Disclaimers:

Trip, T'Pol, and Star Trek: Enterprise belong to Paramount, even if Paramount has forgotten all about them...

This story is an extrapolation of deeper currents to S2E7: "The Seventh." Spoilers for that episode, S1E7: "The Andorian Incident," and S1E14: "Shadows of P'Jem."

Author's Note:

I've got at least one more chapter to post this month. I meant to get to this sooner, but Real Life has kept me hopping in all kinds of ways...thankfully, most of them have been good, like celebrating my 20th anniversary with my Accomplice; business stuff; polishing a non-Trek short story for a small-press anthology; new-to-us Shuttlepods One and Two purchased; and growing teenagers (one of whom will be old enough to start learning how to pilot a shuttlepod himself come Saturday, September 2. Yes, my son shares a birthday with Malcolm Reed and Christa McAuliffe).

But I'm committed to posting what I have before the month is out, because I'll be using this story as the basis for my Story A Day Sepetember Drabble Series, which I'll be adding to daily, and posting here soon after.

As with my previous drabble series, I'm looking for prompt words from my readers….they don't have to be Trek-related, since I love a challenge! I've got a nice little pile from Braxin, but time is running out. So, please – lay 'em on me!

Late In the Night

T'Pol stands at the entrance to her room, staring across at the view through her window. She wants to turn back and ask Trip to go remain with her tonight, and accompany her on this mission, if she must retrieve Menos. She feels safer with him than with any other of the humans aboard, for reasons that have nothing to do with logic.

Trip will always protect her as well as he is able. Of that, she has no doubt.

However, Trip said he wasn't the best choice, and recommended she ask Captain Archer or Lieutenant wants to help her, wants to know what she's doing. If he recommends another companion, he's doing it to protect her. She remembers him doing the same, when they were alone in the cell on Rigel 10, when she was unwilling to leave Enterprise to marry Koss, and when she was diagnosed with Pa'Naar Syndrome, and she asked him to hold the knowledge in confidence.

She turns back toward the door, touches it. Illogical, to do so, to long for him to be waiting there, and to hope that she can feel or even hear him there. To consider asking him to come with her, even though his logic is unassailable. But what has logic to do with the churning of unnamed and inexplicable emotions within her? Logically, she should have no emotions regarding Menos. It had been her duty to apprehend him, and she failed that duty. Now, she has the opportunity to rectify the error that allowed his escape. If she succeeds, her duty will be completed, and her full complement of six fugitives all returned home, to Vulcan.

The only appropriate emotional responses to these circumtances are honor and satisfaction at the completion of a duty she formerly failed in.

She doesn't want to capture Menos. She strongly resists the concept of even being on the same moon he inhabits. She'd hoped ingesting sugars might free her of the feeling, even if only for the few hours it would take them to pass through her system. But, instead, inebriation has sharpened her emotions, making their weight more oppressive. Her chest and heart feel constricted, making breathing difficult.

Trip is correct. She must not go alone. Her emotional state is chaotic, and, therefore, her ability to complete the assigned mission is compromised.

She nearly leaves her quarters to go to him, confide the feelings that threaten her mission, but doesn't. Perhaps, her emotional chaos is driving her desire. Perhaps he's correct, too, in his assessment that he isn't the best choice for this mission. He protected her in the Suliban cell, but her compromised control had led to him responding to her, as well, in a manner he didn't seem to fully command.

She remains within her chamber, struggling for the rudimentary control of a Vulcan child. Trip is correct, and wiser perhaps than he knows. Her own desires are illogical, and prove her unfitness.

She must focus on the mission, and only that.

T'Pol gathers herself, and goes to speak with the Captain, before she can surrender to the other, more desirable, choice.

"Sorry to wake you up, Trip."

It probably wasn't a good idea to tell the Cap'n that he hadn't been to bed, yet. Or that he'd been up with - well, maybe he could call her a sick friend. She sure as hell had looked sick - scared sick - and something more, something that made her want to get drunk on sugar, just to get some relief.

But he couldn't tell Jon that. Not about what sugars did to her, and not about her being so scared, Maybe he should, but it was T'Pol's mission, and her decision.

"Trip - did I wake you up, or are you asleep on your feet?"

"I, uh - c'mon in, Cap'n." Damn! He hadn't meant to leave Jon standing there while he wandered around in his own head.

He belatedly gestures into the dark room; hoping it'll look like he was asleep, not sitting on his bed staring out at the stars, wondering where the hell she's going, and why, and what about it is tearing her apart. Wishing she'd said she wanted him with her, even if he knew it wasn't the best choice. Knowing he wanted to be with her because he couldn't bear for her to be so lost, so vulnerable, without him to protect her and keep an eye on her.

Jon pulls up the desk chair, and Trip stands there, not quite knowing what to do with himself, until the Cap'n says, "At ease, Trip. Sit, before you fall. I won't be long - just need to let you know you're going to get to play Captain for a few days."

"Sir?" Damn. She asked him, maybe told him what she was up to. And he said yes. What man wouldn't say yes to her? He should be glad, and he is - she needs someone to look out for her - but, damnit, he wants it to be him.

"T'Pol came to see me. I'm going with her, as backup. So you get to sit in my chair."

"She tell you what this is all about?"

"Classified, Trip."

"Course it is...Cap'n, you sure this is a good idea, her pulling us off course like this to run errands for the damned Vulcan High Command?"

"I don't think she was given much choice, Trip. T'Pol's not Starfleet. If we want to keep her here - and I do, even if you don't - we can't keep making waves. Lord knows, we get into plenty of trouble with the Vulcans just by being human."

Trip tries another tack. He needs to know if the Cap'n can read her the way he's learning to. Whether Jon can be counted on to have her back. "She seem - okay - with this, to you?"

"Careful, Trip. I could almost get the idea that you care. Or are you hoping she doesn't come back?"

"Well, I get along with everybody else. If something happens to her, who will I take my frustrations out on?" He mugged it up, hoping Jon would see just what he wanted to see.

Jon laughs. "She seems - okay. Serious about this mission - but T'Pol's serious about everything. Meet me in my Ready Room at 0800; we're leaving at 0845, and I've got a few things to cover with you. Now, I think we'd both better get some sleep."

Once he's alone again, Trip gets up and starts pacing. He wishes he knew if it's good that the Cap'n isn't picking up on her turmoil...

Mostly, though, he wishes he was the one going with her; or, better yet, that she wasn't going at all.