Child of Time-Ch. 12

The Child of Time

By JD1

Rating: PG, Mystery, Romance
Disclaimers in Chapter One

Author's Note: Finally, what you've all been waiting for! Selack tells Phlox why he told him. Oh. Everybody seems to want to know, though I think you're going to have to wait just a little longer. Uh, just read and find out if that completely confused you. I hope you like.

Summary: Will Selack be discovered or will he find a way to get out of that, too? And as Trip and T'Pol grow closer, how will that affect them on duty?

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

Chapter 12

Realizations

**Bridge, Tactical**

Malcolm had been working hard overnight to have the data mixed together to return it to what it should be. So far it had been a long and boring wait as the computer put it together and cross-referenced it to all races they knew.

After an extensive wait, the computer finally had the answer. His face dropped and became pale as he read the conclusion. It had one word, Suliban.

"Captain, I have the results. And I think you'll definably want to see them." Malcolm said to the Captain, pacing the bridge.

Archer stood up and walked over to the tactical station. When he saw the results, he had a very similar reaction as Malcolm did. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Why would someone want to hide this from us?" Archer whispered to Malcolm.

**T'Pol's Quarters**

Trip slowly became aware of his surroundings, though they seemed unfamiliar at first. The bare, plain walls and spartan room. He was still in T'Pol's quarters.

It was then that he realized a body was in his arms. As he looked down, he saw T'Pol's head on his shoulder and her arm draping over his chest. She seemed so calm and peaceful as she slept. She was like an angel, a beautiful, gorgeous angel with bronze skin that made her glisten.

Her breathing was steady and regular. He could feel her breath on his chest and it burned wereever her breath touched.

His chest, he looked down at himself and he was partly clothed. As last night slowly came back to him, he caressed her face and brought his hand to her ear.

He could remember the last time he had done that. Their first mission, they had caught some bacteria or something. They had to go into decon and put that gel on each other. It would have been a little more... idyllic if they hadn't been arguing about, what where they arguing about. Trip smiled at the memory, it seemed so long ago and they had come so far in their relationship.

He felt T'Pol stirring in his arms. He looked down at her and smiled. "Mornin', sleepy head."

T'Pol's confused, dreamy look wore off as she woke up, replaced by a half concerned, half-glad look. "'Sleepy head'?" T'Pol asked.

Trip just smiled and shook his head. T'Pol had tried to regain her Vulcan composure, but she hadn’t meditated and she that same feeling she had felt before in the turbolift and last night. She couldn't help but let go and smile with him. Trip saw this but chose not to comment. He felt this was a special gift for only him to see.

He sighed as he realized that they both had earlier shift this morning. "What time is it?"

"0643 hours. We should be getting ready." T'Pol responded.

"Yeah." Trip said with a nod. 'Well, at least I'm not stuttering any more.' Trip thought to himself as they shifted positions. She kissed him. Then she stood up and went to take a shower.

**Captain's Ready Room**

"Captain, I've got the Vulcan High Command's response. Would you like me to put them through to your ready room?" Hoshi asked, uncertainly, through the comm.

"Yes, thank-you." Archer replied dully.

"Sir, may I ask why you're getting a response from the Vulcans?"

"No, it's not something I wish to discuss." Archer replied, this time more firmly.

"Aye, sir." Hoshi responded.

The view screen switched from blank to an elderly Vulcan. He had pure white hair and many wrinkles. If he were human he would look like he was one hundred years old, but in fact he was presumably much older. He had on a white Vulcan robe, with writing down the sides of the hems. He also had the usual Vulcan black hair and pointed ears and a stone-face that would take quite a bit to change it.

"Captain Archer? I am Virok. You inquired about a young Vulcan by the name of Selack, correct?" He stated or asked all this with his stoned-face perfection.

"Yes, that's right." Archer answered, trying his best to not smile and show as little emotion as possible in respect to their customs.

"As far as our databanks are concerned, he does not exist. No Vulcan by the name Selack has been born for over four hundred years."

"Well, he certainly isn't four hundred. Maybe Selack's not his real name. Maybe he lied about it." Archer hypothesized.

"Impossible, Vulcan's do not lie." Virok stated, sounding almost offended.

Archer rolled his eyes while in a position the Vulcan could not see it happen. When he turned back he said, "That's not the only thing, we think, he may have lied about. The Vulcan monastery where we found him had been attacked. He was the only survivor. The scans we took and of another planet we recently just visited, that was also attacked, had the same attack patterns. But my tactical officer found the data with the attack patterns inconsistent, meaning someone tampered with them. And the last person to look at each set of data was Selack." Archer gave him the briefest briefing in the history of briefings.

"Do you have any solid evidence to prove this?"

"Not yet. Right now it's just speculation." Archer answered.

"I will continue to look into this Selack. Perhaps I could find him by looking into... other sources." With that, Virok cut the comm., turning the screen blank once again.

**Engineering**

"Well, you certainly seem... happy this morning." Selack commented to Trip as he practically skipped into engineering, smiling like a maniac.

"Great night." Trip answered, then continued with, "And mornin'."

Selack raised an eyebrow and gave him an expression, simply saying 'I don't want to know'.

"Any way, how're things here." Trip said, never losing the smile but becoming more serious and shifting into 'chief engineer' mode.

"Things are doing well," Selack respond.

"Good," Trip nodded.

He had a distant look in his eyes, a look Selack knew meant he was deep in thought. "What are you thinking about?"

"Where we're, ah," Trip cleared his throat and Selack knew he meant T'Pol and him. "Ya know, where we're goin' from here." He didn't even look at Selack when he said all that.

'I hope marriage and a child,' Selack thought sarcastically as Trip slowly came back to reality. "I'm sure you will find... 'where you are going'." Selack told him reassuringly.

"Yeah, thanks," Trip replied to Selack’s now-retreating form.

He furrowed his brow for a moment, again in thought. Then he called out to Selack, "Hey, kid, wait-a-sec."

Selack paused as told to. When he turned around, he was signaled to enter a remote area of engineering. "You have another question, Commander?" Selack asked with a raised eyebrow. "And, considering where we are, I would assume it involves T'Pol."

"Yeah, sort of." Trip replied, reluctantly. He wrinkled his face, showing the internal conflict of whether or not to ask him.

Selack, for his part, just stood there, watching his father's younger self. He stood fascinated by the similarities between the two. The way he walked, stood, talked, even looked in most ways. His eyes, stance, empathy, and beliefs were the same, as always. He had always been told he shared those exact features with his father.

When Trip finally spoke, he sounded a bit embarrassed. "Ya know, I know Vulcans don't really like to, uh, touch or anything. I was just wonderin'... why?"

Selack gave him an amused look, one a bit more emotional than most Vulcans would give anyone. Once Selack composed himself, he answered with, "Touching is considered a very..." Selack paused as he thought of the most appropriate word. "intimate gesture on Vulcan."

"Oh," Trip responded in a surprised voice, raising both his eyebrows.

Selack, with what Trip was asking, he was saying, and his reactions to all this, he was having a very hard time not laughing or at least smiling. Selack raised his eyebrow and said, "I should go, I have... an appointment with Dr. Phlox." Trip nodded and dismissed him.

**Sickbay**

The Doctor and Selack were discussing something, which included the reason for his nausea. After he had filled the Doctor in on all he knew, the Doctor asked a question that had been nagging him since the day he had been told his secret. "Selack, why did you tell me? About who you are and all. I mean you could have come up with some strange story or say that my sensors were faulty. But instead you told me the truth. Why?"

Selack smiled, he knew this question was coming. "Why? I took a guess. I knew there was someone onboard I was supposed to tell, I just didn't know whom. I knew it wasn't my parents, I assumed it wasn't the Captain. But I was almost positive it was you."

"Yes, but why me? Why even consider me out of the ninety other crewmen aboard?" The Doctor asked.

"What year is this, in human time?"

"January, 2153, I believe. Why?" Was Phlox reply.

"Then you'll, hopefully, find out in seventeen to eighteen months." Selack smiled, amused by the Doctor's confusion. "Oh, and then seven years after that."

Before the Doctor could say anything else, "Selack, will you report to my ready room, now." Captain Archer ordered over the comm. system in Sickbay. Selack and Phlox exchanged worried glances, the Captain was quite angry and whatever Selack had done, was most likely going to get him into trouble.

**Captain's Ready Room**

"I just finished a very interesting conversation with a member of the Vulcan High Command." Archer said, rapidly losing his cool. Selack tried to stay in his 'Vulcan face', but was having trouble. Being talked to like this was never one of his strong points in keeping his emotional control. "And you want to know what it was about?" Archer continued, it sounded much like a father about to tell his trouble-making son that he just got a phone call from school about something he did.

"Yes, sir." Selack obediently replied.

"According to them, you don't exist. According to Dr. Phlox and my eyes, you do. Now I would like to know what's going on." Archer elaborated.

"I do not know, sir." Selack replied, as calmly as he could in this situation.

"Then how about the data. You what to explain that?"

"Explain what about the data?" Selack asked, playing innocent.

"Malcolm found that the data was flawed. After running some tests and using other data we have, he was able to find out who really attacked. The Suliban. Now why didn't you want us to know that?" Archer said all this in a menacing tone.

"Like I said, sir, I do not know anything about it." Selack said, trying to keep his emotions out of his eyes in order to keep Archer from seeing the guilt and how much he was lying.

"All right. But I still want an explanation as to why you don't have exist in the Vulcan databanks." Archer ordered.

'Maybe because I don't yet,' Selack thought to himself. He tried to think fast and the only good excuse he could think of would have to work. Well, at least it's sort of true. "My parents did a lot of traveling and they were also a bit like fugitives. In a way. My mother gave birth to me on a ship, far from Vulcan, it would be a likely assumption that Vulcan never knew of my existence."

Archer nodded, obviously accepting his explanation. "Very well, you're dismissed."

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

Now my head hurts. It's hard to put all of these three story lines together and make them work.
Oh, well, a good story must give the writer a headache or else it's no good.
Anyway, please R/R, I would like to hear what you think of this chapter. Especially 'T'Pol's Quarters', was that overly wrong or not bad. Like I said before, I've never even kissed anybody, so this is all off of other stories and shows/movies I've watched.

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

Review posted:

On 07 January 2003 at 02:02 PM Aquagirl said:
Good story so far. Keep up the good work. I especially love the fact that Saleck isn't like any other Vulcan we have seen before.

Continue to Chapter 13

Return to Chapter 11

Back to Fan Fiction Main Menu

Have a comment to make about this story? Do so in the Trip Fan Fiction forum at the HoTBBS!