Chapter 10: Past Deeds

Bloody Norah, it's just a bloody bathtub! Malcolm berated himself mentally for his treacherous body, which gave away his terror by shaking and shivering. He realized that T'Pau had not let go of his hand, even though it was wet from ice-cold sweat rather than the hot water.

"We must look like quite the picture," he snorted, trying to hide his uneasiness behind British sarcasm. "Hoshi must be so pleased with herself. You couldn't have done it any better if you planned it."

"I believe she did plan it," T'Pau said, slowly releasing his hand. "She correctly surmised that I would be curious and try the facility in private. You meanwhile are a fighter. After having been seen quite vulnerable during the mind-meld, she foresaw that you would try to face your fear in private, trying to battle it, rather than repeating the mind-meld."

"By setting us up in here together, she didn't exactly improve the privacy part, did she?" he said, satisfied that the shivering started to subside.

"I believe that to be part of her plan," T'Pau analyzed. "Realizing that bathing without any clothing is a most agreeable sensation is a finding that I could have made in private, yet I would have escaped the real issue – being in company of others while doing so. I doubt I would have taken this course of action if I had known that I would not be alone. And I would venture to say that you might have backed out of your intention to overcome your fear if it wasn't for my presence."

"She had us worked out quite well," Malcolm said with admiration.

"Indeed," she agreed. "In hindsight it is now clear why the facility was available for booking so shortly after the end of the day shift – a time which would logically see it in high demand.

"And incidentally just before their usual congregation," Malcolm added with a sly grin.

"Do you think she is trying to impart some sort of message on us?"

Malcolm threw his head back in laughter. "Why do people think that Vulcans don't have a sense of humor?"

"We rarely get the chance to demonstrate the talent," T'Pau explained dryly before fixing him with an inquisitive look. "How are you doing?"

"Better than I thought," Malcolm admitted. "Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea not to go in here alone. Once I am in the water, it's okay. The real test will be if I can get into it again."

"It can be easily tested." T'Pau said with a raised eyebrow.

"Righto... ," Malcolm sighed and got out of the water.

"Hostile contact on two-five-six mark three," the young Vulcan behind the tactical console reported calmly. "They are taking heavy fire."

"Bring us between them and the attacker," Lorian ordered with the calm of someone, who had commanded battles for almost a century. The distress call had reached them shortly after they started their first patrol flight. With two Kumari class cruisers, the two NX-class vessels Soyuz and Endurance and four D'Kyr class frigates, Lorian had a well balanced squadron at hand to save the beleaguered ship from the Romulan sneak attack. The decision to attack with just two war birds seemed patently illogical.

"Fire at will," Lorian ordered without looking back at the tactical console. Despite his relative youth, Lieutenant Lorak did not need any reassurance by the captain. Without answering the captain's command, he released a full volley of nine torpedoes at full spread, garnished with several blasts from the phase cannons.

"That was way too easy," Lorian muttered when the warbird exploded in a huge fireball. "Direct fire at second hostile."

Lorak still did not see any necessity in verbally acknowledging the Captain's orders and just carried them out in a calm and calculated manner. Despite the same payload as in the first volley, the second warbird merely took damage as opposed to the first one.

"As we thought," Lorian analyzed calmly despite the ship being rocked by disruptor hits. "They have taken the cloaking device out of some of their ships. Concentrate on their propulsion systems Lieutenant."

"Their shields are down to twenty percent, our own holding at sixty," Lorak reported when a second volley of torpedoes impacted the Romulan vessel.

"What is the status of the ship in distress?" the captain asked.

"They are venting atmosphere. The Tar'hana has docked with them to provide help.

"Keep them shielded," Lorian instructed Karyn Archer, who expertly flew without the need of constant directions. For someone used to keeping an ailing ship out of weapons range of Kovalaan battle cruisers, creative evasive maneuvers were second nature.

"Hostile destroyed," Lorak reported when the second warbird self-destructed after a crippling hit from Endurance's phase cannons.

-=/\=-

"Bloody hell," a shaking Malcolm swore as he lowered himself into the water for the fourth time. "How hard can it be to enter a bloody bath tub?"

"It is illogical to expect that you can overcome a life-long fear in just an hour," T'Pau said. "A promising start has been made however."

"Well, you seem to do quite well in comparison," Malcolm replied as the shaking subsided.

"A perk of being Vulcan," she explained dead-pan. "We are good at keeping up appearances. Just because you cannot see my uneasiness does not mean it doesn't exist."

"I can't really get my head around it," he confessed, trying to start a conversation to distract himself from his fear. "What did the High Command gain from making Vulcans believe that taking off their clothes for a bath was deviant?"

"It was the most easily available false pretense to outlaw the ritual communal baths of Vulcan clans. I admit I did not make the connection until the Eldest Mother alerted me to it."

"And in which way were naked Vulcans taking a bath threatening the High Command exactly?" Malcolm asked with a perplexed look.

"It was not the activity that threatened them, it was the fact that the clan members met at all," T'Pau explained. "When wars among clans were eradicated, after the time of awakening, it was no longer necessary for clan members to settle within the clan's territory. Vulcans of our time do settle where it is convenient. Over the centuries the communal baths at the height of summer became the last congregation of the whole clan in one place. By eliminating this ritual the High Command had a most powerful tool to diminish the influence and social cohesion of the clans."

"If it wasn't so dastardly, you could almost admire their cleverness," Malcolm said.

"Indeed," T'Pau agreed and an eyebrow rose when she saw three new entrants in the facility. Krei Charles, T'Pol and Hoshi stood near the pool. The humans wore most amused face expressions.

"I hope you've saved some hot water for us," krei Charles stated, while he removed his bathrobe. The three joined them in the bath tub.

T'Pau saw Hoshi take the place next to Malcolm where she rewarded him with a kiss. "I'm so proud of you."

"Don't praise me. Thank the young lady over there. Without her I would probably have backed out."

"How fortuitous then that there has been a 'misunderstanding' with the bookings," T'Pau said dead-pan, much to the amusement of the three humans.

a week later...

Trip sat in his office, pleased with the progress over the last week. The ship was progressing faster than expected. Especially the seemingly inexhaustible Vulcans were a real asset. They easily pulled 24 hour shifts without looking as much as mildly tired. If they could keep up this rate of progress, the ship could well be finished ahead of time, but ten years in the engineering corps had taught him not to be too optimistic, something could always go wrong.

On the private front things seemed to progress nicely, too. With all the entertainment facilities on the Galena, life on Jupiter station made him almost forget that they were at war. He was really happy for Malcolm, who seemed to make good progress in his quest to overcome his fear of water. He and T'Pau had become 'training partners' in their joint quest to overcome their specific fears associated with using the bathing facilities, occasionally joined by Hoshi, who would have to take over 'Malcolm watch' once T'Pau returned to Vulcan. They usually commandeered the facility an hour before the regular neuropressure training with Hoshi, making sure to keep the spa free at the time and he and T'Pol would join later.

Progress for Malcolm was slow, but steady. He still had problems entering the bathtub without either T'Pau or Hoshi nearby and everything deeper than 1.20m was basically impossible. An attempt to jump into the 'water hole' after a sauna session had ended in a massive panic attack after his head had been submerged in the water. But at least he was now able to enter the spa without freaking out and given enough time, he was sure that one day Malcolm would prevail over the traumatic experiences of his childhood.

In T'Pau's case he was willing to bet a substantial sum that her problem didn't even exist anymore. He was convinced that the petite leader of the High Council merely used 'getting used to it' and her status as the only companion beside Hoshi, whom Malcolm trusted enough to help him enter a bathtub, as an excuse to use the spa. Of course for someone supposed to out-Vulcan the rest of the planet it was somewhat difficult to admit to having taken a shining to skinny-dipping. The give-away was T'Pau's all too eager acceptance of T'Pol's offer to use T'Les' former house – now their possession – for a light spot of private, naked sun-tanning. It was hardly an activity she could enjoy in the council chambers, although he wouldn't put anything past the spunky youngster. After all she wasn't supposed to go on a bender with a bunch of Andorians either.

She was also hardly the only Vulcan, who had discovered how much 'agreeable time' could be spent in a facility with several bodies of water. T'Len was a rocket in the big swimming pool, making the best Humans and Andorians look like lame ducks and she and Sonos were regular users of the Spa, as were Amanda and Terval and if rumors about unmistakable noises were any indication, the Eldest Mother needed no longer wonder if the two regarded mating a part of their courtship. Not that he would have pegged Amanda for the celibate type anyway.

Of course Feezal and whoever happened to be her troubadour of the day were regular items on Hoshi's booking list, too. Trip started to wonder if he and T'Pol were the only ones, who hadn't done the nasty in the sauna yet. He could definitely scratch Malcolm and Hoshi off the list after the two of them had 'discreetly retired' to the sauna last night, completely forgetting that he and T'Pol were still there. Thankfully T'Pau had already left. He certainly wasn't going to complain about T'Pol's enthusiasm once they had reached their quarters, though.

Chuckling, he directed his stray thoughts back to the documents before him, which mainly were engineering reports about the ship's production and several research projects dealing with improving Malcolm's newly evolved force-fields and the non-organic matter re-sequencer.

The beep of the communications console interrupted his thought process. Pushing the connection button, he was greeted by the face of Admiral Gardner.

"Admiral."

"Fleet Captain, you have your offspring incoming with a Kriosian ship in tow."

Trip felt a distinct uneasiness.

"They had a run-in with two Romulan warbirds and we want you to repair that ship. The Kriosians have so much Dilithium, it's coming out of their ears. We need to foster good relations with them, something I'm told you have a bit of a head start on."

"Why do they drag that thing here across half the galaxy," Trip asked. "We didn't exactly rebuild Salem One as a decoration."

"Tucker, First Monarch Kaitaama herself is on that ship," Gardner replied. "She was slated to arrive here a week ago for formal association talks between the Coalition and the Kriosian Empire. But that was before the Rommies decided to shoot at them. We can hardly park her on a remote outpost with someone as 'diplomatic' as Rear Admiral Zhukov.

"Archers logs said that you had struck some cord with her. We need your help on this one. None of us knows their secret hand shake," Gardner concluded bluntly.

"I'll do my best, Admiral," Trip sighed.

"See that you do. They'll arrive tomorrow," the Admiral said and terminated the connection.