Chapter 8

T'Pol's eyes opened as Wesley eased the plug out of her neck. She tried to move. She groaned in pain holding her ribs. After she was unplugged Wesley walked over to Archer and unplugged him as well. She felt a pain in her mouth, she held her hand over mouth and spit out. She noticed she was bleeding from the green tone in the saliva.

"I thought it wasn't real." She said.

"Your mind makes it real." Archer told her.

She stared at the blood in her hand.

"If you are killed on Matrix, you die here?" T'Pol asked.

"The body cannot live without the mind."

A few hours later Tripp walked down to the hall to T'Pol's quarters carrying a plate of food. He entered her quarters.

"T'Pol, I saved you some dinner."

He noticed she was asleep and so he set the tray down and pulled the covers over her. He paused as his face was close to hers, he inhaled lightly, taking in the scent of her before slowly pulling away. He stepped out of her room and turned the corner only to find Hoshi watching him.

"I don't remember you ever bringing me dinner." She said.

Tripp was silent.

"There's something about her, isn't there?"

"Don't tell me you're a believer now?" Tripp said.

"I just keep wondering when Archer is so sure, why doesn't he just take her to the Prophet? He would know."

"Archer will take her when she's ready." Tripp told her.

He turned and walked away as she continued to watch him.

The very next day Archer and T'pol were in a crowded sidewalk on in a simulation of 22nd century downtown. They walked through Borg, Bolians, Bajorans, Ferengi, Vulcans, Romulans, every race in the known galaxy all dressed in business suits that were on their way to and from places. Archer walked through the crowd with ease but T'Pol had trouble keeping us as people slammed into her showing no regard for her presence.

"This is a Matrix simulation. A training program to help you get your sea legs and teach you one very important lesson." Archer said.

"What lesson?" T'Pol asked as she collided with a woman who looked like her old boss Mrs. Troi.

"Planet Matrix is a system T'Pol, and the system is our enemy. When you look around, what do you see? Starfleet officers, lawyers, cadets, doctors. People. Everywhere you look there are people. Somewhere else, somewhere in the future they may be organic beings like you and I but here these people are a part of the system. Tha makes every one of them our enemy."

As Archer spoke, T'pol observed the crowd around her and she could not help but notice one very attractive human male with dark hair, dressed in a black Armani suit with matching tie and a silver tie clip. He took off his dark sunglasses revealing his deep blue eyes as smiled at her when he walked by.

"It is important to understand that if you are not of us, you are one of them." Archer said.

Archer stopped as he turned to her. She was still looking at the attractive human male with the blue eyes.

"Do you understand T'Pol?" Archer asked.

"I think I do." T'Pol answered as she still stared at the man.

"No you don't don't. Did you see the man in the black Armani suit?"

"Yes."

"Look again." He told her.

T'Pol turned and was met face to face with the same human red haired female in the same dark suit and matching sunglasses that interrogated her before. Only this time she was pointing a hand phaser at her head. T'Pol quickly ducked.

"Freeze program." Archer ordered.

Everything and everyone around them froze including the crowd and the woman holding the hand phaser. They were the only ones moving.

"The agents are sentient programs. They can enter any software that is hardwired to the system, they can become anyone who is still a captive to their world. If this planet is a prison, then the agents are it's wardens and if all beings in the galaxy are to survive they first must be stopped." Archer said.

"How?"

"I've seen an agent punch through a concrete wall. Many beings both alien and human have emptied their phasers and have hit nothing but air. Yet as powerful as they are, their speed and strength are tethers to the rules of a very unreal universe. Because of this, they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be."

T'Pol scratched her head and tried to comprehend what Archer was telling her.

"What? Are you trying to tell me that I can dodge phaser fire?"

"No T'Pol, I'm trying to tell you, when you're ready you won't have to."

Archers communicator went off. He took it out of his pocket and flipped it open. It was Beverly.

"We got trouble." She said.

A few moments later they were out of the simulation and were headed to the bridge. Archer took a seat in the captain's chair.

"How much time do we have Beverly?" He asked.

"I estimate we will be withing range of detection in about two minutes sir." She told him.

Archer scanned the decay of a small moon, he pointed to the cavern on the viewscreen.

"Set it down in there." He ordered.

"What's going on?" T'Pol asked.

"A squid tripped one of our distance alarm probes." Beverly said.

"What?" T'Pol was trying to comprehend what was going on around her at the moment.

"A sentinel, it's a killing machine designed for one thing." Tripp said.

"Search and destroy." Beverly said.

She felt the ship rock from side to side as it tried to land on the moon's surface. Archer was sitting in his chair and got on the intercom.

"How are we doing Wesley?"

In engineering Wesley was working furiously at the operator's station. He was flipping a series of handles until everything on the ship was plunged into a dark silence. Wesley whispered over the com to Archer.

"Power off-line. E.M.P. armed and ready."

Wesley's finger was on a button that glowed a dim red.

Back on the bridge the rest f the crew held their breaht for what seemed like an eternity.

"E.M.P. An electromagnetic pulse." T'Pol said.

"It disables any electrical system in a blast radius. It's the only weapon we have against the machines." Tripp said.

On the view screen they saw the squid-like machines coming at them. T'Pol tried to angle around but Archer grabbed her.

"Don't move, they will hear you." He said.

She froze. The temperature throughout the whole ship started to drop rapidly. The crew huddled together as their breath froze and the colder it got the cloud of breath only got thicker. In engineering, Wesley wiped the frost away, finally he saw it too on his view screen. It was a shadow of mechanized death. It was beautiful yet terrifying all at the same time. As T'Pol saw the sight, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as the metallic squid floated over the ship like a shark in deep waters circling it's prey. Finally Wesley pushed the button and the metallic monster floated away making everyone on the ship breathe much easier.

A few hours later everyone had gone to bed. T"pol couldn't sleep and so she headed to the bridge where Hoshi was sitting there and watching the computer screen. She cam e up behind her, making her jump.

"Whoa shit! T'Pol you scare the beejezus outta me." She said as she held her chest.

"Sorry."

"No, it's okay." Hoshi told her.

T'Pol looked at the screen.

"So what are you doing?" She asked.

"Midnight watch." She answered.

T'Pol's eyes came alive as the screens seem to come alive with constant flows of data.

"Is that?"

"Planet Matrix. Yeah." Hoshi answered.

T'Pol stared at the constant flow of information. Bizarrre codes and equations flowed on the screen.

"Do you always look at it encoded?" T'Pol asked her.

"I have to. The image translators sort of work for the construct programs but there's way too much information to decode this planet. You get used to it though. Your brain does the translating. Hell, I don't even see the code. All I see is a vulcan, human, and a klingon hottie. Say, uh, you want a drink?" Hoshi asked her.

T'Pol nodded. Hoshi took out a plastic jug and poured what looked like clear alcohol into her cup and did the same for herself.

"You know, I know what you're thinking because right now I'm thinking the same thing. Actually to tell you the truth, I have been thinking the same damn thing since I got here." Hoshi said.

She raised her glass.

"Why the fuck didn't I take that blue pill when I had a chance?"

And then she took the glass to her mouth and chugged it. T'Pol did the same but the potency of the alcohol almost killed her as she choked. Hoshi slapped her back.

"Good shit huh?" She said with a smile. "Beverly makes it. It's good for two things: de greasing engines and killing brain cells.

T'Pol was green in the face until she finally stopped coughing. Hoshi poured her another.

"Can I ask you something? Did he tell you why he did it?" Hoshi asked.

She looked up at Hoshi unsure.

"Why you're here?" She continued to ask.

"Yeah." T'Pol.

Hoshi let out a small chuckle as she took another swig.

"Jesus christ! What a mindfuck. You're here to save the universe. You gotta be shittin' me. What do you say to something like that?"

T'Pol set down her drink and not saying a word. Hoshi leaned in close to her as she continued to speak.

"Listen girlfriend, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Now don't tell him I told you this, but his ain't the first time Archer has thought he has found The One."

"Really?"

"You bet your sweet ass. It keeps him going. Maybe it keeps all of us going."

"How many were there?" T'Pol asked her.

Hoshi let out a deep sigh and leaned back in her chair.

"Five. Since I've been here." Hoshi answered.

"What happened to them?"

"They all died."

"How?"

"Honestly. Archer. He got them all pumped up and made them believe in this bullshit. I watched each of them take on an agent and I watched each of them die. Little piece of advice chica: you see an agent, you do as we do. You run your fucking ass off."

T'Pol took another swig as Hoshi continued to speak.

"Look girl, I'm not trying to scare you, I just want to help and I'm not going to bullshit you. See, this is the real galaxy and the real galaxy ain't about heroes and miracles. This galaxy is about one thing: survival, that's all there is."

T'Pol threw back her final shot.

"Thanks ... for the drink." She said.

"Anytime." Hoshi said.

T'Pol headed back to her quarters, she stepped into the turbo lift but before the doors closed behind her, Hoshi said one more thing to her.

"Sweet dreams."