6. The Kriosian Proposal

It took three full days for Archer to stop feeling a surge of violent anger every time he thought about his first officer and chief engineer. During that time, he avoided them to the extent possible. At the end of three days, he decided he might be able to address the situation without completely losing his cool.

Maybe.

It would depend, in part, on whether they lied to him to his face. That, he wasn't sure he could deal with in any calm or rational manner.

So he had them both go to his ready room. And he sat in his quarters for a few minutes after they arrived, watching on a closed circuit, curious whether they would do anything to give themselves away while they were alone. On the one hand, he found the eavesdropping distasteful. On the other hand, he hated to confront them without any more proof than his own surmise. Even if it was a surmise he felt very certain of.

T'Pol arrived first, and stood looking out the window, with her hands clasped behind her back. Trip arrived moments later, stopping briefly just inside the door.

She turned to look at him, and he nodded acknowledgment to her. "He called you in, too?"

She looked disdainful. "Is the answer to that not obvious?"

Trip sighed, and flopped down into the chair next to the door — the one that was still streaked with grease from his earlier visit. "I suppose it is," he said sardonically.

T'Pol arched an eyebrow at him and returned to gazing out the window.

"You comin' to movie night?" Trip assayed. The crew who had to remain aboard ship while they were in spacedock had grown restive, and Archer had asked Trip to put together a movie night in hope of helping morale.

"Perhaps. What movie are you planning on showing?"

"I thought maybe a prison break film. 'The Great Escape,' maybe, or 'Escape from Alcatraz.'"

Oh, well, those would be great choices for a group of people who already felt unreasonably confined. Archer made a note to bring it up later.

T'Pol's eyebrows came together in consternation. "Humans lionize individuals who escape from prison?"

"Sure," Trip said. "Why not? They're both true stories."

"Humans lionize individuals who successfully evade justice?"

It's a good thing perplexity isn't technically an emotion, Archer thought, because if T'Pol gets any more perplexed, she'll break a sweat.

"It's not always justice," Trip said. "In 'The Great Escape,' those guys were prisoners of war. They had a sworn duty to try to escape."

"So, prison does not always mean a place of incarceration for criminals," T'Pol guessed.

"Even when it does mean that, people who escape aren't necessarily evading justice," Trip persisted. "Remember when the Klingons sent Cap'n Archer to Rura Penthe?"

"Under Klingon law, Captain Archer was justly condemned."

Trip stared at her, narrow-eyed. "You're really impossible sometimes, you know that?"

"That statement is illogical," she said. "However, despite being illogical, you are often predictable, and your choices can sometimes be used to deduce your state of mind. Perhaps choosing a prison break film indicates that you feel trapped in some fashion yourself."

Trip leaned back in the chair and cast a "deliver me" look at the uncaring ready room ceiling. He sat back up. "Maybe I do," he said.

"Does this have anything to do with your decision to turn down the promotion to captain of the Vostok?"

How does she even know about that? Archer wondered. They must have discussed it. Nothing in their conversation thus far had been out of the ordinary for Trip and T'Pol — just the usual verbal sparring — but it did seem odd that Trip would have discussed the Vostok with her. It had to have been Trip; Archer himself had kept that conversation private. Perhaps Trip had just sought advice from T'Pol about it? Somehow, that seemed unlikely. Yet clearly, she knew.

Other than that, though, there was nothing in this conversation to indicate that their relationship was anything other than it had always been. Archer began to feel a little guilty about eavesdropping; about having suspected them at all.

"Vostok doesn't need a new captain," Trip was saying. "It needs to be decommissioned and scrapped to build something worth flying."

"Have you considered that at some point, someone will probably say that about Enterprise?"

"Hell, at some point, somebody will probably say that about me," Trip said. "Not yet, though."

His objection to the Vostok really was an objection to the ship itself, then. Nothing more than that.

Archer reached for the screen, to kill the display before heading for his ready room to talk to his two senior officers about something completely innocuous, something that would never even hint at his suspicions.

As he leaned forward, though, he saw Trip haul himself to his feet and walk around the ready room desk to where T'Pol was standing.

Archer hesitated.

"Well," Trip said, reaching one arm out to the wall behind T'Pol's head, "In any event, I'm not quite ready to start calling myself a bird in a gilded cage."

T'Pol turned to face him. Archer sat back a little. They were certainly in each other's personal space now. But that could just be Trip testing her boundaries.

T'Pol raised her face to Trip's. "So you do not yet feel that you lack freedom, happiness and contentment?" she said, completely deadpan.

Did she just… Archer wondered in shock.

Trip threw back his head and laughed uproariously. "We need to check the stars," he said, peering out through the window. "I'm pretty sure the universe is set to collapse the day that you start understanding human idiom!"

"Any foreign language can eventually be mastered, given sufficient sustained effort," T'Pol said.

"You just go right on tellin' yourself that, darlin'," Trip said.

But for all his amusement, for all their banter, they had done and said nothing incriminating. Archer fumed. He had really hoped to be able to confront them from a position of certainty.

Frustrated, he killed the viewscreen.

He wondered briefly if T'Pol would understand him if he told her that it was time for him to fish or cut bait.

They were both still standing by the window when he came into his ready room. They moved, then, but only to let him around the cramped room to his desk. "Thank you for coming," he said. "There's something we need to discuss."

They arranged themselves at the end of the desk, and waited with nothing more than ordinary curiosity.

"The Kriosians have contacted us, with an eye to establishing diplomatic relations, and possibly joining the Coalition of Planets," Archer said.

"The Kriosians…" Trip was instantly wary.

"Yes. Trip, Princess Kaitaama has expressed a particular interest in… renewing your acquaintance."

Trip laughed uncomfortably. "Has she."

"Oh yes," Archer said, not quite winking at Trip. "Of course, she's First Monarch of the Kriosian Empire now. So, we'll have to tread carefully."

"We will?" Trip looked worried.

"Oh yes," Archer said earnestly. "On the one hand, it could be bad for diplomatic relations between Krios and the Coalition if First Monarch Kaitaama were to feel…" he paused, "…snubbed…" another pause, to let the word hang in the air, "but on the other hand, we really don't want the First Monarch to get the wrong idea."

Trip looked increasingly ill. "The wrong idea."

"I've had Hoshi do some research. Turns out that, well…" he gave Trip his most sympathetic look, "there's a strong likelihood that the First Monarch already believes we'll be formalizing Krios's entry into the Coalition through a traditional Kriosian marriage treaty."

Trip felt his way along the wall to the chair he'd been sitting in earlier, and fell into it.

"We're trying to make it clear that that's not really what we have in mind — without upsetting the negotiations, of course. But if that is how it turns out, well…it wouldn't be entirely bad," Archer said. "There's not a formal ceremony. You'd just have to go on a six-month tour of the Kriosian Empire with your new bride — but after that, we can probably negotiate your return to Enterprise for all but one month out of every year. And who knows? It's entirely possible that we'll be able to leverage your new status as royalty to advance the Coalition even further!"

Trip had leaned forward with on forearm on the desk, and the other on his leg. He was sweating, and grimacing in pain.

"Trip? Do I need to call Phlox?"

"Maybe," Trip said, through gritted teeth.

"What's wrong?"

Trip's gaze went to T'Pol.

Archer looked at her, too. "Do you know what's wrong with him?"

"Perhaps," she said coolly.

Trip really did look bad; he looked as if he might pass out in the floor. Archer moved around the desk, just in case he needed to catch the engineer. "Trip. Breathe," Archer said, genuinely concerned.

Trip's breath hissed through his clenched teeth. He was looking daggers at T'Pol. "You have to stop," he said thinly.

Archer looked at T'Pol. "Stop what?"

"I do not know, Captain. I do not believe that I am actively doing anything."

"Gaaaaaah," Trip fell forward out of the chair, collapsing onto his knees on the floor. Archer dropped to the floor also, barely catching him. He held Trip by the shoulders, while the engineer struggled to breathe.

"T'Pol!" Archer said, "What does he mean, 'You have to stop?'"

"I said I do not know what I could be doing. I do not believe I am doing anything."

"She knows," Trip gasped.

"T'Pol!"

T'Pol sat slowly down on the floor, in a meditation posture, and closed her eyes.

"Cap'n," Trip gasped.

"At least call Phlox!" Archer told T'Pol.

"I can't…marry…Kaitaaaaaaagh," Trip fell sideways against Archer, who laid him on his back on the floor. He lay there panting heavily.

T'Pol hadn't moved.

"Somebody tell me what's going on here!" Archer bellowed.

Trip just moaned softly.

"It is as Commander Tucker has said," T'Pol said matter-of-factly, without opening her eyes. "He cannot marry Kaitaama, or anyone else."

"Because…" Archer prompted.

T'Pol opened her eyes, regarding him evenly, and said nothing.

"Because she'll kill me, I guess," Trip said. He seemed to have caught his breath, a little. "At least, that felt a lot like dyin', just then."

"T'Pol?" Archer asked him. "How is T'Pol going to kill you?"

"Got me," Trip said.

Archer stood, advancing on T'Pol. "I want answers, Commander."

"Commander Tucker cannot marry the First Monarch, or anyone else, because he is mated to me," T'Pol said evenly, looking up at him from the floor. "Is that better, Commander?"

"I think my head's gonna hurt for a week," Trip muttered from the floor. He had thrown one arm over his eyes.

"'Mated'?" Archer said.

"Yes," T'Pol said. "Commander Tucker and I share a mating bond. I expect you know what that is, from having carried the katra of Surak."

Archer thought about it. Actually, he did know. But — "You married Koss," he said.

"An unfortunate mistake," T'Pol said. "Our marriage could never have worked. I was already, by that time, bonded to Commander Tucker."

"How long do we have to be bonded like this before you just call me 'Trip'?" Trip protested weakly from the floor.

"It is not unusual for Vulcan couples to remain formal with one another for their entire lifetimes," T'Pol said.

"I'm not Vulcan, sweet cheeks."

"Obviously."

"Times like this, I'm not so sure about the 'couple' thing either," Trip sulked. T'Pol did not reply.

Archer moved around the desk and sat down in his own chair. Trip pushed himself into a sitting position on the floor. T'Pol stood up, taking exactly the same position she had been standing in when Archer came into the room.

Before she married Koss… that placed the beginning of this thing during or shortly after their time in the Expanse. And a Vulcan mating bond… "It shouldn't be possible for a Vulcan to form a mating bond with a human," Archer said.

"Nevertheless," T'Pol said.

"This has been going on since the Expanse," Archer guessed.

"Yes," T'Pol said.

Trip moved from the floor back to the chair. He was no longer gasping, and his color was improving. "Cap'n. Are you serious about the Kriosians?"

"No," Archer said absently. "They haven't contacted us."

Trip gave T'Pol a thin-lipped glare. "He played you, sweet cheeks."

"If you persist in calling me that, I shall begin calling you 'Charles.'" She managed to freight the name with a planet's worth of Vulcan disdain.

"'Charles' is my granddaddy," Trip said dryly.

"Obviously. At any rate, I believe you have also been 'played.'"

"Shut up, both of you," Archer snapped. "Does this have anything to do with the neuro-pressure?"

"Oh I think it probably has everything to do with the neuro-pressure," Trip said.

T'Pol said, "Perhaps."

Archer looked from one to the other and said, "So, it was the neuro-pressure that resulted in the formation of the bond?" If that were true, then what was going on was a lot more innocent than he had feared. Unfortunate, but innocent.

They both squirmed a bit. At length, T'Pol said, "Neuro-pressure is a very intimate procedure, but I do not believe that a mating bond could have been formed through neuro-pressure alone. At least, not between a Vulcan and a human."

"So, the rumors were true, then?"

Trip looked blank, and T'Pol did not react either. "The rumors that there was more going on between the two of you than a relaxing Vulcan massage."

"Not at first," Trip said. "Not for a while."

"How long of a while?"

The two of them exchanged a look. "Um. Just how much detail are you gonna want, Cap'n?" Trip said.

Archer considered. At this point, he had little to lose by being blunt. "How long have you been sleeping together?"

"I do not believe we have ever slept together," T'Pol said, "not more than briefly."

"He means having sex," Trip translated.

"Oh." T'Pol suddenly looked evasive.

So much for her mastery of idiom, Archer thought. But of course he couldn't admit to having overheard that conversation, at least not yet. "Well?"

"That started while we were all doing Major Hayes's training sessions," Trip supplied frankly. "After we picked up that pod with one of the sphere-builders in it."

"I see." They had been in the Expanse…about six months at that point. So that was "how long of a while," then. He gave Trip a hard look. "Six months. Is that some kind of personal best for you? Or maybe personal worst? Certainly didn't take you that long with Kaitaama."

Trip reacted with confusion, followed by comprehension…followed by staring determinedly down at his hands, folded together on the desk. He still had black grease under his fingernails.

"Captain," T'Pol said, "Do you mean to imply that Commander Tucker…initiated…our sexual relationship?"

"Didn't he?"

"No."

Archer's mouth fell open. It was several seconds before he could think what to say. What he finally managed was, "What the hell were you thinking?"

"I think she was thinking pretty much the same thing that just about killed me a minute ago," Trip said. "She was jealous."

"Of who?"

"Corporal Cole."

Archer stared at Trip in disbelief. "You were sleeping with Corporal Cole?"

"No! Contrary to what everybody seems to think, I don't run around the galaxy looking for all the action I can get!" Trip protested. "There was nothing to be jealous of!" He gave T'Pol an accusing look. "Either time!"

Archer shook his head and turned his attention back to T'Pol. "Jealous or not, why would you do something so utterly irresponsible?"

Again, T'Pol looked evasive.

"You didn't seem surprised when you thought it was me," Trip muttered.

"I wasn't surprised when I thought it was you," Archer said in annoyance, earning a belligerent glare from Trip. "T'Pol? Commander?"

"Captain," T'Pol said slowly. She was watching Trip apprehensively. "I think…there is something I need to discuss with Commander Tucker before I can discuss it with you."

"You're not pregnant?" Archer said. Trip looked startled.

"No," T'Pol said. Her Vulcan calm was not holding; she looked…worried. "Please, Captain."

"Fine," Archer said. "I'll be on the bridge."

He stood and made his way to the door, where he turned and looked back at the two of them. They were regarding one another warily.

"Don't be long," he said.