Chapter Seven
After having practically cleared the mess hall's food cabinets -- much to the amusement of T'Pol, who couldn't believe the amount of food Trip was packing away, and much to the dismay of the other crewman, who had wandered in with the hope of getting some dinner -- they both walked back to sickbay together. T'Pol had already notified Captain Archer of her intentions to initiate a mind meld, and the Captain had agreed to meet them there.
"Are you quite sure about this, Trip?" Archer asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure," replied Trip. "I just need to know if Allion lied to me. You never know, they might have mentioned where they were headed or what they were planning next."
Captain Archer nodding his head to indicate that he understood Trip's reasoning.
"Lie back and relax, Commander," Phlox said, as he monitored his bio signs overhead. "You've seen this procedure before, so you know it doesn't hurt."
"That was different Doc. The guard Soval melded with was unconscious and not expected to live anyway."
"Commander, this won't work unless you relax your emotional suppression," T'Pol said.
"My what?"
"Just relax, Trip," interrupted Captain Archer. "I've been through this, you'll be fine."
"Do you trust me, Commander?" T'Pol asked calmly as she looked tenderly into his eyes.
"You know I do, T'Pol."
"Then you know I will never hurt you," she replied, as he nodded his head and settled down. "Close your eyes and try to clear your mind."
Positioning her fingers over the katra points, T'Pol closed her eyes and reached out for his mind. "My mind to your mind … Our minds are merging … Our minds are one. I feel what you feel … I know what you know."
Trip drew in a sharp breath when he suddenly felt T'Pol's presence. It was the strangest sensation. When she spoke her voice came from inside of his own head.
"Can you hear me, Trip?"
"Wow … I can. It feels really weird though …"
Aloud inside his head, guiding him, "Please concentrate, Trip, being inside your head is quite a taxing experience…"
"Sorry."
"Try to think back to your last day onboard the Daladian ship. What is your last memory of that day?"
"Being annoyed by a damn injector which wouldn't cooperate and was determined to make my life miserable." described Trip as T'Pol viewed the image in her mind.
"Good. What else can you remember?"
"Sitting down for dinner and reading through their engine's specifications."
"What happened after that? Besides sheer enjoyment that I can feel coursing through you, I mean."
"Are you making fun of me?"
"Please concentrate."
"Sorry."
"What happened after reading their engine specs?"
"I remember feeling really sleepy, and then there is nothing. It feels like there should be something else, but I can't remember …"
"Focus on this with me, and together we can break down the wall that is preventing you from remembering … Yes, this is it. Very good."
For a moment, Doctor Phlox and Captain Archer exchanged a concerned look. Both Trip and T'Pol visibly flinched when they broke through the mental barrier.
"What is happening?" asked T'Pol as she felt panic and fear well up inside Trip.
"I'm in a medical bay… I can't move or speak! Allion is there and …"
"Try to relax, Trip. What is he doing?"
"He's got a hyperspray. He's saying something, but I can't make it out."
"Focus on his words."
I'm sorry Commander, I need you awake for the next part of this procedure. We don't want to do this, but we're desperate. We don't have long before they'll find us again. We barely managed to escape last time, and with the damage they caused we don't have the speed or power to withstand another attack. You are our only hope. I've placed her inside of you, where she'll be able to grow safely while we head them off. We will try to elude our pursuers, but in case we don't succeed you have to head to these coordinates, transmit a signal on this frequency, and wait until you are contacted by the Guardians. They know how to transfer her to another host; they can take her somewhere safe where she can grow up to fulfil her destiny.
"We owe you a huge debt, Commander," replied Trip and T'Pol spoke out loud together as she brought the meld to an end and removed her fingers from Trip's face. They opened their eyes simultaneously, and then they both reflected on what they had seen and heard.
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After T'Pol had explained what she had viewed through the meld, Captain Archer was pacing up and down sickbay. He wasn't happy with this situation at all. In fact he was furious how they were using Trip like a pawn in their bitter squabbles.
"How much luck are you having picking up their warp trail?"
"Lieutenant Reed has picked up a weak signal that he believes matches up to their warp signature," T'Pol answered. "The trail is a few days old, and it's already disintegrating. Following it, however, would mean proceeding in a direction opposite of the new coordinates that the meld brought up."
"We'll follow them. Inform Travis to change our heading."
"But Capt'n?" interrupted Trip. "Wouldn't it make more sense to go to the original coordinates and to signal these…Guardians? They can just remove her, place her in their own kind, and take her somewhere safe."
"Trip, I know the idea of going through this again is not very appealing to you, but--"
"This is not just about me being pregnant and uncomfortable," Trip argued back. "It just seems like we're placing her in unnecessary danger just because you're pissed."
"Yes, I'm angry," replied Archer, "but that's hardly my reason for going after them. They've hardly been truthful with us from the start. How do we know this new information isn't a lie? They manipulated us and used you as a tool for their own means. It seems to me that the best solution is to find them and return to their home planet so we can get the whole story, before deciding where to go from there."
"Wow, that's logical," argued Trip, sarcastically. "Talk about jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. At least you're consistent in your pitiful naïve way of thinking."
"Commander…..I'm trying to take into account your predicament, but right now you're bordering on insubordination."
"The hell with that!" Trip shouted. "A child's life is at stake here."
"It's hardly what I'd call a child at the moment, Trip."
"Oh, that's just the sort of reasoning I would expect from someone who had the gall to grown a human being solely for tissue harvesting," replied Trip as his emotions raged out of control. "I'm not going to stand here while you callously kill another being or see another innocent child die because of me."
He didn't have a chance to finish, as Phlox crept up behind him and pressed a hypo spray with a sedative into his neck.
"Try not to take what he said personally, Captain." Phlox assured Archer as he eased Trip back onto the bio bed. "It's a very stressful time for him, like before, and his hormones are just a little out of control at the moment."
Captain Archer nodded his understanding; he tried to put on a façade that he was okay, but Phlox and T'Pol could both see that he was deeply affected. The fact of the matter was that deep down he wondered if there wasn't a slight hint of truth to what Trip had said. Trip had never spoken about Sim, nor had he spoken much to anyone about Elizabeth, but obviously from his reaction just now, both incidents had cut a deep slash in his heart and were still very much on his mind.
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