—Chapter 01—

After all of the madness which had occurred in the past ten days since the hunt for this strange ship from the future had begun, it had all come to this.

"What the hell have you done!" yelled Trip directly into Phlox's face, as he struggled with the Denobulan who had just sabotaged the Defiant in the middle of a firefight with the ISS Avenger, an NX class ship which had until quite recently been commanded by Admiral Black, until Archer had killed the Admiral.

Phlox managed to free himself and then lunged for a phaser, but Trip pounced on him, and then Phlox got in a hell of a punch, which dropped Trip to his knees, where he grabbed a metal cylinder, rose quickly to his feet and struck Phlox soundly high up on the Denobulan's back, knocking the Denobulan down and out. The rest was anti-climactic. Trip restored the Defiant's systems, and the ship began firing upon the traitorous Avenger, just as an engineer who'd made his way to their location in order to correct the same problem which had drawn Trip's attention, looked at his commander, then at the Denobulan.

"Sir?" said the engineer, taking in Denobulan stretched out on the deck.

"Stay here, Dillard!" said Trip. "Watch him! Don't reach out to anyone, you understand?"

"Yes, Commander," said Dillard agreeably, for the Defiant's Chief Engineer had a mean temper, and a long memory.

Trip spun on his heels then, and ran through the ship, racing for the Defiant's transporter pad. This system was much like his old ship's transporter system and so it functioned along similar lines, but it offered more control, to go along with the finer mechanisms and more refined transportation process. Trip had studied this process with a great deal of interest, and he'd come to some interesting conclusions, one of which guided his movements now, as Trip hurried to make use of the transporter before Archer destroyed the Avenger.

Trip pulled up the sensor feed, focused on the Bridge of the Avenger, and there it was. The only Vulcan life sign on the Bridge. Trip energized the transporter and Soval was beamed off the Avenger's Bridge and stored in the Defiant's transporter buffer as an energy signature, as Trip did not complete the transportation process, and physically embody the Vulcan on the Defiant. A minute to secure Soval's energy signature by hiding it and then securing it against accidental deletion, and then a few seconds more to lock it down under Tetra-Kanda encryption, the sum of all these acts being to keep Soval safely out of harm's way for now: Archer would not take well to seeing Soval just now, and Trip had his own reasons to be solicitous of the Vulcan's life.

Trip might have performed the same service for T'Pol who'd been transferred to the Avenger earlier, as he still owed that Vulcan payback for all that she'd put him through and a quick death aboard an exploding ship simply did not seem sufficient payment to Trip, but Sato and one of Reed's Security men had already brought her back to the Defiant after Archer had discovered that T'Pol had downloaded the Defiant's schematics, presumably to pass them on to her Vulcan contacts, and this was a serious breach of trust. Perhaps it was just as well that Archer would have T'Pol executed after extracting the location of the disk onto which she'd saved the schematics: the woman had been nothing but a pain in his ass since the first day they'd met.

Afterwards, Trip returned to the same place he'd left Dillard guarding Phlox, and found the man still there, metal pipe in hand, guarding a now conscious Phlox like a hawk, for although Dillard was unsure of what had happened here, he was sure that Phlox had fucked up somehow.

"Ok," said Trip, looking Dillard in the eye, "this dumb ass Denobulan was back here trying to modify the power output to his lab, like he's got any business screwing around with our power junctions. He's going to do some time in the Agony Booth for it, but he doesn't deserve to die, and you know Archer when he's pissed."

Dillard nodded his head in agreement with his boss. The Chief could be a pain in the ass sometimes, but he was also fair, which was more than anyone could say for Archer, or could have said for the recently deceased Captain Forrest. For his part, Phlox just watched Trip closely, unsure of Commander Tucker's intent, but relieved that Captain Archer wouldn't find out about his recent lapse of judgement.

"Yes, Chief," said Dillard.

"Good," said Trip. "Now get out of here, and keep your mouth shut, Dillard."

Dillard nodded and left, and Trip looked at Phlox, knowing that he was about to determine the Denobulan's fate. If he didn't like the doctor's answer, he'd turn Phlox over to Archer for execution, even though he'd always liked Phlox.

"Explain," said Trip.

"Well Commander, T'Pol came to—," said Phlox, and Trip groaned at the sound of her name: he should have known she'd be mixed up in this fiasco.

"Commander?"

"Go on," said Trip.

"Well, T'Pol and Soval came to me, spinning wild tales which alarmed me," said Phlox, "and frankly, they also bribed me shamelessly, I see that now. The result… well, you know the result."

"I do," said Trip. "You were a fool to listen to their pitch, Phlox. This ship brings opportunities for us all, and things can change on a dime. Your job is not to be crushed in the process."

"Yes, Commander," said Phlox, appreciating the man's calming influence, for the Commander had always been congenial with him.

"Good," said Trip. "Now, listen. You've seen me work here the past couple of days, and when the power went out in your Sick Bay, you came here flip a few switches and restore power, and you accidentally caused the short which affected the ship. You were stupid, but you weren't treasonous, you just wanted to prep your Sick Bay for possible casualties."

"As you say, Commander," said Phlox, knowing that Commander Tucker was giving him life.

"Understand one thing, Phlox," said Trip. "I even suspect you'll pull another stunt like this, I'll kill you on the spot. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Commander," said Phlox. "It won't happen again."

"Great. Now, report to the Agony Booth," said Trip. "You need to pay a price for your stupidity, while I talk to Archer. If you're already being tortured, I can keep him from killing you."

"As you command," said Phlox, so relieved by Commander Tucker's reassurances that even his upcoming time in the Agony Booth seemed a minor thing in comparison, and seconds later Trip was alone.

Trip wondered briefly if he should really put his ass on the line for Phlox, but the gist of it was that he owed his life to Phlox a half dozen times or more, and a debt was a debt, but this fiasco wiped the slate clean. Trip walked to a wall mounted communications console and pressed a button.

"Tucker to Security," said Trip.

"Yes, sir."

"Phlox is heading your way," said Trip. "He needs some time in the Agony Booth. Five hours. Light him up."

"Yes, sir."

As Trip had predicted, things changed suddenly, and they changed just seven hours later with Captain Archer's murder at the hands of Ensign Sato, while the Defiant was on course for Earth. Now, as the Defiant entered the Sol system and made way for Earth at one tenth impulse, Ensign Sato entered the Bridge, flanked by two security officers.

"Open a channel to Fleet Admiral Gardner," said Ensign Sato, looking at the acting Comm officer.

"Channel open," said Comm.

"This is the Starship Defiant," said Ensign Sato. "If you don't surrender immediately, we'll begin targeting your cities. Respond."

"Where's Archer?," said Gardner, both angry, and bewildered. "Who the hell are you?"

"You're speaking with the Empress Sato," said the former Ensign Sato. "Prepare to receive instructions."