The captives

By panyasan

Chapter 15

Disclaimer : Enterprise and its characters are property of CBS/Paramount.

Time-line: Takes place between 2155 (after the events of Terra Prime) and the beginning of the year 2156, just before the start of the Earth-Romulan war (2156-2160).

Summary: Trip, T'Pol and Phlox have discovered that members of Starfleet have been infected by nanites, that form a telepathic transmitter, which could influence Human brain waves and actions. Also, Trip's memory was erased a year ago, while fighting with a telepath. Meanwhile, Malcolm Reed is suspicious about his girlfriend Rianna's behavior. When Malcolm and Trip visit sickbay, they find Archer in a fit of rage, trying to strangle Rianna.

Author's note: This chapter is from Malcolm Reed's point of view. Many thanks to my beta KKGlinka and KTR for his Swedish translation.

- Starfleet Headquarters, Phlox's sickbay -

Archer's eyes were wide, his body rigid with madness, his hands on Rianna's neck, attempting to kill her and screams of hatred flowed out of his mouth. It was a frightening scene, like somebody had taken over the captain. Malcolm and Trip, just entering sickbay, were staring at the fight in total shock. But then, in one second, Rianna took control over the situation. She pinched Archer in the neck and, like a ton of bricks, he fell on the floor, unconscious.

Trip was the first to regain his senses. "What's going on?" he yelled. "Are you alright, Lieutenant?"

Rianna, unfazed, assured Trip she was fine.

Tucker stepped toward her, Malcolm following one step behind him. "It looked like the captain attacked you, but then you pinched him and he dropped to the floor. How did you manage that?"

"Old army trick," she clarified.

Malcolm knew it was a lie.

There was no Swedish army trick that would allow a woman of her strength to knock out an adult male Archer's size with a simple pinch. All his suspicions were raised and he was frozen again, but in anger. He ignored her, until she departed for Engineering. Then he followed her, rage building up.

Only a few steps outside sickbay, he grabbed her arm and said in a low voice, "You lied."

She stared at him with those innocent looking blue eyes and it fueled his anger further.

"There is no 'Swedish army trick' that can take out a grown man with one pinch. You lied and you've been lying to me for a long time. You said you were going to the gym, but the manager says you never pay them a visit anymore. You said, this week, that you were going to Headquarters and your home, but you made a visit to Stinson beach. You-"

She cut him off. "Thank you for your concern, Lieutenant Reed," she said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "I am alright, after your captain tried to strangle me. Thank you for asking instead of babbling about what you found wrong with me. Maybe you can give me a tracking device, so you don't have to spend your time checking on me."

"I want an explanation."

"For what?" She was deadly calm.

Hotheaded, he answered, "Why are you with me? You wanted to get close to the Head of Security?"

"I wanted to get close to you." In a gentle voice she added, "Because I love you." Her hand reached out to him and she touched his cheek in an all too familiar loving gesture.

He knocked her hand away from him. "I don't believe you!" he shouted.

Rianna gave him the coolest stare he'd ever witnessed from her. "Then don't. I can tell you no more." She turned and walked away.

He felt like he lost on every level and all his frustration over the past months exploded into one punch against the wall. Biting away the pain, he saw a woman in her fifties enter the lady's bathroom close by without saying a word. It was Senator Tenson. He was a fool and his idea about Tenson was ridiculous. So instead of looking into Trip's medical files, asking Phlox questions or getting treatment in sickbay for the bruises on his fist, he went to the safest place he could find: The Enterprise armory.

It was in that place Trip found him. "You okay?"

He nodded, but Trip wasn't convinced. "You left sickbay without saying a word. I always go to my office in Engineering when I want to sort things out. I thought the attack on Lieutenant Thott would effect you, she being your girlfriend and all. I might not have been there for you the past year, but I did pay attention and I know you've been dating her for a couple months now."

Five months, two weeks and two days, he thought. He was going to fob off Trip with an excuse that he was fine and needed in the armory, when a hasty knock on the door cut their conversation short.

One of Trip's engineers had come to warn him. "Sir, there has been an explosion in section 334.2."

Trip turned to him and said, "Rianna Thott was working in that section."

Malcolm felt a rush of panic washing over him. One thought pierced through his mind: Rianna was in great danger. Forced by a overwhelming sense of urgency that Rianna needed help, he rushed out of his office and ran. He ran like he never had before. He knew where to go, because part of his job as Head of Security was to know every section of the ship, even the obscure ones. His heart was pounding when he arrived at the designated section.

Smoke and screams met him. He saw her body laying on the floor, her blond hair in a circle around her head. There was a great wound alongside it and some of her hair was burned. He knelt and started caressing the top of her head, where it was intact.

Miserably, he remembered the last words they spoke to each other and whispered, "I am so sorry, love. So sorry. For not believing you." It was only then when he realized Doctor Phlox was also there and he made room so the doctor could help. "Can she hear me, Doctor?" he asked. Rianna lay so still.

The only response Phlox gave was a look of pity and, with an unmistakable gesture, he closed Rianna's eyes. It was in that moment Malcolm Reed realized that the women he had loved for the past months no longer lived.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. He sat in Trip's office, staring in his tea, with a concerned looking Trip and he couldn't remember how he got there.

"You don't have to babysit me," he told Trip. "We're needed on the ship. It's almost launch-time, isn't it?"

"The launch is canceled," Trip said. "I have a medical check-up first, but after that, you can stay at my place, if you want."

Malcolm chewed on that piece of information, aware that he only wanted to sleep. For hours and hours. Normally he rented out his Starfleet apartment when he went back to the ship, but this time he hadn't found a new renter. "No need. I'm going home to get some sleep."

As he walked away, he stopped at the door and turned to his best friend. "I said I didn't trust her. Those were my last words to her, Trip. I can never tell her that I love her. So what I said earlier? Forget it. Take every opportunity for happiness and love. Take that chance. You never know when you or she will die. Nothing will remain, perhaps only love."

All alone in his apartment, he could neither sleep nor rest. The silence surrounding him became unbearable and he left. He got up and went straight to Trip's apartment, hoping his friend was there.

He was. When Trip opened the door, Malcolm muttered some excuses, but Trip gave him a warm welcome. He asked if he wanted something to drink and left for the kitchen. Malcolm entered the living room. The room was warm and dimly lit. Candles were lit and cushions were placed on the floor. He was greeted by T'Pol, dressed in casual cloths, in which she looked like the girl next door instead of the Vulcan science officer. In spite of his own misery, he was struck by the silent joy in her eyes. Not that he was very good at reading Vulcans, but this one looked almost happy.

"I grieve with thee, Lieutenant," T'Pol offered with her sympathy.

"I could grieve if I didn't feel so guilty," he groused. He hurt the person he loved the most. "Do Vulcans experience regret?"

"Looking back on your past actions, seeing the mistakes you made and the hurt it caused, and drawing lessons from it, is a logical course of action," T'Pol answered, in her way comforting him.

T'Pol placed the cushions in a stack, blew out the candles and adjusted the light to normal. On the table, he saw the same jewelry box that Trip had shown him that morning. He was clearly interrupting the couple on a romantic evening.

"You learned from my lesson," he concluded.

T'Pol's eyebrow went up.

Luckily, he wasn't forced to explain himself. He was saved by Trip who entered the living room with tea. He informed T'Pol she got an incoming message on the communication device. T'Pol excused herself. When she came back, dressed in her normal Starfleet clothes, she informed them that Doctor Phlox had asked her assistance on some matter. Trip guided her to the door. Malcolm took his tea and waited in the living room. He heard Trip and T'Pol talking in the hall, taking their time before Trip returned.

The first thing he said was, "If you want, you can use the guest room. It might be nice to avoid being alone."

He had thought the same and it was the reason why he had came. Still, he felt he needed to object. "Don't you think three is a crowd?" He didn't want to saddle the happy couple with the company of a gloomy man like him.

"T'Pol suggested it. She's here, because my apartment is closer by than her place at Stinson beach," Trip answered.

"She lives near Stinson beach?"

"Yes, she bought a beach house two years ago, shortly after we visited it. Guess the beach made a real impression," Trip explained. He snorted. "Never gonna forget that day. Not after the pictures Terra Prime took there."

Trip's remark about Stinson beach brought back not only that horrible, last argument with Rianna, but many questions as well. Why did Rianna go to Stinson beach, the place where T'Pol lived and where Terra Prime had taken the pictures that had set off all the events of the past year? His thoughts kept on turning and turning, until he went to bed early. In his bed in the guest room he heard T'Pol coming back, the soft talk between his friends, T'Pol making her bed on the couch in the living room. He imagined Trip kissing her goodnight.

He stared at the ceiling, trying to make order out of the chaos of the past events one moment, struggling with his guilt the other. He finally dozed off to sleep, to be awakened by some soft noises in the middle of the night. From the muffled sounds he reasoned out that T'Pol apparently had a bad dream and Trip reassured her. It was three o'clock and he'd hardly slept. Nothing was distracting him from his returning memories. The meeting at Robinson and Robinson. The dinner at Madame Chang. What had Rianna said? Watch the small things. Pay attention to the things that are off. Too restless to fall asleep again, he got a PADD and started to write a list of all the odd things from the last year.

He was finished writing when he saw the sunlight entering his room. A new day had come. In a few hours he had to attend - in his position as Head of Security on Enterprise - the investigation meeting concerning Rianna's death. Luckily, Trip, as Chief Engineer joined him. Also present were Arling as the representative of Starfleet Intelligence and Doctor Phlox. To his astonishment, Harris, his old and much disliked chief in Section 31, also walked into the meeting room.

Phlox started with his autopsy report which, truth to be told, Malcolm didn't want to hear. It brought back memories of how Rianna had laid there on the floor, burn wounds covering her head and hands. Trip and Harris got into an argument how the accident could have happened, when Phlox cut them off.

He handed them PADDs with his findings. "Look at page one. It's a scan of Lieutenant Thott's face. The marks are signs of ridges that have been removed. She also wore a necklace with a pendant. Tests showed that the pendant served as a device to mask her own biosigns and pass biologically as Human."

He finally heard the truth. A bitter laugh came from lips. "You must be joking. She was an alien. Don't tell me she's Romulan."

"No. We have no knowledge of Romulan DNA, but Lieutenant Thott was a hybrid. Part of her DNA is genetically close to Vulcan, to be precise 25%," Phlox replied. "Also, the bruise I found on the captain's neck after Lieutenant Thott had defended herself, is consistent with with the marks of old Vulcan technique to render someone unconscious."

"A Vulcan-Human hybrid?" Trip asked.

"No, Commander, Rianna Thott was 25% Vulcan and 75% Valakian."

He had expected everything, but not this. "The Valakians!Are you sure? Enterprise met them five years ago. They hardly knew other species, let alone Vulcans. Weren't they looking for a plague cure? We gave them warp technology to find it!" Malcolm shouted. "How on Earth..."

The dry voice of Harris explained how. "Two years ago the Valakians became allies with the Romulans. The Romulans offered them a cure. They took it. Paying your due to the Romulan empire is a small price to pay when you are facing extension. I have heard the species that shared their world, the Menk, make excellent, hardworking slaves. So Thott is from a species that are allies with the Romulans, gets involved with the Head of Security on Enterprise and becomes a Starfleet officer. Both Captain Archer and Commander Tucker indicated a blond, blue eyed woman was their attacker. Given her Vulcan heritage, Thott had telepathic abilities. We were looking for a Romulan spy working within Starfleet and I think we found her."

He didn't hear the rest of Harris' statement. He was sick, horrified, tasting bile in his mouth. The fact that his girlfriend could have been a Romulan spy that could have harmed Trip in such a terrible way. He heard himself speak, "You think she... violated Commander Tucker."

The calm voice of Arling brought redemption, refuting Harris. "As usual you are jumping to conclusions. Thott was 25% per cent Vulcan, which makes her abilities as a telepathic very weak. The scars in the commander's brain suggest the attack was done by the same kind of telepath that attacked Commander T'Pol, who is fully Vulcan, in the Expanse. The commander hardly survived that attack. We're dealing with a much more powerful telepath, with capacities above what Lieutenant Thott was capable of. A statement of a women with blond hair and blue eyes is not enough. There are a lot of blond women with blue eyes, shall we arrest them too? Also if she attacked Tucker a year ago, why didn't she change her blond hair color and appearance?"

Harris argued back, saying it looked very suspicious, but Arling had more aces up his sleeve. "Lieutenant Thott made it very clear that she abhorred any kind of mental rape and the Romulan's methods. That's the reason we worked with her and sent her to infiltrate a group involved in these kind of practices."

"We worked with her?" Tucker quoted Arling, "You mean..."

"Exactly, Commander Tucker. Lieutenant Thott was working for Starfleet Intelligence," Arling said.

The room became dead silent. Four pairs of eyes looked at Arling.

Harris was the first to speak, almost outraged. "You gave an enemy of Earth entry into Starfleet? No wonder your department isn't working!"

"She is not the enemy. Lieutenant Thott's real name was R'ann. Her mother died in childbirth. Her grandmother had Vulcan genes and raised her according to the teachings of Surak. Her grandmother had changed her appearance and outward behavior so, nobody knew she was, in fact, a Vulcan," Arling explained. "Rianna was an officer in the Vakalian army. When the Romulans took over her home planet, every officer had to be medically tested. The test showed that she was Vulcan and a surreptitious investigation revealed - living by the teaching of Surak - and this was enough for the Romulans to put her and her grandmother into a labor camp.

"Her grandmother died soon after they arrived in the camp. Rianna managed to escape, thanks to a group of Vulcans she met there. They told her not to return to Vulcan because they had reasons to believe the Romulans had infiltrated the Vulcan government. Our sources have confirmed this. They advised her to go to Earth, the safest place for her. Rianna objected, saying the people of Earth had denied them the cure for the plague, but after her escape, when an opportunity arrived, she took her chance and traveled to Earth."

"She went to live in Sweden," Trip suggested.

"Exactly. She lived in Sweden for several months, before she moved to San Francisco. When we met, she said she had prove a Romulan cell was operating in San Francisco. She claimed she had means to infiltrate this group."

Harris started to object, saying that the DNA tests showed that Rianna was genetically close to Vulcan, but she wasn't entirely Vulcan. So her whole story about being prosecuted for being Vulcan didn't hold up. A debate rose between the men, until Arling took the lead again.

"We checked the Vulcan database and there are mentions of species closely related to Vulcans. Rianna told us that the Romulans did not only hate her being Vulcan, but also that she and her grandmother were followers of Surak. Ensign Sato's team has discovered a number of negative notations about the Vulcan way of life in the data banks of the ship we found in the Kajani System. The word for Vulcan in Romulan means "dead one". All this confirms the hatred Rianna suggested. Furthermore, we checked all the facts as best as we could and her story proved to true. Finally, we also had reasons to believe a Romulan spy was operating within Starfleet. We think he or she is responsible for the pictures and the medical file we found so easily at the time of our investigation of Terra Prime. That person probably also had a hand in erasing Commander T'Pol's letter of resignation from Starfleet and Vulcan files. She did resign from the Vulcan High Command. Commander T'Pol is very precise; she wrote that letter."

"T'Pol told me that she couldn't find it nowhere," Trip informed Arling.

"Nor could I," Arling confirmed. "I am sure that I have seen her letter of resignation, but it had disappeared. The Vulcans almost looked as panicked in their own way when we asked them about Commander T'Pol's letter. They couldn't find it either. Combined with the rumors that the Romulans had infiltrated the former Vulcan government, it became clear Romulan spies were at work. Only a high placed person in Starfleet and the High Command would be have access to the files. Letting Rianna work for us had lots of advantages. This was a great opportunity for Intelligence to gain more knowledge about the Romulans and to find this spy. Her information was invaluable."

"Did she know who attacked me?" Trip asked.

"No, but she told me she had found new evidence that would lead to the person you attacked you," Arling answered.

Harris hissed in disapproval, Trip muttered that everything was very confusing, but Malcolm became calm.

"It is not a question of who attacked Commander Tucker, but why," he said. "I have an idea. I would like Captain Archer, if he is fit enough, and Commander T'Pol to join us. Commander Tucker, could you get them and bring that Vuclan game of yours?"

Tucker stared at him, puzzled, but after Phlox said the captain appeared to be in good condition, he went for T'Pol and the captain. When Trip came back with T'Pol and the captain, Trip had already filled them in.

Malcolm placed the game of Kal'toh on the table. He took his PADD with his prior night's notes.

He looked to the men and one women sitting around the table: T'Pol, Captain Archer, Trip, Phlox, Arling and Harris. "If I understand correctly, Kal'toh is a Vulcan game composed of rods. If you find order in the chaos of the rods, you finish the game. You could say all of us hold a rod. If we join the rods, the pieces of puzzle will fall into place."

He saw this audience listen with interest. "First rod. Two years ago Commander Tucker and T'Pol visit Stinson beach. Someone took pictures that ended up with Terra Prime and in the hands of Starfleet Intelligence. They also found Commander T'Pol's medical file. Being part of an investigation, the information within this medical file wasn't confidential anymore. On initiative of Senator Tenson, Starfleet Command decides to hand Commander T'Pol to the Vulcans. She faces charges and gets a prison sentence. Second rod is the matter of some remarks said during the investigation, which has become public. We don't know who leaked the information, but we do know Senator Tenson suggested leaking the information in a meeting with Admiral Black and Captain Archer."

Malcolm went on, paying no attention to Harris and Archer, who wanted to interfere at this junction. "Third rod: Commander Tucker told me he went to see someone in a position of power that could influence Vulcans. Next thing we know, he is attacked by a telepath. In a conversation with Commander Tucker, he told me that he remembers nothing of the attack, but he does remember a conversation with Senator Tenson in that same time-frame. Doctor Phlox, judging from your check-up you did after the attack, do you think Commander Tucker was in any condition to have a rational conversation with a high placed senator like Tenson?"

"I don't think so," Phlox answered.

Harris protested, but Malcolm asked for his patience. Harris bit back his objections and questions and Malcolm continued.

"Fourth rod. Like I said, the question is not who attacked, but why? If you were a Romulan spy, you would do everything necessary to keep your identity a secret. You would not randomly start to attack Starfleet officers. Just for the sake of argument, let's presume Commander Tucker went to see this highly placed person and finds out he or she has a visitor, a telepath known by him, that would not hesitate to hurt Earth. That would make this high placed person very suspicious. So I'm guessing Commander Tucker recognized the telepath, which made the person who he visited desperate to conceal his or her identity. How many telepaths do you know, Commander Tucker?"

Trip thought for a second. "The only telepaths I know capable of attacking me are Tolaris and Rajiin."

Harris raised the same question Malcolm had been struggling with. "Well, the dark haired Tolaris doesn't fit the description of a blond woman with blue eyes but Rajiin does. I've heard that Captain Archer also dreamed about a blond woman doing medical experiments on him, but the captain would have recognized Rajiin in his dreams. He knows her."

Malcolm saw Captain Archer shift uncomfortablely. It gave him the courage to ask, "Was the woman you saw in your dreams Rajiin, Captain?"

For the first time in his life, he saw the captain blush. Archer swallowed. "Yes."

Arling threw Archer a grim look and muttered that he had expected that Archer would have shared every piece of information, but T'Pol interrupted the beginning of another dispute. "I think we should concentrate on the task at hand. I may have a fifth rod."

When T'Pol saw she had everybody's attention, she continued in a steady voice, "In the early days of the Expanse, Commander Tucker had several accidents in Engineering due to his fatigue. One time an incident with a relay caused several wounds on his hands and chest. With accidents involving relays the hands are likely to get hurt, but Lieutenant Thott also had severe head wounds. That means she must have lifted the relays to her head. If she was following the path of Surak, she would not take her own life in this way."

Arling jumped in. "Lieutenant Thott had managed to infiltrate the Romulan cell and gained their trust. She told me she gathered vital information and she was about to give this to us. If her double play was discovered-"

"It's murder," Malcolm completed his sentence. "Someone murdered her, electrocuted her." He felt a bitter taste in his mouth. He should have protected her.

"I find it hard to believe that one of my Engineering crew would do such a thing," Trip remarked. He sighed. "But I've been proven wrong before."

"Not only the Engineering crew were present, there was also a tour going on in Engineering," Phlox remembered. "With Senator Tenson and Admirals Black and Chueng."

Phlox's remark made them all look in realization that one name just kept on coming up. It was Harris who put it in words. "Nice game, Lieutenant Reed. This game can easily lead to the conclusion that senator Tenson the constant factor in your theory. But aside from a circumstantial theory, you have no proof, nothing at all."

"Lieutenant Thott told me that she trusted a Vulcan man in Sweden," Malcolm suggested. He was still intrigued by this figure. "We could contact him and see if he could help us. His name was Karik."

Malcolm saw a flash of disbelief cross T'Pol's features, but it was Arling who responded. "I don't think you will find him in Sweden," he expanded on Malcolm's lead. "During the first interviews with Rianna, she told me she met a Vulcan named Karik, working in the same labor camp as her. He was the leader of a group of Vulcans that taught that every species could benefit from the teachings of Surak. The Romulan guards hated him. Rianna said he reminded her of her grandmother in many ways and, as a follower of Surak, she was easily accepted into the group. They were the ones who helped her escape. Two men were killed during that escape and I could always tell that she felt great gratitude and admiration for Karik and his followers."

Malcolm remembered Rianna's remark that Karik helped her during a difficult time. He never would have thought her difficulties were a Romulan labor camp. "She made a drawing of him, I think. He had a deformity; he was missing the top of his right ear."

Harris who had cooled off and listened intently, offered an explanation. "From what we gathered, Romulans rarely take prisoners and put them to work in labor camps if they do. The mauled ear could have resulted from an occupational injury or torture."

Phlox added, "I have limited knowledge about Romulans, but there are

many cultures in which prisoners and slaves are marked in some way."

"Does the name Karik sounds familiar, Commander T'Pol?" Malcolm turned to T'Pol. She looked up at him. Her face was more bleak then usual and her hazel eyes stared at him with a look he had seen before... in his dream about Karik.

"She has a family member by that name," Trip answered for her. "Being a prisoner of war and far away in Romulan territory, this Karik can't give us anymore information about Rianna's death. We'll have to look for other sources."

"So it looks like Karik is another dead lead," Archer commented. He had been very quiet during the meeting. "Most important is that we find this information that was worth killing her. I understood Starfleet Internal Affairs already searched her quarters on Enterprise and if they had found anything, we wouldn't be having this conversation. So I suggest we look at other places, Engineering for Hoshi with the search team. She become an expert in Romulan during her assignment in Brazil. She'd recognize anything Romulan at once."

Archer's suggestion soon lead to Malcolm, together with Arling and Hoshi to search the deserted Enterprise. In his own department, several lockers were located and aside from the users, only the Head of Security had the access codes. In one of them, Malcolm discovered a small package under a pile of clothes and books. There was a tag attached to it. The writing looked Swedish. He gave the package to Hoshi and pointed at the tag.

"Ha den äran på födelsedagen, Malcolm. Må du vara stadig på handen och med blicken riktad mot målet," she read. She translated right away. "It means 'Happy birthday, Malcolm. May your hand be steady and your eye on the goal.' The word "mål" can mean both goal and target." Hoshi made eye contact with him for the first time. "Your birthday isn't for months."

Malcolm took the parcel and left for the armory, a safe surrounding for opening mysterious packages. When he opened the parcel, he recognized the box from Robinson and Robinson. He opened the box. A beautiful Webley mark VI was laying in the box. She was polished and in excellent condition. He started to clean to gun, noticing that it was already spotless, done by a former Vakalian military female. Then he checked the cartridges that were laying in a row in the lower portion of the box. The third one was strangely lighter.

When he looked closer, he could see someone had removed the bullet. In the open cartridge a small piece of something was sticking out. He took it out and held it against the light. He recognized it. It was a small data stick used to store information. He could almost feel Rianna's smile, when he muttered, "Clever girl."