000 Disclaimer, I own nothing 000 Well, apparently I can't thank reviews here anymore unless I go to the reviews bit so I'll go do that in awee while. Anyway, this is it. The end. 000

Trip sipped his coffee thoughtfully; it had been one hell of a week involving several 'discussions' with Starfleet about the away mission to The Planet. The upshot of these discussions had been that they would discuss it in more detail when they returned to Earth.

Detail? If he went into anymore detail during those discussions he'd have told them the colour of everyone's underwear and the state of said underwear post mission.

On the upside Walters had been released from sickbay, trailed closely by Lily, who seemed to have permanently attached herself to him when not on duty.

Trip sighed and set his coffee mug down. He hadn't slept more than a few hours in days, every time he closed his eyes he saw the clones, dead on those tables, smiling in twisted relief.

"Couldn't sleep?"

Trip barely managed to stop himself almost leaping from his chair at the sudden sound. Malcolm slid into the seat beside him.

"It's my new time management plan," Trip replied lifting his mug again. "I'm replacing sleep with some time for reflecting on nothing in particular." He lazily swirled his coffee. "I keep seeing us dead."

Beside him Malcolm nodded. "Me too…"

There was a pause while both of them stared out the window. Finally Trip turned to Malcolm. "Have you told Emma what happened?"

"I summarised."

Trip smiled slightly and returned his attention to his coffee. Malcolm glanced at the mug. "How long have you been sat here?"

Trip shrugged, Malcolm gave a slight grin. "Long enough to contemplate Life, the Universe and Everything?"

Trip rolled his eyes. "I know you're tired when you start quoting the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy."

"When life gets tough, the tough turn to Adams and Pratchett," said Malcolm quietly, offering a tiny smile.

Malcolm rose to his feet, moments later he returned with two fresh mugs of coffee. Trip accepted it wordlessly.

"Why do you think they did it?" Malcolm asked finally. "I have a theory…"

Trip's face darkened. "I don't want to know why they did it, wasn't the fact they did it in the first place enough?" He sighed. "I just keep seeing us, lying on those damn tables…lab rats in their damn experiment…God, Malcolm, they wanted to die by the end of it."

Trip stared out the window for a while before letting his gaze slid over to Malcolm, who seemed to be contemplating his coffee.

Trip sighed. "So what was the theory?" he asked quietly.

Malcolm looked up. "Actually I have two." He sipped his coffee. "The first being that what they did was their way of learning about different cultures. Watching how humans behaved to understand us better."

Trip pulled a face. "What's the second theory?"

Malcolm smiled briefly. "My second theory is that they're just sadistic bastards."

Trip nodded grimly. "That sounds about right." He stared at Malcolm's mug. "You should get back to Emma, she'll be wondering where you are."

Malcolm shook his head. "I'm quite happy where I am for the moment."

Trip smiled slightly and they descended into companionable silence.

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