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Chapter 5: A Side Effect of Sabotage
"What happened to Tola was terrible…to find her like that, outside, lying there…it was awful—but it was an accident, Captain." Strel was adamant on this point, and her stance had not wavered since coming aboard Enterprise. Neither Medec nor V'Ret said anything to contradict her.
Normally when visitors came on board Enterprise the captain liked to invite them for a meal in his private mess and give them a tour of the ship before getting down to business. Given the circumstances this sequence had been understandably truncated. The three highest-ranking SMP colleagues now sat on one side of the conference table, facing Archer, Lt. Reed, and Hoshi Sato. Malcolm had taken Archer aside upon arrival and asked that Hoshi be included in the interrogations.
"We're not interrogating them, lieutenant," Archer had seemed slightly amused at Malcolm's insistence.
"Not yet," Malcolm had replied. "Give it time." He was positive that once Phlox got done examining that medical data they would be conducting a murder investigation.
"What happened?" Archer was asking.
Medec, who acted as the medical officer for the group, replied. "It appears that she fell from the roof of the control center. She must have been trying to replace some of the roofing materials and got caught by a gust of wind."
"A gust…of wind?" Archer asked, skeptical.
"The winds near the facility can reach speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour," Medec informed him condescendingly. There wasn't much to like about the Andorian, Archer decided. "Tola's neck was broken immediately in the fall. She fell face down into the soil and was unable to move herself…she suffocated."
The grisly scene played itself across the minds of all those present in the room, but Archer continued with his questions. "Why are you so sure it was an accident?"
"First of all, everyone's presence was accounted for in other parts of the station. It was very early in the morning so most of us were still asleep," Strel informed him.
"And my examination revealed cuts and bruises consistent with a fall. There was no sign of a struggle, no sign that she had been forced off the roof," Medec supplied.
The Vulcan suddenly stood from the table. "Captain, I do not see the logic in this course of action. There is little information that can be gained from questioning us in this manner—all that we have told you is available in the reports we supplied to your Tactical Officer. If you have nothing else to question us about, I would like to return to my quarters to meditate."
Archer hesitated for a moment, then stood as well. "Of course. I apologize. We humans can be impatient and I wanted to get your take on what happened before reading those reports. You're free to leave." He smiled his best diplomat's smile as they rose stiffly and filed out of the room. Once they were gone, the smile faded and he turned to Malcolm and Hoshi.
"I think you hit a nerve, sir," Malcolm commented.
"I guess so. Find out what the hell happened down there. Go talk to Phlox."
After evaluating all the faulty systems and structural damage throughout the facility, Trip could see why Kovar seemed to think it was sabotage. He would need more time to go over the data that the Vulcan engineer had provided, but he was right—there were no obvious connections between the myriad technical problems that had besieged the SMP.
He sauntered over to where T'Pol was accessing the station's productivity reports.
"Have you seen Kovar anywhere? He's disappeared."
She pursed her lips slightly. On a human the gesture would have been almost meaningless. For T'Pol it spoke volumes. "I haven't seen him since he took you to the communications relay."
"You don't like him, do you?"
"I don't know what you mean. I neither like nor dislike him."
"Right." He propped himself against the table and leaned back until he was almost face-to-face with her. "But you don't exactly approve of him."
"There is something…strange about him. His manner, his demeanor—he is not a typical Vulcan."
"Well, who is?" he teased.
She said nothing at this and turned back to her work. Trip wisely decided to drop it and informed her of his findings thus far.
"How about you?" he asked. "Been able to get into those reports?"
"Yes, and it is indeed curious. The productivity of the facility has been consistent—even increasing—since they became operational."
"I find that hard to believe—you're telling me that while life-support was going offline they were still mining carillium? And that none of those machines were malfunctioning?"
"No, that is not what I am telling you. Mr. Gundal's logs indicated that the machines were not functioning correctly several times over the past months. Despite this, advances were made by Drs. Strel and V'Ret to further refine their extraction process. They have been able to obtain more carillium with increasing efficiency from the planet's surface."
Trip took this in. "So if it was a saboteur, he or she wasn't able to stop production."
"Perhaps he or she did not want to do so."
Trip gave T'Pol a quick grin. "It sounds like you're about to make an unwarranted presupposition, Commander."
"I would hardly call it unwarranted. Given the information that we now have, I believe Kovar's explanation to be the most consistent with the evidence we have. There is a saboteur at work on this station."
"So who is it, and why are they doing it?"
"We do not have sufficient data to answer those questions yet."
"Oh come on, Miss "I-Believe-it-is-the-Lawyer." Take a guess."
"Vulcans do not guess, Mr. Tucker."
"O-kay…then make a logical deduction."
T'Pol closed her mouth and thought for a moment. Finally she shook her head. "We would need more information on this station's personnel before doing so. If you are using the human "whodunit" as a guide for our actions, then we must first become acquainted with the suspects before determining who had the motive, the means, and the opportunity."
Trip laughed. "I guess you're right."
"This is not an amusing subject, Commander. If there is a saboteur here then the situation is far more serious than we first suspected. This operation will likely be shut down—not a favorable precedence for future joint ventures between our species."
"Is that what has you so serious?" Trip asked, staring at her.
"As you have often pointed out, I am always serious, Trip." She refused to answer the question, but Trip pressed the point.
"You're afraid that if our species can't prove they can work together, there'll be a prejudice toward us forming any kind of relations, professional or otherwise?"
She was silent for so long, attention focused on the console, that Trip almost thought she wasn't going to respond. "It would be…an unfortunate side effect of this facility's failure," she finally said.
"T'Pol, I promise you that our future," she looked at him sharply at this, "will not be affected by whatever we uncover at one mining facility on a planet most people have never even heard of."
"There is growing unrest on Earth against aliens." The engineer almost flinched—he hated the idea of anyone labeling T'Pol an "alien." "Word of an inability to fulfill the potential of an enterprise such as this would not help that situation. Our species may be very different, but both have shown that they are more than capable of laying blame on the other."
"That's true," he conceded. "But we have a say in this, you know. Maybe these people can't work together…maybe they're actively trying to shut each other down—but we, you and I, can work together. We've proven it time and time again. I can't think of a better way to demonstrate that than by solving this puzzle once and for all."
The look she gave him steeled his resolve even further. When he first met her he would never have used the word "vulnerable" to describe her, but now that he knew her it was clear that even T'Pol needed reassurance now and then. That she looked to him and no one else for it...well, it was frightening...and wonderful. They would solve this together. As confident and capable as she was, T'Pol needed to know that humans and Vulcans could have a long-term future with one another--both culturally and personally. He smiled at her, nudging her with his shoulder. She did not smile back but neither did she move away.
"Come on. I want to take a look at that processing station. It was the first area of the outpost to start acting strangely. I could use another pair of eyes."
Nodding, she followed.
Hidden out of sight in the shadows of the corridors, Kovar listened with great interest as the two Starfleet officers conversed. Obviously their relationship was much more than simply professional. Interesting…but not unexpected.