Chapter 8: Escalation

Ten days later...

Captain Archer had just demanded that he made his way to the situation room on the double so by the sound of it, it was rather urgent. Not wanting to let the Captain wait for too long Trip to ran out of engineering and straight into Anna Hess, who was walking along the corridor towards the chamber to start her shift. With a loud thud they crashed down to the ground and Trip came to a stop on top of his second in command, his face buried between her humongous breasts. Anna giggled and playfully slung her arms around him.

"N-nother time p-perhaps, Lieutenant, I'm sorta bus ... busy right now," he stuttered, climbing off her, embarrassed and confused. He held out his hand and helped the widely grinning woman up. He felt that his face must be a nice shade of purple right now.

"Sorry," he muttered and sped off.

"I'll hold you to that promise, chief," he heard her call after him with a giggle.

"Hold it!" he called out as the doors to the turbo lift were closing, and Malcolm pressed the button to open them again. Trip slid into the compartment and Malcolm closed the doors.

"Are you okay?" Malcolm asked as the lift started up and Trip felt the scrutinizing look of the Brit. "I'm not sure human skin is supposed to be glowing in that particular shade of purple."

"Just had a bit of an accident," Trip muttered, hoping that his former nemesis would let it go, but – alas – he didn't.

"What sort of ... accident?" the man asked back and Trip felt like throttling him for his shit-eating grin.

"I ran Anna over and landed face first between the airbags; happy now?" Trip said hastily and to his astonishment, for the first time in the three weeks he'd known him, he saw Malcolm guffaw.

"I don't think we have time for that, Lieutenant," he said, trying to hide his embarrassment behind formality.

"I'm not the one who said I need to loosen up."

"You picked a helluva time for starting to do that, Malcolm," Trip groaned ironically and ran out of the lift after it had stopped.

T'Pol wondered if the two men had gotten into an argument again when they entered the situation room. Lieutenant Reed looked rather uncharacteristically amused, while Commander Tucker was the one looking rather displeased. His face was flushed too, although that could just be a result of the exertion of running all the way from engineering to the situation room.

Once they were all seated, she directed her attention at the captain.

"The situation with the Vulcans is escalating," the captain started. "Three hours ago assistant ambassador Tos was apprehended by security forces, when he placed a listening device in Admiral Forest's office. I understand he has done that on a regular basis with not much success, because he found them every time. This time, however, Starfleet decided to put an end to it."

"They're not going to let that go easily," she heard Malcolm say.

"No they won't," the captain agreed and T'Pol could see a growing concern on all the faces around her. She started to wonder what that would mean for her place among the crew. She was a Vulcan after all.

"T'Pol, do you know someone called T'Runa?"

She had to force herself not to show her apprehension when she heard the name.

"Major T'Runa is my former handler," she admitted.

"Handler? What were you – a circus elephant?" came the interjection from Commander Tucker. She could clearly hear from his voice that he was offended.

"The term 'direct superior' is perhaps more palatable to you, Commander," she said in his direction and his scowl receded. She assigned me to my missions when I was working for the Ministry of Security."

"I knew it," she heard Lieutenant Reed mutter under his breath with what sounded like triumph.

"What did you know, Lieutenant?" the captain asked.

"When Ensign Sato found out that the listening devices were operating on Embassy frequencies, I suspected that Subcommander T'Pol had planted them," he admitted. "She was assigned to the embassy before coming aboard and has made an almost suspiciously great effort to integrate herself with the crew. Her rather specialized capabilities led me to believe that she is not a mere ambassadorial aide."

"A most logical conclusion, although we now know that I did not install the devices," she said and looked at him neutrally. "As for my effort to integrate with the crew: I have always been most interested to learn about humanity and wished to interact with your people more. In fact it is this interest and lack of distance to humans that led to the decision to recall me."

"I'm sorry, Subcommander," the Lieutenant apologized.

"There is no need to apologize. You were merely doing your job."

"Now that we've got that settled," the Captain interrupted and he appeared somewhat impatient to her. He went on quickly to the issue that was obviously most important to him.

"I suppose since this T'Runa was your 'handler', she is coming for you? We have received information from Starfleet intelligence that she is aboard a Vulcan cruiser headed for Earth."

"Undoubtedly," she confirmed. "Captain, I wish to request being released from my assignment. T'Runa is unusually ruthless. She will not hesitate to kill crew members in her attempt to apprehend me. I believe I can go into hiding on Earth," she offered, not wanting to endanger her shipmates.

"No you won't," the captain refused. "We are not turning our backs on you."

"Captain," she started to protest, but was cut off by her commanding officer.

"Attention everybody!" he ordered sharply and she shot up from her chair to stand to attention as did all the other attendees.

"T'Pol of Vulcan, are you willing to resign your commission from the Vulcan High Command and accept a brevet commission as a United Earth Starfleet Officer?" he asked in an official tone.

"I have already resigned my commission to the High Command," she replied deadpan and noticed that she had obviously disrupted a carefully rehearsed train of thought as her commanding officer looked at her in confusion.

"At ease," he said and all officers sat down again.

"T'Pol, had you considered letting me know about such a change?" he asked. She wondered why he appeared dissatisfied, considering that from his earlier question it was now clear that her resignation was a welcome change.

"I've only sent my resignation notice to the embassy last night. I thought it was appropriate to wait for a delivery confirmation from the High Command before informing you about it."

"Why last night?" the captain asked.

"I received a coded transmission, forwarded by the embassy, that the High Command found my intelligence reports about the ship and its crew less than satisfactory."

"Intelligence reports?" her superior and the ship's security officer asked loudly in unison.

"You've sent intelligence reports to the High Command, Subcommander?" Lieutenant Reed asked in a very clipped voice. He was visibly displeased.

"No, Lieutenant," she replied. "That is what the High Command finds so disagreeable about them – their absence."

She could hear Commander Tucker laugh and his exclamation "Attagirl!" could only mean some kind of approval or encouragement. She made a mental note to ask Ensign Sato about it, but the young female seemed rather busy at the moment, tapping her PADD repeatedly.

"So let me get this straight," the captain summarized with an amused look. "They expected intelligence reports about us and you sort of 'forgot' to do that. And when they reminded you of it, you told them where to shove it."

"Not in those exact words, but essentially – yes," she replied dryly.

"Your confirmation has arrived. We received it twenty minutes ago," Ensign Sato supplied and T'Pol could see that the young woman was deeply unsettled. She had apparently accessed the communications logs from her PADD and found the transmission.

"What is it Hoshi?" the captain asked.

"I suppose the words 'treason' and 'death sentence' are not normally part of a resignation confirmation?" she asked back, looking physically ill.

"Right, that's it," their commanding officer said, visibly angered. "Hoshi, contact Starfleet right after this meeting and tell Admiral Forest we will go with the backup plan."

"Aye, Captain."

"T'Pol," he said and she looked back at him. "You haven't yet answered the second part of my question. Are you prepared to accept a field commission from Starfleet?"

"I am, Captain."

"Attention!"

All officers sprang to attention again. "Repeat after me," he instructed and she acknowledged his instruction with a nod. She started to repeat the text passages each time prompted to do so by a very subtle nod from her commanding officer.

"Having received a field commission as an officer in Starfleet, I do solemnly swear,"

"that I will support and defend the Constitution of United Earth against all enemies, foreign or domestic,"

"that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;"