Fix the Finale Fic

The Ring of Truth

By Evalyn A.

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: All belongs to whoever inherited the franchise -- not mine, though they really really don't deserve it now .

A/N: Moving on from TATV – for those of you who insist it's canon … well, read on.

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Chapter 11

Brodeur, although concerned, had initially been unconvinced by their recent conclusions. "You've made a number of assumptions here, big ones," he pointed out. "You don't even know that this is a transporter, forget about its purpose."

"If we have even a chance of being right …" Tucker pointed out grimly, standing in front of Brodeur's desk with his arms crossed over his chest.

Brodeur sighed. "Then we cannot afford to wait to find out."

"No matter how valuable the technology is, and how much we might wish to preserve it," T'Pol agreed, "the risks are huge if we allow this facility to power up further."

"There's not much left to go," Tucker continued. "One or two more stages at most. Then it's active. And at this rate, we're talking a few days if we're lucky."

"What do you propose?" Brodeur sat back in his chair and looked back and forth between the two of them. He seemed to have grown used to dealing with them as though they were a virtually a single voice.

Tucker reached over to the screen and punched up the schematics that they had managed to produce so far on the device. He pointed to several locations around the giant ring "There are a number of critical energy paths, we believe. Here," he pointed, "and here. It might not be sufficient to take out one of them, likely there are backup systems designed in – if you're planning a facility to last thousands of years, you build in some redundancy and self-repair capabilities."

"So, we have to take out several paths - but once we take out its ability to manage energy, it becomes inactive." Brodeur frowned thoughtfully.

"Yes, and if we're careful, we leave the remainder of the device intact for further study."

Brodeur looked at T'Pol. "What do you think?"

"It should suffice to disable the device," she agreed. "But we do not know the implications in their entirety. For example, do we know if this can be done safely? There are massive energy flows involved here, and we do not have time to determine how to route them. Further, will our tampering with the device set off defensive or alerting systems? Nothing we have done so far has been designed to interfere with the device's performance in such a manner. There may be consequences we have not yet anticipated."

"What can we do to mitigate the risks?" Brodeur turned back to Tucker.

"Of setting off defensive systems? Nothing," he replied. "We wouldn't know where to start, we haven't characterized any of the subsidiary systems, we focussed strictly on the high energy and information processing functions as being the core of the device. As far as the energy flows go, we can spend more time coming up with a safer plan for routing the energies, but the longer we take …"

"The greater the probability the device will activate before we're done," Brodeur finished for him. "So what do you propose?"

"Firstly, we evacuate the station of all but the essential personnel to execute the plan. How long would that take?" Tucker asked.

"How far away to be safe?" Brodeur pulled up his evacuation plan on the screen.

T'Pol replied, "Even if the evacuation vehicles are appropriately shielded, high orbit is probably insufficient."

Brodeur looked a bit shaken. "You mean the moon itself is at risk?"

She nodded. "There is enough energy involved to significantly destabilize the surface; a large-scale disruption in a single location could cause tectonic forces that could break the frozen crust apart entirely. We do not have time to model the outcomes…"

"But they don't sound good. So, even once we've got everyone on board the evacuation vessels, several hours more to evacuate to a sufficient distance. Who stays behind?" He leaned back in his chair and scrutinized them both.

Tucker frowned. He did not enjoy these types of decisions. "I believe we could set up an automated destruction sequence," he replied. "One person could do it."

"However, the odds of success would be much higher with two," T'Pol finished for him. "Mr. Tucker and myself. We have already prepared the plan between us and know all the relevant details. We can work most effectively as a team, we have the technical experience, and we have both memorized all of the relevant schematics. We are ready now."

Tucker glared at her. However, he knew enough not to contradict her; he could read her clearly through the bond, and there was no point in arguing. She would not leave without him, and he was in no position to force her. Anyway, he had to concede she was right; they were the most effective team possible. The combination of decades of scientific and engineering experience with a telepathic connection was difficult to beat.

Brodeur pursed his lips. "Okay. Give me a few minutes."

Tucker nodded. "But not too many," he commented, motioning T'Pol in front of him to the door. "We haven't got a lot of time to spare."

Brodeur waved them out, his mind clearly already turning over the ramifications of the decision.

They retired to Tucker's quarters by unspoken consensus. After standing undecided for a moment, Tucker locked the door behind them. "T'Pol …"

"Do not say it," she interrupted. "I will not argue with you about this. I am staying."

"I agree," he replied, with a rueful grin. "I'm not arguing."

She looked vaguely nonplussed. "I am sorry. What were you intending to say?"

"I was just going to tell you that, well," he paused and took her hands in his, "I'm sure glad we had the chance to be really married, even if it was only for a couple of days."

"You sound as though you don't believe we will survive," she said, caressing the back of his hands with her thumbs.

"The odds aren't high," he pointed out. "The most likely scenario is a very big boom, with us in the middle of it."

"We could still try to trigger it remotely," she said. They had discussed these options already, but reconsideration of old decisions was always beneficial.

"The odds of failure are too high, and it would take too long" he replied, retreading ground they'd gone over before. "If we evacuated to a safe enough distance, and failed, it would take too long to get back to try again. We may only have one shot at this, and it could use up all the time we've got. We need to be here to fix whatever problems come up."

"By that logic, we should keep a bigger team behind on Europa."

"No," he stated firmly. "You and me, no more. It's a small risk of failure - between us, we've got all the skills needed and more."

"So it's decided," she reiterated.

"Nothing's changed," Tucker agreed. "The plan's good."

They stood silently for a moment, each absorbed in thoughts of the hours ahead, knowing that Brodeur would approve the plan. Brodeur's appearance as a fussy administrator was a neat disguise that disarmed his co-workers, hiding integrity and a shrewd mind. And there was, in truth, no other option that balanced all the risks.

"This could be it," he murmured, as their minds traced the same path to the nearly inevitable outcome.

"It will be for the greater good," she reiterated, thinking of the last time Tucker's life had apparently been sacrificed. "To save Earth. Together."

He smiled, a gentle, wistful smile. "Together, thy'la," he repeated. "Always."

Her heart broke, then, while her soul felt finally freed. "We are one, unto death, telsu," she said, repeating the words of the Vulcan bonding ceremony.

He released her hands, and turned away, surreptitiously wiping his eyes before he crossed his arms across his chest. "I can't help feeling responsible for you being here," he said, allowing a bit of anger at their situation to escape.

"Trip," she remonstrated, "at virtually every stage of our relationship, I have ultimately been the one that created the opportunities for further intimacy. You can hardly be blamed for my willingness to choose you as mate, for my appearance here, or for the dictates of Vulcan biology that made it imperative that I be here now."

"Okay, okay," he acquiesced, turning back to face her, "but can't I take a little credit for some part of this?" He grinned weakly.

She reached out and pulled him to her, wrapping him in a tight embrace, her cheek against his chest. She murmured, "You may take credit for being irresistible, both in soul and body, and far more patient with me than I have ever deserved." He stroked her hair, silently, and she felt more than heard the tightness in his throat and chest that he was trying to hide.

"How long do you suppose we have till he decides?" he asked quietly, kissing the top of her head gently.

"Not more than an hour," she replied. "We should spend it reviewing the plan."

"You said it yourself, darlin'," he pointed out. "We're already ready."

She admitted to herself that she shared his desire to have their last moments together be as intimate as possible, to make up for all of the lost time. A small smile that he could not see formed on her lips. "Very well," she said, pulling back from their embrace, "but I suggest we leave our clothes well organized should Brodeur be ready for us before we are ready for him."

He grinned, his mood suddenly improving considerably, and began to strip. "We'll have a few minutes to get ourselves decent, it'll take him longer to arrange the evacuation than it will for us to be ready." He grabbed her, half-undressed, and pulled her onto the bed.

She had to admit that it was indeed highly pleasurable to permit their exploration of each other to be somewhat slower than on their previous two occasions, both of which had been marked by over-eagerness on her part, driven by her lack of practice at controlling this aspect of her emotions. Tucker, despite the urgency he must be feeling, covered every surface of her body with slow, deliberate attention, until she felt sure that hours must have passed as her anticipation built.

However it was finally too much for her, and with a most uncharacteristic growl, she flipped him over onto his back and took control of the tempo. This time, however, she was momentarily in sufficient control of herself to use the bond to advantage – she placed her fingers against his temple, and allowed the flow of thoughts and emotions along the bond to be amplified through the contact point.

His eyes widened as he truly began to feel the depth of her need for him, body and soul. Still not knowing entirely how it was done, he did his best to reciprocate, with a torrent of love and desire that apparently reached her, for he could feel a surge of feedback that stripped away any control he had remaining. At the moment of release, he almost forgot who and where he was – only that they were each other's, totally, with no possibility of doubt.

Some minutes later, he began to resume some semblance of rational thought. "So," he commented, "Did you really have to wait till now for that? Do you know how much time we've wasted?"

"I was a fool," she stated. It was time they would never get back, they both knew, time that seemed so valuable with the risks they faced ahead.

"I'm going to remind you of that every chance I get till I die of old age," he murmured, "surrounded by my pointy-eared grandchildren."

She allowed a frisson of hope to suffuse her that she quickly suppressed. She was still a Vulcan, and she knew the odds of surviving long enough to have more attempts to produce genetically improbable offspring were not high.

Just then, Brodeur's voice sounded out over the intercom. It was about to begin.

… TBC