Tolaris Gets a Beating

Author's Note: The title says it all.  I was disgusted that nothing actually happened to Tolaris after what he did to T'Pol in "Fusion."  How exactly is Archer getting thrown across the room justice?  So, I rewrote that part of the episode.  I also made the attack more violent than what was seen on screen because I've read some comments on other sites from people  who don't think what Tolaris did to T'Pol was that horrible.  I think it was, but to make it clear, I gave her some bruises. 

"T'Pol to Sickbay.  Medical emergency," she managed to gasp before sinking to the floor.  She hurt everywhere, but most of all, in her mind.  The things he had forced her to see and do...She knew that none of it was real, but if she had the memories, did that matter?  She drew her body inward upon itself, knees to her chest, head tightly squeezed between her forearms, blocking out sight and sound, seeking to be and feel nothing.  When the door chimed, she was barely aware of it and could not respond.

"Hey, Doc," Commander Tucker said with a friendly nod as he strolled down the corridor past Phlox, who was ringing T'Pol's room.  Trip had been over on the Vahklas, and while he enjoyed working with his new Vulcan friend, Kov was extremely chatty and Trip was looking forward to some peace and quiet.

"Commander!" Phlox called out urgently.  Trip turned back and looked at the Denoblian questioningly.  "Sub-commander T'Pol just called me to her quarters for a medical emergency.  Now she's not opening the door."

His brow furrowed with worry, Trip promptly began working on getting T'Pol's door unlocked.  The Vulcan sub-commander was not prone to exaggeration.  If she said it was a medical emergency, then something was definitely wrong.  "Did she say what's the matter?"

"No."  Once the door was opened, Trip followed Phlox into T'Pol's quarters.  Her room was dim, and at first he didn't see her, but then - 

T'Pol sat huddled in a tight little ball in the corner of her room.  She was trembling slightly.  "T'Pol," he whispered, stunned that he was seeing her this way.  It had never even occurred to him that something could rattle her this badly.  

He hung back a little as Phlox gently knelt down beside her.  "T'Pol?  It's Doctor Phlox.  Can you tell me what's wrong?  Are you sick?  Injured?"

T'Pol's trembling increased, and she started taking quick, jerky breaths.  Trip thought she was trying not to cry.  At last she slowly raised her head to look at them. 

The side of T'Pol's face was bruised, her lip was puffy and oozing a small amount of green blood, and he saw what had to be handprints around her long, elegant neck.  Her shirt was ripped.  He'd seen T'Pol in tight spots before.  She didn't get scared, didn't get upset at all, in fact.  What could someone have done that would reduce her to - Ah, no.  Trip's heart dropped, and he felt as though his internal organs were twisting in knots.  "Who did this to you?" he asked, crouching down on her other side.  When she didn't answer, he said, "Tolaris."  That was the one the captain hadn't liked.  

At the mention of his name, T'Pol's eyes closed and her lips began to tremble.  As Phlox pulled out his medical scanner and began taking scans, Trip spoke to her quietly, reassuring words that neither of them would remember later, but he made no move to touch her.  

"I need to take her to sickbay," Phlox said at last.  

"I'll carry her," Trip offered, putting a hand around her back.  

T'Pol flinched away.  "No.  I can walk.  I don't want...I don't want to attract any more attention." 

Trip gave Phlox a questioning look, and the doctor nodded his assent.  Trip helped her rise.  With as much dignity as she could manage, she shuffled into the bathroom, washed her face, and ran her fingers through her short hair.  The two men waited for her silently.  I'm going to kill him, Trip vowed.  At last T'Pol was ready for the slow walk to sickbay.  

A short way into the journey, she became tired and had to lean on Trip.  Halfway there, she fainted.  Trip picked her up and carried her.  T'Pol's eyelids fluttered open, but she didn't struggle.  She felt safe here, protected in a way she never had been before.  She buried her face in his chest.  He smelled nice.  She dozed a little, enfolded in his arms, lulled by the swaying motion of his walk.  As he carried her, Trip became even more infuriated.  She was so small, so seemingly fragile.  He was aware of her greater Vulcan strength, but right now she was just a delicate girl who needed his protection.  

They met Lieutenant Reed in the lift.  "What happened?" he asked, taking in the slight form of the Vulcan woman wrapped in Commander Tucker's arms.  

Trip didn't explain yet, but he did say, "Malcolm, I think we're going to need your assistance in a little while, when we get all the facts."

Malcolm leaned in slightly for a closer look at T'Pol.  Though she seemed to be trying to hide her face, Malcolm saw the bruises and knew instantly that she hadn't had an accident.  He shared a dark look with Trip and Phlox.  "Bloody hell."  Like Trip, he was shaken by the sight of their strong, courageous Vulcan officer in her current condition.  If there was one thing Malcolm Reed hated above all others, it was a man who would hurt a woman.  Somebody is going to pay for this, Malcolm swore to himself.  

Malcolm waited outside sickbay while Trip gently laid T'Pol on an examination bed.  

"Commander, I think you ought to leave while I examine her," Phlox ordered. 

To everyone's surprise, T'Pol cried out, "No!" and grasped Trip's arm.  

"I suppose I can fashion a barrier to give Sub-commander T'Pol some privacy," said Phlox, turning to his cabinets to get what he required.  

Trip felt very uncomfortable.  If, for whatever reason, his presence was comforting to her, he wasn't going to leave, but he was pretty sure that he didn't want to know anything about what Phlox was about to do.  Phlox carefully laid out his supplies and then turned to wash his hands.  "I never thought I'd have to use this," he said, "but Starfleet regulations require every ship to carry five rape kits."  

Trip flinched at the word everyone had so far avoided saying and stole a quick glance at T'Pol, worried about what he might see on her face.  What he saw was puzzlement, followed by comprehension.

"He didn't - That's not what happened."

Phlox stopped what he was doing and turned to her.  "He didn't rape you?" the doctor asked quietly.

T'Pol closed her eyes and spoke in a soft, strained voice.  "He performed a mind meld on me.  It was supposed to help me access my emotions in a 'safe environment,'" she said bitterly.  "I didn't like it.  He inserted himself into my memories.  He started changing things, forcing me to feel things I didn't want to feel.  When I asked him to stop, he got violent.  He hit me, choked me, and then he - he put images in my mind of - images of dark, unspeakable - When he became...sufficiently...distracted...by what he was seeing, I was able to pull away.  I broke the mind meld and he fled, but it - it hurts."   

He hadn't thought it possible, but Trip became even more livid.  He wanted to rip the Vulcan man apart with his bare hands.  How dare he hurt this woman?  How dare he put his hands on her, strip her of her control, violate her mind.  

Now that he knew what had happened, Phlox ran more precise scans and then gave her a hypospray to help her sleep.  Trip watched it all and fantasies of what he would do to Tolaris played through his mind.  But he had a more urgent concern.  "Is she going to be all right?"

"I believe so.  I can't be certain, but I doubt he caused any permanent brain damage.  I induced a dreamless sleep so that her brain can begin to repair itself.  However...I don't know how long it will take her to get over this emotionally, mentally."

Trip stroked her hair gently before leaving sickbay.  "Malcolm and I are going to see to Tolaris," he announced to Phlox, who nodded grimly. 

Reed was still waiting outside Sickbay.  "Who is responsible?"

"Tolaris.  The youngish one she'd been spending so much time with."

"Did he...did he rape her?"

"Yeah," Trip answered with quiet fury.  "Not physically, though, not like we'd think of it.  He performed some sort of Vulcan telepathy on her - forced it on her.  I can only speculate as to what sort of sick, evil things he did to her mind.  She was pretty distraught, didn't go into details, but it was clear - Yeah, he raped her."

"Bastard!" Reed swore through gritted teeth.  "Captain Archer is still aboard the Vahklas.  I suppose we should call him, now that we have some facts."

Trip gave Malcolm a stare pregnant with meaning.  "Captain Archer will take care of this by the book."

"Perhaps you and I should go take Tolaris into custody first, and then inform the captain when we've straightened out the situation." 

"Agreed." 

"What were you two thinking?" Archer raged at his two senior human officers.  "You assaulted a member of Tavin's crew!" he said to Trip, "and you watched him do it and backed him up with a phase pistol!"

"Captain, that Vulcan son of a bitch put your first officer in Sickbay!" Trip bellowed back, jabbing a broken finger in Tolaris's direction.

"What?" Jonathan Archer asked, confused.  This was the first Archer had heard of T'Pol being in Sickbay.  He turned to look at Tolaris, but the young Vulcan man said nothing to defend himself, staring back sullenly.   

Jon had been having a drink with Captain Tavin when an excited Kov burst into Tavin's ready room shouting that Commander Tucker and another human had boarded the ship and were killing Tolaris.  Archer and Tavin had at once run to the Vahklas's mess hall where they'd witnessed Trip and Tolaris literally rolling around on the floor, hitting, clawing, kicking at each other.  Reed had a phase pistol out and was keeping the other Vulcans at bay.  Archer and Tavin had managed to separate the two enraged officers, though for his trouble Archer now sported a swollen lip.  Whether it had been inflicted by Trip or Tolaris, Archer couldn't say.

Malcolm and Trip refused to answer any questions in the presence of the Vulcans.  Trip merely insisted they had sufficient provocation, and Malcolm just nodded in agreement. Witnesses reported that Lieutenant Reed and Commander Tucker had entered the mess hall a few minutes before, and, without any warning, Commander Tucker had strode up to Tolaris and punched him in the face, hard, knocking him backward out of his chair.  Tucker had then begun kicking Tolaris with his heavy boots.  Tolaris had grabbed Trip's foot and thrown him to the floor, where both men began trying to beat each other to death, it seemed. 

Tucker and Tolaris were covered in red and green blood.  Tolaris's nose appeared to be broken, while one of Trip's ears was half ripped off.  He was also cradling an obviously painful broken arm.  Trip had clearly gotten the worst in this fight, and Archer surmised that the only reason it hadn't gone even worse for him was that Trip had fought dirty, getting in the first hit with no forewarning.  He wondered why Trip was the one fighting instead of Reed, who had far better training. What he didn't know was that Trip and Malcolm had debated the matter the entire walk over to the Vulcan ship.  

Malcolm had finally conceded that since Trip had been the one to actually hear what happened from T'Pol's own lips, he was the one with the stronger claim to kick Tolaris's ass.  They both agreed that Tolaris needed an ass kicking.  While Trip's first thought had been to kill Tolaris, he knew he couldn't do that.  Malcolm pointed out that they didn't have any jurisdiction to arrest Tolaris, and Trip worried that the Vulcans wouldn't do anything to him if they simply reported the incident, and he feared that the High Command might find some reason to blame T'Pol for what had happened.  Reed thought that the power of shame might be punishment enough if they announced to the rest of his crew what Tolaris had done, but Trip argued that T'Pol would be horrified by such an invasion of her privacy, and they had no way of knowing that these Vulcans Without Logic would even disapprove of their crewman's actions. Frustrated, they'd decided that a good beating was the only punishment they were certain they could administer.  If Captain Tavin or the High Command meted out a harsher penalty, that would be even better.   

 "Captain," Archer said, turning to Tavin, "I have to see to my first officer.  When I get this sorted out, I'll let you know what I find out.  Please, don't leave until we have a chance to discuss this again." 

Tavin agreed to wait, sick at heart.  He'd seen the interest Tolaris had shown in Sub-commander T'Pol.  Tolaris had the weakest control of any member of his crew, and while Tavin hadn't believed him to be dangerous, in hindsight he had to admit that there had been some signs that Tolaris might be unstable.

T'Pol's eyes were closed when Archer, Trip, and Reed entered sickbay.  The captain went immediately to her side and observed her injuries.  "Tolaris did this to her?" he asked.

"Yes, Sir," Reed answered. 

"And you two decided that instead of contacting me, you would go over there and start a fight?"

"Yes, Sir," Tucker answered this time.  "It was my idea.  Lieutenant Reed wanted to notify you, but I - "

"I think I understand," Archer interrupted.  "You wanted some revenge.  You thought she wouldn't get it if you approached this through proper channels."

"Yes, Sir."

"Is she going to be all right?" he asked Phlox, who was beginning to assess Trip's wounds. 

"I believe so, though I've never had a patient with such a profound psychic trauma before.  It may take some time for her to fully recover.  Sorry, Commander," the doctor apologized to Trip, who grimaced as Phlox probed a couple of broken ribs.  "Did Tolaris sustain any injuries?" 

"I think I broke his nose," Trip answered.

"Good," Phlox responded taking out a laser that he would use to fully reattach Commander Tucker's ear.  After seeing T'Pol, Archer could only nod in agreement. 

"I'd like to keep you here overnight, Commander.  Your left lung was slightly damaged by that broken rib.  I don't think it's serious, but to be on the safe side, I want to observe you." 

After the captain and the armory officer left, Trip changed into the pajamas provided by Phlox and crawled into the bed next to T'Pol's.  He looked over at her and found that her eyes were open, just a tiny slit.

"Thank you," she said, before closing them once more.