The Black Widow {Star Trek Enterprise fan fiction}

The Black Widow

The Klingon escape pod was picked up by the Enterprise’s grappler and brought into the launch bay. 

Malcolm Reed was there to greet it. “Sir,” he said, upon seeing Captain Archer, “are you all right?” 

“I am now,” Jonathan Archer said, “anything interesting happen while I was, er, out? What does T’Pol say?” 

Malcolm shifted from one foot to another, clearly uncomfortable. “I, sir, I ….” 

“What is it you’re not telling me?” The captain was instantly concerned. 

“Sir, perhaps you should sit down.” 

“What?” The concern shifted to fear, as all he could blurt out was a one syllable question. 

Malcolm steered the captain to the mess hall which, fortunately, was unoccupied. “Sir, I don’t know how to tell you this.” 

The captain looked him in the eye. “Just, just spit it out.” 

“Sir, Travis is dead. And so is Crewman Delacroix. And Crewman Haddon is, well, she’s been permanently injured.” 

“My God, what did T’Pol do about this? What happened?” 

“Sir, T’Pol is in custody.” 

“What?” That same one syllable question. Jonathan Archer was suddenly glad that he was sitting down. “How?” 

“We thought we’d have a debriefing, sir, in the, in the Observation Lounge.” 

“Now?” 

“Yes, now, sir.” 

=/\= 

Hoshi and Tripp were there, waiting for them. Hoshi looked stricken. Tripp seemed to be far away. “Who’s on the Bridge?” Jonathan asked. 

“MacKenzie is in command,” Tripp said. “Sloane is at Communications, Bernstein is at Tactical, Miller is at the Science station and, and,” he paused for a moment, “and Harris is piloting. Jenny Crossman is in Engineering.” 

“Good,” said Captain Archer. The second and night shift mix was of the most competent junior people on the ship. “What about Phlox?” 

“I’ll get him on communications,” Hoshi said, almost mechanically. It was something to do, so she set about doing it. The console had slid into sleep mode, and it showed the date – March the twenty-first of 2153. 

“He, uh, my understanding is that he cannot leave Crewman Haddon right now,” Malcolm explained. 

“Do you know what her injuries are?” 

Malcolm nodded, affected. “She was, sir, she was blinded in her, in her left eye.” He shut his own eyes tightly for a second, thinking of what he had seen, and could not get out of his head, could not unsee. 

Jonathan found himself revisiting an old nervous habit from his childhood. He tapped his left wrist, first with one finger, then with two, then three and then four. Over and over again. 

The doctor’s face appeared on the screen in the Observation Lounge. “Welcome back, Captain. I wish the circumstances were better.” 

“As do I,” said the captain, “what can you tell me?” 

“I can tell you from the beginning,” said the Denobulan. “A few days ago, when you were abducted by the Tellarites, Lieutenant Reed ordered everyone up from the planet’s surface. T’Pol and I were affected by a microbe. And so we went into decon.”