Reflection - Ch 6

Reflection

By Triplover

Disclaimer: I don’t own a thing.
Rating: R
Summary: Trip must face some old demons when a friend from the past reappears asking to stay on Enterprise as a member of the crew.

Chapter Six

Things were not going well. Archer was nearly fighting with the leader of the Zarkins and it didn’t seem to be getting him anywhere. He couldn’t help but wonder what had happened. He came here to explore, not fight with the leader of this world.

“I am sorry, Captain, but this is a dangerous place to be in at the moment. Terrorists have been getting through our security, there’s nothing I can do right now. I would love to have your people visit our world and if the circumstances were different I would say ‘yes’ to your request but these are not normal circumstances.”

Archer sighed shaking his head. He wouldn’t keep this up; if this man felt it was unsafe then perhaps it was a good idea to just leave. Archer was getting pretty tired of this man and more than that he was getting the feeling this man wasn’t lying. “T’Pol, maybe we should go back to the pod, it’s obvious that we need to go now.”

T’Pol nodded just as Archer turned back to look at the leader, Parlif. “I have had an interesting time meeting you, Captain. Although you may not get the chance to see my world, I would not mind sharing with you the culture of our world. Our database has information that you might find of some interest and perhaps in the future you will able to do more.”

Archer smiled. He may have been a difficult man at times but he was certainly friendly. “That would be great Parlif. We should get going… there’s a lot more to explore.”

“I am honored that you would choose our world as one of your stops.”

Their people had just acquired warp technology and it had caused a division between them all. Some became terrorists because of their fear of what the universe could be now that they knew they were not alone. They had met only a few different races. But even though they only had warp two capability their other technologies were highly advanced. Their medical resources were amazing and they certainly were more advanced militarily. Malcolm would love it here, Archer thought to himself.

Parlif nodded. “I’m sorry captain but there are many who do not like off-worlders.”

“I understand. And perhaps we will get the chance to meet again in the future.” Archer turned around and began walking towards where the shuttle was. They’d been talking in a park near the house where Parlif lived. It was then that they heard a scream, it sounded like a woman. It sent a shiver down his spine when he began to hear more and more screams coming towards them. After that they heard phaser fire as men began to move through the park shooting. Archer’s eyes widened as he realized what their intent was. “Get down!” Archer shouted as he grabbed both T’Pol and Parlif and shoved them to the ground.

==

Sim walked out of the building sometime later rather frazzled from the talk he’d had with Tesic. He had a lot on his mind now. The lives of his friends were now in his hands and he was at a very important cross road. If he destroyed Enterprise it would mean destroying people who he cared for and T’Pol would hate his guts for the rest of her life. But if he didn’t destroy Enterprise he would die a horrible death and the masters would just find someone else to do it. Most likely Rylic would end up destroying them. Things were never as simple as they should be, but all that went to the back of his mind when he heard a scream coming from where Archer and T’Pol were. More screams followed. His eyes shot open as he ran to the shuttle to see Trip getting out already.

“Did you hear that?” Trip asked him.

Sim nodded. “It came from where the Cap’n and T’Pol were headed. They might be in trouble.”

Trip moved back inside grabbing two phasers. “Let’s go!”

==

Sim and Trip moved quickly to where they knew Archer and T’Pol had been headed. There was a path that led to a huge park. It was there that they saw men crouched down moving forward as they fired their weapons. There were six. Trip and Sim glanced over at each other before Sim gave him a wink and ran towards them. Trip watched in surprise as Sim ran swiftly through the large clump of trees where the men were hiding and went behind one of them. Sim tapped the man’s shoulder and when he turned around Sim punched the guy so hard he fell right into the tree he’d been standing behind before falling to the ground.

“Damn Sim,” Trip mumbled in surprise. “That’s my clone." He grinned with pride and ran towards his companion. He would need a hand in saving the captain. Trip took out his weapon quickly and began firing.

==

Phaser fire was heard everywhere as Parlif, Archer and T’Pol ducked behind a bench.

“I told you! This is not a safe place! You must get out of here before they kill you!” Parlif almost shouted.

“If that’s true then why did you allow us to come down here?” Archer asked in annoyance.

“I didn’t think it would go this far! I’m sorry!” Parlif told him.

“Well it has!” Archer said in frustration.

“How did they find out about you so quickly though?” Parlif asked.

Neither T’Pol nor Archer could give an answer to that one.

It was then that the phaser fire almost completely stopped. Archer chanced a look over the bench to see Trip and Sim running towards them. “Are you alright, Cap’n?” Trip asked.

Archer nodded slowly and smiled. “We’re fine. Thanks.”

Trip smiled back. “No problem.”

Sim looked over at T’Pol to see if she was okay. He’d heard their conversation as he fought to save them. How did they find out about you so quickly though? One of the aliens had asked that question. He knew the answer. Tesic. He didn’t have proof but he knew. It was then that for some odd reason he turned around and noticed one of the men they’d shot raising his weapon. Sim’s eyes widened as he realized where the weapon was pointing. He looked back at T’Pol and grabbed her, pushing her down.

“Watch out!” he screamed as the gun went off. Sim fell to the ground beside T’Pol crying out in pain. T’Pol turned to look at him when she spotted blood dripping from his side as Trip shot the man who fired the weapon.

“We have to get back to Enterprise! Sim’s been shot!” T’Pol told them.

“How bad is it?” Trip asked crouching beside Sim to inspect the damage.

“It looks like he didn’t get all of it but he’s losing blood quickly. We need to stop the bleeding,” T’Pol explained.

Archer quickly took out his communicator. “Archer to Reed!”

“Yes, Captain?”

“Lock onto Sim and beam him up! He’s hurt! Tell Phlox to be ready! He was shot in the side!”

T’Pol turned to look at her captain. “I want to be with him!”

Archer turned to look at her and noticed the tenderness she showed Sim, it was obvious she wanted to be next to him. “Lock onto T’Pol and beam them both.”

“Understood Captain! Right away!”

==

When they were safely beamed aboard Enterprise, T'Pol stood. She looked over at the doctor…and Ensign Hill, the transporter controller. Doctor Phlox ran over to Sim and scanned him. He then looked at T’Pol. “We have to get him to sickbay now!”

T’Pol moved one of Sim’s arms around her shoulder as she began to take his weight on her before following Phlox to sickbay. There was only one thought going through her head at that moment. Please don’t let him die again Doctor. Please don’t let him die.

==

Trip and Archer watched Sim beam up to the ship before they looked over at each other. Trip then looked back at where T’Pol and Sim had been. Though he was worried about Sim he couldn’t seem to get the panic in T’Pol’s eyes out of his head. She was so scared. He’d seen it right away. And then the way she stroked his face, telling him everything would be okay. That wasn’t how T’Pol would act. Trip looked at the blood on his hands. Sim’s blood. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the red liquid.

“Trip,” Archer called but Trip couldn’t hear anything but his own heart beat banging against the cage surrounding it. “Trip?”

Trip finally looked up blinking. He raised his hands up as if to show Archer how bad Sim had been bleeding. Archer frowned as he looked at Trip’s hands then took a few steps closer resting a hand on Trip’s shoulder. “Come on Trip, we have to get back to Enterprise.”

Trip just simply nodded.

The commander and Captain Archer walked back to the shuttle. Maybe something did go on between Sim and T’Pol before, maybe she even had feelings for Sim. Trip hated to admit it but when T’Pol had told him Sim was in her quarters he’d been pretty jealous. What WAS he doing in her room? What happened? When she told him Sim had been in her room it was like a blow to the stomach. Why the hell would he be in her room? He hadn’t liked that much at all. It was part of the reason why it was so hard for him to talk to Sim. He couldn’t stop wondering what exactly they’d been to each other. He was now afraid he’d finally find out, only he really wasn’t sure he wanted to know anymore.

==

T’Pol stood by his side as Phlox took more scans of the man lying on the bio bed. “T’Pol, maybe you should go.”

T’Pol looked up at the Doctor, a determined look in her eyes. “I will not leave until I know he will be okay.”

Doctor Phlox sighed before nodding. “Just don’t get in my way,” he said then began to put his tools near Sim and cleared his throat. He looked up to see T’Pol. She looked so worried. “Don’t worry T’Pol, it could have been much worse. It seems the phaser only grazed him. It didn’t inflict nearly as much damage as it could have. He’ll be fine.”

T’Pol nodded slowly as she clutched Sim’s right hand. “I know doctor. I know.”

==

“What the hell could be taking this long?” Trip asked Archer who was sitting down. Trip had been pacing for nearly an hour as soon as they reached Enterprise and came to sickbay. The doctor had them wait outside though T’Pol was able to stay with Sim. Once again Trip felt his jealousy peek its ugly head out. “And how come T’Pol’s in there?!”

“Relax Trip, I’m sure Sim will be fine. And I’m sure T’Pol’s just helping Phlox. Sim did save her life,” Archer reminded him.

Trip looked his captain in the eyes before nodding and letting out a calming breath. He couldn’t keep this up. It was then that Doctor Phlox and T’Pol walked out of sickbay. “He’ll be fine,” he said simply with a smile on his face. “It only grazed him. For now he needs to rest. He’ll experience some pain for a while, but none of his vital organs felt the impact. In a few days he’ll be as good as new.”

Trip let out a relieved sigh before running his hand through his hair and looking over at T’Pol who wouldn’t seem to look at him. Instead she kept her eyes on the floor. “Are you okay T’Pol?” he asked.

Finally she looked up at him and cleared her throat. “I need to meditate. Excuse me,” and with that she was gone.

Trip let out a small sigh before he turned to look at his captain. “I think I’ll head to Engineering. I have a lot of work I need to catch up on,” he told them and left.

Phlox frowned and looked at Archer. “Uh, this is one thing I wanted to discuss with you alone. It’s about Sim.”

“What about him?”

“While running my tests my scans found something interesting about the silver ring on his right hand. It took scans of the inside of this ring to find a very dangerous poison, enough to kill an elephant in minutes, after an extreme amount of pain. Captain, the ring was burned onto his finger. I found some type of a chip inside the ring. Obviously if it’s activated there will be some dire consequences for Sim. The poison could seep through his skin easily and into his bloodstream.”

“What are you saying doctor?” Archer asked.

Phlox sighed deeply his frown never leaving him. “Captain, Sim may have been lying about how he was treated while on the ship where he was revived. I found burns all over his body along with many knife cuts. Most of which were there months before. About the time when he said they’d found him. He was brutalized Captain. They beat him.”

Archer frowned. “Why would he lie about something like that?”

“I don’t know. It may be somewhat of a sore subject with him. He could have escaped the people who did those horrible things to him and now they're looking for him.”

“He could have just told us that! He wouldn’t need to lie!”

“Captain, I’ve found that many are embarrassed when it comes to how they were treated if they were hurt the way he was. Or it could be he didn’t want to talk about it. Either way he obviously didn’t want us to know what happened to him on whatever ship he came from. He’s trying to run away from his past.”

“Why don’t they simply activate the ring? Just kill him after he escaped?”

Phlox shrugged. “There could be many reasons. Perhaps they have some use for him still.”

Archer didn’t like where their guesses were going. “You think that maybe they used him for something.”

“Many times beatings were given out for resistance. They may have wanted to force him to do things he didn’t want to do.”

“Think we should talk to him about it?” Archer then questioned. Although every bone in Archer’s body wanted to confront Sim about this, he knew Phlox would know whether it was a good idea or not. Phlox was the one with degrees in psychology, after all.

Phlox shook his head. “In some cases reliving a hard time in a person’s life has pushed them further away from people. Maybe this is one thing that should be left alone for now, but I thought it a good idea to tell you.”

==

It was late. And Doctor Phlox had retired for the night. If Sim awoke or something went wrong he could be there in less than a minute. T’Pol walked through the sickbay doors and swallowed hard before searching the room for Sim. He was asleep. T’Pol slowly walked towards him and stood beside his bio bed. There was only one question running through her head when she saw the state he was in. “Why did you put yourself in danger to save me?” She knew she wouldn’t get an answer but she said it anyway. It may have been illogical but she wasn’t well known for her logic when it came to Sim, or Trip for that matter.

Sim shifted in his sleep mumbling something she couldn’t understand. T’Pol stroked his face lightly and felt his head lean into her hand. She breathed in deeply and closed her eyes before removing her hand from his face. The feelings she had were overwhelming and she did not know what to do or how to react. She’d hoped such feelings would subside after his death. She was wrong. Now she had a dilemma quite close to the one he’d had before. His had been wondering whether his feelings for her were his or Trip’s. Hers was wondering whether her feelings lied with Trip or Sim.

Chapter 7

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A whole mess of folks have made comments

Gah, stop torturing us! You're not allowed to break Trip's heart, so cut it out!

Great chapter, update soon!

DITTO! :-)

SIM MUST DIE.

SIM MUST DIE.

so the story suggests that the feelings tpol supposedly have for trip are just for sim..
one would think all the time before then that tpl knew trip would count for something ...

I second that... SIM MUST DIE!!

little bastard

good story though... keep it up! :P

Sim is a little more vocal with his feelings than Trip and other than that they are the same...

IMHO she is just really confused... but it could go both ways...

I must say that I do feel a lot of sympathy for Sim but I am a bit confused by T'pols feelings for Sim. She only knew him for a few days and she thinks she has feelings for him and not Trip. Oh the poor man, it must be strange being jealous of yourself.

Will Sim tell them the truth? Will Dr Phlox manage to get the poison ring off him? And poor Trip, just where the hell does he stand now? This was excellent and I just cannot wait for the next part! Ali D :~)

SIM MUST DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i dont think sim must die but i want tpol to do some real reflection that sim is nt the person she spent the previous three years with prior to trip's near death and neither is he the person in forgotten on as it appeared they were slowly growing closer again.

and sim back in the episode told her a little lie..
when he came to engineering the last time while part of it may have been true that she was one of is two favorite things the primary reason he was there was to reroute the shuttle bay codes..

Poor Sim. Poor Trip. Poor T'Pol. It's not Sim's fault he was tortured and manipulated. He gave up his life once for the crew of the Enterprise. I can't imagine being given a second chance at life only to find that the only way to keep it is to kill the same people he died for.

What a horrible situation. I'm really looking forward to what you're going to do with it next.

Great story! I can't wait to see how Sim deals with his "unpleasant" task and I really like to see a happy ending for Sim, Trip and T'Pol!

i feel sorry for sim but if not for what he is being forced to do it almost sounds as if he could easily take trip's place as far as tpol, jon and phlox are concerned.

trip didnt ask that sim save his life..
from what he said to phlox in doctors orders.. this time i am making it easy for you he probably would have been opposed to someone being created just to save him.

instead of really talking to trip like he needs to jon brushes off his concern for trip and decides to way to handle things is to make sim and trip talk.

tpol goes from seemingly to really care for trip even to coming to a film for him to pretty much putting him aside to spend time with sim.

and phlox with his psychologist degree cant be bothered to see how this is affecting trip.. he is to happy to have his son back.

it really reminds me of the feeling i got from the end of similitude..
trip it looks like wasnt out of the coma long.. he still seems out of it.and were are his closest friends,, not by his side like they should have been.

as for the dilema that sim is in.. well we already know what trip would do if it were a choice between his life and that of his friends..
we got that answer from shuttle pod one, doctors orders and similitude itself..

You cannot break Trip's heart. I forbid it;). Great story. Please continue with it and KILL SIM!!!!!;);)