Missing Scenes from Season Four: The Awakening

DISCLAIMER: All things Star Trek belong to CBS/Paramount. "Awakening" was written by André Bormanis, and I pick up some of his dialogue in progress as we open.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: And we're moving along. This episode doesn't allow much room for TnT, frankly. I might have been tempted to borrow Soval's point of view, but that's been done before (and quite nicely, so I wish I could remember the title so I could recommend it to you). Thanks as always, reviewers.

T'Pol told her mother, "When you gave me that map, you knew I'd try to find you."

"I thought that if you could see what we were trying to accomplish…"

"That I'd understand? That I'd join you?"

"I held out that hope, yes. It's possible I was being foolish."

"Extremely." How could someone as relentlessly logical as her mother be so deluded? T'Pol paced impatiently away and back again. "If you believed they already suspected you at the time of my visit… but that makes no sense. Kotok would have even less reason to wish his son to marry the child of a suspected Syrranite."

"You underestimate the bond between our families. Kotok is the one who warned me that I was being monitored. He also introduced me to T'Pau, shortly after your wedding. Before that, I had merely been reading Syrran's works and attempting to make contact with him."

"Kotok is a Syrranite?" T'Pol began to calculate quickly. Kotok was far better placed than anyone in the Forge to plant a bomb in Earth's embassy … or, if he was acting as a double agent, to make it appear to be a Syrranite plot. Alhough, in that case, it made even less sense to wed his son to her, unless he hoped to use that connection to some other purpose.

T'Les said, "As far as I know, Kotok doesn't subscribe to any particular belief system. He's a pragmatist. But he does suspect that a dangerous conspiracy is at work within the High Command."

"A conspiracy with what purpose?"

"Kotok believes the Syrranites may be able to help Vulcan recover its way … if we can overcome certain weaknesses."

T'Pol raised a curious eyebrow, even as she noted that her mother had completely ignored her question.

T'Les lowered her voice. "Kotok felt that Syrran lacked political skill. Of course, one never knew if one was truly dealing with Syrran or with Surak."

"You can't possibly believe that."

"I have first-hand knowledge of it. I have melded with Syrran, and shared thoughts with Surak's katra. It was of the most remarkable experiences of my life."

This was getting worse and worse. "You are being manipulated, Mother."

"We are all being manipulated," T'Les said. "But not by Syrranites."

"What makes you think you can trust Kotok?"

"Your father trusted him."

"And Father is dead."

T'Les sighed. "Kotok has shared memories with me; I know we can rely on him."

"What makes you so certain a mind meld cannot also contain lies and manipulation, especially if it is wielded by someone with ill intent?" She felt a twinge of nausea, helplessly reminded of Tolaris. With all the promiscuous mind melding going on in this group, wasn't it possible her mother had also contracted Pa'nar Syndrome? Might that explain the bizarre choices she was now making?

T'Les stared soulfully at her. Instead of answering her question, she asked, "How is Commander Tucker?"

T'Pol turned away and closed her eyes. "I don't know. We seldom talk. My marriage has proven too great a barrier for him."

"I'm sorry. I know you cared for a great deal for each other. But if you truly do not know how he is, and if he was willing to give you up, any bond you might have shared must not have been very strong."

T'Pol said nothing, even as she reeled with dismay at how easily her mother dismissed her bond with Trip. Here was another echo of what Kotok had said. Was it that simple, then? Had her bond with Trip never amounted to anything significant? And if other people's mate bonds were so easily measured and found wanting, why were bonds such a mysterious and forbidden topic?

Then again, mind melds were seldom spoken of, either, but these Syrranites just couldn't shut up about them.

She felt her mother's hand on her shoulder. "This means you should be able to form a proper mate bond with Koss. He has been extremely patient with you."

T'Pol stepped out from under her mother's hand and willed herself not to express any of the sheer rage she felt at that idea.

"It is time I returned you to your captain," T'Les said, and gestured for T'Pol to walk with her. "For a Human, he has coped quite well with the conditions of the Forge."

This time T'Pol allowed herself a frown. She found Archer's inexplicable confidence in his alien surroundings profoundly irritating. If not entirely comfortable, he nonetheless seemed far more invulnerable to the local conditions than most Humans would have been – certainly more so than Trip would have been in his place.

And Archer's certainty about finding the sanctuary … where had that come from? It was an affront against sense.

Was it possible Humans had psychic abilities they were not even aware of? It was notoriously hard to scientifically measure skills such as precognition; Vulcans had long dismissed the possibility of it even among themselves, but anecdotal tales nonetheless abounded, just as they did on Earth.

Perhaps it all amounted to a kind of unconscious logic; perhaps Archer had simply subliminally noticed something in the rockface.

Similarly, it did not require precognition to conclude that the longer they stayed here, the more likely they were to meet with misfortune. Her urge to get away from this location and return to Enterprise, however, felt far stronger and more primitive than any logical deduction she had ever arrived at.

"You must return to the ship with us," she told her mother, urgently. "T'Pau could come as well, if she wishes. We will speak to Kotok. If the claims he made to you have merit…"

"Kotok is not on Vulcan right now."

"How convenient."

Her mother stopped in front of their cell. "You will have to trust somebody in this matter, T'Pol. I regret that that you don't seem to believe it can be your own mother."

"So do I," T'Pol said bitterly, and walked through the door into their cell.

x x x

Trip stayed on the bridge long enough to get the initial damage reports – and for the reality that he was taking them to Andoria to sink in with his command crew.

"Estimated time to Andorian space?" he asked Travis.

"Just over four hours at our current speed, sir."

Trip sighed. He felt as if he'd been up for two days straight, although part of that was his own fault for failing to sleep well when he'd had the chance. But he didn't have to luxury of letting himself get strung out and punchy, not when he was in command. He decided he'd try to get a short nap in before he had to deal with any Andorians … right after he stopped by sickbay to check on the injured. "Malcolm, you have the con." He stood up. "Hoshi, see if you can get Soval assigned some quarters. I assume you're going to want some privacy eventually for rest or meditation, Ambassador."

Soval's eyebrow rose. "You assume correctly. But I am no longer an ambassador."

"Well, I sure hope you can still act like one when we get to Andoria, because nobody's ever suggested that I was born to be a diplomat." He turned back to Malcolm. "Call me if you need me."

Malcolm nodded curtly, flashing him his I-know-you-outrank-me-but-what-the-bloody-hell-do-you-think-you're-doing look. Trip just grimaced and moved along. He was still figuring that out himself.

He slumped a little in the turbo lift, safe from prying eyes. Being in command at a time like this was not anything he wanted at this point in his life, but neither Archer nor T'Pol would be available any time soon. Or, possibly, ever.

In his own mind, he replayed what he had said to Soval moments earlier: "They've been in tough jams before." He'd instinctively brushed off the man's rather un-Vulcan attempt at empathy, and he still wasn't sure why. Intellectually, he knew Jon and T'Pol were in terrible trouble. If V'Las was willing to fire on a Starfleet vessel in orbit, he was hardly going to show any mercy towards those on the ground, far away from any witnesses.

Yet Trip felt quite certain that T'Pol, at least, was okay. He had no idea why he was so certain of this.

Maybe this was just his primitive primate brain in denial, protecting him from distraction at a time when he couldn't afford it. Maybe it already had enough crazy shit to deal with. He still couldn't believe the ruthless efficiency with which V'Las was wreaking such destruction.

And now he was on his way to Andoria to warn them - without telling Admiral Gardner, who probably wouldn't approve. And that was crazy, too.

He walked down the corridor to sickbay. These casualties would be the product of his own decisions. And the way things were looking, they might not be the last crewmen to suffer for his choices.

He took a deep breath, armored his heart, and walked through the doors.

So be it.

The END