Understanding

Summary: A fleeting moment of understanding.

Disclaimer: Property of Paramount, no money made, etc., etc.

A/N: Takes place fairly early in Season 1.

Shuttlepod Two was silent as Lieutenant Reed piloted it back to Enterprise. Commander Tucker, usually outspoken, was silently taking stock of his injuries, which were numerous. 

T'Pol found herself with conflicting sets of observations. Commander Tucker was loud, arrogant, juvenile, and overly emotional. Most significantly, he was both unprepared for and unconcerned with the responsibilities associated with extensive interstellar travel. In short, he personified nearly every trait that her people found objectionable about his.

He was not, however, lacking in intelligence. His knowledge of Enterprise and the engines in particular was vast. He was able to make connections that were integral to mathematical concepts not yet articulated by humans. T'Pol had received more than satisfactory reports in her engineering classes, and Commander Tucker did not have the advantage of those learned professors, but he had an innate, well-nurtured ability to comprehend engineering that she would never possess.

Therefore, T'Pol could not explain his failure to see a simple cause and effect scenario.

Rescuing him had preceded precisely according to Lieutenant Reed's plan. The child slave traders Commander Tucker had interrupted and been captured by were not sophisticated, and the Jenragl government had been eager to assist with information. T'Pol concluded that they were pleased to have an opportunity to arrest several of the slavers' leaders. That was obvious by the delight with which Jenragl personnel had made their arrests.

One in the slavers' underground complex, it had not been difficult to locate the commander. She and Lieutenant Reed had only to follow Commander Tucker's loud voice as he insulted his captor's parentage, honor, physical strength, and, most alarmingly, sexual prowess. Never had T'Pol heard such creative invectives. Despite multiple injuries, he continued to insult the slaver beating him. It was entirely illogical.

"Commander," she finally asked, "may I ask why you did not associate your epithets with the severity of the beating you received?"

He looked up slowly. "Do you really think I'm that stupid?"

She would not have thought so, but she had witnessed his actions. "You wished to be beaten?"

"Well, not exactly."

The conversation was becoming progressively more convoluted. "I do not understand."

"I didn't want to get beaten, but you saw the little girl, right?"

"Yes. Her parents were most grateful for our role in her rescue."

Despite a disfigured jaw, the commander smiled slightly. "Her name's Kenpriedez. An' that bastard slapped her so hard.... he wasn't gonna stop there, either. Needed to scare his slave into submission, you know." Disgust was evident in Tucker's voice. "See, Sub-Commander, I didn't want that beatin.' But I'd rather take it than see an innocent girl get it."

"You insulted your captor in order to draw his anger," she concluded.

"Yeah. Not much of a plan, but there wasn't much else I could do tied up."

"Painful, but effective," declared Reed from the helm. "Nicely done, sir."

Privately, T'Pol thought this commitment to the welfare of a child, even one not of his race with whom he had no association whatsoever, merited comment in the High Command's highly classified file on Tucker. "Improvisation is a common talent among humans," she said by way of reply.

"Is that your way of sayin' you approve?"

"As you are no doubt aware, Vulcans are not prone to taking extreme measures. We make exceptions when the welfare of a child is at stake. While I doubt that I would have undertaken the same course of action, your goal was worthwhile."

He moved his legs and flinched in pain. "Best of all, it worked."

"Indeed. However, you are in need of medical attention. According to my scan, you have seven individual injuries, and that does not include the bruising you are beginning to display."

"Only seven?"

She raised an eyebrow instinctively. "If you wish, I can perform the scan again."

"It was a joke, Sub-Commander."

And thus T'Pol's brief moment of understanding Commander Tucker came to an end.