Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to anything Star Trek. That credit goes to Paramount/CBS. I'm only playing with the characters and their environment. I'm not making any money off of this. I'm doing this for plan old fun. Any of the ideas that seem to come from the TV show Dark Angel belong to 2oth Century Fox. And any of the ideas that seem to come from the Resident Evil franchise belong to Capcom. No copyright infringement is meant. Thanks.
A/N: Will Trip break through the Chimera's hold and reach Mac? Read on and you'll find out. I used this chapter to get a lot of important information out there and to set up some of the action to come. The parts in italics are little flashback scenes, showing what the Chimera - or is it Mac - has been up to. I will get back to Archer and his condition in the next chapter, although there is a little mention of him here in this chapter.
Thanks to LadyRainbow for her wonderful suggestions to make this chapter come off sounding better than it did when I first wrote it. She rocks!!
Chapter 25
Days went by, at least Trip thought it was days, and the Chimera failed to come see him. He had been left in his prison, alone, expect for the occasional guard bringing him something to eat. The commander now doubted his earlier actions; he wondered if he should have said the things he'd said to her. Maybe he'd pushed her further over the edge, more into the arms of her demon side. He was scared that he had taken away her only hope and without it she would truly be lost.
Trip also wondered what had happened between the Chimera and Romdel. How would the devious alien handle what Mac had done to his precious super soldiers? The chief engineer was secretly glad the Vorloren leader hadn't taken out his disapproval on him. Romdel had to know that punishing Trip would hurt her more than any kind of physical torture. Maybe the Chimera didn't care about him anymore, so Romdel had left Trip alone.
All Trip could do at the moment was pace in his cage and think more depressing thoughts. He had tried to sense T'Pol through their bond a few times, but just like before, she wasn't responding or he wasn't getting through to her. He had wanted to at least let her know he was all right, if anything. Trip could really have used some of the Vulcan woman's strength and wisdom right now. What if the Chimera was already participating in barbarous acts for Romdel? What if she was beyond any help now? He thought he might actually start sobbing because he felt so alone and like such a failure.
A soft knock interrupted his pessimistic musings. It startled him for a moment, and then he said, "Come in."
The Chimera's head cautiously poked in. Her wolfen eyes and fangs frightening him and exciting him all at the same time. She was dressed in a black leather, thin-strapped jumpsuit, with a circular, low-cut neckline. The outfit laced together with ties down her chest and part of her abdomen, giving her curves a boost and a nice view of her cleavage. The sides of her thick, rich mane were pulled back and looped into a clever, small ponytail, leaving most of her hair shimmering down her back. The Chimera was breathtaking. Trip literally had to remember to breathe. Then he became wary; he couldn't let her get to him again. He had to resist her, but part of him didn't want to resist her.
She stayed just inside the door, holding it open. "Can we talk?" her voice was quiet, unsure, and maybe a little shaky; that was weird. The Chimera's gaze had settled at Trip's feet, her head bowed low, and there was no seductiveness to her demeanor now.
"Sure," he replied, and she let the door slide shut. Trip heard the locking mechanism slip into place. The Vorlorens obviously didn't want Trip going anywhere even with the Chimera around, or maybe she was trapping him again, which wasn't an unpleasant thought. "What's on your mind?" he asked politely.
"A lot actually," she still spoke quietly. She walked towards the center of the main living area. She lightly brushed her fingers along the underside of a large, wooden table that was one of the few pieces of furniture the room had. "There, that's better," she commented softly.
Trip looked at her suspiciously. "Whatcha just do?" he demanded.
"Romdel is a security freak and monitors everything," she stated. "He has cameras and other recording equipment set up to watch your room. I can't afford to have him hear what I need to talk to you about. I initiated a small counter transmitter to mask our conversation. He will think we are talking about something completely different than we will be."
"Okay," Trip said slowly, still eyeing her with trepidation. He wondered where in the world she had gotten her hands on that kind of technology, and then decided he didn't want to know. "So what are we gonna to be talkin' about?"
The Chimera hesitated for a long time, like she didn't know where to start, and she still wouldn't look directly at Trip. She actually appeared nervous around him, scared of him. That struck him as odd since she could kick his ass, but he guessed after the way he had spoken to her a few days ago, maybe it made sense. She was scared of how he would react to her, what he would think of her.
Finally, it all came out in a rush as she said, "Romdel is going to have me lead his super soldier army to annihilate what he believes is all that's left of the Lasiterians before sunrise tomorrow. He and his brother, a Vorloren named Torin Hister, a personal advisor to the High Monarch and a Vorloren Space Command general, think they have found the Lasiterians' last outpost, so to speak. Romdel has kept me busy for days now planning and strategizing the attack, working with his super soldiers. We both know that the whole story about the Lasiterians taking Vorlorens hostage was all a load of crap. It was a lie to deflect our attention away from what's really going to happen."
Trip didn't know how to reply to this new information. Part of him was glad that she hadn't yet gone off to commit genocide, but he was very worried that she was going to go and participate in it. "I know what you're thinking, Trip," she interrupted his thoughts. "And it's not what you're thinking. I'm not going to let Romdel's army butcher the Lasiterians. I stopped taking the drug almost seventy-two hours ago, but Romdel doesn't know that. He still thinks my feral nature's in control. I can be a pretty good actress when I want to be. It's easy to act like the Chimera because I'm really only letting another part of me come forward. I am her." Trip watched in fascination as her eyes returned to their luscious dark brown and as her fangs receded. She looked like Mac again, and she was sure starting to sound like her.
Trip was hoping this wasn't a time when she wanted to be a good actress, that it wasn't the Chimera pretending to be Mac. "The Chimera and I called a truce," she continued, "Or you could say I've come to terms with some of the things inside me. I still want to call her she, but the Chimera is me. You were right about that, Trip. She's the part of me I use to deal with things I don't want to deal with. She's how I cope with the difficulties of life. She's useful, but destructive. We are one and the same person. I realized that, and I have to admit that I am her and she is me."
Trip felt like a huge sack of one-ton boulders had been lifted off his chest. This is what he had been trying to convince her of for days now. A different kind of hope dared to spring forth again. Maybe she had listened to him after all. "Can I ask you somethin', Mac?" he asked. "You can be straight with me. I really didn't mean what I said a few days ago. I just said it to-," Mac cut him off.
"You were trying to get me to rethink my choices. I know. You had to push me away to get me to care again, to make me face my pain and decide whether I let it dictate my actions, or whether I worked to change its cause," Mac's voice trembled, just slightly. "And I did decide to face it; at least much more than I ever have before."
He asked his question even after her interruption. He wanted to know if she really had faced her pain. "What causes you to be so full of rage?" he asked softly. Archer had told Trip all about Victor McKnight and how he was murdered in front of her when she was only seven years old. The commander knew that Victor had been her whole life, her security, her ray of sunshine in a dark world, and then he was brutally and viciously taken away from her. Trip was aware of all this, but he wanted to hear Mac confess the truth of it herself.
"Part of it is just plain old genetics," she said at first, and Trip's new optimism faltered. She was making excuses, not confronting the real issue, or so he thought. "All of the transgenics created in the last part of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first had to be destroyed because of their savagery. It was true something set me apart from them, something born in me, despite my genetic engineering, and because of the nurturing attention I received from the man I called my father. My beast didn't come out until I witnessed him get killed in cold blood right in front of my eyes. That was the first and truly the only time I didn't have any control over her, besides the first few moments of my revival. When I attacked and massacred his murderers, it was done through pure instinct with no conscious thought behind it at all.
"Later, that's what happened to my transgenic brothers and sisters when puberty hit them. Their instincts to be wild animals completely took over. I, on the other hand, had experienced that madness before, had been able to analyze it, and could be consciously aware of those instincts. I learned that I could control them and make them serve my purposes at a young age. So when puberty hit me, I didn't go homicidal like the rest of my family.
"The problem I had was, I as the Chimera, and I as Mac, never got over, or I should say that I never let myself get over and truly grieve and accept the loss of Victor. The hate of the men who killed him never left me because I wouldn't let it. It grew like a cancer, choking off all the good in me. I fed the hate, the need for revenge, and it consumed me. That hate turned into rage and violence. The Chimera allowed me to act on those feelings and hid the truth from myself. Somehow I need to let go of that hate and the hate I have for myself. I need to learn how to forgive." Tears had begun to fall down Mac's cheeks. "Oh God, Trip, I miss Victor so much," she sobbed. "I want him back so badly it physically hurts."
Trip's heart went out to the young woman in pain. He went to her and enfolded her in his arms and let her cry. "Why was he taken away from me, Trip? Why?" she cried.
"I don't know darlin'," he told her as he held her against him. "Life is really unfair sometimes. I guess we have to experience the bad, so we know what the good is. We can only know joy if we have sorrow to compare it to. Some of us just seem to get blessed with a little more grief than joy sometimes."
Mac gave a small laugh and finally looked up at him. When their eyes met, he knew without a doubt she really was Mac; she wasn't acting. "How did you get so wise, country boy?" she quipped.
Trip cupped her face gently in his hands. "Dealin' with my own loss. My sister Lizzie – Elizabeth - was killed when the Xindi first attacked Earth. I couldn't sleep at night; nightmares kept me up. Every time I closed my eyes I would see her die, even though I never witnessed her actual death. I hated the Xindi. I wanted to make them pay in the worst way. I wanted to kill as many of them as I could. But we learned that they had been tricked into thinkin' that we were their enemies, and that most of them were good people. I had some deep soul searchin' to do. I had to learn to forgive them. I think I'm still learnin' how to do that. It's not easy, but it's possible. It takes a lot of humility. You have to be willin' to swallow your pride. You just have to let go."
"I'm coming to recognize that, I suppose," Mac told him. "But it's hard to let go of something that has been your security blanket. Something that I have used all my life to protect myself and make me strong. It has also been something that I have consciously suppressed. The Chimera part of me absorbed my hate and used it, while the rest of me didn't know how to deal with it, so the other part of me tried to fight it."
"And that put you in conflict with yourself. In truth, you would be even stronger if you could give up your anger and hate," Trip said. "It takes a lot more strength to admit you're wrong and that change needs to be made, than it does to continue on in the status quo. Besides, hatred is just as much a poison to your soul as that drug Romdel gave you. It makes you forget who you really are and what you really want."
Mac now rested her head on Trip's chest and just let herself be held in his warm and friendly arms. "I always thought that hate would get me through anything. That I would make those I hated suffer and my pain would lessen or go away. It's the reverse that's true. The hater suffers worse than the hated."
"Ain't that a kicker?" Trip replied. "Mac, I'm so glad that you came to your senses. I thought I'd lost you. I've come to care about you so much that it was almost like losing a part of myself." His voice was thick with emotion as he clung to her.
"The funny thing is that I thought I'd lost you, and that I was going to lose Jonathan," Mac confessed. "That was unacceptable. I had to do something about that. I had to face all of myself and try to deal with both sides of me. I haven't lost you, have I? I didn't mess up that badly, did I?"
Trip held her even tighter and said, "Of course not. You're my friend, you're my angel, and I will always be there for you. You saved my life when no one else could. I love you, Mac."
Mac shook with a sob at his reassurance. "I'm so sorry of my actions earlier. I know about how you and T'Pol feel about each other, and I selfishly tried to destroy that. I didn't mean to tempt you that way," she apologized.
"I know and it's forgotten," Trip said honestly, but part of him wished she would tempt him again. He was supposed to be her friend. He had to stop those kind of thoughts. He decided to change topics. "Now, explain to me why you are still going to lead Romdel's super soldier army," he said switching gears.
"I don't want to bruise your delicate male ego, but you aren't the entire reason I decided to put myself back together," Mac stated as lightheartedly as she could. "I mean you were the stone thrown into my troubled waters, but it was the ripple effect that turned the tide."
Trip couldn't help but smile; he understood what she meant. "You started the mountain slide of thoughts that made me reevaluate myself and what I truly wanted, but it was the thoughts of Jonathan that really caused the avalanche," Mac explained. "When I really started to think about him and my thoughts lingered on him, it reopened whatever connection I have with him, some kind of psychic-emotional deal. I can, at times, feel what he's feeling."
Trip nodded. "It sounds kinda like the bond that T'Pol and I've acquired with each other. Our thoughts and minds sometimes mix together."
"Sort of," Mac replied, and then elaborated. "I can't read Jonathan's mind or he mine. I don't know what he's thinking, just what he's feeling. When Romdel dosed me with that horrible drug of his, I unconsciously shoved that connection with Jonathan aside. It wasn't until you forced me to delve back into the core of myself, that I realized what I had done to him."
"Whatcha mean?" Trip said and pulled back from her. He made her look him in the eye again. "What did you do to him?" His voice was full of concern.
Mac gently grabbed his hands. "Maybe we should sit down while I explain everything."
Mac encouraged him to come and sit with her on the velvety tan couch in the main living area. After they had seated themselves facing each other, Mac began to tell Trip all that she had been doing the last few days, and most importantly, why she was still going to lead the Vorloren super soldier army.
She first talked about the reason she chose to get her life back under control. "The drug had whipped me up into such a state that it leaked over into Jonathan through our psychic connection. My rage and wildness literally became his. My beast whispered to a hidden savage part of Jonathan and triggered severe primal instincts to come out of him. I caused most of his bodily systems to become unbalanced, just as mine had once been. Jonathan's body became dangerously fevered. I could feel all of his frustration and despair. I felt his panic over our disappearances as well," Mac paused here for a moment.
Trip nodded for her to continue; he was following her. "Most of all, I experienced Jonathan's anger, almost as strongly as I experienced my own terrible rage, and I knew it was all my fault. The more I realized I was hurting Jonathan horribly, the more it snapped me back to reality, forced me to really examine the situation I was in. I recognized that my actions were not only affecting me, but they were having fierce and painful consequences for those I loved. Never before had any of my choices directly affected someone I cared about like that.
"It's one thing for me to be a monster, but I wasn't going to turn my lover, my mate, into one too. I and the Chimera part of me both couldn't allow Jonathan to inherit our curse, our darkness, my demon. For a split second it had been appealing to the Chimera to have a mate to share in her hate and rage with, but then we remembered the awful images of our transgenic brethren and all the pain and suffering they went through. Both sides of me couldn't do that to Jonathan. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. I realized I had to choose once and for all: to live as the Chimera, a perfect killing machine, driven by primitive instincts alone and risk torturing the man I loved to death, or to live as McKenna McKnight, a genetically engineered human and animal hybrid trained to kill in defense of those weaker than herself, driven by compassion and morality. I made my choice," Mac explained. Then she took Trip back through what she had done the last few days.
The first night going without the drug was the hardest. It had quite a hold on her beast, but it was mind over matter. Romdel had started letting her self-dose, so she could instantly keep the primal part of her in control. She broke all the vials she had been given and flushed them down the toilet. Watching the drug swirl away was like waking up from a bad dream. When she was given more vials, she disposed of those too. The withdrawal from the drug was not pleasant. She shook, ached, ran a fever, then chilled, and her body longed for more. Luckily, it only lasted a short time. Her GV infected blood healed her pretty quickly and somehow her connection to Archer lessened the symptoms. She did this all without arousing Romdel's suspicions, which was extremely difficult.
Through her battle with the drug, she learned how to turn on and off her beast at will. It was hers to call and it would answer. She had fully integrated herself with it; she became whole. It took both parts of her to be strong enough to fight her body and mind's dependence on the drug. They had to work together. By conquering the drug, she also conquered her more primitive instincts so they no longer held sway over her. They could be called upon if she needed them, however, like a new arsenal of weaponry. It was then Mac decided what she had to do for Jonathan and for the Lasiterians. When she recovered enough, she planned and then went about caring out those plans.
She had then found a way to contact Enterprise, after hacking through a bunch of Vorloren computer and satellite systems. She had spoken to T'Pol and Phlox. They were surprised to hear from her, but pleased and relieved. She explained what Romdel had done to her, how she had beaten it, and what the director expected her to do.
Phlox had then filled her in on all the agonizing details of Jonathan's condition. "I've been trying to keep the Captain sedated, but it only works part of the time. I finally had to confine him in a decon chamber. That way I can still give him medical treatment, but the Captain can't hurt anyone, or himself," Phlox had told her.
Hearing these things only confirmed all of her feelings on the matter; that she had been causing her mate great distress. "Then the Captain showed remarkable improvement a few days later. That must have been after you stopped taking the drug and used meditation to calm yourself," Phlox had informed her. "The peace between your two sides must be helping the Captain. He still has a fever, but it has dropped down to a safer level. His violent aggression has lessened as well, but anything can set it off, if we are not careful. I fear that only through being with you again will the Captain's systems fully become balanced. Through your coupling, the Captain's body chemistry would mix with yours and fix his imbalances. It would be just the reverse of what the Captain was able to do for you."
Trip just shook his head in wonder. "It's amazin' the connection you have with Jon. I'm glad that you realized what you were doin' to him and at least halted his regression, or whatever you want to call it," he commented.
A quick and fleeting stab of jealousy flashed through Trip. He tried to ignore it, but he found himself wanting be the one that needed Mac, not Archer. Maybe it was because he and T'Pol had not been intimate for such a long period of time that he craved what Mac could offer. Or maybe it was because Mac was a gorgeous woman who had come onto him so strongly that it had awakened needs he didn't understand he had. T'Pol's Vulcan physiology had protected him from the Orion slave girls' pheromones because Vulcans were immune to them, but Mac wasn't Orion, she was mostly human with a twist, and Vulcan physiology could not help him against his own kind. It was natural human nature he was experiencing, or so he thought. Mac's further explanation broke him out of his own thoughts.
Next, she had to find a way to get Jonathan back down to Sinova so she could help him. The problem was that Romdel was still very upset with the Chimera for betraying him and taking out some of his super soldiers without his permission. He had claimed that part of her punishment for that betrayal was that she would not be reunited with Jonathan anytime soon, and if she did anything like that again, Trip would suffer the consequences or the drug would be withheld. At the time the Chimera had no choice but to agree to his terms. She would be a good little killer. The Vorloren leader had also wanted her to lead the attack on the Lasiterians almost immediately after their meeting that afternoon; the same afternoon Trip had spoken to her so harshly.
Romdel had informed her that she would be given a removable neuro implant to help her communicate with the entire army of ten thousand soldiers all at once. She would be hooked up to their collective mind. That way they could execute her commands as soon as she gave them and they could execute them as one. There would be no miscommunication, no hesitation, and no delays. Every Vorloren super soldier had a cybernetic neuro implant embedded in their brains at birth. It served to train them as unquestionably loyal soldiers very effectively, and it allowed them to be perfectly taught and controlled.
"I don't feel comfortable with having an electronic chip in my head, Director," the Chimera had balked at the idea at first. "I don't want something in there that could short my brain out or something that would allow you to manipulate me. I won't trade one cage for another," she argued vehemently.
Romdel had tried to assure her that it would be harmless to her. "Your implant wouldn't be a permanent one. You could use one that you could attach to the side of your head and just let it plug into your brain, temporarily. You would be able unattach it when you weren't using it."
"Then give me some time carefully consider what I'm really agreeing to," the Chimera had demanded. "You are surprising me again, and I don't like surprises."
Romdel had finally conceded and let her have until the next morning to decide. He was desperate to have her full cooperation; the use of the neuro implant required it. The Chimera had this unwelcome kink in Romdel's designs thrust upon her right after her altercation with Trip. This fact only added to her decision to come to terms with herself. While she spent the entire night suffering her withdrawal from the drug, she came to understand that the Vorloren had given her the perfect way to stop his super soldier army. She could use the neuro implant to either command the Vorloren super soldier army to turn against the Vorlorens themselves, or to cause them to destroy each other. It was risky and it might not work. Romdel may have some kind of failsafe in place to prevent her from doing just that, but maybe his overconfidence in his power over her would be her greatest ally.
"I realized that I know little or nothing about who the Lasiterians truly are. They could be just as horrendous as the Vorlorens. They might be power-loving, evil murderers, just like a majority of the Vorloren leadership, but that doesn't matter. I'm not about to allow a species to completely wipe out another part of itself. I can at least level the playing field and give the Lasiterians a fighting chance to defend themselves. If down the road the two enemies totally obliterated each other, then so be it," Mac declared to Trip in a very determined manner.
"I hear ya," Trip replied wholeheartedly.
"I will not let myself be used to commit genocide. I sincerely don't like to kill, especially on such a massive scale. It serves no logical purpose. I really do understand how morally wrong it is. I love to hunt, yes. I love to stalk my prey, okay. But it's the thrill of the chase that I love the most. Killing's rush is far too brief to bring any lasting fulfillment, and killing for no other reason than to just kill is wrong. Most animals kill only for either food or defense, not for pleasure. Even my most animalistic side really only thinks of killing as either a way to get food, or to protect my survival. It was only been when I combined that primitive instinct with the idea of relieving my pain by causing others pain, that my demon had, for a time, believed killing to be enjoyable. It was a hollow and false belief. I just like catching whatever it is that I've gone after. It's the fact that I've succeeded in my goal that honestly brings me joy, not the kill itself. The elation of the kill is an illusion. It doesn't last, and it has to be done over and over to be remembered. The elation of saving a life, I've learned, lasts forever. That's rooted deep within my mind and heart, and its memory brings me joy by just the mere act of thinking of it," Mac said full of insight that had Trip's own mind reeling.
"You really have thought all this through," he commented in wonderment. "I'm overjoyed that you save my life too," he added tenderly. Then he let her finish her tale.
Mac had stalled Romdel for more time before she would lead his super soldier army. She, now pretending to be the Chimera, asked if she could have a few days to get use to the neuro implant, let her mind and body learn to tolerate it. It wouldn't do to have her have a bad reaction to it out on the battlefield. Romdel had resisted at first, but in the end he could not deny her logic. He finally agreed to let her test it and adjust to it a little at a time. He wanted her at her top operating level. The practice with it was very successful and pleased him. Mac and the super soldiers worked perfectly together.
Then she got bolder and threatened Romdel that she would turn on the Vorlorens and take out as many of them as she could until they finally killed her, if she didn't get want she wanted: Jonathan. She told Romdel she needed her mate that badly. It was the only way she could think of to get Jonathan near her to help him. It was a bluff, of course, but Romdel didn't know that. He still thought the Chimera was in control, and in a way she was, not just the way Romdel thought.
The Vorloren director had yielded again, mainly because he was curious to see Archer's reaction to what Romdel thought was the new and improved Mac. He wanted to observe how Archer would be crushed to find his lover was now a killer full-time. Romdel promised the transgenic that Archer would be here this afternoon, and then she was to lead the super soldier army into battle the next morning, or Romdel would put both Archer and Trip to death. Mac, acting as the Chimera, had agreed to this new compromise.
Trip was in awe of what Mac had been able to accomplish in a few short days. He knew a least a week or more had passed since his capture, but he wasn't quite certain. Without a sun or the difference between night and day, it was hard for him to keep track of the passing days. "So the Cap'n'll be here soon then?" he asked, and then added, "What happens after that?"
"I'll solve his problem, and then I'll solve the Lasiterians' problem," Mac told him. "T'Pol mentioned that Hoshi and Reed had found a coded message on that disc the maid slipped me. With Mayweather's help, they decoded it and were able to set up a meeting with the Lasiterians. Hoshi had to do some creative transmitting, but she pulled it off without the Vorlorens picking up on the transmission. Hopefully, your shipmates can warn the Lasiterians about the impending Vorloren attack and what I intend to do, but it may be a long shot." Hoshi had also received the hidden communication that Mac had sent before Romdel's betrayal, and the Earth ship knew all about the genocidal tendencies the Vorlorens were capable of towards the Lasiterians. It was a huge concern.
"Why do you say that?" Trip questioned.
"Setting up the meeting is one thing," Mac answered, "but actually getting to the meeting is another. The Vorloren fleet would see and track any move Enterprise or her shuttles made. From the sounds of T'Pol explanation, the Lasiterians are on the other side of the system from here."
Trip mused on this a moment. That definitely was problem. Unless the Lasiterians had a transportation device that was designed for extreme long range, somehow, anyone leaving Enterprise would be seen. Then it hit him. The chief engineer would bet his bottom dollar that the Suliban had cloaked ships out in the system somewhere. If they could be convinced to help, like Kajine helped him get into Sinova, it might be doable. Now the problem would be contacting them and talking the aliens in to aiding the humans. Trip would mention the idea to the Captain if he had the chance, if Archer hadn't already thought about it himself. Although, if the Captain was as bad off as Mac claimed, he might not have.
When Trip remained silent, lost in his thoughts, Mac went ahead and finished her tale. "There is a little bit more that I need to tell you," she said slowly. Trip nodded to her to go on. "I've tried to snoop around the complex a bit. It's almost impossible to move around without running into some sort of security measure, but then I was designed to overcome such obstacles." Trip's lips twitched in amusement. She continued, "I think the Vorlorens have been working with your mysterious man from the future. I'm almost certain he's the one behind the creation of the Vorloren super soldiers."
"What?" Trip gasped. "How did you draw that conclusion? Why would Future Guy work with both the Suliban and the Vorlorens?"
"Good questions all round," she said. "And not to make myself sound all important, but I assume some of it has to do with me. Future Guy must really have wanted you guys to find me and revive me very badly. Why, I have no idea. But to get the Vorlorens to do all his dirty work for him, he had to offer the Vorlorens something of value in return. That is where the designs for a genetically engineered super soldier come in. He must have promised them they could pattern their new breed of warrior after me.
"To answer the question on how I developed my theory, I found what looks like a holographic chamber on a lower level of the complex. Jonathan explained to me that Future Guy is not far enough into the future to literally transport himself through time, but he can project his image and voice back through time. The chamber I found is unlike anything I have ever seen, so I hacked into Vorloren database to find out what it was. I found one highly-encrypted, well-hidden reference to the device. The only use it can have is holographic projection, and it requires a large energy source to power it," Mac said meaningfully.
"That sonvabitch," Trip cursed. "Should've known that he would be playin' more than one side. He obviously wants to keep his bases covered by usin' both the Suliban and the Vorlorens. I wonder how many other species he manipulates."
"Somehow I don't think the Vorlorens are keeping up their end of whatever bargain they've made with the man from the future. Why else would he send the Suliban into 'fix' things?" Mac made the little quotations mark symbols with her hands as she spoke.
"You could be right," Trip replied. "We'll have to let the Cap'n, or T'Pol, or someone aboard Enterprise know about your discovery."
"Agreed," Mac responded. "I haven't gotten a chance to communicate with Enterprise for a while. Things are being too closely monitored right now, you know, with the impending attack. Last item I need to tell you," she jumped ahead. "I'm going to try and get Romdel to allow you and Jonathan to accompany us on the transport to wherever this attack is going to take place. I want to give you guys some type of opportunity to escape to any place you can. Romdel and Hister will be briefing me a few hours before the army strikes with all the last minute strategic information I'll need."
"You think you can press your luck with Romdel a third time?" Trip said skeptically.
"I don't know. He's obsessed with eradicating every last Lasiterian, and he views me as his best hope of making that happen. I've proven to him that I'm more than capable. I'm going to at least give it a try. I want you two safe and sound when all the bad stuff goes down," Mac said as she stood.
Trip stood too, knowing there was something she was holding back. "We're not going to just leave you behind," he told her forcefully, his voice now sounding determined.
"When all is said and done, there maybe nothing to leave behind, Trip," she whispered.
Trip started. Mac was talking about that fact that she probably would not survive what was to come. She had to. He wasn't about to let her sacrifice herself a second time. The transgenic didn't even know the Lasiterians. She didn't need to give her life for them. "We will not leave you behind," he repeated and grabbed her so she would turn and face him. "We will bring you home." He left the last unspoken, one way or another.
Mac placed a light, chaste kiss on his cheek. "I appreciate the sentiment, even if it's misplaced. I don't think Earth's really my home anymore anyway."
Suddenly, Trip wanted more from her than a simple kiss on the cheek. All of his bottled up emotions were more than he could handle. He didn't know why he was compelled to try and claim intimacy with her, but he was. Maybe it was her virus-enhanced blood making him more primitive and savage, a lot like the Captain, but whatever it was, she had definitely initiated something in him that was pure, basic instinct driven. His arms crushed her to him and he pressed his mouth to hers in a heated kiss. Her lips tasted of something sweet. Her body was warm and inviting. Mac resisted his actions for a moment, but then she gave into the same flood of primal need. She kissed him back with equal heat, letting him draw her close against him.
Then she pulled abruptly away. "That shouldn't have happen. I'm sorry."
Trip stepped close to her again. "You don't need to be sorry," he whispered huskily. "I wanted it to happen this time." He let his hand stroke her face. "Besides, I started it," he pointed out. Then he tried to kiss her again, more urgently this time. She almost let him. He smelled so good. He tasted so good.
But they were not meant to be together in such a way. He was not her mate, Jonathan was. Mac loved Trip, but not the same way she loved Jonathan. Mac was sure Jonathan was her soulmate, the one perfect fit for her. Trip was a kindred spirit, a loving friend to share the experiences of life with, but not her mate. The transgenic was coming to learn that sex could be much more than just recreation. It allowed two people to connect on a sacred level. T'Pol was Trip's soulmate, his perfect fit. The Vulcan just needed to recognize that fact for both her and Trip's sake.
Maybe it was Archer's need Mac was feeling and responding to subconsciously that somehow Trip picked up on. Maybe she was sending out signals she wasn't aware of. The chief engineer had a part of her body chemistry circulating throughout his body now. Who knew what changes or alterations it was making inside him? Phlox had not been able to closely monitor Trip's full recovery process. Getting captured had prevented any watchful eye Phlox would have kept on him. Anyway Mac looked at it; Trip didn't know what he was doing.
"Stop, Trip," Mac said instead of giving into her swirling desires. Trip was an attractive male: young, intelligent, kind, and fully functional. The commander tried again to kiss the transgenic. This time she placed a hand on his chest and pushed him away to arms length. Her arm a solid barrier between them. It was as immovable as a duranium bar. "I said stop," she said in a more commanding voice. "This is my fault again. If I hadn't put the idea into your head, you wouldn't be acting this way. By coming on to you the way I did, I've really messed you up."
"What? I'm suddenly not good enough for you anymore?" Trip said angrily. He didn't like being denied what he thought they both wanted. "My rank not what you need it to be?" It was a petty and mean thing to say, but he didn't care at the moment.
Mac shook her head sadly. She was very glad that her hand was in contact with his maroon T-shirt and not his bare chest; that would have broken her resolve. "You know that's not it, Trip," her voice was softer now. "We both have others we care about. Whatever we are experiencing right now isn't normal, or real."
"It sure as hell feels real to me," he replied defiantly. "I may not be the dominant male, but I could be. I can challenge Jon for the top spot, and then claim you."
Mac's jaw dropped. Trip was using her wolf pack analogy against her. "You wouldn't battle your best friend over me," she tried to make it sound ridiculous, but looking into the chief engineer's fiery eyes, she wasn't so sure it was so ridiculous. Trip was deadly serious.
"If it meant being able to have you, I would," Trip stated.
"What about T'Pol?" Mac demanded.
"If she truly wanted to be with me, she would be, but she's not, and I don't think ever she will be," Trip answered. "And don't give me the line about the fact that you don't want me, because I know you do. I have experienced that you do."
The human super soldier didn't know what to do. She just stared at him. She felt lightheaded and a little dizzy. The thought struck her that maybe, like her animal counter parts, she was in heat. That would explain the feeling of being off she had experienced before Romdel had drugged her and why she and Archer couldn't keep their hands off each other. She couldn't put her finger on it at the time, but now in retrospect she could. It made more sense now.
She remembered after her transgenic sisters had hit puberty and before they had been exterminated, they went through a weird bodily cycle two or three times a year where the drive to mate was so strong it had to be met, or the consequences were more madness and death. Her fellow female transgenics would go after anything male with a pulse, and they could cause equally strong reactions in any males within their proximity. It was that powerful. It usually only lasted between thirty-six to forty-eight hours. Then the cycle faded and returned to a more normal human bodily cycle. She herself had never had that problem. For whatever reason, she didn't know. Her drive had never been that strong. It sure was now, however.
Mac wondered if being cryogenically frozen could have set it off in her. Her body had been in a suspended deep freeze for one hundred and fifty years. Now it seemed to want to make up for all that lost time, all at once. The transgenic had been experiencing this cycle almost since she had been awakened. She would have to talk to Phlox about it. Come to think of it, this new theory made perfect sense to the genetically engineered woman.
Many of the male Vorloren soldiers, regular and super, had been behaving oddly around her too. So had many of the male Vorloren scientists and medics. They had to constantly touch her, pat her shoulder, shake her hand, or drape an arm around her. Some of them had tried to do any little task for her they could, being way too helpful. A couple had even propositioned her for a little action. Even Romdel seemed to act strangely around her. Maybe that was why he was giving into her demands, because he was trying to win her over so she would chose him to mate with. That was a sick thought.
It would also explain why she had not been able to stop herself from coming on to Trip so doggedly. She was in heat. This was not good. This could cause some serious problems. It was already causing problems. Trip's sudden change in behavior was proof of that. It was apparent that she needed Jonathan badly after all, not just him needing her. Mac had to get away from Trip and quickly. He truly was not thinking rationally, and he really didn't realize what he was doing. And it was all her fault.
"I had better go," the transgenic told him more confidently than she felt. "Take the counter transmitter out from under the underneath portion of the table and flush it down the toilet after I've gone. Romdel will never know what we've talked about." She dropped her arm and strode toward the door, a key card in her hand. Trip reached out and grabbed her left wrist. He tried to pull her back to him once again. He was not giving up yet. Mac, in return, grabbed Trip's arm that held her wrist right above his elbow. Then she stepped into him, but turned at the last second. She let her fingers slide down to his forearm, and then twisted it back behind him at an unnatural angle. Pain lanced up through his entire arm, and he was forced on to his knees because of it. She was now behind him, holding his arm twisted too far the wrong way.
Mac held him like that and kept up enough torque on the arm to almost break it. Tears stung Trip's eyes. The pain was unbearable. "I said I was leaving now, Commander Tucker," she spoke quite authoritatively. "You can either let me, or I can break your arm. You choose."
The pain had some sobering effect on him. "I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me," he hissed through his pain.
"Take a cold shower and snap out it," she ordered.
"Fine by me," he said with his teeth clenched.
Mac let him go, and he gasped in sweet relief. His arm throbbed now, but at least the nerve biting pain had lessened. Just as she opened the door he said, "This isn't over, Mac. Not by a long shot." The human super soldier frowned at him, stepped out into the hall, and let the door close, leaving him on his knees and alone in his cage once again.
TBC
Uh-oh, we have a role reversal going on here. What will that mean for Trip and T'Pol's reconnection, and what will it mean for Mac and Archer? Please review and let me know if this is any good. All comments are welcome. Thanks!!