Rating: PG-13
Genres: angst au drama missing scene romance virtual season
Keywords: character death
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Summary: Trip never makes a promise that he doesn't keep.
"There's every way of knowing. Look, I can guarantee you that we're not going to lose touch." ~Trip Tucker from These Are The Voyages
For all intents and purposes, Trip was dead. For all intents and purposes, his burned body lay in the coffin being lowered slowly into a six-foot deep opening in the ground.
T'Pol's gaze dropped to her feet, staring at the grass beneath her shoes as if it were a fascinating new specimen of sentient life. The green blades swayed in the cool, fall Florida winds. She could almost hear their sorrowful keening as they mourned the departure of a fellow sentient creature.
T'Pol heard a choked cry and her gaze flew to Catherine Tucker, who clutched her husband and looked for all the world like a woman battered to within an inch of her life.
A lump formed in T'Pol's throat at the sight. She longed to soothe the woman's broken heart, to tell her that Trip wasn't dead. "He only needs to appear so," she would say. "The mission he has been assigned is very hazardous and he is required to give up his identity for it."
Had she not known this, she wouldn't have survived the agonizing loss herself. After the incident in which she'd locked herself in her quarters for several days and refused food or comfort, Jonathan had confessed the entire scheme to her.
Anger. That was the first of many very Human emotions that had overcome her control. She'd wanted to scream at him and had been sorely tempted to wrap her hands about his neck. Despite T'Pau's healing of her synaptic pathways, she often found particularly strong emotions more difficult to control than they had been prior to her use of Trellium.
Trip had taught her about anger. It was a sensation caused at its core by pain. That, he'd said, was what made it such a volatile emotion. The more pain the individual experienced, the greater the need to strike back at the person or thing taunting them. He'd taught her to analyze the reasons why she felt this emotion. At that moment, it had been a combination of elation that he was not in fact dead and hurt that her Captain and friend had allowed her to suffer so long.
From the first, she had been torn. Her logical mind reminded her constantly that he was dead; and yet, she still felt his presence like a ghost's touch within her mind. The vague hope that the comforting thought gave her conflicted with the reality her mind forced upon her in private moments, driving her to the brink of insanity and back again.
Why had he allowed her to suffer such cognitive dissonance? He hadn't spoken a word to her since that day. Each time she attempted to capture his gaze, he glanced away and proceeded to stride past her.
She gathered a handful of dirt from the pile beside the grave and moved to stand at the very edge of the opening. She stared at the wooden box that sat on the floor of the opening and slowly loosened her grip, allowing the earth to slip from her hand.
"Parting from me and never parted, never and always touching and touched," she whispered in archaic Vulcan. "Beyond life and beyond death; beyond tears and beyond fear."
She stood in still silence for several moments before turning and departing from the gravesite, clutching the IDIC symbol tightly to her chest.
Love it! Looking forward to more! :D
Don't worry, folks, there's more coming. A total of seven chapters I believe.
Interesting.
Well done.
Grasping.
A promise for the future.
And your T'Pol rocks.
I usually avoid stuff that goes along with TATV, but this is a good piece of writing. Everything from the keening blades of grass to the words T'Pol whispered at the end was just beautiful. I wanted to know more, particularly about how Trip could do this to his parents and T'Pol after all of their other losses. However, I also think that this story is exactly the right length - any more would have dulled the edge of what you created.
I know it's hard to keep Trip alive any other way and still stay true to canon, but I hate the thought that Trip would willingly put T'Pol or his parents through that. You show how Archer won't look her in the eye, but Trip is just as guilty. Thank goodness T'Pol at least knows he's still alive, I just hope he's got a good justification for putting her through this when he gets back.
This scene is quite vivid. I am glad this scene follows the novel and not the final TV serises episode. But how cruel to use Trip's mother this way, especially after loosing a daughter to violence. I'd love to see a scene about Cathrine's anger and feelings of betrayal by Starfleet when she finds out Trip is alive - even though she would be grateful to have her son back.
You painted the emotions of T'Pol well. I am glad Archer finally told her that Trip wasn't dead. What is she going to do now?