Chapter 19

*Trip*

Trip looked around the bridge. It looked so empty now. There were new faces, but it wasn't the same. He had felt a certain sense of security surrounded by people he had known for years. The people who had known him through the death of his sister, and later the death his daughter. The people who had been with him through the trials of the Expanse. It just wasn't the same. He wasn't sure it felt like home anymore.

Trip scanned the bridge again; not even Archer was on the bridge right now. He had been in his office looking through applications for a new communications officer since Hoshi's trial.

Trip hadn't been able to attend. It was too much. Archer said she had hardly spoken a word, though. Trip could picture what she must have looked like. Probably very much the same as the last time he had seen her. Silent. Broken.

Her trial had concluded a week ago. And still they had no communications officer. Jon hadn't even discussed any candidates with him. Although he hadn't really discussed anything with him over the past week.

Trip could tell the Captain blamed himself.

Trip couldn't say he didn't understand. Jon was just being overly cautious. He didn't want to choose someone who would turn out like Hoshi or Masaro. But Trip knew it couldn't be avoided. If Hoshi could betray them… anyone was capable of the same thing.

That type of thinking had become routine for Trip: a constant feeling of distrust towards almost everything and everyone.

And it seemed to just get worse the longer he was away from T'Pol.

For instance, the new chief of security. Yes, Malcolm had trusted her, but at the same time Trip had never heard him speak of her until she was transferred. Who was she? How long had she been in Starfleet?

Was she a member of a xenophobic terrorist organization?

The last one was unlikely, but to say that Trip had become overly cautious lately would be an understatement.

Trip was having a hard time trusting his own staff.

The Captain had been so busy lately with re-staffing that he didn't seem to notice Trip's new attitude.

Hess had.

Which is why Trip was now working on something off-ship, per her suggestion – the colony.

Q'ell and Tessic had finally gotten enough support from the other settlers for Trip to move them to a more suitable area of the planet. Now it was just a matter of getting everything moved, set up, and repairing any damaged equipment. Trip estimated that it would take about 4 months to get everything done.

It didn't really matter to him, though. If there was one thing he had right now… it was time.

*Hoshi*

Hoshi woke up to the sound of people shouting. After being here for almost a week, Hoshi couldn't say it was something she had gotten used to, but she could at least go back to sleep… usually.

Tonight that wasn't happening.

Being here wasn't as different as she'd thought it was going to be. The first couple days she had been terrified, but her cellmate had made things easier for her. Kira had told her what to expect and who to avoid. Despite this, Hoshi wouldn't go so far as to say she trusted the woman.

Hoshi shifted quietly in her bunk. Sometimes in that moment between wakefulness and sleep, Hoshi could pretend she was back on Enterprise, that nothing had changed and she was waiting for Malcolm to get off his shift.

And he would put his arms around her.

And would hold her close.

And he would tell her he loved her.

But tonight she couldn't do that. She knew it wasn't true, and it made her heart ache. Hoshi felt a tear roll down her cheek and she bit her lip to keep quite. The last thing she wanted was for her cellmate to know she was upset. Hoshi was sure Kira was awake, mostly because the woman never seemed to sleep. In fact Hoshi didn't think she had ever seen her sleep since she had been here. When she woke up, Kira was awake, when she went to sleep, Kira was awake, and even times like now when she would wake up in the middle of the night for one reason or another… Kira was still awake.

"You're awake, little bird." The woman's stiff British accent clipped out from the bunk beneath her.

"Yes," Hoshi answered softly, wiping her eyes. Kira also had the uncanny ability to know when Hoshi wasn't sleeping, regardless of how she tried to pretend to be.

"You should sleep. The shouting will stop." Despite the soothing tones of her voice, there was something in it that gave Hoshi chills. In fact there was something about Kira in general that gave Hoshi the creeps. Despite the woman taking an almost immediate liking to her, there was something cold in Kira's eyes, something in the way she acted that reminded Hoshi of a snake hiding in tall grass.

Waiting.

Of course it could all have been nothing more than Hoshi's imagination. She herself, after all, had betrayed everyone she knew.

Hoshi felt her eyelids drop as silence finally permeated the halls.

"Goodnight, little bird."

Hoshi didn't answer, too tired to respond.

But a familiar shiver ran up her spine.

*T'Pol*

T'Pol walked through the tall gates of Fo-don Eshikh.

Even though she hadn't wanted to be here. Even though this place was the reason she was separated from her mate… there was something comforting here.

There was silence.

Silence and dancing sand.

Reds and golds shimmered around her, blowing up and stinging her bare hands.

This morning when she had put on her old uniform, she thought of things she had not thought of for some time. Operations she had undertaken, people she had killed. It was as if there was someone else inside of her who knew that this was her place, who would protect T'Pol from the memories because they were her own, not T'Pol's.

She watched as each person stepped forward in line, each looked the same as the last, their uniforms making them all indistinguishable. T'Pol knew who was standing in front of her even though he hadn't said a word to her. After all these were the people she had started with years ago, people she had been training with since the beginning.

Eventually T'Pol reached the entrance to the compound. The operative motioned to the DNA scanner in front of him; T'Pol pulled her blade from her left hip as expected and pricked her finger, letting the blood run into the scanner.

The man nodded his head.

T'Pol walked up a little farther until she reached the Director. She stopped in front of him and made the sign of the ta'al. He returned the sign as she addressed him, "Operative four-seven-two reporting for the forth cycle."

The man nodded and directed her to the east, the women's side.

She was back.

*Malcolm*

Malcolm came to a halt in front of the enormous tree in front of him. He stood silently for a moment. It wasn't that he was lost; in fact he was getting close. The problem was that if he knew Harris, and he was fairly confident he did, Harris would have moved the security defenses.

This also meant that he was getting dangerously close to having the piss shocked out of him.

He took the shirt tied around his waist, wiped his face then looked at his watch. It was going to get dark soon and it wasn't ideal to be out here at night. He sighed and turned around.

"Griz!" He called, "Griz, I heard you a half klick back, come on now!"

He waited a moment then finally saw someone he recognized from long ago emerge from the thicket of trees behind him.

"Well, I've been following you for two. I'd say you're losing your touch Mal." The man smiled and Malcolm couldn't help but reciprocate. He gave the man a tight smile and a nod in return.

It had been a long time since he'd seen the man in front of him. Dr. Arthur Griswald, doctor to the Section's Black Ops Agents and the oldest member on Mal's old team. Griz wasn't really all that old actually, probably only in his mid 50's, and he didn't look it either, at least not anywhere except his face. The man had short silver-grey hair and was thick through his chest and shoulders. He had strong arms with calloused hands that Malcolm had always thought uncharacteristic of a doctor.

"I was hoping you'd come to your senses… give up and turn around." He shrugged. "This work's too though. I can't say it won't be nice to have you back." He looked past Malcolm and pointed in the general direction ahead. "It's a little further that way."

"Show the way then." Malcolm pulled the long sleeve shirt back over his tee shirt, seeing the tangle of vines and branches ahead of them. "Nothing good will come of us being out here in the dark."

Griswald started walking, then turned around to face Malcolm. "Don't get ahead of me. I'm too old to carry you the rest of the way back."

Malcolm couldn't help but laugh. "Of course you are, Griz. So Harris is still working out of the same compound?"

"Nope. We're just meeting up there. He made us get out of here about three days after you left. If you hadn't been so out of your mind, I'm sure you would have come back after him. Harris didn't want to be a sitting duck."

Malcolm really didn't have a lot of memories around the time after he left, but he was pretty sure Griswald was right. "Why the sudden change in heart?"

"Back then you had nothin' to lose."

"That's still true."

Griz stopped walking. "It's not and you know it, Mal. Pretending like it is will only get you in trouble. You know he'll test that." He turned back around and kept on walking. "Besides, you were an indoor dog long enough that Harris thinks you've come back to him tame." Malcolm laughed, but not because it was funny.

They finally stopped at a tree with a rock the size of his head sitting by it. It seemed both like it belonged and out of place. Griswald lined himself up with the tree and counted out eight steps, then kicked his toe in the dirt until he uncovered something. When Malcolm leaned in to see what it was he saw a small keypad. Griswald looked at his watch then typed in the code, he waited five seconds then stepped across the invisible barrier, motioning for Malcolm to do the same. Malcolm followed him through.

Seeing the old facility brought a flood of memories, things Malcolm hadn't even been aware that he remembered. As soon as they got to the door it opened, Harris stood waiting for them, the smug smile he always seemed to wear plastered across his face. Although it hadn't been a great deal of time since Malcolm had seen Harris, it didn't feel that way. Being in this place and seeing Harris seemed to simultaneously pull him back to the past and make him hyper aware of how long it had actually been.

"Good to see you back, Reed," Harris offered his hand and a small smile. Malcolm returned neither. Harris shrugged and retracted the gesture. "It's not as if you have to trust me to work for me." He smiled again. "Gris is going to give you a full physical before we move on to the base, and you and I will have a conversation of what we expect from each other. Does that sound fair?"

"I made it clear what I wanted from the start."

"Good, so we have an understanding." Harris nodded to Gris, "You work for me now, and in return I'll give you the means to take apart Terra Prime."

"And?"

Harris smiled again. "Oh yes, your other 'condition'…" Harris held up his hands. "No drugs."

Malcolm's face hardened. There wasn't a fiber of his being that would trust a word Harris said, but he was here, and he didn't really have a lot of options.

"Malcolm, you have my word, not that it means anything to you, no drugs…" Harris turned to walk away, leaving Malcolm alone with Griswald. "Except for this one time," he called behind him.

Malcolm felt a pinch in the back of his neck which was almost instantaneously followed by a wave of frustration then anxiety.

"Don't worry, Mal, it's clean," he heard Griswald's voice reassure him, his hand keeping Malcolm from falling. He may not have been able to trust Harris, but Griswald had never lied to him. Malcolm resigned himself to the sedative and let the darkness overtake him.

=/\=

THE END