The Captives

Chapter 6 Kov and Trip – Back to Earth

Disclaimer: Enterprise and it's characters are propriety of CBS/Paramount.

Time-line: Takes place a year after Terra Prime (January 2155) in the beginning of the year 2156, the start of the Earth-Romulan war (2156-2160).

Summary: During a conversation between Kov and Trip, a message from Starfleet comes through. Contact with one of Earth's colonies has been lost and Captain Archer orders Trip back to Earth, stating Earth is at war.

Author's note: Many thanks to my beta, KKGlinka

Facility 545, the exam room

We are at war." The dark look on Captain Archer's face matched his grim words. "In these kind of times, swift communication is essential. Don't keep me waiting next time." Captain Archer must have been waiting for a while before Anna found Trip and put the message from Starfleet through on the computer.

"Captain, it's very early in the morning here and I already started my shift without Hess knowing," Trip explained.

Archer dropped the matter and continued with his message. "The entire crew of Enterprise is being called back and we're leaving dry-dock in three days. Columbia already been sent there and both ships are assigned to investigate." Archer's voice sounded as if he had drinking coffee all day and hadn't a minute of rest.

"Which colony has been under attack and what's the evidence that the Romulans are involved?"

"I can't give you any details now, Trip. You'll hear more in three days. Just report to HQ."

"What about the research team?"

"I'm sure Hess will do a good job taking over. With that exception, relay these orders to the other crew members at the facility."

"And transport?" he asked.

"A Tellarite ship at Space Dock 1588 will transport you to Earth. If you leave in five hours by shuttle, you'll be in time to meet them. Your contact is Captain Vark. The ship is called Berket. You better start informing the crew members."

"Yes, sir," he replied. "See you in a couple days, Captain."

"Good," Archer said. "One more thing, Trip, I heard that you have a good Vulcan engineer on your team. Starfleet have been pressing me to put a Vulcan on the ship, so we can pretend we're one happy Coalition. Even Soval is pushing for it and we need replacements now that Hess is leaving Enterprise.

He was surprised. "What about that Swedish women, Lieutenant Thott? I thought you had her lined up as one of the new personnel."

"They're both good," Archer interrupted. "'Is there any chance I could speak with this engineer before you leave?"

"Well, have a look." He gestured toward Kov.

Kov had heard the entire conversation. He headed toward the screen. "Captain Archer," Kov greeted. "It is good to see you again."

Archer didn't expect to see Kov so soon. "Did we meet before? I heard you're a very skilled engineer. Starfleet seemed very impressed by your findings."

Kov didn't agree. "It was very hard to find anything, except from some ancient Vulcan and Andorian texts without any logic. The basic engineering is the same as what we've seen before. Nothing revealing."

"So I'm told by my chief engineer. Still, one day we're going crack the code. Like I said, I could use a good engineer and a Vulcan on Enterprise. It's a good opportunity for you, to serve on the best warp ship we have and it's good for the relations between Earth and Vulcan. What do you think?"

"I am sorry, Captain. I think I will be more useful advancing the relations between our people here. But I am honored that you did consider ..."

"Fine," Archer cut him off. "That would be all."

Trip thought the captain was acting impulsively by asking someone he hardly knew to join the crew. Shouldn't the captain be asking him first, considering Kov wasn't a Starfleet officer and he was in charge of Engineering, before making any changes in the engineering crew? He was rude to Kov, too.

Kov seemed not to mind. Before Archer could end the transmission, he said "Captain, there is a solution for your problem. She has served you very well for years and is very capable. And she is Vulcan. I am sure Commander T'Pol …."

Archers face darkened, before he spit out, "That's no longer an option. Good night, gentlemen. Archer out."

After the abrupt ending of his transmission, Trip apologized to Kov and started to wake up the members of the crew and informing them of the fact that in a couple of hours they would be in the shuttle, heading to Earth and Enterprise He was always proud of the professional way members of the crew handled these kind of situations.

He went to Anna and talked her though the procedures and things on his to-do list, before he went to his cabin to gathers his belongings. He was almost finished with his packing, when he stopped to look around the quarters that had been his home for some time.

I'm going back to Enterprise," he thought. As far as he knew, the deal was that T'Pol would return to Enterprise as well, after her imprisonment, so he was confused about Archer's remark that she wasn't. Were there as yet unrevealed problems? In the good old times, when Jon was still a happy explorer, he would have shared those difficulties with him. They had drifted apart and Archer's choice to follow Starfleet rules in the time leading to T'Pol imprisonment only made it worse.

However, looking back, Trip wondered what he could have done more to prevent T'Pol's fate. A year back, he was so grief-stricken, drained by the hours of investigation, dealing with T'Pol's emotions as well, that he'd had a hard time thinking straight. Everything went by so fast. But Trip realized with sudden clarity that far too often he had let people, circumstances, even insecurities and fear lead his and T'Pol's lives. Not anymore.

A small knock on the door made him aware he had a visitor. It was Kov. He was distracted by the small object that his visitor had brought with him, the Vulcan game of Kal'toh.

"Guess you didn't bring that to play a game, did you?" he asked.

"I would like to give it as a gift, as a token of our friendship." Kov handled handed him the game set. "I also have put some information I found about the Vulcan bond on a PADD from my personal library. You will need to translate it, but it may be useful."

Staring at the little rods of the game and placing the Kal'toh on his table, he expressed his gratitude. "Thank you, for the information and for this game. Maybe someday we'll play it together."

Kov agreed and gave a quick look around his quarters. His eyes fell on a very Vulcan object and when Trip saw the interest in Kov's eyes, he gave the medallion to Kov.

Kov gently stroked the IDIC with his thumb and turned it around to read the small Vulcan script on the back. "You know, many Vulcans would give anything just to hold this da ek'zuru. It's a precious gift. Minister Karik was a great Vulcan and he is still admired by many."

Until their conversation in the exam room, Trip hadn't realized that T'Pol's father was well known among his people. "He seems to be quite famous."

"Minister Karik was a great example for my people. He had some provoking ideas, but he always put Vulcan and Vulcans first and gave special attention to the lower and middle classes. He saved many lives during several wars. His death was tragic in multiple ways." Kov showed Trip the front of the medallion. "Here you can see, this is really minister Karik's da ek'zura. Each one is unique in its setting of the circle and triangle; this uses the setting that forms the word Karik. See ..."

Kov pointed to the middle of the medallion where the circle and triangle met. "Circle and triangle, opposites, female and male, together they create strength. Karik means strength in Vulcan." Drawing with his finger in the air he continued, "Circle, triangle, flat line with three small circles above them. It means men, women, home and storm, the Vulcan sign for affection. I always found ancient writing fascinating."

Staring at the circle and triangle of the medallion Kov said, "It reminds me of the texts we have found in the Romulan ship. I have studied many aspects of the ship and never in my life have I found so many old hand writings. Different Human, Vulcan, Andorian, Tellarite ones. Stories with no connection. It is like they just put their library into the database of the ship."

Trip shrugged. He was frustrated and irritated about the progress of the research. "I think the Romulans know we want to get our hands on as much information as we can and they just drowned us in useless and misleading drivel. It's their obnoxious way of giving us the finger."

"They want to make an emotional connection?" Kov was confused.

It took Trip a moment to understand how Kov had been thrown off track, but then he recalled the far more intimate Vulcan gesture. "No, it's just a human expression of … that you don't like someone."

"So it's like if they wanted to say to us they know everything about us and our history, but we don't know anything about them," Kov rephrased.

"You make it sound kind of scary," Trip said. Sometimes Kov was too clever for his own good. He had put the fears that were in the back of his mind into words.

Kov pondered aloud. "Which makes the coalition between our species that much more important. When one of our previous wars came to an end, we realized we had lost many of our previous allies. That's why we made contact with Earth."

"I thought the Vulcans made first contact, because we had warp technology." Trip was genuinely surprised. He had always heard and believed the story about first contact. Other than that silly story that really had made him laugh about T'Pol's nephew L'Tok being "quite unwell" after drinking Zefram Cochrane's booze, T'Pol hadn't told him anything else either.

"I don't think we were that noble," Kov replied and looking at the medallion once more he added, "We lost many good men in that war. War is horrible and the enemies we face even more. The Romulans are no better. They are very good at enlisting evil men. I have heard that Tolaris is working for them."

Trip was shocked to hear his name and the old hatred against Tolaris came to life again. "Suits that piece of scum. Is that the reason why you're helping Starfleet?"

Kov's eyes moved from ornament to his face. "It is one of them. I hardly know anything about the military or politics, but the Romulans are a threat to every race that wants to live a peaceful life. We can't afford to give them the upper hand. Not only the research of the ship made me wonder. When Starfleet told me about the discovery of the ship, there was something odd about it. I think the ship is a diversion. We are looking in the wrong place. If our enemy's plan is to obtain information – like any enemy would do - they will go to the source. To Starfleet Headquarters on Earth."

He hated to admit it, but as T'Pol would say, Kov's logic was very convincing. "You're right, there is something strange going on. I'll keep an eye on every possibility."

"Thank you. A safe journey, Trip."

"Thanks for everything. Thanks for the great gift. If there's anything I could do for you," Trip said, thinking very hard of a present that he could give Kov. He had been a true friend.

To his surprise Kov said there was something he could do. "Could you be so kind as to send this letter to a Vulcan address? It's encrypted and she has to send a secured message back to a specific address. She will know what to do. But I can't send it from this facility, because of the security regulations."

Trip took Kov's second PADD with mild curiosity. "She? Maybe a nice old fiancée?" he teased Kov.

The top of his ears became a little green, but other then that Kov kept his cool. "I would be grateful if you would deliver it."

"Okay, I will. But you better invite me to your wedding," he said, tapping with his finger on the precious PADD.

"In the improbable event that that would happen, you are most welcome and if you get married, I would be grateful to help with the arrangements. My nephew is a priest and very good in at preforming weddings."

In response to any other person, he would have snapped, but the conversations with Kov had given him hope. Hope that he hadn't felt in a long time. So he replied with a hint of the same humor, "Well, according to you I'm already married. So in the unlikely occasion I got married with vows and a priest, you will be my best man."

With those words, both friends departed and Trip left for Earth.

Translation of Vulcan words

Da ek'zuru – medallion (from da-kuv - circle and ek'zuru – necklace)