xxx
Enterprise - 2200
Phlox sighed as he stepped onto the bridge. He had expected there would be a few stragglers, not the full complement from Weapons and Science. Not to mention the main culprit.
He hardly spared a glance her way as he proceeded to herd everyone off. "This is your friendly doctor. It's the end of the second shift, everyone, off the bridge now! You're all on enforced rest until 0800 tomorrow, Captain's order!" When the last one had stepped off the bridge, he finally turned to her, "I thought you were going to rest?!" His tone was halfway being curious and furious.
T'Pol stood up from where she had been leaning over the science console, noting the soreness of the muscles in her back. That was highly unusual. She chalked it as another fatigue-related exception, pushed the pain out of her mind.
"I have meditated, doctor," she deflected, trusting the doctor would not know to enquire about the length or quality of her meditation. The deceit was logical, the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few, or the one.
"Well, I suggest you do more of it." Phlox eyed her with the air of someone who'd heard fibs of that kind before.
She pointedly ignored his suggestion, calling his attention to the image on the screen. "We have identified several areas of heightened population density on the planet's surface."
Phlox couldn't help but turn to look at the main screen, where Aneukaria was little more than a large dot, with close-up views checkered all around it. "You think that's where the men are?"
"Trip —" T'Pol cut herself off, appalled that fatigue had allowed her to slip on such a private matter. "I believe the men are held close to the centers of power, yes. Those are usually highly populated."
Phlox eyed her narrowly, putting two and two together. "How the Aneukarians treating them? Are they hurting them?"
T'Pol turned to look straight through him, "We will get to Aneukaria before they can." Phlox instinctively glanced around for anything that could be used in self-defense. T'Pol took a breath in, mentally reining in the blood anger that arose every time she thought of the Aneukarians' interferience in her relationship with Trip.
Phlox stood wondering what had just happened. It felt as if shutters had forcefully closed and the feeling of imminent danger disappeared. T'Pol was looking away from him.
It suddenly dawned on him. She had almost no control over her shields. "You— need— to— rest," he articulated slowly and clearly.
"I will rest," she conceded.
On the other hand, he might prefer an angry Vulcan to lead them into a hostile situation. "And how do you propose to get the men? Knock on the door, say excuse me, and leave with the lot of them?" he changed the topic.
"The Aneukarians have not shown themselves to be a hostile species. Their past behavior leads me to believe they will be willing to establish contact."
"Their past behavior would indicate they will do more than establish contact," Phlox countered. "Let's not forget they abducted sixty-two crew members. Once they spot Enterprise approaching they'll have plenty of time to prepare an attack," he was admonishing, but he was not looking at her unkindly.
"There won't be time. We will rush them, doctor."
"Rush them?"
"It is an expression from an ancient Terran sport, American football. "
"American football, hmm?" Phlox had no idea what that was but he looked at the screen appraisingly.
T'Pol cocked an eyebrow at him, "We will proceed at quarter impulse while the science teams complete their recognizance of the planet. At the point where Enterprise becomes visible to them, we will go to warp." She waited a half-beat. "And come out of it at the apex of their atmosphere."
Phlox could have strangled himself with shock. "That's an incredibly dangerous maneuver!" And they didn't even have Travis to finesse the orbit.
"It is achievable. And the Aneukarians will have limited time to react. They will be willing to establish contact."
She didn't need say more. The Aneukarians would find that the center of their government was in the direct line of fire of a Federation starship. Phlox stood staring a the screen, rocking lightly back and forth on his heels. "Most people would swoop in, bomb a couple of places, and leave with the men," he commented, his tone underlining that this was the customary approach.
T'Pol turned to him with a long-suffering glance, "Even if we were to know exactly where the men are located, we do not have the capacity to extract them all at once," she rose and walked to the turbolift, Phlox walking in tandem with her, "we could end in a hostage situation. Your point, doctor?"
He realized she had maneuvered him right to the turbolift door, and there was no much he could do but step in. "Sometimes talking is the optimal solution," she added, which he understood to be a peace offering, coming from a Vulcan.
"The Humans have a saying, speak softly and carry a big stick'," he agreed.
A raised eyebrow greeted him, "Another Terran sport?"
"American baseball, I believe." He stepped into the elevator, "And remember to rest."
"Shortly, doctor, shortly." T'Pol was already on her way back to the science console.
Phlox caught a glance of her just as the doors were closing on his view of the bridge, noting the unusual tension in her shoulders, as if the weight of command and lack of sleep were starting to physically push down on her.
xxx
Aneukaria
"You okay?"
Trip would have liked to chuckle in response but it's hard to chuckle when some taller alien backhanded you across the face a split second before you remembered that same aliens could lift fifty pounds with one hand, the strength of the blow sending you straight to the floor and straight to dreamland.
And then you wake up in some new cell, trying to figure out if your face is still attached to your head because all you can feel is a lot of numbness. Malcolm is there with you, telling you the details of what happened, except that you can't really hear him above the ringing in your head. But since he isn't freaking out at your sight, you take that as a good sign that your face is still where its supposed to be, attached to your head attached to your body, even if your brain is saying that ain't so because you can't feel anything there.
You want to ask Malcolm but "Hmmph..." is all you can say, as if you just blew him off except you didn't. You can't really articulate anything when your lips are the size of watermelons. You check to make sure they're still attached to your face still attached to your head still attached to your body.
Malcolm finally catches on to what you're doing. "Oh, don't worry about it. The swelling will go down in a couple of days. I've seen worse, though I'd to say you're pretty much right up there. You should've seen that guy on my patrol who crossed a couple of Klingons in a bar."
'Shut up, Mal, just shut up,' you think, because you really don't want to be up there with the guy whose face was smashed by the Klingons.
But since you can't speak there's not much you can do and you just sit there with your ringing head while Malcolm tells you how after the Aneukarian hit you he jumped her, 'cause they can still be 'her' even if they've only got the one sex, right?, and she back-handed him too, except she held back and he looks normally banged up. But then all the men who were around joined the fray and it turned into a general brawl, Humans against Aneukarians, the men giving free rein to their frustrations, aliens running all around trying to stop them without hurting them. In a way, it's been a good test of the Aneukarian response system and potential vulnerabilities, a successful ending from Malcolm's perspective.
In the end, the one who hit you got in trouble for it, not that it does much to the throbbing in your ear. Now everyone's locked up in their cell, except for you and Malcolm, you've been thrown into this uncomfortable holding pen. Question is whether they'll let you out, and you may not really want to be let out anyway. Though trust Jonathan to be such a pain in the Aneukarians' side that they will let you out eventually. Between a rock and a hard place, that's where you'll be when they do.
"Hopefully they forget about us for a while," Malcolm is echoing your thoughts, "at least you're protected because you're married to a Vulcan, you have no choice. She'll kill you if you do anything."
You'd snort if you were sure your face was still attached to your head. But first it would be too painful and second you don't want to risk anything getting detached.
If Malcolm only knew. You know that she's on her way but you can't tell the others, they'd start asking how you know, and then they'll get all weirded out and think that's somehow she's spying on them through your head. Hell, you'd probably have the same thoughts if someone'd told you about it beforehand. But the bond just forced itself between the two of you willy-nilly, as if it were meant to be. One-night hook-up, and bang, you're married. What are the chances?
Like winning the lottery. Your alter ego is grinning like the cat who got the canary. Cause you certainly can't grin with your face numb as it is. Nobody quite understands what a bond is like. You've got to be in one to fully appreciate it. So all you can say, if you could actually talk, is that she must be on her way.
And now you hope she gets here real fast because the next time an Aneukarian tries to get her hands on you you'll react the same way, and you're not sure your face can take it.
xxx
Enterprise - 0550
Phlox erupted out of the elevators ready to go to town on a specific member of the crew. And stopped dead in his tracks, blinking. Did he hallucinate getting the Weapons and Science teams off the bridge? Because they were all right there, fully staffed, creating a harmonious organized chaos as orders fused from side to side.
"Magnify to ε-power 10x5, Ensign, start scanning by 5 degrees from 15 latitude, 95 longitude. Identify any array with a high-filed strength higher than 1.5TTV."—
"Ygout, what's the matter with left aft canon? The aim is two degrees off where it should be?!"—
"Captain, I spotted a band of higher density zone right around the midway, mass of land, difficult to ascertain what's around but it could be water!"—
"Corporal! Armory indicates they're low on diethylkine spools!"
"Tell them to replicate!"—
Phlox shook his head, acknowledging defeat. The time was 0553, it was quite clear that his exhortations for rest and sleep had fallen on deaf ears, pointed or not. He approached the captain's chair.
"Is it 0800 yet?" he asked pointedly. And added, "Hmm?"
T'Pol threw him a sideways glance, went back to consulting the padd a junior scientist was holding for her review, "I had one point eight hours of uninterrupted sleep," she replied.
'Hardy har har', he thought. And chose not to make an issue of it. "We're still rushing them?" he asked instead.
Her retort was cut off by someone calling from the side, "Captain!"
"What is it, Ensign Vik?"
"The planet, there are not enough life signs!"
"Please expound."
"Variations in the spectrum algorithm. The populated zones are not uniformly reflective, there's up to a 70% variance within the zones themselves!"
That got a raised eyebrow. T'Pol handed the padd back to the junior, got up and approached the screen. Phlox fell in step right behind her, not that there was much else for him to do. She was blinking, considering the whole of the information, the close-ups had become much more detailed since the night before.
Phlox thought it was an opportune moment to enquire, "What does that mean?"
T'Pol turned to him. "It means for one, doctor, we may not encounter the level of resistance we have been preparing for." She paused. "There is a higher-than-expected proportion of empty structures. The buildings are there, but the inhabitants are not."
It was his turn to look at the screen, "As if there had been a massive depopulation," he mused. "That does fit with the DNA deterioration we've observed."
"Indeed." She went back to the Captain's chair.
xxx
Enterprise - 1015
"We're close enough they might see us, Captain!" Specialist Gordon called out from the sensor array. It was simple enough: if she could see them, they could see her.
"Any sign of a defense perimeter, Specialist?"
Nancy shook her head. "We're still too far to tell. Nothing shows but their defense mechanisms may only become active upon a trigger."
T'Pol nodded. That was the correct inference.
She got up and went to the helm, quickly keying in their position vectors. She turned to the com on the console, "Engineering, are you ready to proceed?"
"Waiting for your order, Captain." Hess's voice rang loud over the bridge.
T'Pol nodded, looked up the proposed course, laid it in the helm. "Lieutenant Hess, shut off all engines."
"Shutting engines off!"
T'Pol was staring at the relative field indicator. Everyone on the bridge stopped what they were doing, watching. The trick in a warp-stealth approach was to come out of warp at exactly the right speed. If she waited until Enterprise had lost all momentum, the additional energy to recreate the warp field would land them inside the atmosphere on arrival, to crash and burn quikly. The same as if she went to warp too soon, before the ship had slowed down enough. The warp order had to be given exactly as the ship reached the nadir of its deceleration, but before it got there, and factor in Human reaction time between her order and Hess re-starting the engines.
The seconds flew by on the screen and still nobody moved.
"Hess, warp three!" The motion was so swift, most saw it only after they heard her.
"Warp Three!" Hess responded inside of a second.
T'Pol braced herself against the helm, even if she knew it would make no difference to the ship direction, her ability to react freely could mean the difference between catching the right orbit or coming too close to the planet. Or too far from it. Too far meant triggering the defense system. If the Aneukarians had space travel capabilities, they had a defense perimeter.
She kept a close watch on the course showing on the console. They had one point nine eight three seven five minutes before they reached Aneukaria. They would need to get out of warp on the cusp of the geostationary orbit, with an acceptable deviation of one thousand meters on either side. She leaned over the com, her hand hovering, watching the numbers on the display.
"Now!" she called, loudly enough to make everyone jump.
"Got it!" Hess reacted right away. T'Pol looked up, listening. The hum of the engines had stopped.
'Nine hundred seventy-six meters off orbit,' the computer mechanically informed. Hoshi snuck a sidelong glance her way. Travis would have been in the dumps for days if he got that far off the mark, would offer to give up his pilot license. But as far as they were concerned, this was a brilliant piece of piloting. Close enough was close enough.
T'Pol was bending over the console, squeezing the last remaining pre-warp speed, trying to get close enough to catch the gravity wave from the planet. Finally, she felt it, the slightest tug, but it did the rest of the pulling. "Geostationary orbit achieved," she announced. There was a collective sigh of relief on the bridge. She got up, raising an eyebrow at Hoshi. Who ever said Vulcans had no sense of humor?
She went back the Captain's chair, checking their position, blinking at the image of Aneukaria, massive on the screen.
"Human readings, Captain!" Ensign Gordon exclaimed.
"Send the coordinates to the weapons console. Specialist Cole, proceed as planned. Wide dispersion."
Amanda Cole leaned over and quickly entered the command. They watched on the main screen as the ordnance reached the planet in a wide arc, exploding in ominous red and black clouds as they fell. The Aneukarians couldn't know it was all optics, the mix of chemicals in the shells specially calibrated for show, giving an appearance of utmost power.
"Knock, knock, who's there?" Amanda's voice floated over the bridge, drawing tension-relieving chuckles.
T'Pol looked at Phlox, who looked back in shared confusion. Obviously it was a Human thing. She shrugged it off. "Ensign Sato, open a channel to Aneukaria government. Tell them we want our men back."
xxx
Aneukaria
X-Eliantix was hurrying through the hallways of the palacium imperium, summoned by the planetary preeminence. She didn't know what was happening, had seen the clouds of destruction high up in the sky, realized they were under attack. She was on her way to her unit when she'd gotten the call from the palacium. Her ship would have to wait. At least there had been no more attacks since the initial display of firepower. They didn't have the manpower to fight back, there were not enough of them anymore.
"X-Irtanimox!" X-Eliantix saluted then stood at attention, arms firmly held along her side.
The wizened planetary preeminence eyed her with deepset grey and wrinkled eyes. "X-Eliantix. You've had dealings with this ship before, I am to understand."
X-Eliantix took a step closer to the vidscreen, watching in disbelief as she recognized the nacelle and engines of Enterprise. "This is the ship where we got the Human species from, X-Irtanimox. But we freed them, they shouldn't be here! How did they find us?"
"How they found us is of little concern. They're asking for the Humans back. You need to talk to them. We cannot let that happen."
X-Eliantix nodded, thinking back to what Captain Archer had said. Perhaps he was not lying. Perhaps they were not a different species.
But they couldn't let the men go back. Only a quarter of the population remained. If they waited too long, it would be too late to hope and reverse the trend. The entire Aneukarian civilization would disappear.
The communication from the ship was coming through on a frequency that cut through the walls and echoed in the planetary preeminence's great room. "You abducted the men on Enterprise and we demand that you return them unharmed. Our weapons are aimed at you. We will fire a the slightest threat."
Notes:
I am not above having cheap fun at my characters' expense. As we know, 'speak softly and carry a big stick' has nothing to do with baseball. It was coined by Roosevelt as a a proverbial saying advising the tactic of caution and non-aggression, backed up by the ability to carry out violent action if required. I thought it was appropriate for this scene.
Glossary
Specialist Amanda Cole - security
Specialist Jennifer Ygout - security
Ensign Lori Vik - science
Lieutenant Hess - Engineering
Specialist Nancy Gordon - science