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"One Man's Trash" by A. Rhea King
Rating: PG CHAPTER 3 “T’Pol,” Archer said, walking up to her station. T’Pol turned her chair. “Have you seen Amy?” “No. I have not.” “No one has!” Archer looked around the bridge. “I’m sure she is still on board.” “No one has seen her in two days.” Archer looked at T’Pol. “Can you run a bioscan?” “No. She reads as human and we don’t have her DNA profile. I would not find her.” Archer frowned. “Hoshi, call all free hands to the bridge.” “Aye, sir.” # T’Pol stopped and scanned a closed service door. She turned and continued walking along the maintenance tunnel, stopping at each door to scan behind them for any biological readings. T’Pol reached the last door of the tunnel and her scanner lit up with a confirmed scan. T’Pol opened her communicator. “Captain.” “Go ahead.” “I believe I found her. I’m in maintenance tunnel G10 and service entrance X42.” “See if you can talk to her.” T’Pol looked at her communicator. “I do not believe I would be adequate at consoling her, Captain.” “Try. Everyone else is clear on the other side of the ship. She hasn’t eaten or drank anything for three days, T’Pol. Try to coax her into going to the mess hall.” T’Pol looked at the door. “T’Pol?” “I will attempt to console her, Captain.” “That’s all I’m asking, T’Pol. Just remember she’s not a Vulcan. She’s part Suliban and human; she’s going to be very emotional.” T’Pol closed her communicator and put it in her other hand with the scanner. She reached out and entered the security code for the door. It clicked open and swung back a few millimeters. T’Pol slipped into the room, spotting Amy lying on the floor with her back to the door. T’Pol approached the child, kneeling beside her. “Amy,” T’Pol said. She didn’t respond. She drew a shaky breath, putting her hands over her face. T’Pol’s lips pressed together and she looked back at the door. “Why’d he leave me?” Amy whispered. “What did I do? Do you think if I fix whatever I did he’d come back and take me with him?” T’Pol looked around at Amy’s back. “I do not believe you did anything wrong, Amy. He simply desired you stay here.” “Why?” “I am uncertain.” “I did something wrong. He wouldn’t have left me if I didn’t.” “As I...” T’Pol stopped, looking at the floor. She knew she was doing a terrible job of comforting the child. T’Pol flicked open the communicator in her hand and stared at it for a several long minutes. She flicked it closed. “I believe Keva desired you to stay with ones similar to your own kind, Amy. He felt you might be more comfortable here and safer. These are the opinions of Captain Archer and several other crewmen.” “Do you think that’s why?” “I cannot be certain without talking directly to Keva.” “Do you think he’s going to come back?” “I cannot say.” “I was bad. I know I was and that’s what made him leave” “I do not believe you acted in such a way that made him decide to leave you here.” “How can you be certain?” “I never saw you behave in a way that was inappropriate, disruptive or deviant, Amy. Therefore, I do not believe that was the reason he left you here.” Amy was silent for a while. T’Pol looked up, hearing a sound in the tunnel, but no one appeared in the door. She looked back at Amy. “I would like you to accompany me to the mess hall, Amy.” Amy didn’t move. T’Pol looked back at the door, wondering what was taking the others so long. “Maybe he was mad because I said I liked it here with the humans and the Jit and you and Doctor Phlox.” T’Pol looked around at Amy. “You do?” “Yeah. None of you have treated me like I was something bad. And Navta and Eartik play with me and they share their things with me. Darta and Yer never did that.” “Perhaps that statement made him feel comfortable with his decision to leave you with us.” “Abandon me with you. Like I was trash.” T’Pol softly sighed. She felt like she was making no progress and it was frustrating her. T’Pol looked back at the communicator in her hand, debating about what she should do now. She looked back at Amy when she heard the child sniff. T’Pol recalled a time she had seen Navta crying. Archer had laid his hand on her head and stroked the young Jit’s hair. The action had effectively worked at comforting the child. T’Pol reached down and gently stroked Amy’s hair. Suddenly Amy sat up and crawled into T’Pol’s lap, wrapping her arms around T’Pol’s neck and bursting into tears with her face pressed into T’Pol’s shoulder. T’Pol, surprised by the action, sat still for several minutes. She sat the scanner and communicator beside her and gingerly put her arms around Amy. Slowly her grip tightened until she was firmly holding the child to her. T’Pol recalled Archer doing the similar thing with Navta and she had overheard what he was saying when he spoke in whispers to her. T’Pol tucked her chin and spoke quietly to Amy, repeating the words she recalled hearing Archer say. In the maintenance tunnel Archer tilted his head toward the door, catching some of what T’Pol was telling the child. He smiled, thankful she had let her guard down enough to console Amy. Archer slowly got up and crept away. # Hoshi wished there was a clock, or some other noise other than the drone of the engines to fill the silence of Archer’s ready room. She didn’t understand what his silence meant, but he hadn’t spoken since she’d stopped talking and it was worrying her. “I’m not disappointed, for one,” Archer finally said. “Not in the least.” Archer met her gaze. “Sir, I--” “Hey! You had your five minutes, now it’s my turn.” Hoshi had to smile at his joke. Archer returned it. He turned his chair and without getting out of it, walked over to her so they were face to face. “I respect your plans for when I get back. You know, now that I have entertained the thought, I realize I don’t have any plans. I don’t think many people on this ship do. So I’m glad to hear that you do, and you’re an excellent teacher, Hoshi. You excel at it. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t make it your career. I am sad to hear you won’t be teaching at the Academy, but that’s your choice and I would be wrong to try to persuade you any other way.” Archer smiled. “Now about the promotion. Accept it. Just because you accept it doesn’t mean you’re expected to stay in Starfleet and especially not by me. And believe me, I know that you came on board white knuckles around the edges of your seat.” Archer chuckled. “Do you know that most of the time we go to warp I can still remember you telling me they need to put seat belts on the seats? I always think about that.” Hoshi laughed, shaking her head. “I didn’t know that.” “Well I do. You’ve made an impression a lot of the crew and me, Hoshi. I want you to accept this promotion because it says a lot about you. You’ve earned it. I think you earned it four years ago, but every time I submitted the request it was turned down.” “You’ve made requests for my promotion before now?” Hoshi asked, surprised by the information. “Yes!” Archer laughed. “You’ve earned it, Hoshi. Are you hearing me? Long before you were saving crewmen in floods, stealing ice cream,” he and Hoshi both laughed, “or putting your life before mine, you had earned it. On the same note, I also won’t force you to accept it and I would respect your decision.” “But I’ll have to do more work, sir,” Hoshi said with a sly smile. “Well, there is that.” Archer smiled. “And you may find yourself suddenly in charge of the bridge if you’re the only senior officer on it, but short of that there won’t be a lot of changes. I want you right where you’ve always been on my bridge. I’m comfortable when you’re there and so is the rest of the bridge crew. So take it. And when we get back to Earth, I’ll write you a gleaming letter of recommendation and pull all the strings needed to get you your position at the university.” Hoshi smiled. “Promise, sir?” “Oh yeah.” Hoshi nodded. “In that case I’ll accept it.” “Thank you.” Hoshi nodded. The two stood and Archer held his hand out to her. Hoshi took it and they shook hands. She turned to leave and stopped, turning back to him. “Sir?” “Yeah?” “Permission to speak freely, sir?” “Granted.” “Don’t take this the wrong way, sir,” Hoshi said and then threw her arms around his neck in a vicious hug. “THANK YOU!” Archer laughed, hugging her back. “You are welcome, Hoshi!” Archer sighed, patting the back of her head. “You’re welcome.” Hoshi let go, falling back two steps. Archer smiled at the bright smile she was wearing. “I just have to ask you one question, sir.” “What’s that?” “Do I have to still call you sir and Captain when I’m out of Starfleet?” “No.” “That’ll be nice. Good-day, sir.” Hoshi spun and strode out of the ready room with a smile.
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