A/N- I posted chapter 6 but then took it down and added a whole new section. So even if you've read the first part, Trip's section is brand new.

Chapter 6

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T'Pol

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"It's the traitor!"

Solvan pushed T'Pol harder against the rock wall, pinning her back painfully against the uneven surface. T'Pol grit her teeth, careful not to show any sign of fear on her face. Solvan stood staring for a moment, "You should not have come here," He gradually relaxed his grip, "I regret the consequences of your actions. You must see that there is only one solution to the problem you have presented."

T'Pol struggled against the man's strong grip, "What you are planning will only cause further chaos on Vulcan. T'Pau is our leader; you cannot change that simply because you disagree." It was hard to keep the frustration she felt out of her voice.

"You are far too young to understand the consequences of the reformation. We will be restoring order to Vulcan, not destroying it."

"This is wrong," she shouted angrily, her voice echoing throughout the barren cavern.

T'Pol saw a flicker of hesitance cross Solvan's face, "We will respect your wishes in regards to what you want done with the body." His voice was soft, almost regretful, "This was once a sacred place. We could bury you here. But if you prefer we will return you to your training party."

T'Pol closed her eyes, letting her head hang close to her chest.

Enterprise would never know what happened to her.

Trip would never know what happened to her.

T'Pol's legs shot up and out, her feet connecting solidly with Solvan's chest. Now freed from his grasp she pulled the knife at her hip, crouching into a fighting position. Solvan came at her again, this time T'Pol reacted more quickly. She moved just out of his reach before turning around and slamming the man into the rock wall, her knife plunging deeply into his thigh. Solvan cried out, the sound echoing against the walls surrounding him. As quickly as she had slid the knife in, she pulled it back out, turning around to face the two other women in the cavern, knives pulled.

They came at her together, making it less feasible for T'Pol to be careful in her strikes, instead acting only on reflex and instinct. The first woman lunged at T'Pol, slamming her knife hand against the rock wall, trying to loosen her grip. As the woman brought down a powerful blow, T'Pol thrust her arm up to protect herself, simultaneously landing a strong kick against her second attacker. T'Pol felt a burning pain as the knife sliced across her forearm, but it did not slow her as she brought her elbow up to connect with the woman's chin. Her attacker fell back releasing T'Pol's knife hand, which T'Pol brought around and slammed into the woman's shoulder. The woman fell to the ground. T'Pol hesitated momentarily, then kicked the woman's head against the rocks, knocking her unconscious.

The second woman attacked T'Pol from behind again; this time however, T'Pol wasn't quick enough to evade the blow completely. What would have been a fatal stab wound became a deep cut on her side. Even with only one attacker remaining, the cost of the fight was becoming more evident. With every blow T'Pol reacted more slowly. This woman was more her equal in the fight, more able to anticipate her moves. Every attack from T'Pol was blocked, and each successive attack from the woman became harder to defend against.

Finally the woman kicked the knife from T'Pol's hand. T'Pol thought quickly, lunging at the woman's knife hand. While the knife sliced T'Pol's hand, the woman's wrist landed in T'Pol's firm grasp. T'Pol yanked the woman towards her, pulling her off balance, while at the same time wrapping the woman's arm around her own body; her back pressed to T'Pol's front, her own arm trapping her. T'Pol reached up to the woman's shoulder with her free hand, and pinched, hard. The woman immediately went limp against T'Pol. T'Pol set her gently on the ground, then picked up her knife, wiped it off, and sheathed it.

She took the masks off of the two women finding that she recognized neither of them. Taking the material, she tore it into long strips, then tied it tightly around her waist, trying to stanch the bleeding coming from the gash on her side. She did the same to the deep cut on her forearm. Next, she walked over to Solvan who was desperately trying to slow the bleeding coming from the wound from his thigh. He pulled his knife from its sheath as she approached, which T'Pol kicked easily out of his grasp. His hands went back to clutching his wound, and he watched as T'Pol picked up his knife and knelt beside him. She cut the material she had into two more strips and wordlessly tied them securely around his thigh.

"I have been accused of being too human," she said softly, "Yet, I do not see what value would come from a civil war. I do not see the logic in it."

Solvan let his head lean back against the wall behind him, "It has already been put into motion. Nothing you can do will change that."

T'Pol tied the other strip firmly around the top of his thigh. Solvan grit his teeth in pain. T'Pol nodded, "I have to try." She stood up slowly, exhausted. "I think I hit the bone, but I avoided the major vessels. It is highly likely that you will survive."

Solvan nodded, "We will come after you, the logical course of action would be to kill us."

"I'm not sure that it is."

T'Pol walked over to the woman she had stabbed in the shoulder. As she checked the woman's head, she found fresh blood on her hands. "I'm afraid your companion is more badly injured than you are."

"And T'Sara?" he asked motioning to the last woman T'Pol had fought.

"She is only unconscious."

"You are making a mistake."

"I have seen far too much death to ignore the value of life." T'Pol took the knives of the other two women.

Before walking out of the cavern Solvan called to her, "You have more honor than any traitor I have met." He bowed to her as well as he could in a sitting position. T'Pol bowed back and then walked into the cool air of the night. She threw the daggers into the dessert then took off into a quick jog to the training ground.

As it came into view T'Pol slowed, eventually coming to a crouch behind a rock, watching for movement in the camp. It looked as though everyone was still asleep, except for a couple of the night watch. T'Pol moved into the camp quickly and quietly, keeping her breath soft and even. When she finally reached the supply tent unseen, she let out a quiet sigh of relief. She searched the area quickly before picking up a transmitter, a canteen, a med kit, and a couple of ration bars. As quietly as she had snuck into the camp, she left, and soon as she was sure she was no longer within earshot of the camp, she broke into a jog. If she could tell Vlek what she knew, he would be able to stop it.

She just had to make it to the base.

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Trip

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Trip turned the treadmill down until his pace was a brisk walk. He took a swig of water from his bottle and wiped his face down with a towel.

"It's about time. Were you going for a record?" Archer got off the treadmill he'd been walking on for the last fifteen minutes.

Trip smiled at his friend, "Well, you know my last gym partner was a bit of a hard ass." He took another swig of water. "Have you heard from Malcolm at all?"

Archer put up his hands, shaking his head, "I don't even know where he was transferred to. I knew he didn't want to serve on the Columbia, so I just assumed he took a position on the Intrepid, but when I checked with headquarters he wasn't there either. They just keep telling me he hasn't been reassigned yet. It's like he just dropped off the map."

Trip frowned, "Malcolm never told you where he was going?"

"As much as I tried, Malcolm and I weren't friends." Jon shrugged reluctantly, "That man never told me a thing about himself that he didn't have to."

"Jon, he went back to the Section." Trip paused for a moment, waiting for his friend's reaction.

Archers face changed immediately. The smile lingering on his lips disappeared and deep worry lines appeared across his furrowed brow. "Damn," he cursed softly. Balling up the towel he was holding, he threw it as hard as he could against the opposite wall before plopping down heavily on the bench next to the gym mats.

"I don't think he told you because he knew how you felt about Harris."

Archer's frustration seemed to ratchet up a notch at the mention of Harris, "But why did he go back? He had his pick of positions."

Joining Archer on the bench, Trip finished toweling off his face. "I think it's what he felt… he deserved."

Both men sat silently in each other's presence. Ever since Malcolm had left there had been almost an unspoken rule that they didn't talk about what had happened. Hoshi's betrayal, Malcolm's departure, the whole thing had been such a shock to the crew that no one really knew how to handle it. Silence seemed to be the best solution.

Archer took a deep breath before he broke the rule. "Trip, I can't tell you how many times I've gone over the whole thing in my head. Hoshi? She just… It's the last person I would have ever thought could do anything like this. I know we all felt betrayed by her, but Malcolm… I can't imagine."

Trip sat quietly for a moment, "Even with all the evidence against her, I never believed it was Hoshi that tried to kill me and T'Pol."

"Trip…" Disapproval seeped into Archer's voice.

"No Jon, did you ever talk to her? When she was first put in the brig?"

"Of course I did..."

"From the very start she never denied working for Terra Prime. But every chance she got she swore up and down that she had nothing to do with that. I've got to say, it's made me damn uncomfortable."

A heavy pause sat between the two men before Archer asked the question hanging in the air. "Do you think there still might be someone onboard?"

"I don't know Jon," Trip shrugged his shoulders, "If Hoshi is capable of working for Terra Prime…"

Archer nodded in agreement, before pushing himself of the bench. "I'll talk to Clemins about working with Starfleet to get a detailed history of everyone onboard." A tiredness seemed to fill him as he let out a sigh. "But Trip, I think we can only be so cautious before we start hurting ourselves. I haven't been completely oblivious to the number of hours you've been putting in."

"Anna already got on to me about that." Trip nodded, "And, no. We have to trust our people. I had what you could call an eye-opening experience about that."

Archer smiled, "Oh?"

"I've been letting Q'ell take care of some little things around the ship;" Trip laughed softly, "The kid gets such a kick out of it. And he's bright, Jon. You know he's the one that takes care of all the machinery on the colony?"

"Yeah, I knew that."

"Well anyway, I've been telling my guys, if there's anything out of the ordinary, they call me first." Any sense of the smile lingering on Trip's lips faded. "There was an open Jeffries tube on B Deck, no maintenance was scheduled for that area. When I saw Q'ell down there, the first thing I thought… I scared him Jon. He said he was alright, but he's not the same around me." Trip paused, "You know what he was doing?" Archer shook his head. "He was stripping down a power coupling on his own. He did a damn good job of it too. He was tryin' to impress me so that I'd let him stay on the ship."

Recognition crossed Archer's face as he nodded, "Which is why you've been pushing so hard on this issue with the Academy."

"That's part of it, yeah, but with a little training and experience under his belt he'd be a great addition to any crew."

"I believe you Trip, and I talked to Starfleet. But they're dragging their heels on an answer for me, so I wouldn't get your hopes up."

"I don't understand why this has to be so hard." Trip was having trouble keeping the frustration out of his voice. "If he was human, it wouldn't be an issue."

"But he's not Trip, that's the problem."

Trip's hands gripped the towel around his neck, "How can Earth expect to form a peaceful coalition, when it won't even consider allowing a non-human to enter the Academy?"

Archer fiddled with a loose string on his shorts, "You want to know the truth, Trip?" Trip responded with a short nod. "It's not that they don't want to. They're just afraid to. There is still a lot of uncertainty about how widespread Terra Prime's influence is. It could potentially be dangerous, not just for Q'ell, but for everyone at the Academy."

Gritting his teeth, Trip shook his head, "I am sick and tired of Terra Prime dictating our lives! What is Earth doing about the problem?" Trip paced back and forth across the room, "And what are we supposed to do until they fix it, Jon, just tuck tail? I won't let them rule my goddamn life!"

"You know I agree with you…"

"Then do something about it, Jon!" Archer stood up to meet Trip's eyes. The man's face immediately softened a bit. "I didn't mean to say you didn't have my back. It just seems like for the last few months, I can't do anything without first thinking of how Terra Prime is going to react."

Archer took his friends arm, his grip firm and sure, "I know Trip. I'll call in every favor I can remember and pull every string I have. You have my word on that."

Trip smiled, a giddy excitement returning to his face, "Thank you, Cap'n."

Archer nodded, returning his smile, "I'll call Starfleet in the morning."

=/\=

TBC