Myriad Universes - Infinity's Prism Part 8

"But she could have left her cabin sometime in the night?"

"We don't lock her in, if that's what you're getting at, Captain."

"It wasn't, but thanks for the rea.s.surance." Pike studied the station screen before him and confirmed what Leslie had reported: there was no sign of a Vulcan biosignature anywhere on the ship. It was possible that she could be in one of the more heavily shielded sections of the engineering deck, where her life signs would be masked, though he couldn't conceive of any reason she would be there. All the same..."Leslie," Pike called. "I want a second search of engineering, concentrating on sections...18-Y through 23-D. Tell them search subject may be incapacitated or..." Pike hesitated, then continued, "...otherwise unable to make herself found."

Pike heard Hedford gasp softly behind him. "Captain, you don't think...?"

"I don't think anything just yet," the captain replied, "but I need to consider all possibilities."

The turbolift doors slid open again, this time delivering Kirk and Scott to the bridge. "Gentlemen," Pike said, standing up from the bridge station, "we have a situation. Lady T'Pol is missing, and may no longer be aboard Enterprise."

"Captain-" Number One said.

Pike continued talking right over him. "Scotty, I need you to tell me if some other ship used their transporter to abduct her off this ship."

"Dear heaven," the engineering chief said. "Do we know when this would've happened?"

"Between 2330 last night and-"

"She wasn't abducted."

Pike stopped in mid-thought and turned to Kirk. "Number One?"

"She's down on Babel," Kirk continued. "I escorted her myself."

"You did what?" Hedford shouted. "On whose authority?"

"My own," Kirk answered.

"Number One, you had better have a d.a.m.ned good explanation why-not to mention how-you smuggled our guest of honor off the ship in the middle of the night without letting anyone know about it."

"The Vulcan Councillor, Sarek, asked that T'Pol meet with him privately."

"Sarek approached you?" Hedford frowned. "I find that difficult to believe."

"Do you believe Commander Kirk is lying, Amba.s.sador?" Pike asked pointedly. He too was more than surprised that Kirk and Sarek had spoken last night, let alone that he would have agreed to a.s.sist in arranging a meeting between the two Vulcans. If not for the lingering adrenaline from the perceived crisis situation still pumping through his system, Pike would have been quite proud of his first officer's ability to cooperate with the aliens he'd borne so much animosity toward.

"Of course not," Hedford said, in a tone that suggested she wouldn't at all put such a thing past Kirk. "But, as the leader of this mission, any such requests should have come through me or Amba.s.sador Ta.r.s.es. Councillor Sarek knows this."

"Councillor Sarek had his reasons for circ.u.mventing protocol," Kirk said.

"I'm sure he did," Ta.r.s.es muttered.

Hedford pulled her glare from Kirk and fixed it on the communications officer. "Contact Councillor Sarek's suite on Babel. I want to hear this directly from him."

The lieutenant looked from Hedford to Pike, who was surprised to see it was the same newly transferred, dark-skinned woman who'd been there over twelve hours earlier. He gave her a nod, and she turned back to her board to fulfill Hedford's request. Moments later, she announced, "I have the councillor's aide, Subcommander T'Pring."

Hedford nodded curtly and turned expectantly toward the main viewscreen. Pike gave the lieutenant another gesture, then also turned to face the image of the young Vulcan woman. "Captain. Amba.s.sadors. Why do you wish to speak with the councillor only hours before the scheduled start of the formal session?"

"Actually, we were wondering why the councillor needed to speak alone with T'Pol before the formal session," Pike said.

T'Pring's left eyebrow lifted. "I cannot answer that question, as Councillor Sarek has no need to speak with T'Pol."

Pike gave Kirk a sideways glance before again addressing T'Pring. "Where is T'Pol right now?"

"I would a.s.sume she is aboard your ship, Captain. Is that not the case?"

"No," Kirk blurted. "She's with Sarek."

T'Pring's eyes shifted to Kirk. "That is a mistaken a.s.sertion."

"No, it's not!" Kirk shot back. "I beamed down with her three hours ago. I left her with Sarek."

"You beamed down?" There was a subtle change in the Vulcan woman's voice. "How did you do that without triggering the security alarms?"

Pike turned to his first officer, also curious about that point. The commander didn't bat an eye as he responded, "Sarek gave me the bypa.s.s codes."

"That's quite impossible," a male voice responded, and Councillor Sarek, dressed in formal Vulcan diplomat's robes, moved into position beside T'Pring on the viewscreen. "No members of the diplomatic parties have Babel Security's access codes."

Kirk stared speechless for a second, and then muttered, "You double-crossing-"

Before he could finish his thought, Amba.s.sador Ta.r.s.es stepped forward. "Councillor, is T'Pol on Babel with you?"

"She is not," Sarek said. "Nor did I request any special audience with her."

"Captain Pike," T'Pring interjected, "if your first officer claims to have breached Babel's security, it must be reported immediately."

"I haven't breached anything!" Kirk exploded. "I was given the access codes by that man."

"Indeed?" Sarek said, his left eyebrow twitching upward. Then he turned to T'Pring and said, "When you make your report to Babel's security division, you should also report the suspected presence of an imposter."

"Imposter?" Hedford asked.

"Certainly," Sarek answered. "It would not be logical for Commander Kirk to continue to claim I provided him with security codes unless he was wholly convinced it was I who did so. And as I did not, it is most likely that another individual a.s.sumed my ident.i.ty and was able to convince him thus."

"No," Kirk whispered, not in denial, but in unwillingness to believe he had been so duped.

T'Pring gave Kirk a piercing glare. "Perhaps we all look alike to you?" she suggested.

Pike put both hands up in the air to stop things from going any further. "Councillor, Subcommander, I apologize for this...situation. We will contact Babel Security immediately, and hopefully have all of this resolved quickly."

"That would be the most preferable outcome," Sarek said, then nodded just before the transmission terminated on his end, leaving the view of the planetoid below them on-screen.

Pike stayed facing the screen, his back to the rest of the bridge as he took a long, deep breath, trying to maintain a hold on his temper. Behind him, Hedford and Ta.r.s.es resumed their outraged harangues, berating Pike, Kirk, and the entire United Earth military for its incompetence. Finally, he spun around, and in a tone that silenced the rest of the bridge, said, "Mister Leslie, contact Babel Security Division. Inform them of our missing pa.s.senger, and of the suspected breach in their security. Mister Scott, get to the transporter room. Confirm whether the transporter was or wasn't used last night, and if it was, why that's not reflected in the ship's logs. Kirk-" he then said, fixing the first officer with a vicious glare, "with me."

Pike entered the turbolift, with Kirk a couple of hesitant steps behind him. "This is not the way I like to start my mornings, Number One," the captain said once the doors had slid closed. Kirk wisely kept silent as the car descended, and remained so as they reached deck three and moved to the privacy of Kirk's own cabin. "All right then," Pike said once they were inside and alone, "from the beginning: what is this story about Sarek and T'Pol?"

And Kirk told it all. The Vulcan aide and the secret a.s.signation in the pantry. The Vulcan separatist movement and the threat of war with the Klingons. The late-night visit to T'Pol's quarters and Sarek's claim of friendship with him. "I swear on my eyes, sir, it was the same man we just talked to on the screen," Kirk insisted. "If it was an imposter, well, he was a better actor than Anton Karidian."

Pike paced the room slowly, avoiding having to look at the other man. "If I understand you correctly, Number One, your main reason for going along with any of this was your concern about war with the Klingons if these talks with the Coalition went forward."

"Yes, sir."

Pike then turned to face him directly. "And yet, you whispered not a word of this to me, to Hedford or Ta.r.s.es. You just took it upon yourself to take T'Pol off this ship, handing her over to some stranger lurking in shadows..."

"Sir, I thought he-"

Pike slammed his palm on top of Kirk's desk. "It doesn't matter who you thought he was! Just because he called you 'friend' doesn't make him any less an unknown quant.i.ty! If T'Pol had accepted those override codes herself and snuck down to meet whoever, that would have been one thing. But we were charged with her safety. You were obligated to use an overabundance of caution. But because she's-" Pike cut himself off then, before the conversation veered in a direction he didn't really want it to go.

But Kirk knew where he had been going, and engaged all thrusters. "Because she's a Vulcan, sir?"

Pike considered his first officer, then nodded. "I have to believe that affected your judgment, yes." Pike recalled Phil Boyce's chiding speech to him, and quickly willed the old doctor's face away.

Kirk dropped his head and seemed to lose himself in thought. Pointedly, he did not make any denial. Pike waited, letting the man fully examine his conscience, before saying, "As of right now, you're relieved of duty, and confined to quarters until further notice."

Kirk's head snapped back up again. "Sir!"

"Dammit, Jim, do you understand the seriousness of what's happening?" Pike snapped back. "At best, we can expect that Babel Security will demand your hide for compromising security during the biggest summit they've ever hosted. And if, G.o.d forbid, we find out your Sarek impersonator wanted to do more with T'Pol than just talk to her..." He let the rest of that supposition hang in the air over Kirk's head, before finally turning and leaving the cabin.

In the corridor, Pike paused to run a hand over his face, just as the comm whistled for attention again. "Bridge to captain."

With no small degree of dread, Pike moved to the nearest wall-mounted communicator. "Go ahead."

"Sir, Babel Security is shuttling a team up, requesting permission to come aboard and begin their investigation."

Pike's eyes clamped shut. "Yes, of course, permission granted. We will do everything we can to a.s.sist in this matter. Pike out."

The captain hit the disconnect switch on the panel entirely too hard before starting back for the bridge, wondering if there was any way he'd be able to salvage anything from this fiasco.

8.

Subcommander T'Pring could not help but reflect that, had Councillor Sarek deigned to attend last night's reception, despite having deemed it "illogical," the current situation would not have come to pa.s.s. While T'Pring could understand the view that the informal event was frivolous and extraneous, it did at the very least offer the opportunity to learn more about the humans. Even if Sarek had wanted to avoid T'Pol (which he strongly denied, in a manner that, were he not her mentor and a most honored elder, would have been unconvincing), their presence would have averted the hoax being carried out against Commander Kirk.

"And what makes you so certain this Kirk is a victim rather than a perpetrator?" Colonel Tharlas, the Andorian officer in command of Babel Security for this summit, asked as they together examined the Enterprise transporter logs. The young human transporter operator had provided them with the data card Kirk claimed to have received from Sarek, which indeed contained Babel's security codes, as well as a subroutine that prevented the recording of the transport to the main computer. "This could have all been engineered by him, to create new mistrust between Earth and Vulcan."

"Perhaps," T'Pring admitted, "though he would have needed a confederate to obtain these codes for him; he's had no direct access to such information since the Enterprise's arrival."

"We know Starfleet Intelligence has its spies and agents everywhere," Tharlas insisted. "Just recently, a human espionage agent was captured on Deneb V in possession of stolen specifications for a Vulcan fuel synthesizer."

"What happened?" asked the Enterprise captain, from the corner of the room where he had been un.o.btrusively watching the investigative team of technicians pore over his transporter equipment. He was clearly agitated, both by the presence of outsiders and by the situation as a whole, but he managed to keep a largely stoic mien that T'Pring thought impressive, for a human.

Tharlas's left antenna twitched as he looked over to the human. "Justice was served," he said simply.

"Justice is served only if the guilty are punished and the innocent spared." T'Pring closed the log file and plucked the data card from its slot. "And the evidence we have gathered thus far does support Commander Kirk's version of events."

"Evidence which he was most able of controlling," the Andorian said in a dismissive tone. "Any evidence we find at the beam-down site will be far more telling, I think."

"I concur," T'Pring said. Tharlas issued orders to his technicians, leaving one to finish the examination of the Enterprise transporter, while the rest packed their equipment and followed the chief to the shuttlebay. With Babel at heightened alert status, even security personnel were prohibited from using transporters, and so they all climbed back aboard the slightly cramped Zabathu-cla.s.s shuttle. It wasn't until the entire team had boarded that T'Pring noticed Captain Pike had accompanied the group to the bay.

"I'm coming with you," the human declared once his presence was acknowledged.

Tharlas scowled. "I don't think so, Captain. We allowed you to be present in the transporter room as a courtesy. However-"

"A courtesy?" Pike said, in an unexpected burst of emotion. "To allow me to go where I please on my own ship?" Then, as suddenly as his ire had flared, it seemed just as quickly to burn away. "Colonel...Subcommander...Lady T'Pol is my responsibility, as are the actions of my first officer. I respect that this is your jurisdiction, and I promise to keep staying out of your way, but I need to be a part of this. Besides," he added, letting some hint of emotion pull at one corner of his mouth, "I don't think any of us want to create yet another interplanetary incident, when the summit hasn't even officially started yet."

Before Tharlas could refuse, T'Pring turned to him and added, "I agree. Additional diplomatic incidents are undesirable at this point."

Tharlas's antennae twitched in annoyance, but he realized arguing further would be pointless. They boarded and took their seats as the small craft began to power up. "I must admit, Captain," T'Pring said as the shuttlebay outside depressurized, "I am surprised by the degree of emotion you've shown in this matter."

Pike looked at her askance, then shrugged. "Well, I am only human."

T'Pring took a moment to consider that seemingly incongruous answer. "Pardon me, Captain, I believe my word choice was improper. I believe it more accurate to say I've been surprised by the degree of pa.s.sion you've shown in this matter."

"How so?" Pike asked, turning his stoic face directly toward her.

"You are a longtime veteran of Starfleet service," she answered, "and have served as a starship commander for over ten Earth years. Only days ago, you attempted to violate Coalition territory and were briefly engaged in a standoff with a Coalition ship. I would not have expected such a person to express such a direct, personal concern for T'Pol, given what she represents."

Pike's eyes narrowed slightly in a show of confusion. "And what does she represent?"

"To you, the end of history. A significant alteration, if not the termination, of the life you are so familiar with."

The tiny beginnings of a smile cracked Pike's stoic mien. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

T'Pring raised a single eyebrow in reaction to that unexpected response. "Oh, don't get me wrong," Pike added, "I'm proud to be a Starfleet officer, and I'm proud to have served my world and my people all these years. But if you want to know what T'Pol represents for me...?"

"I do," T'Pring confirmed.

"T'Pol to me represents the old Earth Starfleet, an organization that aspired to more than patrolling the borders and making sure our dilithium supplies were secure-when we were concerned with advancing the human race, not just maintaining the status quo."

"Despite the fact that she is not of the human race?" T'Pring asked.

Pike shrugged. "Not logical, is it?"

"I would not say that," T'Pring answered. "One does wonder how humanity might have advanced in the past century had your people...our peoples...continued to build upon the relationships T'Pol forged."

Pike considered that for a moment silently, then asked T'Pring, "So, what about you? What does this woman-whose relationship with humans was so important that she decided to leave your world and live on Earth-represent to Vulcan?"

T'Pring considered Pike, and wondered what his reaction would be if she were to offer the complete answer. "There is no consensus" is what she finally said instead.

After a short descent through the planetoid's negligible atmosphere, the shuttle landed, and the investigative team made its way through the complex to its subterranean levels. They reached a door that was labeled "Maintenance Personnel Only" in Vulcan and four other languages, and as soon as the team entered, Sublieutenant Loak, a young Tellarite technician, began sneezing loudly and violently. "There's definitely been some-graa-chhooo!-body in here recently. The dust is flying like-graaa-cchhooo!"

As Loak excused himself, the other team members pulled out their hand sensors and multicorders, scanning for any indication of who had been there, and where they might have gone. "I'm picking up traces of residual transporter energy," Tharlas reported. "The signature matches that of the Enterprise's system," he added, glaring accusingly at Pike.