—Chapter 05—
The next morning's wake up call at 06:00 hours brought T'Pol slowly awake. She spoke briefly to the man who woke her, and ten minutes later one of the staff dropped off a pot of hot herbal tea and a large cinnamon & brown sugar muffin. After eating T'Pol stretched, showered, meditated and then dressed in preparation for her coming appointment at StarFleet's HQ. She was about to call the front desk for a cab, when a knock sounded at her door.
"Ensign May, sir," said the young woman standing before T'Pol in a StarFleet uniform. "I'm here to give you a ride to HQ."
"Much appreciated, Ensign," said T'Pol, and in time, T'Pol stood in front of StarFleet's HQ.
"This way, sir," said Ensign May, and she then guided T'Pol through the ever growing StarFleet campus.
"This place has more than tripled in size, from what I last remember," said T'Pol to Ensign May.
"Yes, sir, and it is still growing. The Xindi attack had a cascade effect. Recruitment was ramped up, processing center had to expand, which necessitated housing facility expansions, medical expansions, and so on… There is even talk of creating a StarFleet Academy in order to have complete control of the curriculum and produce the quality cadets needed by the fleet."
T'Pol nodded, glanced around once more, and said, "Impressive."
"Here were are, sir," said May some ten minutes later, indicating that T'Pol should enter through the door.
"Thank you, Ensign," said T'Pol.
"It was an honor to meet you, sir," said May.
Unsure how to respond to that, for T'Pol did not realize how well known she was on Earth, the Vulcan settled for saying, "The pleasure was mine, Ensign."
On entering the room T'Pol noticed four Human admirals and Soval. The three admirals who comprised the Admiralty Commission were standing on a slight dais, while Archer and Soval stood to the side. Admiral Forrest indicated that T'Pol should join him on the dais, and formally thanked T'Pol for her service to StarFleet and her loyalty to the Enterprise in the Delphic Expanse. He then spoke briefly to T'Pol, and T'Pol reaffirmed her intent to join StarFleet. Admiral Forrest administered StarFleet's oath of service, and T'Pol was now a member of StarFleet, and the three men on the dais approached T'Pol to affirm their pleasure at having her in their ranks.
"You're with me, T'Pol," said Archer once the other admirals had left the room. "I'll wait for you outside and give you two some privacy."
"There is no need for that, Admiral," said Soval. "I only came to wish T'Pol good fortune on her new path."
"Gratitude, Soval," said T'Pol, for Soval had always watched out for her, done his best to aid her career.
Soval raised his hand and gave T'Pol the ta'al, the Vulcan salute, spoke a few words in Vulcan, and then left T'Pol with Archer.
"Let's go," said Archer. "We have a big day ahead of us."
"Oh?"
"Don't ask, T'Pol. It's a surprise."
"What do you think? She's a beauty, no?" said Archer, as he and T'Pol looked out at the new Enterprise through their shuttle windows.
The Enterprise retained much of its former appearance, but the changes were quite noticeable to T'Pol's trained eye. For one, the Enterprise had four nacelles now, two on each side, one stacked atop the other. For another, the body of the ship had an extra two or three decks to it, giving it a beefier, tougher look, especially when paired with the nacelle changes. She'd also gained thirty meters in length, or close to it. The last apparent change noticeable in the ship was the presence of shield emitters all over the hull.
"Crew?" said T'Pol.
"Two hundred."
"Top speed?"
"Warp 7 relying solely on the warp engines, and a combined speed of warp 8.5 if alternating Xindi subspace vortex jumps with the maximum speed of our warp engines."
"Very impressive," said T'Pol, for such figures would have been considered unattainable by even the finest Vulcan cruisers as little as three years ago.
"Yes, she's a sexy beast," said Archer fondly, as he slowly piloted the shuttle round the Enterprise several more times, then headed for the Access Hatch.
Once aboard the Enterprise T'Pol was greeted by a large number of crew members, a small mix of the crew from the former Enterprise as well as many new recruits. The recruits excitedly expressed their honor on meeting T'Pol, while the veterans were more discreet in their greetings, for they knew their former SubCommander well enough to know her preferences, and though T'Pol was too stoic to show it, she was touched by the comradeship she felt from these people.
Afterwards, Admiral Archer gave T'Pol a brief tour of the ship, and at the end of it guided T'Pol to the Captain's Dining Room, where they found Commander Sato waiting for them both. T'Pol noticed a toughness about Commander Sato that had not been there before, but despite that, Hoshi's eyes were moist on seeing someone she'd given up as good as dead, now risen to life.
"Forgive me, T'Pol," said Hoshi, and hugged T'Pol, and for her part T'Pol felt comfortable enough with Hoshi to hug her back briefly. "I'm so glad you made a recovery, T'Pol."
T'Pol nodded, almost overcome by the affection she felt from Commander Sato. Archer laughed.
"She's a crafty one, this XO of mine," said Jon. "She's got a touch of power with Empathy, and likely wanted you to know how she felt about you, without having to do so openly."
"Thanks a lot you jerk!" said Hoshi. "That is to say, Admiral. Now you've ruined it, and made T'Pol uneasy!"
T'Pol realized that Hoshi had projected her own feelings to T'Pol, and was now reading her emotional state, without the need for touch. That trick was handy.
"Sorry, T'Pol," said Archer.
"Think nothing of it, Admiral. Commander Sato, I share you feelings, even if I may not express them in the Human manner," said T'Pol, then after a moment's pause, said, "but of course, you know that. You know, it is going to take me a bit of time to get used to the idea of psychic Humans."
"You're going to have to work harder at being inscrutable now, T'Pol," said Hoshi with a straight face, but a mischievous look in her eyes.
The three of them spent the next two hours catching up and speaking of happier times, then Hoshi excused herself to take care of some business, when the Bridge crew called for a commander on deck.
"This visit was quite nice, Admiral," said T'Pol. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet, Captain," said Archer, sliding a PADD towards T'Pol. "Your commission is here."
"Thank you, Admiral," said T'Pol, pleased, but not surprised by her promotion.
"Your ship is close by, and its specs are on that PADD as well, as are your crew's personnel records. I know being unprepared is your pet peeve, so you have two hours to cram some information in that big, beautiful brain of yours, before I deliver you on board your new command."
"Yes, Captain," said T'Pol calmly, where a Human might still be doing cartwheels about the room on being given such a promotion. "I will be ready."
T'Pol spent that two hours wisely. She first reviewed the personnel files for the first hour, reading the records of the officers in depth, then going over the records of the rest in a more cursory manner, for she had to prioritize her time for now.
She spent the next hour on studying her first command, named Athena. The ship was a one-off, an experimental design, and it was clear from the specs that it was a dedicated intelligence gathering platform. Shaped vaguely like a stingray, it trailed three long articulated tails as the ship slipped through space. The hull itself was quite unusual as well. A matte surface, an inky black, or midnight blue judging by the image displayed on the PADD, it did a good job muting the reflection of light, and what light was reflected seemed to be reflected in a somewhat random manner, and so the Athena would be difficult to spot visually at any but the closest of distances. Reading further, T'Pol noted that the reason for the matte appearance of the hull was due to the composition of the hull, which was not the usual tritanium or vanadium-steel eight inch thick armored slabs, but rather a carbon fiber reinforced with tritanium flakes and wires. Much tougher than tritanium or vanadium-steel alone, but exotic, and expensive. Moving on she noted that the three nacelles were completely contained within the body of the ship, in order to minimize the emission of light or sound from the nacelles, and when T'Pol moved on the the weapons specs, she noted that the Athena boasted three phaser cannon banks, and one proton torpedo launcher, so it could hold it's own in battle. All in all a solid and impressive package. T'Pol was familiar enough with starships and construction costs, familiar enough to estimate that this one ship cost the equivalent of five or six frigates to build, but it could do things which other ships could only dream of.
"How's it going, T'Pol?" said Archer, poking his head into the room.
"Quite well, Captain," said T'Pol.
"Time's up," said Archer. "Let's go."
If the Athena was an interesting ship from her specs, she was a beautiful ship when visually appraised. Archer piloted the shuttle round the Athena for half hour or so, from all vectors, allowing T'Pol to survey her first command in silence.
"She is lovely ship, Admiral," said T'Pol finally. "The most beautiful ship I have ever seen."
"I felt the same when I first saw the Enterprise," said Archer with a smile. "Let's take you in."
Minutes later the shuttle docked with Athena's Access Hatch and T'Pol grabbed her bag, then looked expectantly back at Admiral Archer.
"I'm not going in, T'Pol," said Archer. "This is your moment."
T'Pol nodded and looked at Admiral Archer, as the man pulled an envelope from his jacket pocket and handed it to T'Pol.
"Your orders, Captain," said Archer, "directing you to join the Border Fleet and make yourself useful in the mission to track down the Xindi."
"Yes, Admiral," said T'Pol, pocketing her orders, and then heading for the now open door.
"T'Pol," said Archer.
She turned to face Archer, and the man gave her a good natured look.
"Good luck bagging your BlackSand Hawk," said Archer.
T'Pol nodded, turned and left the shuttle, but the last sound she heard before the shuttle door clicked shut was Archer chuckling at her expense. On turning round T'Pol was greeted by her senior officers.
One of them stepped forward and said, "Welcome to the Athena, Captain. I am Commander Jemez, your XO."
T'Pol nodded to the man, and looked at the others. Jemez would introduce them, though T'Pol recognized them all from the records she'd reviewed so recently.
"Allow me to present your officers. Commander Hanshiro, in charge of Tactical," said Jemez, "Dr. Ivers in charge of Medical, Lt. Salno in charge of Communications, Commander Lin in charge of Engineering and Commander Barlow in charge of Science. Ensign Tovar is manning Helm at the moment."
"I look forward to getting to know each of you in the coming days," said T'Pol, "but our orders require us to move swiftly now. Do we have the last known coordinates of the Border Fleet?"
"We do," said Commander Jemez.
"Set course for those coordinates now, Commander Jemez. We have no time to waste."
"Yes, Captain," said Jemez.
"Carry on then," said T'Pol, and headed for her cabin, as her officers went about their duties.
She found her cabin, and took stock of it all. It was not much larger than her old cabin on the Enterprise, but the room and furnishings were more agreeable to T'Pol. The walls of her cabin were painted a pastel green, her bathroom walls a pleasing shade of blue and the exposed metal that came as part and parcel of a starship was covered in hardwood veneers. A fine example of Vulcan calligraphy graced one wall, and a comfortable meditation pillow rested on the floor next to a low table on which rested an incense burner and several types of incense, a candleholder and several packs of candles. Best of all, her desk was obviously Vulcan made, and thus attractive and functional. After admiring the table, T'Pol moved on to the open closet, which held two dozen of her accustomed catsuit uniforms in StarFleet blue, and patched with the StarFleet logo, though T'Pol noticed that each uniform had a stripe of Vulcan red somewhere on her uniform, though the location of that stripe differed from uniform to uniform. T'Pol sighed, pleased. This place felt like home.
"Captain," said the Columbia's Comm officer, looking at Trip. "They got them. They're on board of the Invincible. In the Shuttle Bay."
The 'them' which the Comm officer had just mentioned were the crew of the small Xindi Reptilian scout vessel, the kind of ship which had grown more numerous as the Border Fleet moved further and further from charted space. The Xindi scout ships had been too fast to shoot down or disable at first, until the Tactical officers in the Border Fleet put in some overtime, and experimented with the firing subroutines to find a solution, and that solution required tuning down the power output on the phaser banks, and altering the firing sequence, so that rather one powerful beam of phaser fire, the new subroutines allowed the phasers to fire fifty shorter beams per second, in an effective mode of automatic phaser fire.
On hearing the Comm officer's words, Trip stood and left the Bridge, his XO, Commander Owens, automatically assuming command of the Columbia.
First Claw Mayun, was neck deep in trouble, and he knew it. He glanced to his two ship mates next to him. All three had been forcibly knelt by these cowardly Humans using electro-stun wands, and the sour scent of fear from his shipmates, unconsciously released, reached Mayun. Contemptuously, Mayun released a whiff of sharp musk in the air, a challenge to the others to remember that they were Reptilian warriors, but it did no good. Stories had spread through the crews which had faced this fleet in battle, and survived, that the Humans had been turned into demons by the Madness Season, and it was infuriating to the Reptilians that it was their very own weapon which had given the Humans this tactical advantage, these psychic talents. Worse yet, now that the Humans had Xindi drives, there was no escaping them. The Reptilians and Insectoids, the only true Xindi left, had to fight, and win, against these monsters.
Mayun shifted his attention, in order to determine numbers in the room. Three Humans with a stunner, one behind each Xindi, four Humans armed with phaser rifles standing between the Xindi and the door, and a sharp eyed Human, seemingly unarmed watching them with a wolfish smile.
The odds are bad, but perhaps I'll get lucky, thought Mayun, and if I'm really lucky these two worthless mardun with me will remember that they're Reptilian warriors!
He was planning his move… fall forward, roll, kick the legs of the Human previously holding a stunner to his back, stand, rise, rush the unarmed Human and take him hostage, then mo—
Something changed in an instant, and Mayun sensed it, for the watchful Humans stood straighter now, and the unarmed Human with the unnerving smile turned to face the Shuttle Bay door… and then he entered. A tall Human, seemingly fit, but otherwise typical of his species at first glance, save that Mayun felt a surge of fear at the sight of this man, an emotion which the other eight armed Humans had been unable to inspire in the Xindi.
He's one of the demons we created, thought Mayun, his fear rising as the man came closer to them all, and he cursed the Human aloud in his people's tongue.
The Humans had translation machines, yet no one seemed to have one, nor did they seem particularly concerned over that fact. The demon looked down at Ulum, and the Reptilian looked back at the demon, teeth bared, though whether out of anger, or fear, Mayun had no idea. The demon focused his attention on Ulum for a moment longer, then turned to Rlatten. Ulum went into a seizure just seconds after the Human had moved on to Rlatten, and he now flopped like a fish, yet the Humans watched him do so without a shred of pity in their eyes. The demon moved past Rlatten now, and that Reptilian showed no ill effect for it, so Mayun steeled himself to resist the demon's will, yet when he locked eyes with the demon, its cold blue eyes bored into the now petrified Mayun. A moment later, the demon moved on to speak to the unarmed man. It seemed that Mayun's worst fears were unfounded. These demons had no power over his soul!
"Get anything?" said Malcolm.
"Yeah, I got something," said Trip looking at the three Reptilians as if looking at three cockroaches. "Flush these lizards into space."
"Gladly," said Malcolm.
.
***I know I should have dressed T'Pol in the standard StarFleet coverall uniform once she joined the fleet, instead of her catsuits, but come on…