Chapter 9:

The young woman hadn't left her quarters up to the point when Jonathan came back to talk to her. He had assured Phlox to come back and inform about the information the young Talian would be able to give to him.

As he entered her room right now, she was still sitting in front of the view screen, scanning throught the data he had given to her. Disbelief was clearly visible on her face. She probably didn't or didn't want to believe what she was reading right there. Jonathan could understand that – for a person as suspicious as she was, it was definitely hard to read all these information about her comrade.

"I would like to talk to you."

"How is he?"

"He will be fine – he's sleeping right now and the doctor assured me he won't wake up for the next couple of hours."

"I want to see him, be with him!"

"You may, but I need to talk to you first."

Her face's expression grew hard by his words. He hadn't actually been polite – she had probably taken it as a demand and he had already encountered that she didn't like very well to be told what to do. She didn't say anything, but the thin line her mouth had become was a definite sign that he should at least think about apologizing.

"I didn't mean to order you – you may do what you like. But I need some information about the Commander – the sooner the better..."

"The Commander... it's strange to hear you call him that... He already has a name you know – a Talian name as you probably assumed. But if you wish to keep up to your homeworld's expressions... What do you want to know?"

"How did he get here?"

She frowned by the question, leaving the expression with him that she had expected him to actually know about this particular fact. Apart from that there was some other sign of emotion on her face, which concerned him even more – it was pure anger. Anger which's reason he couldn't detect after all...

"The sky parted."

"Pardon me?"

She sighed in frustration, crossing her arms before her chest and once again glaring at him. She didn't seem to see any sense in this whole conversation and his question pretty much unnerved her. But as long as she didn't tell him to leave, he wouldn't stop asking her.

"It's some kind of a vortex, a wormwhole or something like that. It's a pretty unstable phenomenon, it always appears at a different place. From what I have seen it seems to be a very rough procedure for the newcomers – at least their landing is. Sometimes they even die when they land here – break their necks... I'm not sorry for them, they are all criminals, trying to take our things or to even murder us. In all my life I never experienced one rightful and friendly person invading our homeworld... well, except for one."

"That's how the Commander came here? By this vortex?"

"I guess so – I mean you should know better than I do. I already told you – it's an imprisonment planet – they are sent here to die. So as somebody from your world send him here you should know how it happened!"

"We have no idea what happened to him or how it occured. The more urgent question I have to you right now is about his mental condition..."

"He doesn't remember you, does he?"

"How come that you know this particular fact?"

She gave a snort, signaling that he obviously had just asked a very stupid question.

"We have been living together for the past two years... You come to know each other then. To answer your question – he told me. It was actually one of the first things he told me when I found him. He couldn't remember anything about himself. He didn't know his name, neither where he came from or how he had gotten to this place. Everything else remained – his technical understanding, the knowledge of his homeplanet's language, but he didn't recall anything of his personal life."

"You think this was caused by the vortex?"

"I don't know! I'm not a scientist or a physician or a mechanic – I don't know anything about space phenomenons. I don't know what caused his lack of memory, I just know that we never bothered about it. We were living our lifes just fine."

"I'm sorry. But hasn't there been any sign of progress, hasn't he ever had the wish to return to the world he came from?"

This time she started to openly laugh at him. He had no idea what she intended by doing so, but he knew that he felt offended. She started to unnerve him and whatever it was that made her appealing to Trip – he didn't like her. Her respond however made him feel guilt rising inside and anger...

"Why are you here? You sent him here, sent him to this abandoned purgatory. You sent him here to die and now you come back for him with a doctor at hand and that worried expression on your faces? Why did you come!"

"We haven't send him here – for heaven's sake! We lost him. We were crossing the other side of that vortex and we lost him. He simply vanished into thin air! We did everything in our possibilities to find out about his whereabouts, but we never succeeded. We have been friends! And I believed him to be dead! Can you even imagine what it feels like to see him walking and talking again after two years of believeing that he wasn't there any more? Can you?"

"No I can't and I didn't know about that. I'm sorry if I offended you. I'm just not used to people being friendly and offering help without wanting a repayment."

"I see that, but I don't want any kind of repayment, I just want to have some answers... so, you don't know anything about the vortex?"

"No – I don't. But I guess it's not a very pleasant experience – being thrown to half the galaxy by a space phenomenon and landing on an unknown planet where there's nothing else but sun and sand..."

"No, probably not... Did he ever show any signs of remembrance, any improvement?"

"His situation improved, but not the way you wanted it! I took him to my house and he stayed with me – he learned my language, adjusted to his new life and formed a new personality with new memories for himself. We never looked back..."

"I really have to thank you – you have been a great help."

"So, I'm free to go and see him now? We're finished?"

Jonathan gave her a friendly nod – a gesture which she didn't return in any way. She got up without looking at him again, opening the rooms door, leaving him behind. Her manners around people definitely could need some improve... Jon got up himself and – against better knowledge and although he knew he was partly invading her privacy – he went to the table to see what she had been scanning through when he had entered the room.

He sat down at the desk, reactivating the viewscreen and opening the last file she had read. It had been the last document added to the file – his very own report to Starfleet Command, informing them about the circumstances of Trip's disappearance... and the confirmation of his death...