Letters Home

Chapter 4

May 9, 2152       

My Esteemed Mother,

I have been thinking about my second foremother again.   You knew her longer than I did.  Would you share some memories of her with me?

The reason I asked is that I told her story to my captain and the chief engineer during one of the socialization sessions that humans find so entertaining.  They found it incredible that Zefram Cochrane was not the first contact with our people.  They think I was telling a lie, a fantasy for their entertainment in the manner of their stories of non-existent creatures to scare children. 

What I did not tell them was that Mestral was still alive when I met with him in Carbon Creek.  He would not share with me much of his life story over the past 200 years or whether he was able to have mixed offspring.  None were in evidence.  But he must have, of course, indulged in intimate relations every seven years or he would not have survived.  He did have human companions who knew his origin and protected him.   They contacted me six months after my visit to inform me of his passing and their compliance with his wishes as to the disposal of his remains.  So his presence on Earth for two centuries is still unknown to most humans but I suspect that sometime in the future we will share the records about him from our databases.  That is, if the human species has evolved enough to logically process this information.  Sharing it with my shipmates was a test.  The information is safe because they do not believe my story.

Now about my ivy living indoors.  Do not treat it as a child or it will continue to behave as one.  Kindly put it back outdoors in the garden. 

In your next letter I want to hear about the progress of your re-mating efforts.  I believe you have been avoiding telling me about them.

Your Obedient Daughter, T’Pol

                                                                                                                                                 May 24, 2152

Obedient-when-it-suits-her Daughter,

 Your ivy plant is again outside per your instructions.  It was not happy about its neighbors, which were my cooking vegetables.    After choking the life out of three plomeek plants, which were a gift from Koss’s mother T’Fel, I moved it to a place by itself next to the gate out to the desert.  Maybe it will send tendrils out into the desert and attract a wild sehlat which will come and uproot it and drag it away.  Are you sure I cannot send it to you on your human ship?  It might find humans more to its liking since it has difficulty getting along with life forms around here.

As to your second foremother, she was, as you know, a bit of a maverick.  Like your father.  Like you.  As far as I know, no one outside our family besides a few people who handle classified records are aware that Mestral did not die in the crash.   Though there would be information about his life in the databases, I think it unwise to inform our non-classified-rated authorities or the humans that he was on Earth contaminating their culture for two hundred years.  It seems that his influence must have been minimal if only a few humans are aware of his origin.  I recommend keeping it that way.  Can you imagine the chaos your Uncle Soval would have to deal with among the humans if Mestral’s tenure on Earth were to be make public?   Think of the witch hunts for possible mixed species descendants.  Remember the human wealth of speculation and science fiction stories based on someplace called Roswell and a crashed weather balloon?  Just leave it alone.

You asked about my re-mating plans.  They are again on hold.  I was introduced to a couple of candidates suggested by the elders and I found them highly unsuitable.

What is this about damage to your ship that Soval has told me about?

Your Hard-to-re-mate Mother   

                                                                                                                             June 14, 2152

My Not-Yet-Remated Mother,

I am not surprised about your displeasure with two mate candidates.  You have a right to be highly selective.  There are few men who could equal my father’s qualities.  Maybe you really prefer to live along since you have done so for many years.  Yet, you have only seen two candidates.   Are they going to introduce more candidates to you?   You must of course at least meet with them so as not to offend the elders.  But have you considered a pet sehlat for companionship?  And you could hire a part-time housekeeper to cook for you a couple times a week.

You asked about the damage to our ship that Uncle Soval reported to you.  Do not be concerned.  It has been repaired.  But yes, it was extensive.  The crew approached this incident in a disciplined and logical fashion.  You would have been impressed had you been here to observe them.  The damage was the result of a mine crafted by people called Romulans.  Do you know anything about this species?   From our brief contact, they appeared to be of primitive aggressive stock quite alien to our own civilized species.  We have no idea what they look like, but their ships are painted blood-green.   I think we are likely to cross paths with them in the future.

I dislike saying this but there are times when I am close to reverting to the opinion of my esteemed Uncle on the nature of humans.  The captain showed regressive emotional behavior when his pet became ill.  I do not remember ever doing so myself when our pet sehlat was ill.  We showed concern by logically analyzing all the possible treatment options and selecting one.  As an adjunct incident, the captain inadvertently insulted a member of an alien species for a second time.  His preoccupation with the health of his pet did delay his dealing in a logically diplomatic way with the incident.  But in the end, he was able to overcome his emotional state and convey apologies all around.  Including one to me.  This does show the human ability to adapt in a logical way.  I do believe that we as a people went through a similar process in our growth into a logical species, did we not?

Speaking of difficult species, I do appreciate your tolerance of my ivy plant.  It is native to our home world, and I suspect, that like most natives of our world, it would not thrive among humans.  So do not send it to me. 

Your Content-to-be-an-Unmated-Child-of-a-Still-Un-Remated-Mother

                                                                                                                                             July 1, 2152

Too-Old-to-Not-Yet-Be-Mated Daughter,

A pet sehlat and a part-time housekeeper?   Is this your attempt at that infamous human-style humor?  A sehlat is too much to clean up after at my age and I do not want a stranger messing about in my kitchen.  

I have not heard of this species called Romulans.  They sound primitive and dangerous and whatever their original home world is, I am sure it is quite a wretched place.  I hope the humans have informed our authorities that this species is to be avoided.

Your ivy plant is on seclusion leave.  I have taken it to the Vulcan Science Academy biology department for study.  Do not worry, they will not harm it.  As a favor to me as a fellow Academy professor, they will determine the optimum environment and care for it.   You must have forgotten that it IS NOT native to Vulcan and may have special needs, not unlike the other aliens which we tolerate, in small numbers, on our world.    

I will not say ‘I told you so’ about your report of disappointment in the behavior of your humans.  If they had always behaved in a logical manner there would have been no need for apologies.   Vulcans never have a need to make apologies, only explanations.  Still, it was good of your captain to acknowledge he had been in the wrong.  It shows he is trying to establish better control of his emotions. 

I find no logic in your criticism of my latest articles.  They were perfect, the editors in my peer review group informed me.  I am having them published exactly as they are.

Your Eminently-Publishable Mother

                                                                                                                                  July 13, 2152

Most Esteemed and Published Mother,

Just because I do not often agree with you does not mean I do not value your opinion.  Your views make me think.  They provide a useful counterpoint to test my views against.   The same goes for your articles submitted for publication.

We have “interfered” again.  We have taught a group of alien deuterium miners how to protect themselves against some aberrant bullying Klingons.  I am sure Uncle Soval will have something negative to say about this, but in a small way, we are creating allies in a hostile universe.

I AM working on my sense of humor.  But I was serious about the pet sehlat and housekeeper.  Since humor does not often work on the captain, I am trying it out on our chief engineer with a bit more success.  He often makes comments on my looks so I know I can get his attention.  I try for deadpan, a human term, which is closest to our own kind of humor, though less subtle.  I find his company usually pleasant.

As to something a bit less than pleasant, do you remember that time I came home from a mission for the High Command unsettled?  I do not remember much about it except that you called a healer and I remember being restrained and back boarded out of the house with you looking down at me with great concern.  Well, that has all come back to haunt me but has been satisfactorily, and finally, resolved.  The resolution came through putting my complete trust in my captain. 

My captain, I, and the Enterprise’s helmsman, captured Menos - a fugitive who the High Command recently sent me after so I could finish the assignment that lay uncompleted for seven years.   I would have let this man go free out of the emotion of guilt except for the logical words of my captain “You were sent to apprehend him, not to judge him.”   Under the circumstances, a human’s thinking was more logical than a Vulcan.  I think this is an ironic occurance in the relationship of our two species.  But maybe it is not the first such occurrence in which humans have shown more logic than Vulcans.  

However, we later made the mistake of leaving a communicator on a pre-warp planet whose culture we were studying in disguise.  In the early days of Vulcan space flight, we did some things just as illogical.  In our attempt to retrieve the communicator, our captain and armaments officer were captured along with more communicators, and this time – weapons.   Although we did extract our crew, the devices, and medical files the alien culture had of us, we left them with the impression that we were from an opposition faction on their world and had developed super weapons.  This has caused contamination that we will not be able to control the consequences of.  I do not know which would be worse: them realizing we were aliens or thinking we were from the opposition on their own world.  Only time will tell.  We most certainly should keep an eye on this world.

Your Obedient Daughter, T’Pol

                                                                                                                                 July 28, 2152

My Obedient Again Daughter,

It does sound like your mission has had mixed consequences.   Are you preparing to come home at the end of THIS year?   It is disconcerting that the good repression of your memories concerning Minos has become undone.  I charge this up to your association with humans.  If you were not romping around the universe trying to make new contacts and set the universe right, you would not be creating situations that the Vulcan fleet would have to follow you around repairing.   And through your Uncle Soval I do know you are being watched.  I heartily agree with that.

No news on your ivy plant yet.  It has not written home.

Your Once-Again-Concerned Mother

                                                                                                                                      August 20, 2152

My Esteemed Mother,

You did not teach my ivy plant how to write before you sent it away?  I am deeply disappointed.

Our mission has proven its worth many times over.  For example, we have charted a dangerous singularity with radiation that affects the brain waves of at least two sentient species.  Fortunately there are members of three sentient species on board, and the single member of the non-effected species managed to diagnose the radiation problem before it proved fatal.  

This incident has made me realize that crews on starships which are sent to explore uncharted space would enhance their ability to handle more unforeseen circumstances by diversifying the origin of crew members as much as possible.  Maybe one day we would have crews that included Vulcans, Tellarites, Andorians, Humans, Denobulans, and even Ferengi.  What it would take to establish such crews would be some sort of super alliance of star systems.   I have suggested this to the captain during one of his breakfast meetings with senior crew members.  He nodded his head briefly acknowledging my idea.  I am not sure that the idea will stick with him, but after all, it is, perhaps, thinking too far out of the box.   

I did not really expect any news from my poor tortured-by-the-Science-Academy ivy plant.  But I have also not heard any further news on your remating efforts.  Have the elders given up on you?  I know that THEY know how to write.   They also know how to use voice communication equipment.  Seriously though, I am detecting a greater than usual acerbic tone in your letters.  I think you are often too much alone.

Your Obedient and Concerned Daughter   

                                                                                                                                       September 2, 2152

Concerned Daughter,

There is nothing ‘acerbic’ in my tone.  I, for one, meditate as I should be doing, which I doubt is the case with you.  

Your ivy plant finally wrote, or rather, its caretaker did.  It has launched seeds into the pots of other plants in the lab.  It now has children, which is more than you have.   It may be evicted soon, so I may have to repossess it.

The idea of mixed species crews on star ships is an alarming concept to me.  I mentioned my concern to Soval and was surprised at his bland reaction to it.   Apparently he does not completely reject the concept.  He used your long-term endurance of your human ship as a promising experiment.   But Vulcans serving with Andorians?  Daughter, you must be hallucinating.  Please have your ship’s physician make a thorough check on the state of your health.

As to the remating project, it is again on hold after meeting with one more prospective candidate.  I am not THAT old.  Honestly.  I think our clan elders need the state of their own health checked.

I am enclosing another article.

Your hard-working Mother  

                                                                                                                                           September 19, 2152

My Esteemed and over-worked Mother,

I do not think the clan elders meant to insult you.  Perhaps they were trying to match you with someone of great experience and wisdom?  After all, they did find father for you and that worked out extremely well.  As I said before, he would be hard to replace. 

The storms in space are sometimes extremely dangerous and difficult to avoid.   We had to do some creative rearranging of crew quarters to weather one such.   The well insulated struts between the ship and nacelles of our ship became home to us and some aliens from another ship, for a week.  Tight quarters, but we all adapted well.

The universe is far from empty.  We have made contact with an alien ship which had kidnapped the head of another alien government.  We managed to free her.   We also had an alien fire on one of our shuttlepods, damaging it, with both small ships being stranded on a moon.   Our chief engineer and the alien had to learn to cooperate in order for them to make repairs and return to their mother ships.   I continue to be more impressed with the creativity and intelligence of our chief engineer.  He has blond hair, a unique and frankly, aesthetic feature.   Father’s hair was light like mine is compared to most Vulcans, but not as light as our chief engineer’s.

I made the acquaintance of a certain Dr. Yuris when Enterprise stopped at a world on which the Interspecies Medical Exchange was holding a conference.   Dr. Phlox consulted with him because a common disease on Denobula had similarities to our rare Panar Syndrome.  You mentioned that you know melders and I caution you that Dr. Yuris said three percent of melders suffer from this dangerous syndrome.  There was an incident at the conference that forced Dr. Yuris to reveal that he was a melder and he was sent back to Vulcan in disgrace.  He is not part of the three percent and could be of aid if you know of anyone who suffers from Panar.   I would like your opinion on this disease. 

Your Obedient Daughter, T’Pol

                                                                                                                                         October 5, 2152

My Daughter,

You are worried about me.  Again.  This is a useless emotion.  Please discard it.  To explain why you should discard it, yes, my meditation group knows of Dr. Yuris.  His sister is one of our group.   Neither Dr. Yuris, nor his sister, nor any of my meditation group suffer from Panar, and I certainly do not, if that is what you are concerned about.  They are proper melders.  Only when melding is improperly done, does the disease occur.  Dr. Yuri mentions meeting you in passing but remains silent on the incident which cause his dismissal from the medical exchange.  As Vulcans, we respect people’s privacy on such sensitive matters.  Let us speak of this no further.  

You did not mention your reaction to my latest article.  Was it really that bad, in your opinion?

Your Mother