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The Ring of Truth - Part 9

Author - Evalyn A.
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Fix the Finale Fic


The Ring of Truth

By Evalyn A.


Disclaimer: All Paramount’s – or is it CBS’s? -- not mine, though they really, really don’t deserve it now .

A/N: Moving on from TATV – for those of you who insist it’s canon … well, read on.

********

Chapter 9

T’Pol’s scrutiny of Tucker’s files after she had broken his encryption code (not a difficult task since it had been based upon a code they had both learned from Lt. Sato) had given her considerable information. As they ran full tilt down the corridor, which descended gradually on a gentle slope, she knew they were headed towards the centre of the facility, buried meters under the surface of Europa.

Tucker had let go of her hand, counting on her to keep up – not difficult for her given her Vulcan physiology, shaky though her health might be at the moment. A number of other individuals were also running in the same direction, but they moved aside as Tucker overtook them, letting him lead the way.

As they passed, she received a number of curious glances, but clearly the nature of the crisis was such that the appearance of an unaccounted-for Vulcan visitor was not the highest priority.

They reached a set of double doors. Tucker skidded to a stop, yanked one open, and motioned her through ahead of him. They entered the command centre, a room about 20 meters across that overlooked the core of the facility. Tucker strode to the railing and glanced down upon the massive structure that pulsed with energy beneath them, and the staff scurrying around the lower area. Then he turned and scrutinized the display boards that lined the walls.

“All right, Kominsky, what happened? Any immediate danger?” he demanded, as his eyes darted back and forth across the boards. Some displayed readouts that were entirely alien in character. Others were Earth issue, displaying a variety of parameters – temperature, pressure, electric field, energy flow. Spectral emission distributions updated every few seconds on one panel, while particle flux data scrolled rapidly past on the next.

Kominsky, a fortyish woman with fiery red hair, glanced at T’Pol nervously, before she handed Tucker a padd and replied, “Not that we can tell. It wasn’t anything we did sir. Nothing going on here but monitoring and compiling data for at least a couple of hours – we couldn’t have triggered anything.”

“Hmmph,” Tucker replied, his eyes scanning the status report. “No, you’re right. See here?” He pointed at one of the alien readouts. “This is stored energy,” he glanced sideways at T’Pol, as the explanation was for her benefit, “it’s been drifting up and down for weeks, but look at the last couple of days – there’s been a definite upward trend. I think it’s been working to get enough energy to trigger the next stage. See how it dropped as soon as the cascade started over here?” He gestured to another readout that displayed a bewildering variety of colours and shapes, and then spun around and scrutinized some of the other readouts. “What’s the overall energy increment?”

“At least a factor of ten, sir,” one of the junior engineers replied.

“Dammit,” Tucker muttered, “and we thought it was bad before. All right, everyone, I need round-the-clock monitoring of this readout, and set a slope and threshold trigger. We don’t want to be caught napping again. How much more do you think she’s got in her?” he asked Kominsky.

She shrugged, and said, “Doesn’t look like it’s straining yet, does it? Based on what we just saw when number two kicked in, and the size of three and four,” she pointed at two large sections of the machine that still appeared to be slumbering, “there’s lots more in reserve.”

“Yeah,” he sighed, running his fingers through his hair. He turned to T’Pol. “Well, might as well make yourself useful, T’Pol. Do you know what’s going on?”

“I believe so…” T’Pol replied, “The device has just …”

She was interrupted as another individual burst through the double doors, a small man of perhaps sixty, dressed in office clothes. “Tucker, update me,” he ordered, and then, noticing T’Pol, he started and continued with disbelief, “Who’s she and what the hell is she doing here?”

“She’s our new consultant, Brodeur, on my authority,” Tucker said in a brisk tone. T’Pol admired the apparent nonchalance he displayed at this flagrant bit of fabrication. He continued authoritatively, “Right now the best thing you can do is just let us get on with it – I’ll update you as soon as we’ve got anything definitive.”

“I didn’t authorize any consultants,” Brodeur wheeled on Tucker. “And especially not a Vulcan one.”

“No, well, I’m the engineering authority here, and if I say we need help, we get it,” Tucker replied. “Not every bit of paperwork has to cross your desk. Fighting over who’s got authority isn’t going to help. Right now, I think it would be a good idea to push that evacuation plan one stage forward.”

Brodeur pinned him with a steely glance; then clearly deciding that dealing with an unknown Vulcan consultant was not the current priority, he moved over to one of the human interface panels and started punching at the screen, while keeping a jaundiced eye on T’Pol. She was sure that at the next possible opportunity, Brodeur would be putting a query through on her to his superiors.

She also noticed that one of the senior engineers, as yet unidentified, was watching her with particular interest also. He had recognized her, she suspected, and was speculating as to how she got here. Possibly he was Intelligence – in which case he would know that her presence had not been authorized in advance by anyone. At any rate, it appeared that she had passed the first hurdle, acceptance having been achieved temporarily, at least.

She turned back to Tucker, and continued as though she had not been interrupted, “…the device has just triggered the second stage of its power-up procedure. There are two more stages before it becomes fully operational.” She paused, unsure how far he wanted her to go.

“And?” Tucker prompted her to continue.

“And at that time, the device will be ready to perform whatever its function is, which is as yet unknown,” she concluded. An accurate, if vague, assessment of the situation.

“So what are our options?” he prompted her. Clearly, this topic would have been discussed already hundreds of times; nevertheless, she had seen him use this technique before to advantage. Asking for a fresh, critical perspective on the team’s work from an outsider often yielded new ways of thinking about an old problem, and she had been that critic many times previously on Enterprise.

“First, priorities must be clear,” she replied. “What is the number one priority?”

“Earth’s safety,” Tucker stated without hesitating.

“And to ensure Earth’s safety, the function of the device must be understood. Is it a weapon, or something else?” Placing her arms behind her back, she began to pace across the room, pondering the questions. “How long ago was it placed here, and by whom? Is it fully functional? Is it automated, or is it under someone’s control?” She paused, and enquired, no longer rhetorically, “Have the readouts been fully translated?”

“More or less,” one of the junior engineers replied, after Tucker nodded in her direction. “We’ve been able to understand the majority of the functions that pertain to routine monitoring, energy flow and such. The difficulty is that we have absolutely no frame of reference for the actual function of the unit. There’s just not enough context here to let us translate those functions. Whoever built this, they didn’t leave any additional documentation, manuals, logs – nothing. Or at least if they did, we haven’t found it yet.”

“So,” Tucker picked up, “We know this much. It comes with an array to beam energy in just about any direction,” he gestured, “currently buried below the surface of Europa. Stage two involved a lot of energy generation, enough to kickstart the power up of the rest of the facility.” There was a short silence as they all pondered the implications. “The next stage we think will involve deploying the array, while the final stage is the energy beam.”

T’Pol walked over to the railing, and pondered the area below, as the rest of the engineering team returned to their duties after a nod from Tucker. He leaned on the railing beside her.

“And the energy storage capabilities of the facility make it possible that the beam is powerful enough to destroy Earth, even from this distance?” she queried quietly enough that the rest of the team could not hear her. She had read this conclusion in the reports in Tucker’s office, but she found it astonishing. The energy required from this distance would be phenomenal, and the device did not appear large enough to provide even a tiny fraction of that amount.

“We’re not sure,” Tucker replied, sombrely, also keeping his voice inaudible to the rest of the team. “But the energy readouts are all out of proportion to its size. This thing is tapping into some energy source we haven’t identified.”

“Perhaps it has nothing to do with Earth at all,” T’Pol pointed out. “Perhaps its location here is a coincidence.”

“It didn’t just start up now for no reason, T’Pol,” Tucker replied. “Our best guess at its age is about 3,000 years. It must have been sitting here for a damn long time waiting.”

“So whoever built it, knew there was a pre-space civilization on Earth at the time,” T’Pol mused. “Placing it on Europa put it well outside the normal space-lanes. How was it discovered?”

“The initial energy surge was picked up by Jupiter station during routine monitoring,” Tucker replied. “It was just dumb luck, they could easily have missed it, but one of the engineers thought it was a glitch in the system and dug around till she realized it was real. They sent over a team to investigate, and discovered this. Didn’t take too long for them to realize the magnitude of the issue and notify Earth.”

“And Earth’s government realized that public morale would not stand up well to yet another alien threat to Earth over the space of ten years. The Xindi, the Romulans, now this,” T’Pol mused.

“Hence the hush hush,” Tucker finished for her. “Not to mention the presence of a phenomenally powerful energy source of unknown origin that’s driving the thing.”

“I begin to understand the rationale,” she admitted, frostily, “but the degree of paranoia involved in the manner of your disappearance still seems excessive.” Tucker could sense the panic she hid beneath that Vulcan exterior, as she remembered being told of his death. He managed to refrain from touching her, but he tried to project soothing emotions, not knowing how much she could read of him.

“Like I said, T’Pol, it wasn’t my idea. Hell, they didn’t even let my parents know till after the funeral,” he pointed out gently. “Under the circumstances, telling you was going to be a bit farther down the list.”

She nodded, not looking at him, but he thought he could sense an easing of her distress. This bonding thing, done right, sure made communicating easier, he thought to himself – in the old days, her outwardly rigid attitude would have fooled him utterly, and the conversation likely would have degenerated quickly.

“So,” he reverted back to the main topic. “We’re making progress, but it’s not fast enough. Not at the rate this is going. We need a breakthrough. Actually,” he continued with a small grin, “having you here is probably the best thing that could have happened. We always did make a good team when it came to solving this kind of thing.”

He thought he detected a small smile flit across her lips. Without question, he felt the burst of pleasure his words caused her. “We did. And I suppose, under the circumstances,” here he felt a distinct regret emanating from her, “that we need to focus on the task at hand rather than our personal issues.”

“What about your – you know, ill health?” he asked, unsure of the implications.

“I believe the symptoms will be manageable now that I am here,” she said thoughtfully. “But should Mr. Brodeur decide that I should be removed from the station there will be problems,” she added dourly.

She sensed the angry possessiveness that emanated from Tucker as re replied, “Not gonna happen T’Pol, not as long as I’m Chief Engineer of this facility. Besides, removing you now would be pointless. You can’t transmit out with the local jamming that’s been set up, and no matter how distrustful the powers that be may be of Vulcan’s reliability as an ally, they won’t believe that you’re here to sabotage the project. Might as well take advantage of the extra expertise now that you’re here. But you’re right about one thing, I need to get him sorted out sooner rather than later.”

He pushed away from the railing and strode over to the monitor that Brodeur was using. He spoke to Brodeur quietly enough that even her Vulcan hearing could not distinguish the words over the background hum of the facility. Brodeur’s eyes flashed angrily, and he headed out the doors without looking back. Tucker gestured to T’Pol and she preceded him out, following Brodeur to an office a few doors down the hall.

Brodeur seated himself at this desk, placing his hands face down on the desk surface, and pinned Tucker with a glare. “This had better be good.”

Tucker indicated that T’Pol should seat herself, and then he, too, sat in one of the uncomfortable surplus office chairs that seemed to be standard issue in the facility.

“All right, you and I both know she doesn’t have permission to be here,” Tucker started out. “So we need to figure out how to do damage control so HQ doesn’t get their knickers in a twist.”

“Why should I attempt to help you cover this up?” Brodeur asked indignantly. “An unauthorized entry into a secure facility by a citizen of a foreign power? If I don’t report it, it’s arguably treason.”

“Two reasons,” Tucker replied shortly. “One: we don’t need the distraction. It’ll just cause an uproar, affect morale, and cause an interplanetary incident over nothing. Two: T’Pol and I have worked together for ten years. Between us, we’ve sorted out a hundred problems like this one. We’re the best bet Earth’s got right now, and if you start raising red flags, you’re risking everything. Listen,” Tucker said, leaning forward and staring earnestly at the administrator, “you and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, but you’ve gotta believe that I’m not going to jeopardize Earth over this. Do you trust me?”

Brodeur sighed and leaned back in his chair. He looked at T’Pol uncertainly, and then addressed her directly. “I still haven’t heard an explanation of what you’re doing here.”

She hesitated, and glanced at Tucker. Total honesty did not seem appropriate, and yet neither did prevarication. “Mr. Tucker and I were close. I obtained information that indicated that his death had been fabricated. I decided to see what I could find out. My investigation led me here.”

It was obvious that she was omitting a great deal in this explanation. T’Pol gazed directly at him, trying to appear transparently honest. Brodeur took a deep breath, frowned, and turned back to Tucker. “If you screw this up …”

“If I screw this up,” Tucker replied dryly, “we’ll be in much bigger trouble that having a few government types ticked off with us. I’m not stupid and neither are you. This is our best shot, and if they’d given me the option, I’d have had her here months ago. Let’s just be thankful that T’Pol’s here to help us, and get back to work.”

Brodeur rubbed his eyes, and sighed, “God knows we need all the help we can get. We could use ten times the resources and still not succeed. All this ridiculous cloak and dagger – they should just admit we’ve got a problem and put everything on it.”

“Yeah, well, I guess that’s why you and I aren’t in elected office or intelligence, huh?” Tucker agreed. “You keep working on getting us more resources, and don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. And T’Pol and I will get back to work.” He stood and suggested by his stance that he was waiting for dismissal.

Brodeur looked back at T’Pol and said dryly, “Well, allow me to welcome you to the Europa Research Facility, T’sai T’Pol, and here’s hoping the relationship is a beneficial one.”

“Indeed, Mr. Brodeur, it is my pleasure to be able to assist,” she replied, standing and inclining her head in a gesture of acknowledgement. “I have worked amongst humans for the past decade, and I should regret having all of my efforts to civilize you be wasted by the annihilation of your planet.”

Tucker looked at her briefly in horror, but to his astonishment, Brodeur burst out in a guffaw of laughter.

“Okay, get the hell out of here both of you. I’ll want a full written update in two hours,” he added, waving them out. “And Tucker, when you’ve got time, I’ve got some issues with the evacuation plan that will need work.”

Tucker nodded acknowledgement. After they had exited the office, he turned to T’Pol, hands on his hips, and expostulated, “Geez, T’Pol, it took me a month to get him to loosen up, and you got him to laugh in the first five minutes.” He shook his head, and then gestured her ahead of him down the corridor.

As they strode back towards the facility core, T’Pol pondered how often she and Tucker had together stood between Earth and potential destruction in the past decade. It was a strange, but oddly satisfying, way to forge a relationship. Tucker motioned her onto the floor of the core, and she gazed up at the structure three stories high, pulsing with energy from an unknown source.

“Well, Mr. Tucker, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” she said to him, and he grinned.

“Then I guess it’s time we got serious, huh?”


Part 10

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A whole mess of folks have made comments

Very nice! You've piqued my interest in what's going on...

Looking forward to the next chapter!

great story!!

great story!!

Loving this story more and more. Please continue!

*whines and tugs on your shirt* More more more.

Again another excellent chapter. Can't wait for the next one. Soon Please.

Ohhhh, I want MORE! I'm intrigued about the facility! And of course about T/T! And if T'Pol is right, her presence will be known pretty soon.

Will T'Pol be staying with Trip? Seems the logical thing considering why she came to Europa.

Write quickly! Please!

Oh, that was lovely. What a sense of humor T'Pol has aquired. I can't wait for more!

Ooooh! Now we get lovely technobabble too! Tech's all well and good, but don't forget about the smooching. We loves our smooching, yes we do!

Can't wait for more!!

To borrow a phrase, "fascinating"! Can't wait to see what the machine turns out to be. And oh yes, more smooching please! :)

Wow. I'm lovin' this story. A mystery! And where's the kissing?? :-P

Ditto what Distracted said. Nicely done, this keeps getting better and better! (3,000 years ago, eh? Hmmm...) :)

Very intriguing! Looking forward to more. I'm loving this story. :)

That Ol Bond sure is firin back up at full force again aint it. Love How Trip was quick to defend T'pol beinin on the top secret hidden base ,,,,, Ofcourse he didnt have much of a choise but,,, then he'd a done it any way,, still sweet,,,,, an Trip seein how much his NonDeath affected T'pol,,, Poor Polly,, So Glad their finaly together,,,,,,, An Yeah get to that smoochin,,, an Lots of fun technobable to.:-D Cant wait for more.

Great story, looking forward to more installments

Great story! Great work!
I'm so curious what that facility really is! Don't be cruel and let us wait for too long to find out!

new chapter please really like the story want to know what happens next.