I used the Vulcan Language Institute for all my translations into Vulcan.
Soval
It would be a lie to say he was not surprised by T'Les' most recent communication. As it transpires his estimation that T'Pol had not formed an inappropriate attachment to Captain Archer was correct. He would not have predicted a relationship with the volatile Commander, even for a relatively emotional Vulcan like T'Pol. But a bond, he was not even aware it was possible with a human. He wonders how much of her new emotionality and her loss of confidence is from the close psychic connection she now shares with Commander Tucker.
Naturally, given his commitment to assist her, he agrees to contact Tucker on behalf of T'Pol and attempt to explain the situation. He suppresses some discomfort at the thought of discussing something as private as Vulcan matebonds with an off-worlder. He reasons that as the Commander is party to a bond he is entitled to information about it. As it turns out it is all for nothing.
He has his secretary, Savan, contact Starfleet and request contact details for Commander Tucker. He has to suppress annoyance when Savan comes back and informs Soval that a receptionist has advised him that there is no Commander Tucker working at Starfleet. Savan has only been working on Earth for a few weeks and is unfamiliar with the brinkmanship that is the hallmark of current Earth/Vulcan relations. He has Savan contact the Vulcan liaison officer at Starfleet to obtain the information.
He becomes suspicious when Savan comes back again with exactly the same information. He attempts to make contact with Captain Archer, but when that proves fruitless he has to remind himself that the Captain has just completed a gruelling debriefing and has likely taken leave. Finally he has Savan put him in contact with Admiral Forrest. it seems excessive to approach an Admiral to obtain a subordinate officer's contact details but it is illogical to waste further time attempting to wrestle the information from junior staff.
When Admiral Forrest informs him of Commander Tucker's resignation, Soval is disturbed. He reasons that life may become complicated for both T'Pol and Mr Tucker. Soval is aware that under the circumstances, which the former Starfleet Officer can not possibly understand, the bond can influence behaviour in unusual ways. An incomplete, unsustained matebond will often result in irrational behaviour. Regretfully, Admiral Forrest has not been made aware of Mr Tucker's current location or his future plans.
Admiral Forrest is patently annoyed at the attrition that has resulted from the treatment of T'Pol. The Admiral admits he is still investigating those circumstances and it has been determined that T'Pol's dismissal was driven from outside Starfleet, by someone reasonably high up in the government. This is not a surprise to Soval either. It seems logical, given the anti-alien sentiments that are becoming prevalent on Earth, that someone pursuing that agenda within Earth's government has utilised this situation to remove an alien from a prominent role within Starfleet. The guarded expression on Admiral Forrest's face when he says this, informs him that his speculation is close to correct. He wonders how deeply individuals who carry these sentiments are embedded in Earth's bureaucratic infrastructure,.
He contrives to come into contact with some of the crew from Enterprise to subtly probe them as to Tucker's whereabouts. He is taken aback when he learns Mr Tucker has not informed them of his plans either. Clearly, Charles Tucker III has cut all ties.
It is at this point that he contacts T'Les and informs her, that he has been unable to locate Mr Tucker as he is no longer working within the organisation and has left no contact details with his former employer or acquaintances. Soval advises her that he has elected not to disclose any information about the bond to any of his human contacts at Starfleet. It his his estimation that T'Pol's privacy has been compromised enough within Starfleet and he has his suspicions about the data integrity of the organisation . He will instead pursue private avenues to see if he can locate Mr Tucker.
After terminating the call he contemplates the situation these two young people have inadvertently found themselves in. He foresees difficult times ahead for both of them. Their souls, linked as they are, will not allow them to forget about each other. It would be easier to forget how to breathe.
T'Pol
She is unsure how to take the news of Trip's resignation from Starfleet. She does not know if it is significant that he has not informed any of his former colleagues of his whereabouts. There is no logic to assist her to determine the motivation of an emotional decision. Are his actions an effect of the bond, or is he trying to remain hidden from her, after all, she saw his look of disgust. She is certainly disgusted with herself, she is finding it harder and harder to face life without him.
With no way to locate her bondmate, T'Les gathers a trusted group of various experts in various fields to approach the rather unique situation T'Pol finds herself in. The experience is equal parts distressing and mortifying, made even worse by the fact that she is unable to suppress either emotion. Still recovering from the stressors of the past weeks, the nausea and weakness continue to plague her. This makes it even harder to control her emotions, a source of further mortification.
Amongst the group are those who view her situation with frank curiosity, and are interested from a purely scientific perspective. Their dispassionate appraisal of the circumstances and possible outcomes irks her.
Then there are some who consider termination the most logical course of action. T'Pol is outraged, and in her weakened state, it prompts another bout of illness. Her mother holds her head tenderly while she retches. When she recovers, she refuses emphatically to agree to anything that will forfeit his life.
It is Koss, who has remained involved, who points out the obvious. The effect, on both T'Pol and Mr Tucker, of such drastic action is unknown. The option is promptly discarded as illogical if all parties involved are at risk from the procedure. Even though he has defended her she wishes she could make Koss leave, circumstances prevent her from doing so.
When a general discussion ensues on the the topic of her Pon Farr and the impact her hybrid bond may have on it, she realises she truly understands the phrase "died of embarrassment". There is a lively (by Vulcan standards) debate about whether she will even enter Pon Farr with a human mate. This is followed by a fascinating discussion about the capability of a human to adequately service a Vulcan female in Pon Farr. At this point the collected experts look at T'Pol expectedly, as if there is a chance in the universe that she would even contemplate answering that question, assuming she even knew the answer.
Eventually a consensus on how to move forward is reached and specialists agree to work with her to manage the situation and while she finds it distasteful that their interest in her unusual circumstances almost borders on glee, they are nonetheless committed to a successful resolution.
Soval will continue to work discretely on Earth to locate Commander Tucker, who she supposes is just Mr. Tucker now. Her job is to focus on her health, the incomplete bond will make things more difficult, even dangerous for her.
It takes all her effort to mentally turn away from the bond, to not focus on the spiritual place where she can feel his soul touching hers now the Pa'Nar Syndrome has been healed. The priest has warned that she must be disciplined, separated from her mate like she is, the bond will be like a third person in the relationship, and will always be pulling on her trying to get her to her mate, but because she does not know where to find him, it could take her to place of madness.
By the time the collected group departs she is exhausted and overwrought and her mother remains in the room with her and strokes her forehead in the same manner she did when T'Pol was a child and overcome with fever, and recites the simple verse she once used to soothe her energetic daughter to sleep:
Esh-tor pi'kushal, Esh-tor
Kal-tor yuk sarlah
Nash-a'tja mu-yor ri dungi-shi-kar Lanka-ga
Breathe little bird, breathe
Trip
He dreams.
He dreams she is sick. She lies on a bed, skin grey, cheeks sunken. He can hear other voices, he feels like he should be able to understand them but it's like they are speaking pig Latin. She wretches suddenly and a woman helps hold her head while she vomits into a bowl.
She lies back on the bed, the voices continue.
"Rai!" She sounds drained but emphatic, as she responds to their illegible communications. "Rai, ri dungi-sep-wafikh nash-veh!"
He wakes up, heart pounding in fear.
He dreams.
He dreams he is surrounded by white. He finds her there, sleeping. She is dressed in his sweatshirt, face buried in his T-shirt.
He wakes wishing he had something of hers to comfort him
He dreams he is in the white space again. She is dressed in traditional robes, the fabric billowing out around her as she sits in her meditation pose.
"Why are you here?" she asks.
"You left me." He accuses her.
"Only because you did not trust in me."
He wakes up angry.
He dreams, the white space again. She is there.
"I'm sorry." He tells her
"Sorry is just a word." She replies.
He wakes up confused.
He dreams. More white space and her.
"You should have told me." He tells her.
"Would it have made a difference?"
"Yes. You asked me to trust you, but you didn't trust me."
He wakes up feeling betrayed.
He dreams. White. Her
"You married someone else?" He implores.
She looks away. "I have no job, no reputation, no control over my emotions. I am just trying to survive."
He wakes up feeling regret.
He dreams, hoping for the white space. She is gone as soon as he arrives.
He wakes up feeling numb
He dreams he is in the white space again. In the dream he wakes from a deep sleep. He is lying on the ground with his head resting in her lap. She is combing her fingers through his hair. He looks up at her with longing.
"I miss you." He tells her.
"I miss you too." She replies.
A tear collects in the corner of his eye and runs down to his ear.
She lifts her hand from his hair and wipes it away. "Shhh, sleep now." He thinks he can hear love in her voice.
He wakes up feeling whole for the first time in months.
He dreams.
He dreams he is on Enterprise, but it is Enterprise like he has never seen it before. It feels like the ship is alive and breathing, he can hear its heart beating. He feels safe and loved.
He wakes up feeling cherished
He dreams he is in her quarters for a neuro-pressure session. He can feel her hands, warm and strong, pressing into the nodes on his back. He feels his anger, his sadness, his loneliness all leaving him. All he is left with is the memory of her. He falls asleep in the dream
He wakes with no memory of the dream but he feels more alive than he has months.
He dreams.
He dreams he is holding a sleeping baby with olive skin, slanted eyebrows and delicately pointed ears. Suddenly she is sitting next to him.
He looks at her sadly "Is it yours?"
"Yes, he is." She replies. She rests her head on his shoulder but does not take her eyes off the infant.
"What's his name?" He asks, watching as the baby screws up its tiny face in sleep.
"He is named for his father," She reaches out her hand and her fingers caress the baby's soft cheek. "Charles Tucker IV."
The baby stirs awake and stares up at him with impossible blue eyes.
He wakes up with tears drying on his cheeks.
He dreams.
He dreams they are in the command Centre, on Enterprise. She looks at him, stance alert, face neutral, posture erect. This is her working mode.
"Do you have a problem that requires my assistance?"
He wants to reach out to her, run his hands over her beautiful face, skim lines of her body, pull her against him. Instead he turns to the schematic of the GFDM he is designing for the prototype.
He leans back in his chair and indicates the diagram with one hand "Just trying to bend the laws of physics. Any suggestions?"
"Don't try." She replies tonelessly, looking over his shoulder at the draft.
He snorts, "Yeah well that's what they pay me for these days."
She looks closely at the schematics. "This design only has one pair of matter/anti-matter injectors and your plasma containment vessel is relatively small compared to the total reactor size. How are you adjusting the production of plasma to ensure a steady supply to the nacelles?"
He runs a hand through his hair. "That's where physics keeps screwing me. I've come up with an efficient intermix formula, but a method of controlling it with the single pair of injectors is eluding me."
"Perhaps if you were to utilises variable-compression nozzles on the injectors."
He wakes suddenly, the dream still turning in his head and realises he just solved a major design problem.
He dreams.
He dreams he is sitting in the sunshine on the balcony of his apartment in Sausalito, eyes closed, basking in the warm sun. A shadow falls over him. He opens his eyes to find her standing in front of him, outlined with a halo of sunlight. His breath catches in his chest. She crawls into his lap and straddles his hips. He looks up at her, squinting into the sun. She puts her arms around his neck and looks down at him for a few moments before she kisses him. He puts his arms around her and pulls her tight against him.
He doesn't want to wake up. She kisses him until he can't breathe.
XXX