Chapter 12: Vulcan Telepathy Boot Camp

"Computer, start recording!"

"Computer stop recording!"

"I still do not understand, how the – admittedly disturbing – mental picture of of a cloned child, created for the sole purpose to die, could cause such a violent reaction in Captain T'Pol," Phlox inquired, looking at his new assistant medic for explanation. "And what possible purpose could the creation of a hybrid binary clone serve?"

"Concerning the purpose of creating the clone, the answer is disturbing, but fairly obvious. There have been comparable racist tendencies on Vulcan during the tenure of Administrator V'Las. Many misguided individuals on both worlds claimed that condoning the conception of hybrid offspring would endanger the purity and the very survival of their respective races."

"Subcommander, you can't be serious," Phlox exclaimed in exasperation. "How can a minuscule minority of hybrids endanger a race of billions of individuals?"

"I did not claim those views to be logical, doctor. Creating a hybrid child and letting it die under public scrutiny, would have enabled the perpetrators of that crime to claim that Human-Vulcan hybrids were not viable, in the hope to discourage inter-species relationships, thus adding – however dubious - credibility to their racist views."

"Unbelievable," Phlox muttered wide-eyed. "But that does not yet explain the violent reaction of Captain T'Pol."

"Even if the child would not have born of the womb, T'Pol would have inevitably established a maternal bond, especially considering her extraordinary telepathic abilities. The death of the child would have caused an unimaginable agony by severing that bond and it is unlikely that she would have survived this and subsequently Charles may have lost his life as well, due to the severing of their mating bond. Most full-blooded Vulcan pairs do not share the luxury of such a strong bond. However in such instances it can be a deadly liability."

"I understand," Phlox replied, as he began to understand the magnitude of Soval's explanation. "She realized that this would have endangered her unlikely offspring and her mate. The instinctive Vulcan defensive reflexes caused that violent reaction."

"Indeed. Adding the fact that T'Pol's emotions have always been close to the surface and that Charles is not yet proficient at shielding his mind, her reaction caused a cascading effect, which incapacitated both mates."

"Have you established a recovery regime that will allow both of them to avoid such episodes in the future?" Phlox asked with unconcealed concern. "After all, we cannot risk both of them becoming incapacitated whenever their bond is threatened and I do not know, how many more of these shocks Commander Tucker can overcome."

"The most important task is to improve his telepathic abilities. They are fairly remarkable already, not only for a human and they are only the result of frequent touch-telepathic contact during their neuropressure sessions, according to his own testimony. Touch-telepathic contact is almost negligibly weak in comparison to the intense mental connection of a mind-meld. I recently melded with Charles and I found his mind to be most surprisingly adaptable. If my estimations are correct, he might even reach a level of telepathic ability that might allow him to initiate a mind-meld on his own, although most likely only with T'Pol or possible future offspring."

"Fascinating," Phlox enthused and put one of the recent brain scans of Commander Tucker on the view screen. "I may have a theory about his talent for telepathy. This is the region that has seen constant heightened activity, ever since the bond between Commander Tucker and Captain T'Pol has been known to exist. It is fair to assume that it is the region which adapted to telepathic contact as it is underused in the average human brain. It is part of the region that has received transplanted tissue from the mimetic symbiont. The Lyssarian Desert Larva, which we used to grow the mimetic symbiont did also equip Sim with the complete experience and memories of Commander Tucker. This would only be possible if it possessed considerable telepathic and emphatic abilities."

"I do not know much about this species, but your theory appears to be sound. It would provide a logical explanation for Charles' exceptional disposition to adapt to telepathy and the location of the adapting cerebral region. It certainly warrants further study."

"I must conduct more research on the matter," Phlox babbled with almost overzealous enthusiasm.

"I shall now pay another visit to my patients," Soval interrupted Phlox's ramblings. "It would be prudent to conduct regular brain scans of Charles to validate that the regular mind-melds do not prove too taxing on his mind. There is not much knowledge about the reaction of the human mind to Vulcan telepathic influence."

"I agree," Phlox replied and watched as Soval left sickbay to visit the recovering pair of officers.

Trip opened the door, revealing their visitor to be Soval.

"Come in, 'Subcommander'," he offered with a boyish grin. The thought of the much older and wiser Soval being of equal Vulcan rank as his youthful mate had once been, before she became captain, had been a constant source of entertainment over the last few days. Thankfully, Soval had taken the relentless teasing of the only human member of his clan in good spirit.

"Thank you, Charles," he replied and Trip's grin widened when he saw Soval's very elevated 'brow of mildly annoyed amusement'.

Trip observed the exchange of wordless nods between Soval and T'Pol, before the clan chief addressed them.

"Was your meditation successful?" he asked Trip and the engineer had to remind himself that it was Vulcan tradition to address the male, even if the female was the topic of the conversation.

"Yeah, quite well. I got a bit foggy in the head after an hour, this being my first day without the pain-killers, but T'Pol got in a full five hours."

"Very well," Soval explained. "We shall start your regime of regular mind-melds today. We will keep our first contact short to avoid overtaxing your recovering mind, Charles and we shall extend the duration progressively. For the moment, I will initiate the melds, but once you are sufficiently proficient in the practice, you shall initiate the meld, T'Pol-kan and you will conduct them without my participation in the future."

T'Pol nodded her agreement, as did Trip.

"In addition to improving Charles' telepathic abilities, we must also instruct him in mental shielding techniques to avoid that either of you inadvertently overwhelms the respective mate's emotional control again."

"Agreed." T'Pol consented and joined Trip on the meditation cushions. Soval sat down, facing them and brought his hands to their faces. Trip felt Soval's fingers come to rest on the appropriate contact points on his face before drifting off.

Soval looked around and found himself in an endless, completely void, white space. Raising an interested eye-brow, he turned to observe his two charges, who stood at a comfortable distance and stared at each other in unconcealed awe. As far as he was aware, his niece had only been in two mind-melds – an aborted, coerced one and the clinically medical one, with which First Minister T'Pau had healed her Pa'nar Syndrome. Charles had only experienced the very brief contact, when Soval had evaluated his latent telepathic abilities. It was apparent that the two young minds before him had not expected the exceeding intensity and intimacy that was part of a mind-meld with their respective mate. The wise old Vulcan wondered, how they would react to the even more intimate contact, which would characterize a meld without his participation.

Soval watched Charles approach him, while T'Pol stayed behind, still staring at her mate in disbelieving surprise.

"Isn't much of an interior designer, is she?" the human remarked and waved his arm, pointing at the white vastness inside T'Pol's mind. Almost as expected, the elder noticed T'Pol's eye-roll, which signaled her annoyance.

"The visual presentation of one's mind is a highly subjective decision. While T'Pol-kan's selection may appear ... fairly simplistic, it has no degrading influence on the function of her mind."

"So what does yours look like?" he asked.

Soval was about to start lecturing him about this unseemly curiosity, before reminding himself that a non-curious human was about as unimaginable an idea as a docile Andorian or a well-spoken Tellarite. Remembering that the young human was merely acting naturally, he explained: "I prefer the ancient ruins of Gol for my time of contemplation. It may present an opportunity for your first lesson. Modify the vista to meet your preference."

"How?"

"Try," Soval answered cryptically and watched Trip. He saw how the humans eyes narrowed and the tip of his tongue pressed against the inside of his cheek – a gesture that T'Pol-kan had explained to be an indication of deep thought and concentration.

Mere moments later the trio found themselves in a garishly colored, simplistic looking world. Startled by an increasing howling sound from above, Soval looked up and saw a dark object falling in their direction. Taking a few steps aside he avoided being hit as the charred, black object hit the ground and revealed itself to be a facsimile of an animal, vaguely resembling an Earth canine with an over-sized nose. Its limbs were twisted in an anatomically unsound fashion after the fall.

Bewildered, Soval watched the creature repeatedly giving chase to a bird-like animal, which emitted most peculiar 'meep, meep' sounds, while the canine tried to catch or maul it, which in every attempt ended with the canine suffering some sort of misadventure that defied basic medicine, anatomy and the laws of physics. It was often using physically unsound contraptions apparently made by an entity called 'ACME' and any logical mind would have foreseen the rather unfortunate outcome of such folly.

Looking towards his two charges, he saw Charles sitting on the ground, laughing hysterically, while T'Pol stood nearby, watching her mate with an unconcealed smile. While it was neither unseemly, nor unheard of, for a Vulcan to openly express emotions within one's mind like that, such an unmistakable and lasting display was rather rare, especially if a 3rd party shared the experience.

"You appear to be equally amused by this ... carnage," Soval stated in surprise.

"Not at all," T'Pol said. "It falls into a category of human humor that I have yet to comprehend. Charles calls those sequences 'cartoons'. Although I'm unable to comprehend them, I take great comfort in hearing Trip laugh. It is a source of great emotional contentment."

"Fascinating," Soval uttered and observed Charles's wild display of amusement.

Trip corrected the collar of his shirt, before sitting down in front of the view screen. The next bulk-transmission to Earth was scheduled for the next morning and he was long overdue for a video-message to his folks. The last one had been almost three weeks ago.

"Computer start recordin'!"

"Hi Mom, Hi Dad,

"Thought I'd record a quick message before my two Vulcan drill sergeants show up for the next round of 'Vulcan telepathy boot camp'. Don't worry, it's half as bad as it sounds, in fact I like it a lot."

"You don't get it, darlin'. Ask Hoshi. Oh ... err ... sorry folks. You see, T'Pol just spoke to me in my head again; started last week. While it's sure nice to hear her voice without her being in the same room even, it sure as hell can be confusing, if you're not prepared. And that's not even considering that she can nag the hell outta me and I can't even walk away from it, like dad does when he gets an earful."

"The hell they do, darlin'. Oh ... anyways. Too bad, I can't talk back ... yet. Well I often do, but out loud, which has earned me a few strange looks here and there. Phlox and Soval think that with more training I will be able to, but for now my powers end at flashing her pictures and simple thoughts. Not that it isn't a funny thing, mind you."

"Yesterday Soval had me training to show her pictures by prompt. When he asked me to show her an 'animal used for riding', I flashed her a picture of Porthos with hoofs and a saddle..."

"Sorry, darlin'. Anyways ... folks, you should have heard it. T'Pol actually laughed again – in my mind of course, not out loud, but I swear to god, that's the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. If she wasn't the captain of this boat, I'd be flashing her silly images all day, just to hear it."

"Oooh, a Vulcan zinger before lunch time. She's serious. Gimme a moment folks..."

"Mom, dad, sorry 'bout the interruption, but I had to pull myself together somewhat. As funny as it is to mess with T'Pol's mind, but when we're on duty it can be a serious distraction and I'm still learning to shield my stray thoughts. I hope one day it'll become second nature, but for now I still need to stop what I'm doing to get my shields up. Certainly isn't easy to be bonded to a Vulcan, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It's the best thing that ever happened to me.

"So, how's things over there, dirtside? Hope to hear from you soon.

"Cheers, folks and a peace 'n long life from T'Pol, too."

Instead of flashing her an unmistakable picture, Trip just sank to the floor laughing and he was sure T'Pol would enjoy his radiating mirth much more than an honest answer.

When head nurse Melinda McFadden came to start her shift in the intensive care unit that for over two months had now been housing the still comatose Captain Erika Hernandez, she met a very familiar situation. Wearing a white lab coat, a haggard looking Captain Archer was gently wiping the patient's face with a wet cloth, performing the morning hygiene. That would normally be her own job, but she had given up demanding it back, ever since the Starfleet hero had taken it over without asking anyone, weeks ago.