Trading

It had been another hour since Malug left and T'Pol could already see and feel her cuts being infected. They itched and when T'Pol had tried to rub them, it only resulted in the cuts reopening and green blood oozing onto her hands. T'Pol felt sick. Sick from the filth in the cell, sick from the lack of food, and sick of fear. She had come to realise that she could not escape fear anymore than a mouse from a cat. Still, T'Pol clung to the hope that Enterprise would come and she'd see Trip again.

Malug and the Suliban knew that the muscle relaxant would last for at least 24 more hours, but for their safety, they had refused to untie her from the chair. The little rat-like things, which were more a cross between the Human rat and the Vulcan S'kalic, (a very hairy and ferocious vermin that pestered Vulcans on Vulcan) were piling up by her feet and were chewing on her damp shoes. She feared that before long, they would bite through the shoes and into her feet.

Suddenly, the soldiers guarding her cell stiffened and stood up straight in a respectable fashion. Malug appeared and open the heavy Suliban metal door with only a push of a button.

"Hello again Vulcan." He greeted in an insulting fashion.

"Malug." T'Pol make eye contact in a defiant way.

"We have no more need of you." Malug stated flatly and T'Pol looked up with curiosity. Since he had just spent more than four hours hitting her for information and he went to the trouble of kidnapping her, it seemed curious for him to just dispose of her. T'Pol raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"We have found someone a little more willing to part with the information we need." Malug smiled menacingly. Although T'Pol said nothing, she was very interested on who this person was.

"Interestingly enough, he's Vulcan." Malug continued. Who could this traitor be? T'Pol racked her brain for anyone who sprung to mind. "Still, he doesn't want to part with this information lightly and as any good tradesman, he has a price."

"I refuse to see what this has to do with me." T'Pol sounded fed-up and tired of being in this filthy place.

"We're trading you." Malug spat. Seeing the look of sudden terror in T'Pol's face made him smirk.

"I demand to know who it is you're trading me with." T'Pol almost screamed as the guards took her arms and forced her outside. No matter how much she struggled, her muscles were still not working. There was no answer from Malug, just the sound of his evil laugh.

T'Pol turned round the corner to see a Vulcan head turned away from her.

"She is yours for the necessary information." Malug said to the Vulcan. Turning around, T'Pol instantly recognised his face. Koss, her betrothed. T'Pol almost gasped and gave Koss a look of disgust.

"Hello again T'Pol, it's been too long." Koss smiled.

"What are you doing?" T'Pol breathed.

"Well, when you left for the Human ship, I realised I needed to go to extreme measures to get you back. To be my mate." Koss explained.

"I'd rather eat the droppings of a S'kalic!" T'Pol spat. "How dare you! How could you betray Vulcan?"

"You've been away too long T'Pol. Vulcan has set into two fractions. This is the only way to eliminate the other side and get you back." Koss smiled. T'Pol felt that at any moment she would run over to him and tear his hair out, screaming at him. Instead, T'Pol realised that that would be illogical, she was hopelessly out numbered. These emotions she was having had only been increasing since that night with Trip, she constantly worried about it.

Koss turned to Malug and handed him the PADD of information. "Here is the information you required, I trust it is to your liking."

"And what do you get out of this?" T'Pol spat at Malug.

"The satisfaction that I have inside information on one of my enemy planets." Malug responded. He quickly looked through the PADD and nodded to Koss.

"Live long and prosper." Koss signalled the traditional Vulcan greeting or parting.

"And to you." Malug replied. Turning to his Suliban friends, he ordered. "Take her to the Vulcan's brig."

T'Pol struggled and kicked, and would have been screaming, were it not for her self-respect. As she was thrown, rather violently, into Koss's brig, T'Pol heard Koss command his men to go to Warp 7, towards Munnfa, a secret Vulcan colony that only several knew about. Wherever T'Pol was going, she left her hope of ever seeing Enterprise and Trip again on the Suliban ship.