Schrödinger's Cat is a famous thought experiment conceived of by Erwin Schrödinger as a discussion of Quantum Supposition. I know less about Quantum physics than I do hand-to-hand combat, so that's all I'm saying on the matter.
Chapter 18: Schrödinger's Wedding
Trip lay in bed, trying to sleep, trying not to think of the wedding tomorrow, trying not to think of killing Koss. He was achieving a 100% failure rate on all that trying, 'You go, Champ' he thought. No matter how much he attempted to lecture himself about how inappropriate it was to kill a man to stop him from marrying your girlfriend, Trip just could not seem to let the idea go. It's not like he would be breaking any law on Vulcan, according to T'Les it was a perfectly acceptable method of getting a bride out of an unwanted betrothal. It all seemed so illogical, but at the same time so... right.
Trip was startled out if his reflections on the homicide of Koss by a soft tap on his door. He knew without asking that it was T'Pol. He didn't have to be a great psychic to figure it out, he was pretty sure T'Les wouldn't be making midnight visits to her human guest's boudoir.
"Come in". The door opened and he saw T'Pol standing in the doorway. She stood there for a moment, silhouetted by the dim half light that constituted Vulcan night, and looked at Trip without saying anything. After a moment of watching each other, Trip turned back the covers on the bed and held out his hand to her. She closed the door quietly and moved across the room, silent as cat, and slipped into bed next him, shuffling up close and resting her head on his chest.
"What will your mother think if she finds you in here like this on the night before your wedding?" He asked flippantly.
"She will endure."
Trip snorted with laughter. He couldn't help but think that was a very accurate estimation.
They were silent for a moment, enjoying the feeling of being close again. Trip's thoughts drifted back to Koss, and his fantasies about killing him.
"She told me about the Kal-if-fee. It could get you out of this." His voice was soft, tentative.
T'Pol considered this news. She wasn't sure how to interpret her mother's actions in revealing the Kal-if-fee to Trip. On the one hand, it may have just been a matter of honour. Recognition that he was a participant in this farce, no matter how innocent. It may be that she wanted Trip to take the challenge, considering his death a likely outcome. It may be a tacit acceptance of Trip and his role in T'Pol's life. T'Pol just could not decide what her mother's motivation was. It occurred to her that it shouldn't matter. What ever her mother's intended outcome, T'Pol had to act in the way that ensured the best outcome for her, and what she considered to be hers.
"Only if you won, which given Koss' superior strength and adaptation to this environment, is extremely unlikely."
She wasn't telling him anything he hadn't already thought of himself. "I have had combat training recently and I'm fit and young. I may have a chance."
She knew what he was doing. It was the human practice of social reasoning. Put all ideas on the table, no matter how unlikely, and together an acceptable solution may be found. She had observed it's effectiveness many times on Enterprise. In this situation it didn't matter. If he won, she would be free of Koss but her mother would still suffer the loss of her profession. If he lost, she would still have to marry Koss and live the rest of her life without Trip. As unpalatable as it was, their current course was the preferred one.
"That would solve our problem, but what of my mother?"
He sighed. "Yeah, I thought of that too."
"I know it's not perfect, Trip, but the route we have negotiated is the most logical. It goes furthest towards all our desired outcomes.
He knew she was right, but also wrong. The whole situation was wrong. "Why do we feel so bad then?"
She had no answer for him.
"I'll do it, if you want me to. Just say the word and I'll kill him for you."
A thrill went through her that was primal in nature. His words spoke to her Vulcan heart. She nuzzled in closer pressing her face into his neck.
He closed his eyes hugged her close and took a deep breath. "I guess we just have to hope for a miracle."
"There is no such thing as miracles. It is illogical to hope for something impossible."
"Okay, So let's just imagine that Koss gets struck by lightning right at the end of the ceremony, when he goes to strike the gong." Trip had seen T'Les take the gong into the garden earlier and knew it was used in the ceremony.
"The gong is struck before the ceremony and there is only a point zero zero two eight chance of lightening in ShiKahr at this time of year."
"Well, point zero zero two eight is still a chance so that's not our miracle." Trip thought for a while. "Koss electrocutes himself with his electric toothbrush the night after the wedding."
"It is very unlikely that the charge in an electric toothbrush would be sufficient to kill a Vulcan. Perhaps, if the unit was malfunctioning, it could happen. I estimate a point zero zero zero zero seven one probability."
"Still no go. Alright, I think I have it. Koss stops to help fix the hover car of the daughter of a Tellerite, Garbage Scow King, they fall in love at first sight and elope."
"There is no chance of that happening."
"Which part, Koss stopping to help someone, a Tellerite Princess, or them falling in love?"
"All of it."
"That's our miracle then."
"I don't understand the purpose of this exercise."
Trip sighed "Because no matter how slim the odds, no matter how unlikely each prospect, there are a million things that could happen between now and the ceremony, that may prevent it from happening, most of them we can't even imagine. Because your wedding is Schrödinger's cat, until we open the box that contains the future and it becomes the present, the wedding both will and will not happen, the two possibilities exist equally together. Those tiny odds, those point zero zero zero something chances, that's where you find hope, so that's where you and I have to live until tomorrow, when you either marry Koss, or you don't."