Chapter 18
Trip's pupils instantly widened, responding to the darkened room he had just stepped into. He squinted slightly, and his fingers fumbled along the walls nearby, attempting to find a light switch. Clicking a button the room suddenly became illuminated in artificial light, and Trip could now see clearly. However, a part of him wished he couldn't. There in the far corner lay T'Pol, her form lay motionless and Trip feared the worse.
The engineer moved over to her, quicker than he had every moved in his life. He knelt down, his hand meeting a sticky green liquid - blood. He lifted his hand to her face, and with shaking fingers he attempted to find a pulse. After a few seconds of total panic Trip finally felt the gentle drum of a heartbeat. It was weak, but it was there. 'Thank you God', he whispered under his breath.
Trip leaned in closer; bring T'Pol's body closer to his, as if to protect her from further harm. "T'Pol" he whispered, stroking her battered and bruised face. "T'Pol, can you hear me?" he awaited a response but found none. He began to get worried, and called her name again, with a higher volume this time. "T'Pol? Please darl'n, we've got you, you're safe now. Please say something." he cried, tears of fear and anger stinging his eyes. He hugged her to him, her face becoming buried in his shoulder, as he cradled her towards him.
"Trip?" she whispered into his ear, in an almost non-existent voice.
Trip moved so he could see her face, his blue eyes met brown. "Oh God, I thought I'd lost you. I was so scared that I'd never see you again, If I ever get my hands on those son of a bitch Romulans I…" Trip began to ramble, and T'Pol placed a slender finger upon his lips to stop him.
"I missed you too T'hy'la, I knew you would come for me…" she muttered, her eyes closing as she said the words, her head falling against his shoulder once again as she passed out. However now she was at peace, knowing that now she was completely safe for the first time in weeks.
Trip cradled her head safely against him, as his hands snaked under her form and picked her up. He stood with her in his arms. She was so light; it took almost no effort to carry her. She wasn't exactly heavy before, but this was ridiculous.
Trip moved back into the room he originally came from. Sovek looked up towards him, his eyes travelling to the figure Trip held in his grasp. The Vulcan's eyes sought the engineers, a silent question passing between the two. Trip nodded slightly, indicating that T'Pol was alive. Sovek took a few steps towards them, his steps faltering slightly as he saw the battered form of his daughter.
"How is she?" Sovek asked
"She was conscious a minute ago…barely, but she did remember who I was and what had happened. We need to get her to Phlox as soon as possible though."
"..This is all my fault"
Trip frowned, but didn't comment on what Sovek had just said. He would ask the Vulcan later, his priority was getting T'pol back to Enterprise.
Sovek continued. "I will pilot the shuttle while you take care of T'Pol. There is insufficient space for all the members of the away team, however thankfully they are just unconscious and are in no danger, so should be fine."
Trip nodded, and ordered the security officer, who had accompanied him down to remain here, and with that; Sovek, Trip, and T'Pol departed.
The three arrived at the base's east entrance in record time. Trip almost running all the way there, but Sovek didn't protest. As they arrived at their shuttle Trip ducked inside, and carefully placed T'Pol down. Sovek meanwhile moved to the controls, and fired up the engines. Within minutes the group were flying, and entering the vacuum of space.
Sovek manoeuvred the small vessel towards the larger warp five vessel, sending a message minutes before they arrived, alerting them to their situation and to open the docking ports. The warp vessel complied, and the Captain ordered Doctor Phlox to stand by.
Shuttle pod one flew through the outer doors of the shuttle bay, and landed with a dull thud. Trip was already up on his feet, closely followed by Sovek. The two carefully manoeuvred T'Pol safely out of the pod. They were met by Doctor Phlox, and another medical officer, who were standing next to a stretcher. Ready to carry T'Pol the rest of the way to sickbay. Trip obliged and placed her safely down upon it, he was slightly apprehensive to let her go, but he knew she would be in good hands with Phlox.
The second Trip did place T'Pol down, Phlox was on the move. The Denoblian moving quickly back to sickbay, whilst running a hand scanner down her body. Ever so often his face would take on a rather pronounced frown, which only made Trip more nervous.
The group passed through the sliding doors of Sickbay, Captain Archer was already there and waiting for them. Phlox didn't even acknowledge him; instead he went into action immediately, spouting off several commands to the medical officers under his command. Within minutes T'Pol was having a full body scan, whilst the Doctor analysed the readings scrawling across the screen.
"Doctor is there anything you can…" Archer began, but was soon cut off by Phlox,
"I can't tell you anything until I know for sure myself. My scans will take awhile, I suggest you go and get some food or a drink, so that…" Phlox didn't even finish his sentence as the three men sat down on the chairs closest to them. They each had a stubborn look etched upon their faces. Phlox shook his head; it seemed he wouldn't be getting rid of them for some time. A testament to how much T'Pol had affected those around her, four years ago T'Pol and the two humans hadn't seen eye to eye on anything, disagreement after disagreement came, but now they were at her bedside, not to be moved by anything less than a total, life-threatening emergency.
Phlox turned back to the computer screen as more information flew across the monitor. A sickening feeling erupted in his stomach at the thought of how much the young Vulcan had been through. How someone could inflict so much pain on another living being was beyond him. A surge of anger coursed through the normally pacifistic Doctor, how he would like to introduce this Telak to the more dangerous creatures in his menagerie.
Several hours had passed aboard Enterprise since T'Pol had been brought aboard. During that time Ensign Mayweather had taken shuttle pod one back down to the surface and retrieved the rest of the away team. Thankfully there had been no serious injures sustained, the worst being a particularly bad headache reported by Malcolm Reed. However, like always that still hadn't stopped the security officer from going back to work immediately after. The last the Captain had heard was that he was attempting to locate the lost shuttle pod, a task Archer knew he would accomplish.
It may have only been a few hours, which had gone by aboard the Earth ship, but to Trip, Sovek, and the Captain, it seemed more like several days had passed. And they were still sitting in the same positions they had been hours before, still awaiting news about T'Pol's condition, still hoping for the best.
Doctor Phlox finally moved over to them, he had just spent hours patching T'Pol up, and trying to make her as comfortable as possible. He had done all he could, it would be up to her now. The Denoblian walked over to the three, and the group stood up.
"How bad is she Doc?" Trip queried, anxiety apparent in his voice.
"She has sustained many different injuries all over her body, which shows severe torture." The humans winced at the doctor's bluntness.
"She also has several broken bones, severe malnutrition, blood loss and a major concussion, along with a chemically induced blindness, all of which I am trying to remedy."
"Bastards" Trip muttered, followed by a string of other, more colourful curses.
"Will she recover Doctor?" Sovek asked
"I believe so. Physically she will heal, but mentally I am unsure, she has suffered through a great deal. Time will tell though." Phlox finished.
The three nodded in understanding. Sovek unfortunately having his own personal knowledge and experience with that particular subject. The Vulcan had suffered through similar situations to his daughter, and being tortured wasn't a new concept to this Vulcan. In truth he still hadn't completely recovered from his time spent with the Romulans. But there was one main difference between his, and his daughters situation. One that would help T'pol, she had something he never had, never could have; friends. People, who would help her through her hard time, help her to recover.
"…Hoshi to Captain Archer" the voice of the young communications officer cut through sickbay, interrupting Sovek's musings.
Archer moved over to the com, "Archer here, what is it Hoshi?"
"You are needed on the bridge sir; Enterprise has located the missing shuttle pod".
"I'm on my way Hoshi, Archer out." The Captain muttered a quick goodbye, moving to step out of Sickbay.
"May I join you Captain?" Sovek asked, and Archer nodded in agreement. The two left immediately after. Sovek's hearing however picked up the Commanders request to see T'Pol, and Phlox agreeing to it. T'Pol was in good hands Sovek acknowledged, he would see his daughter when he knew Telak's situation.
The Captain, and the Vulcan arrived on the bridge. Lieutenant Reed was back at his post, despite the incident that had occurred upon the surface .Archer had actually given him some time off to rest, but unsurprisingly the security officer had refused. Instead, he had gone immediately back to work, and had helped to locate Enterprise's missing shuttlecraft.
"What's our situation?" Archer asked Malcolm.
"Enterprises' sensor's located the shuttle nearing the upper atmosphere of a local gas giant. It's coming in too fast and will burn up within twenty-seven minutes. I hope you don't mind sir but I took the authority of moving Enterprise on an intercept course." Malcolm related.
Archer nodded, "Good work Lieutenant, what's our ETA?"
"We're cutting it close captain, but we should arrive a few minutes before the shuttle reaches a critical state."
Sovek moved over to the science station, and relieved the Ensign operating it. "It appears that there is one weak bio-sign"
"Can you tell the species of the bio sign?"
"There is some background interference from the planet, but it from a natural, not artificial source. I will attempt to phase it out." Sovek's fingers moved over his console. "…It is human, Captain." he related, "It appears Telak transferred to the Romulan vessel he signalled."
Archer nodded, with any luck this mission would pass with no loss of life. He had truly thought the Ensign who had been taken as a hostage had been killed, but thankfully, he appeared to have been wrong. Maybe their luck was changing for the better.
"Is there any way we could detect the cloaked ship?"
Sovek shook his head, "if we had more information about it, then it is a possibility but we do not know enough."
Archer clenched his jaw, a powerful enemy, who was apparently set upon war was one thing, but an invisible enemy was another. They could creep up on Earth, and they wouldn't be any the wiser. The Xindi conflict was still fresh in everyone's minds, a war that should never have happened. It was an incident no one wanted to ever repeat again. It seemed the Romulans had a different stance on the matter.
"Why didn't they just fire upon the shuttle, and destroy it Captain?" Hoshi asked.
"It would be considered an act of war against Earth, it perhaps didn't fit with their plans", Malcolm answered instead.
The communications officer nodded in understanding, "But wouldn't kidnapping and torture, also constitute an act of war?"
Malcolm opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by Archer, "I sure as hell think of it as exactly that. Whether Starfleet and the Vulcan's think of it that way will remain to be seen," he answered truthfully.
A beeping upon Travis' console interrupted their conversation. "We've arrived Captain," Mayweather stated.
Malcolm looked down at his station, "Shall I deploy the grappler Captain?" the Englishman asked.
"Go ahead Malcolm"
Reed's fingers danced upon the keyboard; soon the grappler was shooting out of Enterprise's port bow, flying towards shuttle pod two.
"….We've got it Captain, I'm towing it into the shuttle bay."
"Hoshi, contact Sickbay have them prepared for a casualty." Archer spoke to the Ensign, who acknowledged. "Malcolm, I want you there when it's opened, God knows what surprise the Romulans could have left us," he continued.
Reed nodded, and stood up. "I'll keep you updated Captain," with that he stood up and left the bridge.
Malcolm moved quickly thought the corridors of Enterprise, his head was still pounding from the stun grenade, but a little pain had never stopped him from doing his job. He also couldn't stop feeling the nagging emotion of guilt. He knew it wasn't his fault; the events that had transpired upon the surface. However, he was the chiefsecurity officer. He should have checked the area better, he should have done more. Perhaps if he hadn't been knocked out then Telak wouldn't have escaped, or a junior officer wouldn't have been put at risk. It was his mission, he was in charge of it and he would take full responsibility for the consequences.
He reached the launch bay within a matter of minutes, and walked inside. Two of his men were already there, but had not opened the vessels' doors. Malcolm moved to the shuttle, gladly taking a weapon passed to him by one of his men. You couldn't be more careful in a situation like this. Reaching over to the left of the doors, he pressed the door controls and the door opened.
He grasped the phaser tightly and moved inside, there appeared to be no danger, and like the scans showed; no sign of the Romulan. He looked down and his eyes found the crimson hue of blood. He followed the slight trail with his eyes, and in the very back of the pod he found Adams. Malcolm reacted immediately, urging the medical officer, who had arrived behind him to help the young officer.
Stepping out of the pod Malcolm moved over to the two security personnel. "I want you to remain here, no one but me has access to the vessel, am I clear?" he ordered. To which they both answered with crisp "Yes, sir's"
Behind him, Adams began to be wheeled away on a stretched towards sickbay. Malcolm picked up his pace and followed, soon stepping through sickbay's doors. He arrived and saw Phlox, once again spring into action and spouting off numerous bits of medical jargon, having no idea what it meant, Malcolm decided to leave the Doctor to do his job and moved over towards T'Pol's bed. He didn't have a chance to see her earlier, the situation with the missing shuttle taking his full attention.
Moving around the curtain he found Trip sitting next to her and holding tightly onto her hand. The engineer looked up, and offered Malcolm an empty smile.
"How is she?"
"Doc said she'll recover, but she's not out of the woods yet." The hollow voice of Trip responded. "She's hasn't regained consciousness yet, and Doc's getting kind of worried.
Malcolm nodded sadly, feeling complete empathy for his friend. Trip had often denied a relationship with T'Pol, but Malcolm was not stupid. He had never seen Trip like this before, Trip loved her, and anyone with eyes could see it.
"I'm sure she'll be fine," Malcolm stated, offering the engineer some of the hope he needed.
"She's too stubborn to die like this" Trip grinned in response, his smile failing to reach his eyes.
Malcolm and Trip lapsed into silence, neither feeling the need to engage in another conversation. After a few minutes, Malcolm excused himself and moved over to Phlox.
"How's Adams?"
Phlox looked up from the padd he was reading, "he was shot two times with an energy rifle, and has sustained severe damage. However, I have high hopes of a complete recovery. He received medical attention just in time, any longer and his injuries would have been fatal, he answered the chief security officer truthfully.
Malcolm let out the breath he was holding, "That's great Phlox, I should probably go now though. I've got shuttle pod two to analyse."
The Denoblian smiled, and offered a quick goodbye, with that Malcolm left sickbay, heading back to the launch bay.
Arriving at the shuttle bay, Malcolm relieved the two security officers, and stepped inside shuttle bay two. He took a seat by the main console, and began attempting to recover any data on the shuttle's last occupants. He began by entering several codes into the shuttles computer system. The tampering of one of the shuttles during the Terra Prime incident had almost led to a fatal accident, and because of that he had added several new security measures. Some of them had of course been overwritten, allowing Telak full use of the systems, but the more complex ones had remained hidden from the Romulan.
Malcolm in the previous month had installed a specific security measure into each of the shuttles. A hidden system, which only a handful of people knew about. It's job, to record any data, which was believed to have been destroyed. Malcolm activated the program, and the computer began to reconstitute all of the previously 'deleted' data. He sat back and after a few minutes, the program had compiled everything, which Telak had attempted, and thought he had erased forever.
An outgoing message Telak had sent grabbed Malcolm's attention, and looking around to ensure he was alone. Malcolm pressed play. The message was audio only, but that was good enough.
Static shot through the shuttles speakers, and then a voice Malcolm didn't recognise cut in.
"Did Enterprise recover the Vulcan?" The deep voice asked.
"Yes, the humans did as we predicted" The familiar voice of Telak answered. Malcolm's eyes widened, he, and Enterprise had been set up!
"Did you carry out stage one?"
"It went as expected. The foolish Humans and Vulcan's don't even realise what we've done. We will know soon how successful it was. "
"Excellent, and the subject retains no memory of what happened?"
"None, the subject will soon be back aboard Enterprise. We have the advantage we have been looking for. The Human threat will soon be eliminated." Telak paused an amused tone to his voice. "…And all because of one weak being….."
The recording terminated, and Malcolm was left sitting in shock. Enterprise had played into the Romulan's hands! How could he have been so stupid? From the start they had been set up. His mind played over all the events that had transpired: Sovek had arrived with co-ordinates to a Romulan outpost; they could have killed him while he was in the escape pod, but left him with potentially damaging information… Unless they wanted Enterprise to go there.
Then there was the Tellarite Vessel, no way was that a coincidence. They had always planned to take someone, perhaps it had all been set up so they could take T'Pol.
And then there was how they found the base T'Pol had been recovered from. They would never have found it without Kolot's help. He was their alien informant, who Malcolm had always thought seemed just too well informed. After all, who has schematics for an entire abandoned base stored on their computer? Malcolm was kicking himself for not seeing it before.
He reached over and downloaded the message onto a padd, and then encrypted the data with the highest setting possible. Even Hoshi would have trouble cracking this encryption. He then erased the message on the shuttles main systems, and from his security measures hard drive, systematically wiping the evidence that it existed away for good. From what he had heard the Romulan's had infiltrated Enterprise, but who the subject was, which they referred to, Malcolm wasn't sure. But he had an advantage; the Romulans didn't know he knew. He could use this to find out more about their plans, more about them. They had played him, now it was his turn….
….To be continued in Masquerade.
Wow, and that concludes revelations. I have had so much fun writing this, I never thought it would have been so well recieved! I would like to thank everyone who has continued to read this fic, and especially those who took the time to review.
OK, I'm going to be completly honest with you now, I haven't even started writing the sequel yet, but I do have it partially planned out. That being said i'm not sure when it will be published, but i'll try to get it out as soon as possible. I'd appreciate your final thoughts on this fic, and if anyone has any suggestions for what they would like to read in the sequel I'm all ears!