Author note: This is the third part of Clarion.

Part 1 ( s/11985890/1/Clarion-Part-1-The-Sparrow)

and Part 2 ( s/12097189/1/Clarion-Part-2-Hillside)

are independent stories, but their events and characters are referenced on occasion. Catch up or don't catch up at your discretion.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek Enterprise, it's characters or settings. These things belong to CBS/Paramount and are not my intellectual property. There is no finiancial gain made from this nor will any be sought. It is for entertainment purposes only.

January 2156

It was, on this occasion, Liz herself that first read the alert notification sent my the Interspecies Medical Exchange. She was safely seated cross- legged on a workbench, protected by the Pyrithian bat, while the rest of the medical staff hunted down the escaped colony of hallucinogenic spiders.

"There's one in my pants," Andy howled again. "IN MY PANTS!"

"Well, I can't help ye, if you won't take you won't take your pants off," Alice replied impatiently. This impatience was rather brazen given that Alice had been no calmer when a small cadre of baby spiders had run across her eyelid about twenty minutes ago.

"Alice, just slap me here and KILL it," Andy wailed, pointing to an area quite high on his outer thigh.

"Don't kill it!" Phlox interrupted, who was rummaging through a nearby cupboard for half-remembered spider attractant. "I haven't yet located my prize breeding male."

Averting her eyes as Andy shimmied out of his pants, Liz turned her attention to the text of the alert notification...a bad flu season on Earth... a liver fluke infestation on Andoria...and...

"Dr Phlox, have you seen this?" Liz asked, although she knew he hadn't. "There's an IME alert for Denobula."

"Oh?" Phlox's head emerged from the cupboard. "What does it...Alice - be careful! - that's a gravid female! You hold the lives of thousands of unborn spiders in your hand."

"All the more reason to squash it and feed it to Hecate," Alice hissed.

"Would you please stop naming the bat?!" Phlox replied crossly, rescuing the teacup-sized spider. "And please, take this spider recovery more seriously! This is the most successful captive breeding colony of these spiders that has ever been established! And even if you are bitten, the worst that will happen is a few hours of hallucinations, a day at most, and I would be astonished if the boils lasted long than a month and... My apologies, Elizabeth, what were - Watch where you are stepping, Andy! - what were you saying?"

"There's an alert for Denobula," Liz repeated herself heavily, the room stilling slightly at here tone.

"Something freaky?" Andy asked hesitantly, almost in a whisper. "Something mind controlly?"

That had been what they'd been waiting for. Since Treleishkah. Since the Aenar clones. Some hint of the Romulan's next move.

"No...but...it's a spike in perinatal mortality. A big one."

"Childbirth deaths?" Andy replied. "You mean the babies, or...?"

"Both." Liz replied heavily. "It's at three percent in some areas and possibly rising."

"Three percent?" Alice blinked "That's ridiculous. Let me see that... Catastrophic haemorrhage? What the hell?"

Liz lifted her eyes to meet Phlox's. "Your daughter...you've mentioned..."

Phlox nodded slowly. "Yes. One of my daughters is expecting a child in a few months."

This declaration was followed by uncomfortable silence, eventually broken by Andy. "I mean... A few months...I'm sure it will be sorted by then. Right? I mean it's got to be a statistical blip, or maybe a contaminated pharmaceutical of some sort...and GET PORTHOS OF THE FLOOR!"

Jonathan Archer, who had just entered sickbay unnoticed, blinked. "Why? Is it made of lava?"

"No," Alice interrupted tensely, still frowning at the alert as if she could change the facts by staring at them. "Spiders."

Archer blinked. "The floor is made of spiders? What's going on?"

"Spider escape," Liz supplied, braving the spiders in order to stand at attention. "Also..."

"Also...?"

"Also, possible Romulan activity on Denobula," Alice interrupted again.

"There's no proof of that," Liz replied quickly, glancing at Phlox. "This doesn't exactly match what we know about their M.O."

Archer frowned. "What doesn't?"

""Does it not?" Alice replied. "Genocidal? Targeting the vulnerable? Sounds like them to me."

Seeing Phlox pale, Liz shot back angrily. "You need to calm down, Alice. Stop wildly speculating. You know who you sound like, don't you?"

"What's happened on Denobula?" Archer asked again, adding an edge to his voice that headed off further argument, although the menace was rather lessened by the wiggling Beagle in his arms.

"It's not yet clear," Phlox answered calmly, now surveying the alert himself. "A large and unexplained spike in civilian deaths... New mothers and their babies. Denobula has formally requested the assistance of the Interspecies Medical Exchange who have...ah!...who have, this moment, asked me to make myself available to investigate and respond to the crisis. Apparently, Admiral Gardiner will be sending you a similar message regarding Enterprise quite presently."

Archer's brow crinkled. "You must be worried, an emergency on Denobula... Your family is there. Is anyone in your family...expecting?"

"As we were saying when you came in, Captain, one of my daughters is pregnant with her first child. And, now that I think about it, ome of Feezel's daughters-in-law is pregnant as well; the lady in question is due much sooner than my Palayjah, I believe."

"I'm sure it will be all right," Archer responded soothingly. "I'll get Travis to plot a course now, and we'll head for Denobula as soon as the order from... HOLY SHIT! WHAT IS THAT ON ALICE'S FACE?"

"That would be Phlox's prize stud spider," Alice hissed through clenched teeth, apparently trying to move as little as possible.

"I'm surprised you haven't named him," Phlox sniffed, gently retrieving the spider and placing him back in the terrarium.

Alice hid her expression in her cup of coffee. "I'll name him now, if you like..."

"They seem very attracted to your face," Phlox pondered. "Perhaps it's that peculiar eyeshadow you are wearing? Go and fetch it and we'll see if we can lure the rest."

"The rest...?" Archer interrupted. "Just how many of those things are loose in sickbay?"

"No more than a few hundred. Mostly tiny, of course."

"You have a headache."

She speaks matter-of-factly, it is not a question, and she does not wait for an answer before touching her cool fingertips to his temple.

Trip sighs, lets the PADD fall into his lap and leans backwards into her caress "Yeah, I do. How'd ya know?"

"I felt it," she replies simply, then, "You should go to sickbay."

He chuckles darkly. "Oh no. Jon says the damn place is full of escaped spiders. A dozen wild horses couldn't drag me..."

"I am quite certain even one enraged quadruped of that size, could indeed drag you there," T'Pol answers, her fingers tracing runes across the skin of his forehead. "Still, I am quite capable of blocking the pain, so if you wish to suffer, it is no concern of mine."

"Good to know, darlin'. Good to know."

"Is the sensation pleasing?" She asks.

She means the runes she is tracing. Even after her fingers have moved on he can clearly feel the residue of the shapes, like the after image of a bright light seen against closed eyelids. They feel warm and somehow electric, and she has begun tracing them onto his bare back.

"This something you're learning from your Kir'shara thing?" He asks.

"Indeed."

"So...I'm some sort of religious guinea pig, right now?"

"If it is unpleasant I will stop. However, I know it is not."

Trip chuckles. "You can feel that, can you?"

T'Pol raises an eyebrow. "Indeed. But more pertinently..." She glances downward, "...I can SEE it."

"Good point."

"It has its good qualities, yes."

Hoshi pulled herself up straighter. "Co-ordinates to where?"

"Denobula" Travis repeated. "I know you heard me."

Hoshi buried her face in a pillow. "But we can't! We are due on Kreetassa in two weeks. They'll go ballistic!"

Travis shrugged, and sat up straighter himself, propping a pillow behind his back. "Sorry Hosh. It's some sort of humanitarian mission, that's all I was told. I'm sure we'll get more at the briefing. Don't worry about the Kreetassans. I know they've been driving you crazy..."

Hoshi huffed, and narrowed her eyes.

"...poor choice of words, sorry." Travis apologised hastily. "I just meant, look at this as a good thing! The Kreetassans are the Vulcans' problem now...Let them protocol each other to death."

A smile quirked on Hoshi's face. "Better the Vulcans than the Andorians. Can you imagine Shran's face if they wrapped his knuckles over setting ships time to the capital city? He'd shove a sacred tree so far up their..."

"HOSHI!" Travis exclaimed with mock horror. "I'm ashamed at you. It's obvious to everyone that the Tellarites are the ideal people to negotiate with the Kreetassans."

"We don't need TWO wars on our hands, Travis."

This sobered Travis quite a bit. "We aren't at war yet, Hoshi..."

Hoshi slid into his waiting arms, but whispered to herself that it was only a matter of time. It was almost inaudible.