A/N: Wow! You all really like a who-done-it mystery. But some of you voiced doubts about who did. You'll see you're not alone in this chapter. Plus, there's a special surprise for Hoshi. Thanks for the reviews!

CHAPTER 35

After Archer had finished eating his fill, he gave Hoshi the option of going with him to see Kelby interrogated or heading up to the bridge to resume her translating duties.

"Are you putting yourself back on active duty?" she asked.

He pushed carefully back from the table. With a half grin he said, "We'll see how I feel after I hear what Kelby has to say." Then his grin took on the sinister overtones she'd come to associate with this universe. "I'm sure I'll feel much better once Kelby confesses."

Hoshi hesitated. She had yet to meet the Kelby of this universe, but the one in hers had a chip on his shoulder. She could understand his resentment at having to give up his promotion to chief engineer of Enterprise after Trip's transfer to Columbia hadn't worked out, but it was more than that. She'd never particularly cared for Kelby as a person; he was self-centered and had an inflated sense of his own worth. She could imagine what this one might be like, since it seemed that any negative qualities of counterparts of people she knew were amplified in this universe, while good qualities were repressed so deeply that they hardly ever saw the light of day.

But no one, no matter who they were, deserved to be tortured. She didn't want to be present during an interrogation where she was sure torture would be used.

If Kelby was indeed the person who had been trying to kill Archer, there also was no longer any need to keep constant watch over the captain. But what if it wasn't Kelby? She wondered if her doubt was justified, or if she was becoming as paranoid as everyone else in this universe seemed to be. One thing she knew for certain: She had never second-guessed herself so much in her life.

Still, it wouldn't be a good idea to let Archer go off on his own, since he was still recovering from that nasty impalement. He might collapse somewhere when he was alone and no one would know. Although she'd been hoping to go to the bridge and find out how T'Pol was doing with the information about getting her home, that could wait while she rode herd on Archer a little longer.

"I'll go with you," she said at last.

Archer smiled, got to his feet, and carefully but steadily walked to the bathroom. A short time later, he was dressed in his uniform -- that must have hurt because of the injury to his side, Hoshi thought, noting his pale face -- and was ready to leave the cabin.

No wonder they called it the agony booth, Hoshi thought some time later.

She and Archer, along with the omnipresent Mayweather, had walked into a smallish compartment near the brig to find Reed standing in front of a control console. Two meters in front of him was a clear, round chamber big enough to hold a person. It reminded Hoshi of a giant test tube. Kelby was currently occupying it. He was leaning against the inside, his face dripping sweat. She looked more closely and saw that he was trembling uncontrollably. Whatever happened inside that thing must be incredibly painful.

She looked at Reed. He had that satisfied smirk on his face that she detested. Of course he'd enjoy this.

"Anything?" Archer asked him.

"Not yet," Reed replied, "but then, I was just getting him warmed up for your arrival."

"Increase the setting," Archer ordered.

Reed reached down, adjusted a lever, and looked at Kelby. "Did you try to kill the captain with a bomb this morning?"

Kelby managed to lift his head far enough to glare at Archer. He didn't say anything.

Archer shifted his gaze to Reed and nodded.

Reed pushed a button. A high-pitched whine filled the air, hurting Hoshi's ears and making her wince. The effect on Kelby was more profound, as dancing tendrils of energy arced through the chamber, making the man jerk like a puppet on a string every time they touched him. No longer resting against the side of the chamber, Kelby was stiffly upright, every muscle in his body tense, his head thrown back, and his mouth opened in a soundless scream.

"Did you try to kill the captain with a bomb this morning?" Reed repeated.

Kelby clamped his mouth shut. Several long seconds later, the whine of the machine began to drop in pitch.

"It's recycling," Reed said to Archer.

When the noise ceased, Kelby fell against the side and slowly slid down to the floor of the booth.

"This could take a while," Archer said, moving over to lean on the console next to Reed. "You may have to override the recycling cut-off switch."

Hoshi didn't know if she could stand to watch more of this. What Kelby was going through was bad enough, but Archer and Reed's almost clinical attitude of the procedure was worse. She almost asked Archer to stop it, but one look at his implacable expression warned her off. She used the only excuse she could think of to get out of there. "If this is going to take some time, I'd be better off on the bridge, running translations."

Archer studied her for a moment. She got the impression he was disappointed by her request to leave, no matter that she'd try to couch it in terms he'd accept.

"Fine," he said. "Take Mayweather with you."

Hoshi turned and headed for the exit, trying not to appear to hurry. Behind her, she heard Reed say, "It's ready again, sir."

"Ma'am?"

Preoccupied with what she'd just witnessed, it took Hoshi a moment to realize that Mayweather had actually addressed her for no apparent reason as they were walking down the corridor away from the brig area. "What is it, Corporal?"

"Colonel Hawthorne has asked to see you in troop quarters at your earliest convenience," he said.

Hoshi stopped walking to look at him. She couldn't understand why the leader of the combat troops would want to see her, and why he just didn't come to her himself. "What does he want to see me about?" she asked.

"Don't know, ma'am."

He was back to the short answers. She'd looked down the corridor to the turbolift. She'd intended to go to the bridge; she really wanted to know about the status of the data for sending her back. But, she'd already been delayed once; she supposed another wouldn't make much difference, especially since she didn't know if T'Pol had the data ready to give to her. "All right," she told him. "Lead the way."

Mayweather ushered her down an adjacent corridor. Hoshi remembered it from the time Archer had taken her to the combat troop quarters to get a bodyguard for her. She hadn't been there since. As curious as she was to find out why Hawthorne wanted to speak to her, she was also a little apprehensive. She was straying from the places on this ship where she felt relatively safe.

Mayweather stopped outside the hatch to the troops' quarters, but instead of opening it, he used the intercom panel set into the bulkhead next to the door to alert Hawthorne of her arrival. "Colonel, she's here."

"Acknowledged," came the reply through the speaker.

Mayweather reached over, swung open the hatch, and gestured for her to enter. Hoshi, her instincts blaring a warning, looked at the hatch, looked back at Mayweather, and decided there was no way she could make a run for it. Taking a deep breath, she stepped through.

Hawthorne was waiting for her. Standing at attention, he smartly executed this universe's version of a salute, as his fisted right hand smacked the left side of his chest, then his right arm extended straight out toward her. "Ma'am," he said. "Thank you for coming."

She wasn't about to return the gesture. It reminded her too much of the Nazi salute she'd seen on her Earth's historical vids. She cautiously answered, "Colonel."

She let her gaze travel past him. The entire complement of soliders was lined up in orderly rows, all of them standing at attention. At a command from Hawthorne, every single one of them performed the salute in unison in her direction.

She turned a puzzled gaze to Hawthorne. "What's this about?" she asked.

"We wanted to thank you, ma'am," he said, still standing at attention.

With the multitude of bad things she'd seen in this universe, this definitely wasn't what she'd been expecting. Still not certain what was going on, and because she felt a little guilty for thinking the worst, she asked, "Thank me for what?"

"For your heroic actions aboard the Andorian ship," Hawthorne replied. "Because of you, not only was the captain's life saved, but the lives of two of our comrades."

He had to be talking about the two soldiers who been pinned down under fire in the corridor, she realized. "I just did what I thought was right, that's all."

"At the risk of your own life, ma'am," Hawthorne said. "Not many in the Imperial fleet would have done that for combat troops. We're considered expendable."

The soldiers had maintained the salute, holding their arms outstretched, during the exchange. It was making Hoshi uncomfortable, even as it flattered her. "Tell them to put their arms down, would you?" she asked.

Hawthorne turned to the troops. "At ease!" he barked. "Dismissed!"

The soldiers immediately lowered their arms and went about their business. Hawthorne wasn't smiling as he turned back to her, but there was a sincere glint in his eyes. This man might not be Major Hayes, but he reminded her an awful lot of him.

"This wasn't necessary," Hoshi told him.

"Perhaps not," he said. "But every soldier here adheres to a strict code of honor, whether they are conditioned or not."

That sounded more like Klingons than humans, except for the conditioning part. "What do you mean by conditioned?" she asked.

Hawthorne tilted his head. "Didn't you know? Some of these soldiers receive conditioning, or special training. They are conditioned to respond to orders from superiors, and in specific cases, not to obey anyone but certain individuals." He gestured at Mayweather. "The corporal here is one such soldier. He is conditioned to obey any order given directly to him from me, the captain or Lieutenant Reed, no matter what his previous orders may have been."

It sounded a lot like brainwashing to Hoshi. She suddenly felt sick to her stomach. "You mean he has no free will of his own?"

"Not at all," Hawthorne said with a shake of his head. "He can make decisions, but his first impulse is to obey orders from those individuals. If the orders are foolhardy or dangerous without reason, however, he will take appropriate action on his own." He glanced at Mayweather, who was standing just inside the hatch. "That's what makes Mayweather a good bodyguard."

Hoshi was confused. She'd seen Mayweather follow Archer and Reed's commands, but he also had unfailingly followed hers. "Was he conditioned to obey me?" she asked.

"In a way," Hawthorne said. "When the captain assigned him to be your bodyguard, that also entailed Mayweather following your orders. The captain gave his authority over him to you."

That explained why Mayweather had always followed her orders. It also probably explained why the two soldiers on the Andorian ship hadn't gone to the airlock until she'd invoked the captain's name. They must be among those conditioned to obey Archer. "Oh," she said in a small voice, repelled by the entire concept.

She left the combat troops' quarters with the same feeling she'd had when she'd fled from the agony booth compartment. Was there no end to the horrible surprises on this ship?

Hoshi went to her spot at the aft auxiliary station on the bridge. Mayweather took up his usual position a few paces away. She'd been disappointed to see that T'Pol wasn't on the bridge. But Commander Tucker, sitting in the command chair, had smiled broadly at her when she'd stepped out of the turbolift.

"Hey, darlin'," he said, getting out of the command chair to climb to the upper level as she sat down. "Got some good news for ya."

For a moment, she felt her hopes rise, believing that he was going to tell her it was possible for her to go home. That was the only news she would consider good. But when he came to a halt by her station, his next words dashed those hopes.

"The cap'n just called up here to let me know that Kelby confessed to tryin' to kill him -- twice!" Tucker's face was a study in morbid curiosity. "I knew about the poisoning, but fixin' a salt shaker to blow up? A salt shaker! Can ya believe it?"

"Yes, I can believe it," she said, deadpan. "I was there."

"That's right!" Tucker said. "You were havin' breakfast with the cap'n, weren't ya? It's a damn good thing Kelby's such a lousy engineer, for your sake. Oh, and for the cap'n, too."

That last sounded too much like an afterthought, as if Archer's survival was incidental to catching whoever had tried to kill him. By now, Hoshi wouldn't have been surprised if Tucker wouldn't rather have preferred Archer dead. He'd probably still get bumped up to captain no matter who had done it.

And although Kelby had confessed, the people of this universe seemed to be overlooking one important factor: People sometimes confessed under torture to things they hadn't done, simply to make the pain stop.

"I suppose it is," Hoshi said, trying to ignore Tucker by turning her attention to the auxiliary console board. The man was much too happy about what had happened.

As Tucker walked back to the command well, Hoshi knew she still suspected him of wanting to kill Archer. It really didn't matter that whoever was responsible hadn't been successful this time -- Kelby, Tucker, or some other crew member -- for she was sure there was a good possibility there would be a next time if the opportunity presented itself.