Water World

Disclaimer: Enterprise and it's characters are propriety of CBS/Paramount.

Rating: G

Authors note: My entry for the 'Water' challenge.
It takes place two years into the Romulan War in the year 2158.
The ending is dated in the year 2161, a year after the war.
Many thanks to my beta, JadziaKathryn.

He could taste the salty air surrounding him, feel the soft breeze coming from the ocean against his face and before him his eyes drunk the purple, green and blue shades of the sea.

The sand felt comfortable under his feet. He was sitting on the beach on an alien world, far from home – a quiet place in a mad and violent universe. He had seen too many battles, far too many good people lose their lives. Now the war seemed far away, on this peaceful planet, a hidden place for wounded soldiers. Fighters like him, who were forced to fight to protect Earth, but in their heart still wanted to just be an engineer on a spaceship.

A month now – without any attack or fighting. The silence almost seemed to be unreal. He expected the sound of red alert any minute. When the silence stayed, they keep patrolling the nearest planets. Captain Archer decided that shore leave would do the battered crew some good. They found this paradise, a planet with a population used to spaceships, but still living like centuries back. In groups they visited the planet, leaving enough people on the hidden ship to react in any dangerous events.

Trip loved to be out in the open again. More than that, he took with both hands the chance to be with T'Pol alone and private. The moment they arrived on the planet, he signaled to T'Pol that she should follow him. Like children escaping the stern look of the teacher, they took the road to the beach. Seeing the blue sky and the beautiful water in front of him, he had only one aim. He walked to the beach and found himself a great spot to sit.

The beach reminded him of their wedding day, a closed ceremony near their beach house, with only four witnesses and a Vulcan priest. After the events of Terra Prime a political firestorm raised his ugly head, forcing T'Pol and him to separate. When they came back together, after one horrible year, they decided that the best thing was to keep their relationship and later their marriage a secret. So they didn't make their marriage public and their marriage certificate was safely stowed away in a Vulcan monastery. Trip suspected that almost every crew member knew they were involved, but they had learned the hard way they should keep a kind of appearance that they no longer were together. They had found their creative ways of being together as much as possible and keeping a low profile, but both of them grew more tired of the situation.

But now on the beach he felt more relaxed then he had been in a long time. He could feel his wife waiting at the beginning of the beach. She watched him from a distant. She probably thought he needed some space. He did, but he wanted to share this place with her. He gestured that she would come as well.

She walked to him and sitting next to him, he embraced her. “Welcome to sunshine and the beach, darling,” he said. She kissed him, her kiss was sweet and gentle. He put one arm around her shoulder and with the other he waved at the sea. “It's hard to imagine there is a whole planet of people beneath this water surface. Some crew members already visited it,” he told her.

“I have heard crewmen describe that world as wonderful and exquisite. Species that live under water are very rare. It's a unique chance for many to see such a different planet,” T'Pol agreed.

Knowing T'Pol’s dislike of places with lots of water, he joked that she probably thought living under water was very illogical, but she hadn't seen the beauty of a world beneath the sea yet. He started talking about his time at sea on Earth, how he enjoyed swimming and sea diving. He described to her the beauties of sea life.

T'Pol listened with great intensity. It was good to talk about other subjects than the war, the battles and ship improvements.

“If you wish, there are many places to hire a diving suit and a camera,” she responded to his stories. “You must take this opportunity.”

“I’d rather stay here with you on the beach.”

T'Pol looked at him with affection. “I have studied Earth's history and in ancient times the sea was seen as a place of chaos and danger. A place to be feared.”

“Something Vulcans can understand perfectly,” he teased her.

“Fear isn't illogical. It can help us, but also be an obstacle for the best things in our lives.” T'Pol paused, before she added softly, “Fear can become uncontrollable. Only, when I let affection and trust back into my life, fear was gone.” They looked to the sea. Both remembered how after some rough years they finally came together.

T'Pol turned to him. “There is nothing against overcoming your fear, trust your t'hy'la and joining an activity that he enjoys.”

So in half an hour T'Pol and he stood in the sea, both dressed in a diving suit. He could feel her anxiety raise, her doubts started to build up, but he took her hand and led her gently under water. The beautiful scenery made her more relaxed. Their eyes were filled with images of water plants in bright colors, shining, moving shields of yellow fish, fish with colors of the rainbow and other fish that brightened the sea. All kind of colors and shapes, like round and triangle fish. All around them were colors, fish, plants and a deep blue sea. A beautiful, peaceful picture.

He showed T'Pol the camera, gave it to her and with scientific precision she started to take pictures. She even took a picture of him, in his diving suit, with helmet, in this blue ocean.

In the middle of all the colors and fish, they saw the round contours of Water world. Before they could reach this world, they had to travel through a small tunnel. He swam together with T'Pol in this place, surrounded by darkness, heading towards the light. Luckily for T'Pol it only took a couple of minutes before they reached the surface.

Finally they had reached Water world. She had told Trip that she liked to join him in an activity he liked, but if she was honest, she felt better with some ground beneath her feet. Both of them took of their helmet. Unfortunately, streams of water were released, coming from all sides, soaking Trip and her. Trip's laughter echoed through the tunnel. With eyes filled with amusement, Trip asked her if she liked the shower. Her answer that she preferred the shower in her own quarters, made him grin even more. After the water, warm wind came from the walls, drying them. An inhabitant of the world welcomed them and gave them some local clothes, two robes, to wear.

Water world or Mizutake, like the locals called it, was build of several round buildings made of glass. The ocean was visible everywhere through the walls of glass. Inside a community had developed. Trip and she walked into a small village. The local people had scales on their body and had no hair on their head. Their eyes were big, but their smiles made them look less conspicuous. In the busy marketplace, lots of unique items were sold. Trip didn't find that the vegetables, in colors like pink and blue, looked very edible and he had never seen purple silk made of bubbles. Nor had she. The best part was that they could walk, hand in hand, almost carefree, enjoying the simple pleasures in life, like an alien marketplace. She enjoyed the simple touch of his colder hand against her warm Vulcan skin.

Away from the crowd, they came into a silent plaza, with in the middle – to their surprise – a beach. They ordered drinks – hopefully it was tasty – and sat on the sand. Their diving suits underneath their robes had dried, but still some water dripped from her hair to her neck. Trip wiped them away and kissed her at the same spot. “You look beautiful, Mrs. Tucker,” he said, using his favorite expression. They sat in silence, enjoying to be alone and together.

Trip broke the quietness. “Don't you wish we could stay on this planet? Living our lives, being together. Nothing to hide. No war. No deaths. It would be great, don't you think? Don't you hate the fact we never can walk hand in hand on Earth. We can never pay too much attention to each other when we are with others. Always on guard. Now with the war, nobody really cares what we do, but when it's over, it will change. And then what?”

She turned to him. “I know,” she agreed. T'Pol looked at the man that she loved more than life. She didn't want to be separated from him again. It's worth all the secrecy. “We will find a solution,” she assured him.

They walked back to the beginning of the tunnel, left the robes there and swam back to the beach. They warmed themselves in the sun, clothed themselves in their old clothes and returned the diving equipment.

When they went back to the shuttle that would bring them back to Enterprise, Trip said without any hesitation in his voice. “When this war is over, I'm leaving Starfleet. We could leave together, find us a nice water world planet to live and started a family. I want that. There is nothing more that I want.”

“Maybe a place with less water,” she suggested. “Water and a desert for my Vulcan girl, new worlds to explore.” Trip smiled and made her a promise. “You know, I hope that picture that you took of me under water in my diving suit is a good one. If it is, I am going to frame it and place it in my quarters. And every time I see it, I remember we're going to find our world of our own.”

- Three years later -

T'Pol stepped into Trip's familiar quarters. It was neat and tidy like always. For a second she felt hundreds of memories enter her mind, but she controlled them with iron Vulcan discipline. Captain Archer had told her he was dead and the evidence was clear that Trip had died in such a senseless way.

But why, then, could she still feel the whisper of their bond? Why did she know without a doubt that his heart was still beating and that he was somewhere out there?

Her eyes fell on the picture, she once took during their visit to Water world three years ago. It was a picture of Trip in diving suit, with his helmet on, under water. He had framed it and put the picture in a prominent place in his quarters. Her hands took the picture and while she looked at it, T'Pol remembered his promise. And she made one to him. “I am going to find you, t'hy'la, and when I do, we will have a world of our own.”

End