"I met him at an Anti-Collation of Planets meeting," Mettus began, "A rally, I suppose you would say."

Mettus seemed to be the only person in the room currently capable of speaking.

Phlox was leaning, glassy-eyed against the wall, his gaze shifting between his son, Liz and Malcolm, looking at them as if this must be some sort of dream.

Liz, once her larynx had ceased spasming, had held herself together precisely long enough to help Malcolm back into his bed, and then collapsed to the floor, crying silently.

Malcolm himself felt even weaker than he had before. The customary surge of adrenaline, usually welcome in a fight, had seemingly turned every still-functional muscle in his body to jelly. Except, that was, for his heart, which was positively thundering. All in all, he felt rather like he was dying, which was unfortunate because he didn't really have the time for it right now.

He needed to listen to what Mettus had to say.

"He said his name was Sayden, and that he had contacts high up in the Denobulan government. He told me that there was 1a secret plan being developed to release a population control agent on the unsuspecting populace. That the Coalition of Planets secretly wanted to reduce the number of Denobulans on Denobula. To make room for colonies of Humans, Andorians, Tellarites..."

"And you believed that?" Malcolm interrupted him, incredulously. "Why the hell would we want colonies here? We've got our own damn planets!"

Mettus stared witheringly in reply. "It is well known that Earth is basically a wasteland after that Xindi probe..."

"No it isn't!"

"...And Andoria is little more than a barren iceworld..."

"They LIKE the bloody cold!"

"Malcolm, shut up and let him finish, will you?" Liz snapped. "Or we'll never get anywhere."

"Anyway," Mettus continued. "I reserved judgement at first, but then, after the deaths started, I sought him out. He said it was too late to stop it, but that if I could give him some information he could get me a vaccine for Palayjah. I was worried about my sister. So I agreed."

"What information?"

Mettus hesitated, but then, squaring his shoulders, he replied. "He wanted to be informed when my father was coming back to Denobula and where he'd be staying."

Malcolm blinked. His head hurt. "But why? The human embassy was bombed, but not the Vulcan embassy. And the shuttle was bombed at the same time. Humans are the common element. Then the third blast disabled the quarantine zone allowing travel to where Liz was staying, and the fourth destroyed the building almost killing her. Is that what this is about? Someone really hates humans but not so much Vulcans? No accounting for taste, I suppose, but..."

"No," Mettus interrupted shortly. "I never told Sayden Liz was coming. I wasn't going to spread it around that my father is...involving himself with an alien. It's bad enough that he associates with them at all."

Malcolm frowned. "So what then? Presumably this Sayden didn't need Mettus just to find out when Enterprise was coming..."

"God, no," Liz confirmed, her voice rasped, but was steady. "It's wall-to-wall news broadcasts out there."

"So, it's something about Phlox's specific movements...why would anyone..."

"JUST LISTEN TO YOURSELVES, would you?" Mettus shouted suddenly. "I thought he was just going to talk to my father, to try and get a well-respected doctor on his side. But instead he used me to murder my family. My sister, her baby, my mother. You're talking about it like it's some sort of puzzle. What sort of monsters are you humans?"

Malcolm sighed. "You're right, Mettus. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise to him, Malcolm," Liz muttered darkly. "I don't care if he just saved my life. He isn't a good person and we clearly can't trust him."

Mettus sneered at her. "Don't flatter yourself, human. I was saving my father from the shame of murder. Not your irrelevant life..."

"And just what makes you so sure this Sayden is involved?" Malcolm interrupted before things could escalate. He briefly looked to Phlox for help in this, but the man still seemed dazed.

"I saw him," Mettus answered, turning away from Liz. "Elizabeth Cutler and I had a misunderstanding..."

"Ha!" Liz rasped bitterly.

"...a misunderstanding, shortly after my father set out. She raced out of the door before I could explain that she was overreacting. I was trying to catch her before she could poison my father against me. In my rush, I forgot that humans have no sense of direction. I assumed from her initial route that she was headed to the side door, and I took a quicker route. When I got there, there was no sign of her. I ran into the street to look and that's when I saw him. Sayden. Then the building went down and I realised it was him. He murdered my family, because my father disgraced himself by associating with you people, and he used me to do it."

After this outburst, Liz seemed entirely beyond words, and Malcolm himself could only think of inflammatory ones, which he held onto. Reluctantly.

When someone broke the long silence it was Phlox, speaking for the first time. "I cannot believe, Mettus, that you would, of all things, inject your pregnant sister with some mystery substance you go from a man at one of your juvenile rallies! Have you not an ounce of common sense?!"

"As it happens," Mettus replied icily. "I hadn't administered it to her yet, as there weren't yet active cases in our..."

"So you still have it?" Liz interrupted sharply.

Mettus nodded, somewhat churlishly, then produced a small vial filled with a pearlescent purple liquid from his pocket.

"You're probably wasting your time," Mettus said as he handed the vial to Liz. "Sayden's a liar and a murderer. It's probably just coloured water."

"Maybe," Malcolm acknowledged. "But maybe not. Maybe Sayden supposed a man in a family filled with doctors would have the sense and resources to check on the legitimacy of his bribe. Phlox, Liz, if this is genuine could it be of any use to us?"

Phlox tilted his head, reaching to take the vial from Liz's hand. "Possibly. We should..."

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Liz shouted, pulling her hand away from his as if scalded. "Don't you dare touch me."

Phlox froze, and stared at her with a sort of mute horror.

"Liz..." Malcolm began softly.

But Liz shook her head. "No. We shouldn't give it to him, Malcolm. He tried to kill me not five minutes ago! We should keep it, get it to Enterprise maybe. Or maybe Alice can do something with it... But we should keep it."

"That vial is mine, human," Mettus growled moving towards Liz. "It cost me everything."

"You stay away from me as well," Liz shouted, backing up and closing her fist tightly.

"Calm down, please, both of you," Malcolm pleaded, certain he was about to witness something unpleasant. He once more looked, fruitlessly, to Phlox for help.

"If that vial is valuable, it belongs to Denobula," Mettus snarled.

Liz backed herself up to the wall. "You will stay back."

"All right, THAT's ENOUGH," Malcolm roared, ignoring the agony it caused in his unstable ribs. "I am the senior officer here! Now, Liz, you will hand the vial to me and I will give it to Phlox. Phlox you will restrain yourself, and your son, if necessary, from going anywhere near crewman Cutler until she says otherwise. Phlox will analyse that vial and, if we do find anything useful, we will share that information with EVERY BLOODY SENTIENT BEING IN THE GALAXY, if they want it. Is that understood?"

Nobody said anything for a moment. Malcolm may not have been able to hear them over the pounding in his head if they had.

Finally, Phlox delicately cleared his throat. "I think Commander T'Pol might have some concerns about sharing information about sharing information regarding biological weapons with the pre-warp civilisations."

Malcolm smiled cautiously. "Then Commander T'Pol can come down here and stop me."

Phlox smiled very slightly in reply.

Liz placed the vial in Malcolm's outstretched hand, and Malcolm placed it in Phlox's.

Another throat was cleared. This one belonged to Vax who had appeared at the door and was staring at the four of them reproachfully.

"Too much shouting," she scolded. "Hospital, you know. Also, I'm engaged now! Isn't that exciting?!"

"Oh, well done!" Malcolm replied sweetly. "Just two more husbands to go, then? Maybe things aren't completely hopeless for you after all!"

Incredibly, Vax walked away looking pleased.