A Hard Bargain: A COMPLETED TnT Story

[aeverett]

Will wonders never cease! This hit me last night and it wouldn't let me go till I finished it. It is a complete vinette, so do not email or review me with a request to 'finish' it. Every other vinette I write I get that reply. This is finished.

Title: "A Hard Bargain"
Author: Arianwen P.F. Everett
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: T/TP
Genre: Angst/Drama
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek: Enterprise or any of its characters. I make no money off this story, only a tremendous sense of self worth.

A HARD BARGAIN

Feedback is, as always, appreciated!

[Distracted]

Sorry. I just don't buy it. Too OOC. There are monasteries on Vulcan for just this sort of thing. Haven't you heard of Gol? And you can't tell me that a species as advanced as the Vulcans has never heard of birth control.

[aeverett]

Sorry. I just don't buy it. Too OOC. There are monasteries on Vulcan for just this sort of thing. Haven't you heard of Gol? And you can't tell me that a species as advanced as the Vulcans has never heard of birth control.

I don't remember it ever being established that Vulcan monastaries were used in that way. I've read that they offer meditation that occasionally can work, but if T'Pol has a hard enough time controling her emotions, thanks to the Trellium damage and her own 'close to the surface' nature, the likelyhood of her succeeding in overcoming her pon farr before she died, would be slim.

As for birth control, there were no mentions of such in any of the series, and a Vulcan in the throes of pon farr likely doesn't have the congizant ability to slip on a condom. The pon farr is a mating drive. Mating usually implies reproduction.

The only birth control I could see being effective in this situation would be permanent sterilization, but that would be illogical as it would preclude T'Pol from EVER having a child.

[Rigil Kent]

My extreme and vocal dislike of the whole Polly!Farr angle precludes me from making an unbiased judgment of this fic, especially as Polly!Farr seems to clash with T'Pold in E2. Add in the fact that it accepts the "finale" as remotely accurate, and I'm further unable to really get into it. Sorry.

No offense is intended.

[Shakabutt]

The thing that irkes me is this ,why Shran ?
Practically he and Archer killed Trip in *the_abomination* .
Not only T'Pol doesn't kill him or beat him to a pulp ,but is asking to satisfy her Pon Farr ?
She almost kils him in TGTMD on that "electric chair" of hers ,a humourous thing about the book ,she makes him pay in a subtlle way

[aeverett]

The thing that irkes me is this ,why Shran ?
Practically he and Archer killed Trip in *the_abomination* .
Not only T'Pol doesn't kill him or beat him to a pulp ,but is asking to satisfy her Pon Farr ?
She almost kils him in TGTMD on that "electric chair" of hers ,a humourous thing about the book ,she makes him pay in a subtlle way

I just ordered TGTMD Friday, so I haven't read that. However, I don't see Shran as having gotten Trip killed. He got them into the situation, but there was no way to know what would happen to Trip as a result. He was only trying to rescue his daughter, and they had all thought they had gotten away with the whole fake gem swap. And Archer ordered Trip not to do what he did. Trip did it anyway.

Yes, *the_abomination* was an abomination, and most of my fics discount it, but I rewatched it for Shran dialog last night and the idea came to me and wouldn't let me be until it was written.

However, I plan to name Shran's friend, since I just reread the story, and I realized that Shran's saying a 'friend' could be construed as his offering his own 'services' so to speak. That was never my intent. Shran's friend is just an eccentric Andorian (insert joke here) who never really bought into that 'We hate all Vulcans.' bit while in the Imperial Guard. He fought them, and was well respected, but he didn't hate them, merely saw them as misguided fools, not Shran himself. After all Shran is a married guy with a little girl. T'Pol would never consider him, even if it meant dyingl; she isn't a homewrecker.

[Elessar]

Sorry. I just don't buy it. Too OOC. There are monasteries on Vulcan for just this sort of thing. Haven't you heard of Gol? And you can't tell me that a species as advanced as the Vulcans has never heard of birth control.

As the EMH observed, the Vulcans have some very Victorian attitudes about sex. Ya never know

[Rigil Kent]

I must admit, I had difficulty buying into the notion that T'Pol would go to an Andorian to resolve Polly!Farr, especially given that, if one accepts that craptastic finale as accurate as this sort of did, they established that she still had some mildly bigoted views toward them in that waste of 40+ minutes.

But then, I've been accused of being a "fundamentalist TnT fan" by people not happy with my viewpoint, so take that for what its worth.

[Distracted]

Sorry. I just don't buy it. Too OOC. There are monasteries on Vulcan for just this sort of thing. Haven't you heard of Gol? And you can't tell me that a species as advanced as the Vulcans has never heard of birth control.

I don't remember it ever being established that Vulcan monastaries were used in that way. I've read that they offer meditation that occasionally can work, but if T'Pol has a hard enough time controling her emotions, thanks to the Trellium damage and her own 'close to the surface' nature, the likelyhood of her succeeding in overcoming her pon farr before she died, would be slim.

As for birth control, there were no mentions of such in any of the series, and a Vulcan in the throes of pon farr likely doesn't have the congizant ability to slip on a condom. The pon farr is a mating drive. Mating usually implies reproduction.

The only birth control I could see being effective in this situation would be permanent sterilization, but that would be illogical as it would preclude T'Pol from EVER having a child.

One would hope that the partner unaffected by Ponfarr...in this case, the male...would have the presence of mind to manage a barrier, or perhaps the simple administration of an ovulation inhibitor would be effective. Plan B, anyone?

I'm also pretty sure that Gol was referenced in at least one book or series as the place that unbonded Vulcans went to deal with Ponfarr. Since meditation rarely works, according to canon, there would have to be other options available. It's only logical. I also think that the idea that she'd turn to a traditional enemy of her people rather than go home to take care of what is essentially a basic biologic function to be tremendously OOC and overwhelmingly illogical.

[TPoptarts]

I don't agree with Vulcan females going on pon farr like without it being initiated through a bond with their pon farring male bondmates. Until ENT it's been establish that only Vulcan males go on independent pon farr. And they're the ones who pass it on to their female bondmates. And in ENT the pon farr was only caused like by the spores so that's still no indication that Vulcan females go on independent pon farr. (And the way the whole Polly!Farr thing was done on ENT was like totally dumb and WRONG anyway IMO ) And also I'm biased because I really can't accept *the_abomination*

Anyway with that in mind. (Male) Vulcans go on pon farr every 7 years of their adult life. That's a long time with their lifespan. So like if human females with the human lifespan being like around 80 on average last time I checked, remain fertile for like 40 years of their life then if a human female went into pon farr every 7 years from the moment of becoming fertile, and being on pon farr would mean that without prevention they would surely get pregnant, then every healthy human female would have at least 6 kids in her lifetime. So with Vulcans having the lifespan of like 200+ and their aging like way slower than in humans I'd assume Vulcan females would remain fertile for longer than human females. But even if they don't and they have like 40 fertile years like humans and that's the way pon farr worked then every Vulcan female would have to have at least 6 kids. Now the thing is Vulcan families tend to be really small. I read somewhere it's because of the planet not being very hospitable etc etc but the Vulcans did evolve on it so I don't know. But still Vulcan families tend to not have many kids. Like 1 or 2, well Tuvok had 4 but he's from the Vulcanis Lunar Colony. And I haven't seen much VOY but CX pointed out that their age differences were smaller than 7 years.

Well Tuvok got married in 2304 which means he went into his first pon farr at the age of 40. And since Vulcans bonded at childhood are like the same or very close age, when Koss goes into pon farr in Breaking the Ice (after all that's how it's determined it's time to get married, though I'm not sure if the writers actually bothered to research that) T'Pol is like 63 so I'd assume he was like in his 60's as well. So I guess it varies like the age humans reach their puberty. Just like a way wider margin. Which kinda makes sense with their longer lifespan. And since humans stay fertile for long after they reach puberty it makes sense that Vulcans would too. Wider margin or not I'd assume Tuvok & wife were still fertile in their 60's since some Vulcan only reach their maturity in their 60's. And at least to me it makes sense that they'd stay fertile for much longer for a period that overlaps at least part of the period that Vulcans who reach maturity later stay fertile. Or just longer because I think it makes sense with their long lifespan. Well I know they're like a totally different species and I'm making a lot of assumptions. But anyway if Tuvok & wife were fertile for at least 21 years (at least until their 60's, though I still think it would be longer than that) then if pon farr means sure pregnancy then over 21 years in pon farr alone they'd have to conceive 4 times (t, t+7, t+14, t+21). But as CX pointed out the kids were closer in age which means at least some of them were conceived like outside pon farr. Though I still don't know exactly how close they were in age so technically it's possible that maybe pregnancy overlapped pon farr so it was impossible to conceive again. But still if that's the Vulcan fertility span and they conceive every pon farr then many Vulcan families don't have nearly as many kids as they should have. Which to me means that either they use like some sort of birth control, or that pon farr just doesn't work this way and they don't necessarily conceive just because they go into pon farr.

But I still don't accept the female pon farr anyway. So I agree with everything Rigil said.

[aeverett]

I was only using the canon-based ideas on pon farr, and making the rest up. To me, not destroying canon, or if you do, saying you plan to before you begin the story (like I do in my Authroess' Notes), is what counts. Pon Farr was never explained well in any of the series. There was never a mention of birth control or Vulcan monastaries that service mateless Vulcans in Pon Farr, otherwise I wouldn't have written this story at all.

The way I see it, Pon Farr is the Vulcan bodies bid to survive into the next generation. If it only controls the Vulcan once every seven years it's gonna be so pervasive that a mere hypospray to prevent ovulation or sperm production, or any other trick to stop conception or gestation, isn't gonna do much good to dislodge it. Vulcans are animals with really big brains. Pon Farr had to outwit those brains for millenia, and continue to do so well into the 24th century (according to official canon). This is why I had T'Pol claim she had such a near absolute chance for impregnation. Again, I tried to use what was said in canon as my guide but take it from there on my own. If I remember correctly, during Bounty, when T'Pol is 'cured' of her fake ponn farr, Phlox implies she will go through the more natural version at some point in the future. Whether he means as triggered by a mate or from her own biological instigation, there is no direct answer.

PS. Keep the comments and feedback coming! Helps me define myself in my future work. The next part of 'Living Beyond' should be out tomorrow or very early Wednesday.

[TPoptarts]

From what I've read there's really no indication that pon farr is supposed to be like for more than satisfying their usually suppressed sex drive. Never heard it's actually supposed to be for procreation. It would actually make sense to me that it's for the purpose of procreation if it wasn't for the fact that Vulcans can (and do) mate and procreate outside pon farr anyway.

[aeverett]

From what I've read there's really no indication that pon farr is supposed to be like for more than satisfying their usually suppressed sex drive. Never heard it's actually supposed to be for procreation. It would actually make sense to me that it's for the purpose of procreation if it wasn't for the fact that Vulcans can (and do) mate and procreate outside pon farr anyway.

You have to remember, Surak only lived 1800 years ago. That's not nearly enough time for a biological phenomenon to manifest within a species' genome, particularly when you consider the lifespan of Vulcans. As a general rule, the longer a species average lifespan is, the longer it takes for a new trait to emerge in the entirety of the population. If pon farr developed as a means of getting logical Vulcans to have sex, they would have had to embrace logic much earlier in their history, tens, possibly even hundreds of thousands of years ago, not a mere 1800, especially a phenomena that has so many biological components to it. If it's that old, it's almost certainly a procreation thing, not a psychological thing.

[TPoptarts]

The need to have sex is like totally biological. Hormonal stuff. But still Vulcans do mate and procreate outside pon farr. So I don't really know what they need their pon farr for anyway

[aeverett]

The need to have sex is like totally biological. Hormonal stuff. But still Vulcans do mate and procreate outside pon farr. So I don't really know what they need their pon farr for anyway

Probably for the same reason we need our appendix, none at all. My guess is that it's an evolutionary remnant that is no longer required, yet everyone is born with.