Rating: PG
Genres: humour missing scene
Keywords:
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Vanishing Point
SPOILERS: Vanishing Point
DISCLAIMER: Star Trek belongs to CBS/Paramount, not me. The original episode was written by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It ain't easy to squeeze a missing scene into an episode that consists almost entirely of another character's transporter dream. I just thank God Archer went to talk to Hoshi in sickbay. Thanks as always to jT for beta and reviewers for the care and feeding.
"You have the bridge," Captain Archer said, as he departed to check on Ensign Sato in sickbay. She had spent 8.3 seconds in the pattern buffer of the transporter and apparently had experienced some psychological trauma due to her delayed rematerialization.
The turbo-lift opened and Tucker and Reed entered in animated conversation. Reed was saying, "She sure packed a lot into 8.3 seconds. What was it, two whole days worth of things happening? Meals, kidnappings, bomb-planting aliens, turning so invisible people could walk right through you - how could so much happen in so little time?"
Tucker said, "It was like all your basic work-related nightmares rolled into one. You can't do your job right, your boss relieves you of duty, nobody pays any attention to you and then to top it all off you literally disappear ..." Tucker shook his head. "Hell, the only thing she left out was showing up to work and realizing you forgot to wear any pants."
T'Pol lifted an eyebrow, but the two men were two engrossed in their discussion to notice.
"She must have a really vivid imagination," Reed said.
"You ever read that story 'Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge'? It's about a guy in the American Civil War who's being hanged - I can't remember why - and you get this whole adventure when the rope breaks and he falls into the river and swims away and I think he even makes it home and sees his wife. But then you realize he's actually just dropped, you know, that the whole thing had taken place in the time it took for him to fall and break his neck. It's pretty creepy."
"Huh," Reed said. "I'm shocked, Commander. You have read more than comic books."
Tucker scowled at him.
"How is Ensign Sato?" T'Pol asked.
"Oh, she's fine," Tucker said. "Phlox is examining her now."
Reed said, "I don't think we'll be getting her back on the transporter platform anytime soon."
Tucker said, "She didn't want to do it in the first place. But I can't blame her now. That compressed beam idea of yours, Malcolm - that's real interesting."
The men began to debate different methods and how to test them, including how best to present the idea to Starfleet.
T'Pol listened to them while she attended to her other duties. So Ensign Sato had apparently imagined that she had literally disappeared.
Adult Vulcans didn't dream, of course, or at least they didn't remember their dreams - though there was some debate among Vulcan scientists about what happened during REM sleep cycles, and her one experiment with not meditating had indeed resulted in some vivid sleep imagery. Certainly nothing about going to work without clothes on, however. That was very hard to imagine.
She could, however, imagine how it felt to be invisible.
What can I say? The mental picutre of T'Pol imagining Trip showing up to work without pants on persists! ;)
I also liked the part about T'Pol feeling invisible. A lot of people probably talk around her all the time because she's a Vulcan, they just take it for granted that she won't understand or care about whatever's going on. Little do they know...
Poor T'Pol. :( If anything, she feels more invisible in the "real world" than Hoshi did in her "transporter delusion". And I like the friendship and banter between Trip and Malcolm.
And "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"---that's the name of it! I could never remember!
Nice story! :)
I guess this is a prime example of why Archer wanted T'Pol to become more comfortable interacting with the crew. She either doesn't know how to or doesnt't feel comfortable joining into conversations. I think it's rather telling that T'Pol really doesn't want to be invisible. I'm not sure that most Vulcans would care one way or another.
I found this very interesting. So many times it seemed to me that the writers of the show equated unemotional with oblivious.
In these scenes we get the insight that T'Pol is aware of how her actions have consequences on her co-workers. If she did not realize that Trip's interactions with her had changed, she would simply come across as stupid. She is not stupid or oblivious in these stories.
Alelou, I used Maiden because I thought hat would be more of what a vulcan would use rather than Virgin. Not sure if there is any way of telling if a Vulcan Female has ever had Sex before as with a Human females Hymen. So Hymen, Virgin. No Hymen not a virgin. If there is not an equivalent in a vulcan female then probably there woud not be an equivalent word. so, Maiden was a close as I could come.
But thank you (SB and all).
Yes, but at the moment T'Pol is feeling very much removed from sunshine of Tucker's warm regard and therefore a little less likely to push her way into a conversation. What can I say; I didn't find this episode terribly inspirational. To me it mostly just highlighted that T'Pol is considered a mean boss by Hoshi, who meanwhile sees Trip as a sweet, supportive guy who looks really fabulous in his gym clothes.
I have to confess, SB, I tried to read your scene and just couldn't get past T'Pol's use of "maiden." It may be a generational thing.
Alelou, very good story.
Why should T-Pol feel excluded. She could have entered the conversation, Trip and Malcom being Gentlemen would have welcomed her.
BTW, I took a Stab at Precious Cargo in my story "Horizon."
This waell written Alelou so poor T'Pol is feeling islated is well done.I like Malcolm's friendship in this story.
She could, however, imagine how it felt to be invisible. That line made the whole story. T'Pol feels invisible by Trip and Reed, who are excluding here. I also like the scientific discussion and the friendship between Trip and Malcolm.
I wondered how you were going to do this one. Nice sense of T'Pol's Vulcan-ness with some season three foreshadowing.