Bloom

By Tegan

Recently I'd begun to realise that anything Human is seen by Sarek's relatives and colleagues as my area of expertise; therefore, I am used as a primary resource. As such, I have decided to promote Human knowledge and practice by actively enjoying typically Human hobbies... much to the annoyance of my new Vulcan family.

My latest hobby is gardening. Not farming, but a real attempt to paint the grounds with colour. The main difficulty is that Vulcans use vegetation as food and plants are cultivated solely on the equation of water storage versus nutritional content. I have managed to transplant some of the native flowering plants that grow wild in the desert and placed them into an aesthetically pleasing arrangement under the east wing. A monumental task since I had no input from my husband, except his consistent warnings about their toxins.

Considering that my only pervious experiences with flora were the cut flowers that Sarek sometimes sent to my office, I'm not doing too badly. However, flowers here have little vibrant colour and in remembrance to the afore-said gifts from Sarek, I longed for the chance to grow a decent flower like a red rose. I often complained as much, so when Mum sent over a rose cutting in a solid post, I was overjoyed.

It has taken me eight months to get that rose started and a further two months to get it to flower. However, against all odds a bud appeared last week and I was overjoyed, at least something from Earth was blooming here!

As a celebration I invited Sarek's clan to visit my garden for a party; actually it was more of an attempt to heal the recent frictions between T'Pau and myself. The rose bloom was the main highlight of the tour.

The party was going wonderfully. T'Pau was silent, Skon, Sarek's father, was 'fascinated' by my attempt at a rock garden and Sarek was successfully convincing two members of the Vulcan Command to let Starfleet use Vulcan spacedock for regular refits.

Then Sorel came to see me in private and to explain that my fertility tests were negative, again re-quoting those dire odds of my ever getting pregnant.

...followed by T'Pau, who magnanimously declared that my rose bloom may have been 'little', but was extremely delicious.