The ship was silent...most of the crew was asleep but a select few were busy contemplating the disaster of a day they'd all been put through. Trip had spent a majority of the day scrambling around engineering, trying to repair the damage the recurring anomalies were causing. More and more often they appeared, causing walls to morph out of shape and the wiring behind them to morph with them; sometimes things would just rearrange themselves entirely. In cargo bay two, all the cartons and boxes stored there were currently floating because anti-grav plating had gone off line.

In other parts of the ship, the other primary members of the crew were doing much the same. With the situation today, an abandoned ship, a prisoner, a fight, disappearing supplies and planets, and the captain threatening people, the atmosphere was tense at best. The real problem of the day for Trip was that he hadn't spoken to T'Pol in a week. It seemed whenever he called, she wasn't there, and vice versa.

Trip settled into his office for a small break and left the running of engineering to his people for a while. He picked up the PADD nearby and studied it. The Osaarians had taken three of their plasma injectors and almost all of their deuterium. The deuterium was already back in its place but he'd have to take the engine off line to put the plasma injectors back. That would take about an hour to do. Trip would love to wait until morning but knew that if he did so the captain would have a fit, and Trip was no where near stupid enough to do that right now.

Earlier, as Malcolm told him, the captain had been trying to get info out of their prisoner, Orgath, when the captain had, as Malcolm put it, "snapped". Dragging the alien from the brig, the captain had thrust him into an air lock and threatened to put the man out. Malcolm said the captain had had his hand on the open button when the Osaarian cracked. It was being said that the captain was cracking under the pressure. No one knew for sure the captain's state of mind. Right now, the captain was locked in his office, and, according to Hoshi, was reading through the info she'd gotten from the Osaarian database. The Xindi were mentioned and that was enough to have the captain interested.

Trip knew that it was their mission, but the captain was beginning to worry him. Trip knew that a few people worried about him as well, but everyone on board worried for the captain. Jon was looking increasingly and increasingly older and more drawn. Maybe he should have a talk with him, for old time's sake.

Trip thought that was a mighty good idea and headed up to the bridge. It was, if possible, even drearier there. There was an Ensign from security at Malcolm's post, and Hoshi was at her post as well. Travis was presumably taking his break and the captain was in his ready room. What disconcerted Trip most, however, was the man sitting at T'Pol's station. One of the last things she'd done before leaving was pick someone to take over her post. While doing an adequate job, the captain had been heard to say that the boy couldn't cock his eyebrow like T'Pol.

Trip hesitated going right to the ready room and instead headed over to Hoshi. "How ya doin' Hosh?"

"Holding up, Commander."

"We still around the freaky cloaked planet?"

"Yes, the captain has Ensign Doherty doing scans," Hoshi gave a small strained smile at Trip as he leaned against her console. Unlike the other key positions on board, she didn't have anyone who could do her job for her. There were a few who could do it for a short time, but for a job like translating the Osaarian database, only she would do. So, no break for Hoshi.

"Doherty?" Trip asked, confused.

"T'Pol's replacement?" Hoshi asked, surprised he didn't remember the new science officer's name; he had been at every major meeting for the last seven weeks.

"Oh, yeah. Hey, Doherty!" Trip called, getting a surprised and stiff wave in return. "How's the captain?"

"He was a little testy earlier but he's talking to T'Pol right now, so I'm hoping that will help his mood."

Oh? So she can talk to the captain but not me? Trip scowled at her answer and glared at the door. Apparently, a surly captain is more interesting than a surly engineer.

"I lost it. He made me so angry and I just wanted to make him tell me what I needed to know!" Archer said forcefully as he paced before the monitor. T'Pol sat serenely in the image projected and studied the captain who had been ranting like this for near a half hour.

"Captain? Do you regret what you did?"

"That's it, T'Pol...I don't. I did what I had to do," Archer finally stopped pacing and sat in his desk chair. He looked so defeated that T'Pol sought to reassure him.

"Then do not feel bad. If you feel you did the right thing, then you probably did, or at least what is right to you."

"What do you mean?"

"It's a philosophical debate. The right thing is perceptional. To the Osaarians, taking your supplies and machinery, was the right thing. To you, threatening to torture a man was the right thing. To some, outright torturing him would have been right. Vulcans have done a lot worse things, captain, and never gave a thought to apologizing or guilt."

"Yeah...it still gets to me though. Is Orgoth right? Will I become more and more ruthless as we go farther into the expanse? Will I eventually turn into a monster like him and his captain?"

"No." Archer looked sharply at T'Pol at her succinct answer. "You have something they don't."

"What?"

"A connection to your people, a crew that will keep you from doing things too bad, and me."

"You'll keep me from becoming evil, hundreds of light years away?" The captain said, amused despite himself.

"Hundreds is an exaggeration but yes. I will."

"Well, thank god for that. Are you in a shuttle?"

T'Pol was mildly surprised that the captain recognized the inside of a Vulcan shuttle when to her knowledge he'd never been in one. "Yes."

"Why?"

"I have a meeting on the Selare," T'Pol explained, referring to the Vulcan vessel carrying Admiral Forrest, though the captain wouldn't know that.

"About?"

"About the possibility of my working for Starfleet."

Archer leaned back and stared at T'Pol in complete astonishment. His bad mood was gone, all his talking with T'Pol helping him to overthrow the dark wave of self-hatred that had threatened to overwhelm. "Really? Starfleet?"

"Yes. Admiral Forrest believes I might be able to help matters on Earth."

Captain Archer sobered. "Are they still rioting?"

"No. That has finally stopped. Now, though, the Admiral and Starfleet are worried about reports of a group within Starfleet trying to usurp power and close relations with all other alien species."

"No, really?" Archer asked, interested beyond normal. Out here, in the Delphic Expanse, there wasn't really much of anything to do. Maybe he should talk to Trip about reinstating movie night, or something like that.

"Yes, and they are succeeding. In the last riot, two Denobulans were injured, as well as one of the last Vulcans on Earth."

"Vulcan has completely removed its presence? How will this affect your taking the position?"

T'Pol studied the panel in front of her and answered. "I have not decided yet to take the position, but if I did, it would be my choice, not my government's."

"So they would have no say in it?" Archer asked skeptical.

"They have approached me with their doubts and warnings," (threats, T'Pol silently thought to herself), "but they have not yet convinced me not to take the position," Archer grinned, "but neither has Starfleet convinced me to." That wiped the grin from his face.

"If you did take the post, when we come back to Earth you could get reassigned to Enterprise."

T'Pol nodded. "I think that that might be a 'perk'. How is my replacement performing?"

"He doesn't disagree with me. It's disconcerting. I'm used to my science officer being mouthy with her opinions, and he barely speaks," Archer said cheekily.

T'Pol raised her eyebrow in indignation. "Mouthy?"

"Don't get me wrong, it's a nice mouth," Archer explained. Am I flirting with T'Pol? Damn, the situation must really be taking it's toll on me. I haven't flirted with her like this since...before I got the news about Earth.

"I think that was a compliment, and it is human custom to give one in return. I will admit that I enjoyed your...long-winded lectures more than most others would."

Archer snorted. "Long-winded? When have I ever-..." BEEP! The doorbell chimed. "Hold on, T'Pol...Enter!"

Archer watched as his tall, thin engineer walked in, a slight stiffness to his body signaling that Trip was upset about something. "Can I talk to you, captain?"

"Sure thing. Eh, T'Pol, I'll talk to you later about that position. You should take it."

"It appears everyone has an interest in what I'm doing, captain. I look forward to our next conversation. Give Commander Tucker a salutation from me." T'Pol disconnected and left the two men alone. They studied each other and mutually decided to ignore the still dicey subject of their friendship and what is was now.

"T'Pol says hey."

"Yeah, I heard. Umm...look, cap'n, the crew is worried. You ain't been yourself lately and moral is already low..."

"Yes, I wanted to talk to you about that. I've decided that it's time to reinstate movie night. I think that it will ease up the atmosphere and anything else you can think of that might help moral a bit would be good."

Trip nodded and gestured with his PADD. "Yeah, but today, cap'n-..."

"Is that the repair list?"

"Yeah."

"Can I see it?"

Trip nodded and handed the PADD over. "Sure, look-..."

"You need to take the engines offline?" The captain asked, studying the list before him with a critical eye.

"Yeah, the plasma injectors have to be finely tuned or else everything will screw up." Trip explained, having thoroughly lost the point of why he was there.

"For how long?"

"Bout an hour."

"Good. Get started on that right away. I want to be at warp by 0600. Make sure you get some sleep after that, Commander. You're not looking too good. Have you seen the doctor?"

"Yeah, he gave me somethin'."

"Good, dismissed."

Trip left the ready room, not even realizing until he was in the turbolift that the captain hadn't answered any questions about himself and his behavior today. Instead, once again, he had deflected all questions back to Trip. Wasn't that the beauty of a good friendship? The captain could tell all his secrets to T'Pol, and none to him.

T'Pol was led through the Selare and into a small dining room off the main one. Inside, Admiral Forrest and his ever-present aides were already sitting. At the Admiral's gesture, T'Pol took a seat across from him.

"Welcome, T'Pol. Was your flight up good?" The Admiral continued in his charade of niceness that T'Pol weary of ignoring.

"It was adequate."

"Yes, well. Good. We have taken the liberty of ordering you plomeek soup for dinner, we will be having it as well," the Admiral smiled congenially. T'Pol could tell, however, that he wanted to grit his teeth. It had to be hard for the humans, T'Pol supposed, to have to be vegetarian while traveling on a Vulcan ship. From her experiences with Captain Archer and Commander Tucker, humans who ate meat enjoyed it immensely.

All through dinner, the small talk continued, until T'Pol could feel a mild head ache stir in her head. She did not have to monitor and concentrate on control as much when she dined with Soval. Tired of talking around the point of her traveling to the ship, T'Pol decided to be blunt. "Why does Starfleet want me to go to Earth?"

Admiral Forrest looked at her in a startled way. "What do you mean?"

"The real reason? Surely, you don't need me to help you appease the public. If anything, my accepting a position will infuriate them more. There is logically an ulterior motive to your offering."

"Archer warned me you were smarter than you seemed."

"Not smarter, simply more logical."

"There is no real ulterior motive. It's quite clear to some people."

"It's not clear to me. Enunciate it for me," T'Pol set down her spoon and sat back to prepare for this bit of information. The Admiral and his aides did likewise.

"There are some in Starfleet who worry that Captain Archer will not succeed in his mission. They feel that after three years in space he might not have sufficient reason to act aggressive enough to get the job done."

"What does this have to do with my joining Starfleet?"

"If Captain Archer were to fail in stopping a full blown attack, Earth would be destroyed. There are certain people at Starfleet think that if there were someone on Earth he cared about he would try harder."

"And those people I'm that person? You think that my presence on Earth will spur the captain to greater heights to succeed. How are you sure that he will even know I'm on Earth."

"You speak with the Captain weekly, and up until last week, the Chief Engineer daily. The Vulcan High Command is not the only organization that monitors incoming and outgoing calls to Enterprise, T'Pol."

T'Pol stiffened. "What are you implying?"

"That you deliberately use the Starfleet switchboard because you do not trust your government not to record your calls."

"Why wouldn't I trust my government?"

"Because you know that like last year, they're anticipating blaming you for the incident at P'Jem and later the incident with the Andorian/Vulcan treaty. Despite assurances to the otherwise, they've already pushed you out of your commission and your childhood home. How long will it be until you go for a walk to the supermarket and you disappear?" Admiral Forrest sighed. "Vulcan is Earth's ally, but even we can't be totally blind-sighted to its faults. We have our spies, just as they have their's.

"If you accept this post at Starfleet, you will gain safety and the autonomy to speak with the people on Enterprise you wish to at anytime. We will gain something, and you will to."

T'Pol studied the stoic man before her and in a startling revelation realized that he reminded her of Soval. "I will consider your words and reply within the next day."

"Good to know. Have a good ride back." His mask of politeness was back and his aides murmured thoughts of the same. T'Pol hurried through the Selare and back to the shuttle she had rented for the flight up. How could he know all her doubts about her government? It was as if he had reached inside her mind and seen the things that she'd kept most hidden. She'd never even told Commander Tucker about her worries. It was part of the reason she'd been avoiding his calls this last week. That night last week he had seen something in her face she had not wanted him to see. More often than not Commander Tucker could see things about her other people did not.

T'Pol returned the ship and decided to walk home. For a desert climate, the weather was quite temperate, something akin to fall on Earth. On Vulcan it was the coldest it usually became. Indeed, Vulcans who had never felt the cold of an Earth winter were clad in extra heavy robes, seeming cold in this mild weather.

When T'Pol reached her flat, the door was already open. She was the only resident on that floor and she felt a tingle of awareness as she stepped through the doorway. The lights did not come on as they were programmed to do with movement, and as T'Pol felt the crunch of glass she realized why. In human terms, her flat had been trashed. Her chairs had been slashed, as well as her living area accompaniments. Her pictures (that she had bought at a "garage sale" on Earth) were broken, as well as what seemed to be every other glass thing in the apartment. It was obvious that whoever had done it was long gone.

T'Pol conducted a quick search but turned up no clues. She was tempted to call the authorities but knew it would get her no where. Despite their warnings against her leaving, it appeared someone on Vulcan wanted T'Pol gone. As T'Pol entered the code to contact Admiral Forrest, it seems they're getting their way.

No Trip/Polly interaction here...but I like the reminiscing about each other anyway!