He Who Fights with Monsters - Part 4

He Who Fights With Monsters

By Thalia Drogna

Rated: R
Genre: Action/Adventure; Angst; Hurt/Comfort

Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters, I’m just borrowing them.

~~~

Sharien explained that the cannon had been built around an inherently unstable power supply. It was a stable element from the Kriel universe, but when it was brought into the Tien universe it became unstable. They used the instability to create the power that they needed for the cannon, it was experimental and they hoped to be able to apply the technology to their inter-reality engines. The engines were as old as the Vor Devrees, they had no idea how they worked and therefore no way to repair them. But they knew they probably only had one jump left in them. They needed to find an alternate way to move between the universes.

The power supply was kept from going critical by a series of control fields. The fields were monitored and manipulated by the computer to keep the element from becoming unstable, and the computer was controlled by the Matriarch. When the Matriarch died, the control fields were no longer being adjusted to keep the element in check. As the control fields failed the element would go critical and whilst it was part of the weapon it would create a rift and suck the Vor Devrees back to the universe that the element came from. Sharien had outlined her plan, disconnect the power supply and jettison it into space where the radiation from its instability would do no harm.

Travis piloted the shuttle expertly towards the docking bay of the Vor Devrees. On their way to the Vor Devrees they passed the fleet of life pods that was the Tien evacuation. The remains of the fighter squadrons were flying escort duty, in case any Vor fighters remained. The Rel Sevanne was almost empty now, and the life pods were fleeing on full power to get away as quickly as possible.

The docking bay was completely open to space, so they had to put on the EVA suits before disembarking from the shuttle. They left Travis in the shuttle ready to make a swift departure if they needed it. Archer, T’Pol and Hayes carried phase pistols, but Archer had refused to give either Shar Jen or Sharien a weapon, although he had untied the Kriel weapons master. Archer had tried to persuade Shar Jen to stay with the Tien but she had refused, stating that they were trying to save her people and she couldn’t let them do that without her. If she wanted to put herself in danger, who was Archer to stop her. They made their way to the exit from the docking bay, once again having to bypass the control panel in order to get the door open.

“We’ll keep the EVA suits on,” said Archer. “I’m guessing we may need them to get to the cannon, if some of corridors we need to use are open to space.”

“Large areas of the ship are decompressed,” said T’Pol, looking down at her scanner. “The superstructure, although damaged, seems to be holding.”

“Life signs?” asked Archer.

“A small number of faint life signs, I detected some life pods from the Vor Devrees on our journey here, I would infer that most of the Kriel have already fled,” said T’Pol. She didn’t have to add that it was only the injured and dying who were left, the ones who were trapped without hope of rescue, abandoned by their Kriel comrades.

Sharien led the way through the dark, twisting corridors of the Vor Devrees. They were going towards the Vor Devrees Armoury, it was on the same deck as the docking bay but forward of their current position. Sharien had estimated that it was about twenty minutes’ journey to the Armoury, it would then take another twenty minutes to disconnect the cannon from its power supply. It wasn’t as easy as just pulling the plug, Sharien had explained to them that if the circuits were disconnected in the wrong order they would be sucked into the Kriel universe, in the same way as if the power source overloaded. That was how she had known that it hadn’t been destroyed in the crash, if it had they would all have been dead. It was going to be like diffusing a bomb.

Not for the first time Archer wished that he had Malcolm and Trip with him. Hayes had proved himself an efficient soldier but he didn’t have Malcolm or Trip’s technical knowledge. Hayes certainly wasn’t stupid, but there were days when Archer thought he’d cut himself on the sharp edge of those two officers’ intelligence, and never more so than when the two of them were working together. They sparked creativity in each other, spurring the other on to do better and come up with the solution. It was partly friendly competition but it was also because he knew they recognised and respected each other’s abilities. And above all, they were friends, not afraid to tease each other when the moment offered but always there for each other when the times weren’t so good.

Archer didn’t want to think about Trip at the moment though. He’d looked so ill and Archer was doing his best to push that image from his mind. Blood red eyes staring up at him without seeing and asking him to reconnect him to the computer that had been sucking the life out of him. That was how Archer regarded the Rel Sevanne, a monster that had taken his friend and used him up. The Rel Sevanne taken the soul of his friend and given him back a shell. There just wasn’t time to think about Trip at the moment though or dwell on what the Tien had done to him, right now they had to concentrate on the task at hand.

“This is the Armoury,” said Sharien, as they arrived at an ominously armour-plated door. She went to the door and entered a code into the pad beside the door. She pressed the door release and sparks flew from the control panel. Sharien pulled her hand away before it could get burnt and Shar Jen pulled a fire extinguisher from the wall to douse the flames. Archer had to admit he wouldn’t have know that the alien device even was a fire extinguisher, let alone been able to use it. Sharien swore loudly in some colourful Kriel phrases that didn’t translate into English, but Archer got the general gist. From the look on Shar Jen’s face he gathered that the Tien and Kriel languages were quite close and she’d understood every word.

“Can we bypass the controls?” asked T’Pol, calm and businesslike as usual.

“This is the Armoury, it’s the most secure location on this ship, bypassing the controls isn’t easy,” said Sharien.

“Then I suggest we begin,” said T’Pol, with a slight tone of menace entering her voice.

Archer got the impression that she didn’t trust Sharien, which was fine by him because neither did he. He didn’t even trust Shar Jen but at least Shar Jen hadn’t tried to destroy Enterprise with an inter-reality cannon. Which left him with the question that he’d been trying to put off asking himself, could he even trust Sharien to disarm the cannon, with her own life in danger. Corvas hadn’t been afraid to commit suicide for her cause, why should Sharien be any less devoted to their mission. Sharien was all they had though, she was the only one who knew how the cannon worked. And Shar Jen’s words echoed in his head “Should we fight until not a single Kriel or Tien is left standing?” Sharien had seemed to respond to that argument, but had she just been playing along? He’d soon find out, one way or the other.

“Over here,” said Sharien, pulling a panel away from the wall. “There are three sets of two parallel circuits. The pairs need to be pulled simultaneously. You take one, Sub-commander, and I’ll take the other. Pull it on the count of three. You’ll need both hands, and be careful, if they’re not pulled simultaneously they’re rigged to explode,” said Sharien and T’Pol nodded her understanding at her. “One, two, three!” T’Pol and Sharien pulled and the circuits came loose. Sharien threw hers to the floor. “Okay, again.” They performed the same procedure with the remaining pairs.

“Good,” said Sharien, “Now we can disengage the locking mechanisms.” Sharien pulled our a couple of brightly coloured wires. “I had to cut the power to the hydraulics, we’ll have to force it open. We need something to use as a lever to open the door.”

Hayes and Archer sorted through the debris looking for anything that they could use as a lever. Archer found a long piece of metal and began to pry at the gap between the two doors into the Armoury. When the gap was enough to get a hand through, Hayes pulled on one side of the door and Archer on the other, gradually forcing them open enough that a person could fit through.

They entered the Armoury which was in poor shape, like the rest of the Vor Devrees. In front of them was an impressive array of control panels and to one side was what Archer took to be the inter-reality cannon. It was a fearsome looking weapon, as big as one of Enterprise’s phase cannons but it certainly didn’t look like a phase cannon. The smooth brushed metal bulged in rounded humps along its length and at the end was some sort of focusing apparatus, what looked like a huge quartz crystal. The crystal pulsed with a green glow, casting the same eerie green light around the room. A large piece of hull cut into the barrel of the cannon and it was obvious that there was other minor damage to the cannon.

“A durania crystal,” said Shar Jen, walking towards the weapon. “Except I’ve never seen one this big before.”

“It was grown in our lab,” said Sharien. “They don’t occur naturally at that size.”

“We don’t have time to discuss the weapon’s design,” said T’Pol. “How do we disarm it?”

“The circuits that we need are in the base, but we will also need to remove the crystal,” said Sharien. She went to the weapon and knelt down beside it so that she could gain access to a maintenance panel. “I will need some help. Three people can do this far more quickly than one.” Sharien looked pointedly at T’Pol and Shar Jen. “All the access panels are coded to my finger prints. Shar Jen should have the same finger prints as me, so she should be able to open the other access panels while we work on disconnecting the firing circuits. If anyone else tries to open the access panels then it will trigger the self-destruct mechanism immediately.”

“I understand,” said T’Pol. “I will not touch anything until you let me know that it is safe to do so.”

“Good, I expect you both to do as I say. Failure to follow my instructions could get us all killed,” said Sharien.

“You are the only one who knows how to disarm this weapon,” said Shar Jen, “tell us what to do and we will do it.”

Archer and Hayes were put on assistant duty handing the three women tools as they went to work on the inter-reality cannon, Sharien directing them. They worked quickly and efficiently. T’Pol began the delicate task of removing the crystal that focused the destructive power of the unstable weapon, while Sharien and Shar Jen disconnected circuitry in a carefully defined order. At times Archer found it difficult to tell the two blonde women apart, both wore identical space suits, but Sharien’s hair was shorter than her Rel Sevanne counterpart. Sharien’s estimate was that they had about forty minutes before the cannon overloaded and took the Vor Devrees back to its own universe.

Sharien swore and both Shar Jen and T’Pol turned to look at her.

“Is there a problem?” asked T’Pol.

“Yes, there is a problem, Sub-commander,” said Sharien, with a bite of sarcasm to her voice. “It’s not disengaging. Conduit five is completely locked down and I don’t have the gear here to cut it physically. We can’t remove the power supply.”

“Then we’ve failed,” said Shar Jen.

“Perhaps not,” said T’Pol. “What will be the result if we disconnect the other power feeds but leave that one?”

“The cannon will still destroy itself and suck the Vor Devrees back to my universe. It doesn’t need full power to do that,” said Sharien.

“But if the other connections have been cut then the resulting explosion should be considerably lessened in intensity since the cannon will be receiving less power,” said T’Pol.

“That makes sense,” said Shar Jen. “Without full power the cannon won’t be able to sustain the rift for long.”

“I think you’re right, but we don’t have time to test it. If we can’t stop the explosion then perhaps dampening it is the best we can do,” said Sharien.

“Then we should work quickly,” said T’Pol. “We will now require time to evacuate.”

“T’Pol, it took us twenty minutes to get here from the docking bay,” said Archer, who had been listening in to the whole conversation.

“Indeed, Captain,” said T’Pol.

“There was a section of corridor open to space about ten metres aft,” said Hayes. “We passed it on the way here, I noticed the sealed door.”

“Good thinking, I’ll get Travis to bring the shuttle round,” said Archer. “I want you to make sure we can get through that door when we need to.”

“Yes, sir,” said Hayes and went to check their exit. Archer flipped open his communicator and told Travis to get the shuttle over to them as quickly as possible. He felt vibrations through the soles of his boots that told him the Vor Devrees was breaking apart from the stress of the crash even before the weapon could rip into it.

T’Pol finished disconnecting the focusing crystal, its green light dying slowly within, and removed it.

“Destroy it,” said Sharien.

“Why?” asked T’Pol.

“Even without the weapon mechanism it could still act as a focus for the energy in the explosion and open a rift,” said Sharien.

T’Pol placed the crystal on the floor, drew her phase pistol and fired, shattering the crystal into hundreds of tiny fragments. “Will that suffice?” she asked Sharien.

“That should be enough,” said Sharien.

“I am finished,” said Shar Jen. “Everything apart from the final locked conduit has been disabled.”

“I’m done too,” said Sharien.

“Let’s get out of here,” said Archer. “How long do we have until that thing goes critical?”

Sharien checked her chronometer. “About ten minutes.”

“Come on,” said Archer and led the way towards Hayes and the shuttle at a flat out sprint. Hayes had estimated that it was ten minutes walk to the open section of corridor, and Archer had rarely known the Major to be wrong about these details. Assuming that by running they were cutting that time by half, that left them five minutes to reach the shuttle pod and get far enough away that the blast wouldn’t destroy the shuttle. Archer had already worked out that their odds weren’t good.

They rounded a corner to see Hayes metaphorically holding the door open for them. He had already bypassed the door controls and just needed to complete the circuit to open their escape route. The away team replaced their helmets and Archer signalled to Hayes to open the door. The violent decompression of the corridor sucked the five of them into the cold of space, where Travis waited for them. The boomer pilot carefully moved the shuttle so that the space-walkers had the least amount of distance possible to reach the airlock of the shuttlepod. They used their jet packs to manoeuvre themselves as quickly and efficiently as possible, it was obvious that all of them had done this several times before. The airlock of the shuttlepod was so small that only two people at a time could enter.

“T’Pol and Sharien go first,” said Archer. He was reminded of a problem a teacher had once set him in math class. A man has to cross a river in a boat that can only hold two people, he has a fox and two chickens. If he leaves the fox with the chickens then the fox will eat the chickens. The question was who here was the fox? Hayes and Shar Jen followed T’Pol and Sharien, leaving Archer last.

He climbed into the airlock, pulling the hatch shut behind him. “I’m in,” he said over the com. “Step on it, Mr Mayweather.”

“Yes, sir,” came the determined reply. Archer felt the acceleration as he waited for the airlock to cycle and then it was as if a giant hand slapped the shuttlepod. Suddenly, Archer was thrown violently against the side of the airlock and then rocked back the other way, the shuttlepod was tumbling as it rode the edge of the blast. Finally the tumbling stopped and the airlock completed its cycle. Archer climbed out to find the shuttlepod strewn with pieces of displaced equipment and his officers sprawled on the floor.

Mayweather looked to be fine although a little shaken. Hayes was dusting himself off after picking himself up off the floor. T’Pol pushed herself up on to one of the benches, moving slowly which suggested she had been badly bruised at least.

“Everyone okay?” asked Archer.

There was a chorus of “yes, sirs” and nods from Sharien and Shar Jen.

“What about the life pods?” asked Archer.

“Looks as if they were far enough away,” said Mayweather.

T’Pol moved to the station behind Mayweather. “The explosion was approximately one tenth of what we expected it to be. That is consistent with the cannon only being able to draw power through the single locked conduit.”

Sharien went to the window of the shuttlepod and stared out at her former home. There wasn’t much left of the Vor Devrees or the Rel Sevanne. The two ships were little more than charred pieces of twisted metal.

“Vor Devrees rel revorio ti miena. Ishtar cari sen Kriel protea shor dare sel unitas sanvigo, yu seten,” said Sharien, and Shar Jen repeated the phrase “yu seten” with Sharien.

“What did she say?” asked Archer.

Shar Jen answered “She asked the goddess to unite her people with the saints in death, guide them to heaven, and return light to the path of their long night. It is an ancient prayer, in our ritual language. Kriel is slightly different to Tien, Vor Devrees doesn’t mean darkness in Kriel, it only means long night.”

“And “yu seten”?” asked Archer.

“May it be so,” said Shar Jen.

****

Trip lay on a biobed in decon. Decon was well equipped to deal with seriously ill patients so Phlox had most of the supplies that he needed but he still would have preferred to treat the Commander in sickbay. Unfortunately he couldn’t risk exposing the crew to the Vor Devrees virus, he hadn’t had enough time to immunise the entire crew, and the good of the crew took precedence over the health of one man. Phlox pressed the hypospray filled with the anti-viral to his patient’s neck. He looked up at the biomonitor above the bed, the readouts weren’t looking good but he hoped that he was in time. No, he was confident that he was in time.

Trip was pale, sweat pouring off his skin and shivering violently. Phlox could feel the heat coming from the Commander’s body as his immune system expended energy desperately trying to fight off the attacking virus. Phlox had him covered by a cooling blanket to try to keep his body temperature down but so far it wasn’t working.

“How’s he doing?” said a familiar voice from behind him. He’d been so intent on Trip that he hadn’t noticed the door open.

“Slightly better,” said Phlox. “He is still a very sick young man.” He turned to face his visitor. “You shouldn’t even be here, Captain.”

“I just needed to check in, see for myself that he’s in good hands,” said Archer.

“He is,” said Phlox, mopping Trip’s sweat drenched forehead. “Perhaps you could reassure Mr Reed of that as well.”

“Has Malcolm been giving you trouble?” asked Archer in an amused voice. The armoury officer’s hatred of sickbay was legendary. Archer often wondered why, if Reed hated sickbay so much, he didn’t try to make more of an effort stay out of it.

“A little. I think he’s actually more concerned about Commander Tucker than himself,” said Phlox. “When I left sickbay he was sleeping soundly, which is what he needs to do if he expects to recover quickly from his injuries.”

“The qualities which make him difficult for you to deal with, also make him the finest Armoury officer in the fleet, Doctor,” said Archer.

“I’m aware of that, Captain,” said Phlox. “I just occasionally wish that he would listen to my advice. It is certainly not for the good of my health that I tell him these things, it’s for his.”

“What about Trip?” said Archer. “Is he going to make it?”

“I don’t know,” said Phlox, with a despondent sigh. “I’m doing everything that I can. His injuries are serious though.”

“He didn’t look hurt though, when we pulled him out of the Rel Sevanne,” said Archer.

“Externally he may look unharmed but he suffered a huge shock to his nervous system which has caused considerable damage. It weakened him a great deal and allowed the virus to gain more of a hold than it would otherwise have done,” said Phlox. “He is far from out of danger.”

“Can you do anything to help him?” asked Archer.

“I’ve given him the anti-viral,” said Phlox. “That should deal with the virus, assuming that he isn’t too weak already but I think we caught it in time. It will be a few hours before we know for certain. The neural damage is more serious although less immediately life threatening.”

“Can you treat it?” Archer asked.

“I can try. I’ve begun the treatment to regenerate his neural pathways, but I have only ever tried this therapy on my own species and Vulcans who both have significantly different biology to humans. I won’t be able to tell how effective it will be on a human for a little while yet.”

“And the implants? Can you remove them?”

“Yes, but not until his condition has stabilised. They aren’t causing any problems at the moment so their removal is not urgent.”

“What about the nanites?”

“They are still functioning and don’t appear to have been adversely effected by the virus or the neural feedback,” said Phlox. “They are in fact far more healthy than the Commander.”

“Of course, they would be,” said Archer, not bothering to hide his displeasure. He had dared to hope that the cause of all Trip’s pain had been destroyed by the same forces which had placed Trip in Phlox’s care again. Archer knew it had been too much to hope for that there could be a silver lining to this miserable situation. He knew Trip had started to view the nannites as an asset but he couldn’t see them the same way, so far they’d been nothing but trouble for his Chief Engineer.

“You’ll let me know if there’s any change in his condition?” said Archer, turning to leave. “Either way?”

“Of course,” said Phlox.

****End of Chapter 19****

Archer sat at his desk in his ready room and looked at the two women in front of him. They were identical twins, except that he knew that they were the products of two divergent universes. They were two completely different people, or more correctly they were different aspects of the same person. The question was what to do with them.

He knew what he wanted to do. Put both of them in the brig and throw away the key. One of the women in front of him had been complicit in the kidnapping of his Chief Engineer, the other had tried to kill his Armoury officer. He would have been perfectly justified in doing it as well, except that he knew he wasn’t going to be able to. He couldn’t have two prisoners when they were trying to find the Xindi, and who knew how long that would take. He would have turned them over to their own people for trial except that neither side would regard what they had done as wrong, they were simply necessary acts in the war.

He wasn’t even sure that Starfleet wouldn’t agree with that assessment. It had been made very clear to him when he’d started this mission that he had to respect the rules and customs of other cultures, and above all, stay out of their wars. The last thing Earth needed was another alien race intent on their destruction because they’d got themselves in the middle of something they shouldn’t have. He knew he’d bent the rules sometimes, occasionally broken them, but that was before the Xindi had attacked Earth and changed everything. It wasn’t his place to punish the two aliens in front of him, no matter how much he wanted to.

“The life pods of both the Tien and Kriel are heading for the same planet in the nearby star system. Our scans indicated that it should be quite capable of supporting you all. We’ll drop you off there before we continue on,” said Archer, coldly.

“The Tien sharing a planet with the Kriel? They’ll kill us all, you have to take us somewhere else Captain,” said Shar Jen.

“I don’t have to do anything! You’re lucky I don’t have you both thrown in the brig,” said Archer.

“The Kriel will not share a planet with the Tien heretics,” said Sharien. “I prevented the destruction of your ship by disarming the inter-reality cannon, you owe me for that.”

“That isn’t exactly how I remember events,” said Archer. “That explosion would have destroyed the lifepods of your people as well as the Tien, it was as much in your interests to stop that explosion as it was in ours. More yours since Enterprise could have outrun the blast.”

“You don’t understand, Captain,” said Shar Jen. “The Kriel are evil. You can’t leave the Tien to face their enemy after you went to all this trouble to save us.”

“Let me make one thing clear to you, if you hadn’t kidnapped Commander Tucker then I would have left you to fight your own battles, we wouldn’t have even been here when the Vor Devrees arrived. We don’t owe you anything and I don’t care about your petty squabbles. T’Pol estimates that about one thousand Tien escaped and a similar number of Kriel, that’s barely enough people to rebuild your civilisation. It will be impossible if you can’t work together, so I suggest you work out you differences.”

“You’re asking us to forget centuries of war and feuding. What about all the Tien that the Kriel killed, the Rel Sanvigo, the Rel Ishtari, the Rel Meritaten, the Rel Luis-Nion and the Rel Sevanne. Did all those Tien die for nothing?” asked Shar Jen.

“Many Kriel died too,” said Sharien. “I knew I should never have helped to disarm the cannon I could have killed you all with that.”

“Then why didn’t you?” asked Shar Jen angrily. “Or perhaps you were the one who fears death?”

“I am not a coward,” replied Sharien. “I allowed myself to be swayed by your arguments. I was thinking about my people, but I should have known that they would be happy to die if it meant ridding the universe of the vermin Tien.”

“How dare you speak about the Tien in that way!” shouted Shar Jen.

“You are the coward, afraid to die for your cause!” shouted Sharien at the same time as Shar Jen.

“Enough!” shouted Archer over them both and the two women fell silent. “Weren’t you the one who asked if you should fight until no more Kriel and Tien are left?” he said looking at Shar Jen. “I suggest you listen to your own rhetoric. The Tien and Kriel in those life pods are all that is left of your respective races. You don’t have the luxury of not working together. Enterprise isn’t equipped to take that many people so you have no choice, it’s this planet or nothing. You find a way to get along or you die. It will take us a few days to get there so I suggest you use that time to discuss how you will work together. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

Shar Jen and Sharien looked a little stunned at the Captain’s outburst but Sharien inclined her head in a slight nod and left the ready room.

“Captain, there is something else I must talk to you about,” said Shar Jen.

“Make it quick,” said Archer, he was in no mood for more complaints.

“How is Trip En?” she asked.

“His name is Commander Tucker. You haven’t earned the right to call him Trip, or Trip En. And how dare you even ask that?” said Archer angrily. “You’re the ones who caused him to be in a position to be injured.”

“Nevertheless I have a right to know,” said Shar Jen.

“What right do you have? You kidnapped him and used him as a… a spare part for your computer. You stripped away his humanity and brainwashed him into believing that was what he wanted,” said Archer.

“I love him,” Shar Jen blurted out.

“You love him?” asked Archer in disbelief. “How can you possibly love him when you let this happen to him? After what you did to him?”

“I was under orders to get Commander Tucker to become our Patriarch either voluntarily or by force. Ten En recognised that I had formed a bond with him and he asked me to use that to talk to him. The situation was not in my control. If I hadn’t done it then one of the others would have done. If there had been any other way to save my people then I would have taken it,” said Shar Jen. “Now, please, you have to tell me how he is.”

“He’s in critical condition, our doctor has him isolated to prevent any possible spread of the virus. We won’t know for a few hours if the anti-viral is working,” said Archer.

“I’d like to see him,” said Shar Jen.

“Out of the question,” said Archer.

“Please. You said that it will only take a few days to reach our new home. After that I’ll never see him again. This is the only time that we have.”

“No,” said Archer. “You’ve caused Trip nothing but pain. I won’t put him through anymore. Ensign Scott will escort you back to your quarters,” said Archer and turned back to his monitor.

Shar Jen closed her eyes and hung her head in a look of pure defeat but turned and left the ready room without another word. Perhaps Captain Archer had refused her permission to see Trip En but she knew that there was always a way. If she could just see him, then perhaps she could persuade him to come with her, she at least had to try and Trip had taught her that there was nothing a good engineer couldn’t do.

****

Reed had only been in sickbay for a day and he was already going stir crazy. He suspected that Phlox was purposely keeping him drugged up to the eyeballs so that he was too spaced out to cause trouble, but even through the haze of medication he knew he didn’t want to be in sickbay. Not only that, he was desperate for word on Commander Tucker’s condition and no one would tell him anything. One of Phlox’s assistants had told him that the Doctor was in decon with Trip, but that was the only information he’d been able to gather.

This really wasn’t how he had envisioned Trip coming back to Enterprise. He had known that getting him back wasn’t going to be easy but he hadn’t expected it to nearly kill both him and Trip. He was just contemplating an escape plan when Captain Archer entered sickbay.

Archer had been trying to take his mind off Trip’s condition, it had been nearly twelve hours since he’d left Phlox in decon. He had taken Porthos for a walk, then he’d tried to get some sleep, but that had been a very bad idea. Lying in his darkened room had allowed all the terrible eventualities that he’d been trying not to think about to crowd into his mind. He’d given up on sleep and found some paperwork to do, but even then he’d found himself distracted and unable to concentrate. He gave up and called Phlox to let him know that he was going to visit Malcolm.

“Hi Malcolm,” said Archer. “Just thought I’d come and check on how you were doing.”

“I’m fine, sir,” replied Malcolm, automatically. “Although Phlox has me on some interesting pain medication.”

Archer nodded, Malcolm’s wide eyes had already tipped him off to the fact that he was on some serious medication. “I gather that you’ve been asking after Trip,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” said Reed. “Do you have any news on how he is?”

“He’s not in good shape, but Phlox seems to think that we reached him in time. He’s given him the anti-viral and we’ll know soon whether it’s working,” said Archer.

“I’m sorry, sir,” said Reed.

“What for?” asked Archer.

“That I couldn’t get him out of there before all this blew up in our faces. I completely misread the situation and allowed myself to be captured by the Tien. I was depending on the friendship of a brainwashing subject, it was an utterly stupid mistake that a rookie wouldn’t have made. If I’d formulated a better plan we would have had Commander Tucker out of there before any of this happened. Sharien was right, I’m a poor excuse for a security officer,” said Reed.

“That’s ridiculous. You risked your life, twice, to save Trip. Anyone else would have tried to get back to Enterprise after the crash, instead you were more concerned about getting to Trip than looking after your own injuries. You did everything that you could, Lieutenant, and more than anyone could have expected of you,” finished Archer.

“If that’s true, then why do I feel like I let him down?” said Reed, miserably.

“Because Trip got hurt and you couldn’t do anything to stop it. It wasn’t your fault, Lieutenant. We didn’t know that we were walking into the middle of the war when we offered our assistance to the Rel Sevanne,” said Archer.

“I promised him that I’d look out for him. He was really scared to go over to the Rel Sevanne, after what happened last time…and it was my idea to take him with us. He asked me if I’d stick with him and I told him I would,” said Reed getting more and more agitated. “I should have kept my promise.”

“Malcolm, don’t do this to yourself,” said Archer.

“Why not? It’s my fault that a fellow officer is injured and possibly dying. Because I didn’t do my job, because I didn’t protect him,” said Reed.

“You can’t protect everyone all the time, Malcolm,” said Archer. “Trip was the one who wandered off with Shar Jen to look at their computer. You can’t protect someone who doesn’t want to be protected. As far as I’m concerned you did everything you could to safeguard this crew.”

“Tell that to Trip,” said Reed.

“I will, when he wakes up,” said Archer. “But I suspect he already knows it.”

Reed closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Trip had told Reed himself that he wasn’t to blame, why couldn’t he believe it? He felt drained and ill, and his friend was lying in decon dying of a disease which they’d engineered. He was so very tired and he just wished this whole nightmare would end.

The com sounded. “Phlox to Captain Archer.”

“Archer here,” replied the Captain, going to the com. His heart beat speeded up as he answered, hoping desperately that he wasn’t going hear that Trip had taken a turn for the worse.

“Captain, I have good news. Commander Tucker is responding to the anti-viral. His temperature is down and his immune system is holding its own,” said Phlox.

Archer breathed a sigh of relief, at least Trip was out of immediate danger. “Thanks, doctor, I’ll be right down,” said Archer. He turned around to tell Malcolm and noticed that the Armoury officer had pushed himself up on the bed and was detaching the drip from his arm.

“Malcolm, what are you doing?” asked Archer.

“Getting out of here,” said Reed. “I need to see Trip.”

“Malcolm…” began Archer.

“With all due respect, sir, either get out of my way or help me,” said Reed. Archer took one look at his Armoury officer and went to find a wheelchair. Reed looked very pale but he also looked very determined.

“Malcolm, we need to have a serious talk about you following orders. I’m going to make a deal with you. I’ll take you to see Trip, but after that you have to come straight back to sickbay. Is that understood?”

Reed sat with his bare feet dangling over the edge of the bed and nodded his agreement.

****

Trip awoke in decon to an eerie silence and darkness. His eyes were open but he couldn’t see, and he knew he lay on a bed but he couldn’t feel it. He felt cold. Except it wasn’t exactly cold, it was more like his soul had been cut out of his body and he was now a completely empty vessel. He couldn’t hear the Rel Sevanne anymore and that left him feeling completely without hope. He tried to reach out for the ship but it was just gone. He couldn’t feel the emotions of the Tien either. There was pain too, but it wasn’t specific, he just hurt. His breathing quickened.

The nanites were still there and their chatter at least gave him something to hang on to. They made him feel less like he was completely alone. He tried to move and found that he couldn’t, or at least it was very difficult as if his entire body had fallen asleep. He couldn’t move when he was part of the Rel Sevanne, so that was right, but everything else was wrong. He was worried by the blackness and not being able to hear the ship. He should have been assailed by all the various data feeds from the ship, there should have been camera feeds showing him everything that was happening, instead there was nothing, only the nanites telling him about their own internal workings.

“Commander,” said a voice he recognised. “Try to stay calm, you’re being looked after. You’re safe on Enterprise.”

Trip struggled to form words, he was out of practice with verbal communication, before they’d pulled him out of the computer it had been days since he’d used his vocal cords. The computer had synthesised his voice, quite a good facsimile of his voice he thought, proud of his own work, and that was what he’d used to speak. His own body had been paralysed by the drugs and neural inputs from the Rel Sevanne while his mind did all the work. Now his brain didn’t seem to be working properly at all, it was as if he was underwater and all his thoughts had slowed down. Making his mouth work was so hard, but he needed to know what had happened.

“W-w-where?” he managed to get out.

“You’re in decon,” said Phlox. “On Enterprise.”

“Put… put me back,” he said, his voice little more than a rough breath.

“We can’t,” said Phlox. “The Rel Sevanne was destroyed in the battle.”

“Can’t… have been,” he said, shaking his head. But it would explain why he couldn’t hear the ship any longer.

“I’m afraid it’s true,” replied Phlox. Archer and Reed arrived. Archer parked the wheelchair outside the airlock door to decon and helped Malcolm up. They cycled the airlock and entered the inner room where Trip lay.

“How is he?” asked the captain.

“He’s awake but rather confused,” said Phlox. “Lieutenant, you should be in bed.”

“I was bored,” said Reed.

“He wouldn’t take no for an answer,” said Archer to Phlox.

“Captain?” Trip asked turning blind eyes towards the sound of his commanding officer’s voice.

“Yes, Trip, it’s me. You’re safe on Enterprise,” said Archer, going to his friend’s side.

“Rel…Sevanne?” he asked, shakily.

“It’s gone Trip, destroyed,” said Archer.

“No…can’t… be gone,” said Trip, breathing hard. His eyes closed in pain.

He tried harder to reach out with the nanites and touch the Rel Sevanne computer once again, and was surprised when he felt the presence of another computer. It wasn’t his computer but it was a computer. It felt wrong this one, all spiky and hard edged, the information was like a low resolution image, blocky and without finesse. Interfacing with the Rel Sevanne had been like breathing, this took a lot more effort. He couldn’t remote access with this computer and get what he needed from it.

He had to do something, he had to fill the hole inside himself. He had to interface with a computer and get back the feeling that he had before, of belonging and warmth. He put all his strength into moving his arm and reaching out for the metal he knew was near by, or more correctly the data conduit behind it. The nanites had detected it and passed the information to him.

Archer, Reed and Phlox watched in disbelief as Trip moved his arm jerkily, with obvious effort until his fingers touched the wall, and then it was as if the metal dissolved under his fingertips. Suddenly his hand was through the wall and Archer realised too late what was happening as wires seemingly moved themselves over Trip’s skin and in seconds had connected to the black plugs of the Tien implants.

“Doctor!” shouted Archer. He made a grab for Trip’s arm but the wires were now securely attached to Trip. It had all happened very quickly, and none of them had seen it coming. More connections joined the first bunches of cables.

The nanites built bridges for Trip and suddenly he found that he could hear the inner workings of the ship, but it still wasn’t the Rel Sevanne. There were no thousands of Tien for him to sense and hear their every word. As he interrogated the mainframe that he was connected to, he found the report of the Rel Sevanne’s death. He asked the nanites to verify the account, not wanting to believe that it was true but they found no reason to doubt the computer. The Rel Sevanne was gone and with it all the warmth and feelings of safety that he had felt. Tears fell down his cheeks even though he couldn’t feel them and didn’t know that he cried them.

He couldn’t have the Rel Sevanne, but he still had the computer that he was currently conjoined with. He instructed the nanites to submerge him further into the mainframe and he felt the reassuring feel of wires wrap around him and he let the computer take over his consciousness so that his personality was merely a thin veneer on top of his thought processes, and he listened to the ship. The lights in Decon dimmed slightly before returning to their former brightness.

“What was that?” asked Reed.

“I think that was Trip,” replied Archer. “Doctor, do something!”

Phlox was frantically preparing a hypospray. “I just need a moment. In his current state too much sedative could kill him, not enough and it won’t do anything. It’s a difficult balance.” Phlox made the final adjustment and pressed the hypospray to Trip’s neck. It took a little time but finally Trip went limp. Archer looked down at the loom of wires that now led into Trip’s right arm.

“I don’t understand,” said Archer. “What is he trying to do?”

“Interface with Enterprise’s computer. Except Enterprise’s computer wasn’t meant to have a human component like the Rel Sevanne, what he has done is extremely dangerous. Luckily the nanites have been able to stop most of the potential damage. Of course if it weren’t for the nanites he wouldn’t be able to do this at all,” said Phlox.

“What now, doctor? We can’t keep him permanently sedated,” said Archer.

“For the moment I can and will keep him sedated. Then I’ll need T’Pol’s help to disconnect him again,” said Phlox.

“You’ll have it,” said Archer.

“Perhaps we should move him somewhere that doesn’t have any computers that he can interface with,” said Reed, leaning heavily against the doorway.

“The Lieutenant has a point. This is endangering his health further, we can’t allow him to do this again,” said Phlox.

“There’s nowhere on Enterprise that’s free of computers,” said Archer.

“The brig,” said Reed.

“I can’t put Trip in the brig,” said Archer.

“Why not? There aren’t any computers and it’s well shielded, I doubt the nanites could remotely access the computers or even locate a data conduit,” said Reed.

“Okay, call Lieutenant Hess, get her to fit out the brig with what the Doctor needs,” said Archer. “Make sure that anything which uses a computer is outside the cell. And none of it is networked.”

“Yes, sir,” said Reed, moving to the com.

“But Captain, most of my equipment uses some sort of computer and I’ll need bio-monitors installed to check on his condition,” said Phlox, looking worried.

“I’m sorry, Doctor, but no computers. You’ll just have to scan him from outside the holding cell,” said Archer.

“I suppose that will have to suffice,” said Phlox.

“Lieutenant, get a couple of your security officers down here, preferably two that know how to keep their mouths shut. I’d prefer to keep this quiet. Phlox can immunise them against the virus. We’ll move Trip down to the brig as soon as Hess is ready,” said Archer.

Reed made the necessary calls and T’Pol arrived a few minutes later to help Phlox. After some argument it was agreed that the Lieutenant would return to his quarters for rest and would not have to go back to sickbay. Phlox did, however, reserve the right to make house calls and return Reed to sickbay if he was found not to be resting. Archer knew that threat alone would probably be enough to make Reed behave, but he detailed Ensign Hooper off to “escort Lieutenant Reed to his quarters”, by which he meant push the wheelchair. Reed still wasn’t up to walking far and Phlox’s pain medication that was coursing through his system wasn’t making it any easier for him to stay upright.

“What happened?” T’Pol asked, seemingly unfazed by Commander Tucker’s right side being enmeshed in wires and optical data cabling.

“He attempted to interface with Enterprise’s computer,” said Phlox.

“It seems as if he succeeded,” said T’Pol, holding up her specially modified nanite scanner. “Data is moving between Enterprise’s computer core and the nanites. Interesting.”

“His brain activity has increased as well,” said Phlox. “This is extremely taxing to his already damaged nervous system. We need to disconnect him as quickly as possible.”

“Agreed, doctor,” said T’Pol. “I suggest we begin with the optical feeds.”

Archer watched as Phlox and T’Pol once more went to work on Trip’s inert form. He noted how careful they were to disconnect each individual wire, he knew that disconnecting everything at once would most likely drive Trip into shock and, in his current state, probably kill him. He had thought that once they had Trip out of the Rel Sevanne it would only be a matter of healing his injuries, but it seemed that there was more going on here than he had previously suspected.

So far Trip’s communication with them had only been broken sentences but Archer had noticed the one thing he had said both times he’d been awake was that he wanted to be put back into the Rel Sevanne’s computer. It was no good, he had to acknowledge that Trip needed more help than they had the capability to give him. And worse than that, he knew there was someone on board who had far more knowledge about Trip’s problem than the rest of his crew put together. The person who’d caused Trip’s problem in the first place. He had to talk to Shar Jen.

****End of Chapter 20****

After T’Pol and Phlox had finally disconnected the last of the makeshift connections that Trip had made to Enterprise’s computer, they encased the gurney in a plastic cover, used for transporting possibly infectious patients. Ensigns Scott and Hooper moved Trip to the brig, where Hess had just finished installing the required medical equipment. They transferred the Commander carefully to the waiting bed, Phlox reconnected the drip and took a couple of scans. Everything seemed to be about as stable as could be expected, so he moved out of the holding cell and shut the door. He wasn’t happy about putting his patient into a cell in the brig but he knew that he had no choice. The unique condition that Commander Tucker was in necessitated this action.

“What is your next step, doctor?” asked T’Pol, standing beside him as he observed his sleeping patient through the mesh of the cell wall.

“I will conclude the anti-viral treatment and continue the neural regeneration. Once he is clear of the virus I hope to be able to re-connect his optical nerves and remove the implants. However, I will need to wait until he is more stable than he is at the moment. The virus still has some hours to run before he will have beaten it,” said Phlox.

“In your opinion, how likely is it that you can also heal his mind?” asked T’Pol.

“I couldn’t give you an estimate if I tried, T’Pol. He’s been through a lot. He’s seen things which a human should never have to see and had his freedom completely taken away from him. His injuries alone would give me cause for concern, but we know that he was also the victim of brainwashing and that can be very hard to undo, especially if the victim’s mind was already in a fragile state,” said Phlox. “I suspect that if Commander Tucker had not had his run in with the Xindi then he would have fought much harder against the Rel Sevanne’s conditioning.”

“Are you suggesting that Commander Tucker willingly allowed himself to be manipulated?” asked T’Pol with disbelief. She knew that Commander Tucker had endured weeks of torture by the Xindi and not given them any information, it seemed unlikely that he would have succumbed to the brainwashing by the Rel Sevanne without putting up some resistance.

“Not exactly willingly, but perhaps he didn’t put up much of a fight. He was only part of the computer for a few days, but it appears that the brainwashing was very thorough. The Rel Sevanne allowed him to escape from all the pain of his life on Enterprise. It allowed him to forget about the attack on Earth and the Xindi, but provided him with a family and sense of belonging. You can imagine how tempting it must have been to simply give in to what he was being told. It will be hard to get him to leave that behind and embrace reality again.”

“I see,” said T’Pol. “Is there any way that I can be of assistance, Doctor? Commander Tucker’s health is of utmost importance to this crew.”

“I would appreciate your help monitoring the nanite activity,” said Phlox. “I am afraid they are rather outside my area of expertise but I believe that understanding them may be the key to the Commander’s recovery.”

“I will begin an analysis,” said T’Pol, taking out her modified nanite scanner.

Phlox watched T’Pol taking scans and wondered if she even realised herself why she had remained to help. Phlox knew that she had many other tasks that required her attention and certainly did not need to ask for further work. According to T’Pol, Vulcans did not experience concern, but Phlox begged to differ, this Vulcan certainly did.

****

Archer pushed the doorbell to Shar Jen’s quarters. Ensign Prior stood outside on guard duty. They had moved two Ensigns out of their quarters in order to provide quarters for Shar Jen and Sharien. Archer had apologised to both Ensigns personally, he really believed that Shar Jen and Sharien should be in the brig, not Trip.

He entered Shar Jen’s quarters and found her sitting on the bed, a padd in her hand.

“Captain,” she said in greeting.

“Shar Jen,” he replied.

“I am reviewing the geological data that Sub-Commander T’Pol kindly provided to me on New Tien,” said Shar Jen.

“New Tien?” asked Archer.

“Our new home, the planet that you’re taking us to,” said Shar Jen.

“You’ve named it already?” he asked.

“Yes,” replied Shar Jen.

“How do you think the Kriel will react to you calling it New Tien?” he asked.

“I had not concerned myself with that,” replied Shar Jen.

Archer took a deep breath and bit his tongue, deciding not to pursue Shar Jen’s reasoning on the topic of names. “I came to talk to you about Commander Tucker,” said Archer.

“I had guessed that,” said Shar Jen. “You are concerned for his well being.”

“He just tried to interface with Enterprise’s main computer,” said Archer. “I need to know everything that you know about Patriarchs that were disconnected from Tien computers.”

“You already know everything that I do. This has never been done before. A Patriarch is only removed when they are near death. We never needed to remove anyone from our computer before,” said Shar Jen.

“In all those centuries, with five ships, you never once had to remove a Patriarch or a Matriarch from the computer before they were already dying?” asked Archer.

“No, never,” said Shar Jen. Then a look that Archer couldn’t read passed across her features. “Well, perhaps once.”

“Tell me,” said Archer.

“There was a story, more of a legend. The Rel Ishtari supposedly had to replace their first Matriarch. The story goes that she lived a normal life for several years afterwards. I always thought that it was just a myth though, it can’t possibly be true,” said Shar Jen. “In any case it would have been over six hundred years ago, and all the records were destroyed with the Rel Sevanne.”

“Not all of them,” said Archer. “Trip transferred copies of all the files related to the Patriarchs and the Rel Sevanne’s computer to Enterprise for T’Pol, so that she could try to find a way of getting him out of there.”

“I need to see those files,” said Shar Jen.

“You can work with T’Pol,” said Archer.

“I’d prefer to work alone,” said Shar Jen.

“I don’t care what you’d prefer,” said Archer. “You’ll work with the Sub-commander.” He didn’t trust Shar Jen. He needed her to help Trip, but he certainly wasn’t going to let her dictate terms.

“As you wish, Captain,” said Shar Jen.

****

Sharien knocked on Reed’s door and waited for him to answer. She had managed to slip out of her assigned quarters with some strategic short circuiting and a diversion to draw her guard’s attention. Her slight limp and painful arm hadn’t held her up unduly in her plans. As a security officer, she was good at was circumventing other people’s security measures. She identified weaknesses and exploited them. She heard a muffled “come” from within the cabin and entered.

“Sharien,” said Reed in a sleepy but displeased voice. He didn’t look well and his broken right arm rested in a sling around his neck. “What did you do with Crewman Kachru?”

“I expect he is still guarding my empty quarters,” said Sharien.

“Remind me to review my training procedures,” said Reed. “You went to a lot of trouble to see me. What do you want? Decided to get your revenge?”

“If I had wanted to kill you, then I wouldn’t have stopped to chat,” said Sharien, “nor would I have bothered to knock.”

“I did wonder,” said Reed, sitting down heavily on his bed. He wasn’t in any shape to protect himself at the moment. “So, I’ll ask you again, what do you want?”

“Your help. I need to speak with you about our arrival at the planet,” said Sharien.

“We get there in six days,” said Reed. “Now leave me alone.”

“Kriel and Tien cannot co-exist on a single planet,” said Sharien.

“You’re going to have to,” said Reed.

“You’re a Weapons Master, you know the realities that we face, I need your help,” said Sharien.

“You tried to kill me,” said Reed. “Why would I want to help you?”

“You stabbed me in the leg and yet I’m still here asking,” she said. “Enterprise could help keep the peace, give one faction the advantage, put one faction in power and make it last.”

“We’re dropping you and Shar Jen off on that planet and then leaving. We don’t have time to play peace keeper,” said Reed.

“All I need are some of your weapons, enough to give me the upper hand over the Tien,” said Sharien.

“You can’t possibly be serious,” said Reed.

“If you don’t do something then we’ll fight until there aren’t any of us left,” said Sharien.

“That’s unbelievably stupid. You have a choice, you don’t have to continue this idiotic war,” said Reed. “Go and talk to Shar Jen, like the Captain said, and work out your differences. I won’t help you.”

“Fine,” said Sharien, turning to go. “If you won’t help me then I’ll find someone who will. But perhaps you’d be more inclined to assist us if I tell you how to help your Chief Engineer.”

“You know something about Trip’s condition?” asked Reed.

“Maybe,” said Sharien. “We once had to disconnect a Patriarch. He didn’t live long afterwards, but I know why.”

“If you know anything, you have to tell us,” said Reed, moving towards Sharien.

“Not until you agree to help,” said Sharien.

“I’ll contact the Captain,” said Reed, going to the com.

“I knew you’d see sense,” said Sharien.

“Why did you come to me anyway?” asked Reed. “You could have gone directly to the Captain.”

“Because you’re the tactical officer. I knew that you’d hear me out. You look at problems in a certain way. Threats, opportunities and weaknesses. The same way that I do,” said Sharien.

“I really hope that I don’t,” said Reed.

“Tell me, when you counted the casualties from the battle, did you count men or fighters?” asked Sharien.

“Men, of course,” said Reed, but he knew she was right. Every time he’d lost a member of his squadron of fighters he’s calculated what the loss of one fighter would mean to the battle plan. It wasn’t until he’d been lying in sickbay that he’d thought about the pilots of each of those fighters. He wondered when the change had happened, when had he stopped thinking of those pilots as individuals and started thinking of them as pieces in a game. He hated himself for it but he knew it was just another survival instinct, if he had thought of them as people he would never have been able to order the attack on the Vor Devrees knowing that it was likely that very few of them would be coming back.

Sharien of course knew that he was lying and that annoyed him even more.

****

Archer found T’Pol in the brig, which was beginning to look more and more like an extension of the science lab. Hess had installed the remote monitoring devices that Phlox had asked for to keep watch over Trip’s condition, everything had been specially shielded to prevent the nanites from remotely accessing them. T’Pol sat at one of the recently installed terminals examining data on the nanite activity. Phlox was inside the cell replacing Trip’s IV and tending to his unconscious patient.

Archer explained to T’Pol that he needed her to examine the files from the Rel Sevanne with Shar Jen for anything about the Rel Ishtari Matriarch.

“You want me to chase a myth,” said T’Pol.

“I think it may be more than a myth,” said Archer.

“Even if it is true, what do you expect me to find?” asked T’Pol.

“I don’t know, but if their Matriarch lived a normal life after being disconnected from the computer, then we have to find out how they were able to do it,” said Archer.

“I will get to work with Shar Jen immediately,” said T’Pol, getting up to go.

“How’s Trip doing?” he asked.

“The Doctor feels that he is strong enough to attempt to reconnect his optical nerves,” said T’Pol. “He thinks that it will aid his recovery if he is able to orient himself visually when he wakes up. He intends to operate later today.”

“I suppose that’s a step in the right direction,” said Archer.

“It’s more than a step, Captain,” said Phlox, emerging from the holding cell. “His condition has improved considerably over the past few hours. His chances of regaining complete nerve functionality are improving.”

Archer breathed a sigh of relief. “You’ve been able to repair the nerve damage?” he asked.

“Not completely, that will take some time, but enough that he should be able to move more easily,” said Phlox. “I can’t properly assess the success of the treatment until I can talk to him. I am concerned about how this will have affected his speech centres and motor abilities. He obviously had great difficulties communicating with us before and I think the nanites did most of the work moving his arm to connect with the data cabling.”

“When can we try waking him again?” asked Archer.

“Well I’d prefer to wait until the optical nerves are reconnected, but we should be able to try again this afternoon,” said Phlox.

“Give me a call when you’re ready, Doctor. I want to be here when he wakes up,” said Archer.

“Of course, Captain,” said Phlox. Archer was about to leave when the com sounded. It was Lieutenant Reed requesting that he meet himself and Sharien in the Lieutenant’s quarters.

“It doesn’t sound as if the Lieutenant is resting,” said Phlox. “Perhaps it was a mistake to release him from sickbay after all.”

“I’ll make sure that he rests, Doctor,” said Archer. “I think it’s best for everyone’s sanity that Lieutenant Reed stays out of sickbay.”

“You do have a point there,” said Phlox. “I’ll be down to give him his medication later, and you can tell him that if I find him doing anything other than resting he’ll be back in sickbay within the hour.”

“Okay, doctor,” said Archer. “I’ll pass the message on.” He left the brig to go and talk to his Armoury Officer.

Phlox went to prepare for the delicate task of reconnecting Commander Tucker’s optical nerves.

****

“Sharien has something to tell us,” said Reed, sitting on his bed. Sharien stood in the centre of Reed’s quarters, looking at Archer, who stood by the door.

“I think I may be able to help your Commander,” said Sharien. “But I’m not telling you anything until you agree to help me.”

“Help you how?” asked Archer.

“She wants us to give the Kriel weapons to defend themselves against the Tien,” said Reed.

“No,” said Archer. “Even if we could spare them, I wouldn’t give you any weapons,” said Archer.

“Then your Commander will never recover and you will be responsible for the deaths of not only the Kriel but also the Tien,” said Sharien.

“I refuse to be part of this war that you seem determined to perpetuate long past its expiry date. I’ll sit down with you and Shar Jen as an impartial negotiator if you want but that’s the only involvement that I’m going to have in this,” said Archer.

“I don’t need the services of a negotiator, I need weapons to protect my people,” said Sharien. “Doesn’t Trip En Ath Tucker’s wellbeing mean anything to you? I thought he was one of your people.”

“His name is Commander Tucker and he is one of my people, but I don’t respond well to ultimatums. Either you tell us what you know and I help you any way I can to make peace, or you can keep quiet and sort it out yourself with the Tien,” said Archer.

“I need time to think,” said Sharien.

“You can have it. Just don’t take too long,” said Archer. He called Ensign Kachru who escorted Sharien back to her quarters, with strict instructions that she was not to be allowed to escape again.

“Well, what do you make of her?” asked Reed, when she had gone.

“I don’t know. She’s pragmatic, ruthless and intelligent, it’s a dangerous combination,” said Archer.

“Do you think she really knows anything about Trip’s condition?” said Reed.

“I have no idea. I’m not sure that it even matters. We can’t give her what she wants,” said Archer. “Even if it would help Trip.”

“We could maybe spare some phase pistols,” said Reed, “although not many, I wouldn’t want to risk giving them anything that we can’t replace easily.”

“If I give the Kriel phase pistols then I’ll have to give them to the Tien as well,” said Archer. “This is about finishing a war, not helping to start a new one. If Shar Jen’s research turns up something then maybe we won’t need whatever Sharien has to tell us. Now get some rest or Phlox will have you back in sickbay.”

“Yes, sir,” said Reed and lay back down on the bed. Archer knew that Reed had to be really tired to do as he was told without any protest.

****

“How’s it going?” asked Archer, as he stepped into the command centre.

“We have accessed the Rel Sevanne archives,” said T’Pol. “However translation is proving difficult.”

“Our language has changed considerably over the last seven hundred years,” said Shar Jen. “It’s difficult for me to read.”

“Ensign Sato is running the database through the translator but it will take some time for the program to complete,” said T’Pol. “In the mean time Shar Jen is attempting to translate some of it by hand.”

“I’ve found the right area of the archives but we’re looking at years worth of information,” said Shar Jen.

“Well keep looking,” said Archer. At the back of his mind was the fact that the Kriel patriarch who had been disconnected had died and the sooner they found out why the better.

****End of Chapter 21****

In Phlox’s opinion the surgery had been a success. The optical nerves had been successfully reconnected using microsurgery and the only evidence that Commander Tucker had undergone any sort of procedure was a small incision on his left temple no bigger than a millimetre across. Of course he wouldn’t know for certain until the patient opened his eyes and tried to see but he was confident it had worked. It was time to wake his patient. He went to the com and contacted the Captain.

Phlox prepared to revive his patient from the temporarily induced state of unconsciousness. The Captain hurried into the brig.

“How did it go?” asked Archer.

“Very well,” said Phlox. “I think we’re ready to wake him up. He will probably be very confused, but I need to ask him some questions to assess his condition. Please don’t help him with the answers even if he seems to be having difficulty.”

“I understand,” said Archer.

Phlox went to Trip’s side and pressed a hypospray to his patient’s neck. Trip’s eyes flickered open with visible effort.

“Hello again, Commander,” said Phlox.

Trip blinked, he looked lost and bewildered. “W-w-where… am I?” he stammered, his voice a dry whisper. His eyes were wandering around the room in confusion, but they weren’t the unfocused wanderings that they had been before. There was no doubt in Archer’s mind that Trip could see.

“You’re in the brig, Trip,” answered Archer. “You’re going to be fine.”

“No…Rel Sevanne…gone,” said Trip. His breathing was laboured and rapid. Without the Rel Sevanne he was completely lost and empty. There was a blackness building inside him and he desperately wished his could regain the feelings of warmth and belonging that he had while linked to the Rel Sevanne. He reached out and tried to find something to connect with, but there was nothing there.

“Just try to stay calm, Commander,” said Phlox. “You’re being looked after.”

“Can’t…connect…” Trip breathed miserably.

“I’m sorry Trip,” said Archer. “It’s for your own good. We can’t let you connect to any computers in your current state. You just need to get well.”

“Commander, I need to ask you some questions,” said Phlox. “Do you know who I am?”

“Yes…” said Trip, trailing off.

“What’s my name?” asked Phlox.

Trip squeezed his eyes shut as if he was trying to remember something. He shook his head. “I know,” he said, frustrated.

Archer looked at Phlox with worried eyes. “It’s okay Trip. What about me, you know who I am?”

“Captain…” said Trip and he trailed off again. His brain just wasn’t working and he was so tired. He felt as if the name he was looking for was just beyond his reach.

“That’s right,” said Archer. He didn’t want to press Trip in his weakened state but he suspected that his friend couldn’t remember his name, just his rank.

“Can you tell me what the name of this ship is?” asked Phlox.

Trip thought about it for a while and then shook his head.

“What’s your name?” asked Phlox.

“Commander…Charles…Tucker…the third,” he said. Archer smiled down at his friend, at least he knew his own name.

Phlox continued with the questions, at times it didn’t even seem as if Trip knew what he was being asked and there were a number of basic facts that he just couldn’t recall, the one which stunned Archer was the days of the week. Phlox had asked Trip to recite the days of the week, he got to Tuesday, skipped to Friday and then ground to a halt unable to get any further. Archer knew that this couldn’t possibly be good, this was more than just confusion from his prolonged period of unconsciousness, it was something more serious.

Phlox eventually finished asking his questions and he and Archer exited the holding cell.

“Well, Doctor? Even I know that isn’t a good sign,” said Archer.

“It is as I feared. There is some damage to his speech centres, caused by the feedback from the crash. He is having difficulty retrieving his vocabulary, particularly proper names, although he had trouble forming sentences as well. He also seems to have difficulty understanding us,” said Phlox. “When he is more awake, I’ll test his movement ability, but I suspect that we will also find that has been severely impaired.”

“Is there anything you can do to help him?” asked Archer.

“I’ve gone about as far as I can with the neural regeneration, it’s up to his own body now to heal the rest of the damage, but I can begin speech therapy to improve his language abilities. I’ll enlist Hoshi’s help if I may,” said Phlox.

“Of course,” said Archer. “Whatever you need, Doctor.”

“This is going to make discussing his condition more difficult and complicate his recovery,” said Phlox.

“Nothing is ever easy where Trip is concerned,” said Archer.

“It certainly seems that way,” said Phlox.

“Is it okay if I sit with him for a bit?” said Archer.

“I don’t see why not, but if he falls asleep then don’t be surprised, I expect him to be very weak for a little while yet. He may not understand everything you say or be able to answer you but just let him take his time and don’t expect too much to begin with,” said Phlox.

“I won’t stay too long, doctor,” said Archer and went back to see his friend. He pulled up a chair beside Trip’s bed. His friend’s eyes were closed but he didn’t think Trip was asleep and he had his suspicions confirmed when two blue eyes opened.

“It’s good to have you back, Trip,” said Archer. “You had us all scared for a while there.”

“S-s-s-sorry,” stuttered Trip.

“What for?” asked Archer.

“Tr-trouble,” said Trip.

“No more than usual,” said Archer, smiling.

“Rel Sevanne…gone. It’s all gone. Hurts…” said Trip.

“It will get better, Trip. We’ll help you through this,” said Archer.

“Put me back,” said Trip, as if he hadn’t understood a word Archer had said and in truth he hadn’t. He knew that he should have understood, but none of the words made sense, they were just collections of sounds.

“I can’t, the Rel Sevanne doesn’t exist anymore. It was destroyed,” said Archer.

“Everyone okay?” asked Trip.

“There were casualties but about half of the Tien escaped in life pods,” said Archer. “If it wasn’t for you ordering everyone to the back of the ship then it would have been far worse.”

“Everyone okay?” Trip asked again, not understanding what Archer had said.

“Yes, Trip,” said Archer giving in and deciding to keep it simple.

Trip seemed to understand that and nodded.

In fact, Archer reflected, Shar Jen had escaped without a scratch, there had been no serious injuries aboard Enterprise, Malcolm was on the mend and so was Sharien. It was only Trip who was still worrying him. This was hard, seeing Trip like this, he was usually so sharp and now he couldn’t even form proper sentences or understand what was being said to him. Archer knew that the brain underneath was still as agile as ever but it just couldn’t communicate with the outside world any longer.

“I know you’re having trouble understanding me at the moment and forming sentences, but we’re going to help you. You’ve still got a lot of healing to do,” said Archer.

“I’m so alone,” said Trip, tears appearing in his eyes. “I can’t feel anything.”

“You’re not alone, you just have to hang in there,” said Archer. “The Rel Sevanne brainwashed you into thinking that’s where you belonged but you don’t, you belong here with us.”

Trip shook his head. “No, hurts, being alone,” but he closed his eyes and was soon breathing evenly, completely worn out just from the exertion of talking. The virus had sapped all his strength. Archer sat with him for a while longer, just being there while he slept. At least they had him back, they could deal with any problems now that he was back on Enterprise.

When Phlox came in to check on Trip’s condition he found that Archer had fallen asleep in the chair next to Trip’s bed. He suspected that the Captain hadn’t been getting much sleep recently and this was about the best thing for him at the moment, so, after briefly scanning Trip to make sure there hadn’t been any change in his condition, Phlox left quietly.

****

Shar Jen and T’Pol worked in silence. Neither wanted to talk to the other. T’Pol suspected that her level of concern for Commander Tucker was plainly readable by the Tien empath and Shar Jen must know that she cared for the Commander. Perhaps Shar Jen even knew how deep that feeling must run for an empath to be able to read anything from a Vulcan.

Equally T’Pol knew from Captain Archer that Shar Jen had proclaimed her love for Trip and she did not like that. Logically she saw the dichotomy of Shar Jen proclaiming love for someone she had hurt and abused as badly as Commander Tucker, although she almost understood it. Shar Jen had been following orders from her superiors and trying to save her people. The survival of one’s race could drive people to do things that they would normally not have considered.

She wondered if faced with the choice between the death of the entire Vulcan race and sacrificing the man she loved, would she make the sacrifice? Logic dictated that the good of the many out-weighed the good of the few, but humans had taught her that the equation was not that simple. When love entered the problem then the solution became even more difficult to reach. Perhaps it simply came down to Shar Jen had seen something that she had wanted and had not wished to let it go, hiding behind the excuses of duty and orders.

Following orders was not an excuse though, it had been proven in war crimes trials throughout the ages that was not a defence. Every officer has a moral obligation to weigh the orders that they are given against their own ethical code, and if those orders are found to be unethical, immoral or wrong then not to follow them. In T’Pol’s opinion it would be better to face the consequences of disobeying than follow an order which she did not believe to be morally correct. However maybe she was guilty of judging Shar Jen by her own Vulcan standards.

She knew that she did not like Shar Jen, which was not something that she could explain. Vulcans neither liked not disliked, liking someone was an emotion. She knew that Lieutanant Reed also disliked Shar Jen because of what she had done to Commander Tucker, but she had disliked Shar Jen from the moment that she had met her. It was a baseless opinion that she had formed of the Tien Artificer after only meeting her briefly, or perhaps it had been after seeing her interaction with the Commander. How easily the two of them conversed, how they laughed at one another’s jokes and how Shar Jen had understood Trip’s emotions at the loss of his sister and torture by the Xindi. Then she realised what she was feeling, it was jealousy. How could it be though? There was nothing for her to be jealous of and Shar Jen had nothing that she wanted. Except Trip, a small voice told her and she pressed it down deep inside her and concentrated on the task at hand. Now was not the time for her to be dealing with new emotions, she had work to do.

“I think I may have something,” said Shar Jen. “I’ve found the legend. It was written down about a hundred years after the events actually took place but it gives the name of the Matriarch.”

“If we have a name then we will be able to search the database more efficiently,” said T’Pol.

“Her name was Can Shu Ree Misrat and she was the first Matriarch of the Rel Ishtari. According to the legend her body rejected the conjoining and for her own good she was removed from the computer. When the ships were first launched the genetic engineering was untested and they had expected there to be at least one failure out of the five. Luckily there was another Patriarch ready to take her place. She was conjoined for only five days but they say it took her one year to recover for every day that she was conjoined,” said Shar Jen.

“It took her five years to recover?” asked T’Pol. She hoped that this part of the legend was not based in fact, Trip had been conjoined for only four days but that would mean a recovery time of four years. There were a lot of fives in Tien mythology though, and that made her suspicious of this.

“But after that, she was able to rejoin society and she went on to become Exarch,” said Shar Jen.

“We need more information than this if we are going to help Commander Tucker,” said T’Pol.

“There is more,” said Shar Jen, “but we need to find the original account of the incident. It will be more detailed and may even contain Can Shu’s medical records.”

“Then we should keep looking,” said T’Pol and bent her head to the task in front of her once more.

“Perhaps we should take a break, Sub-commander,” said Shar Jen. “It has been hours since we began this research and neither of us have slept or eaten. I know we need to complete this as quickly as possible but it won’t help if we’re too tired to concentrate.”

“You may be correct,” replied T’Pol. “I too am fatigued. We should sleep and then return to this in a few hours time.”

T’Pol escorted Shar Jen back to her quarters before she went to her own cabin and prepared herself for a few hours of rest. They had agreed to return to the research in four hours time, neither Shar Jen not T’Pol wanted to waste any more time than necessary on sleep. T’Pol meditated for only half an hour, too tired to truly keep her mind on the task at hand. She finally admitted to herself that she needed rest in order to help Commander Tucker further and laid her weary body down on the bunk and slept.

****

Trip awoke to the aching loss that was currently his reality. He was alone once again in the holding cell in the brig. He knew that the Captain had been here, and that had reassured him slightly, but he had to go back on duty, he couldn’t stay with Trip all the time. He checked in with the nanites, who eagerly relayed information to him, but as he did so the dull pain of the missing connection to the Rel Sevanne returned to him. He felt so strange now that he didn’t have the Rel Sevanne computer constantly feeding him data.

Empty was the only way to describe how he felt. His loss of the Rel Sevanne and deep depression that he felt at that was only exacerbated by his lack of ability to communicate. He’d only understood about half of what the Captain had said and although he knew his friend’s name perfectly well he couldn’t recall it and it was tearing him to pieces.

He didn’t belong on Enterprise, he belonged on the Rel Sevanne. He was the Patriarch of the Tien, except that the Rel Sevanne no longer existed and he could never go back.

He could never go back. That hit him like a wall. He would never again belong anywhere, or have that feeling of warmth that went with being part of the Rel Sevanne. He would never again be able to feel the ship around himself, to feel the cold of space on the skin of his hull or feel the pulse of the warp engine at his heart. They had even taken away his connection to the other computer. It hadn’t been the Rel Sevanne but he could have lived with that, at least it had been a connection. There was no way that he could ever get it back now that the Rel Sevanne was gone and they had him sequestered in the Brig, perhaps permanently.

There was a hole where his heart should have been and he grieved for the Rel Sevanne. He grieved for the loss of all the Tien lives and he remembered the pain of the impacts on his hull. Suddenly he realised that he couldn’t go on feeling like this, such hopelessness and despair. He needed it to end, except at the moment he had no way to do that. He was unable to move much, Phlox had come and performed tests which demonstrated that. He knew that the doctor needed to assess his condition but it had only made him feel worse about his current predicament. What use would an Engineer be to anyone if he couldn’t move or communicate?

Then he saw her, standing at the door to the holding cell. Blonde hair drawn back into a plait and the usual blue cat-suit.

“Shar Jen?” he asked. It was the one name that he could remember and there were a lot of tangled feelings associated with that name.

“Yes, En,” said the blonde haired woman.

“Missed you, Jen,” said Trip. “You didn’t come…”

“The Captain wouldn’t let me,” said Shar Jen. “He won’t let me stay on Enterprise and look after you. I have to go to our new home. You have to stay here.”

“No…alone,” said Trip, tears starting in his eyes again.

“I know what you must be feeling at the moment, so I brought you a gift.” She reached down and pulled a knife from her boot and placed it in Trip’s limp hand. “You know how to resolve this,” she added.

Trip nodded. It was what he had wanted as soon as he had realised that the Rel Sevanne was gone and he would never be able to be a part of it again. The Rel Sevanne was his whole existence and now that was gone he had no reason to continue living.

“I can’t be seen here with you. I have to continue to protect the Tien,” said Shar Jen. “You must wait until I’m gone. Do you understand?”

Trip nodded once more. Shar Jen had to protect the Tien now that he was no longer able to. She leaned down and kissed him. It was their first kiss and also their last, Trip hardly felt it at all against his black despair and loneliness. Shar Jen checked that no one was watching and left the holding cell, closing the door behind her. Trip fingered the knife in his hand. He wondered how Shar Jen had managed to get past Phlox to see him but then he decided that he didn’t really care, she had brought him what he needed.

He reached across his body, the nanites doing most of the muscle control for his damaged nervous system, and drew the knife across his left wrist. The warmth of blood splashed across his hand. He swapped the knife to his left hand and performed the same procedure with his right wrist. Finally, to be sure, he took the knife in both hands and cut into his neck, opening the carotid artery. He hadn’t expected it but the act made him feel better, relieved that everything was finally coming to an end.

The knife dropped to the floor. He told the nanites to scramble the keypad lock to the cell and watched in sick fascination as the light faded from his world.

****End of Chapter 22****

Phlox had been visiting Lieutenant Reed to administer further pain medication and returned to the brig to find the door to the holding cell shut. That worried him, but he had set up the monitors scanning Trip to let him know if there was any change in his condition. They had not alerted him to any problems so he approached the door not anticipating a problem. He looked through the mesh and noticed blood on the floor pooling at a worrying rate. He entered the code quickly, expecting the door to open immediately and became alarmed when it didn’t.

“Phlox to Reed, I require your presence in the brig immediately, it’s an emergency” he said into the com, he heard Reed hesitate for just second, trying to decide if he should ask what the problem was and then he told the doctor he was on his way. Phlox then contacted Captain Archer and Lieutenant Hess.

Reed arrived out of breath, looking dishevelled and tired. “What’s the problem, Doctor?” he asked.

“I can’t open the door and I believe Commander Tucker has been injured. I can see blood on the floor of the cell,” said Phlox, urgently.

Reed immediately went to the keypad and tried the code. “It’s been scrambled,” he said, “well and truly.” He keyed in his override sequence and when that didn’t work he quickly detached the front of the keypad and began rewiring it. Hess arrived a few moments later, saw what Reed was doing and began helping. Finally they managed to get it open. Phlox dashed into the cell, assessed the scene and went to work.

“Lieutenant Reed, get my medical kit and as many bandages as you can find,” shouted Phlox. “Lieutenant Hess I need you to apply pressure here and here,” he said indicating Trip’s slit wrists. Phlox applied pressure to the neck wound, but blood continued to well underneath his hands. Reed returned with the medical kit and took over from Phlox applying pressure to Trip’s neck while the doctor rapidly applied bandages and injected a clotting agent into Trip’s wounds. As Reed moved around the bed he realised something was under his foot, maintaining his pressure on Trip’s neck he moved his foot and looked down. It was his knife, the one he’d buried in Sharien’s leg on the Rel Sevanne. He had no idea how it came to be here, but the placing of Trip’s injuries suggested only one thing.

“Is this what it looks like?” asked Reed, stress filling his voice. “Tell me he didn’t…”

“Lieutenant, right now I need to stabilise his condition,” said Phlox. “We’ll worry about the how and why later.”

“The Commander wouldn’t…” said Hess, but suddenly she wasn’t so sure, best to let the doctor work and not think too much about what had happened.

The Captain arrived to find Hess and Reed still applying pressure and bandages to Trip’s wounds and Phlox loading another hypospray full of a drug to inject into Trip. It looked awful, Phlox, Reed and Hess were all bloodied to varying degrees and blood covered the floor. He couldn’t believe that it had all come out of Trip and he was still bleeding. He didn’t look good, even more pale than before, if that was possible.

“What the hell happened?” asked Archer.

“We don’t know,” said Reed. “Phlox came back to find the door locked and the code scrambled. Hess and I got it open but we found Trip in this state.”

“He’s lost a lot of blood, I need to begin a blood transfusion,” said Phlox. Finally the bleeding was under control, but the wounds still might need stitches to close properly. The slash across the left wrist was particularly deep. Now that Phlox had the wounds bandaged, Reed and Hess stood to one side, in a corner of the cell, looking shocked, not sure how to understand what had happened.

“Where were you?” asked Archer, in a more accusing tone than he really meant.

“I was attending to Lieutenant Reed,” said Phlox.

“Is Trip going to be alright?” asked Archer.

“I don’t know at the moment. I’ll be able to give you an update once I’ve given him the transfusion,” said Phlox.

“Did he do this to himself, Doctor? I need to know,” said Archer.

“Yes, I’m afraid so,” said Phlox. “His injuries are consistent with a suicide attempt.”

“How did he manage to do it?” asked Archer. “There can’t have been anything sharp around for him to use.”

“This,” said Reed, holding up the bloody knife he had retrieved from the floor.

“Where did he get that from?” asked Archer.

“I don’t know,” said Reed, “but I intend to find out. It’s my knife, but the last time I saw it, it was stuck in Sharien’s leg.”

“Then that’s where we start,” said Archer. “Sharien. What about the cameras?”

“We had to disconnect them all, the camera feeds directly into the network,” said Reed. “But we can check the footage from the corridor cameras.”

“Okay, that will have to do,” said Archer.

Lieutenant Reed called one of his men who only took a few minutes to download the footage from the camera to a padd and bring it down to the brig. It clearly showed a tall, thin, blonde woman entering the brig and then leaving again. Both times she kept her head down so that the camera couldn’t get a good view of her face. It could have been either Shar Jen or Sharien, the ridges on her face were not clear.

“Sorry, sir, I can’t tell who it is and I doubt we’ll be able to enhance the picture enough to pick out the ridges on her face,” said Reed.

“Somehow I didn’t think she’d make it that easy for us,” said Archer. Neither of these women would have been foolish enough to let themselves be captured on film without there being an element of doubt about their identity.

“Sir, there’s something else you should know,” said Reed. “Trip scrambled the door code. No one else could have done it, it had to be interference by the nanites. He didn’t want us to get to him in time.”

“The medical monitors were also tampered with,” said Phlox, “they did not alert me to his condition. I suspect that this was also due to interference by the nanites. It appears that they are able to project a field which interferes with my scans.”

“This wasn’t a cry for help, he really meant to die,” said Archer in shocked tones.

****

Archer didn’t knock he just barged into Sharien’s quarters, Reed following him. Reed had taken a moment to clean the blood off his hands but he hadn’t had time to change his bloodstained uniform.

“Tell me how did the Vor Devrees Patriarch die?” asked Archer, his face only centimetres away from Sharien’s. “Tell me! I’m tired of playing your games!”

“Suicide, he committed suicide,” said Sharien, quietly.

“Commander Tucker just attempted to take his own life, if you’d told us about this then perhaps we could have prevented it. Instead your games nearly cost me the life of one of my officers!” shouted Archer. He didn’t ever remember feeling this angry, but then no one had ever withheld such vital information from him before. “Then there’s the matter of the knife that he used. It belonged to Lieutenant Reed and was last seen sticking out of your leg.”

“I remember,” said Sharien. “I’m sorry about Commander Tucker, but I didn’t give him the knife. I last saw it on the Rel Sevanne. Perhaps you should ask Shar Jen, it was her doctors who removed it.”

“Why would Shar Jen want Commander Tucker to commit suicide?” asked Reed.

“Perhaps because he had access to all the Tien’s secrets. She would kill to protect her people, you know that already. She took Commander Tucker, after all,” said Sharien. “For all I know it could be some Tien rite that the Patriarch commits suicide after being removed from the computer.”

“I suppose that you have been in these quarters the entire time,” said Reed.

“Your guard is being much more cautious after my earlier escape,” said Sharien.

“We can check the footage from the cameras in the corridor,” said Reed.

“And you will find nothing, I was here,” said Sharien.

“If I discover that you have been lying to me…” said Archer, leaving the sentence unfinished for Sharien to use her imagination to fill in the blanks. He turned and stormed out of her quarters, the Lieutenant in tow.

“You’re going to accuse me of paranoia, but I’m pretty sure that she’s lying,” said Reed.

“I’m not so sure,” said Archer. “Why would Sharien want Trip to commit suicide? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Neither does Shar Jen helping him to commit suicide to protect Tien secrets,” said Reed, he was fairly sure that Sharien had never actually answered his question about whether she was in her quarters. She’d dodged around it and said she “was here” but had never specified a time period. The Tien were very good at telling half truths and omitting important information, he expected the Kriel were the same. He knew that the empaths could detect lies and that would naturally mean that they tried not to lie if at all possible, but he wasn’t exactly satisfied with Sharien’s answers. “Should we go and talk to Shar Jen?” he asked.

“Yes, let’s do that,” replied Archer and headed off down the corridor at a fast walking pace.

Shar Jen was sleeping when they arrived at her quarters. Or perhaps, Reed thought, she had only intended it to look that way.

“Commander Tucker just tried to commit suicide,” said Archer, not even attempting to break the news gently.

“By the goddess,” said Shar Jen, her legs suddenly felt very weak. She allowed herself to sink slowly to sit on the bed. “Is he going to be okay?”

“Phlox doesn’t know yet,” said Archer, he told her about the knife and how Trip must have had help.

“And you want to know if I had anything to do with it,” said Shar Jen. “I love him! I couldn’t help him kill himself!”

“To be honest I have no idea what you’re capable of,” said Archer.

“I’ve been in my quarters, your guard can confirm it,” said Shar Jen.

“We will be checking that,” said Reed. He noted that Shar Jen didn’t specify when she had been in her quarters, just that she had been in them. He was getting used to the Tien way of lying without lying. He wished he had picked that up earlier, it could have saved them a lot of trouble.

“I want to see him,” said Shar Jen.

“So that you can finish the job?” asked Reed, angrily.

“I need to see that he’s okay,” said Shar Jen, pleadingly.

“No, you’re not going to see him. We’re taking care of him now. He’s a member of this crew and under my protection, you’re not coming anywhere near him ever again,” said Archer. He turned and left Shar Jen’s quarters heading back to the brig. Reed stopped a moment to question the Ensign on guard outside Shar Jen’s quarters. He confirmed that she hadn’t left, just as the guard outside Sharien’s quarters had confirmed her whereabouts.

Reed caught up with the Captain. “Ensigns Prior and Kachru confirm it, neither of them left their quarters,” said Reed.

“Well one of them did,” said Archer, still angry. “And one of them is lying.”

“Yes, but how did they do it?” asked Reed.

“Sharien got out once…” said Archer.

“She short circuited the door lock and rewired the com panel to send a fake message to Ensign Kachru to report back to the Armoury. That didn’t happen this time, the door lock hadn’t been tampered with,” said Reed.

“They must have done it some way,” said Archer.

“When the Suliban took control of Enterprise we used the space between the bulkheads to get Hoshi to my quarters,” said Reed. “It had to be Hoshi because she was small. Sharien and Shar Jen are pretty thin, I expect they could have pulled the same trick.”

“That assumes that they know the layout of the ship,” said Archer.

“They must have performed scans of Enterprise, it would have been easy to detect the layout of the ship. They probably know their way around as well as we do,” said Reed.

“Phlox to Archer,” said the Com.

“Archer, go ahead Doctor,” he answered.

“Commander Tucker is out of danger, Captain,” said Phlox.

“Thanks doctor, we’re on our way down,” said Archer with relief. He turned to Reed. “So we know how they might have done it, but we still don’t know which one it was.”

“Finger prints on the knife?” asked Reed.

“No good, they’re identical,” said Archer, remembering the disabling of the inter-reality cannon. Shar Jen had been able to open the panels that were encoded to Sharien’s finger prints.

“Perhaps we should ask Trip what happened,” said Reed.

“I’m not sure that he’ll be much help,” said Archer. “I want a guard placed on him around the clock and I want someone with him at all times. I’m not giving him another opportunity to try this.”

“You think he will?” asked Reed.

“Right now he’s pretty mixed up,” said Archer. “I really don’t know how he’s going to react when he finds out that he failed.” They reached the Brig and entered. T’Pol stood beside the bed and Phlox worked on his patient. Trip lay, pale and fragile looking, blood running down a tube into his right arm. White bandages covered the gashes in his wrists and neck.

“The doctor called me and informed me of the situation,” said T’Pol. She looked lost, thought Archer, something he had never expected the Vulcan to look.

“Are you alright T’Pol?” asked Archer.

“Vulcans have no concept of suicide,” said T’Pol. “It is not logical.”

“No, it’s not,” said Archer. “A senseless death never is.”

“I am finding it very hard to adequately understand this action,” said T’Pol, but then she seemed to pull herself together. “Did you ascertain who was responsible for giving the Commander the knife?”

“Not yet,” said Archer.

“We questioned both Sharien and Shar Jen, they both claim that they were in their quarters,” said Reed. “I’d question the doctors who removed the knife from Sharien’s leg but they’re in a life pod somewhere between here and the planet. They could be in any one of those hundred or so life pods out there and that’s assuming that they managed to get off the Rel Sevanne at all. I think we’ve reached a dead end.”

“There must be a way to work out which one of them it was. They’re two different people, there must be something different about one of them,” said Archer.

“I don’t see what,” said Reed. “They have identical fingerprints and appearance, I’d expect that they have identical DNA as well. Any evidence that we can collect will point to both of them.”

“He’s coming round,” said Phlox.

“We need to ask him some questions,” said Reed. “Do you think he’s up to it?”

“He’s still on strong pain medication so don’t expect him to be too lucid and I can only allow you a few minutes to ask your questions. He’s still very weak,” replied Phlox.

“Maybe that’s what we need,” said Archer. “I’m not sure he’d tell us who helped him under normal circumstances.”

Archer and Reed took up position beside T’Pol and watched as Trip struggled once more with the return to consciousness. Blue, glassy, eyes finally opened and looked up at the officers stood around his bed.

“It didn’t work,” Trip said, his voice rough and so quiet that they almost couldn’t hear him. “Should be dead.” He sounded very upset by that.

“No, you shouldn’t,” said Archer, placing a hand on Trip’s shoulder. He spoke slowly and deliberately and hoped that Trip would understand. “We’re all really glad you’re still here. Please let us help you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Trip nodded. “So alone, Rel Sevanne…gone,” he said.

“Trip, you’re not alone,” said Archer. “You understand? We’re going to make sure someone is with you all the time from now on.”

Trip nodded his understanding again, but tears were welling in his eyes. It was going to take more than a few assurances by Archer for Trip to understand that things were going to be okay. Archer knew that if they could just keep Trip alive then they could help him, but they would need time.

“Commander, we need to know who was here,” said Reed.

Trip looked at Reed blankly, so the Lieutenant tried again more slowly. Trip still hadn’t understood though and Reed could see the frustrated look in Trip’s eyes.

“It’s okay Trip,” said Reed. He decided to take a different approach. “Was Shar Jen here?”

Trip nodded. “Shar Jen… she…,” said Trip but didn’t get any further.

“Did she give you the knife?” asked Reed.

“Yes,” he breathed. “And…kissed.”

“She kissed you?” asked Reed, not really believing what he was hearing. Shar Jen had given Trip a knife with which to kill himself and then kissed him goodbye. It was unbelievably cold and heartless.

Trip nodded once more and closed his eyes.

“That’s quite enough for now,” said Phlox. “He needs to rest. T’Pol has agreed to take the first watch and sit with him. Perhaps I can ask the Lieutenant to take the next shift?”

“Certainly, doctor,” said Reed. “Captain I think we need to talk to Shar Jen again.”

“Agreed,” said Archer. “Let me know immediately if there is any change in his condition.”

“Of course,” said Phlox. “The good news is that Hoshi will be starting speech therapy tomorrow, the sooner we can begin helping him the better.”

Archer and Reed stepped into the corridor.

“It was Shar Jen,” said Reed.

“I’m not so sure,” said Archer. “Trip has never met Sharien, he doesn’t know that we have two identical women on board. Even if it was Sharien, Trip would assume that it was Shar Jen.”

“But she kissed him,” said Reed. “Only one of them is in love with Trip.”

“Perhaps Sharien wanted us to think that it was Shar Jen. We need some evidence,” said Archer.

“So we’re back where we started,” said Reed.

“I’m afraid so,” said Archer, realising that he had just talked himself out of getting to throw Shar Jen in the brig. “Two identical suspects and no way to tell them apart.”

“Except…” said Reed, an idea forming rapidly in his head.

“Except what?” asked Archer.

“Only one of them kissed Trip,” said Reed.

****End of Chapter 23****

T’Pol sat beside the sleeping Engineer. She had been baffled by his inexplicable attempt to take his own life. The Captain had said that he hadn’t understood it either, and if even the humans didn’t understand it then how would she stand a chance of comprehending. Why would someone as intelligent as the Commander feel the need to commit suicide, she did not understand how any emotion could be so powerful that he would not realise how illogical it was to take his own life. If you were dead then outcomes could not be affected, work could not be completed and nothing could be changed, it was an end not a beginning. Death was to be fought against, not embraced willingly.

However, she knew what he had been through. He had endured more pain and suffering than she would have believed possible for a human. She had no doubt that when she had heard the screams of the dying Tien, Trip had felt them all as part of the Rel Sevanne. She knew how attractive that connection to the living ship had been for him, how tempting it must have been to forget the pain of the Xindi attack and his sister’s death.

Phlox entered the cell for his patient’s hourly check-up. Trip stirred in his sleep. Phlox had given him a mild sedative to help him sleep but he seemed to be fighting it.

“Has he awoken at all?” asked Phlox as he scanned his patient.

“No, although he has been restless,” said T’Pol.

“I seem to remember you saying that the Commander had confided his feelings about the nanites to you,” said Phlox.

“Yes, he told me that he was concerned that he had been having nightmares about being controlled by the nanites. Although he realised on a conscious level that this was now impossible, his unconscious mind kept raising this possibility. He asked me if I still believed that he was human now that the nanites were a part of him,” said T’Pol.

“And what did you say to him?” asked Phlox.

“I told him that the addition of technology did not make him any less human,” said T’Pol. “He is still the same person that he was before the nanites were introduced into his body.”

“That was the right thing to say,” said Phlox.

“When Commander Tucker was recovered from the Xindi I reviewed a considerable amount of research on human psychology. However, although it was the right thing to say in the circumstances, I also believe it to be correct, he is no less human,” said T’Pol.

“You are the only person that he has spoken about these feelings to,” said Phlox. “He did not wish to discuss them with me or the Captain. I think that you may have formed a particular bond with him, he feels that he is able to confide in you,” said Phlox.

“Perhaps it is because I confided in him,” said T’Pol.

“Perhaps,” replied Phlox, “but I am asking you to make use of that relationship now to help him. He obviously feels that he can talk to you when he cannot talk to us. If we are to help him recover, we must break the conditioning that the Rel Sevanne’s computer imposed on him, and in order to do that someone he trusts will have to show him the errors in the beliefs he currently holds.”

“You are talking about deprogramming,” said T’Pol.

“Precisely,” said Phlox. “And with your logic skills you should be perfect for the task, however I will warn you now that he may not be very receptive to your arguments no matter how logical they are, at least to begin with.”

“Doctor, perhaps it would be better if the Captain were to attempt this. He knows the Commander and has the added advantage of being human. I am not a psychologist and I could harm the Commander further if I do not correctly carry out the task,” said T’Pol.

“I have no doubt that it will be difficult, but you are the one that he confided in, T’Pol. You do not need to be a psychologist to argue with him, you’re already very practised at that and, in any case, I will be monitoring all your sessions and I will be on hand to give advice if necessary,” said Phlox.

“Very well,” said T’Pol. “If you believe that I can help then I will attempt to do so.”

“Of course the whole process will be greatly complicated by Mr Tucker’s difficulties with communication, but I hope that Hoshi will at least be able to make some difference in that area.”

“I understand, doctor,” said T’Pol. “It will not be an easy task.”

Trip continued to sleep restlessly and T’Pol did the only thing to comfort him that she could think of. She reached out and took his hand in her own, hoping that he would respond to her touch. Phlox knew that Vulcans were not a naturally tactile race and realised that this was something T’Pol had to steel herself to do. He had thought that the Commander’s nerves were too badly damaged to be able to feel someone hold his hand but Trip did seem to quieten at the contact. It seemed his decision to ask T’Pol for help had been the correct one.

****

Once again both women stood in front of Archer in his ready room.

“We know that one of you gave Commander Tucker that knife and now we have a way to prove it,” said Archer. “I don’t know what laws you had on the Rel Sevanne or the Vor Devrees, but on Enterprise assisting in a suicide attempt is a crime.”

“We spoke to Commader Tucker earlier,” said Lieutenant Reed. “He told us that Shar Jen had been to see him and given him the knife.”

“But I didn’t,” said Shar Jen, “I couldn’t…”

Archer held up a hand to stop her. “I’m not interested in hearing either of your denials,” he said. “We know it was one of you. Show them,” he added to Reed.

“Yes, sir,” replied Reed and brought up the footage from the corridor camera on Archer’s view screen. They watched as a blonde haired woman exited the brig and disappeared around the corner. “The strange thing is that the camera around the corner was disabled,” said Reed. “It doesn’t seem to make sense to disable one camera and leave the other intact. Unless of course you want to be seen, but only long enough for us to identify that it is one of two identical people.”

“Unfortunately you made a mistake,” said Archer, “and took the deception one step too far. You kissed Trip.”

“How could you?” shouted Shar Jen to Sharien.

“Why are you looking at me? You’re the one who loves him,” said Sharien to Shar Jen.

“Stop!” said Archer to the two women. “Lieutenant, if you wouldn’t mind finishing this once and for all. Scan Shar Jen first.”

“Yes, sir,” said Reed and picked up T’Pol’s modified nanite scanner. He scanned Shar Jen first as instructed. “She’s clean,” he said, as they’d expected. He moved on to scan Sharien and detected what they were looking for. “It was Sharien,” he confirmed.

Shar Jen said some uncomplimentary things about her double in Tien, only some of which the translator was able to pick up. From what they heard it was obvious that she wasn’t happy with Sharien.

“How did you work it out?” asked Sharien, completely calm.

“When you kissed Trip some of his nanites rubbed off on you. They’re dead now but still in your bloodstream,” said Reed.

“Of course,” said Sharien. “A miscalculation. I was playing a part and felt it was what Shar Jen would have done.”

“Why?” asked Shar Jen. “He could have died.”

“I didn’t expect him to scramble the door code, I thought the doctor would detect his condition and save his life in plenty of time. I needed him to live to make sure that he told everyone that it was Shar Jen,” said Sharien.

“I don’t understand why you needed them to believe it was me. If you had really wanted to you could have circumvented all their security measures and no one would have known you were there,” said Shar Jen.

“Because I was trying to discredit you and the Tien. I needed their help to give the Kriel the upper hand when we arrive at our new home. If you were their enemy then it was more likely that I would be considered their friend,” said Sharien. “I already knew that the Vor Devrees patriarch had committed suicide and Commander Tucker would most likely as well. It was a small matter to bring him a knife which I knew could be linked to you.”

“It wouldn’t have changed my answer to you,” said Archer, but he wondered if he would have been so pleased to have been right about Shar Jen’s intentions towards Trip that he would have helped Sharien.

“I know that you think that I’m your enemy, but I’m not. Everything I have done, I did for my people. We are at war and that means that there will be casualties. I’m all that the Kriel have to protect them,” said Sharien.

“That isn’t an excuse,” said Reed. “Why did you pick on Trip? He’s been through more than enough.”

“I saw the way that you were desperate to reach him and make sure that he was okay. Then when we returned to the ship everyone was so anxious for his wellbeing I knew that he was your greatest weakness. As a Weapons Master I am trained to find an enemy’s weaknesses and exploit them. I knew that if I made it seem that Shar Jen had attacked Commander Tucker, you would hate her as much as you now hate me.”

“Lieutenant, please escort Sharien back to her quarters and this time place a guard inside the room,” said Archer.

“Yes, sir,” said Reed and drew his phase pistol, indicating that Sharien should move.

After they had left, Shar Jen looked at Archer. “What will you do with her?” asked the Tien Artificer.

“I don’t know, I’ll need some time to think,” said Archer. “Maybe I should make her your problem, not mine. We can’t take prisoners and I’m not prepared to get mixed up in your war any longer. So far your squabbles have caused me to lose valuable time in our search for the Xindi weapon and have twice almost cost me the life of my Chief Engineer.”

“What about when we land on the planet? The Tien and the Kriel will be at each other’s throats. It will only make matters worse if we try their Weapons Master for helping a human to commit suicide, especially when he is not dead,” said Shar Jen.

“Then don’t,” said Archer. “Talk to her. There must be common ground between your two races. You two could lead your two peoples into a new future of peace and co-operation. I don’t understand how you can’t see that this is your only option, neither Tien nor Kriel can survive on their own on that planet. You need each other.”

“You may be correct, Captain, but it will take more than words to end this war. I will return to my research if I may?” asked Shar Jen.

“You’re dismissed,” said Archer. “T’Pol will escort you to the Command Centre when she is ready to resume your research.”

****

It was early morning when Hoshi came down to the brig to find Phlox changing Trip’s bandages and the Engineer staring miserably up at the ceiling. She carried a pile of padds (none of which were networked to the main computer) and hoped that what she had planned for their first session would at least make the Commander realise there was hope.

“Hi Commander, Doctor,” she said brightly, smiling.

“Hello Hoshi,” said Phlox, returning the grin. “Just let me finish changing these bandages and then he’s all yours.” Trip hadn’t said anything but gave her a weak smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He was saying to himself over and over that her name was Hoshi, that was what the doctor had just called her. But Hoshi what? In his experience people usually had more than one name.

“This would probably be easier if you can sit up, Commander,” said Hoshi, and she and Phlox helped him sit up. He still hadn’t said anything. “Okay let’s see what you can do. I am going to hold up some pictures and you are going to tell me what they are.” Hoshi spoke slowly and clearly in precise English.

“You have…to be kidding me,” said Trip, searching for the words that he wanted to say. He really didn’t want to talk to anyone, he’d just get it wrong or not be able to find the right words. Then there would be that pitying look and he hated that.

“No, I need to find out how much you are able to do,” said Hoshi. “Please just humour me. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” said Trip and noticed that Hoshi didn’t look like she was pitying him at all. She looked very serious and as if she had a job to do.

“Okay,” said Hoshi and she began the test. It wasn’t nearly as bad as she had feared, Trip identified about seventy percent of the pictures. When he got stuck he got frustrated though, and Hoshi was worried by that. Being under pressure, even of his own making, would just make it harder for him. As a linguist she couldn’t think of anything worse than having one’s ability to communicate impaired, so she had at least an inkling of what he felt. The reading test went better and Trip only had slight difficulties with some of the words. His writing wasn’t quite so good as he had trouble retrieving his vocabulary, but writing seemed to be easier for him than talking.

“Right, last test,” she said. “I need to see how much of what I say you understand. I will say a sentence and then you have to answer a question about what I said.” The same thing she had just told Trip was written on the padd she had given him as well and he nodded his understanding. Hoshi spoke slowly and repeated the sentence twice to give Trip as much time as possible to understand her. She knew that patience was the only way to approach this. She then got Trip to read the question on the padd. It was plain that Trip hadn’t understood the sentence though and after she’d gone through five sentences which Trip had understood to varying degrees, but mostly not at all, she knew he was getting angry at his own inability to comprehend. The final result was Trip throwing the padd across the cell, which smashed into shards against the wall.

“Okay, I think that we’ve both had enough for today,” said Hoshi, going to pick up the pieces of the broken padd. Phlox had told her not to leave anything sharp lying around and the broken padd had some nasty jagged edges.

“Damn…straight,” said Trip, fury evident in his voice. Trust Trip to have his speech centres scrambled and still remember how to swear, thought Hoshi.

“More tomorrow,” said Hoshi. “You’re not getting out of it.”

“Hoshi,” said Trip. “How bad…?” he didn’t have the right words to finish the sentence and he wasn’t even sure that he wanted to ask it.

Hoshi took a new padd, switched it into dictation mode and dictated Trip’s scores for him and then an explanation of what that meant. “It could be a lot worse,” said Hoshi. “You can make yourself understood mostly, but you have problems with retrieving your vocabulary. I can help you relearn what you’ve lost. Phlox tells me that you have more healing to do and it’s likely that with some help your brain will find its own routes around the damaged areas.”

Trip read the information. Everything took him so long at the moment, forming sentences, reading, writing and the hardest of them all was listening and understanding. He could see everything and form concepts in his head perfectly, the difficulty was getting those concepts out of his head. Hoshi’s slow speech and methodical, perfectly correct English was helping, but he knew he couldn’t follow a normal speed conversation at the moment.

“Am I…” said Trip, and he was stuck again. He was getting annoyingly used to having to rephrase his questions. “Is this forever?”

“It will get better, but I can’t guarantee you’ll make a full recovery. We’ll just have to see how it goes,” said Hoshi. The padd displayed what she’d just said and Trip nodded. He laid the padd down on the bed and lay back against the pillows.

“Should have…should have succeeded,” he said.

“Commander, don’t say that!” said Hoshi, suddenly very worried. She knew that he was talking about his suicide attempt. “If you ever pull anything like that ever again, you’ll have me to answer to.”

“You’re…, well you’re…” said Trip, not only lost for vocabulary but very aware that he was just about to stick his foot in his mouth. Quite a feat for someone who was having trouble talking, but he’d always been good at saying the wrong thing, why should it be any better now, just because he couldn’t think of the words.

“I’ve taught Vulcan to ten year olds, after that I can cope with anything,” said Hoshi, smiling. “You might want to remember that I’ve been teaching alien languages to students for years and no one has ever failed one of my courses. I shouldn’t have any trouble teaching you English. We’re not starting from scratch anyway, this is re-learning stuff that you can’t get to at the moment. Maybe some of it will come back while we’re working at it.” Trip read what Hoshi had said, he’d only got about half of it the first time round, he had more trouble with long sentences, but he got most of the rest from reading it.

“Did you understand me?” asked Hoshi. “I will get you through this.” She put a hand on his chin and pulled his head up from reading the padd so that he could see the sincerity in her eyes.

“And…work?” he asked.

“You mean when can you get back to Engineering?” asked Hoshi.

“Yes,” said Trip.

“Let’s take this one step at a time,” said Hoshi.

****End of Chapter 24****

Contine to Part 5

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