Beginnings

Chapter 4

Keywords: Romulans, T'Pol's Parents

Genre: Drama

Archive: Yes.

Author's Note: This story will eventually be a heavily TnT story, but this chapter, like the next few, takes place decades before T'Pol ever meets Trip.  Thank you to my beta, WarpGirl, for helping me to avoid continuity errors and canon violations, and for helping me construct a family background for T'Pol.  

            T'Pol was researching.  Her claim that she needed to stay home to conduct research had not been an outright lie, though she knew that both of her parents assumed she was working on the geology report she had due in two weeks.  Velek had taken T'Les with him to a reception at the Tellarite embassy.  She should have a few hours to find what she needed to know.

            T'Pol sat down at Velek's desk and turned on his computer, quickly connecting to the planet-wide database.  The news archive was easy to find; her father checked the news daily and had entry-links for his favorite sources on the first screen.  She found the site's search index and typed in the names of her mother's parents.  There were links to several stories.  The first few articles were not relevant to her query, consisting of information such as the notice of their marriage and the announcement of T'Les's birth.  Because of T'Mir's high profile, there were also many news briefs that merely mentioned her grandparents in passing connection with T'Mir.  She narrowed her search configuration and at last she found what she was looking for in the death notices:

Notice of the Death of T'Pol, daughter of Visik and T'Mir of Shi'Kahr

T'Pol, daughter of Visik and T'Mir of Shi'Kahr died on the fifth day of the month of Tasmeen.

The cause of her death was homicide by asphyxiation. 

The murderer is believed to be her mate V'Ner, son of Valen and V'Rel of Gol.

V'Ner's current whereabouts are unknown.   

T'Pol was survived by her mother T'Mir and daughter T'Les. 

            Koss had been correct.  Her parents had lied to her.  T'Pol wanted more information.  She quickly read the rest of the articles concerning the murder investigation. 

            Her grandparents' maid had been working in another part of the house when the murder took place.  She reported that T'Pol and V'Ner had been arguing, and that T'Pol had seemed to lose control of her emotions.  The maid heard the victim hysterically scream, "I know you're one of them!"  She then heard sounds of a struggle and rushed to her mistress's aid, only to find V'Ner with his hands firmly around T'Pol's neck.  The maid had been unable to fight him off, so she had rushed from the house to obtain help.  By the time assistance arrived, it was too late: T'Pol was dead and V'Ner had fled.  For several weeks his whereabouts were unknown.  Then, surprisingly, his body was found in the wreckage of a destroyed shuttlecraft orbiting a lifeless moon.  A mine had punctured the hull of the small vessel, and V'Ner had died in a matter of seconds, strapped into the pilot's seat.  The shuttle was of an unfamiliar alien configuration.  According to the newsfeed, the authorities never determined how he had managed to leave Vulcan in the midst of a massive, planet-wide manhunt, and they never determined what T'Pol might have meant by her words, "You're one of them."

            What did those words mean?  One of what - or whom?  T'Pol decided to contact the only person who might have answers for her - her second-foremother T'Mir. 

            She messaged her great-grandmother on the vid screen and asked if she could come over for a visit.  T'Mir was delighted.  After sending a quick text message to her parents to let them know that she was finished with her research and wished to spend the evening with T'Mir, T'Pol left her house and walked the short distance to the tram station.  A few minutes later she was aboard a tram car, and a few minutes after that she had crossed the city and was walking a couple more blocks to T'Mir's house.

            There was nothing unusual about T'Pol's spontaneous visit to T'Mir.  Since T'Mir had finally retired from her ambassadorial duties and settled down in Shi'Kahr, T'Pol was a frequent visitor.  She loved to hear the older woman's stories of distant worlds, and she hoped that one day she, too, would have a chance to explore.

            "Child, what a nice surprise.  I just prepared some bertakk soup.  Would you like a bowl?" 

            T'Pol nodded her head eagerly.  T'Les had inherited her own excellent cooking skills from T'Mir.

            "Have you come for a story?" T'Mir asked, eyes shining.  The elderly Vulcan woman had always had a special connection with her great-granddaughter.  She had raised a daughter and a granddaughter to adulthood, but it was young T'Pol who was the most like her.  "I'm running out of stories.  Let's see...Would you like to hear about the time I beat a Nausicaan pirate in a game of Nausicaan glert, or would you prefer to hear how Stron reacted when Mestral played a trick called an 'April Fool's Day Joke' on him back on Earth?"

            "Actually, Grandmother, I was hoping to learn more about our history - our family history, I mean."

            T'Mir eyed her narrowly.  "What do you mean, child?  You know your family history, and if you have any questions, you can ask your mother or your father." 

            "Mother and I..." she trailed off awkwardly.  Of course T'Mir was suspicious.  The secret T'Pol had unearthed was her secret, too.

            "You met with Koss recently," T'Mir said at last. 

            "Yes."

            "Is it marriage you wish to know about?"

            "Yes, Grandmother," T'Pol replied.  It was marriage that she was interested in, though not in the sense T'Mir thought.

            T'Mir felt that it was T'Les's place to talk to her daughter about marital relationships, but she knew that T'Pol did not have the most comfortable relationship with her mother.  "What would you like to know?"

            T'Pol decided it was best to approach the topic of her inquiry slowly, indirectly.  "Tell me about you and Visik, please.  I do not think I have ever heard the story of how you met and were wed."

            T'Mir's eyes took on a distant, far-away look as she considered her long-dead husband.  "I was betrothed to a man named Storg when I was seven years old.  He was late to enter his time of pon farr, so we were not wed at an early age.  Instead, I joined the High Command and spent most of my early adulthood off-world.  During the time I was stranded on Earth, everyone assumed that I was dead.  Storg took another mate.  When I finally returned to Vulcan and learned of his marriage, I did not mind.  I found great satisfaction in my career, and I did not wish to give up my freedom.  For many more years I represented Vulcan, first as a science officer, and then later as the captain of my own ship. 

            "One day we received a distress call.  A small shuttle that had been launched from one of our more remote colonies had lost propulsion and had become stranded in a desolate region of space.   Your second forefather Visik was alone inside that vessel.  He had run out of food and water days before, and was almost out of oxygen, too.  We took him aboard and rehabilitated him.  He told us that his mate had died and that he had decided to leave his colony and make a fresh start on Vulcan. 

            "Visik was a fascinating man.  He had traveled extensively, and he had even more stories than I have.  I spent many hours talking to him as we traveled back to Vulcan, and he determined that he would marry me.  At first I resisted the idea, but after a while I saw the logic of his proposal.  We were married the day after we arrived home." 

            There was much T'Mir was leaving out about Visik's travels and his true motivations for setting forth on his voyage to Vulcan.  One day T'Pol would learn the truth, but not now.  The truth was, T'Mir's mate Visik was in that shuttle fleeing from his homeworld.  Visik had decided to defect.  To Vulcan.

            "Did you secure your parents' consent while you were still in space?"

            "Visik had no family to contact and my parents were gratified that I had at last agreed to take a mate.  Your foremother T'Pol was born a couple of years later."

            "What happened to him?"

            "Visik was much older than I.  We had many wonderful years together, but he died shortly before your mother was born."  It had been heart failure - probably.  T'Mir's own heart had nearly failed when the connection to her mate had been severed, but she had a child and then a grandchild to care for, so she had forced herself to persevere.

            Although it was not the subject of her visit, T'Pol nonetheless decided to ask another question.  "Why did you marry him, Grandmother?  Why did you give up your freedom?"

            T'Mir's gaze became distant, inward, as she considered her late husband.  "I married him because it was what I wanted.  I realized that a life with him would be far better than a life without him."  It had been better - more complicated, certainly - but better. 

            "But that sounds - Forgive me, Grandmother - But that sounds like a decision based on emotion rather than logic."

            "Yes, child, it was a decision based on emotion."

            T'Pol's eyes nearly bulged with shock.  "You mean you - Grandmother!"

            Inwardly T'Mir laughed at the expression on the child's face.  "I cherished him, T'Pol, just as your mother cherishes your father, and just as I hope you grow to cherish your own husband one day, too."

            T'Pol thought of Koss and highly doubted that possibility.  She knew her parents had great affection for one another, but neither one of them had ever spoken about their feelings in her presence.  "Mother and father grew to care for one another after they were married.  Are you saying that even before you were married you - "

            "I married him because I loved him," T'Mir said simply.

            T'Pol had never heard of any Vulcan marrying for love - at least, not after the Awakening.  It was completely illogical.  Marriage was about duty to one's family and to Vulcan.  Yet the woman she most admired had just admitted to letting her feelings guide her.  T'Pol felt more confused than ever.      

            "T'Pol, Koss is a good, smart boy, and handsome, too.  I have no doubt that if you behave properly toward him, deep affection will develop between the two of you.  Perhaps you will even join your minds together in a mate bond."

            T'Pol could think of nothing she desired less than joining her mind with that uncouth boy.  She had never heard of a mate bond before, though, and she was intrigued.  "What is a mate bond, Grandmother?"

            T'Mir looked at T'Pol in surprise.  Her mother really should have explained it to her.  Then again, many on Vulcan denied the very existence of mate bonds, likening them to melding or other improper telepathic techniques.  Perhaps her orthodox daughter was one of the skeptics.  Nevertheless, though they had never spoken of it, T'Mir had long believed that T'Les and Velek must be bonded.  T'Mir was aware of the trouble T'Pol had controlling her telepathy.  Perhaps that was why T'Les had not given her the information; she might fear that it would lead T'Pol to experiment. 

            Now that she had inadvertently informed T'Pol about the possibility of bonding, she had to tell her something.  "Well, child, there is a long-held belief that when a Vulcan mates, there's a shared psychic bond." 

            "What does that mean?  What kind of bond?  What happens?"

            "It would not be appropriate for me to talk about it with you now.  When you are older I will tell you more."

            T'Pol was disappointed, but did not protest.  She would just add the subject to her long list of "research projects." 

            "Grandmother, I have always been curious about my mother's parents."  She rushed the words, afraid that her inquiry would raise her foremother's suspicions.  "I never met them, of course, and no one ever talks about them.  What were they like?"

            T'Mir sighed.  Even after so many decades, the pain of losing her only child had not subsided.  Still, it was only right that T'Pol learn something about the foremother after whom she had been named.  "Your foremother T'Pol was a kind, gentle person.  She possessed humble patience and was one of the only people I've ever known who never seemed to struggle with doing what is right and honorable.  Yet there was a fragility, a vulnerability about her that made those around her want to protect her.  She looked like her father, except that she was even smaller than you."

            "What about her mate, my forefather V'Ner?"

            T'Mir hesitated for a long moment before finally responding.  "V'Ner was a very intelligent man.  He was unusually ambitious.  His family was not of very high status, but V'Ner rose quickly in rank.  He died young, but there were many who were already predicting that he could rise as far as Administrator of the High Command."

            "Why did you betroth my foremother T'Pol to him?" the young T'Pol asked.  "Was his family connected to yours or to Visik's?"

            T'Mir did not really know how to answer that question.  As all Vulcan parents do, she and Visik had begun to consider possible mates for their daughter as soon as she was born.  T'Mir had thought that they had narrowed down the candidates to boys from two very good families, and they had even made the initial overtures.  But then one day an obviously agitated Visik had announced that they must betroth their daughter to the child V'Ner.  At first Visik refused to offer any explanation; he simply declared that he had no choice. 

            T'Mir, of course, had understood at once.  The people from whom her husband had been running had found him, and the price of his life - of all of their lives, now - was this marriage, a marriage that would connect V'Ner with one of the most prominent families on Vulcan and enable him to rise farther through the ranks of the High Command than he ever could achieve without the familial connection. 

            T'Mir had wanted to inform someone of what she suspected, but Visik explained that the High Command had already been compromised, and he was not certain who they could trust.  Very reluctantly, they allowed their daughter to marry V'Ner, and, for a while, everything was fine.  V'Ner behaved properly in every way toward T'Pol and her family.  When Visik finally died a natural death (she thought it was natural, anyway), V'Ner had been a model son-in-law, helping T'Mir arrange his affairs and seeming to grieve with the family.  T'Mir had begun to think that perhaps her son-in-law V'Ner might, like his father-in-law, come to genuinely embrace life as a Vulcan.

            Everything was fine up until the day that V'Ner's young wife somehow discovered the truth: Her husband was not a Vulcan. 

            T'Mir never found out how T'Pol made the discovery, or whether she was aware that her own father, Visik, was also one of "them."

            After her daughter's death, T'Mir determined that it was finally time to approach some colleagues within the High Command whom she thought she could trust and tell them about the usurpers among them.  She was stopped, though, by the sudden appearance one night of a most unusual stranger.  The man looked like an average human with dark brown hair and rather pale skin.  He claimed that he was from the future, and to prove it, he took her by the hand and walked her through her sitting room door into another time and place.  T'Mir knew that there was no such thing as time travel; the Vulcan Science Directorate had proven it conclusively.  Yet she was in another time.

            The stranger declared to her that it was imperative that she not take any actions regarding her knowledge of the Romulan threat.  He claimed that every possible timeline in which she did go forward ended in disaster for all of Vulcan.  In every timeline in which T'Mir went forward, the Romulans defeated the Vulcans. 

            The stranger explained that the Romulans were acting on an almost religious impulse to reunify their two peoples.  Most of them did not know that they were being manipulated by another Romulan faction from the future, a faction desperate to save their race from destruction in the distant future by returning to their native home world before that event would take place. 

            In some possible futures, the war between Romulus and Vulcan broke out decades too early, and without the support of an alliance of planets, Vulcan would lose.  

            In most of the futures, her infant granddaughter T'Les died early.  "She must survive," the stranger insisted.  "Vulcan and several other planets will fall to the Romulan Star Empire if T'Les does not give birth to your great-granddaughter."

            The stranger would not tell her exactly what would happen, but he did allow her to view a dizzying holographic display that showed a young Vulcan woman arguing persuasively on behalf of letting Earth's Warp Five program continue, disabling something called "Sphere 41," commanding a starship in a decisive battle against the Romulans, and, finally, cradling an infant child while a human man stood protectively over her, his hand on her shoulder.  

            So T'Mir remained silent about the growing Romulan threat.  For a while, during her granddaughter T'Les's childhood, she remained on Vulcan and worked as a member of the High Command.  She watched those around her carefully, constructing a mental diagram of the Romulan infiltration.  She suspected a few people of being Romulans, and she knew of a few others who she believed were Vulcans who supported the Romulan cause.  All the while she wondered if she had made the right decision. 

            When T'Les reached adulthood, T'Mir shared the secret with her.  T'Les was mortified to learn that she was only one-fourth Vulcan, and she reacted by becoming obsessively orthodox in her views.  T'Mir knew that T'Les would rather die than have her shame exposed.    

            T'Mir  looked up from her musings suddenly and saw the calculating look on her great-granddaughter's face before T'Pol had time to hide it.   "T'Pol, why are you asking me these questions.  What are you hiding, girl?"

            "I - Nothing.  I was just curious."

            "I was not born yesterday, T'Pol," T'Mir reminded her, using a long-dormant human idiom. 

            T'Pol squirmed uncomfortably for a moment, but then she squared her small shoulders and looked T'Mir straight in the eye.  "I know that my parents lied to me about my foremother and forefather.  I know that he murdered her."

            T'Mir closed her eyes briefly and let out a long calming breath.  "I cannot give you the answers you seek.  Not yet."

            "Grandmother, please.  I need to know.

            She did need to know, T'Mir knew.  "Why?"

            "Because - Well, I do not know why.  I just know it is important somehow that I find out the truth."

            "One day you will learn the truth, but I cannot explain it to you yet. For now, T'Pol, please stop investigating.  You will only bring your mother pain.  When you are older I will tell you, or, if not I, your mother will."

            Though inwardly she rebelled against being treated like a child, T'Pol submitted to her foremother's authority and dropped the subject.  After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, T'Mir asked T'Pol about the paper she was writing, and the visit became much more congenial.  T'Pol stayed the night at T'Mir's house, and the next morning she promised to come again soon.

            Neither woman knew it, but that was the last time T'Pol and T'Mir ever met face-to-face.  Just a few nights later, as she lay sleeping peacefully in her bed, T'Mir's katra went to join that of her husband.