A/N Recap of the story: After a secret mission is gone wrong, Trip is declared dead. T'Pol finds out he's alive. A rescue team is formed, travelling with the Lincoln. T'Pol stays on Earth, because she is pregnant. Trip and T'Pol name the child T'Lessa. Due to complications the fetus is transported to an artificial womb. T'Pol stays at the Starfleet Medical Facilities. Liz Cutler is her doctor. During her stay, T'Pol is kidnapped by Romulan spies, posing as the humans Tenson and Peterson.
In these chapter references are made to my other stories T'Pol of Vulcan and The Captives.
Sorry for the delay! It has been a challenge to write these last chapters! Several storylines that demanded a creative ending while dealing with my recovery from an accident. Many thanks to Distracted for her medical advice and proofreading and to all my readers.
Disclaimer: Enterprise and its characters are property of CBS/Paramount.
Part one
Earth – San Francisco, Starfleet Medical Facilities
Amber – DoctorLiz Cutler had been running the last half hour, adrenaline rushing through her veins. She calmed herself, taking a deep breath. She was standing in the room, glued next to the bed of patient Henry Dubois. He was laying still under the amber colored blanket, under the capable care of her colleague Bawa. She had to go. She had to find T'Pol.
Dubois stirred. He reached out his hand and let it brush against her doctor's coat. Almost automatically, Liz took his hand in an attempt to calm him. Dubois opened his eyes slowly. His lips formed words, but nothing came. She moved closer. "They got T'Pol. Help her," he whispered.
In a split second Liz realized Dubois had been an eye witness to whatever happened to T'Pol. "Who has taken her?" she asked.
"Arthur Peterson. He looked like Arthur," Dubois huffed, his eyes fixed on her face, his hand clutching hers. She noticed Dubois had gray eyes with a touch of green. It was silly of her thinking about someone's eye-color in the moment like this. "Blond woman. She is the one in charge. Dead fish eyes. Blue coat." Every word was said with increasing difficulty. Dubois looked paler by the minute. Liz had no idea what dead fish eyes meant, but she would find out.
She squeezed his hand softly and he let go. "I will find her, Henry," she assured him, "You need to rest now." "Okay," he murmured sluggishly and closed his eyes.
Doctor Bawa smiled at her. "We'll take care of him," he said.
Outside the emergency room she found Yeo Han-koo, the guard who helped her, waiting for her. Next to him was a woman with short, black curly hair. Liz had seen her before, it was officer Abebe. She was part of a special police unit that kept an eye on the facility that not only was a place for Starfleet personnel but also many citizens of Earth and other planets. Abebe had been part of Starfleet, before joining the police unit. "I heard a patient has been shot on the parking lot," Abebe stated as introduction, "and that another patient of yours is missing."
"It's better we discuss this somewhere private," said Liz, starting to walk in the direction of T'Pol's room. It was located at the end of one of the most remote hallways, far away from the public eye. Abebe and Yeo followed her.
The distinct aroma of Vulcan meditation candles welcomed them as they entered T'Pol's room. It was a scent that Liz always associated with T'Pol's bronze red home world. No longer burning, the candles were standing on an amberlike plate, in a puddle of wax on a table. It was not the only Vulcan object placed in the room. There was a beautiful decorated small box, a triangle shaped plate, and a bronze brown colored candle holder decorated with silver birds, a circle, and triangle symbols. Near T'Pol's bed, a small basket was placed, a gift of Ambassador Soval.
Quickly Liz stepped to the medical console and checked the data of the medical device attached to the artificial womb. To her relief it was still transmitting data. According to the records, nurse Surwewai had administered T'Pol's medication and the necessary supplements for the fetus in the artificial womb. She calculated that within nineteen hours T'Pol had to be returned to the hospital.
She checked the fetal movements, heartbeat and the data concerning the baby's neural pathways before looking into T'Pol's readings. Everything looked normal.
She looked up, seeing Yeo and Abebe. Yeo was standing near the door, observing the room in his usual calm way. Abebe had stepped forward and taken the bronze candle holder in her hand. She studied the markings. "This is the room of a Vulcan," she concluded in a dry tone. "I saw on the morning news there's another violent protest near the Vulcan compound. The mob assaulted Ambassador Soval. Everybody hates the Vulcans after that news broadcast claiming Commander T'Pol betrayed Starfleet. Is this shooting and disappearance we are investigating connected to the protests?"
Liz felt uneasy at her words. Every time she heard the accusations against T'Pol on the news or saw the loud and sometimes aggressive protests against Vulcans these past days, she wanted to shout to everyone how wrong those protesters were. They had even demanded that captain Archer, a candidate for the presidency of Earth, denounce his former first officer. Archer hadn't reacted at all, which only fueled the protests. Little did the public know that he had been sent on a special mission for Starfleet to save Commander Tucker.
"All I know is that Commander T'Pol would never betray us. She fought in two wars to protect Earth," Liz stressed, feeling a desperate need to defend the Commander. "The man who's shot is Henry Dubois, a civilian journalist. I don't know his connection with T'Pol." She hesitated before continuing. Yeo and Abebe had to know. "But the patient who is missing is commander T'Pol. This afternoon, I was warned that she was taken away by an unknow person. Yeo and I chased the abductor, and we ended up in the parking lot. We saw a white van driving out at high speed and someone shot on the floor. It was Dubois. He has seen her being taken away."
Yeo frowned, but didn't look very surprised. He always had been a keen observer. Liz and her team had kept the identity of T'Pol a secret, but Yeo could have figure it out.
Abebe looked stunned by her revelation. " If Commander T'Pol is your patient, how ill is she?"
"It's complicated," Liz answered, reluctantly to share patient information.
Abebe's features hardened at her reply. "If it's important to solve this case, I have to know."
"This hospital specializes in medical technology," Liz started. "We have developed new kind of artificial limbs, but also artificial wombs. This prototype of an artificial womb mimics the natural womb of a woman as good as possible. It's especially useful for a fetus of two different species, because it creates a good environment for the fetus to grow."
"You have an artificial womb with a half Vulcan fetus in this hospital and Commander T'Pol is the mother?" Abebe interrupted her, disbelief in her eyes. "Who is the father?"
"The artificial womb isn't in this hospital," Liz said, ignoring the last question. "See, it's always important for a fetus to have close contact with the mother, to hear the sound of the mother's body, like her heartbeat. Fetuses can fall asleep, feeling their mother's movements, they can feel the touch of a hand on the mother's belly. That's why the outside of the artificial womb is covered with sensors, made of a soft material. Because touch is even more important for a Vulcan fetus, we have attached the artificial womb to T'Pol's body to maximize the effect."
"In short: the kidnappers not only took T'Pol, but also her unborn child," Abebe concluded.
"And they both need medical care," Yeo added. "We have no time to lose."
Liz couldn't agree more.
After Liz had told them everything they needed to know about T'Pol and Dubois, Abebe took action. "I will contact Starfleet Command and the Vulcan ambassy. They're already on alert because of the protests, but we don't want another high-profile Vulcan being kidnapped. Lieutenant Yeo, collect all the camara data of this day from the hospital. I will do the same for the surrounding streets. If the kidnappers have walked to the parking lot, their faces are on camera. One of our specialists could try to locate T'Pol with that data receiver."
While she talked, Abebe picked up a pair of gloves, put them on, and walked to the trash can. She took out two empty cylinders, gave them a closer look, and bagged them. "These have been cleansed. Can you take these to the lab and let them search for an anesthetic. And I want to talk to this nurse Surwewai. She is the last person that saw T'Pol."
"Do you think nurse Surwewai drugged T'Pol?" Liz asked, fearing the answer. Had she been so blind? She had trusted Surwewai.
"Commander T'Pol is a highly trained officer, with experience in combat. She is carrying her child in an artificial womb. She would fight to protect herself and the child. Yet there's no sign of a struggle in this room. My conclusion is that she must have been drugged by someone she trusted and taken away by that mystery woman. Nurse Surwewai fits that profile."
"I will get right on it," Liz replied. The best way to deal with her knot in her stomach thinking about T'Pol's situation, was to take action. As she took the bag from Abebe's hands, she noticed her hands were shaking slightly. She pressed herself to stay calm.
"If you come back, please go through Commander T'Pol's personal and medical files. Perhaps we will find a clue. And you seemed to be her doctor and friend, so I'd rather have you do it," Abebe added.
Many years before, Commander Tucker had commented that Liz would better make friends with a house fly then with T'Pol. But now Liz considered T'Pol a true friend. And while the Vulcan woman had never expressed it in words, she knew T'Pol thought of her as a friend too.
Liz went to the lab. When she came back, she felt reluctant to pry into T'Pol's personal files, but she knew any clue would help T'Pol. Besides reading science and engineering reports and analyzing the data from the medical receiver regarding her child, T'Pol had also been looking for Arthur Peterson. Dubois had mentioned him as well. Liz found a picture of a younger Peterson. Yeo used a computer program to make him look older and used it for his search program through the camera data. They got a hit. A man looking like Peterson had passed a bank camera on a street nearby. He was accompanied by a woman with a cold and disdainful expression on her face. Liz suddenly understood Dubois's expression of dead fish eyes, it was like the woman lacked any emotion or empathy.
As soon as they'd informed Starfleet Command, Admiral Black allocated two of their best officers to the case: officers Johnson and Murray. The last one was a woman in her thirties with short blond hair. The look in her eyes was anything but soft. Johnson was an elderly man in his sixties. His face was oval-shaped, small eyes compared to his nose, small lips, his gray hair combed way back. He was dressed in a black jacket, and Liz had the strange feeling she had seen him before.
They showed the necessary papers to prove Command had send them. Liz asked them several questions about their work, but Johnson cut her off. "That's classified," he said in a friendly tone. "I'm sure you understand." There was a hint of steel and fanatism is his eyes. This man wouldn't stop at anything to get his way.
She suddenly knew where she had seen him before. Her late husband John Collard had been a security officer aboard Enterprise. One day she had walked in on him when he was communicating with one of his superiors in Starfleet Command. John had quickly closed the console, but she had gotten a glimpse of the man he was talking to. It was the same man, only John had called him Harris.
"Starfleet has kept an eye on T'Pol," Johnson/Harris remarked. "We thought she would be safe in this medical facility. Apparently, Mister Yeo, your security isn't very well organized."
"The kidnappers used a valid entry pass and were able to shut down all the cameras in the hospital. But the street cameras show a man and a woman fitting the description of Dubois walking toward the facility," Yeo answered, unnerved by Johnson's criticism. He handled Johnson a PADD.
Johnson scrolled through the PADD. "This is useful," Johnson said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "And this nurse Surwewai said she hadn't seen anybody? I will pay her a visit. But first we have to clean this room to prevent the news of T'Pol's kidnapping from coming out." To Liz's dismay, Johnson started to remove every Vulcan object from the room. He even placed T'Pol's dresses that she had bought in a container together with an oversized Gator sweatshirt which Liz had thought hysterically funny for a Vulcan to wear and a blue Starfleet uniform which Liz suspected belonged to Commander Tucker.
Meanwhile Murray's fingers danced over the keyboard pulling up screens, busy trying to pinpoint T'Pol's location with the data receiver of the artificial womb as a beacon. According to Murray, finding T'Pol would be walk in the park.
The blond woman was able to locate T'Pol's position within hours. She was in Brazil in a town called Recife, near a shuttle airport. "It's a warehouse of a company gone bankrupt." She showed them a logo of a seagull. "We will report our finding to Admiral Black," Johnson said, "Our team in Brazil will liberate Commander T'Pol."
Relief washed over her. "That's great news," she said. "Commander T'Pol needs medical care. She must return to this facility within hours."
Before Murray and Johnson left, Liz told them she wanted to check the data from the receiver again. She wasn't prepared for the shock when she saw the data. Liz could clearly see a rise in T'Pol's adrenaline levels. Heartbeat and breathing patterns were up. Then an outburst of telepathic activity, followed by clear indicators of severe disruption in T'Pol's cerebral cortex. It almost looked like an overload in the brain. It was followed by indicators of disruption in other areas of the brain and by a drop in her blood pressure levels. The overload, as Liz called it for lack of better words, looked familiar. She had seen this before, many years ago when she was still working with doctor Phlox in the sickbay of Enterprise, when Hoshi, the captain, and T'Pol were attacked by Rajiin. New data arrived. Liz noticed activity in the hypothalamus and narrowing of the blood vessels. T'Pol's body temperature dropped significantly, never a good sign, especially for a Vulcan.
She reported her findings to Johnson and Murray and told them once again that there was no time to lose: the Brazilian team should liberate T'Pol now. Johnson assured her the team was one of the best in Starfleet and that T'Pol would be back before she knew it. He and Murray then left the facility in order to coordinate the rescue mission from Command.
The hours that followed were some of the longest in Liz's life. Minutes became hours. The evening and night came, with no report of the team in Brazil, admiral Black, or Johnson and Murray at all. After a few hours, Abebe, Yeo and Liz tried to contact Starfleet Command umpteen times, but all they were told was to be patient.
Liz felt her eyes prickle behind her eyelids. She had been fixed on the data in front of her. It looked like T'Pol and the baby were doing better, but T'Pol's neural dysfunction indicators were still high and her blood pressure too low. The readings become a blur, and an overwhelming feeling of tiredness pulled Liz down. She felt the despair sneaking up on her, choking her, drowning her in darkness. She tried to remember the breathing exercise T'Pol had taught her in Amanda's apartment – it seemed so long ago - anything to control her rising panic.
A baritone voice pulled her out of her musing. "Can I be of assistance, doctor Cutler?"
Liz looked up and blinked. She stared into the face of a male Vulcan. His amber eyes looked at her with undeniable traces of sympathy. He was dressed in the same white medical coat he'd been wearing the time he visited T'Pol, with the same purple cap covering his ears. Her trained doctor's eye saw that he was wounded on one hand.
"Ambassador Soval," she whispered, "I need your help."
Part two
Earth, unknown location
Amber – T'Pol opened her eyes and stared at the amber flame of the candle in front of her. It cast golden rays in the dark, moldy, smelly room.
Every time she said goodbye to Trip – whether in real time or in their white space – she felt terribly empty inside. Like a piece of her katra was missing.
But it was no time to dwell on her missing Trip. She scanned the room. Firm-looking walls on both sides with scaffoldings held boxes and containers. She followed the scaffoldings to the ceiling, a roof made of metal beams. Half-way there was a catwalk, also made of a metallic material. The catwalk stretched out from the rooms to her left and right. If she could climb to this catwalk, she might have a view of the other rooms. She would find out if there was another prisoner here behind the walls, where she had heard the soft moaning of a person in need.
In the corner she also noticed a camera attached to the wall. From her position she calculated the angle of the camera, lifted the candle with the fingertips of both hands – she was still handcuffed – and, in a sitting position, shoved herself into a corner of the room where they wouldn't see her.
She placed the candle in front of her. First, she needed to free her hands, which were tied together with zip ties. She had been surprised the spy hadn't used handcuffs made of stronger material, but T'Pol was glad Tenson hadn't.
She placed her tied hands on the flame of the candle. It burned the skin on the outside of her wrists, but it was the only way to free her hands. She suppressed the pain and focused her mind on the persons she loved the most in this galaxy: Trip, T'Lessa, and her father.
T'Pol knew deep in her katra that her father wouldn't hesitate to let himself be killed if that would save her and T'Lessa. She would do the same in a heartbeat. Deep down there always had been a spark of hope that he was alive, that he somehow had survived the attack by Jossen and Menos's group.
And after Trip had told her he had found her father alive and well, she had longed so much to see him again. She had expected that both Trip and her father would return to her, and that she would be able to share her life with him.
She had missed father so much, ever since the day he had said goodbye and she'd clung to him, asking him to not go. Even after 57 years, two months and three days, she still remembered how the golden morning light had shone, how the wind had whispered in the tree from the garden, and how he had looked in his black uniform, his strong arms around her, making her promise to study the true words of Surak.
When her mother had died in her arms, she had felt devastated that her mother had died trying to get the true teaching of Surak to her people. Remember her promise to her father, she had felt compelled to focus on studying the Kir-Shara, and due to miscommunications had almost lost Trip in the process.
The zip ties came loose, and she quickly made her way to the scaffoldings. As she started to climb, they stood firmly. It wasn't easy with the artificial womb attached to her, but she managed to climb on a shelf, pulling herself up to the next level. When she was halfway to the next shelf the door of her room opened. Before she knew it, Tenson had grabbed her by her arm and dragged her down to the floor again. With a bang, she fell on her back to the ground. She tried to ignore the pain.
Pressing her to the floor, Tenson moved close, her eyes boring into T'Pol's with a look of hatred. T'Pol could feel the woman's breath on her face as she spit out, "What do you think you're doing, Vulcan?"
Tenson turned to her companions: the other male kidnapper and a woman with long blond hair with amber highlights whose face T'Pol had last seen in the Expanse. It was Rajiin. T'Pol knew Rajiin had worked with Tenson before, but still her presence was a great surprise. "Do your work," Tenson said to her, intensifying her grip on T'Pol's arm. "Find out if she was able to contact Kirak. I will not touch a Vulcan mind."
Rajiin kneeled down, and for a moment their eyes met. T'Pol noticed a glimpse of empathy before the woman's face closed again. She pressed her fingers against T'Pol's head, and T'Pol felt panic rising. No, no, her whole being screamed, not this again! She started to resist with all her might and it was working.
"If you resist, it will be more painful," Rajiin said with a soft voice, and T'Pol wanted to smack her in the face. She would have if Tenson and the male had not been holding her down. She felt T'Lessa's response to her distress, and all she could do was to send her love and assurance through the mother-child bond. Rajiin pressed and she felt sick to her stomach. Then it was over. She was surprised, but so thankful that Rajiin hadn't roamed around her mind like before, but instead had kept it as short as possible.
"She has contacted her husband and told him about Kirak and Delon," Rajiin reported. "You didn't tell me that the Vulcan was pregnant," she added with a strange tone in her voice.
"Does it matter?" Tenson said. "Nebum," she addressed the male. "Make sure our prisoner can't move."
Nebum didn't hesitate, but pressed his boot firmly into T'Pol's left lower leg. While Tenson and Rajiin held her down, he pounded her leg with his boot. T'Pol tried to repress the agony, but when she heard her leg crack under the weight of Nebum's boot and the pain radiated, she knew it was broken.
"We can't kill you, Vulcan," said Tenson, who had been cheering with every blow Nebum had given her. "Otherwise Kirak wouldn't come. That would be illogical." She laughed. "Make her bleed and throw her in the pit, like her father did to mine."
"The pit? The other is there as well," Nebum protested.
"They can die together," Tenson snarled.
Nebum took out a knife.
"Can I do it?" Rajiin said in her alluring voice. "I always wanted to stab a Vulcan."
"Because you have been so useful to us," Nebum grinned and handled her the knife.
T'Pol braced herself. Rajiin stabbed her in the left shoulder and green blood came flooding out.
"I would have aimed for her abdominals," Nebum said in a mocking tone. "To have her die a slow lingering death."
"With an arm and leg injury she can't escape and she will rot away slowly," Rajiin explained.
T'Pol felt nauseous as Nebum lifted her up like she was a child and took her to what seemed to be a basement. It was freezing cold. T'Pol saw a glimpse of metal boxes against the wall and heard a muffled female voice in the back before Nebum threw her into a sort of hole in the floor.
She landed on her back in a cold, narrow, dark and wet place. The smell of rotten fish made her sick. She could feel water beneath her, seeping through her dress. She tried to sit up, but every movement caused pain in her leg. Blood was still flowing from her wound and she felt lightheaded. But the artificial womb was still intact, of which she was grateful.
She heard Tenson and Nebum walk away and the sounds of the female in the background died out. First, she had to stop the bleeding. She was wearing a tight bodysuit around the artificial womb. Over it she wore a purple dress with a underlay. The dress was stained, but the underlay was still clean. She managed to tear strips of cloth from the underlay and wrapped it tightly around the area of the wound to hold pressure on it. Now she just had to find a way to get out of this pit. Tenson had said her father had hurt Tenson's father. She didn't know what had happened, but Tenson's father had managed to get out of the pit to tell his story. So would she. She tried to climb out of the pit, but with her leg broken and the pain from her stab wound, the pit was too steep and there was nothing to hold on to. It seemed impossible.
She sat down in the pit, trying to calm herself. There must be a logical way out of here. She shivered. The cold was creeping in.
She didn't know how long she sat there, thinking of strategies to get out. But suddenly she heard the voice of Rajiin, who hadn't been there when Tenson and Nebum threw her in the pit.
"Boy or girl?"
For a split second T'Pol was confused about her question.
"It's a girl," she said, thinking of T'Lessa.
"I had a daughter," Rajiin said with such sadness in her voice. "I did everything to keep her safe. They didn't let me see her."
In the silence that followed, T'Pol could hear footsteps and the sounds of boxes being moved. Then something was thrown over the edge of the pit. It was a rope.
"Tie a loop and put it under your armpits," Rajiin said. "I will pull you out. Daughters should be safe."
T'Pol did as she was told and started to use a breathing technique to suppress the pain that she sure knew was coming. With some difficulty, Rajiin pulled her to the edge of the pit and dragged her in a chair. "This is all I can do for your daughter," Rajiin said. "I am not doing this for you, but for her."
With that, she vanished as quickly as she had come. T'Pol looked around. The place was full of large boxes, apparently cool containers.
"Is someone there? Can you help me?" she heard the female voice again. " Is it you, Rostov?" It was coming out of one of the containers. It was a weak voice, sounding exhausted, but it was there. And it sounded so familiar. But it couldn't be. Ensign Sato was on the Lincoln, helping captain Archer find Trip.
"I will help," she said, then took the chair and stumbled her way to the container. It had a combination lock. When she had studied Tenson after her flight back to Romulus, she had found that Tenson had made up a birthday: March 28, 2097. 3-28-2097. She tried it, and to her great surprise, her entry was accepted right away. The door swung open, revealing a Human woman with filthy, long black hair and brown eyes.
In the past she had seen this face every day on the bridge of Enterprise. "T'Pol? Is it really you?" Ensign Sato said, eyes wide in surprise.