Chapter Text
Chapter 1
A lone blonde man in his thirties stared at the computer screen in an empty room. He watched as the bright green cursor pulsed in the electronic darkness with phosphoreus light burning beneath the black glass. His communicator sounded, he answered.
"Hello?" It was a woman's voice on the other end.
"I'm inside. Anything to report?" Asked the man in a slight southern accent.
"Well let's see, the target left the Vulcan embassy at 17:01." The woman's voice answered him.
The man still continued to watch the screen as it filled with numbers and code.
"She caught the #6 shuttle craft northbound, stopped at 7-11. Purchased some nachos, diet coke and some minute rice and headed home." The woman on the other end told him.
"Okay you're relieved, use the usual exit." He told her.
"Do you know when we're going to make contact with the vulcan?" The woman asked.
"Soon." He said.
The man watched the screen until there were only two digits left.
"You know just between you and me, you don't believe it do you? You don't believe that this woman is the one?"
"I think Archer believes she is."
"I know. But what about you?"
"I think Archer knows things that I don't."
"Yeah, but what if he's wrong?"
He watched as the final number popped into place. He heard a noise.
"Did you hear that?" He asked her.
"Hear what?"
Finally the screen read that the vulcan's trace was complete.
"Hoshi, are you sure this line is clean?" He asked again.
"Yeah, of course I'm sure." Hoshi told him.
"I better get the hell outta here." He said.
"Yeah. Right. See ya on the other side Tripp."
"Tucker out."
He closed his communicator. In the background was a police transmission. He could hear it clearly.
"Attention all units! Attention all units!"
Four armed Federation Security officers with flashlights creeped down the darkened hallway. Each officer, two on each side of the door readied themselves to enter room 303. The biggest of them violently kicked open the door and entered the room with the others following behind him.
"FEDERATION SECURITY! FREEZE!" The officers yelled as they set their phasers set to kill on the man.
"HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEAD! NOW! DO IT!"
The man rose from his chair and put his hands behind his head.
On the street below, there was a black hovercraft with tinted windows that glided in. Two women stepped out the car. One being human and the other half-klingon, both wore identical dark women's business suits and dark sunglasses and on the left side of their lapels they wore com badges. The human woman addressed the andorian security officer.
"Luitenant." Her voice was stern yet mechanical.
"Oh shit." The andorian said.
"You were given specific orders ..."
"Listen lady, I'm just doin' my job. You give me the Juris-my dick-tion and you can cram it up your ass!"
"The orders were for your protection." She told him.
The andorian laughed at her comment.
"I think we can handle one puny pink-skin."
The human nodded to her half-klingon counterpart and they headed toward the old hotel.
"I sent two units. They're bringin' 'im down now!"
The human female looked at the andorian officer.
"No lieutenant, your men are already dead." She told him.
Meanwhile back in the room the bigger officer took out his cuffs, and the others were holding a bead. They had done this a hundred times and they knew they had him. The bigger officer reached for Tripp and then he moved quickly, too quickly. His movement almost did not register as he smacked with his palm breaking his nose and pushing the bone into his brain killing him instantly. He is dead before he hits the floor. One officer is startled and fires his phaser, Trip misses it and another officer is hit and vaporized. Another officer fired at him, Tripp twisted avoiding the shot. He did a roundhouse kick, knocking the phaser away. Another officer began to scream as Tripp jumped with a kick that crushed his wind pipe. He fell to the ground. Tripp looked at what was left of the dead bodies.
"Fuck." He said to himself.
The klingon female was inside the hotel, while the human female headed for the alley.
Tripp was on his communicator pacing the room. Finally he got an answer.
"Operator." Said a male voice.
"Archer! The link was traced! I don't know how the hell it happened but it did!" Tripp was now afraid for his life.
"I know. Stay calm." Archer told him.
"Are there any empire agents?" Tripp asked.
"Yes." Was Archer's reply.
"Goddamnit!" Tripp yelled.
"Tripp you have to focus. There is a com link. MLK and Fremont. You can make it." Archer told him calmly.
Tripp took a deep breath and centered himself.
"Okay." He said.
"Go." Archer ordered him.
He dropped his communicator and ran like hell. As he bursted out of the room he saw the klingon woman leading another unit of Federation Security officers. He raced to the opposite end of the hallway, jumping through a broken window and onto the fire escape. He looked below and saw the human female staring at him through her dark sunglasses. He continued to race up until her reached the roof. He kept running as the klingon and her posse pursued him. He jumped from one roof to the next. The officers just stood there with their mouths wide open as the klingon followed, also jumping from rooftop to rooftop in pursuit of her prey. There was a building that was at least 100 feet away. Tripp remained calm. The officers continued to follow but they expected something ugly as he was about to jump some more. He launched himself into the air and as he flew the ground beneath him seemed to hang in mid-flight. He landed on the roof of the other building and somersaulted up still running hard.
"Holy fucking shit! That's impossible!" Said the lieutenant.
They stared slack jawed as the klingon woman imitated the same move, landing and rolling over her shoulder, up onto one knee with her hand phaser drawn. Just below the building were tracks of riveted steel. A long shuttle train rushed beneath him in a sleek streak of grey. He jumped landing easily. He looked back just as the klingon hurled herself through the air catching the last car. She stood pulling out her phaser. Tripp started to run as phaser blasts whipped past him. Ahead, he saw his only chance and it was fifty feet away before the hover train turned. He leaped towards his target reaching it with ease. He covered his head as he fell through the window and down a stair case with explosions not to far behind him. The whole world seemed to be spinning around him at that moment. But yet he is still alive. He looked at the klingon on top of the hover train as it turned, she tapped her com badge.. He tried to move, but every bone in his body hurt like hell.
"Get up, Tripp. You're fine. Get up ... just get up!" He told himself.
He stood and limped down the rest of the stairs. He emerged from the shadows of the ally and walked to the end of the block where he found himself in a pool of white street light and then he saw it ... the com booth. It begins sound off and his heart began to race. Across the street a large refuse hover craft suddenly u-turned, it accelerated towards the booth. Tripp saw the headlights aiming to the booth as if it was taking aim at it's target. He gritted through his pain a raced towards the booth. The large hover craft would do the same. He slammed into the booth and picked up the communicator. He was frozen in an instant of silence before the hulking mass lurched up onto the sidewalk and smashed the booth to peices. A few moments later a black high heel stepped out the drivers side, it was the human female. She inspected the wreckage and there was no body to be found. She gritted her teeth in frustration. A blonde woman who was part borg and wore the same ensemble as she did walked up behind her.
"Did you get anything from the room?" She asked the borg woman.
"Their next target. The name is T'Pol." The borg female responded.
The smashed communicator laid on the ground separated from the booth like a severed limb.
"We will need a search running." Said the human female.
"It has already begun." The borg female reassured her.