—Chapter 1—

T'Pol entered her mother's house just as night fell. Three hours earlier, she'd told Commander Tucker that she intended to marry Koss, and told him why, but the man had walked away from her, and that act upset T'Pol much more than she could logically justify. In consequence, she'd spent the intervening time meditating on the Fire-Plains, finally gaining some semblance of control.

T'Les, her mother, was in the kitchen brewing tea, and the elder Vulcan gave T'Pol a questioning glance while gently shaking a teacup.

"Yes, please," said T'Pol and sat down on one of the two couches in the living room.

T'Les joined her daughter a few minutes later, taking her seat on the opposite couch, the tea cups and cast iron pot resting on the coffee table separating the couches.

"Let me guess," said T'Les. "You spoke with Commander Tucker, and you spoke of Koss."

"Am I so transparent?"

"You are to me, daughter," said T'Les. "I take it that your discussion did not go well."

"I do not see any way it could have gone well, mother."

T'Les remained silent for a time, discreetly watching T'Pol without seeming to do so. She had not seen her daughter so dejected and so seemingly lost since her husband, T'Pol's father, had suddenly disappeared out of their lives, forever, and finally T'Les had to speak.

"I know you can not see it now, T'Pol, but this is for the best in the long run."

"You are right, mother. I can not see it, but what must be, must be."

T'Les topped off both tea cups, laid the pot back down upon its cast iron trivet, and said, "You will see the logic of it, when you and Koss are Bonded."

"I have no intention of Bonding with Koss, mother," said T'Pol. "I agreed to be his mate, nothing more."

"The Bond is part of being mated, T'Pol," said T'Les crossly. "You are not only cheating Koss by denying the Bond, but cheating yourself as well."

"Be that as it may, mother, that is none of your business, so stay out of it," said T'Pol. "Last I heard, a mated couple's privacy still meant something on Vulcan."

And with that, T'Les had finally had enough. That her daughter's illogical nature should choose to assert itself so strongly now, when clear headed logic was most needed, was quite irritating, and more irritating still was T'Pol's unmitigated gall in bringing her Human lover home, as if an alien, any alien, would ever make as proper a mate as a Vulcan of Koss' breeding.

"You will do your duty, T'Pol," she said, fixing her gaze upon T'Pol. "Understand that for a fact!"

T'Les studied her daughter closely with a stern look which had frequently paralyzed T'Pol in her youth, but her daughter was made of sterner stuff now, and the foolish girl simply ignored that look, which just further irritated T'Les. Just then, their conversation was disrupted when Trip cleared his throat as he entered the living room, and though both of them looked back at him, Trip only had eyes for T'Pol.

"Join us for tea, Commander," said T'Pol, her voice betraying emotion, even by Human standards.

T'Les looked at T'Pol, and seemed troubled by whatever she saw in her daughter at that moment.

"Thanks, T'Pol, but I think I'll go back to the Fire-Plains. They're really something to see by daylight, must be impressive as hell by night."

"Let me shower and change, and I'll join you," said T'Pol.

"I'd like to go alone, T'Pol. I have some thinking to do. You do understand."

T'Pol nodded her head. Trip was right. She did understand.

"I do, Commander Tucker. I will see you when you return."

"Don't wait up, T'Pol. I'll probably stay there all night long."

"All night long?"

"Yeah, T'Pol. Who knows if I'll ever have the chance to return to Vulcan. The Fire-Plains are something I'd like to remember. I'll see you tomorrow."

The two Vulcans finished the remaining tea in silence.

"Should I brew another pot, T'Pol?"

"No, mother. I've had a long day. I am going to shower, then sleep," said T'Pol, though she suspected sleep would evade her through the night.

A bit later, Trip found a secluded spot a few dozen feet above the lava of the Fire-Plains, and he made himself comfortable on that spot.

Before the hire-car had dropped him off at the Fire-Plains, he'd asked the driver to swing by a Vulcan store where he'd bought a bottle of water and a data-node device with a translator app installed, which would allow him to scan the knowledge base of the Vulcan info-net, a planetary library and Internet rolled into one... and it was there, at the Fire-Plains, that Trip viewed the extensive data files documenting Vulcan mating rituals and the Bonding ceremony which culminated the entire process, learned of the rituals and their antiquity, learned of the psychic bonds between mates, and somewhere in that data Trip found a sense of hope.