"Cease Fire" By Alelou Rating: PG Disclaimer: All things Star Trek belongs to CBS/Paramount. Genre: Adventure, Missing Scenes, Angst, Trip/T'Pol Description: Missing scenes from Season Two. Author's Note: Snuck in another one of these before all the research papers hit. Thanks as always to any reviewers who take the time to say something - I truly appreciate it - and to jT for her ongoing beta services. "Eight years?"  He stared at T'Pol, appalled.  "And there was fighting going on that whole time?" "There were some continuing skirmishes during the negotiations, but the most serious battles were conducted before treaty negotiations began." "Were you involved in any of them?" She looked just a bit affronted.  "The dispute over Paan Makar occurred over one hundred years ago." "I guess you're not over one hundred, then." This time she favored him with a rather un-Vulcan look of disgust.  "Are you more interested in my age or in this critical diplomatic situation, Commander?" "Truthfully?"  Trip grinned, then sobered.  "I guess I need to know anything I can, especially if I'm going to be sitting in the captain's chair."  That was, in fact, why Archer had asked T'Pol to fill him in while the captain updated Admiral Forrest on their plan to return to the planet with Soval.  T'Pol had already given Trip a Padd with far more information on it than he could ever get through in time for it to be of any use -- so much so that he'd wondered if she wasn't perhaps overcompensating for that secret away mission that had left him so infuriated.  Hell, it still rankled.  Since he had only minutes before he'd be in charge, he'd asked her for the Cliffs Notes version.  Fortunately -- once he had explained what that meant -- she had obliged.  Now she said, "Given the presence of two highly-armed Vulcan battle cruisers, I doubt Enterprise will be expected to play any significant role in anything that may occur.  And, as you know, Starfleet wishes us to stay neutral in this matter if at all possible." "Yeah," Tucker said.  "I got that.  But what if you guys go missing?  I don't have a whole lot of confidence in the Vulcan High Command's finesse with rescue missions.  They nearly got you killed in the last one."  Trip could still remember the horror of staring down at T'Pol's crumpled form.  In fact, it had paralyzed him for a moment, which had struck him as so unforgiveable after the fact that he had spent weeks doing extra combat drills with Malcolm. "In the event we 'go missing,' the presence of Ambassador Soval may encourage a more delicate touch from the High Command," T'Pol said.  "Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the Andorians." "Shran actually helped us last time." "History teaches us that Andorians are highly volatile, deceitful, and quick to take advantage of any sign of weakness." "So you think Shran is just using the captain to try to unbalance the Vulcans?" She frowned.  "Not necessarily.  Shran seems to have genuine regard for the captain.  It may be that the caution and emotional control Vulcans exhibit does raise Andorian suspicions higher than the captain's more emotional response to situations.  Therefore, I do think it is possible the captain can make faster progress towards a cease fire than a Vulcan delegation alone could.  However, we can't know the extent to which Shran is truly in control of this situation.  Individual Andorians have appeared to make good faith agreements with Vulcan in the past, only to have other elements in their society ignore those agreements when it suited them." "Great."  For some reason this reminded him of the travails of the Native Americans as the whites had expanded into their territories, breaking one inconvenient treaty after another as they went.  "Either way, I don't see how you can get it done before those Andorian ships arrive." "That does seem rather unlikely," T'Pol agreed.  "However, all we need to achieve for now is a cease fire." "That's all, huh?"  He sighed.  "Well, thanks for giving me the short version.  I hope you get your cease fire and then get the hell back home as soon as you can, safe and sound."  He had perhaps said it with a little too much feeling, because she got a slightly odd look on her face.  He quickly added a less emotional explanation: "I still have a lot of mopping up to do in Engineering after that mad sprint we took to get here." Her face cleared.  "Indeed.  I had better collect the Ambassador's party before he changes his mind about participating." Trip nodded and watched her go.  He had a bad feeling about this one. Keep safe, he thought, and then blinked.  He was fixating on the Sub-Commander's safety, but she wasn't the only one going down there.  Both of you, he corrected himself. Yes, both of them. Hell, he might as well throw Soval in there, too, even if he was a cranky old son of a bitch.  Yes, all of them. It really wouldn't do to choose favorites.

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