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Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear - Chapter 5Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear By Rogue Category: Endless Summer Hiatus 2004 Challenge --- Chapter 5 --- U.S.S. Enterprise, NX-01 --- The door chimed to the Captain’s ready room, and Archer looked up from his datapad. “Come in.” Trip Tucker poked his head into the captain’s office. “Beware engineers bearing gifts,” He showed a bottle of bourbon and two glasses. “Kentucky bourbon!” the captain said, squinting at the label. “2134. This should be good.” “Thought I’d bring you a little pick-me-up,” Trip said. “I personally have been hiding from T’Pol’s attempts to drag me up there by burying myself in the warp engine.” “She didn’t pull out by your ankles and make you observe protocol?” Archer said, as Trip opened the bottle. The engineer grinned, handing the captain a glass. “She can’t if she can’t find me. Cheers.” “Wow,” Archer said, the grimace from the bourbon fading from his face. “Good stuff.” “You see,” Trip said. “All good things come from the South. I’d be willing to bet water polo originated in Florida. Anyway, I didn’t avoid T’Pol all day. I did take a shift on the bridge this afternoon.” “Still avoiding negotiations at every turn,” Archer observed. “Don’t want to cause a diplomatic incident,” Trip said. “When my own cousin tells me to go mind the bridge instead of coming down—“ “Never mind,” Archer said, unsuccessfully trying to hide his smile. “You and Malcolm and T’Pol can all take turns on the bridge for now, and you are hereby designated purveyor of alcohol.” “Hear, hear,” Trip said, clinking his glass against the captain’s. “How is it going? T’Pol only says you’re making progress.” “After ten hours, I managed to get them both to stand down from alert status and to agree to let the Lunar One colony to join in the negotiations for their own independence. They want us to keep having the negotiations, though, but you should have seen Earth’s special ambassador after the lunar colony called us. I thought I was going to have to call the MACO’s in.” “How are you going to manage that?” Trip asked. “I am open to suggestions,” the captain said, rubbing his eyes. The door chimed again, and the captain wearily looked up. “Come in.” T’Pol entered, and both men stood. “T’Pol,” Archer said, gesturing to the chair Trip had not been occupying. “Won’t you sit down?” “That won’t be necessary, sir,” she said, handing him a datapad. “We just received a message from the Vulcan consulate. Ambassador Soval has just offered to host the negotiations on Vulcan, and to offer you whatever assistance you feel you may require.” “Really?” the captain said, taking the datapad from her. “And just what might be required of us in return?” There went the eyebrow. “The Vulcan Science Directorate has recently opened a new biological sciences complex, which is being named in honor of the Ambassador. He has requested our assistance in conveying him there.” She hesitated. “My presence has also been requested at the ceremony. My husband was the architect who designed the complex.” Archer smiled. “Well, I suppose I can do without you for a little while during the ceremony. But I thought that the T’Mir was supposed to take Soval back to Vulcan.” T’Pol nodded. “That’s correct, Captain. However, the one of the warp injectors on the T’Mir malfunctions and caused a partial cascade through their EPS grid. They estimate it will require a week to fix.” “Suppose they’d like some help?” Trip said, his voice carefully modulated. “I could help out over there.” T’Pol glanced at her feet before returning his gaze. “I doubt that Captain Storn would allow you near the engineering section of the ship.” “I think this is a great idea,” Archer said. “Soval may get on my last nerve, but having him there may help since he’s representing an interest outside of Earth. No offence, Commander, but being in Starfleet doesn’t exactly give you the same credibility.” “No offense taken, Captain,” T’Pol said. “If you will excuse me, I have calculations from the last gaseous anomaly we passed to complete.” “Certainly,” Archer said, and T’Pol turned and left. Archer sat back down, but not without hearing the low sigh Trip let loose. “Trip? You all right?” he asked. Trip looked up from where he was intently studying the bottom of his glass. “Oh, I’m fine. I should really get going. I forgot about the study she was doing on that anomaly, and if I don’t finish my report on the effect it had on the warp nacelles, I’ll be scrubbing bulkheads for a week. If you’ll excuse me, Captain?” Archer nodded, and Trip set his glass down before hurrying out the door, leaving the captain to wonder at the strange behavior of his crew. --- 22 March 2154 --- Soval stepped onboard Enterprise, his hands folded into the sleeves of his cloak. Trip attempted to smile, and as a courtesy, held his hand up in the traditional greeting. “Live long and prosper, Ambassador.” He made a mental note to thank T’Pol later when he saw the surprise flicker across Soval’s face as the ambassador raised his hand in turn. “Peace and long life, Commander Tucker.” The ambassador hesitated, before then extending his hand to Trip, and the engineer felt the surprise fall across his own face as he shook hands with the Vulcan. “If you’ll come this way, sir,” Trip said. “The captain asked me to apologize for not being here, but he’s trying to get the Mars and Earth ambassadors to agree on the Lunar Colony representative. We’ve prepared quarters for you and your aide this way. Chef is even making plomeek soup for dinner, and T’Pol has put meditation candles in your quarters for your use.” “I will look forward to it, Commander,” Soval said. “Will Captain Archer be joining us for dinner?” “That’s the plan so far,” Trip said. “Unless the negotiations take a particularly bad turn, I think he should be able to. Oh, look out, they’re working on the EPS grid here,” he said, moving around the crew who stood at attention as the ambassador passed by. “You have learned much of Vulcan culture, Commander Tucker,” Soval said. “I must admit, I am surprised.” Trip paused before choosing not to irritate the ambassador, for T’Pol’s sake at least. “What’s the good of being out here if you don’t learn anything?” Soval’s eyebrow raised. “A surprisingly logical statement from a human.” Trip gritted his teeth. “Here we are, Ambassador. If you need anything, there will be a steward at your disposal. If you’ll pardon me, I’ve got to get back to engineering.” “Of course, Commander,” Soval said, opening the door to his quarters, and Trip allowed himself one smirk as he turned around to head for engineering, as he’d caught the ambassador’s minute expression of disgust at the human smell of the quarters. --- The door to her quarters chimed, and T’Pol rose from her desk. “Come in.” Trip stepped in, looking more nervous entering her quarters than he had before they had begun their neuropressure sessions. “Hey. I just wanted to bring these to you. My report on the nacelles. Sorry it’s late.” “No need to apologize, Commander,” T’Pol said, studying the figures on the datapad. “We have been quite busy as of late.” “No kidding,” Trip muttered. T’Pol had made no move to dismiss him, and even though he knew that he should make an exit, gracefully or not, something made his rebellious feet stay stuck firmly too the floor. “I thought the dinner went pretty well.” T’Pol looked up. “Considering that the Earth special ambassador publicly insulted Ambassador Soval, it went quite well.” “Well, the captain squashed that pretty quick,” Trip said, leaning against the locker, and T’Pol looked away, reminded of him in that particular posture too many times. “And he didn’t try it again. And Soval didn’t look too pissed off.” “One can only be insulted where emotion is present,” T’Pol said, and an awkward silence fell over the room. “My mother asked about you.” Trip smiled, staring at the ground. “Your mom’s a classy lady.” “She was most impressed with your engineering skills,” T’Pol said. “She has said that she wished you had time to look at her lighting system before you left Vulcan.” “If she likes, I can see if I can take a look at it when we get to Vulcan,” Trip said, letting his eyes flicker to the stars streaming by as they moved through space. “I am sure she will appreciate it,” T’Pol said quietly. The silence fell once again, and as Trip cast about for a remark, he could not stop himself. His mother had once said that he lacked a filter between his brain and his mouth that kept him out of trouble, and while he had protested at the time, he had found that his mother was quite right. “Are you excited about seeing Koss again?” The words flew from his mouth and he immediately wished his mother was there to smack him on the upside of the head, just to make himself feel better about having said something so bluntly. You could have at least made a graceful segue into that, Tucker. “Not exactly,” T’Pol answered. Figuring he had already fit half his foot in his mouth, he decided to go for broke. “What’s happened to us?” he said. “We can’t even have a normal conversation anymore.” “I am unaware of what you speak,” T’Pol said, and he moved behind her, gently turning her around to face him. “I don’t want to make your life hell,” he said softly. “I just want you to be happy.” The memory of Koss’ words to her ran through her head, and T’Pol could not look at him. “I did not desire this outcome.” “Why didn’t you fight it?” he asked, his voice catching in his throat. “It is complicated to explain,” she said, looking up at him. “I’m listening.” He didn’t have to, as T’Pol rose up on her toes, her lips meeting his, and his arms found their way around her waist. Nothing had ever felt so right. Or so wrong. He pulled away, closing his eyes, leaning his forehead against hers. “We can’t do this.” He felt her take a breath, and he let himself hold on to her for a breath more, savoring this moment, etching it into his memory. “I know,” she whispered. She straightened, moved out of his arms. “Thank you for the report.” Nodding, he turned, and left her to her calculations. fin ---
Have a comment to make about this story? Do so in the Trip Fan Fiction forum at the HoTBBS! A whole mess of folks have made commentsHeart-breakingly good. This could play out on the show! Nicely executed. Can't wait to see what's next! very good, that could really happen ! I'd like to read the next chapter. This is going to be a many-hankie story in a mountain of hankies season. very, very good. very realistic. looking forward to the rest! Damn... I thought you were gonna do it for a second. Everyone's so afraid of the adultery. DOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IT! I liked this very much -- I want to see them struggle for a while! I can easily see it playing out this way. (Eventually, of course, Koss will die or they'll give in to their feelings, but not just yet!) oh this hurts so good! please continue. love that t'les needs trip to come fix something else that could be quite a conversation. wonder if soval will catch onto things too? Ah, sweet sorrow. I could so see a scene like this and my heart goes out to both Trip and T'Pol fighting to do the right thing while inwardly tying themselves in emotional knots. Very well done, Ali D :~) go on go on go on... It's just begun to get interesting PULLEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASEEEEEEEEEEEE FIIIIIIIIINIIIISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D |