the delphic expanse

I have always held out the intention of writing a Trip & T'Pau story... She would have first learned about him from the mind meld with T'Pol and become intrigued after reading Soval's reports of his courage standing up to both Vulcan and Andorian warships to help free her homeworld. After summoning him and discovering his oh so intoxicating scent, insist he remain to personally negotiate technology sharing - and complete his neuropressure training by revealing the postures are to be performed in the nude.

Of course, I'm a die hard TnT'er, so my story would most probably end with T'Pol turning T'Pau into a smoking corpse with a phase plasma rifle borrowed from Malcolm.

I've always been very curious what was going through T'Pau's mind during and after that mind meld. I'd always assumed she would have been at least a little disgusted by the idea of a human and a Vulcan being intimate. The thought that she might have been intrigued by or attracted to Trip is really an interesting premise.

I don't know that she would be so disgusted. After all, as a Syrranite, with knowledge of the true intent behind Surak's teachings, she may see T'Pol's relationship with Trip as the ultimate expression of IDIC.

Aquarius wrote:I don't know that she would be so disgusted. After all, as a Syrranite, with knowledge of the true intent behind Surak's teachings, she may see T'Pol's relationship with Trip as the ultimate expression of IDIC.

I agree. And if we take TOS into account, T'Pau personally presides over Spock's marriage ceremony during his pon farr. His father has married a Human woman, but Sarek is still Vulcan's ambassador to the Federation. Surely that's a mark of some approval, or at least acceptance, from the elderly T'Pau. She's opinionated and forceful in her logic, but I think she values Surak deeply and so would value too an obvious, if unusual, example of IDIC.

I think I read somewhere that at one point, T'Pol was going to BE T'Pau but the show creators decided not to go that route and changed the name of the Vulcan character.

It's entirely possible that T'Pau has personal interest in Sarek and Amanda's family *because* of her experience with T'Pol.

And...I just got a smile thinking about this...if T'Pau is alive in TOS, it's possible that T'Pol is, too!

Extremely likely. According to Memory Alpha, T'Pol's birthday is supposed to be 2088 and Spock's is 2230. That makes T'Pol 142 when Spock is born, well within range of being around at the time of TOS.

(It's something I kept in mind when I wrote "Circle in the Sand". I.e. T'Pol would have been alive at the time Sarak and Amanda were married, and when Spock was born.)

There's an alternate mirrors profic that imagines T'Pol being alive at the time of TOS - though the universe has changed.

Honeybee wrote:There's an alternate mirrors profic that imagines T'Pol being alive at the time of TOS - though the universe has changed.

Yeah! She has a conversation with a young Kirk, who's just about to take command. It's a lovely though kind of sad story.

Wow, I've gotten really off topic here. Sorry about that Kevin!