Author's notes: I know, I'm so late with this, sorry for the delay! Not sure what happened, except inspiration simply left me high and dry. I decided to wait it out and it's slowly coming back.

It

It waits.

There is not more that can be done. It is stranded on a ship. Another ship.

It waits.

For a transport, for a host, for a symbiot. It waits. Thoughts of reaching the Realm of the Unassigned have been suppressed. The world is a gray and lonely place. Waiting is what It has learned to do best.

It waits.

It can feel the hosts, tantalizing close to It. The other hosts. Not this host. This one is of little use, her life signs slowly dwindling. It knows enough about organic matter to know she will soon cease to exist. And then It will be alone again, unable to move or flee. Not unless someone releases the stasis field.

It waits.

At least It is no longer marooned on a planet.

A ship means movement, the possibility of traveling. It might be trapped under the stasis field but the ship is not static. Nothing is static. The organic host will eventually decay, and the stasis field will lose energy. That is the law of entropy.

It has managed to bend the energy fields and get the almost-host to release the field once. The almost-host may be dead but there are others. Influencing them might be akin to moving a brick wall, but It is a warrior spirit, a spirit of action.

It will try again.

xxx

Sickbay

"Shouldn't you wake him up?" Archer asked.

Phlox whipped around as if he'd completely forgotten that the Captain was there. Which he had. His focus was on the healers, E'Shara in particular. She was standing by Trip's biobed, preparing herself. Smirak and Yadur were behind her, a physical and mental shield from the isolation room where T'Pol was kept alive under the stasis field. T'Pol and whatever it was that had taken hold of her.

Phlox sighed. His Sickbay was getting mighty crowded these days. He couldn't miss the security men posted around the insulation unit, phaser at the ready. 'In case the stasis field failed', Lieutenant Reed had said. As if that was likely. The security men, Lieutenant Reed, keeping a measured but safe distance, ready for action, the Captain and the Vulcan healers. There was little room left for therapeutic anything.

He brought his attention back to the inert body on the biobed. He was keeping Trip in a coma, just like T'Pol, but lighter. It wasn't like the engineer had much psi ability. Though he wasn't taking any chances. None of them were. Nobody was quite sure what would happen when the healers reached the telepathic parasite through Trip. Would that thing suddenly come through Trip straight at the healers? The risk was there. Phlox glanced at Reed and his men. He couldn't say he was unhappy they were around. And he was pretty sure the Vulcans felt likewise.

"He does not need to be awake," E'Shara's voice cut through the silence, responding to the Captain. Phlox privately sent her thanks. She'd said it in a lot fewer words than he'd have.

That gave Archer pause. He turned to look at her. "But... the mindmeld…", he started, then paused, conscious all he had to go on was a hunch, something that he may have learned from Surak, but he was not so sure.

"What I will be attempting is not a mind meld." E'Shara was almost brusque, obviously unaware she was talking to a species who didn't have the first notion of what a mindmeld felt like.

"Oh..." Archer would have liked to argue that if it felt and quacked like a duck, it must be a duck, but he couldn't think of a way to articulate it without raising questions about ducks, and that was the last thing he wanted to do.

The healers were paying him on mind, already on the task at hand. "Ready?" Phlox looked at E'Shara, all but ignoring the Captain.

"We are ready," she replied and stepped to the biobed. Phlox nodded at the 'we' instead of 'I'. Yadur and Smirak covered their heads with their hoods, hiding their features. He wasn't sure what was the use but evidently it was an integral part to the going ons.

xxx

It

It waits.

The surrounding grayness envelops It. The cold of empty space.

Not quite empty.

There's a faint shadow, the pink of a rising sun, somewhere far away. It doesn't even know if it's real. The glow reminds It of the almost-host.

That gives It hope.

It reaches towards the pink glow.

xxx

E'Shara

She swiftly enters the mind-meld that is not a mind-meld. There is no use trying to explain to psi-blind Humans what it is she is attempting, that she will limit herself to a gentle touch, not enter the engineer's mind, and even so she remains at risk if the parasite has already taken hold of him.

She proceeds slowly, carefully, part of her aware of the great strain on Healer Yadur and Healer Smirak. She knows she needs to go quickly and yet she doodles along, captivated by the structure of the Human's mind, marveling at the trivialities that are so different.

She suddenly stops in her exploration. There is something there, something foreign and yet very familiar. It takes her a few seconds before she places the resonance. A bond. An actual bond. She did not recognize it at once because she did not expect it. It is illogical to underestimate the many unexpected ways the universe may come together, and yet she has been guilty of it. She did not expect a... a Vulcan marital bond... in a Human.

She stops and considers, gently mind-touching behind her to reassure herself of the presence of Yadur and Smirak's minds, intensely focused on creating a safe zone. She turns back to the marital bond. She cannot use it as a channel, that would be a violation of every tenet of her culture. Kroykah! her mind forms even as the thought brushes it. There is also the possibility that the bond is how the telepathic parasite influenced the Human. Cultural taboo and actual fear mean she shall not use the bond.

She gently touches around with her mind, trying to feel a telepathic presence, any telepathic presence. But there is nothing there. The Human is psi-blind, trying to project outward is like running in moving sand. She needs to find another way.

xxx

Sickbay

Phlox sees the healer's eyes flutter, he can tell the other healers are not as tightly hunched over. E'Shara opens her eyes, seems to look right through him. "Anything?" he asks. Even if he knows the Vulcans will tell them in due time. He needs to know. If only for the advancement of science.

E'Shara looks around the room as if she's seeing everything for the first time and Phlox suddenly worries that perhaps she's under the influence of that thing.

But when she talks, she sounds perfectly normal, quite the same as she has all along. "Commander Tucker...," she starts, hesitates, "I must admit to being faced with a paradox." She turns to the other healers, "The necessary outward projection can only be achieved by means of the marital bond T'Pol has established with Commander Tucker." The two of them recoil in horror, Archer is not sure it is at the thought of a marital bond between a Vulcan and a Human or at the thought of trespassing on said bond.

"That is forbidden," Yadur hisses. "Kroykah!" Smirak adds. Archer looks at him closely. So he is the conservative one.

Phlox is not paying attention to the byplay. "Is there any other way?" he asks E'Shara.

She turns to him, "Establishing a full mind-meld with Commander Tucker would directly expose me to the telepathic energy form." Obviously this can't happen. "His psi levels are too low to broadly cast for a signal." She doesn't even mention the bond. That tells Phlox it's an absolute bar. "Perhaps we can boost his psi levels," he proposes in turn. He doesn't know quite how, but there must be a way.

"And how do you propose to accomplish such a feat?" Smirak asks. Archer shoots him another glance. Yeah, that guy is not their greatest fan.

But E'Shara is frowning. "There was...," she starts, seeming to look inside herself, "as I was leaving the meld, I believe I may have felt the contact of an unknown mental energy," she calmly says. She looks at the acolytes, "I need to confirm the finding."

"Have you considered the possibility this was only the echo of your mind prodding outward?" Yadur asks. Archer narrows his eyes at him. Make that both healers are not their greatest fans.

"I have considered it and am dismissing the eventuality. I need to confirm the finding." E'Shara's tone is steadfast. Archer has the sudden epiphany that she's the elder, in the end they have to do as she sees fit. Yadur's face is as calm as a still lake, but he's sure he's is sucking on a lemon right now. The thought pleases him to no end. He'll always have a thing for Vulcans.

"Shouldn't we wait until I find a way to boost his psi sensitivity?" Phlox asks.

She turns to him, "Not at this present time, doctor. The additional activity will make it difficult for me to differentiate a foreign presence from additional psionic activity."

She looks at the other healers without saying a word. They answer the beckon and pull the hoods over their heads, ready to once again be her shield. She goes back to Trip's form on the biobed, lays her fingers on the psi points. Just a gentle touch, she doesn't need to enter a meld. Just a gentle touch and she's already there, she knows the way around his mind now.

She opens her senses, waiting for the signal of another mental energy.

xxx

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