The First Years: Chapter 2
Codes: A/T'P. Living through bad times and good times.Rating: PG-13.
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Summary: A/T'P witness the building of the colony. Archer wakes up in a forest.
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A/N: This chapter I consider the calm before the storm. Next chapter will have more action. Fanfiction.net messed up my scene breaks as usual. I might not have caught all of them.
The heat of the sun beat down on Archer seeping through his shirt and pants. Beneath his shoes he felt sandy soil. Hot, dry air ruffled through his hair. Beads of sweat began to form on his forehead after only a few minutes outside of the shuttlepod.
He stood transfixed by the movements before him. This morning, and the hundreds of mornings before that he didn’t remember, he thought they had failed to save humanity. Seeing hands building this colony, he realized the human spirit had survived. ‘While there’s life there’s hope,’ he though to himself.
When T’Pol stepped out of the shuttlepod, the heat surrounded her in its comforting embrace. Living among humans, she’d become accustomed to the cold temperatures of their planet and their ships, yet temperatures considered hot or unbearable by human standards still felt more comfortable to her. The temperature on Ceti Alpha 5 today was slightly cooler than that of Vulcan, and her skin detected humidity in the gentle breeze that her desert home world lacked. She detected in the air the faint smells of plant pollen, metal being welded, and several chemicals in use on the construction sites. Her ears could distinguish the sounds of tools pounding, grinding, cutting, and welding at locations all around them.
T’Pol turned her head away from the view of the colony when she heard something crunching through the scattered patches of grass in the field. A man dressed in a blue Starfleet uniform, whom T’Pol judged to be in his twenties, ran towards them as fast as his boots would carry him. His short, dark brown hair shifted back and forth on his forehead with each step he took. The man slowed down and stopped in front of them.
“Excuse me sirs, I’m Lt. Phong Nguyen, Commander Tyler’s assistant. I’ll be escorting you to meet her.”
When the two people before him remained silent a few moments longer than was polite, the young man unconsciously fidgeted with his right hand.
T’Pol decided not to tell him they were no longer officers in Starfleet. Instead, she chose to try and put the lieutenant at ease. “Thank you Lieutenant.”
Archer and T’Pol introduced themselves to him. Archer shook his hand while T’Pol merely bowed her head slightly.
Archer wiped his brow with the back of his hand. The lieutenant smiled. People used to the comfort of steady temperatures on starships or the weather-controlled climates of Earth were in for a rude awakening when they came to the colony. This was only the beginning of summer. The temperature would soar above 105 degrees Fahrenheit soon if the meteorologists’ predictions held true.
Nguyen visibly relaxed and led them toward the colony. From the Lieutenant’s attitude, Archer felt like he and T’Pol were high ranking officers that Nguyen wanted to impress. Whether it was because of Nguyen’s eagerness to perform his duties or some other reason, he didn’t know.
“The colony administration offices are temporarily located on the other side of the colony. On the way there, I can show you what’s being built.”
Archer looked over at T’Pol who nodded her head at his silent question. “Thank you Lieutenant. We’d like that.”
Archer saw the pride on the young man’s face and heard it in his voice as he started explaining what they’d already accomplished in their short time on the planet.
“The cargo ship in front of us is just one of the ships being taken apart by work crews. We’ve been lucky to have a lot of Boomers and miners who know how to use plasma cutters. The people who’ve lived in other colonies also know a thing or two about this type of construction. Without people like that we couldn’t have accomplished this much so soon.”
Passing the cargo ship, their view of the buildings beyond became unobstructed. Buildings were scattered across the plain, some kilometers away from the nearest building. Archer thought that this must be part of a building plan, and eventually houses would fill the gaps between the larger structures.
“That building over by the river,” Nguyen pointed up ahead and to the right, “will eventually be one of the hydroponic greenhouses. Some of the starships like Enterprise carry plants that we can get starts of. Expeditions, as you know, have been sent out to locations around the planet to evaluate edible native plant life.”
Archer looked at the framework of the greenhouse, which looked like a long cylinder lying on its side. He wondered if glass or transparent aluminum would be manufactured for the walls of the building, or if they would salvage view ports from ships. Archer could see perhaps twenty workers straddling the metal beams of the building’s framework. Their forms were silhouetted against the bright midday sun. Sparks shot up from welding torches temporarily bringing light to the shadows. One person stood up and fearlessly walked across a beam. Only sure footing prevented the worker from falling several stories to the ground.
Archer, T’Pol, and Nguyen rarely encounter anyone else walking on foot until they neared a group of landed ships of various shapes and sizes. The weight of the vessels made their hulls sink several feet into the ground. Sand coated the lower halves of the ships that had been on the planet’s surface the longest painting them a light beige.
People passed by them in civilian clothes on their way to and from the airlocks of the ships. A man with a welding shield on his head crossed their path. The shield was flipped up away from his face. His clothing, like that of the other people heading towards the ships from their job sites, testified to the work he did. Dirt, grease, oil, and/or other substances smudged and were soaked through the pants, shirts, overalls, and other clothing of the passersby. Respirators seemed to be a fashion trend. They were worn attached to belt loops or pushed up on top of the head like a hat. The respirators were in a variety of colors and sizes, but they all looked about the same. Over the mouth and nose, the two cylindrical filtration systems protruded from the rubber-like material of the mask. Above that was a clear eye shield. There obviously weren’t enough respirators to go around. Some people wore other types of masks and safety glasses. Archer theorized this protection was either for work-related tasks or to be used in the event of a sand storm.
Archer noticed some of the colonists look at the Lieutenant’s uniform with something akin to disgust. A few people noticed T’Pol’s slanted eyebrows and the copper tone of her skin recognizing her as a Vulcan. Curiosity, hatred, and shock were among the reactions he saw to T’Pol. He looked over to her but couldn’t tell if she noticed.
Archer walked closer to T’Pol. He went on the defensive looking over each of the faces that passed by them for signs of hostility. He thought back to how people on Earth and how he himself used to react towards Vulcans. Some of these people lived on colonies far from Earth, so the Vulcans holding back Earth’s warp program probably didn’t affect them. Depending on their isolation from Earth, the Boomers and miners may or may not have grown a prejudiced view of Vulcans. Most of the passersby didn’t notice anything different about T’Pol since the tips of her ears were covered by her hair. Rumors and gossip spread fast on a starship. Archer was sure they spread fast down here too. Pretty soon, everyone would know about the one Vulcan living among them. He realized at that moment the risk T’Pol was taking moving here.
He felt helpless. Before morning he would forget all of this and be unaware of the possible danger. Archer almost laughed at himself. T’Pol could take care of herself. She was a former military operative and stronger than most humans. He immediately blamed his protectiveness on being her former captain. He wouldn’t allow himself think of it in any other way.
Nguyen was too involved in his tour to notice the people staring, or the people whispering to their companions about the new arrivals.
“These ships temporarily house the civilian workers. If we keep on schedule, the Council believes we’ll be able to divert workers away from the larger building projects in six weeks. Then, people can begin building their own homes.”
Laughter caught Archer’s attention. Between two drab, gray ships, a group of children played with a soccer ball. Sand kicked up with each roll of the ball across the ground. When T’Pol told him about the work crews constructing the colony, Archer didn’t picture children living here. No doubt some of the children realized what happened to bring them here. But for now, any signs of pain or sadness where gone.
Archer paid attention to the Lieutenant pointing out the construction sites of the water treatment plant further up the river near the mountain on their left. The hospital was located centrally in the colony with future colony administration building nearby it. The buildings looked similar. Each had a plain, rectangular frame, and the only variations were the size and number of stories. All of the buildings had work crews busy piecing them together.
T’Pol overheard faint voices behind them.
“What is a Vulcan doing here?” asked a male voice.
T’Pol’s human companions continued to examine their surroundings. Archer asked a question about the water treatment plant. Their human hearing didn’t detect the conversation T’Pol heard.
A female voice replied back. “I don’t know. I thought they didn’t want to have anything to do with us.”
“We don’t need them. They wouldn’t risk their lives to help us no matter how many times we risked ours lives to help them.”
The woman interrupted him, “I know, Eric. Come on. Delta crew needs these supplies.”
T’Pol didn’t look back to see who was speaking. She unconsciously stiffened at the man’s words. The hate in them didn’t surprise her. When meditating on her decision to move to the colony, she had considered the colonists’ reaction to her. On Earth she’d experienced similar reactions when she traveled without a disguise.
“And this is the temporary administration building. Let me show you to Commander Tyler’s office.”
The building was actually two cargo modules laid on their sides. Doorways had been jury rigged on the outside. They pushed a keypad and entered one of the modules. On the inside, the ceiling soared above them. The walls of each room were flimsy freestanding walls that didn’t meet the ceiling. Doors weren’t on the rooms giving each the feel of a cubicle office.
Voices carried from the rooms they passed.
“We don’t have time for this! Get Anderson on the comm. line…”
“These safety measures aren’t adequate enough to protect…”
“The creatures pierce the ear drums of small mammals then...” Archer cringed when he overheard that.
“Commander Tyler. This is Jonathan Archer and T’Pol.”
Tyler looked up from her computer screen to them. She was a middle-aged woman with her hair secured haphazardly in a bun. Gray hairs streaked through her auburn hair. Those gray hairs and the wrinkles on her face could easily be covered up by cosmetic correction. Archer didn’t object to either. Her features were only enhanced by age.
“Thank you, Lieutenant. Dismissed.” Tyler said in an accent Archer recognized. She probably came from the mid-west in what used to be the United States of America.
Nguyen turned about face and swiftly exited the office.
Tyler didn’t stand up to shake their hands.
“Jonathan Archer. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person,” A tinge of anger entered her voice. Her face tightened as she glared at T’Pol, “T’Pol. Please sit down.”
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t wheel over to shake your hands. My other wheelchair was damaged during one of the Intrepid’s close encounters with a Xindi ship. I’m still getting used to using a hand-powered chair. It’s tiring.”
Tyler locked eyes with T’Pol. Her anger was barely restrained turning her voice from smooth into gravel, “Let me get straight to the point. I know you went over my head to get a position down here,” Tyler sighed, releasing some of the tension from her voice, “You don’t know what kind of position you’re putting me in. You remember the reaction to Ambassador Soval resupplying our convoy. The same people who didn’t want to accept his help will undoubtedly use their influence to make both our lives more difficult. I don’t have the time or the energy to fight over this with them.”
“I meant no disrespect,” T’Pol responded unfazed by Tyler’s behavior, “I apologize for any inconvenience my request has and will put on you.”
“Of course you didn’t mean disrespect. Vulcans never do,” Archer thought he might here a touch of sarcasm when Tyler said Vulcans.
“I didn’t expect you to go straight to a community leader,” Archer wondered which community leader she was referring to, “but I should have known you’d do whatever it took to get what you want. Captains always do. I told you why I recommended you not work on the planet’s surface. Most of the people here are good people. But not everyone is. Some will strongly object to your presence here. Whether I like you or not, I’m responsible for you T’Pol, along with every other scientist working under me. I don’t have the resources to post a guard detail to you. I can’t protect you.”
“I am willing to take the risk. I am also capable of protecting myself.”
“I’m sure that’s true. We both know why you’re taking the risk.”
Tyler looked over at Archer, silently pointing out the reason, then back at T’Pol. Archer eyes went back and forth between them watching their exchange.
T’Pol replied calmly, “I am here to help the colony just as the other colonists are.”
“In time maybe the non-fleeters will believe that.” She looked away from T’Pol and picked up a PADD from her desk offering it to T’Pol. “Here are your assigned survey areas. Usually a team of four people minimum is sent out. Given the potential conflicts that could arise between your team members and yourself, I’m sending you two alone. The guidelines for surveying are all in there. I trust you brought all the supplies needed?”
T’Pol took the PADD and looked over the contents. “Yes. I supervised the preparation of several teams before they left Enterprise. I also reviewed the list Lt. Nguyen sent along with your request for this meeting. Is there anything further required of us?”
“Just keep in regular contact with me on the communicator frequency I listed. If I don’t hear from you every 6 hours, I will send someone after you. Do a thorough survey, but don’t take any unnecessary risks. Do you have any other questions?”
“No.”
“Then, I’ll see you both in a few weeks.”
He woke to the sound of muffled rainfall. He blinked clearing his blurry vision. His eyes focused the image of a blue dome above him. Through the thin material of the dome, he could see raindrops collecting on the outside and sliding down the surface. He quickly realized what he was inside of- a Starfleet issue tent. A sleeping bag cocooned his body. Archer breathed a sigh of relief when he realized he had a shirt and pants on. He couldn’t remember what happened to get him here, and he hoped he hadn’t gotten drunk and done something he would regret.
Archer sat up and pushed back the sleeping bag. He looked around the tent. A backpack that looked like it was for hiking or mountain climbing lay at the foot of his sleeping bag. To his left, on the other side of the tent lay another sleeping bag rolled up neatly. A backpack sat beside it. Uh-oh, not a good sign. He must have been really drunk last night because for the life of him he couldn’t remember what happened after his talk with T’Pol in the corridor. Even that memory had gaps in it like Swiss cheese.
The zipper on the half-moon shaped opening to the tent unzipped. A figure in a Starfleet issue away team coat entered then closed the flap behind them. The figure turned around and pulled back the hood revealing their identity.
“T’Pol,” Archer whispered. Stunned, he stared at her as she silently looked over him.
“I will explain everything shortly.” T’Pol walked over to the backpack on the opposite side of the tent. She retrieved what humans called wet bags. She sealed her coat inside one bag and her shoes in another. Pressing the buttons on each of the small control panels caused the bags to hum beginning the process of evaporating the moisture from the items.
Archer’s brain worked on overdrive while T’Pol moved around the other side of the tent. Why was he here sharing a tent with T’Pol? And why didn’t he remember what they did or didn’t do last night? The pup tent looked barely big enough for two people. He had a hard time believing T’Pol would sleep this close to him, even on a mission. What if it wasn’t a mission? He swallowed shaking the thought from his head. He impatiently waited for T’Pol to start explaining.
Twenty minutes later his fingers sifted through his hair pulling at his scalp. His hand froze in place for a stretch of heartbeats, and then fell limply down to the smooth cotton of the sleeping bag. Tears formed in his eyes. Grief hollowed out his chest and throat leaving him numb. The tent walls collapsed in around him making him choke on his breath. Run, his instincts told him. Get out of this tent and away from what she said. Leaning forward he reached to unzip the tent flap.
“Running away will not change what happened.” T’Pol’s even voice told him.
Archer sat back on his sleeping bag. How did she know what he was thinking? Looking over at her, he saw her watching him with knowing eyes. Having told him this news many times, she must know his reactions intimately like they were her own.
Minutes passed in silence.
“The sun will rise in approximately eleven minutes.” T’Pol dug out a ration pack from her backpack. She sat back down cross-legged on the tent floor facing him. “When you are ready to eat, you can find ration packs in the outer compartment of your backpack.”
Archer slipped out of his sleeping bag and sorted through the ration packs. One said pancakes, eggs, and sausage. From a mesh carrier on the side he took a water bottle. Sitting back down on his sleeping bag, he forced himself to eat. The pancakes were chewy, the eggs rubbery, and the sausage crunchy, but he didn’t care. He looked off at point beyond T’Pol’s shoulder thinking about all she had told him.
“What exactly have we been doing on this survey?” Archer asked between bites.
T’Pol washed down her breakfast with her water bottle then spoke, “We are identifying edible animal and plant life.”
Archer interrupted her with a question, “I’m not a scientist. Why I am here?”
“I needed a pilot. I volunteered you.” They both knew she could pilot a shuttlepod on her own. Before he pressed more on that matter, T’Pol turned her attention back to his original question. “There are seven survey teams including our team currently on the surface of this planet. We are currently surveying the second location assigned to us.”
“Who else came with us?”
“No one.”
“Oh,” Archer said thinking about why they would be on a survey mission alone.
“The rain has stopped. We should begin packing up our campsite.”
Archer swung his scanner around recording information about the vegetation and looking for signs of small animals inhabiting the forest. Archer wiped his brow with his sleeve. The forest canopy didn’t help the heat much. The temperature hovered around 85 degree Fahrenheit, and the air barely moved. They’d been at this all morning- scanning, collecting plant specimens, and scanning some more.
Archer wasn’t impressed by his surroundings. This forest couldn’t compare in his mind with the breathtaking beauty of the Redwood or Yellowstone forests. He didn’t see the simplistic beauty of this place. The trees' bark, branches, and leave shapes seemed like the type you would see in any forest on Earth. Their branches reached up to the sky, or stooped down towards the sandy soil below. The foliage wasn’t anything unusual, but the greens, yellows, silver, and purple leaves caught the sunlight and glittered with raindrops from morning showers. The branches filtered the harsh desert sun, sheltering the saplings huddled around them. Thick grasses formed clumps and scattered about the ground between the trees.
Life held a fragile hold on barely 30 kilometers of this valley between the mountains. The streams meandering down from the mountains kept this forest alive.
They’d arrived in the summer months when rainfall carpeted patches of the sandy soil with wildflowers. Archer noticed the tiny wildflowers were in full bloom, but again compared them to Earth’s. Nothing here could beat that standard in his mind. Nothing here could replace Earth.
The sweet fragrance of the wildflowers attracted the planet’s equivalent of a bee, an insect smaller than his thumbnail with a purple body and two sets of long, slender transparent wings. Archer scanned one recording its information for T’Pol’s later analysis. In the joint database between their scanners, he saw that T’Pol had already recorded an entry on the specimen. He looked to his right and saw T’Pol hunching over an overturned log roughly 25 feet away. She looked up at him sensing his gaze. He weakly smiled, silently indicating he didn’t need anything, and turned his attention back to his scanner.
So far, the only other signs of life in the forest were other insects and small animals. The animals were unusual to say the least. One mammal was the size of a small dog. Ears stood up straight on its head. A hairless prehensile tail extended from its tan furred body. When he and T’Pol approached it, the animal scurried up a tree. Wrapping its tail around a branch, it hung upside down yowling loudly while it wildly shook the branch. Other yowls from near and far responded to the frightened creature.
Archer and T’Pol saw and recorded other mammals and rodents. The only reptile they’d encountered so far was under a foot long. T’Pol had put a hand in front of his chest telling him to keep his distance. Several survey parties had already encountered this creature. Its young incubated inside warm-blooded animal’s cranial cavities. T’Pol was unsure if the animal would implant one of its young inside a human, but erred on the side of caution.
“T’Pol, I’ve found a tree loaded with fruit.”
Silver leaves covered the tree that stood only about 20 feet tall, about ten feet smaller than the tallest trees he’d seen so far. The tree’s trunk looked small enough for him to encircle his arms around it without touching the bark. That was around the typical size of the trees here. Grey bark peeled like paper from its trunk. Peaking out among the silver leaves were blood-red fruit the size of his open hand. Their shape reminded him of the body of a snowman- three rounded sections stacked on top of each other- surrounded by a bumpy peel.
T’Pol’s walked over to him and scanned the fruit.
“The fruit is edible. Would you like to try it?”
“You want me to be your taste tester?”
“Human taste buds differ from Vulcans. Since I will be the only Vulcan on the colony, it is only logical that you taste the fruit.”
“Okay. I’ll do it, but only if you try it too,” T’Pol raised a questioning eyebrow, so Archer continued, “If one Vulcan will be living in the colony, it is only logical for her to taste the food, too.”
“Agreed.”
“Too bad the scanner can’t tell us which ones are ripe and which aren’t. I guess I’ll have to use the squeeze test.”
T’Pol stopped him before his hand reached up to the tree. T’Pol dug out a rectangular sanitizer from her pack. The blue glow dissolved the dirt and sweat from his hands. Archer half-smiled at T’Pol. It reminded him of being told as a child to wash his hands before digging into dinner.
Archer looked over the fruits on the branch nearest to them examining the coloring of each fruit. He reached a hand up and gently squeezed a fruit between his fingers. The skin gave way, and juice matching the color of his bright red t-shirt streamed down his arm to the crook of his elbow. The juice dripped from there down on to his tan khaki pants. Must be too ripe, he thought. He squeezed a few more fruit before selecting one that gave only a little under the pressure of his fingers. Picking the fruit, he pulled it down in front of them.
He brought the fruit to his nose smelling it. It smelled bitter. Bringing the fruit back down to his other hand, he stuck his fingernail in the skin of the fruit and pulled it back until three segments stacked on top of each other were revealed. Archer held out the fruit offering it to T’Pol.
“Do you want to take one of these segments?” Archer asked not knowing if she wanted to eat something after he touched it.
“Yes,” T’Pol said and took the smallest segment out. T’Pol examined it, noting the membrane surrounding the crimson flesh and large, white seeds in the middle. “I advise against eating the seeds.”
Archer peeled the middle section out of the skin and bit into it. Juice squirted out when he broke the membrane and dribbled down his chin. The flesh was soft and slid over his tongue. He tasted a hint of sweetness at first. Then, the taste changed to a bland and almost bitter taste. It reminded him of a dish he once tasted.
“Sash-sava.”
“Jonathan?”
“This reminds me of sash-sava.”
T’Pol tasted her segment, “It does not taste similar to me. When did you taste a Vulcan fruit?”
“Do you remember me telling Captain Vanik I was once a guest aboard the Vulcan ship Yarahla?”
“Yes. You were helping install a graviton telescope. You also participated in a space walk.”
“I had the chance to try out Vulcan cuisine in the few days I was onboard. Sash-sava was one of the items served in the ship’s galley.”
“Do you like the taste of Sash-sava?”
“Not really. They’re very…”
“Bland?”
“Yes,” Archer nodded his head in agreement.
“Humans often think Vulcan cuisine is bland. We prefer not to use excess amounts of spices or unnatural flavorings.”
“That explains it. I’ve heard of similar cooking methods on earth. At the time, I thought maybe they just gave me bland food on purpose.”
“I doubt a Vulcan would intentionally do that.”
“I was young back then. I thought a lot of things that make me shake my head now. My few encounters with Vulcans hadn’t been good. I carried around anger about the Vulcan High Command stalling or threatening to stop the Warp 5 program time after time. Vulcan hospitality is different than humans. I realize that now. I knew the crew thought I was immature, emotionally volatile, and destructive. My behavior probably reinforced those ideas. I wasn’t the best guest. I thought they were out to make my time on the ship a living hell. They were probably thinking the same thing about me.”
“Your attitude towards Vulcans has changed since that time.”
A small smile crossed his face as he looked into her eyes, “Yes, thanks to you.”
The weighted moment passed, and Archer decided to change the subject. Archer dropped the remainder of the fruit on the ground. “I don’t know if many of the colonists would like this fruit.”
“The colonists may not have much of a choice. Viable food sources on this planet are limited.” T’Pol packed several of the ripe fruit in a side compartment of her backpack.
T’Pol set her backpack down on a rock and detached a duffle bag dangling below her sleeping bag. Archer saw the duffle bag was in fact a portable stasis bag. Whatever T’Pol put inside it, whether seeds or small plants, would not mold, wilt, or die during their journey back through the forest. She unzipped the stasis bag and brought out several specimen bags. She retrieved several hand tools from a side compartment.
T’Pol crouched down near the base of the tree, and looked up at him saying, “Will you help me gather the seeds?”
“Of course.” He bent down beside her and laid his pack down on a clear patch of ground.
T’Pol eyed his face curiously. Her voice calmly informed him, “You may want to wipe the juice from your face first.” A corner of Archer’s mouth quirked up at her unexpected comment. Archer wiped his face with the back of his hand.
They both began dissecting the fallen fruit on the ground and collecting the large white seeds within them.
“I hope I won’t be forced to live on a diet of these.”
T’Pol responded to him while she cleaned the juice and flesh from a seed and dropped it in a specimen bag along with the others, “If I cook our meals, you will have no choice but to eat what I cook.”
“That’s assuming you cook our meals. I can cook.”
T’Pol raised her right eyebrow, doubting him.
“Believe it or not, I didn’t survive on restaurant food alone when I lived on my own. My mother taught me how to cook. After my father became sick, she needed me to help around the house. I cooked some of the time when she was busy.”
Thinking about those years, Archer’s face fell into harsh angles and plains. He stopped gathering seeds. T’Pol turned. Looking at his expression, her brow slightly furrowed.
“Is something wrong?”
“It’s nothing.”
T’Pol contemplated him. Archer knew she didn’t believe him. They continued collecting seeds until they had around a hundred.
T’Pol asked, “We have not yet eaten our mid-day meal. Would you like to eat now?”
“Sure.” Archer welcomed the distraction from his thoughts.
They both moved their packs and themselves over to flat rocks and sat side by side. The ration pack equivalent of Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans was on the menu for Archer. The ration pack equivalent of plomik soup with kreila bread, courtesy of Ambassador Soval when he resupplied their convoy of ships, was on the menu for T’Pol.
“I believe it is not “nothing”.”
“What?”
“You are preoccupied with something, and you will not tell me what it is.”
“I’ll forget about it in a few hours anyway, so what’s the point in bothering you with it?” Archer took a bite of the gummy Salisbury steak and a swig from his water bottle.
“At this time it is important to you. The future importance or unimportance does not matter.”
“I don’t want to unload all this on you. You shouldn’t have to hear this.”
“More than likely I have heard what you are about to say before. Since I am Vulcan, there is no need to worry about my emotional reaction to what you have to say.”
She was asking him to open up, but that was against his nature. He’d stopped sharing what was bothering him at a young age. The boy that had to grow up to quick didn’t have a dad to talk too. Dad didn’t remember him most days, and Mom was at Dad’s side. He became self-sufficient and didn’t cry because Mom needed him to be strong. The boy became the man who bottled his most troubling feelings up inside and hid the vulnerable side of him. Years of habit stood in the way of opening up to even his closest friends. A part of him wanted to tell T’Pol now. He wanted someone to listen. He’d feel guilty later for needing this, but in a few hours he wouldn’t remember the guilt anyway.
Archer pressed his lips together as he considered whether to tell her or not. What the hell. Archer decided. He ate the last of his ration pack and began to talk. He looked out at the trees. If he looked at her, he might stop talking.
“When I mentioned my father, I realized something. You probably know my father died from Clark’s disease. The disease attacks the central nervous system. Memory and muscle control degenerate over time.”
“I am familiar with his condition. What does it have to do with your realization?”
“I grew up afraid of my chances of getting the disease. I was afraid of ending up like my dad. He slowly lost years of his life and his mind. Then I passed the age that most cases become active. I thought I’d escaped it. It’s ironic that the things I feared the most are happening to me now, except I won’t slowly fade away. I’ll live out the rest of my life experiencing this every day.”
“I understand. It is difficult to live with something you fear.”
Archer suddenly guessed what she was talking about, “Your pa’nar syndrome.”
“If I experience a relapse, my neural pathways may degrade to the point where I will be permanently insane and eventually die. During my Fullara at the sanctuary at P’Jem, I experienced temporary insanity. It is an experience I’d prefer not to repeat.”
“T’Pol, why are you moving to the colony to care for me when you may need someone to care for you soon? It doesn’t make sense.”
“It is illogical to live one’s life based on a future that may or may not happen. I choose to not allow my condition to dictate the way I live. I choose to live in the colony with you as long as I am capable.”
Archer didn’t know how to respond to that. He looked in her eyes seeing compassion he’d rarely seen there. The look reassured him. Turning away from her, he packed his trash back in his backpack.
“Where are we headed to next?”
The stream was right where the aerial surveys said it would be. It carved a meandering path two meters wide through the soft, sandy stone. Engorged by the frequent summer rainfall, the water swelled up to the top of the stream’s banks.
The water looked inviting. Archer’s shirt and pants were plastered to him with sweat. How good it would feel to wade in the water. He smiled to himself. T’Pol would surely raise both eyebrows at the sight of her captain, he corrected himself, former captain stripping off his clothes and running into the water like it held his salvation. After hours of hiking through the forest in this heat, he was very tempted to do just that.
“There is a high concentration of single-celled organisms, insects, fish and other multi-cellular animals,” T’Pol said as she scanned the stream. She turned her scanner downstream. “The stream progressively widens over the next 4.7 kilometers of its length. The concentration of life forms is higher in that direction.”
“So we’re headed downstream?”
T’Pol looked up from her scanner at him and said, “Yes.”
They each scanned and recorded different bioreadings: he the plants, she the animals. Time passed at an agonizingly slow pace. Archer remembered now why he didn’t pursue a career in life sciences. The natural world interested him enough to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors and activities like camping and rock climbing. But he didn’t get the same enjoyment out of spending hours scanning and recording different types of moss and algae in a streambed. T’Pol on the other hand seemed to really enjoy all of this. She broke the silence from time to time to comment on different things that fascinated her. Archer liked hearing what piqued her interest. Her enthusiasm, though she’d never admit to having it, was contagious and made the task less mind numbing to him.
Archer looked up from his scanning wondering what time it was. The time on his scanner correlated with the guestimation he made by looking up at the sun’s position in the sky. “We only have a few more hours before sunset. I think we should set up a campsite before then.”
T’Pol changed a few setting on her scanner then scanned in all directions around them. “There is a clearing near the stream several hundred feet downstream.”
Archer looked over her shoulder at the scanner screen.
“The clearing looks big enough to set up our tent.”
In the waning hours of the afternoon, Archer and T’Pol set up their tent and ate their ration packs.
“I don’t smell too fresh,” T’Pol agreed with his assessment but didn’t tell him,
“I probably should take a bath in the stream before the sun completely sets. I’ll prepare a fire before I do that.”
Archer took some fresh clothing with him and a Starfleet issue fire starter, and then exited the tent. He sat his clothes down on a dry rock by the stream. Firewood was easy to find in the forest nearby. He dropped the firewood and kindling he gathered in a pile on the ground. Then, he cleared a large circular area for the fire, and placed rocks around the outer edges. The branches he’d gathered for the fire would burn until morning. The smoke and fire might deter some wild animals, so it would serve a dual purpose. His work was done for now. Later, he’d light the fire.
He stripped out of his clothes. One by one each article of clothing ended up in a heap on the ground. The sun hadn’t set yet, but the light of day had already begun to fade as the sun cast the clouds in shades of gold. A gentle breeze blew over his skin making the drops of sweat on his body feel cooler. He shivered and decided he’d better slip in the water.
He walked into the stream towards a deep pool of slower running water. The water slowly covered his ankles then dropped off to come up to his hips. The rocks below his feet were covered in algae. The soft, slick surface made it difficult to walk barefoot on. He squatted down in the water until it came up to his neck. Leaning his head back, he let the water soak the strands of his hair and wash away the sweat and dirt of the day.
Pushing off from the rocks, he floated on the surface of the water. He closed his eyes. Cool water gently moved around him lapping at his skin. His mind quieted enough for him to hear the sounds around him- water cascading over rocks, a bird’s call, and the rustling of leaves in the distance. He breathed deeply and smelled the combined scent of wildflowers, a scent that reminded him of honeysuckle. He smiled remembering picking honeysuckle as a kid and pulling out the inside of the flower to lick off the sweet nectar. The smell of trees, water, and grasses remind him of camping trips his father took him on.
Tension left his body as he floated. A new sound joined the others, one of wings flapping rapidly. Archer opened his eyes to see what was making the noise. Overhead violet replaced gold painting the clouds while the sun set. An insect, whose body glowed light blue, flew over his head. It hovered for a few moments as if it were checking out the curious creature below it. The insect reminded Archer of a firefly, except this creature glowed continuously. It had two sets of rounded wings, one set larger and one smaller. Only the hind section of its body glowed. The glow was bright enough to shine a bright halo around the insect much larger than the few centimeters of its length.
The insect flew off. Archer felt the rapidly cooling air blow over his skin. He stood up intending to dress and head to the tent. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something glowing. He looked down and froze. All around him were hundreds of glowing pinpoints of blue light below the water. Looking closer, he saw the lights were clusters of eggs along the shoreline and sheltered between the rocks. While he watched, one light broke free of an egg and floated up to the water’s surface. Untucking its legs, the insect stood on top of the water’s surface, and then spread its wings to dry them. A few minutes later, it flapped its wings flying up to join its brothers and sisters.
“Beautiful,” Archer said watching the shining lights dance around him.
T’Pol checked in with Tyler’s assistant, Lt. Nguyen, assuring him they were fine, and relaying the things of note they’d found over the past 6 hours. She entered a light meditation afterwards awaiting Archer’s return.
“Beautiful.” She heard Archer say.
“Cap-,” she corrected herself, “Jonathan, what is happening?”
“You said there might be nocturnal life in this forest. I think I’ve found some of it.”
“Are you in danger?”
“They look harmless.”
They meant more than one creature. T’Pol’s instinct to protect her former-captain and friend kicked in. The creatures he discovered could be poisonous or attack him. She grabbed her scanner and phase pistol.
“I’m coming out. Stay where you are.” Best not to alarm the creatures with any sudden movements. She heard frantic splashing coming from the stream.
She quickly unzipped the tent and moved towards his location.
“I told you to stay where you were.”
Archer pulled his hastily donned boxers up until the waistband rested comfortably. “I didn’t see the fireflies as a threat. And I wanted to get decent before you saw me.”
Archer putting his modesty before his safety didn’t surprise her. She’d seen almost all of his body in decon before, yet he still insisted on covering his body from her view.
“Fireflies?”
“The blue, glowing insects flying around. They lay their eggs in the stream. They remind me of the fireflies that flew around my parent’s backyard at night.” He pointed to the lights zigzagging through the sky and the clusters of eggs under the water as he spoke.
T’Pol scanned the insects and recorded the data. “Fascinating. The insects’ bioluminescent properties are intriguing. What purpose could it serve?”
Archer smiled. The curious scientist was awakened again. “I don’t know, but they are beautiful.”
Insects swooped in flying around them. T’Pol scanned them. With regularity they flew by Archer. T’Pol watched one slow down. Its body lazily flew up his body lighting a trail up his chest. When it landed on him, she tensed, thinking it might bite him. It quickly flew off joining the other lights dancing in the sky.
Archer bent down. Picking up the rest of his sleep clothes. He dressed while T’Pol continued to scan the insects and silently speculate on their bioluminescence. Archer watched the insects fly about for a few more moments.
“I better start the fire, so I can dry off.”
After several failed attempts to light the kindling with the fire starter, the flames caught on and started to rise. Archer moved a rock over to sit near the fire. T’Pol completed her scans of the ‘fireflies’ and moved another rock over beside him. The clouds were fading from violet to gray as the stars joined the fireflies in illuminating the sky with pinpoints of light.
“I don’t recognize any of the star patterns. It’s hard to locate any familiar stars,” he smiled to himself. She recognized that smile. He was remembering happier times, “My father taught me the constellations in the sky. He showed me the stars which he wanted to take me to one day.”
He reflected on that memory. Something she’d seen him do many times since the accident. Phlox explained it to her once, ‘The Captain’s present is fleeting, and his future is nonexistent from his perspective, so the past is his refuge. He thinks of it often remembering what was.’
Archer turned his head to his left looking at her. The light from the fire cast her face in golden tones. The flames reflected in her irises. Archer thought he’d never seen her look more beautiful. The thought saddened him. He couldn’t say or do anything. So he watched her, holding the memory for as long as he could.
He sighed. Time for another distraction. “On Vulcan do you have constellations?”
“No.”
“How did you learn the stars in the night sky?”
“I memorized star charts as part of my school curriculum. I also observed the night sky.”
“With your parents?”
“Alone.”
Archer smiled. T’Pol hadn’t seen this many smiles from him in a long time. It pleased her to see him happy. It reminded her of a time before the Expanse when they used to talk in his ready room, the captain’s mess, or somewhere private. During those conversations, a smile might break out onto his face or he’d laugh at something one of them said. She valued any opportunity to see that man come out again. He was here tonight, like the driven, determined, angry man had never replaced him in the Expanse. She knew he wouldn’t be here for long. The pain of a past Archer struggled to accept usually caught up with him and swept his happiness away too soon.
“Why do I sense you snuck out without your parents’ permission to watch the stars alone?”
T’Pol raised her eyebrow. Archer’s guesses could be frighteningly accurate sometimes.
“If my parents ordered me not to do something, I would not do it.”
Archer softly laughed.
“Is something amusing to you?”
“I wasn’t laughing at you. I remember using that same reasoning many times as a kid to justify doing something. Not asking my parents if I could do something, but assuming it was okay to do it since they hadn’t said not to do it. My parents would have my hide when they caught me doing whatever scheme I was up to.” T’Pol raised an eyebrow. “Figuratively speaking, of course.”
Archer couldn’t believe they both were opening up to each other so much. They should have done this before the accident. His face dropped as he thought that. T’Pol looked at him concerned. He deflected her attention, “So, where did you go when you watched the stars?”
“I exited my room quietly and went to my mother’s garden.”
“If you did that more than once, wouldn’t your parents catch you?”
“I believe my mother may have known. Before my father left on missions for the Vulcan High Command, he would tell me the sector where the mission would be located. He couldn’t tell me the nature of the mission or its exact location. I lacked a strong emotional discipline as a child. I was prone to emotionally motivated decisions. After my father left on each mission, I would locate the stars in the sector my father mentioned in the sky. I stopped doing so after my father died on a mission.”
Archer’s smile faded as T’Pol spoke of her father’s death. This was the first time he could remember T’Pol talking about her father other than a comment here and there. From the sound of what she said, they both lost their fathers at a young age.
“Emotionally motivated or not, I understand why you did that. You,” he paused thinking of a word that might be the Vulcan equivalent of love, “cared for your father and missed him when went on missions.”
T’Pol didn’t object to his word choice.
“Do you know where Earth’s sun is from here?”
T’Pol scanned the sky through the trees. She pointed to a faint star hanging low over the trees tops, “There.”
Archer leaned in close to see where she pointed, “I see it.” He turned his face to hers silently thanking her.
Archer picked out Alpha Centauri, Vega, and other stars from their relative position to earth. It was hard to spot some with the naked eye. The lack of light pollution from civilization allowed the sky to be dark enough to see an arm of the Milky Way arc through the sky in all its glory. Millions of stars clustered tightly together merging to form areas of pink, red, white, gray, and black allowing the arm to stand out.
Archer looked down at his hands and back up at the former location of his home. He confessed to her, “Earth really is gone. I wanted it not to be true. I wanted this all to be part of some elaborate deception. A small part of me hoped we’d head back to the ship and the joke would all be on me. Or I’d wake up in sickbay and find all of this was just a vivid dream. But it’s not a joke or dream. I’ll wake up tomorrow and Earth will still be gone.”
“Denial is an understandable reaction to your situation.”
T’Pol looked at him with the compassion he’d seen earlier today. She was so selfless with him. He wished he could return the favor and give back something to her. How could he ever repay her for all that she’d done and would do?
“How was your day?”
T’Pol furrowed her brow considering this. Archer almost laughed. When did she start doing that? “We are ahead of schedule. We scanned and collected many plant specimens and seeds. The scans of the flora and fauna of this forest will greatly benefit the colony. Today has been a productive day.”
He should have been more specific. “I meant, did you like today? Was this one of the better days… since the accident?”
T’Pol paused considered her answer. This was the first time he’d asked this question. “Yes. This is one of the better days.”
“I’m glad today was a good day for you, T’Pol. You deserve only good days.”
They looked into each other’s eyes for several heartbeats. Archer broke the silence between them, “It was a good day for me, too.”
Next to the warmth of the fire, they watched the stars slowly move across the sky. T’Pol didn’t suggest they should go to sleep. She knew Archer would rather be here pointing to stars systems they’d been to and talking. The night grew colder, and they reluctantly retired to the tent.
Archer lay in his sleeping bag, looking over at her. “I don’t want to go to sleep.”
“You are afraid of what will happen?”
“If I go to sleep, I won’t remember all that happened today. I don’t want to loose today.”
“Staying awake will not prevent your memory loss. Being conscious of the memories fading is a disturbing experience for you.”
Archer looked vulnerable to her. He knew he couldn’t escape his fate.
“I will be here while you sleep, and I will be here when you wake. There is nothing to fear.”
Archer stared at her and swallowed summoning his courage, “Thank you… I’ll see you in the morning. Good night T’Pol.”
“Good night Jonathan.”
He closed his eyes. She watched over him as his breathing became slow and rhythmic. In the morning they would begin again. He’d awake and remember nothing of sash-sava like fruit, fireflies, and stargazing. T’Pol closed her eyes and began meditating. It was illogical to dwell on things she could not change.
Next Chapter: T'Pol's command decisions come back to haunt her.
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