Escape

T'Pol felt a sudden panic attack come on. If she got on that planet, Koss would certainly be able to hide her so that no one could ever find her. So that Trip could never find her. This was no time to panic. If T'Pol was ever going to get off this ship, it was going to be now.

Normally, T'Pol wouldn't result to violence, it was not the Vulcan way, but under the circumstances, this was an exception.

"I wonder if I could talk to you privately." T'Pol requested to Koss.

"Of course." Koss led her to his Ready Room, alone, just as T'Pol had hoped for. One Vulcan would be a lot easier to take out than two.

As they entered Koss's ready room, he motioned for her to sit down. T'Pol declined.

"I had hoped you'd asked me to come hereto discuss our future, but I see you're still unhappy about it." Koss sighed.

"Correct." T'Pol answered.

"I'm going to have some tea, would you like some?" Koss asked.

"No." T'Pol replied. Koss turned his back to her, just the opportunity she needed. T'Pol used the Vulcan hand motion to apply pressure to Koss's back. If she pushed hard enough, it could kill him, but T'Pol just wanted to knock Koss unconscious. Koss toppled over and was fats asleep. T'Pol grabbed his phaser, set it to stun and then went to the computer.

"Computer, send our co-ordinates to the Starfleet ship Enterprise." T'Pol ordered.

"There is no Starfleet ship in transmitting range." The computer replied. T'Pol hit the computer in frustration. She'd never shown her emotions so strongly as this before, and was now surer than ever that something was wrong. She'd have to go and see Doctor Phlox again. Surely he was mistaken before. The only other thing she could do was escape from the ship and get as far away from there as she could. She picked up the phaser and headed for the bridge. She opened the door and saw six officers on board the bridge, all doing their assigned duties.

"Don't move." T'Pol shouted, the phaser ready to fire in her hand. Every Vulcan in the room turned to look at her. "Please move away from the control panels."

The Vulcans did as instructed. Out of the corner of her eye, T'Pol noticed the Vulcan at the helm attempt to reach for his phaser. Out of defence, T'Pol shot him, leaving him unconscious.

Every other Vulcan just watched.

"Now, if you could all move into Koss's ready room." The Vulcans walked cautiously around the still armed T'Pol and filed into the room one by one.

When the last Vulcan had gone into the ready room, T'Pol lowered her weapon and sealed the door from the outside, using the control panel.

It was a very small ship, even for Vulcan standards, so T'Pol doubted that there were any other officers on board. There was no way that T'Pol could drive the ship by herself, and obviously there was no one lese about to help her. A shuttlepod. The ship was still moving towards Munnfa, so T'Pol switched it onto autopilot and left everything as it was.

Running towards the docking port, T'Pol realised that even if she had locked that door, Koss and his men would eventually get out and would come after her. Even with a head start, this ship could catch up with her little shuttlepod. Still, she had to try. Logic was against her, but hope wasn't.

Finally she got to the docking port, climbed down the hatch and started the engines up.

"All engines are working." T'Pol reported to herself and she powered up the shuttle pod and disengaged the docking clamps.

The shuttlepod took off from Koss's ship at Warp 2, the fastest the shuttlepod could go. That was not good if Koss's ship started working again.

Suddenly, T'Pol was hailed. "Vulcan shuttlepod, please identify yourself."

T'Pol felt panicky, her emotions resurfacing. She ignored it while she came up with a plausible lie.

"Vulcan shuttlepod, please identify yourself." The husky voice repeated.

"Vulcan shuttlepod here." T'Pol replied.

"Who are you and what is your business here?" He asked impatiently.

"Just doing a routine shuttlepod check-up from the Vulcan Star ship Vak'Tar." T'Pol had heard one of her guards mention the ship's name.

"Very well. Continue with your business." The voice cut off and T'Pol exhaled a sigh of relief. T'Pol then hurried to the manual engineering panel. Since she had known Trip for so long, she'd picked up some tips about engineering. Right now, T'Pol's main goal was to trying to make the shuttlepod go faster, or to increase the shuttle's warp core intake.

After ripping away the metal cover, T'Pol researched the wiring and plasma sockets. Almost like reading a map, Trip once said to her. T'Pol found what she was looking for. Three wires and a pump. Luckily, Vulcan and Human technology were quite alike.

Ok, switch the red wire to the green socket and pump three times. T'Pol heard Trip's voice in her head, guiding her. She did as she remembered. A yellow light flashed. That's a good sign, she remembered.

Next, put the blue wire in the red socket and pump thrice again. Now T'Pol was using her own memory from her engineering and tactics training for the High Council. T'Pol did so and another yellow light began to flash.

That means that the green wire goes into the blue socket, T'Pol thought and then pumped the thrust three more times. The last yellow light popped on. T'Pol felt a small amount of pride well up inside of her. Perhaps I could control these emotions, T'Pol thought. Increasing the speed of the shuttlepod made it go faster, but it also used up more of the shuttlepod's fuel; meaning that it could go faster, but not for very long. Still, she'd take her chances.

"Vulcan shuttlepod, please respond." The hailing frequency said. T'Pol got up to reply.

"This is the Vulcan shuttlepod. What seems to be the problem?" T'Pol asked.

"We've been scanning your shuttle. You have just increased the amount of warp power. Why?" The voice demanded.

It seemed to T'Pol that the most logical course of action was to respond, but her logic hadn't gotten her into this, it wasn't about to get her out of it. T'Pol lunged for the control panel and turned the shuttlepod away from Munnfa and Koss.

With the Star ship directly behind her and enclosing fast, all T'Pol could do was sit there and try her best to outrun them. There was no point in firing, they clearly outgunned her. They would catch up eventually because she had nowhere near enough power to outrun them. This was completely pointless. When T'Pol had lost the sense to listen to her logic, she seemed to have lost her common sense as well.

Still, she'd rather die than return to Koss. So she would keep running.

"Please drop out of Warp or we'll have no choice but to fire on you." The ship, that her scans indicated were Vulcan, said.

"Full shields." T'Pol ordered the computer. If they were going to fire, she was going to fire first. "Fire!"

T'Pol saw an energy blast leave her shuttle and fire onto the Vulcan ship. It was as effective as a bug on the windshield, as the Human saying went.

She saw the huge ship power up weapons and T'Pol felt utterly trapped. She had used all of the flying tactics she knew, but she was no pilot.

As the shuttle took a couple more blasts, T'Pol shouted "Shield's down to 70."

A few more shots and the shuttle and she would be nothing but space debris. T'Pol moved the shuttle closer towards the ship and fired as she went, being careful that she wasn't in tractor beam range. T'Pol's idea was to go directly above the Star ship, in hopes that they wouldn't be able to fire. She got too close and the impact of the shots they fired rattled her tiny shuttle into perfect firing range for the Vulcans. The shuttlepod was hit six more times, before she noticed that her shields were not holding.

"Shields at 20." T'Pol muttered worriedly.

There was no other option. T'Pol turned the ship around and went to Warp 3; the best T'Pol could do for the ship. The Vulcan ship was on her tail in an instant. Warp 3 was better, but inevitably, she was to be caught or killed. In a well of panic, T'Pol used another tactic. Asking for help.

"Computer, send this message on an open frequency: Shuttlepod being fired at, requires assistance. I repeat, Shuttlepod being fired at, requires assistance." T'Pol almost shouted.

The Vulcan ship was still behind her and firing. There was no way that s hip would find her and help her in time.

"Shields down to 10." T'Pol said. With the Vulcan ship's next few shots would completely destroy her.

"This is your last chance. Stand own and prepare to be tractor beamed. If you refuse, we'll destroy you." The Vulcan's voice floated through the transmission. "You have been identified as T'Pol from the ship Vak'Tar. Captain Koss wants your recapture."

"Thanks not going to happen." T'Pol replied defiantly. Her muscles were still sore and her infections were only worsening. She knew that firing wasn't going to do anything, so she flew the shuttlepod as fast as she could to get out of there.

In an instant, the Vulcan ship fired at her thrusters, disarming every weapon on the shuttle as well as cutting main engines.

T'Pol was literally floating in space. She had no engines, no weapons, no tactics and no more hope.

"I admire your spirit." The Vulcan said neutrally. "So, it's your choice, which would you like. To be returned to Vak'Tar or to be killed."

"I'd rather be killed." T'Pol whispered. A tear slipped down her face. Not out of fear of death, but out of sorrow that she never got to see Trip again.

"Strange. Are you sure you're Vulcan? That was hardly the logical choice." The Vulcan said. T'Pol kept silent. "However, it's your choice." Cutting off transmission, T'Pol watched her scanners as the Vulcan ship powered up their weapons. Several more tears scrolled down her face as she saw the ship about to fire.