Empress Mother

Empress Mother

by Kevin

Rating: PG-13 (language)
Disclaimer: The characters mentioned within this text are the sole property of Paramount Studios, UPN, and Viacom. I intend no infringement.
Genre: Mirror Universe
Summary: This is a sequel to my earlier Mirror Universe story, Emperor Charles I. Emperor Charles learns T’Pol has a mother still living on Vulcan. A flashback to the accident that left his face scarred is included.

Thanks to startraveller776 for being my beta…

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Emperor Charles sat on the balcony with Empress T’Pol admiring the view of Vulcan’s capital city. “You’re right T’Pol, this sight is amazing. I didn’t know Vulcans could make something like this.”

“Vulcans appreciate beauty.”

“I can see that now.”

He heard footsteps behind him. “Emperor, Empress, I am sorry to disturb you.”

Charles turned his head. “That’s fine, Skon. What is it?”

“I wished to inform you that the Empress Mother has arrived. She is waiting downstairs.”

Charles was shocked. T’Pol never told him about a mother! “What!?!”

Skon repeated himself. “I am sorry Emperor, I said I wished to inform you that Empress T’Pol’s mother has arrived. I have her waiting downstairs.”

“I heard you Skon. My question wasn’t directed toward you.”

Empress T’Pol looked at Skon. “Leave us now. Inform my mother I will be there shortly.”

Skon bowed, “as you wish my lady.” He left them alone on the balcony.

“Why didn’t you tell me your mother was alive?”

T’Pol looked straight at Charles. “There was no reason to do so. Until you became Emperor, there was nothing you could do.”

“But I’ve been Emperor for nearly a year. If I’d known your mother was still alive, we would’ve come here earlier… I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about her.”

“Charles, that is exactly why I did not tell you. Your position was not secure. There were many who believed I controlled you. I could not risk something happening while we were here.”

Charles slumped and sighed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But I could’ve had her brought to Earth. At least you could see her there.”

T’Pol shook her head. “I wished to see her on Vulcan. I am not sure how she will react to my return. She most likely believed I was killed in the attack on the transport. I am also not sure how she will react to my taking a Terran mate.”

Charles made a face. “Why wouldn’t she be happy? You are Empress of the Galactic Empire?” He smiled and brought his hand to her cheek, “The most powerful person in the Empire. Everyone knows I’m under your thumb.”

T’Pol returned his smile. “That fact alone may not be enough to overcome her hatred of your people.”

Charles rolled his good eye and shook his head. “Okay. Let’s go. I’d like to meet your mother.”

T’Pol shook her head. “Please Charles, for right now, let me do this alone. It will be difficult enough without you there.”

“Okay.” He leaned in to gently kiss her forehead. “I’ll do it for you. But I do want to meet her. I feel responsible for you being separated.”

T’Pol rose her to her feet and caressed the right side of his face. “You should not. That was Admiral Black. Not you.” She left him to see her mother for the first time in many years.

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“I am pleased to see you, my daughter. I thought I would never see you again.”

“And I you. I am certain without Charles, you never would have.”

“How kind of your slaver to return you to me for a visit.” The sarcasm was thick in T’Les’ voice. “Your title may not be slave, but you are still shackled to a Terran.”

T’Pol clenched her jaw. Her mother had no right to judge her mate. “It is not like that at all. I care very deeply for Charles, mother. He is a good man. He did not kidnap me. He was forced to accept me as a gift.”

“If that is true, then why take you as Empress?”

“He wants to end the rebellion and improve the lives of Vulcans, not just Terrans. That is one reason why he offered our people full citizenship.”

“I am unable to believe a Terran is interested in the improving the lives of Vulcans out of any goodness in his heart.”

“You are correct mother. If it were not for the fact that I am Vulcan, Charles would care nothing for our people.”

“So I was right then. He only offered full citizenship to our people because of you.”

“Not completely. He is also doing this for his people.”

“How can helping Vulcans help his own people? I would expect just the opposite.”

“We need to end the rebellion. Not just for our people but also for his. You have only observed Terrans who are members of the military. Those Terrans not in the military or the government lead miserable lives worse than many of our people. The Emperor’s regime was horribly oppressive.”

“But they are not slaves to the Empire as we were.”

T’Pol shook her head. “True, they were not. But the distinction is at best one of semantics. While they were technically not slaves to it, as we were, they had no more power over their lives than Vulcans did. The Terran Empire was corrupt and devoted most of its resources to building Starfleet and expanding its empire. The rebellion only made life harsher for most Terrans as an ever increasing part their economy was dedicated to military expenses necessary to maintain the empire.”

T’Pol stopped for a moment to focus on her tea. The pitiful images of people in Asia scrounging for food still haunted her.

“Ironically, as Charles’ slave, my life was far less harsh than for most Terrans. I was provided clothing, a place to live and good food. That cannot be said for many hundreds of millions of Terrans. I have seen some reduced to eating bark and insects for survival.”

T’Les had little sympathy for Terrans. She felt they reaped what they sowed. But still she had difficulty with the idea her daughter had willingly taken this Terran as her mate. It did not matter that he made her daughter Empress. T’Pol could have chosen better than he.

“I believe I understand better how attached you have become to this Terran. But you are so beautiful, my daughter; I had hoped you would find a mate who is more attractive than he. His appearance is disgusting.”

T’Pol glared at her mother. She could not believe she would say something so insulting. She barely controlled her anger. “How dare you say that about him! I will cherish his face as long as I live! You have no right to say that about him!”

T’Les was stunned. She waited for her daughter to calm down before proceeding. “I apologize, daughter, I had no idea you felt this strongly for him… Yet, I still find it hard to believe you find his features attractive. His face has been severely damaged.”

T’Pol returned her focus to her tea. She whispered quietly to her mother, “His face is a reminder of how much he sacrificed for me.” She paused for a moment. “Every day I am reminded that he would risk his own life to prevent even the slightest harm to befall me.” She took a deep breath and released it slowly. “His face is like that because of my mistake… a mistake of which he fully bore the consequence.”

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Four years earlier…

T’Pol was miserable at how her life had turned out. Two years ago she was a student at the Vulcan Science Academy. She had completed her education and decided to take some time off to visit the P’Jem monastery before beginning her career as an instructor. She never arrived. Today she was a slave to a Terran master, although not the one registered as her owner. If she did not properly serve her real master, Admiral Black, by spying on her owner, she would be taken away and sold on the Orion slave market.

Her owner, Charles Tucker III, was as miserable with his life as she was with hers. Since his fiancée, Natalie, broke off their engagement, his life was consumed with getting Enterprise ready for launch and training T’Pol in engineering. As she searched his mind during the melds she used to spy for Admiral Black, she found little else but sadness and the need to numb the pain with work. His situation only became more dire as T’Pol forced some of her own despair onto him.

She became more worried as time went by. She could not provide information of value because there was none available. Admiral Black’s assumption that Charles would follow his father’s political footsteps was wholly unfounded. Charles was disgusted with his father and wanted nothing to do with him or his life. In fact, she reported to the Admiral exactly the opposite. Charles would likely serve the reform movement if it demonstrated any possibility of success.

She had no idea how else to convince the Admiral her role was still of value. If the Admiral withdrew his objection, she knew Charles’ father would use his influence to have her taken away. He hated Vulcans and wanted his son’s personal servant replaced. He wanted her returned to the Orions as soon as possible. If that were to happen, she knew exactly what her life would become. She shuddered at the memory of Tarah and what she was required to do for Charles’ father. She would do whatever she could to prevent that.

T’Pol had come to a decision. Admiral Black’s kidnap and subsequent ‘gift’ of her to Charles pushed both their lives into a downward spiral with no seeming escape. She would use the skills he taught her to end their combined misery. The fact that she could destroy the ship and the nearly 200 Terrans working on its construction only made her solution that much more attractive. She bided her time in order to build the necessary skills to carry out her plan.

When she learned the Admiral would be arriving on board for a progress report, she could barely control herself. She was not quite ready in her training, but she was willing to move up her time table if it meant she could also kill the man responsible for her and Charles’ suffering. The next morning she started the cascade of events that would lead to the loss of anti-matter containment and destroy the ship and surrounding space dock.

As the alarms blared and Charles barked orders to her and worked frantically himself, she realized her plan was on the verge of failure. He was a far better engineer than she and rapidly contained each element of the cascading failure. She then had to follow his orders as best as she could in order to hide her sabotage. The loss of anti-matter containment was no longer possible, but an explosion large enough to kill both of them was still possible.

A short two minutes later, even that outcome was denied her, as they were able to contain the last of the catastrophic failures. The port primary plasma conduit was overheating and would soon rupture. At least she could end her misery. She moved near it to ensure the subsequent rupture and fire would consume her.

Just as she was about to experience the release of death, she felt something hit her and a shout of “No!” Everything went dark in a second.

She came to lying on her back in engineering as an awful smell assaulted her senses. She tried to get up but Doctor Phlox just held his hand across her chest. “Lie still. You have a concussion.” He ran a device across her. “Other than that you appear to be fine.”

As the smelling salt odor wore off it was replaced by an equally awful smell–the smell of charred flesh. She looked around for Charles but the movement was too much for her system and she fell back down.

Phlox barked to a medic, “Get her on a stretcher and into sickbay. She has a concussion. I’ve got to focus on Commander Tucker. He’s in critical condition.”

T’Pol slumped back. She had failed… at least partially. She only hoped Charles would soon be out of his misery. Unfortunately his death would lead to her misery increasing tenfold.

Sometime later in sick bay and engulfed in a pain killer haze, she overheard the Captain and Doctor Phlox talking.

“Captain, Commander Tucker’s condition is critical but I believe he will survive. He has severe plasma burns over 40 percent of his head and a large portion of his right shoulder. Fortunately the flames appear not to have entered his nasal cavity or lungs. His recovery will be unpleasant but I expect him to be no worse for wear in a few weeks.”

“Shit… Dammit… That means we’ll probably fall further behind our launch date. How about Lt. T’Pol?”

“She has a concussion. I imagine she’ll be fine and able to assist in his recovery in a day or two.”

Lt. Kelby came into sickbay. “Captain Forrest, Lt. Kelby reporting as ordered.”

“Good… Tell me how bad things look. How quickly can we get back on target?”

“It’s not good sir. We lost two manifolds and 23 relays. Jupiter station won’t have enough parts to replace everything for at least two weeks.”

“Is there anyway we can repair them? Take the load off Jupiter?”

Kelby seemed to think about that a moment. “Possibly. If I had Lt. T’Pol’s help, I could probably repair some of the less damaged ones.”

Forrest shook his head. “No, she cannot help you. You know the rules. Until the doc clears Tucker for duty, her focus is on his recovery. Her first priority is serving him.”

Doctor Phlox interrupted. “Captain, it will be days before Commander Tucker will be conscious. Until that time, Lt. T’Pol can provide little valuable assistance. He will be sedated all of the time. His dressing will have to be changed twice daily to prevent infection, but that would take no more than an hour a day, once she is trained.”

“Okay Doctor. Once she’s cleared for duty, have her report to Lt. Kelby.”

The next evening, she replaced Charles’ dressing for the first time. Or at least she took it off. The sight and smell caused her to throw up repeatedly. When her stomach had emptied itself, she returned to find a new dressing in place.

Doctor Phlox gave her a scowl. “That did not work out so well, did it?”

She could still taste the mess in her mouth. “No. It did not.”

“Well, hopefully it will be easier for you tomorrow morning.”

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“It was four days before I could change his dressing without being overcome by nausea. The smell of the regeneration gel and antibiotics was worse than anything I could imagine. I did not eat solid food for five days so I could tend to him.”

T’Les was confused by her daughter’s account. “I am unsure what happened. You did not include the details.”

“He read the sensor display and saw the conduit was about to rupture. He tackled me away from the explosion. I struck a bulkhead as I fell down and received a concussion. The plasma fire just missed me and caught the right side of his face and chest. If he had not tackled me, the fire would have killed me instantly.”

T’Pol stopped to collect herself.

“His disfigurement, his bitterness, his anger, all of it was my fault. Until I came into his life, he was a handsome and kind man. I cannot restore his face but I can bring pleasure into his life. He still is a kind man with me. T’Pau has shown me how to correct nearly all of the mental damaged I have caused him.”

T’Les looked at her daughter with sympathy. It had been minutes since T’Pol had looked at her. T’Pol just sat staring at her mug while she told the story. T’Les could see tears travel down her daughter’s face.

That evening T’Pol lay in bed thinking about the earlier conversation with her mother. She looked over at Charles and his visibly scarred face. At first he resisted, but eventually he relented and allowed her to sleep on the right side of the bed. She leaned over and gently kissed his scarred right cheek. She rested her head on his right shoulder and gave a soft sigh.

Charles turned his head to her. “What was that for?”

“I just wanted to remind you how important you are to me.”

He smiled, pulled her body on top of his and held her tightly. “Thanks, T’Pol. I needed that. Today was pretty rough. Your mother really doesn’t like me.”

The End

A sequel follows in Transfer of Ownership

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Nine of you have made comments

I enjoy your vision of ENT and of the MU ENT. I'd like to see a continuation of this story. More T'Les and Trip interaction.

Thanks for the flashback of the accident.

Good to see you writing again, Kevin. I liked your explanation for Trip's scarring. Nice glimpse into the MU!

Interesting! Good explanation, well done. :)

I love this story! I'm so glad that you continued working on it... and I'm so honored that I get a preview before everyone else! :-)

I too, really liked your take on this one. I wasn't all too keen on the MU ENT, except of coarse T & T, but this one is really neat. I would like to see this one continued too...Nice job...T.

Great continuation and flashback! I love it. :)

Honorable men in the MU,,, Whoda thunk it.,,,,, Love T'pols extream possesiveness/devotion of Trip,,,,,,,, Even in the MU T'les can cause a bit of trouble,,,,,,,,,, Great fic,,, ca we expect more trips into your version of the MU? Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee.

Great MU-story! I haven't seen the Mirror-Universe-episodes yet (but I know spoilers) and this is a great way to continue this arc.
I hope you will write a sequel. Pretty please :-)