archer! He had me combing the files, querying everything and everyone we could to ensure this Vulcan had never met our captain, then Trip just stood there and baldly lied. I can only thank our good luck this Vulcan apparently doesn't know anything about accents or dialects of human languages, or we'd have been found out in an instant. The more stress he's under, the more southern Trip sounds.
Of course, Trip would never have done such a thing if the Vulcans hadn't been *so* insistent that they had a message from Admiral Forrest, and if the captain hadn't been *so* insistent that we not let the Vulcans know he'd gone with T'Pol.
Someday we're all going to get tangled up in our lies, and it's going to be messy--but that day wasn't today.
Honestly, I'm not sure Trip got through command school with all his uncertainty. Maybe he just needs some more practice, and I should urge the Captain to leave him in charge more often. Somehow, though, I suspect Trip might not appreciate that.
Wait, I forgot to tell you the best part! Imagine the scene: Trip is standing there lying to the Vulcans, convinced he's going to be found out any moment and court-martialed or something. Finally, the Vulcan captain pulls out Admiral Forrest's vitally important message:
"Cal beat Stanford seven to three."
I thought Trip was going to fall over, but he mumbled something to the effect of "I'll tell him," thus almost giving away the whole shooting match, but fumbled his way to a recovery. I cut off the Vulcan captain before he could ask any questions, and Trip collapsed into a chair.
Why I didn't just laugh at him there and then, I'll never know. It does go to show that Admiral Forrest obviously has a better sense of humor than we'd previously given him credit for. That could be handy at some point, I suppose.
It was especially interesting to see Captain Archer and T'Pol's proxemics before and after this secret mission. They've been in much greater accord in recent weeks, much less glaring and such, standing closer together, you know, things like that. But now...well, obviously something happened, something that brought them closer together. I don't see any signs of the residual dislike of Vulcans when he talks to T'Pol, it's almost as if he's forgotten she's Vulcan.
(It would have been interesting to watch his reaction to the Vulcan captain, but for some reason they took off without speaking to us again. I suppose that's good, though, or poor Trip would have had to impersonate the Captain again.)
In any case, it will be interesting to see how long this new accord lasts, if they've truly come to some sort of understanding, or if it's just temporary.
I haven't given up on my mission to figure out why T'Pol can stand being around humans so much longer than other Vulcans. (Which reminds me that I'm still curious about that story she told Trip and the Captain about her ancestor, how are you doing on that research?) And if Captain Archer can come to work happily with a Vulcan--with his personal history--maybe our two races can come to an understanding.
Love,
Hoshi
AUTHOR: Mara Greengrass
AUTHOR'S E-MAIL: fishfolk@ix.netcom.com. Feedback is better than chocolate.
PERMISSION TO ARCHIVE: Yes, just let me know.
CATEGORY: Gen
RATINGS/WARNINGS: G
SUMMARY: Hoshi writes home after the events of "The Seventh."
DISCLAIMER: Enterprise and all its crew belong to Paramount and many other entities with expensive lawyers. I am making no profit from this story.
NOTES: Thanks to Captain Average, for smoothing out some ragged prose in this letter and for the proxemics suggestion (which he made last week, but I used to better effect this week).
* * * * *
Dear Annie:
I've decided that it's finally time for me to learn to take my relaxation when I can. No, we didn't get shoreleave again, sad to say, but we got a few days of a break while Sub-commander T'Pol was off on some sort of mission for the Vulcans. I still don't know what, and I doubt I ever will, because neither she nor the Captain told us what they were doing.
(Thanks for sending me the journals and newsletters, by the way. They arrived just in time for our little break, so I'm almost caught up. I was especially amused to see that picture of Amani receiving his award. Have you ever seen him grin that hard? Good for him!)
In any case, while I was reading "Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Strategy Use in Egyptian Arabic and Vulcan Refusals," T'Pol took the Captain with her on this mission, along with Travis as a pilot. After the Enterprise stopped at this uninhabited planet, they took cold weather gear, and the three of them, for all intents and purposes, disappeared.
Malcolm was so frustrated by the whole situation, he was actually speechless. I can't imagine what it must be like to be the security officer and have your two top officers take off and refuse to tell you where they're going. I would hate to have been the equipment in the gym, because I suspect that's where he took out his frustrations.
I couldn't decide whether to feel bad for Trip. I'll admit that it was frustrating not to know why we were here--and the man *is* a bigger gossip than I am--but he did have a bit too much fun with being acting captain. Well, for a little while.
Of course, when the Vulcans showed up, he got his comeuppance for teasing me, because we couldn't admit that Captain Archer was off with T'Pol. I stalled them and called Trip in the Captain's mess, where he was eating with Malcolm and Phlox. I wouldn't have even done that, except that the Vulcan captain really wanted to speak with Captain Archer. Well, Trip said he'd get back to me.
So, there I was, with impatient Vulcans banging on my figurative door and he wanted to get back to me? I knew he'd give in eventually and talk to them, but the harebrained scheme he came up with made me feel like we were back in college...y'know, he reminds me of you sometimes.
I should have seen it coming, but I didn't: He pretended to be Captain Archer! He had me combing the files, querying everything and everyone we could to ensure this Vulcan had never met our captain, then Trip just stood there and baldly lied. I can only thank our good luck this Vulcan apparently doesn't know anything about accents or dialects of human languages, or we'd have been found out in an instant. The more stress he's under, the more southern Trip sounds.
Of course, Trip would never have done such a thing if the Vulcans hadn't been *so* insistent that they had a message from Admiral Forrest, and if the captain hadn't been *so* insistent that we not let the Vulcans know he'd gone with T'Pol.
Someday we're all going to get tangled up in our lies, and it's going to be messy--but that day wasn't today.
Honestly, I'm not sure Trip got through command school with all his uncertainty. Maybe he just needs some more practice, and I should urge the Captain to leave him in charge more often. Somehow, though, I suspect Trip might not appreciate that.
Wait, I forgot to tell you the best part! Imagine the scene: Trip is standing there lying to the Vulcans, convinced he's going to be found out any moment and court-martialed or something. Finally, the Vulcan captain pulls out Admiral Forrest's vitally important message:
"Cal beat Stanford seven to three."
I thought Trip was going to fall over, but he mumbled something to the effect of "I'll tell him," thus almost giving away the whole shooting match, but fumbled his way to a recovery. I cut off the Vulcan captain before he could ask any questions, and Trip collapsed into a chair.
Why I didn't just laugh at him there and then, I'll never know. It does go to show that Admiral Forrest obviously has a better sense of humor than we'd previously given him credit for. That could be handy at some point, I suppose.
It was especially interesting to see Captain Archer and T'Pol's proxemics before and after this secret mission. They've been in much greater accord in recent weeks, much less glaring and such, standing closer together, you know, things like that. But now...well, obviously something happened, something that brought them closer together. I don't see any signs of the residual dislike of Vulcans when he talks to T'Pol, it's almost as if he's forgotten she's Vulcan.
(It would have been interesting to watch his reaction to the Vulcan captain, but for some reason they took off without speaking to us again. I suppose that's good, though, or poor Trip would have had to impersonate the Captain again.)
In any case, it will be interesting to see how long this new accord lasts, if they've truly come to some sort of understanding, or if it's just temporary.
I haven't given up on my mission to figure out why T'Pol can stand being around humans so much longer than other Vulcans. (Which reminds me that I'm still curious about that story she told Trip and the Captain about her ancestor, how are you doing on that research?) And if Captain Archer can come to work happily with a Vulcan--with his personal history--maybe our two races can come to an understanding.
Love,
Hoshi