Fulfilled - Pt 9

Fulfilled

By Samantha Quinn

Rating PG-13
Disclaimer: I don’t own Star Trek, any of its sequels or its prequel. Theoretically, I suppose I own Charlie, Maggie, and Koval. But neither they nor their parents are making me any money in this fic, so please don’t sue.

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Chapter 9

~~
Lost

Archer’s POV

~~

God, my head hurts. Come to think about it, my side is killing me too. Vaguely, I can hear T’Pol yelling – no, that’s wrong, T’Pol doesn’t yell. Yet she is. If she’s awake, why is it so cold in our room? She shouldn’t be hogging the blankets if she’s already awake. It’s not logical. Or very nice.

“Jonathan, wake up.”

Strange, those don’t feel like T’Pol’s hands on my arm. They’re a bit too rough.

“Jon, wake up, Dammit.”

Why is Trip in our bedroom? With a groan, I open my eyes and immediately regret that action. Squeezing them shut again, I try in vain to will away the headache throbbing behind my eyes. In retaliation, the pain spreads and begins to attack the pressure points behind my ears.

“Jonathan, wake up!” I’m clearly still dreaming. T’Pol sounds nearly hysterical.

“T’Pol, it’s going to be okay,” says what must be Dream Trip. After all, when has Trip ever tried to comfort T’Pol?

“No it is not! It will never be alright ever again.”

With a good deal of difficulty, I manage to open my eyes. Sunlight makes me regret that decision. “Dammit. Trip, T’Pol, could you two lay off the fighting and act civil for once?”

When my eyes finally find their focus, I can see the worried faces of both Trip and T’Pol looming over me. Both have smudges on their faces, and a small trickle of green on T’Pol’s cheek indicates a recent scratch. All of which makes sense when I realize that I’m lying flat on my back in a shuttle pod.

I’m unable to stop a groan from escaping my lips as I force myself into a sitting position. “What happened?”

“We were attacked by a Klingon battleship shortly after clearing the Vulcan solar system,” Trip reported.

“That I remember. Everything else is a bit of a blank.”

“You were knocked unconscious during the attack,” Trip supplied.

Well, that certainly explains why my head hurts so badly.

“As the Antares was not yet at the rendezvous point, we had little choice other than to attempt to navigate the Tular Nebula,” T’Pol explained. “It was our hope that we could effectively hide from the Klingons until the Antares showed up.”

“It did stop the attack,” Trip remarked. “But the damage to the shuttle screwed up the navigational controls and we couldn’t steer clear of the wormhole inside the nebula.”

A wormhole inside a nebula. Well, that’s certainly different. “So, where are we now?”

Did I just see T’Pol shrug? :No, no. T’Pol doesn’t shrug. Damn, I must have hit my head a lot harder than I thought. “We are on a planet approximately fifty light years from our previous location.”

“Did we crash?”

“More like an emergency landing, Admiral.”

“Well, Trip, it’s been a while since you’ve been in engineering, but it looks like we’re going to need your talents.”

“Regardless of Commissioner Tucker’s expertise, there is a gravitational distortion on this planet which will prevent exiting the planet’s atmosphere. Our best hope is to be rescued,” T’Pol informs me.

“Well, the news just keeps getting better and better. I don’t suppose we were able to get a distress signal out?”

“Nope. The communications and you got knocked out at the same time.”

“Are those fixable?”

“I think so. We can probably fashion some type of SOS. But it’s gonna take a while. I didn’t exactly pack in anticipation of this happening, Admiral.”

“Get started.” Realizing that my headache’s eased up somewhat, I stand up. “Meanwhile, I’m going to explore our surroundings a bit.”

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

Five minutes later, as I’m running for my life back to the shuttle, I realize exploring was not the wisest idea I’ve ever had.

Trip and T’Pol look up from the communication console when as I slam the hatch shut just in time to hear the loud crunch of claws against the hull and the angry wails of the animal it belongs to.

“Are you alright, Jon?” Trip asks in genuine concern.

“Yeah. Just a little scratch,” I assure him. “But I think leaving the shuttle is out of the question. There’s a pack of pretty hungry carnivores out there.”

“Why did you not think to stun them?” I could swear T’Pol sounded exasperated.

“I did, T’Pol. Apparently the same distortion that keeps us from leaving the planet makes our weapons pretty useless.”

T’Pol stands suddenly. “I must meditate.”

I exchange a look with Trip, who looks much less confused than I am.

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

“Admiral’s Starlog, Stardate 1234.34

The good news, or semi-good news, anyway, is that the planet’s indigenous carnivores leave us for about an hour a day. T’Pol believes they’re going to some type of water source. Whatever the reason, it gives time to breathe fresh air and gather food. Fortunately, we managed to land next to an area with plenty of edible plant life –"

My log is interrupted by the sound of T’Pol’s voice. “You must increase your productivity.”

“I’m workin’ as fast as I can, T’Pol,” Trip responds.

“Work faster!”

“T’Pol!” My exclamation is due more to the fact that T’Pol never shouts. Never. The fact that she is shouting now, is more than a little disgruntling. “Trip’s doing the best he can. Maybe you should meditate again.” God help me, I never thought I’d ever be suggesting T’Pol meditate.

“It is extremely difficult to meditate with you insisting on keeping those logs and making them as long and loud as possible. Do I need to remind you that Vulcan hearing is superior?”

“No –“

“How then do you expect me to meditate with the noise you are making?”

“T’Pol, I’m sure Jon’s done now. I should have the distress signal ready to send anytime in the next three hours, okay?” To my utter amazement, Trip is consoling T’Pol. Even more to my amazement, it seems to work.

“I . . . I apologize for my outburst, Charles. Of course you are working as fast as you possibly can.” T’Pol retreats to the back of the shuttlepod without spearing us another look.

While T’Pol’s outburst is disturbing, I suppose it can be linked to the katra experience on Vulcan. I don’t really understand exactly what happened, and I’m not sure I completely believe that bit about carrying Koval’s thoughts inside her, but whatever happened only compounded Koval’s death for her.

Koval. I wonder if and when that pain is ever going to go away. I can’t imagine that it will. He was my son. My own flesh and blood. The pain will never end, I’m certain of it.

Admiral. . . I was proud to be your son.

I was proud to be his father. I wonder if he knew that. I rarely told him. Hell, most of our time together was spent arguing.

~~
“It’s a kite, Koval.”

“And you are not a full Vulcan, Koval.”

~~

Stupid, stupid arguments. So many years, so much time wasted. If I had only known how short our time together was, I would have treasured each and every second even more. If I had only known that I’d never hear his voice again, I would have memorized every word he ever said, and counted how many times he said the word “logical.” Never once would I have wasted even a nanosecond of time arguing about Koval’s preference for the Vulcan lifestyle over human. Charlie Tucker’s words about being a better father keep echoing inside my head.

It’s cruelly ironic, really. Since Koval was born, everything I planned, I planned in the expectation that I would leave him long before he left me. After all, that’s what happened with my own father, and being that Koval was Vulcan it was twice as likely to be true in his case as well. I foolishly believed that I’d always have him near to me. So sure that I continued to waste precious time fighting with him over trivial things.

Nor would I have spent the last year worrying about the state of my marriage. The past week, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about a lot of things – Koval, T’Pol, life in general. Just two weeks ago, my marriage was a burden to me. Now I’m clinging to it like a lifeline.

It might seem silly, really. We don’t talk much anymore. We’ve not told each other the other was cherished or loved in months, if not years. Our day to day routine has been ruled by quiet dual-residence for years now. Hell, I don’t even remember the last time we made love.

But T’Pol is the only other person in the universe that knows what I’m feeling – and Vulcan or no, she feels it too. I haven’t said anything while we’re here on the planet, because Trip is here, and it would be inappropriate, but as soon as we get off this planet, I want to sit down with T’Pol and have a real heart to heart talk. I never stopped loving her, after all. Maybe there’s hope she still cares for me too. Because I can’t bear being alone anymore. I’ve lost my son. I can’t lose my wife too. I need T’Pol. I only hope that I can convince her that she needs me too.

~~~

Chapter 10

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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 comments

NOOOOO! Tpol is not the only other person in the universe who knows how you are feeling. I was hoping that the time spent on the planet would show Archer just how much Tpol means to Trip and maybe he could see past his blinkers for once and realise that they have feelings for each other.Each time I think that Trip and T'pol may have a future together my hopes get dashed after Archers POV.

This will sound very anti-Archer...I'm not apologizing...just giving pro-Archer people a chance to look away!

Admiral...would you just go and get eaten by whatever hungry carnivores are sitting outside!

T'Pol and Trip need to be alone...because quite obviously...T'Pol is showing the first signs of Ponn Far(sp?)...you're just getting in the way hubby dear!

That man is such a dunse...it isn't you she needs...it's Trip!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I'm done...great chapter and I look forward to reading more...especially if it's going to insult Archer some more...I've been trying to quell my anti-Archerness, but I really hate him in this and "unfulfilled".

I feel almost sorry for Archer losing his son and having absolutely no idea what's wrong with his wife. Speak of which, T'Pol is getting more and more irrational isn't she? How long before she grabs Trip and has flithy dirty sex with him in front of her husband?

Poor naive Archer. He couldn't buy a clue. Now the death of Koval seems to only push him further down the raod of denial. I keep thinking that instinctually he must know the truth of Koval's heritage but he has sinply ben wilfully blind. But I guess he reall IS that blind. Ob boy.... I can't whrn he finally gets his eyes opened to the truth.
Great stuff. More please.

I'm loving this, as angsty as it is. No surprise here, but the anti-Archer parts are my favorites!! haHAAAAAA!

It is refreshing to actually see Archer thinking things through about his feelings for T'Pol, though it has taken him forever to get to that point. I don't wish anything harmful to him but my heart and soul go out to Trip and T'Pol and what a glorified mess they have ended up in. Great writing, can't wait for the next part, Ali D :~)

I give up!!!!! I will read this to the end of course because your a great writer... but what hope I have had that Trip and T'Pol would get together has slowly been burned to death! I still want those two to get together FINALLY in this story but to think that it will happen is no longer possible for me. I don't hate Archer. How could I? Just because he has no idea what's going on doesn't make him a bad guy. Though I wouldn't have been sad if he'd gotten eaten by those carnivores either!

"How long before she grabs Trip and has flithy dirty sex with him in front of her husband? "*giggle*

Yeah, how long before he has her upside down and halfway to happy??? LOL This story rocks!

Ah, Archer. I, too, always thought he had some instinctual sense that Koval wasn't his own. Guess not. Too bad really, as he doesn't deserve the pain he'll recieve when he finds out the truth. It seems Archer still thinks the relationship between Trip and T'Pol is like it was the first few years on Enterprise. They must have demonstrated some more civil behavior to him while the boys were growing up. It sounds to me like he's clinging to the past. Trip and T'Pol should be at eachothers' throats, he and T'Pol have a solid marriage based on mutual love, and he's the Captain, so he's all-knowing.
Great work, as always. Can't wait to see whats gonna happen next!

Boulder thy name is Archer. Archer .. must ... miraculously disappear. If only for my sanity, please?

I'm very impressed with the way you have maintained your original vision in this sequel, especially that you haven't forced an ending, either happy or sad. Much as I would like a happy ending (well semi-happy now that Koval has died), stay true to the story and let it take you where it will.

Bucky