And Baby-Epilogue

And Baby Makes Four

By Samantha Quinn

All disclaimers in Part I.
Spoilers: “Shuttlepod One”
A/N: Words between // denote telepathic thoughts. Words between *** denote regular thought.

Epilogue…

~~~

The Thirty-Second Century. . .

In the Time Line Preservation Headquarters, Captain Zlar and his senior crew listened to Admiral Baloka as he briefed them on the results of their mission.

“From their posts at Science Station Two, Commander Tucker, Lieutenant Reed, and Sub-Commander T’Pol continued to advance the ideologies that formed the foundation of the Federation. As a result, the United Federation of Planets formed in the year 2161, as it was always meant to do. Lieutenant C’Lak is the first Alpha Centurian to serve on the Federation council.”

Zlar spoke up. “I assume that because of the Federation’s growth, the Tholian-Federation alliance in the 26th century -–“

“Occurred without incident. The Klingons were defeated by the combined Tholian-Federation forces,” Baloka confirmed.

“What of the child?” Puida asked.

“She became part of the warp eight project, served as a Federation Ambassador, and served on the Federation Council. Most importantly, her very existence continued to boggle the minds of Vulcan and human scientists. As a result, technology and medicine advanced well enough to produce a second Vulcan-human hybrid in the twenty-third century. Multiple cross-species breeding has occurred since, as you are well aware,” Baloka replied.

Zlar spoke up again. “The careers of Tucker, Reed, and T’Pol?”

“Continued relatively peacefully. Reed took advantage of the time on the science station to advance his research. As a result, he fully developed the shielding technology used through the twenty-seventh century. T’Pol continued her work on the science station until the time of death Reed, upon which time she and Commander Tucker returned to Vulcan.”

The crew stared at the Admiral in surprise. “Commander Tucker lived on Vulcan?” Zlar inquired in disbelief. “How . . .?”

Baloka laughed softly. “Strange as it may have seemed, all those years living on the science station with T’Pol and a vast variety of other aliens apparently mellowed the Commander. He lived to the age of 110, and served in the latter years as the Earth Ambassador to Vulcan. After his death, Sub-Commander T’Pol took over as director of the Vulcan Science Academy.”

“But what of the Xindi?” asked Zlar in frustration. Had they messed the time line up so badly? “According to records, Commander Tucker became quite angry and vengeful after the attack on Earth.”

“Ah, yes. In those reports, Commander Tucker wasn’t a father,” Baloka reminded Zlar gently. “Once he became one, he couldn’t afford to gallop off and become a vigilante. By all accounts, he was still angry, but it was not the all consuming anger he once possessed.”

Puida and the Doctor glanced at each other uneasily. Finally, the Doctor spoke. “That’s quite a change. . . will it need to be altered to the original?”

Admiral Baloka smiled. “I don’t know. It seems to have been a positive development. Computer, play audio recording of Sub-Commander T’Pol’s eulogy at the funeral of Ambassador Charles Tucker III, beginning with her comments concerning his role in Vulcan-human relations.”

“. . . Ambassador Charles Tucker III played a pivotal role in the relationships between humans and Vulcans. While unconventional, his methods were exceedingly effective. His effectiveness extended to all areas of his life, be it his work as an engineer, a commanding officer, an Ambassador, a father, or a . . . friend. Ambassador Tucker’s presence had a noticeable affect on all whom he came in contact with. Trip. . . shall be missed. Immensely.”

The Tholians looked at each other in amazement at T’Pol’s revelation. Although her voice remained unemotional, the pauses and semantics definitely betrayed emotion.

“So, no, I do not believe it would be prudent to force history to repeat the unfortunate ‘Vengeful Trip’ Tucker incident,” Baloka surmised. “And the rest of Headquarters agrees with me. Are there any other questions?”

“Was she that emotional during Reed’s funeral?” Puida asked.

“Computer, play Sub-Commander T’Pol’s eulogy at the funeral of Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, beginning with her comments concerning loyalty,” Baloka instructed.

“. . . Someone once commented to me that the human concept of loyalty was an emotion. They were correct in that regard. Loyalty, as with other human emotions, I discarded in order to follow the path of Surak. In knowing Malcolm, it became apparent that his every action reflected his tremendous capacity for loyalty. With his death, I find myself ever more certain that loyalty is an emotion. I grow less certain, however, of the wisdom of discarding it.”

Zlar shook his head in wonderment. “That just goes to prove that messing with time and all its accompanying paradoxes is a dangerous thing.”

Puida nodded enthusiastically. “I think a Captain from the twenty-fourth century said it best: It gives me a headache.”

~~~
The End.

Return to Chapter 17

Or you might want to look at the sequel Children at Play.

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Eight hardy souls have made comments

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Thanks! It was funny and bittersweet and full of wonderful Trek lore. Thanks.

In case anyone wonders: this story was originally written over several months and the comments at the beginning (and end) of the chapters in reply to things brought up at Fan Fiction.Net. Also, I tried very hard not to make this a T'P/Tu. . .but, as the epilogue shows, I failed. Not a bad thing, I suppose. :)

YES!!! I love it when a story gives me some hope about "Vigilante Trip" being just a bad dream....great stuff and a fun read!

A hallmark of excellent SciFi is the author's ability to construct a plot. You are a master.

As for time travel - Humankind - and Vulcans - are just too puny to truly understand it. I admire the courage you demonstrated by using it as a plot device.

this is one of the best stories i have read in a long time.
even the time travel paradoxes...

you should be proud of this.
too bad it probably wont happen but this could be lengthed some and turned into a full novel only of the tptb had sense enough to publish some thing this good

i loved it! i'll get to the sequel this week :D

Great story -- very engaging and beautifully written! I particularly enjoyed the interaction between Malcolm, Trip, T'Pol, and the little girl right at beginning. In just a few scenes, you have managed to create an image of a truly loving and happy family. The way, these four interact with each other, is wonderful and made me care about them right from the start.

I am also awe-struck by your ability to keep all those strings together in a rather wild time-travel story. When things started getting more and more "weird", I was worried for a second that the story might end in a big mess -- because it would have, if I'd written it :-) --, but you pulled it off and resolved everything in a very satisfying end. Great job!

So, to conclude: thank you very much!

I'm in awe. This is one of the best fan fictions I've ever read. The plot was engaging and kept me wanting to read and even though there were a few kinks where things seemed to be going truly weird they were quickly explained in a suitable manner. I think you also did very well in keeping the characters faithful to how they are written in canon, despite the time-travelling alternatives they find themselves facing.

Your writing style is also very smooth and I was simply pleased to have it written in proper english, rather than the usual internet speak that is becoming so prevailant these days.

As someone else noted before me, I believe this story, or one similar to it, could be turned in to a full length novel and be well received without too many problems.

Thank you for some most satisfactory reading material.