DISCLAIMER: No profit is intended in the writing of this story. Star Trek - Enterprise and its characters are the property of Paramount and Viacom.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story was written for the X-Mas challenge 2005 of the German fanficparadies archive.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
BETA: Bev, GroovyGoddess, Jazmine.
Perfect
By Olli
Sub Commander T'Pol of the Vulcan supreme command - first officer on the Enterprise - sat in her quarters at her desk. T'Pol's service for today was over, she had eaten and now she had finally the time to dedicate herself to her special project.
The quarters of the Vulcan was illuminated by the light of the stars, which seemed to shine now during the Warp transit even somewhat more brightly as with sub light speed. It was naturally only an optical deception the scientist in T'Pol knew. The only other light spot in her room was the lamp on her desk, which threw a closely limited light cone onto the desk.
Since it had become clear eight weeks ago that T'Pol's participation in this activity was expected; she had trained herself intensively in the subject. She had studied hours after hours the appropriate entries in the databases and had regarded old recordings on this topic. Some aspects appeared still very strange to her; however despite everything, she had to admit that also a certain measure of logic in the whole thing was not to be denied, at least on a very low level and if she didn't analyze the whole procedure all too strictly and purely rationally. She hoped that with this project she would come closer to her goal, which seemed to be at the moment still far away in the distance.
T'Pol had gradually procured for herself all necessary implements, always cautious not to cause attention and to appear as non-involved as ever. Now all the individual parts were on the left side of the desk properly lined up next to each other. On the right side lay in a tidy row the recommended tools. On the monitor of her computer a detailed guidance was to be seen, which she had downloaded with a computer from one of the laboratories, in order to avoid leaving a trace. She didn`t want to think about what could happen if it became known that she called such information up from the computer in her quarters. Before she began with the first point in the guidance T'Pol lifted the principal item of her project and urgently examined it from all sides. All instructions had been obeyed by a hundred percent accurately and this part of her project was now finally finished. Now she had only to produce the camouflage to hide it.
T'Pol put the main component which was already encased back on her desk, threw a glance to the monitor and reached for the first component.
Each movement was implemented with extreme precision. All measures were kept accurately and the necessary components were used with remarkable thriftiness, in order not to uselessly waste any material.
While the Vulcan processed carefully, with scientific precision, each individual point of the guidance, and again and again halted in order to examine the progress of her work, the facial expression of the woman had changed from the typical stoic Vulcan mask to one of strained concentration. She was not under time pressure because it would still be some days until she had to present the final result but she had been grabbed by the ambition not only to make it perfect, but to make it perfect at the first try.
Finally, after nearly one hour of highly concentrated, careful and slow implemented work, T'Pol was finished. The result of her efforts lay before her on the desk, lit from the lamp. The Vulcan sank against the seat-back of her chair and exhaled air noisily through her nose. It was an old Vulcan technique to aid in calming, which was also used by many humans for the same purpose. T'Pol examined the small rectangular object. Her view moved back and forth between her made up part and the example on her monitor, both agreed perfectly. She could not deny a certain measure of excitement. Carefully she touched the object only with the fingertips and held the feather-light construction up and eyed it critically. She turned it back and forth - she had made no error!
Now she had to only find a safe repository until she would need it. After one moment of considering she decided for a hiding place which could almost be called classical: in her wardrobe, behind a pile of towels. Not exactly brilliant but for some days it would be sufficient.
After she had stowed away the object safely in the cabinet, T'Pol eliminated the last traitorous traces and material remains from her desk and then she sat crosslegged on the floor to meditate. While she lighted the candle which helped her to sink into herself, she recognized that candles also played an important role in this human ritual, to which she would soon participate. T'Pol folded her hands in her lap, closed her eyes and breathed deeply in and out. For the umpteenth time she asked herself why she did this and once more she answered the question without saying it aloud: Hoshi meant very much to her and it was logical to demonstrate this to the young woman in a way used by humans.
T'Pol had made a Christmas present for the first time in her life for someone.
The End