A.N.: Sorry for the long wait. But as I haven't been home for the past two weeks – I didn't

really have the time. However I hope you enjoy it. Pleas R+R.

Chapter 2:

Enterprise was asked to take position behind the Talian vessel, as they guided them to the species' homeplanet. It took quiet a while to get there and they were left in absolute communicative silence – the Talian vessel didn't hail them for another time. Not until they arrived and took a position in the planet's orbit. Now once again the alien Captain opened a comm-link and his friendly face reappeared on the viewscreen.

"I'm afraid we cannot allow you to get down to the planet. The building the scientific council is working in is a highly secured place. Only a handfull of people is allowed to enter it and no strangers are allowed – under no circumstances. But I have talked to chief scientist Myran and he agreed to take a shuttle to meet you up here. Do you agree?"

"Yes – we do agree. That's very kind from you. We really appreciate all the effort you're taking upon yourself to assist us."

The Talian captain simply smiled at him without responding. Obviously it seemed to be some kind of codex – rather due to the species' morality or as a military philosophy – that giving assistance wasn't a thing that needed to be asked about. It was granted, if possible to give it and right now Jonathan was happy for any help they could get in their search.

Just moments after the viewscreen went black again, a slight beeping at Hoshi's station focused Archer's concentration on her. The Talian's chief scientist was approaching, asking for permission to land, which was gratefully granted. Jonathan took T'Pol with him to welcome the Talian scientist, leaving the bridge's command to Malcolm.

They welcomed the Talian visitor at the hangar deck, guiding him through the ship, which's design was obviously catching the stranger's attention. He seemed impressed to Jonathan, which left him with the question if the man was actually able to help them. But he had to take into consideration, that this phenomenon probably was crossing the system for million of years already. They definitely had a lot of time to study it.

They were having a bit of friendly small talk as the stranger asked about their homeplanet and the mission of their journey. Questions, which were politely answered, while they were guiding their guests to one of the conference rooms to talk about the Talian's knowledge about the phenomenon. When they finally arrived, the chief scientist seemed to not wish to waste any more time on politeness. He was heading straight to the point of his visit.

"Captain Tyras told me about your – rendevouz... with the phenomenon. Obviously it left behind some damage and a lot of unanswered questions..."

"Yes, you're right it did – and we would like you to answer these questions. Is there anything you can tell us about the phenomenon?"

"We're able to predict it. We can read the signs, which indicate that the phenomenon is building up. It's a necessity... This whole system has a proximity warning system which informs every vessel in the path of the wave immediately. It has become very, very safe by now – we have enhanced a timeframe of almost 2 hours between the warning and the first appearance of the wave."

"So, what does it do?"

"We don't know what the wave consists of and neither do we know what it does. We weren't yet able to explore it's physical properties."

"But you were launching bojes into it. You were exploring – one of your ships was close to the phenomenon as it appeared?"

"Oh – no, you missunderstood our intentions. We didn't launch any bojes... The ship you encountered wasn't an exploration vessel, it was a prisoner ship..."

"A prisoner ship? Why were you sending a prisoner ship up there?"

A moment of silence emerged as the alien scientist seemed to think about a proper answer to the question. He seemed to feel uncomfortable by it and Jonathan was asking himself what this was supposed to be about. Although he had a slight suspicion...

"You may blame and condemn us for it, but the federation of planets in this solar system still allows death penalty. The ship was send to the wave, holding murderers, traitors, rapists and other convicted criminals aboard. That is what you saw – it weren't bojes that were sent into the wave... It were capsules sending the prisoners – they were sentenced for their crimes."

He had been right, he had been absolutely right about his suspicion. But the wider consequences that spread from the answer the scientist had just given him were far to grave to even think about it right now... The wave was used to kill people... There was no chance... No! He shouldn't even start thinking like that. He didn't have any confirmed information about the wave. This wasn't the time to give up. Yet it was still a discouraging answer.

"It kills them..., the phenomenon kills them..."

"At a 98 rate – yes. They are somehow vaporized by the wave's initial power. We don't know exactly what happens to them. It's the final result that counts – they are gone."

"You said it was a 98 possibility – what about the other 2?"

Once again the scientist fell silent to the question of the Captain. Of course this whole affair was a very delicate matter, but this uncomfortable silence there was, pointed to an extremely unloved fact considering the theme of death penalty in the federation of these alien planets. A fact that wasn't talked about, wasn't liked to be talked about...

"In very, very few cases – it's really a minimum risk... the prisoners aren't completely... they do not completely disappear... It hasn't happened once in the past 15 years, we have been able to enhance our technology. It will not happen again!"

"Oh good lord.."

"Pardon me?"

"I just lost a crewmember to this phenomenon. I was hoping to find him..."

Empathy appeared on the alien's face almost immediately and Jonathan already knew what he was about to say. He didn't want to hear it, though, but there wasn't much he could do to make the stranger stop.

"I'm terribly sorry about this, Captain. But I'm afraid there's almost no chance of survival..."

"Yes, probably – but from what you just told me I should actually be happy that we didn't lose anyone else..."

Had he just said that? Had he really just said he should be lucky? What the hell was wrong with him! He had just lost a good friend and now he was talking about being happy and grateful. He should be angry or grieving or frantically searching for a chance of rescue. Why – for all matters in the world – wasn't he?

"Sorry I'm being that insensitive, but you're right – this is really an interesting matter... looking at it from a scientific point of view. I assume it was caused by the consistance of your ship's hull."

He tried to concentrate and listen to the words of the stranger. Maybe he was able to give him some more detailed information, even if it were just theories and hypotheses. At least it would be a beginning.

"How's that?"

"You need to understand that the capsules that sent the prisoners into the wave aren't made of a solid material. It's a kind of organic composure and it's formable. As you probably have seen the wave – it looks like some kind of jelly to a not scientifically skilled eye and the capsules are of an almost equal consistance. The wave doesn't impact with them, it engulfs and absorbs them. We have tried to send in the prisoners in solid vessels before and this didn't work in almost 75 of the cases. The wave changes it's physical composure if it impacts with another material – it changes its abilities. That's probably the reason why you didn't lose any more of your crewmen. The harder the impact is, the more of its properties the wave loses..."

It obviously hadn't lost enough of its power to not leave behind any damage on his ship. He just couldn't believe what the scientist had just told him. He had confirmed, what he had already been afraid of, what all scientific data and the statements of T'Pol, Phlox and Lieutenant Hess had already confirmed... He had lost his chief engineer to this phenomenon and due to what the Talian visitor had just told him, there was no chance to find him... He wasn't able to think about it – he couldn't even form the words in his head,but the Talian had just anounced it – the phenomenon was... killing the people that were sent into it...

The uncomfortable silence seemed to urge the Talian to say something. Obviously he was afraid his emotionless, scientific analysis actually had hurt the Captain's feelings. It was hard to take such news and due to the Captain's first reaction the person he had lost to the wave semed to have been something more than just a crewman – maybe a friend, maybe even a good one. The Talian didn't wish to leave the impression of being rude.

"I can understand that this is no consolation for you and I guess you wish to search for your crewman none the less. The Talian government will offer you every help we can give. As I already told you, we don't know much about the wave's consistance and properties. And we know even less about its behavior when impacting with a structure like your ship. Maybe there's still a chance for you to find that lost member of your crew."

The offer was surprising the Captain – the Talian didn't know anything about them and still they were willing to help them in every way possible. The friendliness and helpfulness of these people was sheer overwhelming and he very much appreciated it. Especially Myran seemed to understand the feelings he was having, seemed to understand the desperate wish for searching for his chief engineer.

"You're right – I very well would like to search for my crewman and with the permission of the Talian government we will stay in this system for some time longer. I'm still hoping for a good end to this whole incident."

"And it's a very good thing to do so, Captain. The government definitely will be in favor with your ship passing through our system for some time longer. I will also vote for them to allow you to use our proximity warning system. You may follow the course of the wave by using it and maybe you will have a chance to launch some bojes yourself and make some progress in getting information about the phenomenon."

This definitely was more than a friendly offer and Jonathan had the slight impression that Myran would have to fight about his proposal when telling this to the governmental polititians. How important Enterprise's rescue mission would be, it was still a piece of technology been given to an alien and still unknown species. From his own experience Jonathan knew it was never an easy matter to discuss.

"I have no idea how to pay back for your offer. This is extremely kind and we appreciate this to an extend I cannot even find the right words for to explain to you. If we may give anything to you in return, I would be pleased to do so."

"Every information you encounter about that wave will be a help for us in protecting the Talian people from it. I would be pleased to learn about the scientific devices you will bring back from following the phenomenon."

"We would be happy to hand every last bit of information to you, that we will find."

"Thank you, Captain."

That had been it – all of a sudden there was a realistic chance to find Trip or to at least have a chance to properly search for him and find out what had happened when the phenomenon had struck the ship. They had found allies, a species that was willing to help them – without knowing them and without asking for any repayment...

Jonathan himself guided the Talian scientist back to his shuttle, taking another and yet another chance to thank him over and over again. Myran however did do nothing more but smile at him and telling him that the Talian people were happy to help them and that every information they were able to bring back was worth a thousand repayments.