Redivivus- Ch 4

Redivivus

by HopefulRomantic

Rating: G
Disclaimer: Star Trek: Enterprise is the property of Paramount Pictures, Inc. All original material herein is the property of its author.
Genre: Romance, drama, T/T, ensemble, AU

Series Summary: The Reconnecting Series is a reinterpretation of Season 4 that went AU shortly after Home. It focuses on the relationships of Trip and T'Pol and their extended family, and features characters introduced in Season 3, as well as original characters.

A/N: Thanks to my betas Stephanie and boushh. Book excerpt by Mark Twain.

Date: 11-5-07

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Chapter Four: Loose Ends

July 17, 2154

NX-01 Enterprise
en route to the Barrens

It was cold here, harsh and overbright. Everything hurt. T’Pol shivered.

The child reached toward her, yearning—

T’Pol awoke with a start.

She was alone in her bunk, in her quarters on Enterprise. The chronometer across the room read 01:37. She sat up, taking in the familiar surroundings, slowly getting her bearings. Where was Trip?...She remembered now. He had stayed past his shift in engineering to oversee the replacement of a malfunctioning EPS conduit, and had told her he preferred to “crash in his own bunk” rather than disturb her sleep.

She felt him before the cabin door slid open. He entered swiftly, still dressed in his sleeping attire, both mind and body telegraphing his concern. “T’Pol? What happened?”

“Did you see her?” she asked.

He knelt beside her. “I didn’t see anything, darlin’. I just felt you—I knew something strange was going on.”

T’Pol didn’t respond immediately; she was still sorting out the feelings and images swirling inside her mind. “T’hai’la?” Trip prompted worriedly.

“I believe it was a dream,” she said at last.

He looked oddly at her. “I thought Vulcans didn’t dream.”

“Normally, they don’t.” Faintly, she shrugged, a gesture picked up after spending so much time among humans. “Perhaps I do now, because of you.”

He ventured an uncertain little smile. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

T’Pol looked down at her hands, clasped fitfully in her lap. “I saw a child, Trip. Our child, yours and mine.”

She felt surprise from him, and then a rush of sweet joy. “Really?”

She nodded, feeling strangely compelled by the lingering vision, but also vaguely confused. “I do not understand why I would have such a dream.”

Trip regarded her in silence for a moment, contemplating her mixed feelings. “There was a psychiatrist on Earth a couple hundred years ago, Freud. He said every dream is a wish.”

It was an agreeable notion. T’Pol met Trip’s eyes, seeing the same loving warmth there that she felt through the bond. She allowed herself the tiniest of smiles, and he beamed at her.

Feeling more at peace about the dream, she tilted her head, studying him thoughtfully. “It would not be logical for us to have children while we are both still serving on Enterprise.”

He nodded. “Makes sense.” Propping an elbow on the bunk, he took T’Pol’s hand. “So what’d he look like? The baby?”

“It was only a dream, Trip.”

“C’mon,” he playfully wheedled.

T’Pol relented. “She had blue eyes and blond hair.”

He smiled again, delightedly. “She?”

“And Vulcan ears.”

He eased up to sit beside her. “I guess that’s what you want, then. A girl.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “By that reasoning, you wish for a boy.”

“I want both!” he laughed.

“I would want a healthy child,” T’Pol said reasonably.

“That sounds like what Lorian’s parents said. Hey, wait—that’s us.” Trip chuckled as he slipped his arms around her.

T’Pol leaned contentedly against him. “It is not even possible for us to have children. It may not be for years.”

“Phlox’ll take care of that sooner or later, you’ll see.” Trip stroked two fingers along her cheek in a gentle ozh’esta.

T’Pol sighed softly as the bond resonated with his touch. She lay back, drawing him atop her, wrapping her legs around him. She needed to feel his weight, the closeness of his body, the beat of his heart.

He leaned down to kiss her. “In the meantime, we can always dream.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

August 28, 2154

North Star
The Delphic Expanse

Every weekday afternoon at about two, Sheriff MacReady would take a turn around the town. He’d wind up his rounds at Miss Bethany’s schoolroom, where he would stand in the doorway and listen to the tail end of class before she let the children loose for the day.

Today, though, the schoolroom was empty, and still not yet three o’clock. But it didn’t take much figuring where everybody was, it being a pleasant day and all. MacReady found the class by the stream at the east edge of town, in the shade of the big tanglewood tree—a patch of color in this pale, parched place. The children were gathered around Bethany, who was reading aloud to them from that little contraption Archer had given her.

“...And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time: in the day and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn’t seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind...”

Lately Bethany had been reading Earth books to them from the Time Away. For the last couple of weeks, it had been a “great American novel” by an author who had come to prominence soon after the Abduction.

“...I’d see him standing my watch on top of his’n, ‘stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times...”

The kids were enthralled, not a one of them fidgeting or eyes wandering. They couldn’t get enough of this boy Finn. A few of the townsfolk had even reported to MacReady, with more than a little consternation, that several of the children had taken to talking in Huck’s distinctive lingo around town.

“...I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: ‘All right, then, I’ll GO to hell.’”

Several of the students gasped and cheered. As Bethany glanced up at the group, enjoying their reaction, she spotted MacReady standing beyond them, listening. She smiled briefly at him before she kept on reading.

“It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved the whole thing out of my head, and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn’t. And for a starter I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog.”

Bethany lowered the padd. “We’ll stop there for today.”

There were groans and hollers of protest from the class. “You can’t!...What about Jim? How is Huck gonna steal Jim back?...He’s not really going to hell, is he?...”

Bethany tapped her pendant watch. “It’s already past three. Time to go home.”

Reluctantly, the children began to gather their things, still grumbling. “But we want to hear more...just a little?...Please, Miss Bethany?”

MacReady had to hand it to Bethany. He’d never known a pack of kids to beg their teacher to let them stay longer in school.

Bethany smiled at them, without giving an inch. “It’s a beautiful day. Go enjoy it. We’ll read more tomorrow.”

One of the older girls had spotted MacReady standing a few yards away. “Aw, she’s done. See?” She pointed in the sheriff’s direction, and several other girls burst into giggles, which Bethany silenced with a look. The girls scampered off with the rest of the class, waiting until they were a few yards away before breaking into twitters again.

MacReady approached Bethany as she was packing a well-worn carpetbag with her padd, a small chalkboard, and other school whatnot. “Good afternoon, Sheriff,” she greeted him warmly.

He tipped his hat. “Afternoon, Miss Bethany.” He looked off at the departing girls. “What was that all about?”

She shrugged offhandedly. “A few of the girls have decided that you have designs on me.”

“Designs?” he echoed warily. It was true that Bethany had become an increasingly peaceable presence in his life these last few months. He’d actually gotten to where he could say more than three words at a time to her. But that didn’t necessarily mean—

“Well, you do walk me to school every morning,” she pointed out. “And you come by every afternoon, even though the Uprisers haven’t given me any trouble in quite a while.”

“That’s why they don’t give you any trouble,” MacReady said, with some exasperation. Hell, was Bethany saying he had designs on her now?

She laughed softly. “The truth isn’t nearly so romantic as what they’re supposing.”

MacReady looked uncertainly at her. Damn, but women were a confusion. “So what’d you tell them?”

She gave him a gentle smile, the one he liked best...the smile that seemed to say everything would be fine. “I told them that where you go is your business, and I’m glad of your company, Uprisers or no.” She shut her carpetbag and stood up. “Shall we?”

MacReady couldn’t help but relax and smile back at her. “Sure.” He picked up the carpetbag for her, and they started back into town. “That Huck Finn, he reminds me of you,” he remarked.

“Is that so?” Bethany said with amusement. “A scalawag twelve-year-old boy?”

“No,” he said with exaggerated patience. “I mean, someone who thinks slaves ought to be treated the same as anyone else, and who’s willing to risk his own freedom to do right by one.”

She nodded graciously. “Thank you. I don’t mind being compared to that scalawag.”

“Were you always like this?” he asked. “So all-fire determined to help folks? Gettin’ yourself in trouble?”

Bethany was silent for a bit. “My parents believed the Skagarans paid their debt a long time ago. And the way they were being treated wasn’t right, and there ought to be an end to it, and peace.”

“Mighty unpopular, your parents, I take it.”

“They were wise enough to keep their views to themselves when it mattered,” Bethany admitted. “They had a family to think about.” She turned to MacReady. “I’ve lived my whole life hoping for the peace they talked about,” she said fervently. “It’s why I wanted to be a teacher—to help balance the unfairness of things. This new generation can learn from the mistakes of those who came before, Sheriff. It’s important for someone around here to have listened and learned—”

“—Because when Archer and his people show up again, he needs to see that we’re worth taking back with him to Earth,” MacReady finished with a good-natured chuckle. He’d heard that one enough times to say it in his sleep.

Bethany stopped and stared at him. For a moment MacReady thought she’d taken his teasing the wrong way, but then she smiled. “You said ‘when’.”

“What?”

“‘When’ Archer comes. Not ‘if’.” She looked pleased. “I remember a couple of months ago when you believed he wasn’t coming back at all.”

The steady gaze of her sky-blue eyes was unnerving. MacReady looked down, scuffing at a stray weed growing up between the planks of the boardwalk. “I guess you’ve done ruined me with all this positivity of yours.”

When he looked up at her again, he saw that she was blushing a little. He began to wonder if those kids of hers might be right—but his pleasant thoughts faded as he saw a curious frown crease her brow. She dashed off the boardwalk into the street, searching the sky expectantly.

Then MacReady heard it...a high-pitched hum from high in the sky, getting louder. He set down the carpetbag and followed, more cautiously, scanning the townspeople, checking their reactions as they, too, became aware of the sound.

A few seconds later, the flying craft hove into view, circling the center of town before descending toward Main Street. It looked like the ship Archer had arrived in last year, all right. By the time it settled to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust, a few dozen folks—including pretty much all of Bethany’s students—had gathered to watch.

MacReady, satisfied that there were no troublemakers in the crowd, made his way up front. Bethany was already there, of course, eager and unafraid. She was standing so close to the craft that he was tempted to pull her back, but he didn’t. “They must’ve won that war,” she said.

“Guess so.” Then MacReady saw that the name on the side of the craft was Columbia, not Enterprise. “Bethany...”

The side hatch swung open with a soft hiss. Instead of Archer, a dark-haired woman emerged, a bit younger than MacReady. She wore a blue Starfleet uniform, same as Archer, and moved with the authority of a leader. Behind her came an older man, similarly dressed, whose pointed ears and calm face reminded MacReady of Archer’s first officer, T’Pol. A couple of those soldier types brought up the rear, their weapons visible but not threatening.

The woman in the lead scanned the townspeople, casual-like, but MacReady could see that her gaze was sharp, missing nothing. Within seconds, she settled her attention on him. “Sheriff MacReady?” she said pleasantly.

He stepped forward. “Yes, ma’am. I’m Mike MacReady.”

“I’m Captain Erika Hernandez of the starship Columbia, and this is my first officer, Commander Lorian.” The woman offered her hand, and MacReady shook it. Her grip was firm. MacReady recalled Bethany teaching in school that men and women on Earth were looked on as equals nowadays....It was a mite different seeing it standing right in front of him, wearing long pants.

“What about Captain Archer?” Bethany was standing beside MacReady now, looking concerned. “Did something happen to him during the war—to his ship?”

“He’s fine now,” Hernandez said. “He lost a lot of good people in battle, but the war is over, and a great threat to the galaxy has been eliminated.” She smiled. “In fact, Captain Archer and his crew are considered war heroes, Miss...”

“Bethany Dolan.”

The captain’s eyes lit with recognition. “Captain Archer spoke quite highly of you, Miss Dolan.” She turned back to MacReady. “Both of you. He wanted very much to return himself and personally take part in the preparations for your people’s return to Earth. However, he was needed elsewhere. Enterprise has been sent on a special mission.”

MacReady glanced at Bethany. Mostly, she looked happy, but he could see the disappointment in her eyes. He gave her a sympathetic little smile. “I guess we were both right about him coming back,” he murmured.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Vulcan Embassy
San Francisco, Earth

T’Shara’s presence on the diplomatic staff had already made a remarkable difference, Soval noticed.

She took to the duties of her second career quite effortlessly. In fact, years of extensive traveling as an archaeo-linguist, interacting with a variety of cultures and personalities, had only improved her already-keen powers of observation. After a mere two days of watching the ongoing talks between representatives of the High Council and Starfleet negotiators, T’Shara noted Minister Tehnat’s contrariness, Commander Gibran’s tendency to agree with the strongest voice in the room, Minister Lautuv’s dogged adherence to now-outdated Vulcan tradition, and Commodore Zhukov’s nostalgia regarding the old Warp Five Project delays. Moreover, she determined methods of compensating for these conflicts in ways that did not offend any dignitary, but made them feel as if their perspectives were of prime importance. She demonstrated endless patience, as well as an appreciation for Terran humor, which quickly enamored her to the humans, though she somehow managed to avoid giving offense to the Vulcans. Soval was most impressed.

Working across the hall from T’Shara at the embassy these past weeks had been as agreeable as Soval remembered. Their conversations were stimulating, her ideas thought-provoking, and her solutions to problems ingenious enough to make him feel the student rather than the teacher.

Most important of all, T’Shara did not appear inconvenienced by Soval’s slower step, and she made no comment when he wore extra robes to compensate for the chill of the evening. She looked beyond his silver hair and lined face, seeing the man within, who felt ageless in her sweet presence. Though she made it clear that she still considered him attractive, she refrained from acting on her desire, as promised. Her restraint only served to make her more appealing to him.

This evening, as they were proceeding from the embassy toward their apartments in the compound, side by side as always, they discussed the matters of the day—concerns that the Vulcan fleet was dangerously undermanned now that T’Pau had sacked most of the High Command. Soval’s hands seemed uncharacteristically intent on fidgeting; he clasped them behind his back as he and T’Shara walked on.

When a lull in the conversation presented itself, Soval took advantage of it. “I have decided,” he said, endeavoring to keep his voice even.

“Yes?” T’Shara inquired with calm interest.

“We should marry.”

She did not so much as break her stride, but her moonlit face took on a glow that only enhanced her extraordinary beauty. “I concur,” she said serenely.

Soval nodded, satisfied—as well as relieved—and relaxed as he resumed their previous conversation. “Do you think the Council would consider using Starfleet officers in the interim, until new Vulcan recruits can be trained?”

“Difficult to say,” T’Shara replied thoughtfully. “I am uncertain whether Minister T’Pau’s tolerance for humans has reached that degree of confidence...”

When they arrived at T’Shara’s quarters, she held her door open, turning to him with a look of contented expectation. Without hesitation, he accepted her invitation, entering her home and her life for good and all.

Chapter 5

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