Chapter Five: Doctors and Nurses

 "Seeing anything you find interesting, Doc?" the shirtless pilot said with a cheeky grin. 

Torgas returned the playful smile.

"It's 'Doctor', if you don't mind Group Captain, and, no, you appear to be in perfect health. You're cleared for duty."

Group Captain Daniel Townshend stayed put, not bothering to reach for his uniform, still grinning dumbly at the doctor.

Townshend had, of course, read some about Plexarians, since they had just recently been fully admitted into the UFP, but, of course, this was his first actual interaction with one. The stories he'd heard didn't fully do the experience justice.

Doctor Torgas' features were stunning. Chiselled jawline, with graceful, doe-eyes and high cheekbones. Broad shoulders with well toned arms and supple wrists. Small but well defined breasts. Smooth, clear, silver-grey skin with long golden hair tied into a neat pony tail.

In short, Dr. Torgas possessed every trait considered to be attractive on both a male and a female while not clearly defining either. A prime example of a Plexarian as Townshend had ever imagined.

"Relax, fly-boy," Torgas chuckled to him, their...(ITS, Townshend reminded himself, Torgas prefers 'it') its smile showing amusement at the pilot's clear attraction. In fact, Townshend hid his clear surface infatuation with Torgas about as well as a Mugato could dance ballet.

"This is only going to be strictly professional. Can't have you seizing up in the cockpit, after all. It would set a terrible example to your squadron."

The twinkle in his eye betrayed that Townshend was going to make a likely off colour comment. Fortunately, the door in sickbay opened just at that moment.

T'Upok almost stumbled into the room, her hair dishevelled and her breathing laboured. She glanced, wide-eyed around the examination room, seeming to take in all the details around her, her gaze settling on Townshend's bare chest momentarily.

Torgas cleared its throat.

"What can I do for you, Commander?" it asked, concern for the Vulcan barely concealed in its voice.

"I... I require your assistance, Doctor," the science officer huffed out, "I am... desperate."

Torgas walked to T'Upok with some trepidation in its step. Pale green flushing was visible on T'Upok's cheeks and perspiration stood out on her brow.

"Desperate how, T'Upok?"

"You are, I trust, familiar with Vulcan biology and our mating cycle?"

At this question, Townshend's back stiffened. He was all too familiar with pon-farr and its effects on Vulcans. More importantly, he was familiar with its effects on non-Vulcans caught in its path.

"Are you telling me it's time, Commander?" Dr. Torgas asked.

"Yes!" the Vulcan nearly shouted. "You need to help me! My blood boils!"

Townshend began pulling his uniform back on clumsily. 

"You know there aren't any medications I can give you, T'Upok. You need to mate with someone. A Vulcan, preferably, but, in a pinch, any male would suffice."

T'Upok immediately set her eyes back on the now panicked Group Captain and began advancing on him, breathing and grunting like an animal.

With that, Daniel Townshend, uniform top half-on, babbled something apologetic and nearly sprinted from the examination room.

T'Upok slowly turned to Torgas...

And burst out into laughter. The doctor joined her.

"You know, that will never get old, T'Upok," Togas said after a moment of calming its laughter.

"I know, right? And it's far too easy."

Torgas and T'Upok had served together for over a year, and, as ship's doctor, Torgas was privy to the entire crew's medical history. This, obviously, included T'Upok.

Torgas was well aware that T'Upok was only half Vulcan on her mother's side.

T'Upok's mother was a Vulcan scientist who had, while on assignment to Earth, undergone pon-farr and, out of necessity, mated with a human man. They bonded some when it was discovered that T'Upok had been conceived and, her father, who had been, in reality, a local thief and confidence artist, tried to go straight for his future child. Sadly, however, the universe had other plans. T'Upok's mother died giving birth to her.

Her human father knew very little about Vulcan traditions and was prone to making unfortunately timed jokes, and so, T'Upok was given a "traditional Vulcan name", which just so happened to be nearly identical to a 300 year old musician from Earth.

T'Upok's father raised her the best he could, trying to remain on the straight path and enrolling her in school, where she excelled in astrophysics and xenobiology. While life wasn't exactly idyllic, father loved daughter and daughter loved father. Time, however, wasn't on their side.

Eventually, as with any Vulcan, or even half-Vulcan, pon-farr arrived. Neither T'Upok nor her father was prepared for the sudden and uncontrollable release of hormones and pure emotions the girl experienced. In his effort to sooth his daughter, T'Upok's father merely succeeded in angering her. 

In a blind, hormone-induced rage, she flung him through the second floor window on their home, nearly killing him in the process. 

While he recovered in the hospital, T'Upok decided she needed to try and find some balance with her Vulcan half. She travelled to Vulcan to seek anyone who might have experience with a similar situation. It was here she found T'Pring and Stonn. She learned that T'Pring had been the betrothed to Spock, the somewhat legendary half-human son of Sarak, and, therefore, might be able to help T'Upok.

T'Pring and Stonn spent several years teaching the young Vulcan the ways of Surak and how to suppress her emotions and think in pure logic. T'Upok was tutored in the benefits of complete stoicism.

And T'Upok found all of this teaching to be frustrating and useless. She was, after all, human, as far as she was concerned. Her father was, so she was. Her mother's Vulcan existence was nothing to her, as her mother was a stranger.

Finally, T'Pring and Stonn explained Spock had found his balance in Starfleet, so, at 70 years old, T'Upok commissioned into service.

It was in Starfleet that T'Upok learned the advantages of hiding her human nature from most others. It made them underestimate her. 

"So what brings you into sickbay, T'Upok?" Dr. Torgas asked, the laughter having finally left the pair.

"Ah. The new captain's on board. Have you had a chance to meet him yet?"

"Not officially, no," the doctor replied, "but he's asked me to report to his quarters at 1800."

T'Upok raised an eyebrow.

"Curious."