Trip
Day two resumes. There are more people present today. A quiver of Vulcans, including Soval, stand against the back wall, all as unreadable as ever. Admiral Forrest is present as well, looking like he is sitting under a storm. Even Phlox has joined them. Trip starts at the sight of the usual jovial Doctor, he has never seen him so angry. A knot forms in his stomach. The Vulcans clinch it. This is something to do with T'Pol.
At first it just seems like an assassination of her character. Some Vulcan someone-or-rather stands up and and lists every time T'Pol has acted in opposition to the High Command since joining Enterprises. Trip can't figure out the point until the Vulcan Doctor gets up. That's when it starts to feel like Trip's world is about to come tumbling down.
First it is the Pa'Nar Syndrome. Apparently she has a terminal illness. Which is clearly not news to the Captain. The Doctor gives a breakdown of all the ways this illness makes her less Vulcan. Trip glances over to her, she stares straight ahead, face like a stone. She knew this was coming. The panel says virtually nothing, just clarifies a few points. It seems like a stitch up. But then the bombshell drops. Her trellium addiction. All those months, it sat in their cargo bay, unused to protect her, and she'd been dosing herself with it for half that time.
Things start to become clearer to him. That night, on Enterprise, just after Christmas, it wasn't real. Her jealousy, her attraction, it was all just a drug induced bender. She was literally hooked on a feeling and acted it out with him. All her coming and going, pulling him close, pushing him away it was just the flux of emotions brought on by trellium. She doesn't really feel anything for him, she doesn't really feel anything at all. She was either addicted to drugs or just plain brain damaged.
Her behaviour after Azati Prime takes on a whole new meaning. Both he and Malcolm thought she was behaving strangely. Jesus, was it her fault? Would all those people have survived if she hadn't been doped to her eyeballs? He feels pressure behind his eyes like he wants to cry.
The psychiatrist, Fer'at, presents his analysis of T'Pol's state of mind. He gives a list of reasons why he believes T'Pol has formed an unhealthy infatuation with Captain Archer. A state which has been further exacerbated by her neural damage from the Pa'nar syndrome and the addiction. There's a very nice image of her brain showing all the ways it's not Vulcan enough anymore. Fer'at paints her like some kind of mental incompetent, barely able to function in normal society.
Admiral Jackson speaks for the first time that day. Her role on Enterprise gets painted very darkly. There will be no action against T'Pol as she was not a member of Starfleet at the time of the incidents in question. There is no evidence of impropriety on the part of Captain Archer. Based on the reports from the Vulcan Doctor and Psychiatrist she is declared mentally unfit to serve with Starfleet any further. The meeting is wrapped up and the panel departs.
The room erupts into pandemonium. He sits there reeling in shock. T'Pol has a terminal illness, T'Pol and the Captain, T'Pol dosing herself with trellium. For a moment he can't even put a coherent thought together.
He can see Captain Archer in furious conversation with Phlox, Hoshi and Malcolm joining in. What do they want, to hear, all the gory details. Admiral Forrest goes over to the group. Archer is trying not to shout at his superior. Trip can tell he's furious. Everyone seems furious. Except the Vulcans, they just leave quietly, with the exception of Soval.
The Captain. He should have seen it, should have guessed. All those times when it was just the Captain and T'Pol. Early last year, just after A.G. died when the Captain went out to the dark matter nebula, Trip had offered to go but Jon had taken T'Pol. Then there was that mission for Vulcan that T'Pol went on in 52, it was her and the Captain then as well. He tries to think if there was anything else, any other sign. Then he remembers the Captain's face when the Vulcan psychiatrist announced that T'Pol had some kind of inappropriate affection for him. Jon had looked even more shocked than Trip felt.
He starts to reassess, there's probably nothing going on between them. Surely T'Pol wouldn't have been with him if she could have been with Jon. He thinks about how crazy she went at Azati Prime, because she thought the Captain was on a suicide mission. Then, when she came to him after they thought the Captain had died destroying the weapon, same thing. It was never him she wanted. He feels like an idiot. He was some kind of substitute for the real thing because the Captain was off limits.
It also explains why she turned up at his door last night, because she knew it was all going to come down on her like a house of cards. He was just in walking distance and she needed some chump to put her back together. Hold her hand until all those pesky emotions, that she shouldn't have, got tidied away so she could sit here today like a good Vulcan and take her medicine.
He looks over at her, talking to Soval in hushed tones. Both of their faces neutral. For a moment she looks at Trip, he's pretty sure he doesn't keep the disgust out of his face. She nods slightly, blinks and takes a breath and releases it, then turns back to the Ambassador and they leave together. He doesn't know where they're going, he tells himself he doesn't care.
He feels like his head is going to explode. Like he is being bombarded with emotions, fear, rage, betrayal, grief, guilt. It feels like it's too much for just one person. It's like his heart has been torn out. He stands up and heads for the door. He hears Phlox call his name as he leaves but he doesn't even pause. He has to get out of here, he can't breathe.
Archer
He's not sure exactly when his feelings about this process change. Initially he is nervous, especially when the Vulcans show up, they've never had a lot of love for him and he's made plenty of decisions over the past eight months that they could use to crucify him. Then confusion, what the hell does P'Jem and T'Pol's illness have to do with the Expanse. Then anger, it was a character assassination. The High Command obviously want T'Pol out of Starfleet's sphere of influence.
At first he figures Starfleet won't buy into Vulcan bullshit again. They should have enough experience to know when Vulcans are being, well, Vulcans. But after a while he starts to reassess. The Vulcan experts are been given an awful lot of airtime and no one is coming to her defence. He looks at her to see if he can read anything from her expression, which is a waste of time, she looks like she's carved from stone.
The trellium use is something of a surprise, but not completely. He knew there was something wrong with her at Azati Prime, she was definitely not herself. He had seen it, and ignored it, everyone had their moments in the Expanse, after all, he'd agreed to clone Trip for God's sake. She'd pulled herself together in the end and they still had a mission, so he let it go.
He almost wants to laugh when Fer'at suggests she has 'an unhealthy infatuation' with him and all that implies. He's not sure how they measure that in a Vulcan, perhaps occasional disdain and exasperation are how Vulcans show love, which would suggest every Vulcan he's ever met has an 'unhealthy infatuation' with him.
He quickly realises that none of this is funny, it's not funny at all. She's the best goddamn first officer in the fleet and they're just going to let the Vulcans destroy her. When Admiral Jackson makes his statement, Archer is not surprised, furious yes, but not surprised.
As soon as the panel is gone he's out of his chair and grilling Phlox. He wants to know why the hell he's just hearing about this whole trellium thing now.
Phlox is cool in his anger. Archer was not told because of Doctor/Patient confidentiality. Phlox had assessed her as competent to undertake her duties so he considered it a medical issue, not a command one.
"If her records were confidential why did you hand them over to Starfleet then?" Archer tries to keep the fury out of his voice. He has a strong feeling Phlox would not have willingly done anything to jeopardise T'Pol's wellbeing but he is trying to get the to the bottom of this.
"My hands were tied, Captain. As Chief Medical Officer on a Starfleet vessel, Command has the right to request my records for review. I certainly tried my best to advocate for T'Pol in my debriefing but I believe the outcome was a foregone conclusion." Phlox's anger has dissipated and his sadness at his failure to protect his patient is obvious.
Archer puts his hand on Phlox's shoulder. " I know you would have done your best for her Phlox."
Malcolm, Hoshi and Travis wander over to join the conversation.
"Is there anything we can do about this, to help T'Pol?" Hoshi asks, her eyes suspiciously wet.
"We'll do what we can." Admiral Forrest says as he joins the group. "As I understand it, this came direct from Earth Gov, our hands were tied to large extent. I will certainly be pushing back against the decision. It smacks of something, I'm not sure what, but something."
"You better believe we'll do something!" Archer can feel his temper boiling over. He can't believe he's been blindsided like this.
"Commander Tucker!" Phlox's suddenly calls out. Archer turns to see Trip disappearing out the door. He knows Trip and T'Pol had grown close in the Expanse. Trip probably knows her best of anyone on the ship, he's even been giving her a lift to starfleet over the past couple of weeks.
Archer watches as the as the door slides shut behind Trip. He realises that as justified as his anger is, this is a situation that requires a cool head. T'Pol's reputation rests on this. He needs to take a moment to get his head together, a moment to breathe.
Soval
He is not surprised when Archer requests a meeting to discuss T'Pol. He feels a certain satisfaction, on her behalf, that her human colleagues seem unwilling to accept the outcome of the week's proceedings. It was regrettable he had not been in the position to protect her from the wrath of the High Command. He has spent many years quietly doing his work on behalf of all Vulcans, sometimes bringing him into subtle opposition to the High Command. It has been a delicate balancing act to do this and still be viewed as loyal. It would be illogical for him to compromise his careful work for a single woman, even the daughter of a highly regarded, deceased colleague.
He feels a certain responsibility for her plight. He has meditated extensively on this issue and concluded that it is logical for him to accept some of that burden. She is still very young. Despite her intelligence and outward expression of competence, there was a certain naivety in her view of the High Command when she first came to Earth. No doubt she has been disabused of any notions of the purity of that organisations motives. It must have left her disenchanted when so many of their decisions, particularly with regards to humans, seemed so without logic. Regrettably she was too young and idealistic to see the logic of keeping a low profile when contradicting them. She lacked the experience to know how illogically vindictive they could be when challenged.
He will do his best for T'Pol. He will quietly probe contacts on Vulcan about the possibility of work for her. He has already contacted her mother, and warned T'Les that the daughter coming home to her will not be the same person. He approves T'Les plan to proceed with wedding. He knows the marriage to her childhood betrothed may not be T'Pol's preference but it will help her find acceptance on Vulcan again. There is also the possibility that a bond will assist her with controlling her emotions. He told her as much before she departed and she appeared to accept the advice.
He himself, after decades of quiet observation, has still to determine the agenda of the High Command but is convinced it is not necessarily in the best interest of Vulcan. It disturbs him that an organisation with such power can behave with such a lack of logic. He predicts difficult times ahead for Vulcan. Maintaining sound contacts with Earth will be useful. Hopefully this incident will not drive a greater wedge between the two species. The anger from the crew of Enterprise and Admiral Forrest had been palpable after the debriefing. He resolves to also meet with Admiral Forrest, perhaps something can be done for T'Pol from that angle.
He is uncertain about her future amongst her own kind. She seems to have developed an affinity with humans that would allow her to live out the majority of her life with them, serving Vulcans interests while doing it. He is deeply sceptical about the assertion by Fer'at that she had an attraction to Captain Archer. Although he is certain she feels bonds of loyalty to the Captain, perhaps to many on the crew, he has known her a long time and saw signs of both amusement and insult when she first realised what was being suggested during the Vulcan debriefing. Fer'at may have an excellent understanding of Vulcan psychology but keeps himself wilfully ignorant of anything related to humans. It is quite illogical. No assessment of T'Pol should have been made without taking into account her close association with humans over the past three years.
He can feel agitation starting to break through his emotional blocks. He will need to meditate before meeting with the humans. It is certain they will arrive projecting their emotions like weapons. It will take all his discipline to maintain his emotional suppression and to walk the fine line he has committed himself to for the sake of Vulcan. He sits on his meditation cushion, lights the candle, focuses on the flame and starts to breathe.
XXX