Chapter 19:

The words Thydia had said to him earlier, were still echoing in Malcolm's ears. But he still wasn't able to believe them and even if he could, he wouldn't have wanted to think about it. The consequences emerging from her words were just too grave, too widespread. It once again showed him that the person they had taken back aboard had almost nothing in common with the person that had disappeared from here two years ago.

He had changed, had been forced – due to the circumstances he had – literally – been thrown into. But knowing this didn't make it any easier on anyone of the crew to get along with this fact. Trip himself seemed to actually like the position the Captain had offered to him, although he hadn't told anyone about it.

His skills were still the same – even better, due to the creativity he had been forced to use on the deserted planet. The problem were his social skills and the fact that he was more qualified then the new Chief Engineer of Enterprise was. There were constant problems down in Engineering these days and an angry Chief Engineer in charge who was constantly complaining.

Trip however didn't seem to care about it that much – neither the complaints and fights with the Chief Engineer, nor the attempts of his former Engineering crew to be friendly and respectful with him. He didn't much talk to them – not about anything personal after all and he did not have much of any friendly word for anyone of them.

They quickly realised that having him back, didn't really mean exactly this. They had gotten the same human body back, but a completely different personality... They put some effort into it, before they decided to stop trying and just left him in peace.

His free time was the other very difficult thing, for he had not even the slightest interest to spend any of his time outside his quarters and away from Thydia... Jonathan had tried several times to invite the two of them for dinner, but they never accepted – they actually didn't even take the opportunity to have dinner at Mess Hall with the rest of the crew.

They were all on their own for the whole time of the journey back to Earth and they made no effort to adjust to life aboard and to befriend with the rest of the crew. He knew he probably was prejudiced, but he believed Thydia was responsible for Trip's behavior of not getting close to anyone.

The strangest experience Jonathan had encountered during their journey had been the two of them standing in one of the corridors laughing and talking together in the Talian tongue without taking any notice of the people around them and the strange looks they were getting from them.

He had been on his way from Mess Hall back to the bridge as he had encountered the two of them. Of course it was uncommon, but as both of them had ended their shifts and he had no reason or right to tell them what to do in their free time, he hadn't spend much of a thought on insisting against their behavior. Especially not in front of the passing by crew...

It was what happened afterwards that troubled him deeply, because he had never even imagined there would have been any chance for anything even close to this happening. One of the armory staff aproached Thydia right then – probably just to ask her about something – without any of the two noticing her.

When she touched Thydia by the arm, her reaction was that sudden, rough and aggressive that it caused Jonathan to wince and the young woman aproaching the two was most definitely half scared to death. The fact that she gasped out in surprise and probably in pain was a perfect hint for it.

Thydia had grabbed the hand that lay on her shoulder and had turned it around, forcing the woman to turn her back to her, not being any kind of danger to Thydia any more. From out of nowhere Thydia produced a sharp looking knife and held it to the young woman's neck, threatening her.

Jonathan was unable to react for a moment – he couldn't even believe what he was looking at right now was actually happening. It just couldn't be, it looked like a bad dream... or some sort of a soap opera which had just reached it's redicolous climax. Silence fell between all of them as nobody else was able to react. The only thing that was audible was the woman's sharp, rapid breathing.

Trip was the first to react however and what he said scared Jon even more than Thydia's action. He was talking to the woman, in the Talian tongue for some strange reason, but Jon had heard the words before. He was asking her what she wanted from Thydia... It wasn't what he was asking her or the way he did – it was the simple fact that he asked after all.

Jonathan had expected her to be angry with Thydia, to immediately tell her that she couldn't behave like this. That this was no longer the deserted planet she had lived at and that nobody meant any harm to her. But he didn't, he was fully standing behind her actions.

He didn't stop her, he didn't tell her not to do this, to stop it and put the knife away. He wouldn't insist against her threatening the girl, he wouldn't do anything after all. He was just lookig at the young woman from armory without any visible emotion on his face, waiting for her to answer Thydia's question.

Jonathan however – after a few seconds of realizing what was going on, was at the scene of action within another moment. He didn't even care about asking for any reason or explanation. Grabbing Thydia's arm and forcing her away from the woman's neck, he managed to get her to stop her attack on the other officer. The young woman took a quick step away, gasped once again and left as quickly as she was even possible.

"What – for heaven's sake – were you thinking, you were doing!"

Thydia didn't answer his question, she just looked at him in anger, still holding the knife in her hands. She wouldn't say anything after all, treating him like he had no right to ask her, no right to insist – like she hadn't done anything wrong. It was Trip who answered his question instead.

"She protected herself. She tried to attack her!"

"She just wanted to talk to her! She completely overreacted."

"Don't talk about her like she isn't here!"

"Kyran – stop it, it doesn't matter, he doesn't understand. He will never understand..."

She didn't even react to the fact that he was standing there, talking to them, trying to tell them that they were doing things the wrong way. She wasn't paying atention to him and she didn't care what he was saying. She had her own life, made her own decisions and had her own truth and he and his words weren't a part of it.

But he was angry with her – he was absolutely furious and he wouldn't let her get away – not this time. She had gone way too far this time and it was his responsibility to take care of her failures. This wasn't her ship, she couldn't just do what she wanted...

It was the fact that Trip actually seemed to believe she could, that she had a right to. For he was defending her and he hadn't done anything in the first place. This was what feared and troubled him the most. He seemed to lack of any kind of understanding and responsibility and Jonathan couldn't understand it, he just couldn't. He was once again asking himself where his friend had gone to.

"I do not understand, but maybe you want to explain?"

"Even if we would try, you wouldn't understand it. You haven't lived the life we had. You will never understand why we would use a knife to protect us, if someone aproaches us from behind without saying a word..."

Trip's words left him stunned – this didn't work, it was of no use after all. He wouldn't reach them, he wouldn't make them understand – never.

"No, I don't understand – you're right and I don't want to understand. I don't want to talk about this with you any more, it's of no use. I won't do anything about it for this last time, but if I ever hear about anything like this ever again, I promise I will take steps this time... You can't do things like that, you can't. You're aboard this ship and under Starfleet jurisdiction. Respect it!"

It was silent for a moment and the expression on Thydia's face mirrored her annoyance. He knew she wished to insist, but for this time she was held back by Trip, who gave him a short, forced smile.

"We will try,... Sir."