As the world falls down (English Version)

Capitolo 10

One day in 2279, at the dawn of her sixteen birthday, T'Dal was home from school and studying a volume of biology that she wasn't in the least interested in that. Amanda and Sarek saw little of her, as she spent a lot of time studying and often spent days at home from school cleaning the house she shared with her adoptive father. T'Dal had no idea when Spock would be back home, but she wanted the house to always be perfectly tidy.

She had carefully filled out her Starfleet Academy application for her and wanted to submit it well in advance. She knew she could apply as soon as she reached the age of majority or when she turned sixteen, after finishing upper secondary school early and for merit. However, she had to have a guardian's signature and she was looking forward to meeting her father so that he could sign the request in person. She could get the request to the Enterprise through her grandfather Sarek as Vulcan's ambassador to the Federation, but it was not logical to delegate her documents to others that belonged to her. In reality, she didn't want to have yet another argument with her grandfather who told her how illogical it was not to stay on Vulcan to continue her studies.

T'Dal would graduate at sixteen years old instead of eighteen years old, two years early thanks to her eidetic memory which allowed her to study effortlessly and this skill of hers was quite rare even among Vulcans. That ease of not only clearly remembering data, but also of making logical connections quickly and broadly was the envy of both schoolmates and adults alike. This skill of hers allowed her to become a tutor for younger students in difficulty especially in the field of biology. It was around this time that teachers assumed that T'Dal would formally submit her request to the Academy of Vulcan Sciences; they began to assign her studies and additional tasks in the fields of biology and engineering, to understand where to direct that promising student and T'Dal studied them, but with disinterest. She didn't feel drawn to either field to make a job of it, but she at least could understand some of the mechanisms.

The Enterprise that had another five-year assignment with James Kirk again as captain - Starfleet command realized that keeping Kirk behind a desk too long was proving counterproductive - and was heading for Earth, where she would become became a training ship for cadets. However, after docking the ship at a star base and letting the officers rest, Jim decided to make a small detour to Vulcan before letting everyone off. He wanted to reunite Spock and T'Dal for at least a few hours, especially since the girl's birthday would be the day after her, he decided to surprise her, which was welcomed by the bridge officers. They would come down besides Jim and Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Uhura and Scotty, these two were starting to date as a couple.

Spock had accepted Jim's proposal with gratitude, he did not like to take time off from work, but he was impatient to be reunited with T'Dal and when they reached the orbit of Vulcan, he agreed to be the first to descend to the surface of the planet. He looked for her daughter before her at Sarek's house and Amanda not finding her, he went under the advice of her mother Amanda, to their house where she found her T'Dal in her room. He found her struggling with a PADD.

Spock looked at her, she was so focused that she didn't notice the sound of her footsteps or maybe recognizing her paternal step she wasn't alarmed.

«T'Dal.»

Hearing herself called, T'Dal looked at him with a very small smile.

«Father. Welcome home. Do you want something to eat? Lunch time has passed, but I can cook for you anyway.» she said quietly looking at the time on an old clock.

They hadn't seen each other for months and she was happy in her heart to see him again.

«It is not necessary to do everything yourself, we will have guests and I am sure they have already replicated everything we need from the Enterprise. What are you studying?» she asked.