Captain Archer was discussing the latest water polo match with Trip when T’Pol arrived with her weekly activity report.
As usual, she waited patiently while Archer looked it over. As usual, she barely acknowledged Commander Tucker’s presence, and as usual, Porthos trotted over and jumped on her leg in order to get attention.
Just as usually, she ignored the animal, to both Archer and Trip’s quiet amusement. Then T’Pol did something very unusual.
”Captain, may I ask you a question?”
Archer looked up from the data padd. “Of course.”
”Why Porthos?”
Archer exchanged a confused look with Trip.
”Excuse me?”
”I said, ‘why Porthos’? Why not Athos or Aramis? Why not D’Artagnan?”
Archer smiled and put the data padd down on his desk. “You’ve read The Three Musketeers, Sub-Commander?”
”No. I was merely curious as to the animal’s name. It seemed uncommon amongst humans, so I checked the ship’s data base. It said the name came from a literary novel by a nineteenth-century author named Dumas, entitled The ThreeMusketeers. It then listed the main characters from the book. If I have been too personal… “
”No, no, not at all. Uhm, well, when I decided to get a dog, a nearby farmer had a litter of puppies for sale. When I went to see them, there were only three left of the original eight. Apparently the three had been the only ones left for quite awhile and had bonded with each other. I commented as much to the farmer when I saw that they went everywhere together. The farmer told me that he called them The Three Musketeers. I laughed because that had been one of my favorite books when I was growing up. I noticed that one of them seemed to be the clown of the bunch. He was a bit more reckless than the other two, and he was the only one with a bandana around his neck. I said to the farmer, ‘That must be Porthos’.” At T’Pol’s curious look, he sighed and nodded in understanding. “The farmer looked at me a lot like you’re looking at me now. He called the pups ‘The Three Musketeers’, but he was clearly not familiar with the book.
”In the novel, Porthos is sort of the comic relief. He’s also quite the dandy, very concerned with his appearance, but when push comes to shove, he’s a very heroic and noble character. That’s why I named him Porthos.”
Trip laughed at this, but T’Pol nodded thoughtfully. “Thank you, Captain.”
She further surprised the two men by looking down at the dog and gently patting him on the head and saying softly, “Thank you, Porthos. That is quite enough for now.”
The little dog responded by quite happily jumping down and returning to his bed in the corner.
With what would be described as a self-satisfied smile on anyone but a Vulcan, T’Pol took her leave.
”Well, I’ll be damned,” Trip murmured.
~*~
T’Pol returned to her quarters later that day to find a box sitting next to the door. She let herself in to the room, and then opened the card taped to the box.
”A gift to repay you for the book you sent me on Risa. I hope you enjoy it. Captain Archer.”
She opened the box and found what looked to be a very old, illustrated copy of Alexander Dumas’ The Three Musketeers.
She leafed through the pages, stopping to look over some of the illustrations, and then perused the contents. She noticed Chapter 25 was entitled, ‘Porthos’. She sat down and opened the book to Chapter One, ‘The Three Presents of D’Artagnan, the Elder’, and began to read.
Fin
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