Unbound-Part 26

Unbound
An "Enterprise" story

Written by Alison M. DOBELL

RATING: NC-17.
STATUS: New. SEQUEL to "THE MOTHER OF INVENTION"
ARCHIVE: Yes. Just let me know where.
FEEDBACK: Welcomed.
EMAIL: AlisonMDobell@aol.com
WEBSITE: http://carlajane.50megs.com/Ali00.html

SUMMARY: "Dr Phlox has a plan which he convinces the Captain and Lt Reed to follow. Sub-Commander T'Pol realises their danger but not in time. The Master reveals his plan to the Zenari and the Xindi have a dilemma of their own to face."
The usual disclaimers apply. The characters and 'Enterprise' are the property of Paramount. No infringement of copyright is intended.

Part 26

"RESISTANCE"

* * * * *

Captain Archer had reservations. Too many of them to count. But he trusted his people. Had faith in Dr. Phlox. Plus Malcolm trusted the Denobulan too and he had long since discovered the depth and breadth of the Armoury Officer's loyalty had no equal. Plus he knew Lt. Reed would do nothing to endanger Commander Tucker or Sub-Commander T'Pol. Their experiences down on the Zenari planet had formed a quite unique bond between them and the Denobulan but Captain Archer was well aware there was much he still did not know. The idea of joining that select group and experiencing it first hand was both enticing and terrifying. He was not a man who liked to give up control. Even if he was among friends.

"What do we do?"

Dr. Phlox had the ghost of a smile on his face. Quickly he became serious. "We should make ourselves comfortable gentlemen; that is what the cushions are for."

Captain Archer frowned. "You want us to sit on the floor?"

The doctor almost laughed at the Captain's faintly affronted tone. "I assure you it is quite normal. We are *meditating* Captain and it is best if the body is able to relax."

He knew he was being foolish but nerves could do that to a man. Lt Reed gave a solemn nod and sat crossed legged on one of the large cushions. The doctor waited for the Captain to sit then followed suit.

"Now I want you to breathe deeply, evenly, feel that breath inflate your body. Listen to my voice and block out anything else..."

Without thinking the Captain closed his eyes and did as he was told. Dr. Phlox carefully monitoring both men as their breathing deepened and he took them into a light trance state. As he did so he could feel Lt. Reed in his mind and smiled. The two of them joined forces to ease the Captain into the deeper state with them. He did not stop until they had gone far deeper than human levels of awareness could accomplish alone. They not only needed to commune effectively, they needed to do so in a way which could not be detected. They could not afford for the Zenari to pick up their thoughts. The lives of their two missing comrades depended on it.

*Captain?*

Captain Archer was shocked to hear the doctor's voice in his mind. So clear yet with a quality to it that was not only soothing and reassuring but filled with the emotional heart of the man. It was a little unnerving to realise that communion on this level was rather like having a conversation with your clothes off. As if the mind itself was stripped naked of the artifice used in daily life to enable thoughts to be composed and constructed in a manner that would have the most desired outcome. Here, in this state, that was impossible. A cold word spoken externally while awake and conscious was simply a cold word. Here it would acquire all the depth and feeling of the true thoughts and emotions behind it. It could be devastatingly revealing. Raw emotion disclosing raw thoughts. It disturbed and attracted him in equal measure. It was also somewhat liberating. *I can hear you, in my mind.* He paused, needing to adjust to absorb this new intimacy. *I didn't think it could be so easy.*

*Normally it isn't.* Said the doctor without a hint of smugness or superiority. *But both Malcolm and I have used this form of communication before.*

*It really is quite enlightening, Captain.* Thought Lt. Reed.

The Captain was about to agree when he felt the Lieutenant smile. Captivated by the sheer novelty of it he thought it was one of the most beautiful sensations he could imagine. He felt a wash of warm humour from the doctor.

*Imagine how this must feel if you are making love, Captain.*

He almost choked. His companions laughed lightly, their tones not really mocking him just enjoying his brief discomfort. Lt. Reed well empathised having felt the same when he first was drawn into this very deep meditative state. *What happens now?* The Captain asked as he struggled to get back on track.

*Now,* Said the doctor seriously, *we attempt to contact our friends.*

* * * * *

Ambassador Chot knew there was nothing he could do but the truth was a revelation that left his entire existence hanging from a poison thread. He had believed without question every thing the Master had told him. They all had. He had believed the Xindi were a naive species that had been taken under the Master's wing through the good offices of his servants, the Zenari. To learn that everything was an advanced manipulation not only of time, space and matter but also of thoughts and emotions was a step beyond any he thought the Master would take. Was he not beloved of the Creator? Did not each of them have a place in the fabric of this sacred space? Why then did he feel betrayed? What was this strange emotion stealing through him? Why did he feel something like a deep abiding sadness? A sense of ineffable loss?

On the dais neither Commander Tucker nor Sub-Commander T'Pol moved. The diaphanous web that bound them kept them immobile, warm and in a deep state of enforced hibernation. The Master's dark shade stood next to them, wisps of it drifting out to almost caress the milky mist like seeking hands looking for a connection. All the while forming shadowy clouds on an horizon they could not see.

The Ambassador watched. Silent and patient but not calm. His whole thought process was in turmoil. Belief that the Master's Grand Scheme was an expression of perfection out of chaos no longer held true in his mind. An infinite world of sparkling variables now coalesced into little more than pawns on a chess board. He had no words to express how that offended his flawed overview of the divine. He could not cry. Was incapable of what passed for Human emotion. But there was some deep intrinsic equivalent that stirred from somewhere in the mists of time and gravitated like an old remembered heartache in the last echoes of organic sentience before his mind shut down. It was the only escape left to him.

* * * * *

She was numb. Not cold exactly but not warm either. Sub-Commander T'Pol found thinking took so much energy and effort that each word had to be formed with great deliberation before she could move on to form the next one. Her mind was heavy and growing heavier, a dull throbbing ache at the base of her skull that grew more intense as she tried to shepherd her will to resist it. It would be easier by far to succumb. Let the numbness complete its' circuit. She was already in thrall, physically incapacitated. But she would not yield her mind. Maintaining calm was difficult but not impossible. She was Vulcan. She could do this. She *had* to do this. As soon as she had sensed danger T'Pol had plunged her thoughts deep, diving into places locked within places, chambers that led her farther and farther from the danger stalking her with such intensity. Each room in her mind being locked and barred against the enemy on her metaphorical heels. Deeper and deeper she went, burrowing into her psyche and growing steadily calmer as the threat was slowed down until finally she reached the one sanctuary that could not be breached.

Perspiration glowed on her still flesh. The only outward sign of the inward expenditure of effort. Her heart was thudding chaotically but forced calm by the descending mist. Her body freezing and no long capable of obeying even the simplest instruction. Her body now mirroring the mind's calm though her mind was free to function, buried deep in its' hidden sanctuary. Carefully she abstracted her thoughts from any emotional attachment and from that distant perspective witnessed the fawning intent of the entity who would manipulate her and the Commander to his will. The Commander. Her heart almost stalled with a pain not born of any physical injury. Trip. Part of her wanted to reach for him mentally but she blocked off the urge. In his current state she would only be able to brush the surface of his mind. It would make her vulnerable to the Master who, detecting her, would realise she maintained an inner control that was resisting him.

The enforced passivity sharpened her wits. She felt the dark energy of the Master swirl slowly through her benumbed senses. Insidiously sifting its' way through the architecture of her mind as if checking that she was fully under his control. T'Pol was careful not to betray herself. Another life hung in the balance and was totally dependant, albeit unknowingly, on her subtle skills. She would not let him down. Would not. Could not. Failure was not an option. The dark presence lingered as if memorising and savouring the unique shape of her mind, touching here and there to spark off fragments of memory and conscious thought like playing a recording over and over in order to miss nothing. Thankfully he at last moved on, only a wisp of darkness lingering in her mind like a sentry keeping guard while the Master progressed. An unwelcome invader plunging deeper, not into her mind this time but through the very cells and pores of her physical being. Part of her was baffled by this unwelcome exploration. The Master's intent unclear, his presence flowing slowly through her veins, in the pulse of her neutered heartbeat, following the trail of her organs and the muscles linked by the efficiency of her Vulcan nervous system.

It was terrifying but objectifying the intrusion gave her a measure of control that she clung to with grim tenacity. She was unsure what to do. How to combat such a threat and not leave both herself and the Commander further disadvantaged. Any sign that she was cognisant of the Master might imperil them both. What did he want? Why all the deception and manipulation? What was it that she was failing to see? What mirror blinded her vision to the entity's true intent?

* * * * *

The doctor felt frustrated. The emotional intensity triggering similar feelings in the Captain and Lieutenant. For a few moments their minds were silent, absorbing the impact of their failure. Dr. Phlox broke the stagnation, his thought forming a ripple of sadness and frustration that they all shared. *I cannot reach the Commander. They have him in some kind of stasis.*

*What about the Sub-Commander?* Asked the Captain.

*T'Pol has either locked her consciousness away or was not quick enough to prevent her mind being seized.*

*Seized?* Said Lt. Reed in alarm.

*A poor choice of words.* Dr Phlox tried to compensate. *Their physical bodies are in thrall, and I can only conclude their minds must be likewise immobilised.*

Lt. Reed felt a surge of sorrow, so deep it was almost painful for the Captain to bear. If the Armoury Officer was aware of causing any discomfort he did not show it. *We have failed them.*

Dr. Phlox's thoughts were a soothing balm to the agony of anticipated loss assailing the two Humans. *No. This is a set-back, no more.*

*What can we do?* Asked the Captain.

*There is only one thing we can do.*

Silence fell in all three minds as the Denobulan drew both men into a non-physical meld that caused their outward bodies to collapse insensate on the cushions. But their minds. Their minds were safe. Held in a bond with the Denobulan that no longer allowed for a single thought to be individually expressed. He knew he should have asked first but some instinct warned him he did not have time for the niceties of alien culture. They were on a rescue mission and even in a region of space that did not observe the conventions of time the period left to them to act was running out.

* * * * *

Kantak froze for a moment and simply stared at the spectacle before him. He had become anxious when he could no longer feel the Ambassador's thoughts in his mind. The lack was like a physical amputation. Concerned, he had hurried to the Grand Audience Chamber. Now he stood and stared at the tableau before him. Ambassador Chot was standing, his upper torso leaning forward at an odd angle. It was not the deep bow reserved for the Master. It was more the angle of a broken thing. A wind up toy that had run out of steam. Quickly the major domo glided across the crystal floor aware that the Master was on the dais, two misty white enshrouded lifeforms standing immobile next to him. He could not tell what the Master was doing with them but for now his attention was fixed on the Ambassador.

"Ambassador! What is wrong?"

There was no response. Almost trembling, Kantak dared to extend a hand and touched the Ambassador's shoulder but there was no flickering of his electrical current. Alarmed, Kantak tried to right him but he could not do so. He paused and considered the problem then moved round to face the Ambassador. Carefully he lifted the head but no semblance of life echoed back at him. He sub-vocalised but his thoughts came bouncing back to him with the odd echo of touching an empty vessel. Though he could not account for it he was suddenly sure of one thing. Ambassador Chot was dead. Not a single tremor of life filled that once vibrant and powerful body. Kantak bowed to his Ambassador one last time. "What terrible thing has taken you from us, old friend?" His voice was a whisper. His thoughts a whirl of images he could not process. "Why did you do this? Extinguish a life so full of promise and on the brink of all the power you could dream of?"

There was, of course, no answer. After time unmeasured had passed, he straightened and approached the dais with caution. Now that he was closer he could see the two trapped figures were from Enterprise. He recognised the Human Chief Engineer and was startled to see that the other was the Vulcan, Sub-Commander T'Pol. He watched the Master's dark energy swirling around them and felt a vague discomfort. He did not dare to extend his consciousness to find out what the Master was doing. But as a sign of respect to the departed Ambassador Chot he would remain to bear witness.

* * * * *

Trip was sluggish. His thoughts not his to control. Everything was so vague and heavy. He could not open his eyes, nor move a muscle in his body yet his muscles *were* moving. His nerve endings prickling and firing in little spasms along his neural network like sparks looking for a source of ignition. What the hell? He had no sensation of up or down, hot or cold, fear or joy. There was only this confusion. Coupled with the slow certainty that he was beginning to get very horny.

The Master had tried without success to excite the female but the Vulcan was impervious to him and totally non-responsive. Now he was exploring the Human Commander, his energy lapping first at the mind of the engineer. Touching that sleeping consciousness and delving into memories and feelings that told him he had made the correct choice. He chased the network of his nervous system, mapping the Human inside and out and learning swiftly how to manipulate him to get the responses he could not engender in the Vulcan. He would use the engineer to manipulate the Vulcan. A feeling of satisfaction stole over him. The male would be much easier to control. As his energy flowed inside the engineer he began to prompt and excite him, feeling the Human's body begin to awaken. Now came the tricky part. The Master awoke the Commander only enough to allow movement and some articulation. He kept his mind foggy, his thoughts blurry and clouded so that his resistance to motivation would be nullified.

Trip opened his eyes and saw T'Pol. The Vulcan had her eyes closed. Appeared to be asleep but how could that be possible? Did Vulcans sleep standing up? He had never heard of such a thing but what did it matter? She was there, he was there, and all he wanted right now was to be with her. No other thought was in his head. He moved as if in a dream state, a hand reaching out to cradle her beloved face. His fingers gentle as they caressed her skin. She did not move, nor wake, and for a moment something about it felt wrong but he could not grasp what. "T'Pol? Come on, darlin', speak to me."

His hushed words evoked no response. Trip closed the short distance between them and brought his body against hers, his arms going round her, his eyes closing in bliss as he whispered in a voice husky with lust in her ear.

"Oh God, T'Pol, do ya know how much I love ya?"

Then he was kissing her ear. His tongue gently teasing wet warmth around the inside of that exotic shell before lapping at the canal. His hands now exploring that treasured landscape while in his mind he was reliving the last time they had made love. He ached. Oh God how he ached for her. His thoughts reached for hers but they were non responsive. Thinking she was surely asleep he decided to wake her up as inventively and lovingly as a good old southern boy could do. He chuckled softly and imagined her eyes openly slowly with lust, his right hand sliding down inside the front of her skin tight slacks as he gently brought his lips to hers in a passion filled kiss. On some level T'Pol became aware of him. Her Ashayam. Even while she fought to keep her consciousness locked away her body was betraying her, needing to respond with every fibre of her being.

* * * * *

The sense of shock was phenomenal but Dr. Phlox managed to keep calm and not break the union he had forced with the Captain and Lieutenant. It did not matter what was happening between the Commander and Sub-Commander. In fact, it could work in their favour. While their love making distracted the Master he would attempt to make contact with them and jolt them out of the unnatural state which bound them. At least. That was the plan.

* * * * *

As he watched the two aliens in the deepening throes of passion, Kantak allowed his gaze to return to the Ambassador. He could not restore his life to him but he could perform for him one last service. With almost exaggerated care the major domo drew back his thick heavy cloak. Energy sparked and crackled like lightening bolts held in subdued orbits. He reached out to the Ambassador and formed a last link with him, downloading the last memories and impulses from his brain before that too lost the last echoes of life. Saddened, the major domo closed his cloak and stepped back. Looking for an area of shadow to retreat to so that he could absorb his friend's last thoughts and perhaps make sense of his death.

The Master took no notice of anything but the figures on the dais. He gloried in their slow exotic mating, let his mind monitor their thoughts and feelings, the pump of blood running a riot through their excited bodies sending tendrils of almost forgotten need through him. A need quickly quashed as extraneous, unnecessary. A memory of what once was and could never be again. There was never any use in indulging in what had gone before. There was only what was, what would be and what *could* be. The Xindi had served their purpose. All the experimentation and manipulation had provided him with only one thing: cannon fodder. The brighter intelligences he had sought still eluded him. Now. Here. With the Vulcan and Human joining he could see far more possibilities. A new species he could form to take advantage of the strengths of both species while he would extract and discard the weaknesses. The cradle of flesh that would emerge would at last give him the chance to experience one more time the pleasure of physical existence.

All this. All of the endless searches across time and space. The manipulation. The co-ordination of distant functions between species as alien to each other as he was to mortal life. Now his search was over. The efforts expended were about to bear fruit. These two lovers would provide the vehicle of his release. Afterwards, untold universes would learn his true name and shudder to their knees before his less than divine purpose. Smug and confident the Master dipped back into the fevered impassioned minds and reveled in their bonding. Curious and drawn to the joining of the male seed with the female ovaries. Watching and encouraging their passion as Trip braced his legs, T'Pol wrapping her legs around his waist as he carefully entered her body. The slide of his hot length in her molten core was glorious. Her interior muscles drawing him in deep, sweat pouring off his face as he began to slowly pump into her while her nails dug into his back. Their clothing a forgotten bundle on the dais floor. T'Pol adjusted her weight to enable Trip to keep his balance, her words echoing in his mind as she gently urged him on. Giving up all pretence of refusing him.

It mattered not that they were being manipulated. Both were caught up fully now in T'Pol's pon frell. The merciless demands of her sex on him back on Enterprise were nothing compared to what now passed between them. All her Vulcan mating instincts heightened and prolonged by the Master adding to their sexual drives and increasing the urge to copulate, to mate, to drive each other senseless with desire. T'Pol was biting him now but Trip hardly felt it, the brief pain of her teeth just adding another edge to his passion. He was driven wild with lust for her, the Vulcan encouraging him with her superior muscle control, massaging his pumping organ with internal muscles that gripped and flexed around his penis until he was pumping so hard that even though he was coming hard he could not stop. She bit down deep into his shoulder, drawing blood, his hips jerked harder, deeper, faster. He could not see for the sweat running in his eyes and down his face like tears.

At last his legs would hold him no more and they collapsed to the dais floor but she would not let him go. Her muscles held him fast so he could not withdraw. Pain vaguely registered in his back brain but already she was using her Vulcan biology to bring him hard once more inside her. Trip groaned but could not resist her, his depleted energy being refueled by the Master who was intermingling his dark vaporous energy with theirs. They did not notice. Oblivious to everything but each other. T'Pol rolled Trip onto his back and her eyes smiled down at him. He was gasping but so happy he thought his heart would burst. *I love ya T'Pol.*

*As I do you, Ashayam.*

Then she was biting his lips, her hands sliding over his slick flesh, fingers pinching his nipples as her interior muscles flexed around him making him cry out. *Oh God, T'Pol...*

*Come for me, Ashayam, fill me.*

He was rapidly hardening inside that hot channel of want and need, her body rocking encouraging his hips to draw a delicious slide between those flexing muscles. He was leaking again, his jism mixing with their spent juices while a new orgasm was slowly building. He was tired but unable to stop. T'Pol however was tireless, aggressive, insatiable. He was sure this was the day he was going to die but he was damned if he would regret a single moment of it. Any time spent with T'Pol was a gift he would not squander. Even if his life depended on it. *Oh T'Pol, I gotta have ya, always*

*You are slowing down Ashayam.* She rebuked.

He was amused at the hint of irritation in her voice. *That so, huh?*

*If you are unable to perform your primary function, Commander, perhaps I should seek a younger bond mate to satisfy me?*

He growled and pumped harder, her legs coming up to hug his waist. He gritted his teeth with the effort and paused just long enough to ease her legs over his shoulders. She wanted penetration he would give her penetration. She gasped, he smiled, both getting out of breath but so close. In a sudden frenzy T'Pol gripped him and flexed her muscles one last time as he stiffened, a deep guttural groan escaped tired lips then his spine snapped and he erupted inside her as he came. Her own orgasm triggered by his as they clung to each other, minds adrift with the sheer intensity of their mating. He was already blacking out. Finally T'Pol was content to release him, her interior muscles relaxing, her hands stroking his sweat soaked face while she kissed his closed eyelids.

Gently she rolled him onto his back and got off him only long enough to lay more comfortably beside him, her arms wrapped possessively round him, her eyes glazing over as sleep pulled at her senses. Her sated body draping over his. Reluctant to give up bodily contact for even a moment. If she could have she would have become one flesh with him. Unable to change their biology she made herself content to wrap herself around him and join her Ashayam in sleep. The Master watched with satisfaction. He wanted to gather the genetic material then and there but was reluctant to move them just yet. He spun more of the milky vapour around them, binding them in sleep the one to the other. They would not now awake unless he chose to allow them to do so.

Only as he moved away from the couple did he realise that Ambassador Chot was still in the room. Not only that but he looked to be non functioning. He did not move from the dais but extended his dark energy to touch him. There was nothing. No response. With a sense of shock he realised the Ambassador was dead. Extending his senses he attempted to absorb whatever still lingered of the Ambassadors' thoughts but to his surprise the receptacle was empty. A slow deep rage began to burn through him. For now Commander Tucker and Sub-Commander T'Pol were forgotten. Someone had stolen Ambassador Chot's thoughts. His memories. He swept the Grand Audience Chamber with his sharpened senses but there was no one else in the room. Leaving the bound couple on the dais, the Master quickly gathered his dark mass and went on the hunt. He would find the thief and take back what was stolen. It would not do for anyone else to discover the blueprint Ambassador Chot had carried. In that knowledge lay the fate not only of the Delphic Expanse but all the species that would ever come into contact with it.

* * * * *

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A handful of people have made comments

Simply yummy!

Wow. I mean wow wow wow! Great stuff Alison. Once again you have shown your mastery of the sex scene. Hoo-Hah!

That was HOT! I guess Trip and T'Pol are going to have the antichrist. On the other hand, if they can get away the Master might have done them a huge favor.

Jiminy, Ali! Very well done indeed! I'm really enjoying how "alien" Phlox is in this. Great stuff! Awesome job! :-)

I hope you continue this. It will be interesting to see what T'Pol does when she discovers that she has a bun in the oven and the Master tells her his plan. Evil villains always do that.