Walk in the Dark

By Drogna

Chapter 12

AN: Sorry for the long wait. Next chapter should be along a bit sooner.

Trip had been living in a dream that had occasion periods of clarity. Most of the time he had no idea where he was or who the people were around him. Life was a series of questions that couldn't be answered or that simply made way for more questions. Sometimes he remembered that he was ill and that was why he couldn't remember the other things. Other times he just drifted, not even really aware that he didn't know where he was or who he was. Some days people he didn't know talked to him about things that he didn't remember, but he liked the people and the things sounded fun.

Then even the dream had dissolved into darkness. Something was wrong with his body. He couldn't draw in enough oxygen and the pain was too much. He didn't know what was happening, but he had faded out. For some reason he hadn't expected to wake up again.

But light returned, like dawn. Except this light was definitely artificial. He opened his eyes and blinked at the white light above and around him, it hurt his eyes at first but he acclimatised. He didn't recognise the ceiling and it was too close. He felt so weak and tired. The slightest movement was too much at the moment. Fear was taking hold of his mind. He had no idea where he was and the space he was in was small, claustrophobic. He could hear voices a long way off, and although he was barely able to make it out, he caught their words.

"He's awake," said one. "This is most unexpected."

"His heart rate is increasing, doctor," said another, this time female. The voice was calm and sure on the surface, but he could hear the panic beneath. "I'll get the Captain."

Trip heard movement and then nothing more for a moment. An intercom clicked on.

"Trip, can you hear me?" asked the voice. It was familiar and warm.

He realised that he was Trip and the voice was talking to him. He tried to say something but his throat was too dry and his mouth didn't want to obey orders.

"Don't try to talk. Just blink your eyes, once for yes, twice for no, okay?"

Trip blinked once.

"I know that this is scaring you, but you're safe. You're ill and this machine you're in is going to make you better. You've got another few minutes to go before you can come out, but I'll be here with you all the time. The doctor wants me to ask you a few questions, is that okay?"

Trip blinked once.

"Are you in pain?"

Trip blinked twice for no. He just felt weak and tired but he wasn't hurting.

"Good. Do you remember my name?"

Trip thought for a moment and then blinked twice. He felt he should know this man's name but it just wasn't there. There was a pause and then the voice was back.

"Okay, do you recognise my voice?"

Trip blinked once. He definitely knew the voice, he just couldn't attach it to a name.

"That's because the disease affected your memory, but hopefully it should start to come back to you. Are you feeling tired?"

Trip blinked and almost didn't open his eyes again, but the bright light was annoying him. He heard a muttered conversation outside the machine again. He guessed it was the voice and the doctor talking.

"Only another couple of minutes to go, Trip. Then we can get you out of this thing and you'll be able to rest properly." Obviously the voice had seen his reaction to the light. He heard the hesitation before the voice continued. "I've been looking forward to watching water polo with you again. It really hasn't been the same lately. We really need you to get well again." The voice continued talking, soothing Trip's fears away, as he talked about something called Enterprise, which was waiting for Trip when he got better. Apparently there were things that needed Trip's special touch to fix. "That squeak in my Ready Room floor's back again. Every time I walk in there it squeaks and Hess can't seem to work out what the problem is, it's driving me mad."

There was more, as well. Something about warp upgrades that required his attention, and how movie night wasn't the same without him, and chef refused to make pecan pie anymore, and Porthos was getting thin because no one was sneaking him treats anymore (whoever Porthos was), and the last paper he'd submitted to the Journal of Warp Engineering had started a huge row in the field which only he could settle. It was almost a tirade of things that needed his attention. He knew it was meant to make him feel wanted and it did. People needed him and he couldn't let them down. He obviously still had a very well developed conscience and a sense of duty.

"Doctor Phlox says we're ready to get you out of this thing now, Trip. You'll be out in a second."

No sooner had the words been said than the bed beneath him began to move and slid him out of the white tube. He finally saw the man who had been talking to him all this time.

"Capt'n," said Trip, in little more than a whisper, but from the smile it produced on the face of his friend, he knew he'd been heard. That smile alone was worth the effort it cost him to speak. He closed his eyes, ready to fall into sleep. He was safe and the Captain would look after him. He wasn't drifting any longer, things were slowly coming back to him, but all that could wait for the moment.

"This is a good sign, isn't it?" asked Archer, anxiously as he watched Trip close his eyes and fall asleep.

"Most definitely," replied Phlox. "The genetic therapy is working and the neurone damage is being repaired."

Archer allowed himself a sigh of relief.

"Now, however he needs to rest. The treatment is very demanding on his already weak body and there is still another session to go."

Archer's communicator trilled at him. "Sato to Archer."

"Go ahead Hoshi," said Archer.

"I need to see you and T'Pol in the database room. I've found some things that I think you need to see."

Phlox looked a little worried by Hoshi's message and Archer couldn't blame him. It sounded ominous.

"I'm on my way," said Archer. He found that he didn't want to leave Trip, but he knew Phlox would take care of him. "Let me know if he wakes up again."

"Of course," said Phlox.

Archer found Hoshi in the main computer room. Commander Hess and T'Pol were already there and they were waiting for Archer.

"I finally managed to crack the encryption for the last section of the database," said Hoshi, she didn't look very happy about it. She handed Archer a padd. "Most of the information I found in the database was meant to mislead us. The station wasn't abandoned and it hasn't been empty for the last twenty years. They're still here."

"You're not making sense, Hoshi," said Archer.

"We didn't detect any life signs, Ensign," added T'Pol.

"They're in stasis, cold sleep. Commander T'Pol can correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume it's possible that their life signs are too weak for us to detect."

"There were some power drains from the main reactor that I couldn't identify on our first visit," said Hess. "This could account for them."

"How many people are we talking about?" asked Archer.

"Technically, one," said Hoshi.

"Technically?" said Archer.

"It would take more than a single individual to set up a research station of this complexity," said T'Pol.

"The files I decrypted are details of a cloning experiment. There are twenty clones of the same woman on this station in cryogenic sleep," said Hoshi.

"And the children?" asked Archer.

"Were all attempts at producing more clones with different genetic modifications."

Archer didn't know what to make of this new information. "Who is the original?"

Hoshi brought up a picture on the main computer display. "Sarina Kaur."

Archer's breath was taken away momentarily. "How good is your Earth history?"

"Not my best subject," said Hess.

"It depends which period," said Hoshi.

"You recognise her?" said T'Pol, with interest.

Archer nodded thoughtfully. "We're looking at one of the most notorious scientists of the Eugenics Wars. Sarina Kaur was the mother of Khan Singh. Not only did she provide half of the genetic material but she helped refine the genetic manipulation of embryos."

"Khan, as in Khan the Tyrant, Khan Noonien Singh?" asked Hoshi.

Archer didn't answer, but the look on his face said everything as he stared at the image on the screen.

"Then you're not going to like this. I thought the encryption felt familiar, so I asked Malcolm to cross reference it against our database. It didn't match any of the known codes in the database, which I expected because then I would have recognised, but it did have some similarities. It was a variation, a new generation of an existing code. A Starfleet code."

"Are you sure?" asked Archer.

"There are too many commonalities for it to be anything else. It's a new generation of an old Starfleet code."

"All the documents are encoded in this encryption, if it's a Starfleet code…" began T'Pol.

"It means that this station was built by Starfleet and they know about Sarina Kaur," finished Archer.

"Not only that, they helped her to remain hidden," said T'Pol. "They must have also provided resources for her work."

"We had it right when we said that this could have been built by Starfleet," said Archer. "It felt familiar because it was built by Starfleet."

"None of this explains why they would break their own laws or abandon the station," said T'Pol.

"Not everyone agreed with the ban on genetic research," said Archer. "I've questioned it myself, after my father died and now with Trip's illness."

"Starfleet couldn't have done all of it, most of this technology is alien," said Hess.

Hoshi nodded. "I thought the same thing so I went looking for something that explained where all the medical equipment came from. Eventually I found a catalogue of medical equipment with a list of origins. Earth hasn't had any contact with some of these races, but they have all had contact with Vulcan. I think they had the assistance of the Vulcans," said Hoshi.

All eyes turned on T'Pol, who simply raised one eyebrow. "An interesting theory."

"It also explains a lot," said Archer. "Where are the clones being kept?"

"Level five," said Hoshi.

"Hoshi, I want copies of all of this."

"There's a lot of data here. It's going to take time to download."

"Get as much as you can. I have a feeling we're going to need it. Commander Hess, T'Pol, we're going to go and investigate the clones."

T'Pol, Hess and Archer reached level five of the station and began to explore. The level was one large, ring shaped room and around it were stasis caskets with sleeping bodies inside of them.

"Sarina Kaur should be over two hundred years old if she is alive today," said T'Pol. "Humans do not live that long."

"Maybe she's been in cryogenic sleep all this time," said Archer.

"That would not be possible with current levels of technology," replied T'Pol.

"People age even during cryo-sleep, although very slowly ," added Hess.

"Until three weeks ago we thought that we couldn't cure Clark's Syndrome," said Archer.

"Indeed," said T'Pol. She was concentrating on her scanner as they approached the stasis pods.

Frost had formed on the faceplates of the caskets and Archer brushed away the ice crystals from the nearest. He looked down at a woman who appeared to be in her early forties. "It's definitely her."

"Each of these clones has been engineered to have enhanced attributes," said T'Pol. "I do not believe any of them are the original. They are all Augments, but their ages vary."

"I guess that explains how she was able to survive for so long. The original died, but the clones continued to produce more clones."

Archer moved around the circle, brushing away the frost from each face plate. He saw Sarina Kaur in various stages of adulthood. It took them some time to catalogue all the sleepers. Each casket had a polished brass name plate. "Sarina Thirteen 'Rachael', Sarina Twenty Five 'Esther', Sarina Eighty Four 'Ruth'," read Archer. Underneath each name was a list of information that Archer recognised as a sort of genetic pedigree.

"This casket failed," said Hess, indicating the very dead looking body within the casket labelled "Sarina Fifty One 'Naomi'". "It looks like there was a short circuit. They've definitely been here a few years, but the rest seem to be functioning properly."

"Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the clones within the chambers. Cloning is known to cause replicative fading," said T'Pol. "All of them seem to be displaying the symptoms to some greater or lesser extent."

"Replicative fading?" asked Archer.

"The cloning process is not perfect. Each new copy has defects and these become cumulative in each new generation. It is one of the many arguments against cloning."

"So they're damaged?"

"Yes, and probably would not survive revival in several cases," said T'Pol. "That may explain the focus of this station's research on genetic diseases. She was trying to fix damage created by the cloning process."

Archer looked around the room at the circle of stasis pods and moved to the last one in the ring.

"Hoshi said that there were twenty."

"That is correct," said T'Pol.

"Then we're missing one," said Archer.

T'Pol came over to where Archer was looking at an empty stasis pod labelled "Sarina five 'Rebecca'". She pushed buttons on her scanner. "It has been opened recently."

"How recently?"

"The reanimation cycle for this unit takes approximately four hours and was started eleven hours ago," said T'Pol.

"About the same time that we activated the machine to treat Trip," said Archer.

"Almost exactly. It suggests that there is a correlation between the two events," replied T'Pol.

"Perhaps it was triggered to activate if someone started to use the station's equipment again," said Archer.

"That would be my conclusion."

"Do you have any idea where she is now?"

"I can't detect her life sign, but my scanner is not powerful enough to penetrate some of the more highly shielded areas of the station. Enterprise's sensors may be better suited to the task."

Archer's communicator beeped at him. "Phlox to Captain Archer."

"Go ahead, Doctor," said Archer.

"The Commander is showing signs of waking again," said Phlox.

Archer checked the time. Trip had been asleep for a good five hours, which would hopefully give him the energy needed for the next treatment cycle.

"I'm on my way." Archer flicked his communicator closed and turned to T'Pol. "Get in touch with Malcolm and get him to do a sensor sweep of the station. She's had at least seven hours to get a head start on us and we're dealing with an extremely intelligent, dangerous woman."

"We will stay here and see what else we can learn from the clones," said T'Pol.

"Let me know the minute that Malcolm comes back with a location," said Archer, already nearly out of the room.

Archer descended to level four and made his way back to the treatment suite where he had left Trip and Phlox. He entered the room to see Phlox checking Trip's IV and Trip himself blinking sleepily.

"Ah Captain, you're just in time," said Phlox. "He's just woken up this moment."

"How's he doing?"

"As well as can be expected. His cognisance seems to have improved a little."

"I need to tell you what else has been going on, but give me a moment with Trip first," said Archer.

"Of course, Captain. My patients always come first."

Archer moved to beside Trip. He placed a hand on the near shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze. The blue eyes slid up to meet the Captain's and after a couple of seconds were accompanied by a grin. It still wasn't the proper thousand-kilowatt lady-killer smile that Trip had specialised in, but there was recognition behind it.

"Hey… Captain," said a weak voice. He seemed tired and not really fully awake.

"Hey there. I guess this means that you know who I am again," said Archer.

"Yeah, but I… feel like there's… more to remember." The sentence was said slowly and deliberately as if every word was an effort to say.

"You're only half way through the treatment and even then it will take your brain a bit of time to sort through all the information and put it in the right places. All you need to remember is that you're among friends."

Trip seemed to consider that information and accept it. "So, what's going on?"

"Nothing you need to worry about, it's all going to be fine, I promise."

"You know by telling me not to worry, you're making me worry that there's something to worry about. What are you hiding?"

"Too much to tell you at the moment. You'll just have to wait until you're feeling a bit better."

"Now you're really worrying me," teased Trip.

"We will begin the second treatment phase in another hour," said Phlox. "You need to get some more rest before then."

"Sleep?" asked Trip, resignedly.

Phlox nodded. Trip sighed but closed his eyes. Archer rested a hand briefly on Trip's arm before he signalled Phlox to move out of the room with him. Archer made sure that Trip was well out of earshot before he asked his first question. The last thing Trip needed was to worry about an escaped clone and what she might be doing.

"He seems a lot better. Or is that just me?"

"He may appear to be doing well, but his body is very weak. Once the treatment is complete I'll be able to give you a better picture. I am cautiously optimistic however."

Archer nodded. "There are some other things you need to know, Doctor."

He filled Phlox in on what they had found. When he'd finished the Denobulan looked concerned.

"Starfleet built this station?" asked Phlox.

"That's right, Doctor," said Archer.

"You realise that it must have been Starfleet Medical personnel who worked with Dr Kaur? It may have even been some of my old colleagues."

"That's what I've been assuming. This isn't the first evidence of Starfleet performing black ops that we've had, but I never expected them to be part of something like this. It's going to make telling Trip exactly how we cured him even more difficult."

"Commander Tucker will understand, I am sure," said Phlox.

"I hope so," replied Archer. His com beeped.

"Reed to Captain Archer."

Archer pulled his communicator from his pocket. "Go ahead, Malcolm."

"I'm having problems locating your missing clone. I think she's using a jamming device, there's definitely an extra biosign but it keeps jumping around the station. I've been able to narrow the possibilities down by running it through one of T'Pol's algorithms, but all I can give you is a general area."

"That's better than nothing, Malcolm," said Archer.

"She's somewhere in the central core, near the generator room. Captain, if you need me I can beam over…"

"No I want you on Enterprise for when Columbia arrives, we'll deal with the clone."

"Captain, she's an Augment. That means enhanced hearing, sight and strength. You need your security officer."

"She's also probably suffering from cell degeneration due to replicative fading. Hopefully it will be enough to even things out. In normal circumstances I'd have MACOs and a full security team over here, but this isn't normal circumstances, and we're a bit shorthanded. At the moment it's more important to have you on Enterprise, Malcolm."

"Understood, sir," said Reed, and managed to imbue the two words with obvious disagreement. "Reed out."

"Archer to T'Pol, meet me at the entrance to the central core."

"Acknowledged," replied T'Pol.

Archer replaced his communicator in his pocket.

"Phlox, I want you to shut the door to the treatment room and lock it. Don't open the door unless you get the all clear from me."

"Of course, Captain. I'll take good care of the Commander," said Phlox.

Archer had known that Phlox would understand. Trip was the reason they were here and keeping him safe was their highest priority.