Parallels - Chapter 3

Parallels

by Giggling Vulcan

Genre: Romance/Drama
Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: If I owned Enterprise, Archer would have flown out an airlock long ago. Don’t own it, don’t make money from it, don’t sue me.

***

Chapter 3

***

“All Senior and Bridge officers, please report to the situation room. All Senior and Bridge officers, please report to the situation room.”

T’Pol groggily opened her eyes, startled that she’d slept so late. She looked at the chronometer. It was 0900, much later than T’Pol usually slept. She quickly got out of bed, noting that her shift started ten minutes ago and she should have been on the Bridge. Such behavior was unacceptable and very uncharacteristic, but she had no time to see Phlox this morning. She ran her fingers through her hair and splashed some water on her face, trying to look as presentable as she could on such short notice. She still had on her uniform from the day before as she rushed out of the door and to the situation room.

Trip glanced across the room at T’Pol, who obviously wasn’t having a good morning. She’d been late to the meeting and looked rather worse for wear, wearing the same uniform from the previous day and the area under her eyes tinted green. He caught her attention for a moment, giving her a look that said “Are you feeling okay?” all over it. She looked away in response.

“I’ve just received our new mission orders.” Announced the Captain, surveying his crew. “It seems that some one has been tampering with Echo 2, possibly spying on Starfleet’s communications. Enterprise is to investigate. ETA to location is thirty minutes. T’Pol, I’d like for you to scan the area for any residual warp signatures once we’re in range. Let us know if you find anything interesting.”

“Understood.”

“ Hoshi, filter through the comm. logs, see if you can find anything out of place.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Dismissed.”

The crew went to their respective stations, leaving T’Pol and Hoshi to carry out their duties. T’Pol intended to help Hoshi filter through comm. logs until they were within scanning range.

“Sub-Commander?”

“Yes, Ensign?”

“I think I might have found something.”

T’Pol crossed over to where she stood and looked over her shoulder.

“This frequency definitely isn’t Starfleet…” She indicated the frequency displayed on the screen. “If I were to make a guess, I’d say it was Andorian.”

“See if it matches any of the frequencies that—“ T’Pol was hit by a wave of dizziness. She grabbed the console to keep herself from toppling over, then looked over to where Hoshi had been standing, shocked to see her all the way across the room. “Ensign?”

Hoshi turned around from the station she was working at. “Yes, Sub-Commander?”

T’Pol looked utterly befuddled. There was no logical explanation to how Ensign Sato could have crossed the room in 2.1 seconds without her noticing.

“Alert me when we are within scanning range.” T’Pol exited the situation room, intending to head straight to sickbay.

***

“I am not certain of what is happening, Doctor.”

“You said things were changing when they weren’t supposed to. What specific events reflected this observation?”

“The cake was chocolate, then it was yellow; the Captain appeared after Commander Tucker specifically informed me that he would not be attending; Ensign Sato appeared across the room, momentarily after standing completely stationary beside of me…it isn’t logical, Doctor.”

“It sounds to me like you could be suffering from memory loss. You are losing recollections of certain passages of time. That would explain how Hoshi appeared on the other side of the room. You lost the memory of her leaving and crossing to the other console.”

“But I am sure that the cake was chocolate. How could its change in composition be credited to memory loss?”

The Doctor frowned. “I’m giving you a neural stimulant. This could help with the time lapses you are experiencing. It appears you are having another negative reaction to the treatment.”

“Another?” T’Pol questioned. “My initial responses to the treatment were positive.”

Phlox looked at her as if she had a Lysarian Larvae growing out of her ear.

“T’Pol,” He said softly, “half-way through the treatment, you went into neural shock, we were afraid we were going to lose-“

“I am certain of the results! Access the medical logs and see for yourself!”

“T’Pol, listen to me. You’re losing control.”

“I am not losing control.” She said while gritting her teeth. “I did not go into neural shock!”

The Doctor went to his computer and accessed the official medical logs. Pulling up T’Pol’s file, he selected the entry describing the entire process. He silently waited for T’Pol to read it.

“That is not possible.” She said in a broken voice. “I have no recollection of…” She looked at the floor. Phlox hadn’t seen her this distraught since the night she had come to him for the first time about her Trellium-D addiction.

“It is possible that your memory loss is accredited to the neural shock. I’m sure as your brain begins to heal, your memory will return completely.” He gave her a small, sympathetic smile. “I can give you something for the dizziness and headaches, and a small sedative, but I’m afraid that’s all I can do.”

T’Pol nodded and allowed him to press the hypospray to her neck, hearing the soft hiss of its release.

“I can relieve you of duty.” He offered.

“I believe I will be fine. The Captain is anticipating my analysis on the Echo 2 situation.” She said quietly.

Phlox nodded and watched as she left.

***

“Sir, there’s a ship approaching. It’s Andorian.” Travis said.

“Hail them.” Archer instructed. Hoshi complied and a familiar blue face appeared on the viewscreen.

“Well, well, well! It looks like the pink-skin is back in space already!”

“Shran!” Archer exclaimed.

“We mean no harm, Captain, we’re simply passing through. Might I inquire as to what you’re doing so far away from your home-world so soon?”

“We’re being sent to repair an Earth station. We would ask that you allow us to do so.”

“As you wish, Captain.”

The viewscreen blinked off.

“Captain, Commander Shran’s ship carries the same warp signature of the ship that is suspected of tampering with Echo 2.” T’Pol informed him.

“Tampering?” Archer asked, furrowing his brow. “We never suspected the Andorians of tampering with Echo 2.”

***
T’Pol sat perched on the edge of her bed. She should have been in the Mess Hall eating lunch, but she found she had no appetite. She was absolutely frustrated. Whatever was happening to her had to be stopped, and soon. The memory loss was affecting her ability to complete her duties as science-officer. This was unacceptable.

“Computer, access personal log, date: March the second, 2154. Play.”

Her own voice wafted to her from the speakers in her room. “Personal log, March 2nd, 2154. I am en route to rendezvous with Enterprise. I regret that my stay on Vulcan did not turn out as well as I would have wished it to. Dr. Yuris’s treatment seemed promising, however, the results were less than rewarding. Doctor Phlox has assessed that I am “lucky to be alive”. My condition has—“

“Computer, stop playback.”

T’Pol buried her head in her hands. “What’s happening to me?” she whispered.

The door chime sounded, which was about the last thing she wanted to hear at the moment…Unless…

“Who is it?” She called out.

“It’s Trip.”

“Enter.”

Trip walked in bearing a look of concern and two pieces of pecan pie. “Didn’t see you in the Mess Hall, and I thought you might be hungry…so…”

“Please, have a seat.” She scooted over to allow him room on the bed beside her, accepting the piece of pie he offered.

“I heard what happened on the Bridge today.” He said gently.

T’Pol looked strangely unnerved, trying to hide her discomfort by focusing her full attention on her pie.

“T’Pol, it’s not like you to forget something that major. The Cap’n’s getting concerned. I’m…hell, I’m worried sick about you! Please, just tell me. Let me help you.”

T’Pol looked up at him. His eyes were too much for her. She stared into their startlingly blue clarity, enhanced by the tears that threatened to escape them. He really was concerned, magnanimously so. For T’Pol, it was overwhelming. It stabbed at her that she was hurting him; hurting him by leaving him in the dark. Yet, if she did tell him, she might hurt him even more.

Her hands were clamped tightly around his neck, squeezing the very life from him as he slid helplessly down the shower wall…How could she hurt him like this when he’d done nothing but love her?

She closed her eyes, the tears threatening to escape if she didn’t restrain them, reminding herself again that she was Vulcan, the epitome of control. She wasn’t allowed to express herself in such a manner.

“T’Pol?” It started her when he took her hand in his. It caused her to look up unexpectedly; Trip saw the last shreds of her physical sorrow pass across her face as her control returned, and it stunned him. He was still gaping at her with that sorrowful expression that threatened to tear her wits to pieces when the door chime sounded again.

“Enter.” She called out, the means of procrastination too tempting to resist.

Hoshi entered quietly, quite astounded at the scene she saw. Trip was sitting on T’Pol’s bed, looking at her intently and holding her hand. T’Pol seemed to notice the Ensign’s look of confusion, for she quickly slipped her hand away from Trip and scooted over in the opposite direction a bit. “Is this a bad time?” Hoshi asked.

“What do you need, Ensign?” T’Pol asked quickly.

“Captain Archer wanted me to inform you that we’ve discovered that the problem with Echo 2 was a simple malfunction, no foul play suspected on the part of the Andorians…”

T’Pol nodded. “Thank you, Ensign.” Hoshi left as quickly as possible, it seemed. The whole ship was acting like this was a funeral, and T’Pol’s sanity was the unfortunate death. She looked back over at Trip, but there was something different. His compassionate demeanor hadn’t changed, but his clothes certainly had. In place of the uniform he had worn moments before, he wore a grey t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants. He picked up on the confused look she gave him.

“T’Pol? You’re lookin’ at me awful funny…what is it?” He asked.

“Your…your unifor—“ Her attention was diverted by the picture that was tacked up on her wall. Instead of the green Vulcan, there was a crude sketch of Enterprise. It appeared that the picture was tacked on the opposite wall that Trip had put it on in the first place.

“T’Pol!”

“Captain, my station isn’t responding!” Malcolm yelled over the sound of the Red Alert alarm. T’Pol looked up, dazed and confused to find herself at the science station on the Bridge. An Andorian warship loomed on the viewscreen.

“T’Pol! Polarize the hull plating!” Archer yelled at her. She looked down at her science station, her vision going in and out of focus.

“T’Pol!”

The ship was jolted by the unmistakable ‘direct hit.’ There was no need to announce it. T’Pol was thrown from her seat, but heard the Captain order, “Travis! Get us out of here!” and regained her seat fast enough to see the Andorian ship fire on Echo 2, destroying it completely.

“What the hell was that?!” Archer blazed at her. “Why didn’t you follow my orders?!” His face was turning a rather unbecoming shade of purple.

“I…seem to be experiencing…memory loss due to the treatment I received for my disease on Vulcan…” She stammered.

“Treatment for what!? If it interferes with your ability to carry out my orders, I’m afraid that’s unacceptable!”

“Captain—“

“You’re relieved of duty, Sub-Commander.”

“But, Captain—“

“Report to your quarters!”

T’Pol glanced around the room at the pale, terrified faces of her fellow crewmembers. Hanging her head slightly, she replied, “Understood.”

***

T’Pol collapsed into her bed immediately after entering the room. She was confused beyond her wildest dreams and didn’t even have the mental capacity to think anymore. She silently wondered who was suffering from the memory loss, her or the crew. She didn’t know what to believe was real anymore. She didn’t know if anything she knew was real anymore. Nothing seemed to make sense: the crew, the mission…Trip…It didn’t even make sense to speak to him anymore. Did he still have feelings for her, or had that changed after she’d gotten dizzy too? She would hurt him if she did tell him, hurt him if she didn’t tell him, if in fact, Trip still existed…

Looking at the ceiling, she said to herself, “I believe the human axiom would be ‘Damned if I do, damned if I don’t.”

Chapter 4

Return to Chapter 2

Back to Fan Fiction Main Menu

Have a comment to make about this story? Do so in the Trip Fan Fiction forum at the HoTBBS!

A whole mess of folks have made comments

Curiouser and curiouser. I can hardly wait for the next update.

Ohh.. this is cool, and so confusing! I love it!

Wow. This story is great. I never saw the TNG episode so the plot is new to me. Like Jenna, I'm confused too but in a good way. lol.

I do remember this episode but i can't remember how it was resolved. So, I'll have to wait for the upcoming chapters to find out.

Hmm . . . also confused (in the very best way). It took a while for me to get into this story, but now I'm completely involved in it -- can't wait for the next chapter!

Good story. You really have to pay attention, or else you wind up like T'Pol... confused. Looking forward to the next chapter!

My one suggestion is that you take the universes over the top in the next few chapters (really major changes). That would be very interesting.

Still very very very good! Excellent adaptation.

Since I loved the TNG ep, I love this, but like Lolajl, I have absolutely no recollection of how it was all resolved!

You NEED to update soon, because I'm desperate to read more!

Damn, you need to update SOON! Excellent. Confusing but really good. Ali D :~)
Or did that happen already?

coming along nicely. I'm looking forward to T'pol finding out about her and Trips kids. Also I'm wondering what variations will show up when the sector becomes ass deep in Enterprises (if yopu stick to the origional story).

This is an excellent story so far! I recall a bit from the original TNG episode, but it doesn't take away anything from reading your version. I am hooked, please continue soon.