Afiladas palabras y deseadas
or
Sharp words to hide my heart
Part two
by panyasan
Disclaimer : Enterprise and its characters are property of CBS/Paramount.
Some quotes are from the ENT episode Carpenter Street.
Rating: PG-13
Author's note: Many thanks to my beta Dinah. This is the second part of my Holiday Exchange fic for Escriba. The song T'Pol listens to in this story is Afiladas Palabras (Sharp words) by Tahures Zurdos.
Summary: A time travel mission to Detroit in 2004 to find Xindi-Reptilians in the past, has gone haywire. Captain Archer is trapped in the medical facility in Detroit in 2004 and T'Pol has accidentally returned to Enterprise. When she and Commander Tucker travel back in time to save the captain, they ended up in Spain in 2004 with a malfunctioning time travel device.
At the beginning of their mission, the captain had stated that all her doubts about time travel would disappear. The opposite had happened. Time travel was possible, but also illogical and not without any danger. That was the only scientific conclusion she could draw. The two times she'd time traveled, nothing had gone according to plan. The first time, the captain had been left behind in Detroit in 2004 and the second time, traveling with Commander Tucker, she'd ended up in the wrong place and time in 2004, with a time travel device that had stopped working.
When they finally found the reason for the device's malfunction, it was a simple one. Tucker pointed at several small indicators inside the device. "See those numbers. They have to do with the power. It's been drained, so there isn't enough power to transport us to the right time and place." He started brainstorming aloud. "Because it works on solar energy, we need to find a way to recharge it again. The metallic plates next to the glass tubes inside the device are solar collectors. It may sounds crazy, but there is plenty of sunlight here. We could see if placing this device in the heat of the sun could help to recharge it. If not, we have to look for other ways."
"Meanwhile we are trapped here, the captain is suffering in the past," she remarked, "and we have no idea if this will work."
"We hardly have any other options to make this device work. Besides, this is a time loop. When we jump to the right time and place, the timeline will be restored and the captain's suffering will not have happened," Tucker replied.
Following the commander's suggestion, they decided to go to a sunny place to see if the plates in the device were indeed sun collectors, providing a way to recharge the power. First, they adapted to the type of clothing everybody was wearing in this beach town. Trip redressed himself in a t-shirt and shorts, she in a summer dress with a scarf to cover her ears, and both of them wore sandals. Then they tried placing the device in several spots of sunlight and secretly measuring the reaction of the device. The collectors were indeed functioning as generators for energy. It was fortunate the people of this town were more interested in enjoying their vacations, the beach and the sun to pay much attention to them. They found out that the greatest increase in power was achieved on the beach, so they decided to catch as much sunlight as possible. After Tucker commented that even shorts and her dress would be seen as overdressed on the beach, they both bought some swimming outfits in order to blend in with the crowd.
Dressed in his colorful t-shirt and gray shorts, the commander found them a spot in the middle of the crowded beach. He took his shirt and shorts off, to reveal his aesthetically pleasing chest and some swimming trunks with bright, almost fluorescent colors and pictures of beaches and the sea. He threw her a look as if he wanted to test her reaction to his outrageous swimming trunks.
She took the bait. "Your attire is a bit colorful, but fitting for our environment, Commander," she commented.
She stepped out of her green summer dress and stretched out on a beach towel, dressed in a red swimming suit with a bare back. At the front, it was cut to an inch below her collar bone. Tucker looked at her from head to her foot.
"The red is a bit colorful, but very fitting for our environment," he said with a grin.
Despite his grin, she had clearly seen admiration in his eyes. She felt a small tinge of satisfaction, but she suppressed it right away. When she'd begun working on the Human ship, she was confronted with the rude stares of men, as well as waves of energy and sensuality, especially when she was confronted with Commander Tucker. It was overwhelming, confusing, repulsive and fascinating at the same time. In time, she had found some balance between her own rebellious and curious heart and her Vulcan upbringing. Curiosity led to danger. Still she knew that behind the surface of her katra, she desired to see that admiration in his eyes again.
She focused again, told Trip that putting on sun lotion was advisable and closed her eyes. The sun was warm and her desert skin rejoiced under its rays. Tucker soon took his place next to her, the device between them. She pushed herself up on one elbow and looked at the people sunbathing, the children playing, the sand beneath her, the blue sea in front of her.
"You had better call me by my first name," Tucker suggested. "Call me Charles. It would raise fewer questions than if you called me Commander."
"I thought you preferred Trip." He nodded and wanted to say something more, but she already had decided. "Then I will call you Trip." He seemed surprised by her announcement. As the day passed on this sunny beach, she noticed that every time she called him Trip he seemed a bit taken aback, but also pleasantly surprised.
During the day, Trip went for a swim. From her place she saw him walking in the sea, swimming and coming out of the blueness of the ocean, his hair wet and drops of water glistering on his chest and arms. A little boy played next to him and started talking with him. She watched how easily he seemed to relate to the little child. She mused that it was only logical to presume that in the future, maybe the near future, Trip would find a Human woman to have his children, and he would be very content being a husband and a father. Despite the logic of her thoughts, they filled her with sadness. They disturbed her more than the knowledge of her attraction to him and she fought to suppress them.
The sun set in the ocean, casting his last orange rays over the beach. Trip checked on the device and was pleased by the progress of the energy storage. "If we spent one more day here on the beach, we'll probably have enough," he told her quietly, not to draw attention to their activity.
After a shower in their hotel room and a change of clothes, they looked for a place to eat. They found a little square close to the beach with all kind of restaurants. In the middle of the square, there was a big statue of a bird. It was painted bright white. The bird was spreading its wings like it was soaring above the ocean.
"Is that not an albatross?" she pointed out.
"It is. I didn't know you knew something about animal life on Earth," Trip responded. Then he pointed to the restaurant opposite the statue. "That looks like a nice place to eat."
Inside, the restaurant was clean, orderly and full. The chatter of people filled the room, but she could still hear the sound of music, coming from a radio in the background. A female was singing a song called "Wild dancing" and it had something to do with a song contest called Eurovision. She and Trip looked around. They heard so many different languages that Trip remarked that he had been to a lot of places, but there were still many places on Earth that he would like to see. "Like Spain. I've never been here before, but I always wanted to visit. I remember watching Casablanca on Movie Night and thinking I liked to visit Spain one day."
She was puzzled. "Casablanca?"
"If I remember right, you watched it too. 'Play it again, Sam,' one of the most famous movie quotes ever, is from that movie. It's a bit slow, but that's normal for a movie from the mid 20th century. It's a real classic," Trip told her, while enthusiastically loading his spoon with paella.
"Casablanca is not a place in Spain. The movie takes places in Morocco. Also your quotation is incorrect. Ilsa Lund does not say, 'Play it again, Sam,' but, 'Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.' And then Rick Blaine says, 'If she can stand it, I can! Play it,' she corrected him.
He looked surprised. "You sure did pay attention. Did you like the movie? Maybe it was too sentimental for your taste."
"The movie was quite..." She searched for the right word. "…enlightening." The movie had given her much to ponder.
"Enlightening?"
"It was educational to see a movie about a Human who did not follow his emotions, but made a logical decision to choose duty over his feelings," she explained. "I have observed that it is not uncommon in real life, but seldom seen in movies."
"I never thought of that way. I know their relationship was in the past, but it still was a difficult decision to make. So you agree that Rick chose to help Victor Laszlo, the husband of Ilsa and a famous leader of the resistance, because of the cause he was fighting for and because his work as leader of the mission was more important than love. Ilsa was the love of Rick's life," Trip refuted with some anger, for reasons unknown to her.
"I do not think the decision of Rick Blaine had anything to do with Victor Laszlo. He chose duty because of his affection for Ilsa. It serves her better," she answered, trying to put her impressions into words.
"He loves her, so he leaves her alone?" Trip replied, clearly not convinced.
She took another bite of her meal, swallowed it and said calmly, "Sometimes affection is best shown by keeping one's distance."
"I don't think so," Trip answered. They were the last words he spoke, and they finished the meal in silence.
When they returned to their hotel room, Trip's mood had improved. They both observed the device again, both clearly seeing progress in the energy levels. She then suggested that she would meditate; she had postponed it far too long. She had thought that his presence would be distracting in her attempts to focus, but, in fact, his presence in the room, simply resting on the bed, had a positive effect. After she was finished, she felt very refreshed and well and ready for their normal session of neuropressure before they went to sleep. The next day was also spent on the beach. Lying on one of towels after taking another swim, Trip remarked that this whole mission had gone different direction than he had expected. "It's a bit strange, relaxing on a beach to complete your mission. Starfleet will never believe it."
"We will not remember any of these days, so we will not be able to include it in our report," she answered.
"Yeah, I forgot," he shrugged, before moving the conversation in a totally different direction. "Do you like to swim? I can watch the ball." The ball was the nickname Trip had given to the time travel device.
She declined and they ended up bantering about her not wanting to swim and him being very noticeable in his swimming trunks. It was the starting point of many discussions, ranging from light conversations about Vulcan food – which in Trip's opinion looked very unimaginative – to subjects like why neuropressure wasn't included in the Vulcan practice of not touching. She was surprised he had thought about it. Trip was right. Vulcans refrained from touching people. She hadn't told him that touching generally applied only to family members or a mate. It would complicate their sessions. Instead, she replied that she thought that the needs of the many were served by her doing neuropressure. He was not entirely pleased with her answer and he changed subject, asking instead about her thoughts on time travel.
The day went by and they decided to go to the same restaurant as the night before. She was eating her salad when suddenly she heard a song played on the radio. A warm female voice sang a Spanish song of longing and desire.
Hace tiempo que no cerraba los ojos (So much time have passed since I closed my eyes)
y te veía tan claro, hasta creo que te he tocado (and I saw you so clearly, I even think I've touched you)
Yo que intenté que lo tuyo quedara lejos ( I, who tried to keep you far away)
y no sabes lo que has hecho al abrazarme así (and you don't know what you've done holding me like this).
Against her will, she was taken back in time, seeing Trip in a coma. Her distress. Her desire. Her heart was exposed in that one song, and she felt again the depth of her pain when the woman continued to sing.
He creído morirme. He creído morir (I thought I was dying).
With all her Vulcan strength she regained control. No more. She was above this. Then the woman finished her song.
He creído morir... sin ti (I was dying without you).
And she knew it was true. And grief and fear overwhelmed her.
She fought for control and achieved it, but somehow her emotional slip had been noticed. "Are you okay?" Trip asked. His blue eyes met hers and she rebuked herself for letting her emotions show like this. "You look a little pale. You need some fresh air. Let's go for a walk." She wanted to say she felt nothing and needed nothing, but he had already paid their bill and gestured for her to come.
A soft wind was blowing when they arrived at the beach. After they had walked for a while, Trip asked, "Are you better now? You look better."
She wanted to reply that she didn't feel any worse than before, but she failed to see the logic in that remark. So she simply nodded.
"Tomorrow we'll try to jump back to the right timeline," Trip told her. "I think we have enough power."
"That would be agreeable," she replied.
"You want to see the captain again," he stated.
"Obviously," she answered.
"Obviously. Is that all you can say about seeing your captain again?" he mocked. She didn't understand his tone. He almost sounded angry.
"You were stating an obvious fact. The purpose of this mission was to return to the point of origin – my arrival with the captain - and to correct the mistake from the first attempt at time travel," she retorted. "So it is only logical that I want to see the captain again."
"Tell me T'Pol, you almost break down hearing a song about a person dying – my Spanish is rusty, but I do understand the word for dying – while you call me Trip with a voice so gentle it gives me goose bumps just to hear it. I don't understand."
"You rather have me call you commander?" she concluded, puzzled.
"No! Whatever! Forget I asked!" he shouted and walked away.
She sat down on the beach, wondering what he had said. She mulled his words over and over. She knew he'd come back when she smelled him, standing close to her. He looked tired, but his face still bore a trace of anger.
"You think I have romantic feelings for the captain," she told him.
"It looks that way," he said, while taking a seat next to her.
"The captain is my commanding officer. The last time I saw him he was suffering. I want to restore the timeline for his benefit and also for the success of the mission. His death would affect the crew greatly," she answered.
"That's it? My commanding officer? What about the fact that he visits your quarters in the middle of the night? And what about all the trips you take together, like this mission?"
"There is always some emergency when the captain comes to my quarters. As for our recent mission, he asked me to accompany him. I am his first Officer. I don't think we go on missions that often together. It is related to our work."
"What about that trip you took last year. That was personal. You wouldn't tell anybody where you were going, but you chose the captain to go with you. You trust him. He is your friend," Trip continued, speaking rapidly, as though this had been on his mind for a long time.
Was the captain her friend? She knew she'd tried to work with him on a friendly basis – he seems to work more efficiently that way - and she understood more about the captain than he probably knew about himself. If he died, it would affect her. But the captain hardly knew her outside her role as First Officer, nor was he interested in doing so. Or she in him.
"I think the word 'friend' is not the correct word to describe my relationship with the captain," she answered.
"Then who do you consider a friend?" he interrupted.
There was only one answer. "I consider you a friend," she softly spoke.
He gave a sound that she knew Humans make when they don't believe something. "You don't believe me," she concluded.
"I think I have a different view of what friendship is, T'Pol. Friends tell things to each other. Important things like a fatal illness. I had to hear from Doctor Phlox that you were ill. You keep your distance so we won't become friends. And it's working just fine," he reasoned. "And I made a huge mistake to bring this up. Let's go back the hotel."
She was tempted to do so and forget about this strange conversation. The hidden anger and sadness in the last words he'd spoken made her say, "You base your assumption on a journey I made with the captain. When was this?"
He sighed. "The first week of July, last year. Don't tell me it wasn't an important mission. You both went without saying anything, leaving me in the dark about your whereabouts. You were both gone for a week. When you came back, I could tell something had happened."
It had. The events on Pernaia Prime and her meeting with Menos had made an impact that only she knew. Menos was tied to her difficult past in more ways than she'd revealed to the captain. She had asked the captain to accompany her because he was more neutral towards her then Trip. It was the right decision. The captain had bought into her story and had noticed nothing strange about her. She knew Trip would have. She remembered coming back and Trip giving her a look that she'd wondered about for months to come. It was the same look she had seen in this conversation, a look of hurt, wounded pride, tinged with bitterness.
After her mission to Pernaia Prime, T'Pol noticed that there was a subtle change in their working relationship. Two months later, when Trip and a woman calling herself a princess were lost and later found in a compromising position, she'd prided herself on not showing any of the burning jealousy which ran through her veins and stirred feelings of anger in her that she could only call primitive Vulcan. The event had showed her, once more, the growing distance between them. Logically, that distance was the right course to take.
"I cannot disclose any details about my journey to Pernaia Prime," she told him. "It was a secret mission for the Vulcan Ministry of Security."
It was getting darker and only the silver lines of the moon, reflected in the water, made it possible for her to see his features. Normally she could read his emotions, but now his face looked closed when he answered, "So I've been told. None of my business. I moved on fast."
"So you did," she responded, too fast. "You made some new friends very quickly."
Her words, colored by traces of her discomfort about the princess and Trip, caused him to say emotionally, "What's that suppose to mean?"
She realized her mistake, but couldn't stop now. "You had your own week-long trip two months later. You were found in much more involved circumstances then the captain and I were."
He snorted. "You know, I thought you were going to grill me about that back then, but you didn't. You were right. Whatever went on with me and that woman is none of your business. Keep it that way."
"I will. I will not interfere with your relationships with women," she responded, wanting to end this.
"Good. Don't give me the jealous Vulcan routine. Not after a year. You weren't jealous back then. And why should you be jealous? We're nothing more than co-workers, which is probably for the best," he said.
"I am not the one who started displaying jealous behavior. The event you were referring to earlier was also a year ago," she responded. "But you are right. Distance is for the best."
"Because you don't want to get too attached to an emotional, irrational human like me," he concluded.
"It may surprise you, but I do not care about your emotions. That is what makes you Human. I do not think I possess the prejudice of many other Vulcan," she told him.
"So what's the problem?"
His question made all her struggles resurface in such a strong fashion that at first she did not know how to respond. Silence settled between them. She looked at this face, his blue eyes, honest and true, his alien blond hair, and the shape of his body. Should she tell him the truth? It wouldn't matter if she did, because tomorrow everything that happened between them would be gone.
That last thought drove her to answer his question in all honesty, summing up all her reasoning and logic since the day they met. "I cannot give you want you need."
"What I need," he spat, emphasizing the word, I. "Let me be the judge of that. You don't even know what you need."
His last remark both astonished and irritated her, and she quickly tried to suppress these feelings. "And what do I need, according to you?"
He paused, looked down at her and lowered his head to meet her eyes. There was a tension between them like never before, like they were both looking at each other for the first time, seeing their unveiled katras behind their eyes.
Then he met her challenge by saying "Something that makes you feel alive."
She wanted to refute his statement by saying that she was alive, and that she would outlive him by more than a hundred years. Instead, she took action – she kissed him and he kissed her back, making her feel alive and warm and bursting with energy.
Their kiss was just the beginning. Each new kiss was even more frantic. To feel the touch of his lips, the touch of his hand on her back. She felt a tongue and pushed it away, almost choking, but the tongue came back, and now that she understood the method, it dueled with her own. Their kissing ended when she lay down on the sand, feeling the gritty material beneath her. Trip lay crossways next to her, his head and part of his shoulders on her stomach, the rest of his body on the sand.
He tilted his head and she heard more then saw in the dark, with only the moonlight as lighting, the glitter of jest in his eyes when he said, "Now Humans call that a make out session. You probably have a very logical explanation for this."
She looked up to him. Desire from long ago, rooted in the day she met him, arose, making her want to touch his hair, to let her fingers wander through his locks of hair, feeling the texture beneath her fingertips. But she didn't move. Instead she answered his question. "It can be an effective way of releasing tension."
Her answer made him laugh, a laugh that washed over her. "I think, Darling, we just managed to created a whole new level of tension."
He seemed to feel very at ease, lying so close to her. "So you are attracted to me, but you don't want to become too attached. According to what I've read and know about Vulcans, they base their relationships on mutual understanding, not physical attraction. So isn't this strange behavior?"
She was surprised that he had taken an interest in her species, but then again, she shouldn't be. He'd always been curious about who she was, instead of looking at her as the First Officer or the alien female. She rose and, when he went with her, they finally met eye to eye. His face was close when he added in a firm voice, "You can tell me now. We're now living in a world without consequences. Tomorrow nothing of this will have taken place."
"It is strange behavior," she agreed, "because I am already attached to you."
"Why the change of heart? Ever since I woke up from that coma, people have been avoiding me. You have too. You don't know what it's like to wake up and find a piece of your life is missing. You hear that they've cloned you; you have something alien in your brain, because you're the Chief Engineer and important for the mission. Then they tell you the clone has given his life for you. Who was he? What happened? Nobody will tell you and friends keep their distance. You did. That was the worst." He turned to her. "I liked being with you. Your quarters had become like home to me. I thought you felt the same. Then you distanced yourself from me. But tonight you break down when you hear a song about the captain dying, and it felt like everything just washed away. I don't get it."
She knew what it was like to wake up with no memories, but it was not the time to share this with him. "I do care about the captain's condition, but I was not thinking of him. There was another person who almost died – and I had to face the idea of him not waking up from his coma."
He didn't respond so she continued, letting her thoughts escape from the place in her mind where she'd kept them safely stored away. "There was also a boy, who was a younger version of him. He was also unique, and his presence affected me greatly. He told me that the man in the coma had romantic feelings for me."
She had never spoken so openly and so clearly about her feelings, nor had she ever felt comfortable doing so. But in this world, in a loop outside their own time, she took this opportunity to tell him. "The threat of you dying, the thought that you were attached to me as well – something I never imagined you would be capable of – all this provoked strong emotions in me. Everything Vulcans do, we do with the greatest intensity. We can only have affections for one person and it consumes us. It consumes me. And I cannot act on it. It would not be right – not for me, not for you."
"And you are terrified of these emotions," Trip responded, "so you push me away." He smiled at her as if he wanted to give her comfort and not in a million year would she understand him. She only understood that his smile was the reason she had become attached to him. They both didn't speak for a while in a surprisingly comfortable silence.
"What was he like? Sim, I mean. What kind of man was he?" Trip broke the silence.
"He was kind, intelligent, friendly," she replied. "He was you. Only younger."
"Only a younger version of me would tell you that I had some feelings for you," Trip remarked, half smiling. "He's braver than I am. When did he tell you?"
"He visited my quarters just before he had to go." She paused. "I kissed him. He said he would die a happy man." She felt that Trip wanted to ask her about the kiss and before he could, she added, "He was a boy. I kissed him like I would kiss a boy."
"How do you kiss a boy?" he wanted to know.
"Like this." She moved her head and kissed him gently, tenderly, like she had Sim. "This is a kiss for a boy. I kiss you as a man. You have experience with that."
He grinned quickly and then she kissed him, a kiss of passion, affection and tenderness. "Like this." He acted on her kiss and kissed her more aggressively, like he was claiming her and with a longing that matched hers. Their conversation stopped for a couple of moments.
She felt it was getting colder. The vest on top of her dress wasn't warm enough anymore. Trip offered his jacket, saying she needed it more. She could smell his unique sent, coming from his clothing. Despite the colder surroundings, she didn't want to leave and they didn't want to return to the town. They stayed on the beach, sitting next to each other. Neither of them wanted to go back to their normal lives. So they stayed until the new morning came.
T'Pol woke up. Judging by the light of the sun it was already morning. She took the device out of the plastic bag where they always carried it and placed it in the sun. Today they would leave. She removed the sand from her clothing, moved her bones, stiff after a night sleeping on the beach. It was very quiet and she decided to meditate on the beach. She saw Trip lying on the sand, eyes closed, fast asleep. When she opened her eyes again after meditating, he was still lying in the same position. She moved towards him on her knees. He was in a deep sleep, lying on his stomach with his head resting on his arms. Her hand moved through his hair, stroking his locks. They were soft and yet firm, different then the thicker and sturdier hair of Vulcans. Trip opened his eyes. She withdrew her hand quickly.
"I'm awake." Trip smiled, his eyes fixed on her. He stood up, moved around to chase away the stiffness of his body. He held her for a minute, giving her a somewhat clumsy embrace, like he felt uncomfortable in sunlight and preferred the safety of the darkness. "Let's go back. I can use a shower."
They didn't speak a word until they had both showered and dressed. Trip examined the device. "A few more hours of sun and we'll have enough power. We're leaving today."
They didn't exchange any words about the night on the beach, spending the last hours before departure with small tasks and work-related conversation. Finally, the moment of departure had arrived. They both were dressed in their old clothing, placing their new summer clothing in a bag for the new arrivals to this hotel room to find.
Before he pushed the button, Trip looked around the hotel room. "I'm going to miss this place. " He looked at her. "It's been an unusual stay, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. After the jump we will not remember anything. Everything will be back to normal. Like before—just two co-workers on a mission."
She knew what he was trying to say. They would go on with their lives on Enterprise. She would keep her distance, and he would grow tired of her, move on and find another woman. These days had made their connection stronger and just thinking about this prospect made intense jealousy come alive in her, like a stream of lava, consuming everything in its way. She realized that when it happened, she would need every inch of her Vulcan control to keep her jealousy from showing. It was a warning for her, a harbinger of things to come.
Trip pushed the first button. "It's set," he confirmed after a few minutes. "Ready?"
"I am," she replied. Then she turned to him. "Kiss me, Trip. Kiss me as time goes by."
He gave a short smile and took her into his arms. He stroked her hair softly, then nuzzled his nose into her neck and whispered, "If you can stand it, I can." Then as he kissed her. It was the kiss that made her suddenly think – knowing like a scientific fact - that one day, in their real time, she would a have a conversation with Trip like the one they'd had on the beach. Trip pushed the second button, there was a flash and everything became black.
She and Commander Tucker had arrived at the right point in time. She saw the captain standing on the same spot as before. The commander used a temporal tag to go back to Enterprise without the captain noticing, and she and the captain started their mission. They soon found Loomis, the man who was abducting people as test subjects for the development of a biological weapon for the Xindi Reptilians. Loomis was persuaded to help them and he smuggled the captain into the facility. When the Reptilians were out of sight, he investigated the facility. She made sure the comm link was open, so she would be able to help at the first sign of trouble. Waiting in the car, she didn't have to wait long before the communicator chirped. "They brought a bio-reactor with them. They're synthesizing some kind of viral agent," the captain reported. "Rajiin warned us about a bio-weapon. This could be it. "
"Why would they travel back through time?" she asked.
"Daniels said they might be hiding from someone. The past seems like a pretty good place to hide," the captain said. "We've got to keep them from getting it back to our time."
She asked him if he was in a position to disable the Reptilians. The captain didn't know and wondered about the safest way to immobilizing them.
"They must have some kind of temporal beacon. If you can destroy it, they'll have no way of getting back," she suggested.
"I've got to find it first," the captain replied.
"Modify your scanner to a delta band frequency. That should help you locate the signal from the temporal beacon," she advised.
She waited for the captain to find the beacon, until she heard from him again by communicator. "They've gone out the west door. They could be headed for the street. They have the virus. "
She rushed to help him. When Xindi's ran out of the building, she hit one of them. Then she stunned Loomis and followed the captain, who was chasing the other Xindi to the rooftop. This Reptilian was carrying the virus and he took it out of its case. The captain fired to stop him, but instead, the Reptilian got away. He was hidden in the dark and the captain left to try to catch the Reptilian from behind. She heard a struggle and the captain saying, "Don't move a muscle. Drop it. Why a second weapon? Where were you going to take it?"
"We won't allow you to destroy us. Your species is doomed," the Reptilian answered before lunging for the virus and being shot. Still, he managed to push the virus case and it rolled towards an extractor fan. The captain grabbed it before it fell in while she tagged the body.
"Let's go," the captain said. There had been three Reptilians working in the facility and all of them had died, in the fight. So they placed temporal tags on the three bodies of the Reptilians and the bio-reactor they had brought from the future, the captain was holding the virus case, when they got ready for time travel and with a flash they were back on Enterprise.
In the corridor, Commander Tucker was waiting. The captain called for Lieutenant Reed to send a team down to the Command Center. "Wait here for Malcolm. Have everything brought to Cargo Bay Two. I've got to get this to Phlox," he told her.
"What's going on?" the Commander asked her.
"Come with me," she said and walked toward the Command Center.
Seeing a bio-reactor and three Xindi Reptilians in there, Tucker remarked "You found what you looking for and took with you from the past."
"It seems our mission has been successful," she replied.
The day had come to an end. She was back in her quarters, waiting for Trip to arrive for his neuropressure session. She had made up her mind. She should be more professional toward him than she had been. No more visits to Engineering, unless absolutely necessary. No more asking if he could touch a sensitive spot or delaying their session with small talk. The door bell rang and there he was.
Standing in the doorway, he was dressed in his usual gray shirt and sweatpants. The light of the corridor shone on his blond hair, and for a strange second she realized she knew that if she stroked his hair it would feel soft, yet firm underneath her fingertips. She pushed this thought away. The Expanse had a strange effect on me, she thought. When he came in, she studied his face: his eyebrows, the look in his blue eyes, his nose, his mouth. She knew that if she kissed those lips she would taste him and smell him and that she would love it. This second illogical thought distressed her, so she suppressed it. She clearly needed some meditation.
They started their session. He took off his shirt and, when she went to touch the neural nodes on his back, she saw that beneath his neck there was an area that seemed red. It looked like he had a sunburn, but there was no sunshine on a starship. She moved her fingertips over the spot to examine it, which made Trip jump. Craning his head towards her, he asked, "What are you doing?"
"There is some redness in this area."
"It's a bit painful. I must have bumped against something in Engineering," he explained.
She didn't like his explanation. It meant that he was absent-minded. The last time he bumped into something, he ended up in a coma. Her task was to make sure that the Chief Engineer functioned at peak efficiency. The logical course of action was to put out of her mind what Sim had told her and concentrate on the wellbeing of Tucker. That meant keeping her distance on the ship, as well as providing neuropressure and an attentive ear during the sessions. That would have to be her role for some time to come.
She told Trip she was ready to start the session, concentrated on his neural nodes on his back and moved her fingers to the first spot.
"Breathe," she said.