From the Armoury Officer's quarters, Lieutenant Teypir Covan watched through the ship's scanners as the last Vulcan vessel receded into the depths of space and vanished off of close-range scanners as it jumped to warp. He felt more at ease now that the Vulcans were gone, for more reasons than one. His people had no history of friendship with the Vulcans. Suspicions had arisen almost since the very first meeting of the two species, and in the present climate only their coexistence in the Coalition of Planets prevented open hostility. The new Vulcan regime was still viewed with mistrust by the Andorian government, as well it might – powerful as Administrator T'Pau's influence might be, the philosophy she promulgated ran contrary to the popular culture of almost the entire Vulcan home world. It was, in the view of many, a planet torn asunder by different interpretations of the teachings of the acclaimed Surak, a man who was supposed to have preached peace. Covan had heard the human adage that a house divided against itself cannot stand, and with regard to the Vulcans, that view was shared by many of his people. Despite the fragile threads of the Coalition holding the two peoples together, the Andorian Empire watched the new Vulcan government like the proverbial hawk. Any sign of instability would be like blood in the water to the warmongering sharks of the Andorian military.
The first battle of what all expected to become a total war had occurred as recently as 2154. Only at the last moment had that situation been diffused by the very man who captained this ship. Captain Jonathan Archer, with his exemplary diplomacy skills and a healthy quantity of sheer defiance for the previous Vulcan regime, had not only averted such a war but had also been the primary cause of T'Pau's rise to power. He had in the process become something of a symbol to those political factions on Andoria Prime which were continually calling for peace and good relations with the Vulcans.
It was surely only because of Archer's rapport and a desire to maintain the superficial peace of the Coalition that the Vulcans had proved willing to deliver Covan from Earth to the Enterprise. Starfleet was a human organization, which made Covan almost human. It had nonetheless been an uncomfortable experience. The Enterprise had proved a pleasurable surprise after the awkwardness of travel on a Vulcan vessel.
Covan leaned back in his chair, tucking his blue-skinned hands thoughtfully behind his head and brushing one habitually over the tip of his shorter antenna as he did so. It had almost reached its full length by now. Soon no one but a physician familiar with Andorian physiology would be able to distinguish that it was not the appendage he had been born with.
Despite the refreshingly human culture aboard the Enterprise, the Vulcans had a presence even here in the form of the First Officer. Covan had found T'Pol, adapted as she was to interacting with humans, to be one of the most tolerable of her kind that he had ever encountered. However, she was a constant reminder of the overhanging threat of Vulcan presence growing throughout the sector. The Vulcans had gotten to the humans first; but the Andorians would not give up so easily.
Not that he was here on the business of Andoria. His current position was indeed the envy of all his government's intelligence agencies, but he had turned his back on many such propositions. No doubt the Empire still held out hope that someday Covan would come to his senses and offer up the wealth of information he now possessed. There was little chance of that. His loyalties no longer lay in that direction.
The Andorian gazed around the confines of the quarters he now inhabited, provided for him by a foreign government and a foreign people, but made familiar to him by the solidarity he shared with its previous occupant by reason of their mutual profession.
It was a pity he had never met Malcolm Reed. He would have liked to see what kind of a man his predecessor was, after all he had heard about him. Of course he could have met Reed if he'd chosen to, but it had been better to avoid him. It was safer that way. It could have been an unnecessary chance, and Covan had been well trained and strictly ordered to avoid such risks.
Harris would have his other antenna too if he disobeyed orders again.
End
Afterword
Teypir is pronounced Tay-peer, fyi.
I was actually quite disappointed with the way this story turned out. I think I had a decent plot, but it sort of fell through in the execution phase. I didn't I captured what I had in my head very eloquently. Oh well. You live and you learn. I enjoyed writing it, anyway.
In case you're interested, here's a little background about TDD.
The politics:
First of all, you may have noticed that someone named Sural was the Vulcan ambassador to Earth, not our familiar Soval. Here's my explanation for that (plus a little bit of extra nonsense.)
I use canon as a foundation and a guideline. However, I am in the business of filling in any and all of the gaps left by canon that are relevant to my story. I don't always explain my gaps on the page, but I do spend a lot of time reasoning out how the pieces fit. Please bear in mind that, when filling in gaps in canon, I take great creative license. It doesn't matter to me if I'm consistent with the Star Trek books (they're not consistent with each other, so forgive me if I don't take them too seriously) and I don't feel the need to follow the course of events that canon alludes to or strongly hints may happen (without creating an "official" story.) The only things I try to follow are the films and TV series. As far as I'm concerned, I'm in the clear as long as I'm not contradicting direct canon. "Plausibility" is my metric for measuring if my writing is canon enough. If there is a plausible path between established canon and the events I'm writing, then I feel free to make assumptions (even if I don't fully elaborate upon those assumptions within the story.) Here's the "plausible" story for Vulcan politics.
IMO, politics, even Vulcan politics, are a lot messier than we tend to see on-screen in Star Trek. We know that after the dissolution of the High Command in the ENT episode "Kir'Shara," T'Pau became administrator. But no one can convince me that she "magically" turned around a corrupted government in only a few years. Previously, the Syrrannites had been in the minority - probably the significant minority, if the stigma against them was widespread in Vulcan society. My guess is that there was a lot of backlash against T'Pau's rise to power. She would need as many allies as she could get to rebuild her government...and Soval is one of those allies. A well-known and still relatively popular ally, too, since I doubt the reason he was temporarily "fired" (his mind meld) was widely publicized. His support would be very helpful to her cause, especially as a visible presence in her favor. Why wouldn't T'Pau call him back to Vulcan to help her build a new government, rather than allowing his influence to "go to waste" on Earth?
But Vulcan still needs an ambassador to Earth, so T'Pau has to pick someone new. So she sends a Syrrannite ally to Earth – Sural. However, with any new appointment for a political office comes the opportunity for the Ministry of Security (read: the Vulcan version of Section 31, still very alive and kicking despite efforts to get rid of it. There's no easy way to purge a hidden cancer like that) to "influence" the government. There's no way the Ministry didn't have infiltrators among the Syrrannites...but since the Ministry is not equivalent to the Vulcan High Command, there was no pressing reason for the Ministry to act against the Syrrannites.
Is Sural a Ministry agent? Maybe, maybe not. It doesn't really matter...he's not Soval, and he hasn't had the time to grow "attached" to humans like Soval did. I don't think Soval would ever threaten an Earth ship, no matter who told him to. But Sural might, if the right person ordered him – as in, if the High Council gave the order. Who is the High Council? T'Pau is 'Administrator,' not 'Councilor,' which presumably means she holds a position in the government higher than, or at least different from, the members of the High Council. In other words: Sural may be getting his marching orders from a Vulcan governmental body that does not include T'Pau. Which means, he could be acting on the decisions of a group of Vulcans who aren't exactly expressing T'Pau's wishes. Stigmas take a long time to disappear, and T'Pau's trying to bring peace to all Vulcans...not every person in her government is in total agreement with her, but she's not going to give everyone the boot just because they have different opinions. She's trying to win the support of the people, not set herself up as a dictator. Hence, the High Council might threaten the Enterprise in order to get custody of S'Trep, even if T'Pau herself wouldn't.
What's next:
There is a third part to this story. (Obviously. That was a very unsatisfactory ending, and intentionally so.) Unfortunately, that third part is almost entirely in my head and is still largely in the "premise" phase; and given how poorly TDD turned out, I'm not sure I'll even attempt to write part 3. Even if I do, it could very well be another year or two before you hear anything more from me.
I know, I know, this is no way to attract readers. But, as much joy as your reviews bring me, I don't write for reviews and followers. I write because I can't help but write. So if you want to, check back in a year or so and bug me to publish something new. And if you don't want to, that's okay too. Thank you for sticking with me this far!