Chapter 4 Arcadia Station
Tom Clark walked out of the workshop where the first prototype of the Warp 10 starship engine was being designed. It had been a long hard day, not made any easier by the fact that he was having trouble sleeping at night. Oh, he didn't have any trouble getting to sleep; it was staying asleep that was the hard part. The dreams he kept having about the Vulcan woman kept waking him up. At first they hadn't been too bad, but when she started talking to him and telling him he was somebody else it became disturbing. He thought about seeing the company shrink, but this was a really good gig and he didn't want to blow it by making his employers think he was crazy. So, he just kept it to himself.
When he'd first arrived on Arcadia Station three months before, he'd been recovering from a serious injury sustained in his previous work assignment on Alpha Centauri. He'd worked there since graduating from the Cochrane School of Engineering located there. Because of his injuries, his life before coming to Arcadia Station was a little foggy. He remembered the major things, graduating from school, his parents' deaths in an accident, and he remembered all of his engineering skills. The fine points of his personal life were hazy though. All of the doctors had told him not to worry about it, so he wasn't going to. At least, he wasn't until the weird dreams had started.
"Hey, Tom!" Gary Weston, Tom's co-worker, was from Kester IV, the location of an Earth colony. Arcadia Station was located on Kester IV's moon, also called Arcadia. Gary had arrived on Arcadia Station just a week after Tom and they had bonded over being the new guys. He trotted up beside Tom. "Want to grab a bite?"
"Sure." The two men headed over to the cafeteria, which Tom, for some reason, kept referring to as the "mess."
Wearily, Tom chose his dinner from the selection available and sat down near a window that looked out over the moonscape. The edge of Kester IV was starting to show over the horizon, and it was a very pretty sight. He closed his eyes briefly, but when he opened them again, he wasn't looking out at the rising Kester IV. Instead he was in the weird white room again.
"Trip." He whirled around at the sound of the Vulcan woman's voice.
"It's Tom," he said warily, watching her closely. "My name is Tom."
"Very well, then. I will call you Tom." She walked toward him, reaching up to touch his cheek. He felt a little jolt as she touched him.
"What was that?" he asked, perturbed at the feeling.
"Our bond," she replied.
"Oh, yeah, the bond you keep saying we have." He drew in a deep breath. "Lady, I don't even know who you are. I don't know if you're even a real person . . ."
"I'm very real, Tr-Tom," she said.
Suddenly, he was back in the cafeteria, looking out the window at the rising Kester IV. "Tom, you all right?" Gary asked. "Why don't you go back to your quarters and get some sleep after dinner?"
"Sounds like a really good idea, Gary," Tom answered, but privately he wondered if it was such a good idea at all.
Back in his quarters, Tom laid down on his bed. All this stuff that was happening to him was just too weird. He wanted a nice, quiet, peaceful life working on warp engines, that's all. He slowly drifted off to sleep.
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The spray of the shower was warm on his body. He stretched, easing the stiffness in his muscles, then he felt a female body pressed against his back. Arms went around him and small feminine hands caressed his chest and stomach. Turning in her arms, he looked down into her eyes, noting the delicate upward sweep of her brows. Reaching up, she pulled his mouth down to hers, her kiss hungry and carnal. His own arms tightened around her and he backed her up against the wall. His lips left hers to trail down her neck, kissing and nibbling her soft, wet skin. He felt her own lips against his forehead, then heard her whisper:
"Trip."
His eyes opened in the darkness of his room and there was one word on his lips:
"T'Pol."
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T'Pol sat at the table in Captain Archer's dining room, Phlox on her left and Malcolm Reed on her right. Captain Archer was doing his customary pacing. They were discussing the information that had been found.
"Sir, my contact insists that his 'section' had nothing to do with Trip's disappearance, and I'm inclined to believe him," Reed told them. "He did, however, have information about Sonocorp's contract with Starfleet."
"And . . ." Archer prompted, pausing in his pacing..
"It seems that Admiral Gardner was the most vocal supporter of Sonocorp's contract to build the Warp 7 engine in conjunction with Starfleet." Malcolm looked apologetic. Gardner, along with Admiral Forrest had been a friend of Archer's father, Henry. "I'm sorry Captain."
"It's all right, Malcolm," Archer assured him. "You're just the messenger." He sighed. "What did you two find out about the mysterious 'Dr. Rayburn'?" He enquired of Phlox and T'Pol.
Phlox answered, "There is no Dr. Rayburn in Starfleet. However, from the data base information supplied by Ensign Sato, the woman who claimed to be Dr. Rayburn is actually an employee of Sonocorp." Phlox looked disgusted. "An actual doctor," he all but spit out.
"So, let's go back over what we have so far." Archer started ticking off the information they had acquired. "First, we know that Tom Clark is Trip; second, he's suffering from induced amnesia; third, the doctor who falsified his death certificate works for Sonocorp; and fourth, Trip's last known location was on Arcadia Station."
"We need to add one more fact to that list, Captain," T'Pol informed him. "Commander Tucker is beginning to remember his past life. If he regains his memory, he could be in grave danger from those who planned this elaborate scheme."
"Then we don't have a lot of time. I have a plan, but we're going to need help getting onto Arcadia Station," Archer stated.
"I believe I know someone who may be able to aid us, Captain," T'Pol said.
"Soval?" he asked.
T'Pol inclined her head. "Yes, Captain. Ambassador Soval is on the Federation Appropriations Committee which must approve any contracts. This also includes inspections of facilities."
Archer looked somewhat skeptical. "Would he be willing to help us?"
"Ambassador Soval has expressed great admiration for Commander Tucker," she replied. "I am confident that he would be willing to help us rescue him."
"Then speak to him ASAP, T'Pol. We don't have any time to lose."
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