Somewhere in the A'Ea Straights

"What took you so long?!" Archer glared at Reed. He was hungry, he was tired, and he was pissed. Mostly he was hungry.

Reed spluttered, feeling himself turning beet red. What took HIM so long?! REALLY?! And after he'd dove into water to save them?! DOVE in! HIM! In WATER! Perhaps, just perhaps he should have left the shuttle behind…!

Hoshi jumped in before he could blow up, "Captain! Jon!" she admonished, then turning to Malcolm, "Thanks for getting us," she said with a smile meant just for him. If it hadn't been for all the witnesses around, he would have smiled back just as the same.

"What the Captain means is, how did you find us?" Trip interjected, turning away from the medic wrapping his shoulder to glare meaningfully at Archer.

"That didn't come out the way I meant it, Lieutenant," Archer gruffly admitted. "Carry on," he added, as a way of apologies. He'd never apologized for his missteps before, and he wasn't about to start now.

Trip sighed. If he'd got a credit for each time Archer was rude to one of his officers, or pulled rank. T'Pol first of all. She'd be swimming in credits. T'Pol... Malcolm must have already told the ship they'd found them, she must be relieved. He couldn't wait to see her again. Talking about Malcolm... "I mean, why are you here?" he asked, looking quizzically at his friend. If Malcolm was here, it meant he'd left T'Pol alone to man the ship. Not an issue per se but that wasn't by the book, and if there was one thing Malcolm aka Lieutenant Reed was, it was a stickler for the book.

Reed looked at him blankly for a second, then seemed to come to an abrupt realization. "We need to go!" he blurted, already getting up.

"Go? where?" Archer asked. He wasn't about to go anywhere else on the planet, not unless someone told him exactly where.

Reed looked at him as if the question didn't make sense, "To the Sacred Grounds!" he exclaimed, "Where T'Pol is!"

"Hold on!" "WHAT?!" Archer and Trip shouted at the same time.

"What d'ya mean T'Pol is there?! She can't be there, the air's deadly to her!" Trip was going from shock to anger.

'Why don't you say that to the Eylordenes,' Reed thought, but there was no point. "I have replacement canisters..." he started, then realized there was more to explain than he had time for. He turned to Zheezhill, "We need to go!" She briefly flashed turquoise in agreement.

He turned back to Trip, "It's a long story, I'll fill you in on the way, but we need to go there now! We're late!" How late they were... he just hoped they were not that late, that the last canister had lasted a long time. Anything. Anything rather than have to explain to Trip... Malcolm closed his eyes briefly. Things just kept getting worse.

xxx

The Sacred Grounds

T'Pol blinked again, looking at the ceremonials as if seeing them for the first time. Something was not right. There was an element... she could not think of it immediately... Then it hit her. The air was green. It was a reassuring color after the alien note of blues. She looked appreciatively all around. The green seemed stronger at the center. She stared at the sky and the green extended through and above the clouds. She looked down, and it shone green against the yellow ground. Now, that was not as expected. She glanced briefly at the Eylordene next to her, who was looking reassuringly normal. And green.

Perhaps a chemical phenomenon could explain why the chromatic scale of A'Er'Orl suddenly turned to green. T'Pol blinked and the green momentarily disappeared, replaced with strident hues of blue, before slowly coming back to suffuse her field of vision. She blinked again a couple more times, testing the phenomenon, deriving conclusions, checking them. She blinked a third time for confirmation. The conclusion was inescapable. The green cast was not an external phenomenon. It had nothing to do with the chemical composition of the Eylordene atmosphere. It was internal to her. Her eyes must be bloodshot. Whether due to the toxicity of the atmosphere or hypoxia was not clear.

But it should be clear. She should be able to rationally, logically, purposefully, come to a determination. If not a single finding, at least a set of probabilities that framed the universe of possibilities. Was her logic flawed? Her logic could not be flawed. Logic was what made her who she was. A Vulcan. She would always be logic-ruled and a Vulcan. Even if she had a Human mate.

A Human mate. Trip! She needed Trip! Trip was not driven by logic. He would come up with hunches and guesses and half-baked conclusions, which were right more often than was palatable to his Vulcan wife. Where logic failed, Trip would have an alternative explanation.

Except Trip was not there.

Why wasn't he there? She felt she should know. There was a vague memory that he went away. Why would he go away? Did he leave her? She blinked again. He did not. She had access to his inner feelings, there was no ill-intent through the bond.

If she found out why Trip left she would uncover... she wasn't sure what, but it would all make sense.

And Trip did not know she was on the planet. The shuttle had been lost before she came. Before, not after. Temporal ordering was important.

The realization hit her with the intensity of a physical blow. That was the missing link. They needed to get rid of Trip. And Captain Archer. And Hoshi. The three humans most protective of her. They had conspired to make the shuttle disappear.

Nobody would be coming to her help. From Enterprise. Nobody from Enterprise. It was the Eylordenes. They were the ones who lost the shuttle. Perhaps they had gotten rid of Lieutenant Reed too. Perhaps of Enterprise as well.

She blinked again, looking around at the crowd of dignitaries engrossed in the ceremonial proceedings. Enterprise had been delegated to represent Starfleet at the induction ceremonies. She had come down because of the religious importance the Eylordenes attached to the natural phenomenon they called the Joining and which they playacted through the ceremonies that were taking place on the sacred grounds...

She blinked. They were all watching her. The Eylordenes. For the first time, they appeared to be menacing. They were waiting to see when she would finally expire.

She was the sacrifice.

xxx