Disclaimers, etc. in the teaser

Author's Note: I'm off to the auld country with my son and my auld faither for a couple of weeks, so this is just a little tidbit to tide you over until I can get back to this story (and my way of letting you know there will be a delay). As always, many thanks, reviewers. I'm afraid I probably won't be able to respond to any reviews you leave me until I return, either ... not that you should feel obliged to do so, with so little to go on here.

"But why me?" Trip said. The captain had called a meeting around the situation room table to update their remaining senior staff on the news that Shev had taken Malcolm hostage. His demands included direct negotiations with Trip.

Archer said, "He didn't say, but I'd bet it has something to do with you asking about love down there. The ambassador tells me Shev has become irrationally attached to a young woman he mated with recently – so much so, that the woman's superior transferred her away to avoid further issues. It turns out that young woman is exactly who they searched for in the Tellarite database - under Malcolm's authority."

Perplexed, Trip said, "But why would Malcolm help him with that?"

"Maybe he had no choice," Hoshi said.

Still not convinced, Trip shook his head. "Shev didn't strike me as a particularly violent person."

"He's holding our tactical officer hostage," T'Pol pointed out.

"And threatening to tell Coridan everything," Jon added. "And to give them the weapon."

"Maybe he's just desperate. Love can do that to a guy." Trip waggled his eyebrows at T'Pol, whose stone-faced reaction struck him as indulgent, if only because she hadn't glared in disapproval as she normally would.

"It appears that he successfully picked the most sympathetic person to negotiate with," Jon said. "Gral says younger men and women sometimes get a little over-wrought about these matters. The woman will apparently cooperate and so will they with any reasonable deal you want to set up. Their priority, just like ours, is to protect the project … and to keep everyone safe."

"Do we even know that Lieutenant Reed is all right?" Travis asked.

Archer looked grim. "All we know is that Gral said he stunned him."

Trip said, "Look, do I really have to insult this guy to earn his trust? That feels pretty counter-intuitive in a situation like this."

Hoshi said, "I'd let him take the lead. If he insults you gratuitously, maybe you should try to return the favor. Otherwise…."

Captain Archer said, "He is the guy with the gun, after all. I don't remember Shev saying anything combative when we met before. I guess you'll have to play it by ear." He pulled up a schematic of the facility. "We're going to beam you down directly into the lobby, here," Jon continued. "There's less chance of any Coridanites who might be watching tracing you to the project that way. Shev specified no weapons. He didn't say anything about communicators, but those won't work once you get below lobby level."

"Okay," Trip said. "Well, time's a wasting."

"I will accompany you to the transporter room," T'Pol said.

"Good luck, Trip," Archer said. "No heroics. Get in, get Malcolm, get this resolved peacefully, and get out."

"Sounds like a plan," Trip said. A plan rather lacking in specifics, but apparently all he really had to do was reunite this man with the love of his life and all would be well again.

How hard could it be?

x x x

In the turbo-lift, T'Pol said, "You asked the Tellarites about love?"

Trip said, "Did you know that on Tellar Prime, men and women only get together to mate? That's it. They don't date, or marry, or cohabitate, or anything. They don't even raise their own children."

"Yes, I have been briefed about that. At least one Vulcan anthropologist has suggested that this may explain why Tellarite males are so fond of argument."

"How's that?"

"He suggested that in most other species, females have a civilizing influence on the male by preferring a safer, less violent, less contentious environment in which to raise their children."

Trip grinned. "Less contentious? Something tells me this guy never met you!"

T'Pol fell quite silent, and Trip thought uh-oh. "You do know I love arguing with you, don't you? Most of the time, anyway."

She said nothing, just kept barreling down the corridor. He put an arm out to stop her forward momentum; at the transporter they were bound to have company. "T'Pol," he said. "I asked them about love because I can't imagine living in a world where I couldn't be with you. Okay? I love you." Had he ever really come out and said that before? Normally, he figured it was too much for her Vulcan sensibilities to handle. But he was going off into at least a mildly perilous situation, and if by any chance he never came back he'd hate for her to think of their last exchange as an unpleasant one.

Her eyes softened, and she swallowed. "Then I trust you will be careful to return to me in good condition and as soon as possible."

"Of course," he said, and raised his two forefingers as Soval had taught him.

She joined her fingers to his, and with that contact he realized just how anxious she was at this departure. In an odd kind of way, it finally sank in that he was a married man now, with someone who truly depended on him for a lot more than just being a friend or a good chief engineer and senior officer. "This is really different now. Isn't it?"

"Yes."

"I'll be back soon," he promised.

TBC