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Each Touch a Promise - Ch 2

Author - Hopeful Romantic
Fan Fiction Main Page | Stories sorted by title, author, genre, and rating

Each Touch a Promise

by HopefulRomantic

Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer found in Chapter 1.

A/N: Happy New Year, y’all! And thank you kindly for giving me so many smiles with your comments and encouragement. You’ve touched my heart.

Date: 1-1-05

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Chapter 2


When Lorian arrived for his debriefing at Starfleet HQ, Admiral Forrest startled him by greeting him like a long-lost son, and the other human officers on the panel looked upon him as if he were a myth suddenly come to life. It was flattering, if a bit disconcerting.

However, Lorian found Soval to be every bit the Ambassador Cranky about whom his father had told him stories as a child. Apparently Soval was determined not to believe anything he heard, even before Lorian opened his mouth. The ambassador’s two Vulcan adjutants appeared equally intractable, judging from the condescending looks they fixed on Lorian from the moment he entered the briefing room.

“The Vulcan High Command,” Soval droned with long-practiced arrogance, “is no more willing to accept your baseless claims at face value than they were willing to accept Captain Archer’s highly questionable account, which he could support with only a few schematics and engineering upgrades of unproven origin. When I spoke with T’Pol regarding Enterprise’s encounter with your ship, even she expressed skepticism regarding your story.”

Inwardly, Lorian’s human half responded with Tuckeresque indignation. That’s low—using T’Pol’s own emotional turmoil from that time in an attempt to undermine me now! Outwardly though, his Vulcan half remained calm. “I believe her reluctance had less to do with the truth, and more with accepting the implications of that truth.”

“You mean choosing Commander Tucker as her husband?” Forrest asked. “Having a child with him?”

Lorian nodded.

Soval looked down his nose at the padd before him, which displayed a précis of Lorian’s report. “I do not see sufficient cause to alter the High Command’s position on time travel.” He pointedly raised an eyebrow. “Or the viability of Vulcan-human reproduction.”

In response, Lorian proceeded to offer his evidence. He systematically filled the entire briefing room with it, in fact.

First came the collected remnants of the old Enterprise, snagged by Spacedock workers following the Xindi Aquatic ship’s release of the disintegrating ship. The various pieces had been quantum-dated by three independent sources to 117-121 years old. The majority of the parts were undeniably Starfleet manufacture, and a few of bits of flotsam even had serial numbers that matched their corresponding parts on Archer’s Enterprise.

Next, Lorian produced his ship’s entire database, downloaded as the Xindi scooped the stranded Enterprise off the planet where Karyn Archer had so skillfully landed the crippled ship. The database included 117 years of logs, accounts of meetings with other species, and details of all technology acquired and modifications done to the ship. Then came the genealogies of Lorian’s crew, tracing lineages back to the crew of the current Enterprise, with the DNA profiles to back them up. Finally Lorian brought out Dr. Phlox’s medical logs, which detailed the years of painstaking research and experimentation that ultimately resulted in Lorian’s birth.

With ship parts in heaps all around him, and mountains of padds littering the briefing table, Lorian sat placidly before the panel—the humans openly impressed, and the Vulcans trying mightily to maintain their stone-faced skepticism—and proceeded with his report on his Enterprise’s 117-year stay in the Delphic Expanse.

The evolution of expressions that Soval’s face underwent over the next several hours would have surpassed Trip’s wildest expectations. The old Vulcan’s initial disbelief gave way to uncertainty, then curiosity, intrigue, and finally admiration for the determination and resourcefulness of Captain Archer and his multi-generational crew. When Lorian spoke of the sudden, unexpected death of his father, and of then being groomed from childhood to take his parents’ places—first as Chief Engineer, then as Archer’s successor—Soval’s genuine look of sympathy took even Lorian by surprise.

Lorian delivered his account with an unruffled calm that faltered only when he recalled his failures to stop the first Xindi weapon from attacking Earth. As he quietly acknowledged responsibility for the seven million lives lost, Forrest stopped him. “Lorian, it’s not your fault. You did your best. The hellish thing couldn’t be stopped by one starship, even with a hundred-year head start.”

“With all due respect, Admiral, I was in command,” Lorian persisted, his voice flat. “I had three chances to stop the weapon, and I failed. The responsibility is mine.”

“What was the probability?” Soval asked suddenly.

“Ambassador?”

“If you had blown up Enterprise in the path of the weapon, was the warp core breach a guarantee of success?”

Lorian paused. “The probability was seventy-four percent that the explosion would be powerful enough to disable the weapon.”

“So there was a possibility that Enterprise and all aboard could have been lost without sufficient damage to the weapon,” Soval concluded.

Lorian hesitated again, a frown shadowing his fair features. From the moment he had failed to complete the mission that he and everyone on board had geared their whole lives to achieve, he had been certain that he should have blown the ship up. Of course there was no other explanation, because he had failed. He had failed... “A minute possibility. Yes.”

“Twenty-six percent is hardly ‘minute’,” Soval observed mildly. He studied Lorian for a long moment, his expression thoughtful now. “I submit that your guilt is not logical, Lorian. You have no cause to suffer it further.”

Lorian was wholly unprepared for the profound effect that Soval’s simple, direct words had on him. For months, he had been accustomed to the heavy weight of failure and loss on his troubled conscience, but now he felt that burden being lifted...by, of all people, this notoriously intolerant “bitter old Vulcan.” He searched Soval’s eyes, but found no disdain there, no blame. Amazingly, he saw respect. Momentarily overcome by emotion, Lorian didn’t trust his voice. He settled for giving Soval a nod of thanks.

Only then did he notice that the ambassador’s two adjutants, who had remained coldly impassive toward Lorian throughout the briefing, were regarding Soval with clear disapproval for showing Lorian any deference at all. Soval was aware of their perturbation, but seemed quite unconcerned as he moved on to the medical files. Interestingly, he gave the DNA profiles, including Lorian’s, barely a passing glance before turning to an examination of Phlox’s research logs.

As he studied the padds, Soval’s stoic face softened with unmistakable empathy. His voice betrayed his emotion when he finally spoke. “I had no idea your parents suffered such difficulty...such loss. Three miscarriages...” His voice caught as he read on. “And...a daughter.”

“T’Lessa,” Lorian recalled, his voice soft. “She was born three months premature...so tiny and fragile. Beautiful, like my mother, but with my father’s fair hair. She fought for weeks while Phlox attempted to stabilize her. My parents never left her side.” He smiled faintly, wistfully. “I wish I had known her. I believe she would have become a remarkable individual.”

Soval recovered his composure, somewhat, as he scanned further through the logs. “It appears your birth was no less problematic.”

“I almost died twice during Mother’s pregnancy,” Lorian acknowledged matter-of-factly. “And Father nearly lost us both while she was in labor. Afterward, Phlox advised them not to have more children.”

Soval shook his head slowly, admiring but not quite understanding. “Why did they risk so much?”

Lorian remembered wondering the same thing, when he finally learned of the danger and heartache his parents had endured to have him. He gave the answer they had given him. “They wanted to share their love with a child.”

Soval’s two compatriots shifted uncomfortably. Evidently the idea of Lorian’s mixed heritage did not sit well with them. Soval glanced briefly at them. “There are many who regard Vulcan/human mating to be as deviant a behavior as mind-melding is to Vulcans,” he remarked.

“No one on Enterprise shared that prejudice,” Lorian said. “Do you, Ambassador?”

Soval paused. “In fact, I do not. For either practice.”

The Vulcans stared at him as if he had just sprouted a second head, while Admiral Forrest smiled to himself in amusement at their reaction. He caught Soval’s eye and nodded in silent support.

Clearly, Soval’s values were, in reality, quite different than the majority of his Vulcan peers. Lorian wondered whether the ambassador’s notoriously haughty reputation among humans might be a façade to protect his professional position even as he surreptitiously effected change.

Soval actually appeared to be enjoying the other Vulcans’ discomfort at the distasteful turn the conversation had taken. “Tell me,” he went on to Lorian, “how did your parents overcome the obstacles inherent in an interspecies relationship?”

“The same way any two people forge a successful partnership, I would suspect—by earning each other’s trust and respect,” Lorian replied. “As they progressed from being adversaries to friends, and finally bondmates, they took care not to take each other for granted. They rejoiced in their differences, as Surak teaches us. They told me that those differences made their bond stronger.”

By now, the two Vulcan adjutants were fairly squirming with revulsion. Lorian had an insane urge to burst into laughter at the sight. He assumed it was because of the time he had been spending with Karyn recently, which had brought his human side closer to the surface...but then he saw Soval hiding a smile as well.

Soval took care to restore his Vulcan mask of equanimity before turning to Forrest. “I have no further questions, Admiral.”

Forrest rose. “Then this debriefing is concluded.”

The panel members stood—the two Vulcans beating a hasty retreat, while several of the human officers paused to offer Lorian a few words of appreciation on their way out. Finally only Forrest and Soval were left. Lorian studied Soval, much as the elder Vulcan had examined him earlier. “Ambassador, I suspect the reputation that precedes you is unwarranted.”

Forrest laughed heartily. Soval arched an elegant eyebrow, the very picture of dignified innocence. “On the contrary, it has been carefully cultivated over a number of years to be exactly as I intended. It simply happens to be unrepresentative of my true nature.”

Lorian was fascinated. “Would you care to enlighten me?”

Soval eyed him keenly. “I suspect you have already guessed the answer. The High Command has, in recent years, become increasingly enamored of the power and influence it wields over both Vulcans and other species. Many of its members routinely use deception and persecution to maintain that power and achieve their objectives. For any member of the High Command to openly profess a significantly different viewpoint...”

“They’d fire him and ship him back to Vulcan in disgrace,” Forrest declared bluntly. “Soval’s kept up this human-hating-Vulcan act to keep the VHC off his back, so we can get some real work done. He knows that Earth has as much to offer Vulcan as the other way around. If we join forces on an equal footing, there’s no limit to what our two worlds can accomplish. That’s our goal.”

“I have no doubt that, with your combined determination, you will achieve your objective,” Lorian said confidently.

“Lorian...” Forrest hesitated, looking a bit contrite. “When you and your crew first arrived, I started planning a big, celebratory welcome. I wanted to show you off to the world, since you played such a critical role in saving us all. But Starfleet HQ classified everything about your mission related to time travel...which amounts to, basically, everything about your mission. So...” He shrugged apologetically. “No fanfare is forthcoming, I’m afraid.”

“Don’t concern yourself, Admiral,” Lorian said. “We didn’t come here seeking fame. We’re simply a displaced family, weary from a long journey. All we need is time to rest and heal.” He gestured to the piles of charred ship parts littering the room. “And since this is all that remains of the only home we’ve ever known, a place to belong.”

“You have that here, all of you,” Forrest assured him. “For as long as you need, until you get acclimated.” He brightened. “The brass does like the idea of your crew wanting to join Starfleet. For anyone who is considering it, we’re putting together a set of field evaluations and exams to determine each crewman’s level of expertise and experience. We’ll be able to work out commissions, ranks, and any additional training needs from there.”

Lorian nodded, pleased. “I’ll pass on the good news.”

Forrest surveyed the mounds of evidence. “Judging from all this, and your record, I’d say you’ll be offered a commission as Commander without any problem.” He shook Lorian’s hand. “It’ll be a pleasure to formally welcome you into Starfleet, Lorian. You’ve already made us all proud.”

“Thank you, Admiral.”

Soval clasped his hands before him, assuming a more formal air. “You performed a difficult duty with exceeding skill and resourcefulness, Lorian. You honor your parents, and they you.”

For the second time that day, Lorian was deeply moved by Soval’s words. “Thank you, Ambassador. They would have treasured that statement, coming from you.”

“Now get out of here,” Forrest grinned. “It’s late.”

“Should you have further questions, I’m at your service.” Lorian gave each man a respectful nod. “Good night, Admiral, Ambassador.”

Forrest and Soval were silent for a moment after Lorian took his leave. Finally the admiral sighed. “The High Command will probably deny that he even exists.”

Soval nodded. “Quite likely it will suppress or deny much of the evidence in this room as well.”

Forrest shook his head. “Ironic, isn’t it? He’s living proof of what we’re trying to accomplish. His parents demonstrated that humans and Vulcans are quite capable of working together as equals, both professionally and personally. They’re a microcosm of our two peoples’ potential...but lost in another time.”

“Not necessarily, Admiral,” Soval countered. “Commanders Tucker and T’Pol are on Enterprise even now, demonstrating the successful professional partnership of which you speak.” He picked his way idly through the shattered remnants of Lorian’s ship. “I suppose we can ascribe both credit and blame to Captain Archer for the challenges we face in achieving the goal we have set for ourselves.”

“Archer?” Forrest said curiously. “You lost me.”

“Before Enterprise launched, the longest time any Vulcan had spent in close confines with humans was a few weeks. But Captain Archer, by simply being himself—an idealistic human, an enthusiastic explorer, a moral man—rose above his own prejudices against Vulcans and created an atmosphere on Enterprise that enabled T’Pol’s extraordinary gifts to flourish. Her successful integration with humans is, ultimately, why so many in the High Command are now afraid that their comfortable status quo will not long endure.” Soval’s brow knitted pensively. “Archer started a pebble rolling down a mountainside, and now an avalanche of change has begun...”

“Are you afraid?” Forrest asked quietly.

Soval shook his head. “Too many secrets have been kept for too long...by the High Command, and by those driven into hiding to escape persecution. It is time for truths to be revealed, by whatever means.” He turned gravely to Forrest. “I suspect, however, that as the High Command is threatened, it will take increasingly radical measures to protect its power.”

Forrest’s resolve did not waver. “Then, my friend, we will do whatever we have to. No matter what the High Command throws at us.”

Soval nodded. “Indeed, my friend. We must.”

~~tbc~~


Chapter 3

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A whole mess of folks have made comments

I love Soval !!! He is so nice .
By the way, the story is fantastic and wonderful !!!
I'd like to read more soon .

:-D

Absolutely superb! I particularly enjoyed the way Lorian and Soval interacted but the really nice cherry on the top was the way in which you show Admiral Forest in a remarkably good and strong light, given some of his responses to Captain Archer and the intrepid crew of Enterprise throughout the series. Bravo, can't wait to see what happens next. Ali D :~)

COOL!!!!! I loved it all!
Good Guy Soval comeing out and accepting Lorian with "open arms". Cant wait till the next chapter!!!!!!!!!

Oh, goody! Keep going. I love it!(Happy smiles!!)

Terrific story, looking forward to the next chapter

Awesome. :) May I just say that I love Lorian? :) I also love how Forrest and Soval were worked into this. Great job!

I love that there was a struggle for T/T to get to Lorian. It's very sad, but realistic.

I also loved the first part of this. Great T/T interaction in that one.

I'm looking forward to more! :)

Oh man, I'd love to see Trip's face at hearing Soval's show of respect! I just know his chin would be on the floor with shock! :D

Bravo!

Heh heh heh. Soval. Funny. That was great, keep 'em coming, please!

The only thing as good as a T/T story is a Lorian story, and this one was excellent. Loved your handling of Soval and Forrest and your description of Trip and T'Pol's efforts to have a child together was completely believable (and very sad). Thanks for sharing this.

Another great part. I'm looking forward to see where you're going with this. I hope that this time around they will have better luck with their pregnancies.