xxx

Federation space

Third rank specialist Darte Oddens waited until his colleagues had left their posts and he remained alone in the offices of the gigantic seven-story-high warehouse that housed bank upon banks of servers. He nervously fingered the bamboo napkin from his lunch, tearing the fabric apart until it became cotton. His palms were moist. He had just been alerted to the fact that the second convoy had uncomforming material, they couldn't do anything with it. And it had already been sold, which meant that someone somewhere had an IOU with his name on it.

He swallowed, all thoughts of food out for the night. He needed to get the next one right. Starfleet didn't even know he existed, they couldn't have been playing him. It was only a question of getting the correct information. He activated the third computer, the one in his desk, that was directly linked into the Starfleet deliveries database, using his contractor access. Few paid attention to the shipment database but that was where he found all his information. A lot of information. He went through page after page of shipments of all kinds, from the mundane to the exotic, noting that some seemed to be duplicates. Probably some other smart aleck who'd figured how to turn data into riches. He let it be. He wasn't one to begrudge anybody else their fair share, they could never in a million years achieve the returns he could in a couple of clicks.

Darte tensed, focusing all his energy on skimming the information, looking for any relevant items that would make him stop and take notice.

There would be more than a few finds, and he only needed one. One convoy that had cargo his benefactors wanted. He'd rather think of them as benefactors, make believe they were positively inclined towards him.

Once he found the ship, he would double-check the routing plans, send them over. If someone had figured him out, they would put the most attractive listings at the top, as a bait. He carefully skipped the first findings.

If he picked randomly among the rest, it was certain to work. He would no longer have to worry and would just have to wait until an awe-inspiring number of credits drenched his personal account.

He simply couldn't fail. Not again.

xxx

Cathruusa

"The next initiative will be a joint operation with five other rebel groups." Jivak was talking to the audience of a hundred or so rebels, standing at a rectangular table at the head of the large meeting room. Trip looked over the assembly while keeping an eye on T'Pol. They'd been to a couple of these meetings already but somehow he had a bad feeling about this one.

"The other rebel groups have accepted the collaboration. We are preparing for an all-out offensive. We will spend the two upcoming cycles in preparation. The handler will coordinate weapons and supplies across the groups."

There was what would pass as a noisy reaction from the Vulcan crowd. Trip inwardly shook his head. These people wanted to go back to Vulcan barbaric civilization of old and yet they were as removed from it as they could ever hope to be. Hell, he was more savage by half than any of them.

He surreptitiously looked over over at the crowd, once again noting how few women there were. He'd like to believe it was because they were much smarter than the men. Part of him secretly despised the rebels, grown boys playing with men's tools, thinking that somehow that gave them importance and valor. Fighting the hunters on the I'Shlin planet was probably the only useful thing they'd ever done. He shook his head again, reminding himself that the sheer force of beliefs had often been enough to overcome many stable civilizations.

The conversations were held in soft voices and measured tones, too low for Trip to follow, especially in Vulcan. He'd have to ask T'Pol later what they were about.

But Jivak was not done. He spoke over the noise of the conversations. Trip could have sworn he had looked over towards him and T'Pol. "Companion of arms, I beseech you to heed my words. I have no further explanation at this time to give, I am not privy to our common objective. In two cycles, I will share what I learn." Trip straightened up, alerted by a sixth sense that something was up.

Dawn was breaking and the meeting was soon over. Some started leaving. T'Pol turned to do so and found her path barred by Jivak. Trip was already at her side, ready to take on the leader if he made one move against her. But Jivak didn't seem ill-inclined. He staredk at the two of them. "You will not take part in the preparations."

Poryk, their faithful guide, had joined them, standing by their side. He interrogated Jival with a raised eyebrow.

"It is more important for T'Pol to maintain access, let us know which groups are getting support and supplies." Jivak replied.

"I do not have access to the handler." T'Pol protested. Trip looked at her in surprise. Didn't she realize that it made her vulnerable if she didn't know who the handler was?

"Indifferent. You will not take part in the preparations." Jivak word was final. He turned around and walked to another group. They walked away in silence with Poryk.

In the now deserted meeting place Spivac went to the table where Jivak and the members of the leadership committee were now seated, ready to explore the workings of the intergroup alliance.

He quickly spoke before the discussion could start. "Your plan was successful, Jivak, we are being reactivated." Jivak and the committee looked up at him, waiting for the next declaration. "It is a fair assumption that this is not related to the T'Pol's position as a courier. Do you agree that we can now debate the fate of the Qomi?"

Jivak slowly got up, towering over the shorter man. "It certainly looks like you shall have your wish, Spivac, but plans for our involvement may yet be derailed. As our forebears used to say, 'talk has the molecular weight of words, action that of blades'." Several heads around the table nodded in approval at the old saying. "We will debate the fate of the Qomi when the plans have been fully laid." He addressed the small group. "Now let us understand how we can work as part of the alliance, and what our involvement shall be before it is imposed on us." He turned back to look significantly at Spivac. "These debates will be quite outside your interests as a healer. Perhaps your duties call you other places?"

"One never knows when and where a healer will be needed." Spivac countered, but he got the message. Oppose Jivak any further and he wouldn't be able to report on the rebel plans to his Romulan overseers.

xxx

T'Agad Story

The courtyard was cool, the waning suns' rays filtering through the tall slits up that lined up the stone chamber, the retreat rooms around it keeping the heat from reaching too far inside. Evening ar'savot danced in the rays, shimmering like clouds of dust in their farewell to the day.

Soval looked up on hearing the faint sounds of bare feet on the stone floor. A figure stepped into the stone circle, clad in white, and walked all the way to where he was standing. Two dainty hands pulled the hood back and he was looking into the face of T'Agad. She automatically looked down. She had said on the I'Shlin planet that she could never look at him again and it seemed she would remain committed to her word no matter how far he extended a forgiving hand.

"You bade me come?" Soval asked.

She must have known he would come, no matter how exalted his standing. Beyond the white-robbed acolyte, beyond the shorn head, he saw the aide who had stood by him for so many years, a dagger between her teeth, perhaps, but she had been knowledgeable about the earthers, and helpful.

And he believed she could be helpful again. If Poryk and her could buck tradition and bond in spite of her status as an acolyte, he could buck tradition as well and hold that her sacred standing did not make her unreachable to the needs of her nation.

"Have you heard from Poryk?"

Soval cocked his head, inquisitively looking at her. The yearning for a bondmate would always trump tradition and culture. On the other hand he was indeed her pe'le'ut'el. It was true also that she was forbidden to set foot outside the temple. She may have been granted her own form of imprisonment, acolytes were needed and revered, but justice required she be incarcerated until she was deemed to be fully redeemed.

He spent almost an hour in the courtyard, talking to T'Agad, outlining what they had heard from Poryk and how they were still waiting to hear, guiding her towards the truth that his work for Vulcan and the Federation was a first step on the path to renouncing his past as a terrorist. Perhaps the two of them would eventually be reunited, each wrapped up in its own path to redemption, learning to live with each other amid the pain of what they had done.

There was no way to compute those odds.

xxx

Cathruusa

They went back to their rooms in silence, walking some distance, half-hidden in the meager daylight, before hailing a multim'rath, another luxury. They couldn't talk out loud. Trip felt through the bond that T'Pol was tense and anxious. He could understand. Her being part of the preparations would mean being taken away from her work as a courier, all a positive. Getting her away from Vrekaib and whoever had been killing the other couriers, even if they had to spend more time with the rebels, well, that seemed like a fair trade. And Vrekaib would be silenced by a word from above, told it would be only for a couple of cycles, it would not be the same as if they simply turned their back on him, he had a sense that, like with the rebels, their lives would be forfeit if they ever did.

"What was that about? Why doesn't Jivak want her as part of the preparations?" Trip whirled on Poryk as soon as they were in their rooms. He'd held himself in check the whole way back, not wanting to create a commotion and cost them even more, but now he wanted an answer.

Poryk just looked at him tranquilly, as if he were considering an interesting specimen. Once again Trip found himself thinking that for people who wanted to go back to their barbarian roots, the rebels as a whole were a damn civilized bunch. "One explanation is that T'Pol's role as a courier was to last only until the group was once again activated. The group has been reactivated and every rebel will be participating. If T'Pol is not asked to join, it could mean she is not accepted as a rebel. Once the leading team has rendered their decision, her life and yours will be forfeit."

Poryk's tone was emotionless, as befitted his species.

Trip's was slightly less so. "Just spiffy!" He'd kind of known this wouldn't be a simple a 'sorry things didn't work out and good tidings to you' but exactly how many hit lists did they need to be on? As if it wasn't already bad enough that they had to deal with the Matravekh and Vrekaib. What else could go wrong, now?

"When will we know?" T'Pol interrupted his thoughts.

Trip blinked, looking at her, gears turning in his head. "Yes..." He looked back at Poryk. "How much time do we have if that is the case?" It was one thing to be a target but a little advance notice would help.

"Nothing will happen while the preparations are ongoing. There would need to be an assembly meeting and a decision made. It is doubtful that any committee meetings will bother with such a detail. Once the preparations are complete, though..." Poryk didn't need to complete his sentence.

Just before he'd answered, Poryk had thrown a quick glance at T'Pol. There was a weird feeling Trip couldn't shake. He suddenly looked up as he realized it came through the bond. He narrowed his eyes. Yes, there was more to this than what the Vulcans were saying.

"And... What other explanation is there?" Trip asked, couching the question as a Vulcan would. Now all he had to do was wait until Poryk could no longer resist the urge to answer.

Poryk blinked, apparently surprised that his answer had not been enough for the Human. Again, there was a quick look at T'Pol. Trip was starting to get annoyed. "There is no other explanation." Poryk finally said.

"There is another possibility." T'Pol countered. She knew the misguided Vulcan tendency to underestimate her mate just because he was a Human. "The odds are really small, though, but it could be that we are kept apart because of the nature of the target."

"What d'you mean? Why would it matter to them, or us, what the target is?"

Poryk eyed him as if from far away. "It is true that we are not sure how to interpret what happened." Trip noted the 'we' in passing, but he wasn't going to make an issue of it. More important was to get an answer.

"Well, how about you take this Human through your interpretation? I might surprise you." Trip's voice was dripping sarcasm.

"The logical inference would be that the target is known to us." Again, T'Pol intervened.

"Known to us?" Trip's brain was going full speed through all the places T'Pol and him had ever visited, but other than Vulcan and Earth, he couldn't find one that he'd consider was 'known' to them. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. "Oh..." He sat heavily down on the bed. "They wouldn't. How?" He questioned her.

"We do not think that Enterprise is the main target, the rebels have acquired familiarity with the ship and know is too highly defended." It was Poryk's turn to talk. Trip was really getting riled up about the 'we'. "But the involvement of several rebel groups leads us to think that the target has both increased significance and defenses. Enterprise seems the logical choice but it would be suicide for the groups to go directly after the ship."

"But the inference is that Enterprise will somehow be involved, either because they're defending the main target or..." Trip let his thought hand in the air.

"...because they are the target of a suicide mission." T'Pol finished.

"I can see why they wouldn't trust us with that information." Trip sighed. "Though I can't see how we'd get word back. We're in the middle of nowhere, in a hostile space, and the rebels are constantly breathing down our necks."

"It is more likely that until T'Pol is fully and officially admitted, they cannot have her participate." Poryk explained.

It all made sense. "That's the reason for keeping her aside." Trip agreed. "In short either it's that we haven't made the cut or that we haven't yet made the cut. We're cooked either way."

"Though the second option is the better alternative, if I understand the culinary reference." Poryk pointed out.

Trip almost laughed. Vulcans and their literalness. He got up, now worried about his friends, the crew. "We have to get word out." If he could only find his way out of this planet, he'd personally run right to them and let them know. And fall straight into the waiting arms of the rebels, he realized with a smirk. They needed to be more careful than ever. "Probably not the best idea, considering."

Poryk's raised an eyebrow. The Human's acumen was both surprising and unexpected. "Communication has always been challenging and it will be even more so. With the upcoming initiative everyone will be under heightened scrutiny. I will try my best to let Vulcan know."

Trip nodded silently. He imagined everything was being communicated through code words, or these being Vulcans, subtleties such as inflections in the musicality of a sentence. He knew how they had developed an unparalleled proficiency in couching information in ways nobody else would ever had guessed. A Vulcan trying his best was a pretty sure bet.

He was starting to find more and more to like about Poryk.

If he'd just stop talking about himself and T'Pol as 'we'.

Glossary

ar'savot - minuscule flying insects, roughly similar to a cross between fruit flies and gnats.

Darte Oddens - Third rank specialist, outside contractor, source of Federation intelligence to Romulans.

multim'rath - form of Cathruusan private transportation.

Pe'le'ut'el - male chaperone for bonding proposals.