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Chapter 14: The Big Dinner Scene
It is a cold, hard fact that when one lives aboard a starship one becomes accustomed—no, reliant—upon certain technological conveniences. Take, for example, the communications system. It is imperative to know what's going on in other parts of the ship and to be able to relay information quickly and efficiently—especially if one is the captain.
"I would like," he growled, "someone to explain what is going on, on my ship." The MACOs had escorted a sullen Pieter Gundal, a grumbling Medec, and a haughty Shrel to the conference room already. V'Ret had entered on his own, claiming that T'Pol had ordered him to make his way to the bridge and join Kovar. Now Malcolm, Hoshi, Trip, and T'Pol had appeared with Billie Saunders in tow, her hands bound with…was that relay wiring?
"What are you two doing here?" he asked the commanders. Not to quibble, but the ship was incapacitated. One might expect one's chief engineer to be otherwise engaged in engineering at a time like this, not wrapped around one's science officer. Then Archer noticed that Trip was stumbling a bit and kept raising his hand to the side of his skull. "What happened?"
"Billie attacked me in engineering."
"That explains the relay wiring."
"Thank Hess and Rostov for that," Trip told him cryptically, smiling lopsidedly.
Archer ignored this comment. "Now tell me what's been going on around here."
"I believe I can sir," T'Pol stepped forward. "I know who the killer is."
"You've been gathered here tonight to reveal—" Archer stopped himself. Damn Trip for all those murder-mysteries on Movie Night! All six remaining Shomar Mining Project members stared at him from around the table, their faces illuminated in the extra lighting Malcolm had insisted they drag in from the emergency lockers. Their expressions ranged from the blank slate of Billie Saunders and the practiced calm of V'Ret to the agitated fidgeting of Medec. "I think I'll let my science officer explain why you're all here now." He gestured to T'Pol to take over.
T'Pol stood before them awkwardly. She remembered this scene in the movie The Thin Man—it had seemed a simple matter to emulate it here on Enterprise. Now that she stood here, though, with everyone's eyes turned to her…she wasn't sure how to begin. She hesitated, glancing about the room.
Trip caught her eye and nodded slightly, encouraging her. Buoyed, she drew herself to her full height, clasping her hands behind her back.
"We are all aware of the events on Velat 4 which led to the Enterprise's arrival at the Shomar Mining Facility," she began. "We received a transmission alerting us to the fact that a project member had been killed and that the station was beleaguered by numerous technical problems."
"We know all this," Medec spat. He crossed his arms tightly in front of him. "We were there."
Trip scowled at the rude Andorian; T'Pol stared at him levelly. "Indeed."
The Vulcan science officer started to pace slowly around the table. All heads turned to follow her movements. "You were all there, together, working on the station for several months…but how well did you know one another? Which of you would have been motivated to commit an act of sabotage? A murder?"
"Let us look clearly at the situation." T'Pol stopped at the foot of the table. "This mining project was meant to be an inter-species endeavor in which Vulcans, humans, and Andorians would work together as never before—as equals."
Pieter snorted. "What a load of—"
"You have a point of contention, Mr. Gundal?" T'Pol demanded.
Gundal blinked, taken aback for a moment, then shrugged. His voice was thick with both his German accent and his disgust. "Equals my ass. We've been taking orders from that one," he nodded at Strel, "since the first day. She thinks she knows better than me what the equipment can do!"
"It's mining equipment! It's not exactly neurosurgery to know the maximum stress levels of the machinery," Strel snapped.
"You see!" Gundal threw up his hands. "It is like we are the hired help!"
"I do see," T'Pol assured him. "I see that tension had mounted between members of the group and that feelings," she emphasized the word, "were hurt. I think this led to some retaliation."
"You!" Medec pointed a finger furiously at Gundal. "You did this, you…you primate!"
"I was referring to neither the sabotage nor Mr. Gundal," T'Pol broke in before Medec could continue. "I was referring to Miss Saunders."
Billie lazily turned her eyes to the Vulcan but said nothing. Everyone at the table swiveled their heads to stare at the human.
"Billie has done nothing wrong!" Gundal said vehemently.
"Always skulking about in the shadows, always creeping around, always turning up where's she's not supposed to be…I should have known." Medec was quick to refocus his blame.
"I believe Miss Saunders took things from around the station—she is a kleptomaniac."
"A what?" asked V'Ret.
"A person who steals compulsively," Malcolm provided. He had uncovered a hoard of items not only in Billie's room, but in Gundal's as well. "And you knew," he directed the statement at the German.
"She can't help herself," Gundal told them miserably. "I try and try to keep up with her, to replace the things she takes…but she is so fast, she never stops! She never used to be like this when we were on Earth."
"The stress of the situation on Velat 4 may have triggered a more urgent impulse to take things." Phlox had joined them from sickbay. "It was almost a nesting instinct: she needed to surround herself with things in order to feel a measure of control over her environment."
"So…Miss Saunders was the saboteur?" Kovar was doubtful. Medec narrowed his eyes at the Vulcan, clearly believing his uncertainty was a ploy.
"No," T'Pol shook her head. "This may have helped foster the impression that there was a saboteur on the station, but she did not actively damage anything as far as I can tell."
"What does this prove?" Strel wanted to know, her antennae twisting furiously.
"It reveals the collective mood present on the station. Once things began to break down tensions were running high. Blame would have been quick to be placed."
"It wasn't us who came up with the idea it was a saboteur," Medec insisted. "That was Kovar. We thought there was some kind of problem inherent to the stations systems. We weren't blaming each other, we were trying to find the source of the problem."
"Two geophysicists, an engineer, three technicians, and a biologist? And you could not discover the problem? I find that difficult to believe." T'Pol started to circle the table again. "I think some of you knew exactly what was going on, and what the cause was." She turned to V'Ret. "Vulcan's premier geological specialist—someone who's dedicated his entire life to the study of geological processes and methodology…you knew what was going on. You knew that the mining procedure was flawed."
"It's not flawed!" Strel defended her work. "There were some bugs to be worked out but—"
"Yes," V'Ret confirmed, interrupting Strel's outbreak. "Yes I knew it wasn't working the way it was supposed to. When the systems began to malfunction I went to Strel and told her that we could be in danger."
"In danger of what?" Archer wanted to know.
"Carillium is a structural enhancer," Trip supplied. "It doesn't just make things stronger or more durable, it actual takes on some of the natural properties of certain elements and mimics them, in a sense. On its own it's relatively stable, but it's chemical composition allows it to bond with a lot of different materials."
Archer nodded—he knew all this. "So?"
"When Strel began to use the transporter to remove the impurities of the carillium," T'Pol took over, "she inadvertently found another property of the compound. When something is transported it's chemical makeup is essentially rearranged as it is phased from one location to another. Carillium, it appears, retains the "phased" quality it developed during transport. When it reacts with other elements, then, it makes them highly unstable. It puts them in a state of flux."
"No wonder things kept breaking down on the station."
Strel stood abruptly. "This is absurd! It's not true! Do you think I wouldn't notice if such a thing were happening?"
"I think you did notice," T'Pol said calmly. "And when V'Ret came to you with the same information you knew you had to keep him quiet. He was easy, though. You knew he had a secret—a secret that wouldn't have stopped him from revealing a saboteur, but one that would keep him from revealing that the SMP mining method wasn't viable."
"I told you, none of us knew about P'Jem," Medec started.
"That wasn't V'Ret's secret, as you well know, Medec," T'Pol rounded on him. "As the only doctor on the facility it would be an easy matter for you to discover that Kovar was in fact V'Ret's son."
There was a great deal of rustling and audible gasping as this tidbit of information was revealed. Even Kovar looked rattled.
"I don't understand," Gundal started.
"Hardly surprising," Medec sneered.
"Why you—" The larger man lunged across the table for the now cowering Andorian. Malcolm ran forward and halted the enormous miner with a well-placed knee to the shin.
"Now why don't we all play nice and let the Vulcan finish talking?" he asked, shuffling Gundal back into his seat.
"What I wanted to know before that blue windbag interrupted," Gundal nursed his shin, "was, why did V'Ret keep it a secret. Wouldn't have cared that his son was around. Wouldn't have liked him any more."
"I could not tell anyone," V'Ret explained, defeated. "If the High Command linked P'Jem to Kovar and then Kovar to me, I would not be able to protect him any longer. Our family would be ruined on Vulcan. After the listening station was exposed and the government on Vulcan changed, I realized that not only would Kovar's career be over, he would be ostracized from our society. I may not agree with what he did or understand why he did it, but I could not allow that to happen."
"So you got him the assignment on Velat 4—far from prying eyes and questions. If he could work successfully on an interspecies project such as this, the High Command might be more lenient towards him for what happened at P'Jem…should they find out," Archer conjectured.
V'Ret nodded and Kovar spoke up. "We agreed that this was a chance to start over," Kovar supplied. "To put P'Jem behind us once and for all."
"This is very touching," Gundal rolled his eyes, "but how did she," he stabbed a finger toward an increasingly agitated Strel, "find out they were related."
T'Pol turned back to Medec. "As I said, even someone with minimal medical training would be able to discern that from simple blood tests. One way or another, perhaps when treating an injury or infection during the course of the project, you discovered their secret."
Medec looked very uncomfortable and for once seemed to be searching for words. "I…I never told anyone—"
"Really." The science officer raised an eyebrow. "Strel found out. Either you told her or she read your medical logs."
Medec whirled on Strel. "You didn't…you wouldn't!"
Strel would not meet his eyes, keeping a stony profile turned to him.
"Strel!" Medec's antennae flattened along the back of his skull and his face flushed. "Those files were confidential! You violated my doctor-patient confidentiality—"
Strel cut him off with a snort. "Doctor-patient confidentiality? Who do you think you are? You have to be a doctor to actually have doctor-patient confidentiality in the first place," she told him coldly.
Medec's mouth fell open, aghast at her reaction. "You…you did read them…"
"Of course I did! It was the only useful thing you could contribute to the whole project so I took it. I bring you along on the greatest scientific expedition of our time and what do you do? Spend the whole time pouting and puttering around giving people hyposprays and useless vaccinations. What a waste!" The vehemence in her voice was overwhelming.
Medec shook his head. "You always were an ego-maniac. I did everything I could for you but you never cared! The only thing you ever thought about was that your precious project wasn't working!"
"It was working! It would have worked! We just needed more time!" Strel insisted, her eyes bugging dangerously. "He wanted to shut us down!" she glared at V'Ret.
"So you gave him a choice," T'Pol said patiently. "Keep quiet or you would let the dog out of the bag."
"Cat," Trip corrected her out of the corner of his mouth. Despite the gravity of the situation, Archer had to suppress a smile.
"The cat out of the bag," T'Pol amended, carrying smoothly on. "And he agreed to remain silent. But then there was Tola."
All movement at the table stopped as they began to put the facts together.
"Tola also figured out what was going on—that was why she sent that distress call. It was not a call alerting us to a murder, as we first thought," T'Pol caught Hoshi's eye and nodded appreciatively. "It was an attempt to alert us to the fact that the carillium was breaking down the station's systems…and that someone had intentionally shut down, "killed" was the word Tola used in her transmission, the communications link. She must have come to you," T'Pol turned to Strel, "and you recognized what a threat she was. If the Andorian Imperial Empire found out that the head of their project had spent their time and resources on a flawed mining process it would be an embarrassment…well, you wouldn't be heading any other projects for a long, long time. The Andorian Empire does not reward failure," she paraphrased Shran's words on the subject.
"I did not kill her!" Strel slammed her fist on the table and rose shakily from her seat. She took a few deep breaths and tried to calm herself, lowering herself back to her seat. "She did come to me. I'm telling you, the process was not flawed—we could have fixed it with more time! She wouldn't listen. I…I shut off the communication system. I didn't want to hurt anyone, I just wanted some time to make her see reason!"
"Tola must have worked to repair the comm. system enough to send her message," Kovar postulated.
"Yes—and you killed her for it!" Gundal looked at Strel with loathing.
"Why would she kill Tola?" T'Pol asked. "Think about it—everything she did she did for the continuity of the project. A dead body would mean people, questions, and an investigation. She's tried to stop that at every turn."
"Yes, why would I kill the silly girl?" Strel agreed. "She's more trouble dead than alive."
The other members of the project appeared disgusted by this comment, but she did have a point.
"No," T'Pol went on, "you didn't kill her…but whoever did thought they were doing you a favor." T'Pol closed in on Medec. "What was it you said earlier? You 'did everything for Strel, but she never cared'? You did, didn't you? You tried to protect her, tried to lend to her success, even though she rebuffed you at every turn. You must have thought it was the ultimate gift, killing Tola. Then you could even rule it an accident...Strel would never know the sacrifice you'd made for her. You could be both the hero and the martyr."
"Medec!" Strel turned on her husband. "You didn't do something that stupid!"
"Don't call me that!" Medec exploded. "You have no idea all the things I've done for you! Everywhere you wanted to go, I've followed, your obedient servant! Everything I've done, I've done to protect you, to give you the life you wanted—to provide for you. Undeserving, heartless—" his hands suddenly shot out, catching Strel around the neck and knocking her to the floor.
Malcolm and Trip were on him in an instant, followed by Archer and Kovar. Medec's grip on his wife was maniacal, though, and he would not be pried off easily. "Yes, yes, I killed her—for you! I wanted to give you success, but you couldn't even take that!" he was screaming. Archer finally grabbed one of his antennae and wrenched it sharply. Medec screamed and fell to his side, clutching at his head. Malcolm had him subdued and his hands secured within seconds.
T'Pol helped Strel back into her seat, and Phlox looked her over. "We should get you to sickbay," he told the shaken Andorian.
She nodded wearily as she watched Medec being escorted from the room. "I can't believe it," she rasped.
"He obviously thought he was helping you," Phlox said comfortingly. "He didn't want your project to fail."
"And in doing so he ensured it," she shook he head bitterly.
"Dr. Strel," Trip came up behind T'Pol, "That facility is beyond repair, Enterprise is dead in the water, and one of your team members was murdered because of your project. I think its failure was assured a long time ago." Hidden from view, he squeezed T'Pol's hand, trying with all his might to let her know through their bond how proud he was of her. He didn't know if she picked it up or not, but she did squeeze back, letting her hand linger in his.
"Well, there's still one thing I want to know," the captain turned to his chief engineer and science officer.
"What is that, sir?" T'Pol thought she had covered everything quite thoroughly. What could she have missed?
"How do we get the ship moving again?"