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Asphodel

A | Author - Bucky | Genre - Action/Adventure | Genre - Angst | Genre - Friendship | Main Story | Rating - PG-13
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Asphodel

By Bucky

Written for the Trip/T'Polers Fanfiction Contest (January 2003)

Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Paramount. This may be promoting their show, but I’m not making any money off of it. Alas.
Codes: A/T’P, Tu/T’P, Romance, angst, action
Season: One or two, before "The Expanse."
Summary: Are Trip and Archer both interested in T’Pol? Will they still be friends if they are? Is she interested in either of them?
Entered in the Trip/T’Polers’ Fanfiction Contest: Love vs Friendship
I read the rules. I wrote the rules! My entry in just for fun and is not a contender for the prize, but I’d love to have your comments.

Part One (Divided to make downloading easier)

*****************

ENGINEERING

Commander Trip Tucker had just finished adjusting the plasma regulators on the warp core when he heard the whoosh of the doors to Engineering open. Turning, he saw Subcommander T’Pol enter and pause as the doors closed behind her, the odd lights outlining her silhouette-- accentuating only the delicate features of her face as if she were a single flower bud on a slender stalk. Looking up she met his eyes, jutted her chin out slightly, and said, “Commander, if you are free, may we talk?”

“You’re in luck. I just finished.” He said coming down the metal stairs leading to the warp core controls.

“Luck is not the point, Commander. I could have waited.”

Trip started to respond, then let it go. “Ya wanted t’ talk t’ me?”

“I have located a planet that may have dilithium. Initial geological scans are very promising. We will know more when we are close enough for orbit.”

“That’s great! Let’s tell the Cap’n and get going. Those hairline fractures on the crystals we have now will eventually cause them to shatter. The sooner we replace them, the better.”

“The planet is uninhabited.”

”AND….???”

“I share your concern, and desire to replace the current crystals; however, I would like to exercise caution before sending a party to extract new ones.”

Trip gaped a question back at her, mouth slightly open, face perplexed, hands raised as if to say, ‘go on…’

“Enterprise’s scanning equipment is still….limited. We cannot be certain that we have eliminated all the dangers to the crew based upon an orbital scan.”

He leaned a nod at her and lifted his hand again. Go on.

“The last time we visited an uninhabited planet, the crew….was susceptible to…. unforeseen biological contaminants.”

And I turned into a homicidal maniac. “You want to send a probe first.”

“I think that would be wise.”

Trip looked off then back at T’Pol, “And you want me to suggest it to the Cap’n.”

He looked at her reaction. It wasn’t a smile, just an appreciation of his response that registered subtly on her face. “Simply agreeing with my suggestion will be sufficient.”

Trip smiled. “Okay. Let’s get him to the situation room. You tell ‘im about the planet and I’ll come on strong for the probe. I have no desire to turn into a crazy man again.”

“You were merely affected by the pollen, as we all were.” She replied evenly.

“Yeah, but…. I was the one shooting my mouth off and waving the phase pistol. Side-a me I hope is gone. One I sure don’t want to see again.”

T’Pol said nothing, but bowed her head slightly in agreement. “In the meantime, it would help if you give me the exact molecular structure of the dilithium used in Enterprise’s warp core along with any variations that you believe would be acceptable.”

“I’ll get right on it.”

He held her gaze for several seconds; she looked down briefly, looked back up, and with a low, “Commander,” left Engineering.

*******************

T’POL’S QUARTERS

Later that day Tucker approached T’Pol’s door, PADD in hand. When he heard her low-voiced “Come in” in response to the door chime, he entered.

And stopped.

She was dressed only in some kind of long kimono-thing, criss-crossed in front, tied loosely at her right. Her hair was still damp.

“I’m sorry, Subcommander. I didn’t realize I’d be disturbin’ ya. I just brought….”

Flustered, he handed her the PADD. She glanced down at it, looked back at him evenly, then took the PADD over to her workstation to download Trip’s data. As she sat down the straight sides of he robe caused it to split open leaving her legs exposed, one straight out and one bent back behind her for balance. Trip let his eyes follow her legs, wondering idly what it would feel like to trail his fingers up that bare thigh right to the wet places of that greeny flower.

Where the hell did that come from!?! Vulcan, Tucker. Vulcan. Greeny flower?!!??

“Uh…. Maybe I should come back later. You look like y’re gettin’ ready for som’n.”

“It is Tuesday.”

“Yeah?”

“It is movie night.”

An involuntary smile spread across his face. “You’re goin’ tonight?! I didn’t think ya would. That’s great! Do y’ want me to come by for ya when you’re done gettin’ dressed?”

“I know the way, Commander. I do not need a guide.”

“I know that. It’s just nice ta go with someone.”

She tilted her head in a question.

“So’s ya have someone to discuss the movie with. I dunno.” He trailed off…. “It’s just nice.” Now what? “Well, y’ don’t have to go with anyone if y’ don’t want to. I’m just pleased y’re goin’.”

“That is what Captain Archer said.”

“Cap’n Archer knows you’re goin’ to movie night?” Trip felt unexpectedly disappointed. Why would that trouble him? The Cap’n knew most things that T’Pol did. That was his job.

“Like you, he offered to accompany me. In fact, he insisted.”

Trip held his features still, then nodded, mouth slightly open.

“Right.”

He looked around the room, his elation gone, replaced by a nervous desire to move now.’

“I’ll be goin’ then….so’s you can finish dressin’.”

“Will you be there, Commander?”

“Me? … uh… I dunno. I…I”ve seen this one before. Should be your cuppa tea, though.” He rambled on as he backed toward the door panel. “It’s an old Japanese classic about different perspectives on the same event. The story gets retold a buncha times, each time a li’l different depending on who’s doin’ the tellin’. Called ‘Rashomon.’”

He continued edging for the door, but T’Pol stopped him. “Your PADD, Commander. Don’t you want to wait for it?”

Trip punched the door comm, calling out over his shoulder, “I’ll get that PADD from ya tomorrow in the bridge. Night.”

T’Pol stood, bemused by his sudden shift and watched as the door opened onto Jonathan Archer. All three were silent for a second. A very long second. Finally, T’Pol looked unblinkingly at Archer, “If you’ll just wait outside, Captain, I’ll finish changing.”

“Cap’n.” mumbled Trip, edging past the figure in the doorway. “Just droppin’ off a PADD. I’ll be getting outta y’r way.”

“Trip,” the Captain acknowledged, but he was gone, out the door and down the corridor before Archer’s lips closed on the final consonant.

************

LIFT

Trip paused outside the lift entrance, trying to collect his thoughts.

“What the hell? Greeny Flower?! You are so losing it, Tucker!”

“Losing what, Commander?” came Hoshi’s familiar voice.

Did I say that out loud? Damn. I *am* losing it! “Uh, nothin’ Hoshi. So. You goin’ to the movie tonight?”

“Are you askin’ me to go?”

“Uh…” …panic… ”uh….Have you seen this one?”

“It’s okay, Commander.” She laughed, “I didn’t think you meant a date. I can’t seem to be friendly to my superior officers without one of you thinking I’m asking you out.… Besides, weren’t you and the Captain going to compare notes afterwards?”

“Yeah, but I just dropped a PADD off at the Subcommander’s. Turns out he’s talked her into goin,’ so they’re goin’ together.” Trip said as casually as he could muster.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Hoshi replied.

Trip kept his face pleasantly neutral, “Really?”

“Weellll…They do spend a lot of time together. He’s probably the one she’s most comfortable with, so if he wants to get her involved in off-duty events with the crew, he probably has to drag her along to get her there at all.”

“Y’re probably right,” said Trip. He sure didn’t look like he was draggin’ and neither did she.

“So, since you’re not asking me on a date, are you going tonight?” she teased.

“I dunno. I’ve seen this one.”

“I thought you asked for it.”

“Well, yeah, but like I said. I’ve seen it before….”

“Oh, come on, Commander! Travis and I persuaded Lieutenant Reed to go even though there isn’t any shooting!” she chuckled.

“Well, isn’t there a murder and mayhem with a sword?” laughed Trip, grateful for the change of subject. “Did you use that to entice him?”

“Not a bit of it.” she winked conspiratorially. “We told him that the film was an ‘intellectual puzzle.’ That’s almost as much of a lure for Lieutenant Reed as a gun battle.”

“So, I guess the fights and the murder will just be gravy?!” Trip smiled.

“That’s right.” Said Hoshi, laughing.

**************

MOVIE NIGHT

Later on in the Messhall Trip was waiting for the movie in one of the center rows with Travis, Hoshi, and Malcolm. He’d been hoping that there wouldn’t be much call for early Japanese art cinema, but he was out of luck. Few seats were left besides the two at the end of their row. Trip got up to get popcorn from the food dispenser, and as he returned to his seat Archer and T’Pol walked in dressed in casual clothes. Archer was in the same jeans and long-sleeved pullover Trip was used to, but T’Pol…T’Pol was in one of her Vulcan outfits that covered her head to toe. It was looser that her form-fitting uniform, but somehow it seemed more…. revealing. Maybe it was the way it draped and moved against her slender body causing him to work to define the waist he knew was there.

Trip caught himself staring and looked down at the popcorn bowl before looking back up. “Cap’n. Subcommander.”

Archer said, “Trip,” in reply. T’Pol acknowledged him with a long look and a slow nod.

Trip looked around, then reluctantly gestured toward the two seats next to him. “Wouldja like to join us?”

Archer knitted his eyebrows and looked perplexed, even perturbed, but accepted the offer with a confused smile. “Sure, looks like we don’t have a choice.”

Trip led the way into the row followed by T’Pol and Archer. Throughout the movie, Trip heard Malcolm whispering approvingly to Hoshi, but he was more acutely aware of T’Pol sitting next to him, hands folded in her lap. Occasionally, Archer would lean over and comment on something in the movie: “This is where they get way-laid.” “Now we’ll see the same story from the guide’s point of view.” T’Pol would incline her head slightly, listening to him, nod, and return to watching the film.

As the lights came up, he heard Malcolm say, “Good show, Hoshi. Excellent choice.” Meanwhile T’Pol rose, turned to Archer and said, “Thank you, Captain, for insisting that I attend. It was an interesting experience. Mr. Reed is correct. It was a good show.” Then, before he could reply she turned to Trip. “Mr. Tucker, you are correct. The film was, indeed, my “cup of tea.” I am curious about one point, however. Am I correct that one of the narrators was the murder victim?”

“Yeah, you’re right, Subcommander. The murder victim does tell one version of the events. I guess it’s a bit fanciful, but allows us to see all possible points of view.”

“Are we supposed to assume that the victim’s version is the correct one?”

“That’s what I thought the first time I saw it, but now that I’ve seen it again I think we’re supposed to see that no one has a complete handle on the truth—even the victim had a point of view to protect that affected the way the story got told.”

T’Pol looked at him for several seconds as if she were absorbing his comment, “Then I would suppose that the truth lies in considering all points of view.”

He returned her gaze, questions flickering across his eyes, then gave her a closed-mouth, half smile and nodded. But just then the Captain spoke, “Subcommander?” and gestured their way out. She turned, nodded infinitesimally to the captain, and the two of them exited the row and walked out of the messhall together.

“Well,” shrugged Malcolm. “That was certainly a “Hands Off” announcement.”


Trip stood staring at the closing doors until he heard Hoshi’s, “Commander?” Recovering, he said “Looks like l’ll be hanging out with you three on Movie Night.”


Hoshi said nothing, but pursed her lips and glanced slyly up at Commander Tucker through lidded eyes, then turned and caught Travis’s eye briefly.

***************

ENGINEERING

Trip looked over at T’Pol. Most of her body was shielded from his view by the engineering workstation so that only her head was visible. She bent her delicate face with its fragile-seeming features to the monitor, her concentration on the problem causing a slight, exotic, minty flush along her cheekbones. She looked like a flower. A greeny flower. Trip smiled ironically to himself. Where the hell did that come from? I’m going to have to look it up when this is over.

His attention was drawn to the sound of the doors to Engineering opening. Archer walked in and T’Pol rose from the workstation and walked across to meet him. Archer smiled down at T’Pol, “Okay, Sub-Commander, you win this one. We’ll go by the Vulcan protocols and send a probe down first.”

She didn’t exactly smile back, but her body altered subtly, and her face relaxed. Her voice even suggested amusement as she replied, “It is the logical equivalent of ‘looking before you leap,’ Captain.”

Archer looked down sideways at her, brows lifted as if questioning her comment, but his eyes crinkled amusement in return. “Go ahead and launch the probe. We can talk about the next step over dinner; that is, unless you’d like look over the menu before you leap into the meal.”

“Unless Chef has altered his customary vegetarian offerings, I believe I can forego scrutinizing the menu in favor of analyzing the data from the probe.”

“Well, hop to it, Sub-Commander. Time’s a-wasting,” he joked back and started to walk toward Trip’s workstation.

Commander Tucker for his part had watched the exchange between his two superior officers in silence, his familiar cheerful glow slowly dimming as an unfamiliar sadness descended over his features, his eyes, too, crinkling in a parody of the captain’s, ending in a downward distant stare as Archer approached.

“Trip, we’re going to launch a probe to scout the surface, and if everything checks out we’ll send a landing party down tomorrow.”

“I’ll get a crew started prepping one of the shuttlepods right away, Sir.”

“You joining T’Pol and me for dinner?” Archer asked as he looked back over toward the science officer now exiting Engineering.

Trip opened his mouth to answer, but his eyes followed the captain’s gaze, and he faltered. “Uh, No. Uh…maybe I should oversee the preparations for the shuttlepod….to make sure it’s safe. Thanks anyway,…uh,…Sir.”

Archer tilted his head, puzzled. “Trip? You’re not still having a problem with Sub-Commander T’Pol, are you? Because she’s trying the best she can, just like you are.”

“Yes, Cap’n. I mean, no, sir. I get along all right with T’Pol. I just thought….”

Archer lowered his head, knitted his eyebrows, and looked both down and up at Trip, the unasked question on his face.

“…that you might prefer…having dinner with…just…T’Pol….Sir.”

Archer rolled his eyes and looked back and the engineer. “Nineteen hundred hours. My mess.”

“Aye, Cap’n.”

“And Trip…”

“Sir?”

“Why did you think I would want to have dinner alone with Subcommander T’Pol?”

Dinner alone. Sounds different when you say it like that. Just the two of them.

“You’ve been spending a lot of time together. …I just thought…” He faltered, his face a grimacing parody of a smile, his volatile eyebrows up, knitted, out, framing his eyes, telescoping his anxiety, his expressive face radiating his desire to get out of the conversation… “you’d like….to spend….more?” He jabbed the fingers of his right hand against those of his left, as if fiddling with a ring that wasn’t there.

Archer bent his head down and looked quizzically at Trip.

“Well,…you went to Movie Night together, I just figured….” Damn! Am I ever going to get out of this? “I mean she’s always been in her uniform the few times she’s come, and….” Please! let this be over! … “y’all were both in y’r civvies…. It…. looked like… a date…. Sir.”

“Would that bother you, Trip? If I were dating Subcommander T’Pol?”

So it *was* a date! ... And Why do I care?

“I guess she’s the only one you could date. Everyone else is a subordinate. High Command probably won’t like it, though.”

“And that’s precisely why we’re not dating, Trip.”

“But you like her.”

“Trip.”

“Sorry. None of my business.” Lotsa stuff none-a my business lately.

“You know full well that I’m not allowed to ‘like’ her, not at least in the way you’re implying.”

Trip nodded, eyes down, then looked up at Archer. “Never stopped you before.”

“Trip.”

“Sorry. That was over the line. It’s just that people can’t stop feelin’ things even when they want to. And in my experience, especially you.”

“This is different, Trip.”

“Because there’s too much at stake?”

“Yes.”

Pause.

“So, you’re coming to dinner?”

So's I can chaperone? “Wouldn’t miss it, Sir.”

****************


Continue to Part 2

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