Learning Experiences Part II
Shaking off the first shock about Trok's disappearance T'Pau found herself in familiar territory – taking the lead. Having mistaken their intentions for a climbing tour on one of the continent's mountain ranges, a human Lieutenant Maywheather had given her a backpack with what he deemed necessary for the activity.
While she had never participated in such an activity, she had seen others on a specially built wall in the gym at the United Earth Embassy on Vulcan. Which meant there should be a harness used to tie oneself to the end of a rope, but before that she had to organize the situation.
"Stand back!" she ordered when some of the Andorians advanced on the opening in the ground that had swallowed Trok. "There may be more unstable ground."
She took out her communicator and hailed her contact at SOLCOM. "T'Pau to SOLCOM: medical emergency. I repeat: medical emergency!"
"SOLCOM, acklowleged. We have your coordinates. How many are injured."
"One," she reported calmly. "One crew member fell into a rift."
"We are dispatching a SR team. Stay where you are."
=/\=
"Grev, lay in course, half impulse," Hoshi ordered.
Hoshi felt bad for Trip. He was torn between trying to respect T'Para's wishes by granting T'Pau a maximum of freedom, but also had to make sure that nothing happened to her. And now she was taking out Buran to collect her and a group of Andorians from just about the most hostile environment Earth could muster.
T'Pol had told her about their time in the Forge an had described T'Pau as reckless and Hoshi began to see how she came to that conclusion. Walking off into the coldest climate on the whole planet was quite a strange idea. At least she didn't seem to be injured as, according to SOLCOM, it was her, who had summoned help.
Quite inappropriately for the situation, Hoshi felt an urge to giggle when she realized that she had been in command more than her Husband lately. Malcolm was caught up in organizing the security forces and with such a big station it was a monumental task. When he was not able to reach the ship in time, Hoshi had shoved off as acting captain.
=/\=
T'Pau checked the harness and the fastened rope one last time and got down to the ground. The bigger area of contact would relieve pressure on the potentially brittle snow covered ice. Slowly she began crawling forward towards the opening, while the Andorians kept the rope tightened, ready to yank her back if the ground gave way.
In mutual agreement the group had decided to start with the rescue effort. Even with an emergency shuttle start rescue forces would need at least 15 minutes to reach them at their remote position. As she neared the opening she could hear the groans of pain from the rift's bottom. That meant Trok was both alive and conscious. Time was of essence.
Reaching the opening she saw that Trok was wedged in a depth of about 10 standard meters. His left arm was twisted in an unnatural position and a wound on his head released a small trickle of blood. Slowly she twisted over the edge of the rift until only the rope kept her from falling.
"Down, slowly!" she ordered and the Andorians complied, lowering her into the rift. She used her legs to direct herself towards the stricken companion. When she had reached him, she loudly ordered a stop.
"Can you feel and move your extremities?" she asked.
"Yes," he groaned, not quite able to give any more feed back
"This will alleviate the pain," she said and administered a hypospray she had removed from one of his pockets, which had been unreachable for his uninjured arm. When the pained grimace faded from his face, she hoisted his arm around her neck and slung her left arm behind his legs to hoist him into a position in which he could cling to her.
"Up!"
She felt how she was slowly drawn up with the barely conscious Andorian, mainly stabilized by her left arm, close to her. She could hear the other Andorians groan under the strain of hoisting up two people, but she also heard human voices, deducing that rescue forces had meanwhile arrived. When her head appeared out of the opening, the Andorians let out whoops and cheers and T'Pau was rattled by a moment of panic as she feared the excitable Andorians could let go of the rope, but the four blue men and two women held the life-line firm in their hands. When she was out of the rift, she was lying on her back next to the opening and let Trok slowly roll to the side so he came to a stop next to her.
A team of Starfleet medics rushed to their side and a Denobulan Doctor started scanning the Andorian while the other Andorians enthusiastically celebrated the Vulcan.
=/\=
When the doors to sickbay opened, Feezal didn't even need to look. It was either one of the Andorians or the Vulcan woman, who had rescued him. With an impossibly wide grin she acknowledged that she had been right when a petite Vulcan lurked about the privacy screen.
"Come in, T'Pau," a groggy voice from behind instructed and Feezal followed her.
"Just five minutes," she instructed. "Mr. Trok needs to rest."
Both patient and visitor acknowledged her instruction with a nod.
=/\=
"How are you?" T'Pau asked, worried by the fact that his arm was in a massive cast with screws that had actually been screwed into his arm.
"I've been better," Trok said, his antennae drooping back. "But I'll live. I owe you for the rest of my life. Whenever you need help..."
"With a whole planet taking orders from me, I do hope it will never come to that," T'Pau said softly. "But I do appreciate the sentiment."
"If only half the Vulcans are as brave as you, I'm glad we are not enemies anymore," Trok declared sincerely.
"Get well soon," she answered and took his offered uninjured hand. "If your tour here is finished, maybe you wish to consider a posting on Vulcan?"
"As much as I wished to, but your planet is too hot for me," the Andorian said. "As much as the Imperial Guard wished to make it look otherwise in the past. We are not even half as heat resistant as they made out. But I do appreciate the sentiment."
T'Pau raised an eyebrow to hide her amusement and stood to go.
"I will visit you tomorrow," she said and left.
=/\=
Trip was lying on the floor face down, out cold.
At least that was, what T'Pol was considering a desirable situation while Hoshi worked her way through the instructed program of neuropressure ministrations.
"What the bloody hell was she thinking," Trip ranted. "Getting sloshed with a bunch of Andorians in the friggin' antarctic! They could have done god-knows-what to her?"
"Stop it!" T'Pol demanded, not missing the irony of being a Vulcan, who defends Andorians. "I know Mr. Trok. He would never allow something like that to happen. And there were two Andorian women with them. One of them didn't ingest any Ale. They would have defended her if needed."
"Still...," Trip started, but his rant ended in a wince when Hoshi pressed her thumbs forcefully into his back.
"Just shut up, Trip," she said, cutting off both him and T'Pol. Her annoyance was clearly showing. "It may not have been the smartest idea, but on that tour she did more to improve relations between Andoria and Vulcan than all diplomats put together. And now keep your irritating mouth shut and start breathing properly!"
"Hey!" Trip protested her blunt approach.
"Save it," Hoshi replied. "You're naked and I see no rank insignia. In here you are Trip and I have my thumbs on your off-switch. You decide. You either face plant the bench or you listen to T'Pol explaining the situation to you."
Trip was stunned into silence by the double-pronged berating.
=/\=
It had been an incredibly long day. Hungry and longing for some of his wife's marvelous cooking, Charles Tucker jr. shuffled into Cathryn's mess hall. His wife brought him the promised plate of pan fried catfish and placed two plates with pecan pie on his dinner plate. She tilted her head towards a table with a solitary person sitting at it. T'Pau sat at a remote table and looked like lazily stabbing away at a salad.
"May I?" he asked when he had walked over.
"Of course," T'Pau answered.
"Normally I shouldn't be able to see it, but for a Vulcan you look mighty troubled, honey," he said.
"I may have antagonized krei Charles," she confessed. "He was fairly disconsolate earlier today when he learned what had happened during our excursion."
"Well, getting' yourself wasted in an environment where you need all your senses wasn't exactly something you can challenge Einstein with," Charles noted.
"Indeed," she agreed morosely.
"But then, that's exactly how kids need to learn their lessons and Trip better get used to it, because I ain't got no time to wait 20 years on some pointy-eared grand kids."
"You wish him to learn to be indifferent if his future children engage in foolish activities?"
"If you prevent them from doing stupid things, they'll never learn. Did you learn something from drikin' the Ale?"
"Not much, except not to repeat the experience," T'Pau said.
"That's all, you need to know," Charles said. "Would you have learned the same if you didn't get drunk?"
"No," she admitted after thinking about it.
"I'm tellin' you something about your clansman," Charles continued. "As a kid Trip always loved to be at his grandparents house. They didn't make up so many rules as Cath and I. He loved tinkering with our hover cars, but we always forbade it, because these things can give you quite an electric shock. But he wouldn't listen and waited until he was at my folks."
T'Pau stared at him with rapt attention.
"His grandparents didn't have such problem with it. They allowed him to disassemble and reassemble the thing as much as he liked – until one day, when he was zapped so hard he peed his pants. Guess what, he never did that again and found himself something less electric to tinker with."
"I see the logic," T'Pau admitted. "Letting someone make the bad experience is more effective than just an unexplained prohibition."
"Now you got it," Charles said with a smile and handed her one of the plates with pecan pie.
"This looks like mostly sugar," she said.
"It's sweet," he agreed. "But T'Pol digs it a lot."
He grinned, observing how T'Pau carefully tried a first bite and soon let the second and a third follow.
"I am still concerned about krei Charles," T'Pau confessed.
"Don't worry, honey," Charles said with a chuckle. "Hoshi and T'Pol are setting him straight as we speak."
She raised an eyebrow at him and Charles started to wonder if T'Pol had a sister she never knew about. On T'Pol that particular eyebrow configuration meant, 'I'm asking your for clarification without actually asking you for clarification.'.
"They meet every second evening in the spa, because Hoshi practices this neuropressure stuff on him. I'm sure there's a program for stress relief."
Charles nearly laughed when she dropped the spoon as if it was hot.
"T'Pol lets another female administer neuropressure to her mate?" T'Pau asked.
"Sure, she sits right next to them to make sure that Hoshi doesn't break her husband."
"This is unheard of. A Vulcan would never let another female touch her mate so intimately, much less one that wears as little clothing as is required for neuropressure."
"Those four are unheard of," Charles said with a chuckle. "I'm tellin' you; one day I'm gonna get a subspace message from Andoria sayin' that the four of them have married. The only reason that Malcolm isn't with them is because there's so much water in there."
"Why does T'Pol not practice with Hoshi herself and why not in the privacy of her quarters?" T'Pau asked, still visibly confused.
"She did at first, as far as I know, but her Vulcan muscles are too hard for a little thing like Hoshi, so T'Pol gave her a softer target."
"But the privacy of ones quarter would surely be safer?" T'Pau argued.
"Why?" Charles asked back. "The Spa is locked. Nobody can get in. And they're pragmatic people. They don't get much free time. So they combined their spa time with the neuropressure training."
If a Vulcan's mind was mechanical, I'd be hearin' a lot of grinding noises from the gears turnin' right now, Charles thought with a mental cackle. The poor confused girl before him was probably just realizing that Trip was in the Spa with two naked females.
=/\=
Hoshi and Malcolm lay in their bunk, closely entangled, still basking in the bliss of a passionate bout of love-making.
"What's wrong luv?" Malcolm asked. "You're awfully quite today."
"I had a bit of a spat with Trip," she admitted. "He got so hung up on not getting into trouble with the Eldest Mother that he became totally irrational over T'Pau's trip to the antarctic."
"You got to understand him," Malcolm argued. "T'Para left responsibility for the clan's most important member with him and T'Pau just trundled off to get wasted in an ice-desert. I'd have gotten anal about it, too. Only two things can instill the fear of god in me – a filled sink and the Eldest Mother."
Malcolm smiled when his statement got the response he had hoped for – a giggle.
"You're right," she said. "And he came around, but it still scared me. It was the second time that I realized what I would lose if this friendship broke."
"Second time?" he asked.
"The first time was, when he went ballistic during the trial on Vulcan."
"I didn't exactly make it easy for him, did I," Malcolm said, uneasily remembering that particular time. "But I think you shouldn't worry too much. I mean, you had a little dust-up, so what? You were both butt-naked in a spa together at the time, that should tell you something. I'd rather say it would be more unhealthy if there weren't any disagreements from time to time. I didn't have any real friends for most of my life, so I know the difference. There's not much that could damage this friendship."
He heard a sigh from Hoshi.
"I wish we wouldn't have to go back out in space," she said. "The thought of losing one of them is too much."
"I know, luv," he said and soothingly caressed her face. "If it was for me, I wouldn't go out either, but we are the most experienced people Earth can muster. Trip and I had a talk lately. We both agreed that when this war is over, we call it quits."
"What will you do?" Hoshi asked.
"Depends on how good T'Pau is at counseling. I might become a swimming instructor," he quipped, basking in the sound of Hoshi's laughter.
"No seriously, you goof," she demanded with a playful pat on this chest.
"All four of us never had much chance to spend money, so whenever this war is over we all will have quite some of it squirreled away. Trip and I are thinking of setting up a business of some sort. Hell, if the last months are anything to go by, we're pretty good at setting up a space station."
"Hm, an own space station," Hoshi purred and slung her arm around his torso.
Soon both of them drifted off to sleep.
=/\=
T'Pau felt most uneasy. She had never worn anything but Vulcan robes and catsuits, so wearing as little as the bright red swimsuit she had procured with the help of krei Charles' mother was a strange sensation. She sat in the Spa, her feet dangling in the water of the small pool. The sensation of the unknown element was most interesting.
Earlier this morning Hoshi and Malcolm had provided her with the entrance code to the facility. Malcolm had not berated her for her excursion with the Andorians, but urged her to consider the standing of her krei with the Eldest Mother and not engage in any activities that could injure her.
Lazily she pedaled in the water, waiting for Hoshi – her swimming instructor.
When the door opened, Hoshi entered, wearing a bathrobe. Her own such garment hung from a hook on a nearby wall.
"Hi T'Pau," she heard her instructor greet informally. "How was the day?"
"Fairly uneventful," she replied. "I visited Trok in the infirmary and read the many reports that were relayed by the Vulcan Embassy. I also contacted krei Charles to express my apology for my behavior."
"No need to apologize," Hoshi said and T'Pau watched with interest when she removed the robe. The human woman wore absolutely nothing underneath. "It was a bit foolish, but in the end you've made a lot of new friends."
"Indeed," T'Pau said, slightly distracted. Obviously human females were little different from Vulcans. They lacked the visible spinal ridge and grew hair in at least one other body region than the top of the head. Apart from that – and the ears of course – there seemed to be no visible difference.
"Red looks good on you," Hoshi said in reference to her swimsuit and T'Pau felt a slight heat developing in her face. Having comments made on her appearance was still an unknown sensation.
She observed, how Hoshi made use of a wall mounted shower and jumped straight into the pool. The human female came to a stop in front of her.
"Are you ok?" Hoshi asked.
"I am," T'Pau acknowledged, waiting for further instructions.
"Then come in, it's only 1.20m. You can stand."
=/\=
"Trip and Malcom were standing on the promenade deck, observing how a Vulcan runabout-crane lowered the last Tritanium support pillar in place. The internal skeleton for the Hammer Of War, the unofficial name for the first Molotok-class ship, was lowered into place.
"That's one bloody huge ship," Malcolm noted in appreciation.
"Crew of nearly 300," Trip supplied. "That'll teach them some lessons. If it was for me, we'd take this baby out only once to bust their asses and be done with it."
"You're preaching to the choir, Trip," Malcom said. "Hoshi's thoroughly sick of it and even I've had it, too. Would you have thought I'd ever get tired of shooting at things?"
"That reminds me," Trip mused. "I still need to apologize to Hoshi. Dang, she gave me a piece of her mind yesterday."
"She's quite a spunky one, isn't she?" Malcolm said with a grin.
"Hell, yeah," Trip agreed. "You guys coming round for dinner tonight?"
"Wouldn't miss it."
"We'll start to install the engine tomorrow," Trip noted pointing at the area where Engineering was going to be. "That thing's gonna run rings around everything we have."
"Doesn't look like a nimble design to me," Malcolm said. "Do you really think you can maneuver such a behemoth effectively?"
"You wait till you see her in action," Trip bragged. "That baby's gonna do a U-turn on a dime. T'Pol had a look into the navigation software they're coming up with. She said the maneuvering routines make Vulcan software look simplistic. This is the best of the best from four races. Those damn Rommies have no idea what they've gotten themselves into."
"Your word in god's ear," Malcolm said.
=/\=
"Did your swimming lesson go well?" T'Pol asked.
"It was satisfactory," T'Pau said.
"Were you uncomfortable with the situation?"
"Only at first," T'Pau reported. "I have never been in the company of someone without clothing, much less a member of a different species, but the uneasiness subsided quite soon."
"How did you progress?"
"Hoshi seems to be convinced that I shall learn to swim most expeditiously. The necessary movements appeared somewhat chaotic and alien at first, but I believe that is because we never needed to develop methods of locomotion in water."
"Did you enjoy the activity?" T'Pol asked.
"I do not understand."
"There is no need to keep up false pretenses, T'Pau," T'Pol said. "Swimming elicits most agreeable emotions in me. Does it do the same for you?"
"It is an agreeable activity. It enhances the effect of Earths lower gravity."
"Do you think you are prepared to attempt a mind meld with Malcolm?"
"I think I can perform an initial assessment. I would however prefer a private setting as I believe both Malcolm and myself will be affected in a way that should not necessarily be witnessed by outside parties."
"Specify," T'Pol demanded.
"We are dealing with a deep-seated fear. He will most likely express the associated emotions and I do believe that I will not be able to suppress the impact on me."
"In that case I would prefer to use Hoshi and Malcolm's quarters on Buran with Dr. Phlox on standby."
"Agreed," T'Pau said.
=/\=
She struggled, but it was in vain. The iron grip of the male had on her neck was too firm to escape it. With a helpless yelp she drew air into her lungs before her head was forcefully pushed into the water of the sink.
When the panic set in, she used her teeth to yank on the chain and pulled the plug, releasing the water. Her action earned her a nasty backhanded slap, before the sink was refilled and the procedure was repeated.
Fighting down the urge to kill her assailant, she forced herself to remember her swimming lesson with Hoshi and the associated positive emotions. After a long struggle she found herself in the Spa, slowly crossing the length of the small pool, changing direction as she reached the wall. The wet element engulfing her body felt surprisingly comfortable with only the disagreeable sensation of wet cloth on her sensitive skin spoiling the experience to a degree.
She felt the iron grip closing around her neck again, but swam on, she would not allow him to dominate her again.
=/\=
Trip was charged as if he was going into battle. Never before had he seen his friend this helpless. Malcolm, deeply entrenched in a mind-meld with T'Pau was crying and screaming helplessly. Two rivers of tears ran down his face.
Hoshi, no longer able to endure the spectacle was crying as well and T'Pol tried to console her to the best of her abilities. He wasn't sure, but he was prepared to bet that all three of them questioned the wisdom of trying this procedure. Malcolm surely had some nasty emotions drawn out from wherever he had buried them.
T'Pau did not seem to fare much better. She was shaking badly. Trip had been alarmed when Soval performed a mind-meld on the comatose guard after the bombing of the Earth Embassy on Vulcan, but Soval's struggle back then was nothing in comparison to the havoc the mind-meld wreaked on the petite Vulcan the Eldest Mother had entrusted him with.
When the Vulcan started to release high-pitched yelps of terror, he was prepared to forcefully separate Malcolm and T'Pau, but the decision was taken off his hands when T'Pau ended the meld. Both she and Malcolm slumped to the ground.
Acting on instinct he rushed to the scene and enveloped T'Pau in a hug. Hoshi did the same with Malcolm. Only when he held a badly shaking T'Pau in his arms, Trip realized the situation, but the feeling of warmth resonating in the bond told him that T'Pol approved of his action.
"It's ok, you're safe with us," he said soothingly and noticed that T'Pau was actively clinging to him. He didn't dare try to imagine what she had just witnessed.
"I need to meditate," T'Pau struggled to say.
"I'll bring you to the meditation chamber," Trip declared and before allowing her to stand up, he hoisted her up in his arms and left the room.
=/\=
Trip entered the mission control room on Buran, looking for Hoshi. He had visited both Malcolm and T'Pau to make sure that none of them were adversely affected by the mind-meld. Both of them appeared well, but he wanted to make sure that Hoshi had overcome the situation, too.
"Hey, hon," he said. "How ya doing?"
"I'm fine, Trip," she said. "You won't believe, who just booked the Spa for 2 hours."
"Malcolm?" Trip asked in disbelief.
"He tried," Hoshi said with a giggle. "But T'Pau beat him to it."
Trip couldn't contain a chuckle. "What did you do?" he asked her.
"I gave the entrance code to both of them," Hoshi declared with a mischievous grin.
"You didn't, you little minx," Trip said, doubling over in laughter.
"Wanna bet?" Hoshi asked.
=/\=
T'Pau lazily pedaled with her feet in the warm water of the richly ornamented bath tub. Krei T'Pol had indeed been right about the disagreeable effect of wet clothing on Vulcan skin. Enetring the water without the garment was indeed a much more agreeable sensation. While Vulcan had developed sonic showers to save water, she started to question the wisdom of completely eradicating the tradition of taking a bath. The experience was way too agreeable to be given up.
"I...I...I'm awfully sorry," a male voice declared and T'Pau looked up to spot a very confused Malcolm. "I thought the facility was unoccupied."
"It obviously isn't," T'Pau said, not feeling threatened by his presence. "Since your wife handles the booking of the facility, I doubt we were both cleared to use it by error."
"You mean to say, she set us up?" Malcolm asked.
"Obviously," T'Pau confirmed. "Both of us have issues to resolve in connection with this facility. It is only logical for her to try to motivate us to resolve them together."
"That little minx," Malcolm said.
"If you would disrobe, Malcolm," T'Pau said. "I doubt you would want to enter the bath in full uniform."
"No problem getting rid of the clothes," Malcolm said nervously shedding his uniform. " It's the 'entering the bath' part that terrifies me."
"That is what Hoshi wanted me to be here for," T'Pau analyzed and stood up to meet a very nervous and quite naked Malcolm at the stairs, which led into the bathtub.
"I take it your problem was shedding the swimsuit," Malcolm said, eying the water with suspicion.
"It still is," T'Pau confirmed. "But it is inconsequential in comparison to the leap of faith you have to take. Take my hand, Malcolm."
A badly shaking hand grabbed hers and Malcolm clutched to it like it was a life-line.
"Have faith Malcolm, I am with you," T'Pau declared and watched the human slowly lower himself into the water.