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CHAPTER 40

Hoshi met no one in the corridors. She entered the launch bay by way of the upper level access hatch, slipping inside unnoticed. A careful survey of the area after she entered revealed that there didn't seem to be anyone about. As on her Enterprise, the launch bay apparently wasn't staffed unless it was in use.

Down near the launch doors, which would open outward from the underside of the starship, she saw her shuttle parked next to two shuttlepods. From the outside, there didn't appear to be anything wrong with it, but according to what T'Pol had told her, it wasn't flightworthy. Whatever had been taken apart, it must have been on the inside.

She cautiously made her way around the catwalk to the control room. She was almost to its door when a shadow moved in front of her. Startled, she stood still until she realized that the shadow had been cast by T'Pol, already in the control room and backlit by the room's lights. Through the glass observation window, she could see the Vulcan working at the main panel.

T'Pol looked up as she entered the control room. "I have installed a bypass so that the bridge will not be alerted when the launch bay doors open."

Hoshi had assumed she'd have to fly as fast as she could away from Enterprise and straight into an anomaly. She still would, because her departure would be picked up by the ship's sensors. But if no one knew right away that a shuttlepod was launching, she might gain valuable seconds.

"Great!" she said. Holding the metal cylinder a little higher, she asked, "Now, what are we going to do with this?"

"Our original plan of placing it in an airlock should suffice," T'Pol answered. "I will take it to the nearest one while you familiarize yourself with the controls of a shuttlepod."

"Which one?" Hoshi asked uneasily, looking through the window at the shuttlepods below. She was a novice pilot, only recently having been certified to fly her Enterprise's auxiliary craft. She hoped the controls on the Imperial shuttlepods weren't too different. Otherwise, she might not make it out of the launch bay.

"Either one," T'Pol responded.

Hoshi turned the cylinder over to T'Pol, who showed not the least sign of nervousness or even regret at what they were about to attempt.

"Thanks for helping me," Hoshi said.

"Gratitude is not necessary," T'Pol responded. "We made an agreement. I am merely keeping my part of it."

Yeah, right, Hoshi thought. First T'Pol had offered to help her because she thought Tucker was somehow involved in trying to kill Archer and wanted to keep it quiet. Then, just like herself, she had had doubts about the veracity of Kelby's confession. T'Pol couldn't back out of the deal because there was always the possibility that she might tell Archer that Tucker might be involved.

But Hoshi now understood this Vulcan was nothing like her counterpart. This T'Pol had seen an opportunity to advance Tucker's career, and thereby her own because of her dependence on him and his obsession with her, by using the current circumstances to remove Archer from command of Enterprise. If her Captain Archer had somehow let a shuttlepod be stolen out from under his nose, Hoshi knew he'd be embarrassed, and he might be reprimanded, but here, the consequences were bound to be more harsh. She had no trouble imagining that this universe's Archer would be stripped of his command, especially if Tucker and T'Pol embellished the facts to their advantage.

Hoshi decided she didn't trust this T'Pol. That the Vulcan was helping her was of no consequence, because it suited T'Pol's aims. She was certain that, if Tucker was definitely in the clear and that there was nothing for T'Pol to gain by helping her, the Vulcan would tell Archer what she'd been up to. Come to think of it, that might even raise Archer's estimation of T'Pol. Yet another reason to get out of this universe as quickly as possible -- before T'Pol could double-cross her.

"Time is of the essence," T'Pol said, cradling the cylinder in one arm and heading for the exit to the corridor. "We could be discovered at any moment. Haste is required."

That was a Vulcan way of telling her to hurry up, Hoshi assumed. But she was still unclear on a few details. "What happens after you put the cylinder in the airlock? You are coming back here, aren't you?"

T'Pol, her hand poised to open the door, turned back to her. "Yes. You should have the shuttlepod ready to depart by that time. I will open the launch bay doors. At the same time, I will open the outer airlock door, which I can accomplish from here." She indicated a switch on the console. "As soon as you have cleared the ship, set a course for the anomaly. According to my calculations, it will be very close by. Fly into it at impulse, then engage the warp engine of the shuttlepod. That should set the process in motion to send you back to your universe."

T'Pol slipped out into the corridor, leaving Hoshi staring after her.

Until now, Hoshi hadn't really thought about the magnitude of what she was going to do. For one thing, events were happening too fast to really stop and think. For another, she'd been occupied with the moment -- getting the cylinder from Reed, trying to keep Archer from figuring out she knew how to go home, not to mention avoiding his advances, and finally, cracking the code on her cabin door lock. She'd assumed that T'Pol's information was correct, and for all she knew, it was. She didn't have the background in sciences that the other woman had. But entering an anomaly, with its unusual energies, was risky under any circumstances. They'd done all sorts of weird things to her Enterprise.

"Nothing to it," she muttered. "Just fly the darn thing into a spatial anomaly."

She let herself out onto the catwalk and made her way down the stairs to the main floor, wondering if she'd been terribly wrong about T'Pol. Instead of trying to help her, the Vulcan might be trying to kill her.

Ensign Freeman was waylaid by a couple of acquaintances on his way back to his quarters. They talked him into playing poker in one of their cabins. Freeman's luck seemed to be turning. He ended up somewhat richer when the game finally broke up a little past midnight.

It wasn't until he was back in his own cabin, taking off his uniform, that he remembered the data chip he'd found at Sato's station on the bridge. He glanced toward the bathroom. He ought to shower and go to bed. The last thing he needed was to show up late for his shift because he'd overslept. The chip was probably nothing more than some translations of transmissions anyway. Nothing important, or she would have said something to the captain about it right away.

He got in the shower, but his mind kept returning to the data chip. The file had been awfully large, even for a subspace transmission. He decided he'd look at it when he was finished showering, if only to satisfy his curiosity.

A few minutes later, he was seated at the desk in his cabin, calling up the data chip's file, and running it through the UT to translate it. As he suspected, it was in Andorian, but he didn't understand what it was. Reading through the translation of the technical jargon was tedious, and he began to skim the material. It wasn't until he reached the end, with the summary, that he understood the importance of what he had found.

He glanced at the time in the corner of the computer screen. It was past one in the morning. The captain was surely asleep. But this was important. He imagined he'd get a promotion by bringing this to the captain's attention. If he waited to inform Archer, he might be punished for allowing her to get away.

Either way, Freeman imagined that Sato would be out of his hair forever.

Still leery of disturbing the captain, he decided he'd compromise. He'd take the data chip to the security officer, who could take it to the captain.

Hoshi was about to climb into one of the shuttlepods when she had a hunch. Turning around, she quickly went to her shuttle. The door still opened to her code; they hadn't changed that. When she climbed in, she went immediately to the pilot's seat, sat down, and began powering up systems. One by one, the indicators turned green.

T'Pol had lied to her. As far as Hoshi could tell, her shuttle could fly. In fact, there appeared to be nothing wrong with it. They must have repaired whatever damage it had incurred and had put back together whatever they'd taken apart.

She gazed unseeingly at the controls as she thought. T'Pol had to have known that the shuttle was fixed. So why would she lie and tell her to take one of the Imperial shuttlepods? The only viable answer she could come up with was that T'Pol wanted to disgrace Archer, something she'd already admitted. Whether she was doing it for Tucker or for herself was a moot point.

She looked out the front viewscreen, where one of the shuttlepods could be seen. She wouldn't put it past T'Pol to have something else up her Vulcan sleeve -- like maybe rigging the shuttlepods to explode by remote control. T'Pol could get rid of both her and Archer with one flip of a switch, so to speak. She'd be killed in the explosion, and Archer would be taken down in the aftermath.

So far, T'Pol had been running this show, gathering information, figuring out when the next anomaly would appear, instructing her to take one of the shuttlepods. Hoshi had pretty much blindly followed her lead.

That last part was about to change, Hoshi decided. There was one thing she could do to make sure the plan went her way. She climbed out of the shuttle, leaving its systems on standby, and quickly made her way back to the control room.

When Archer didn't respond to his cabin's door chime, Reed used his security clearance to override the lock on the door. Normally he wouldn't bother the captain at this time of night, but the information Freeman had brought to him couldn't wait. If the communications officer hadn't fabricated it, that is. He knew Freeman hated Sato's guts.

Now, however, with neither Archer nor Sato not answering the door, Reed was sure something wasn't right.

He rushed in, his phase pistol in hand, as soon as the door unlocked. Everything appeared as it should. Archer was soundly asleep on his bed, his dog lying nearby, awake but watchful. The door to Sato's quarters was closed.

Soundly asleep was right, Reed thought. The man hadn't woken when the door to the cabin had opened. He hadn't even stirred. Reed edged farther into the room, relaxing his guard only slightly. "Captain," he called. When there was no response, he called again, louder. "Captain Archer! Wake up!"

The captain still didn't stir, but the dog, picking up on Reed's urgency, got to its feet.

Reed hurried to the adjoining door, opened it, and stepped into Sato's quarters. There was no sign of her. Over by the door to the corridor, the cover had been taken off the access panel. He could see wires hanging out. She must have not only figured out the code to the door, but interrupted the security circuit as well, Reed realized. His irritation at what she had done was only slightly tempered by his admiration that she'd been able to do it without being caught.

He went back into Archer's cabin and, after holstering his pistol, approached the captain. Something was definitely wrong with the man. He was lying on top the bed coverings, wearing his uniform trousers and boots. A gentle shake did nothing to rouse the man. He shook him harder. "Captain! Wake up."

Archer mumbled something inaudible.

"Wake up, sir," Reed said. "Sato's trying to escape."

"Reed? What are you talking about?" Archer asked, blinking his eyes open. He feebly tried to push himself up.

Reed helped pull him to a sitting position. "She knows there's a way to return to her universe," Reed told him.

That finally got through to Archer. His eyes opened wider. "Why do I feel so groggy?"

"She must have slipped you a sedative," Reed deduced.

"Why would she do that?" Archer asked. He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands.

Reed was rapidly becoming impatient. It was his duty to report what was going on to the captain, but if he was delayed here much longer, Sato might just make good her escape. "Because very shortly, conditions are going to be right for her to attempt to return to her universe."

Archer struggled to get to his feet, further exciting Dart, who sensed something was wrong. The dog pranced around, making a weird sound that was a combination of a growl and a whine.

"Sir, if she's to be stopped, we need to get to the launch bay now," Reed said. "I'll alert the bridge."

"No!" Archer managed to grate out. He grabbed his shirt from the back of the chair where he'd left it, moving carefully because of his wound. "I want to catch her myself."

"We must hurry, sir." Reed looked at the chronometer. "It's nine minutes before an anomaly appears, according to the information that was brought to my attention."

As Archer put on the shirt, Reed went over to the med supplies on the shelf and confirmed what he'd already told the captain. There was an empty sedative cartridge in one of the hyposprays. She must have given him that instead of the painkiller. He quickly swapped out the empty cartridge for one with painkiller, went back to Archer, and at the man's nod, injected its contents into Archer's neck.

As they hurried out the door, Dart at the captain's heels, Archer seemed to be shaking off the effects of the sedative remarkably well. Reed didn't think it had anything to do with the painkiller, but everything to do with Archer's anger at Sato's betrayal.

He smirked. There had been one or two other captain's women who had tried to run from Archer before, but never to another universe.

T'Pol stealthily made her way back to the launch bay control room. Expecting no one to be there, she was startled to see not only Sato, but her bodyguard as well.

"What is the meaning of this?" she asked, gesturing at Mayweather.

"Just an extra precaution," Sato told her dryly. "Oh, and I'm going to take my shuttle. It seems to be in perfect working order."

T'Pol barely managed to keep her face expressionless. She'd known Sato was intelligent, but she'd never suspected her of having the same devious tendencies of the humans in this universe. She'd seen into the other woman's mind. There was nothing there that had indicated Sato would behave like this. Sato's trust in the T'Pol of her universe had led her to believe that she herself would be trusted.

She calculated the odds of success, now that Sato had changed the equation. Her plan to install Tucker as captain relied heavily on variables, one of which was Sato's mode of transport to leave the ship. It was the most important variable, after making sure she was not suspected of aiding Sato. That variable had changed, too, now that Mayweather was here; he would report her to the captain. Despite her adherence to repression of emotion, she felt anger that this insignificant human dared to interfere with her carefully crafted plan. Her reason clouded by the primal emotion, she took a step toward Sato.

Mayweather raised the phase pistol she hadn't seen in his hand, aiming it squarely at her.

"You know about conditioning, don't you?" Sato asked.

The non-sequitur confused T'Pol. "Yes," she said, keeping her voice steady with effort.

"Good," Sato said. She turned to Mayweather. "Corporal Mayweather, your primary duty as my bodyguard has always been to protect me. I am no longer safe aboard this vessel, so I am going to leave in my shuttle. I want you to watch Commander T'Pol. She will initiate the launch sequence and open the bay doors." She took a step over to the control panel. "Make sure she presses this switch," she said, indicating the one to open the outer airlock doors which would allow the metal cylinder to be sucked out into space. "Above all, until that happens, you are to disregard any orders from anyone else, especially the captain. My life depends on it."

"Yes, ma'am," Mayweather responded.

T'Pol looked at the bodyguard. His dark eyes stared back unblinkingly. Because of his conditioning, and the precise way Sato had phrased her words, the man would follow Sato's orders. All her planning was for naught. Archer wouldn't be removed from the captaincy, Tucker would not move up to take his place, and she would not reap the benefits of having someone in command who could be more easily manipulated than Archer. Worst of all, she would be implicated in Sato's escape. She would be lucky to get out of this alive.

Or so she thought.

"Corporal Mayweather," Sato said as she edged toward the door to the catwalk, "after I leave, I want you to tell the captain that I ordered you to make T'Pol do this. She is not responsible. It was my idea to leave." She opened the door to the catwalk. "Goodbye. And thank you, Corporal Mayweather." Then she was gone.

T'Pol was confused. Sato had realized what she planned to do, but still had given her a way out. As she moved to the control panel under Mayweather's watchful gaze, despite her almost human disappointment that her plan wouldn't come to fruition, she was impressed by the nobility of the woman from the other universe, and found herself wondering what it would be like to belong there.