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Chapter 4: A Cast of Suspects

If the mining facility looked bad on the outside, it was no comparison to what awaited the Enterprise team on the inside.

"People live here?" Trip muttered, stepping over a large metal beam that had fallen across the corridor they were walking down. He gingerly pushed aside several loops of cable hanging from the ceiling, then held them aside as T'Pol and the others dodged beneath them.

The rather large human who had met them at the docking pad did not seem to notice the mess, weaving in and out of it with little difficulty. Other than acknowledging that he was Pieter Gundal, he hadn't said a word to them, simply turned on his heel and walked off. After exchanging brief "what was that" looks, the officers followed him, Malcolm at the fore.

Pieter Gundal was thus far ranked somewhere near the top of Malcolm's possible threat list. Despite his shock of white hair, at 6'6" he was the largest member of the group and was clearly meant to be the "muscle" of the operation. He and Billie Saunders were only here to run the Earth mining machinery, which might leave the humans with feelings of inferiority. This could very well fray tempers, and who knew where that could lead.

Pieter led them to what was apparently the outpost's control room, where a small but diverse group waited to meet them. Two Andorians, a Vulcan, and another human stood tensely—Malcolm had the distinct feeling that Enterprise's arrival was not entirely welcome. In fact, if he had to guess, he would say that the group had been arguing shortly before the away team showed up. There was something about the way the Vulcan and the Andorians were positioned far from one another that told him that the station wasn't quite big enough for both species.

A waifish Andorian female stepped forward, her antennae quivering atop her feathery white hair. "I'm Dr. Strel. Welcome to the Shomar Mining Project facility—" She was interrupted by a loudCLUNK! as something fell off the roof of the building and crashed to the rocky ground outside. "—such as it is."

"Looks like you folks could use some help getting this place operational. How did it get this way?" Trip asked.

"The wind shears off the nearby cliffs have worn considerably on our little outpost," Strel explained. "It may not look like it but we've been doing constant maintenance since we arrived."

Trip exchanged a look with T'Pol that Malcolm couldn't quite read, but he could guess what it meant. Wind shears had nothing to do with the interior of the buildings and the disarray they were seeing here. Why lie?

T'Pol did not address this, however, and quickly introduced herself and the others from Enterprise. There was T'Pol herself, of course, Trip, and Malcolm, as well as Ensign Mendes from security. Malcolm had wanted to bring MACOs along, but Archer had vetoed the idea. It was a little over the top, he had decided.

Strel greeted the newcomers and turned her attention to her own people. "Allow me to introduce the rest of our team. You've already met Pieter," the human grunted again from the position he had taken near a human so painfully thin she was practically translucent. "This is his assistant Billie Saunders." Billie eyed the officers from underneath a heavy knit cap which seemed to engulf most of her head. She reminded Malcolm of one of those dreadful Dickens characters, the kind that was always starving and living in a garret somewhere.

Strel turned to the Vulcan, dressed in huge robes and watching the entire scene passively. "This is Dr. V'Ret." V'Ret inclined his head slightly, like a monarch greeting his subjects.

"And finally, my husband Dr. Medec." The second Andorian stepped forward and put a hand on Strel's shoulder. He didn't say anything, just glowered at no one in particular.

"I did not realize you were a doctor as well, Medec," T'Pol nodded at the Andorian. "Our files indicated that there were only two geologists assigned to the project."

"I'm a biologist," Medec informed her, so shortly that it was almost an insult.

Trip made a slight motion toward T'Pol, which almost made Malcolm smile. The engineer just couldn't take someone insulting his favorite Vulcan, even though T'Pol would be the first to tell him that she could take care of herself.

T'Pol merely took in the information in her usual emotionless manner. "I see." If she saw Trip's movement she gave no indication of it. "Perhaps we should begin our assessment of the structural integrity of your station. Commander Tucker and myself will begin our analysis of your data logs, if they are ready. Lt. Reed and Ensign Mendes will escort your party to Enterprise. Captain Archer has arranged to meet you there and discuss the events leading to your distress call. Our doctor would also like to review the medical data on your…dead colleague."

"There are two members of your team that aren't here, Dr. Strel," Malcolm suddenly said bluntly. He liked to do that—to catch people off guard if possible.

"Yes…Kovar, our facility engineer, is out repairing part of the roof of the processing center. He will assist you, Commanders, with your work here. The colleague that was killed was Tola, our lab tech." Strel put a hand over Medec's, which was still on her shoulder. "It was…tragic…for all of us."

Malcolm said nothing, just watched the Shomar personnel's reactions to what Strel told him. Medec looked so angry he would explode any moment. The Vulcan stiffened almost imperceptibly beneath his robes, Pieter Gundal looked like he was trying not to smirk. Billie Saunders gave no reaction whatsoever. Her face was so blank that Malcolm wondered if she weren't somehow "touched."

He had known that his categorizations of the SMP team would need some tweaking after he met them in person, he could see now that it was going to be a bit more complex than he had realized. There were obviously several strong personalities at work here, each of which would manifest themselves differently according to the species and culture of each individual. If he was going to understand these people and figure out what had happened here, he was going to have to understand their group dynamic. There was only one person onboard Enterprise that he trusted to help him with this task, he only hoped Captain Archer would agree and allow Hoshi to assist him.

Trip and T'Pol set out to find Kovar, leaving Malcolm and Mendes to herd the rest of them onto the shuttle and up to Enterprise.

"What do you think so far?" Trip asked T'Pol in a low voice as they made their way slowly through the hallway that Strel had directed them down.

"About what?" T'Pol asked, brushing aside a sheath of wires.

"Don't touch those!" Trip hissed. "They might be live!"

The Science Officer cast him a withering glare that dared him to question her ability to assess the danger of the situation. Trip glared right back. He could be just as stubborn as she was, and when it came to her safety he didn't take chances. He'd make sure she came back alive even if he had to kill her to do it.

"I think," she pointedly addressed his earlier question, "that Dr. Strel has not been entirely honest with us. The damage inside this facility has nothing to do with wind shears and it is obvious that no one has conducted maintenance in these corridors for quite some time."

"A wise deduction," a voice agreed from just around the corner ahead of them. They turned it and found the team's second Vulcan kneeling next to an open panel and a large toolbox. He was dressed in grimy work overalls, a handkerchief fluttering out of his back pocket. Trip could hardly believe it—other than in the most dire of circumstances, he had never seen a Vulcan get dirty or wear something covered in soot. He looked almost…human. It was disconcerting.

"Kovar," T'Pol said evenly.

The Vulcan nodded and stood. He rose, pulled the rag from his back pocket and wiped his hands before offering the traditional Vulcan salute to T'Pol and, shockingly, extending his hand for Trip to shake.

"You must be Commanders Tucker and T'Pol." His eyes lingered momentarily on T'Pol before turning back to the panel he had been working on. "You are correct, much of the day to day maintenance here has been abandoned, and it is not wind shear that has caused our problems."

"What is it, then?" asked Trip. "It looks like a hurricane went through this place."

Kovar shrugged, another atypical action for a Vulcan. "Our systems have not been functioning correctly for some time. The disorder you see here is a result of both those malfunctions and many attempts at finding the source of the problems."

"You mean people have just been ripping out relays and wires all over this station?" Trip was appalled at the suggestion.

"In essence, yes."

"What systems have you had trouble with, and in what order did they begin to malfunction?" T'Pol wanted to know.

"Communications, of course, but you knew that. Life support was on the fritz but I think we've got that fixed now…"

Trip mouthed on the fritz? to T'Pol, amazed. This Vulcan was a real piece of work.

"The computer databases were damaged, a lot of information from our early trials was lost, and the processing center has not been working correctly for several weeks…in fact, I believe that was the first system to be affected. I can provide you with the exact data."

"Affected by what?" Trip asked. "Do you have any idea what has caused these breakdowns?"

"I have run every test I can think of to try to determine the cause and they have all come back negative. Each of the systems has been affected in a different way, there does not appear to be a truly common denominator between them. Some systems have no problems at all while others seem to almost disintegrate. There is only one possible explanation I can think of that would explain all of them, but it is not a popular theory here."

"What is that?" T'Pol asked. Surely if he had come up with a reasonable hypothesis it ought to be investigated.

"We have a saboteur."