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To Malcolm’s surprise, the first thing Soong said when he stepped on board was, “How’s my dog?”
Archer let out a long sigh, and Malcolm watched his face for any sort of indication that Soong was joking. But there wasn’t any. “He’s not been your dog for ten years,” Archer replied, the edges of his words razor-sharp. “And he’s better than he was when you abandoned him, that’s for sure.”
“Awh, I missed you, too,” Soong cooed, in an oddly sweet voice, and he stepped closer to Archer. “Give him some cheese for me, why don’t you? Since I’m assuming you won’t let me see him.” Malcolm felt oddly like a third wheel, and he wanted to leave before he had time to analyze where in the world that was coming from.
“Maybe if you cooperate, I’ll change my mind,” Archer said. “As long as you promise not to steal his heart. I’ve become pretty attached.”
A guard stopped Soong from closing any more of the gap between him and the captain, and he seemed annoyed at the fact. “Oh,” he murmured, eyebrows raised. “Like I stole yours?”
“You disgust me,” Archer snapped, his voice low. His gaze flickered to the guards. “Take him to crew quarters and put him under guard.” Then he looked back at Soong, eyes narrow. “Don’t even think about trying to ‘clear your head’, Arik.” Malcolm didn’t know what that meant, but Soong clearly did—though Malcolm was more thrown off by the fact that Archer had used his first name.
Soong’s lip curled. “We’re in space, Jon,” he replied. “Where are you expecting me to go?” Then, before Archer could respond, he was escorted away, a guard’s hand on either arm.
Malcolm didn’t know what to say. Out of all the things he’d expected to happen today, learning that the captain and a dangerous criminal were on a first-name basis and that Porthos had once belonged to him had not been anywhere near the list. He opened his mouth, then closed it again when Archer gave him and T’Pol a pointed look.
“You’re both needed on the bridge,” Archer said evenly. “I need to have a long… talk with our prisoner about his… children .” The expression on his face was unreadable. “I’ll join you when I’m finished.”
“Yes, sir,” Malcolm managed, and T’Pol echoed him. They both watched Archer walk away, and when he was out of earshot, Malcolm deflated slightly.
“Is something the matter, Lieutenant?” T’Pol asked, her voice as cool and even as it always was. “You seemed uncomfortable with the way the captain and the doctor were behaving.”
“It’s nothing,” Malcolm assured her, hastily. “I just didn’t know they were so… familiar.” Almost more than familiar. Malcolm wasn’t a nosy man, but he could identify a complicated relationship when he saw one. Then he wiped the thought out of his mind. This was his commanding officer, and he wasn’t an imaginative child. He was reading too much into it—of course, he was.
T’Pol’s head twitched minutely. “I imagine there are a lot of things neither you nor I know about Captain Archer,” she said. “I don’t think their past is any of our concern.”
“Of course not,” Malcolm replied. “Of course, I wasn’t—”
“At ease, Lieutenant. I’m not accusing you of anything,” T’Pol clarified. She paused, then added, “We should make our way to the bridge, as the captain ordered.”
Malcolm unnecessarily smoothed out his uniform for something to do with his hands. “Right. Yes. Sorry.”
“No apology necessary.” T’Pol turned her back. “Although, I would advise you not to spread rumours about this… interaction,” she continued, over her shoulder.
“I’m not one for gossip, Commander,” Malcolm assured her. “Don’t worry. My lips are sealed.”
They remained sealed for about three hours, until he, Trip, and Hoshi met in the latter’s quarters for lunch. Hoshi’s first question was about Soong, and it was difficult not to explain what they’d said to each other without it sounding…
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say they knew each other a little too well, if you know what I’m saying,” Trip commented, stabbing a string bean with his fork. “Did he really say that line about stealing the captain’s heart?”
“Yes!” Malcolm replied, emphatically. “Yes, he did! And he just replied ‘you disgust me’, like Soong was some roach he’d found in his shower.” He took a sip of water. “I just don’t understand it.”
Hoshi steepled her hands on the table. “It sounds like a bad breakup, if you ask me,” she said, with a twinkle in her eye. “Soong begging the captain to take him back after all these years—”
Malcolm shuddered. “Ugh. Maybe this was a bad idea to discuss over lunch,” he grumbled. “If I think too hard about Captain Archer’s love life, I’m going to be scarred for the rest of my life.”
“I just can’t see him with anyone, never mind that… madman,” Trip added. “Can you imagine it?”
“I really don’t want to,” Malcolm protested.
“Oh, I can,” Hoshi put in. “Ten years ago, two young Starfleet officers fresh out of the Academy, stationed on the same post—”
“I will stab you with this fork,” Malcolm threatened, waving the dull utensil in Hoshi’s direction, “if you keep hypothesizing about Soong and the captain’s nonexistent relationship.” He then stuck his fork in his potatoes. “I’m sure it’s nothing. Soong’s just an awful flirt trying to get under Captain Archer’s skin.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Trip conceded. “Always fun to entertain a stupid idea for a little bit, though.” He went back to his food.
Hoshi, however, still seemed determined. “We could always check the personnel files,” she said tentatively. “See if they were ever stationed together. It would at least help make sense of if they know each other.”
Malcolm pursed his lips. “That would be in the public files…”
“A little extra knowledge about the mad doctor couldn’t hurt,” Trip added. “Since we’re going to be hosting him for the time being. It’s for the safety of the crew, ain’t it?”
“Oh, yes, definitely,” Hoshi replied. “Safety of the crew.” She got up from the table and went to her computer terminal. “One Arik Soong personnel file, coming right up… cross-referencing with Jonathan Archer…”
Malcolm continued eating, only half paying attention to what Hoshi was doing at her desk. But his head snapped up when she suddenly gasped.
“Oh my God,” Hoshi breathed. “Oh my God.”
“What is it?” Trip asked, voicing Malcolm’s thoughts exactly.
Hoshi seemed unable to say. “Just—come look.” She gestured for them to join her.
Leaning over Hoshi’s shoulder, Malcolm was able to read the small text at the bottom of both files. He read out loud the excerpt from Archer’s. “‘Note: Arik Soong not listed as official spouse due to pending divorce’.” His eyes flickered up to both sections on public family relations, as if double-checking to make sure that they weren’t listed. Then he blinked multiple times and read the small print again. “Due to pending divorce?” he repeated.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Trip murmured. “The captain’s a married man.”
“To Doctor Arik Soong, of all people,” Malcolm added, breathlessly. “Is… is there anything else?”
Hoshi pressed a few more buttons on the keyboard, and the screen changed, highlighting a different section. “It looks like they were both working on Jupiter Station at the same time, for about three years, before Soong was transferred to C12 and the captain entered the NX program.” She slumped back in her chair. “Oh my God.”
“Holy shit,” said Malcolm. “That’s…” He blinked a few times. “My life is a lie.”
Trip slowly walked back to the table and sat down in his chair. “I might’ve been able to guess that he was gay,” he said slowly, “but Arik Soong?”
“They were both probably very different then,” Hoshi put in. “Soong’s been in jail for ten years, after all…”
“This is ridiculous.” Malcolm went away from the desk and stood by the window.
Hoshi tapped her fingers on the edge of the terminal. “Should we… tell anybody else?”
“It’s in the public files,” Trip pointed out. “If they’re curious, they can find it themselves. I don’t want to be spreading around gossip about the captain, even if it’s true.”
“I promised T’Pol the same thing,” Malcolm admitted, with a speck of shame. “I probably shouldn’t have even brought it up to you two.”
“T’Pol?” Trip raised an eyebrow. “Why were you talking about this with T’Pol?”
“She was there when Soong came on board,” Malcolm explained. “She saw everything I did.”
“I just hope Soong doesn’t try anything funny.” Hoshi sighed. “It’s difficult enough having a criminal on board without him disturbing the captain.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Trip assured her. “Captain Archer’s a good man, and a smart one. He won’t let an ex get in the way of our mission, no matter how they feel about each other.”
“Computer, locate Captain Archer.”
The computer rattled off a hallway on one of the residential decks, and Trip didn’t think anything of it. He got in the nearest turbolift and ordered it down to the same deck. Yes, he could’ve comm’d the captain to tell him about a minor flux in the warp engines, but Trip needed to stretch his legs. Going on a short trek around the ship to find him would be just that breath of fresh air.
The turbolift opened, and Trip immediately heard raised voices. One of them was Archer’s. The other…
Trip pressed himself against the wall and crept towards the corner. He wasn’t usually one for eavesdropping, but if Soong was fighting with the captain, he wanted to know why. If there was a chance of Soong becoming a threat to the ship, he had to know about it.
Their words suddenly became clear, and Trip could see them standing in the middle of the hall from the edge of the corner. Neither of them noticed him.
“I can’t believe you,” Soong hissed. “You never visited? Not once?”
“They were your responsibility, not mine,” Archer shot back. “You didn’t even tell me about them! How the hell was I supposed to know you wanted me to make sure they didn’t get out of control?”
“I sent you a letter!” Soong replied. “I told you everything! I’m sorry I chose them over you, but you never saw them, Jon—can you imagine never being allowed to even be born simply because a bunch of humans judged you based on the things other people did?”
“You broke the law, Arik,” Archer snarled. “You broke the law, and you broke my heart.”
“So you abandoned a bunch of children to die.” Soong turned away, then stormed back with an accusing finger pointed at Archer’s face. “I was taken away from them and you could have stopped all of this by putting them on the right path, but you didn’t. This is all your fault, not mine!”
Stone-faced, Archer pushed a button on a small device, and Soong’s magnetic restraints slammed together with a resonating, metallic sound, fastening his wrists in front of his body. Soong struggled for a moment, until Archer grabbed the metal bands with one hand, lifted them up, and pushed Soong back towards the wall. His wrists hit the wall with the clang of metal-on-metal, and Archer leaned down over him.
“There wouldn’t be any Augments to stop if you hadn’t stolen them,” Archer growled, low in his throat, and Trip had to strain to hear. “You betrayed me. You disappeared. And then the next time I saw you, you were behind bars. Of course I didn’t read your goddamn letter.”
“You… didn’t read it?” Most of Soong’s expression was hidden by Archer’s shadow. “I knew you couldn’t have been so heartless. Would you have gone to them, if you’d read it?”
“I don’t know,” Archer admitted. “There was a time where I would’ve done anything you asked, but by then…”
Soong half-smiled. “I loved you, too, you know,” he breathed. “I still do.”
There was a slight shift on Archer’s face before he grabbed the front of Soong’s shirt with his free hand, and for a moment Trip thought he was going to hit him. Then Archer closed the gap, and Trip’s eyes widened as he turned away, staring pointedly at the opposite wall while he attempted to process what he’d just witnessed.
Archer had just kissed Soong. Was still kissing Soong, by the sound of it. In the middle of a hallway, where anybody could see them. Trip had seen them. Archer was making out with his ex-husband, a convicted criminal—
As quietly and as quickly as he could, Trip retreated the way he’d come.
Burying himself in warp field mechanics did not successfully scrub the split-second image from Trip’s mind. Everybody in engineering seemed to notice that something was bothering him, and gave him a wide berth, and thankfully, didn’t ask what it was. He wasn’t sure what he would’ve said. ‘I just saw my boss and best friend kissing Arik Soong’ would have been the opposite of not gossiping about the captain’s love life, and he didn’t want to incur T’Pol’s wrath from that.
And then Malcolm passed through on the way to the armoury, and, well, Trip just had to tell someone to get it off his chest, and since Malcolm had told him and Hoshi about the captain and the doctor’s behaviour in the first place…
“Malcolm!” Trip hissed, getting his attention and gesturing for him to come into a quiet corner. “Malcolm, do you have a moment?”
“Yeah, I suppose I do, Commander,” Malcolm replied, his voice lowered. “What’s going on? Why are we whispering?”
“You have no idea what I just saw,” Trip murmured. “I needed to tell the captain about a small issue with the warp engines, and I wanted to get out of engineering, so I went looking for him, right?”
“Right.” Malcolm’s brow furrowed. “Is this about—”
“Yes,” Trip interjected, before he could say it out loud. “They were arguing in the hallway. And then—” He hesitated.
“And then?” Malcolm prompted, leaning forward conspiratorily.
“And then Archer kissed him,” Trip whispered forcefully.
Malcolm’s eyes widened. “No,” he breathed. “He really—you’re sure?”
“Pretty sure there was tongue and everything,” Trip replied bluntly. “I left before I could suffer any serious mental damage, but I saw enough.” He rubbed his temple. “D’you think Phlox could erase my short-term memory, or would it be too embarrassing to ask?”
“That’s disgusting,” Malcolm said pointedly. Then he added, hurriedly, “Not you, I mean—them. And not because they’re men, of course, I’m not homophobic, it’s just—the captain and a man like that?”
“I know,” Trip agreed. Then a new, horrible thought entered his mind. “You don’t think the captain would… help him escape, at the end of this, do you?”
Malcolm blinked, looking equally horrified. “Do you?”
“I don’t know,” Trip admitted. “Soong—he asked the captain if he would’ve taken care of his kids if he’d known about him, and his answer was ‘I don’t know’, and he said that at one point he would’ve done anything Soong asked—”
“He wouldn’t,” Malcolm said firmly. “He won’t. He’s loyal to us, the crew; this ship; and Starfleet. Those two have been divorced for ten years, he wouldn’t throw away everything for a man he already turned his back on once.” At Trip’s hesitation, he prompted, “Right?”
“He might regret it,” Trip pointed out. “Not going with Soong when he left Starfleet, I mean. Or not going to his kids after he was imprisoned. Or both.”
Malcolm stared at him. “You really think he’d abandon us for— him?”
“Better men have done far worse for less,” Trip muttered. “You never know.”
“Careful,” Malcolm warned, “or people are going to start thinking you’re planning a mutiny.”
Trip shook his head. “I just hope the captain knows what he’s doing,” he said. “Otherwise we all might end up in real trouble. If Soong betrays us to the Augments, the captain’s going to get his heart broken again, and I don’t know what a betrayed and heartbroken Archer looks like, but I’m fairly sure it isn’t pretty.”
Malcolm made a quiet hah sound. “I’d hate to be Soong in that situation.”
“He was lucky the first time.” Malcolm raised an eyebrow, and Trip clarified, “Going to jail instead of having to face his… husband. God, this is all so surreal.”
“I know, it’s—” Malcolm’s gaze suddenly flickered past Trip’s shoulder, and he cut himself off. “Captain at six o’clock.”
Trip turned on his heel, coming face-to-face with the approaching captain. It was too late to act natural—he knew Archer must have seen him and Malcolm huddled suspiciously in the corner. Shit.
“Commander Tucker, Lieutenant Reed,” Archer greeted as he drew closer. “Am I interrupting something?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Not at all,” Malcolm said hurriedly. “We were just discussing… the mission. With the Augments. And I should really be on my way, I need to make sure the armoury’s… organized.”
Archer nodded. “Go on, Lieutenant, don’t worry.”
Malcolm shot Trip an apologetic look as he departed, and it was almost comical how he fled as soon as Archer wasn’t looking at him anymore. Then Trip turned back to the captain and mentally gulped, preparing himself for whatever reprimand he was about to get—because surely he’d overheard. Why else would he have approached so quietly?
“Commander,” Archer said again. “You’re looking at me funny. Do I have something on my face?”
Nothing on his face, no, but once Archer mentioned it, Trip had a hard time keeping his cheeks from burning red as he noticed something else. “No, but you’ve got, uh…” Trip gestured to the side of his own neck, just above his collar.
Archer rolled his eyes. “Of course I do.” Then he pulled the collar of his uniform up to cover it. “Better?”
“Yeah.” Trip was pretty sure he sounded like a strangled goose. “Uh—what brings you down here, sir?”
“I heard you were having some kind of… hitch in the warp engines? And I wanted to come take a look. I’m no engineer, of course, but I’m not needed on the bridge, so you can show me what’s going on firsthand.” Archer smiled.
“Uh, yeah. Sure. No problem.” Trip barely contained a sigh of relief. If the captain had heard anything, he wasn’t going to tear him apart right there and then. Trip would still be nervous if he was called to Archer’s ready room later that day, but he may have escaped scot-free.
Archer’s eyes narrowed. “Are you feeling okay?” he questioned. “You seem distracted.”
Well, yes, of course, Captain, it’s not every day I see my superior officer show up in engineering with a mark he got from making out with a man who committed one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, Trip didn’t say. What he did say was something more like, “...no, I’m fine. Just tired.”
“Right.” Archer didn’t sound like he believed him, but he didn’t press the subject. “Now, the warp core?”
“Yes, sir.”
Soong turned up on the bridge during Hoshi’s shift, and she watched him very, very carefully.
His magnetic restraints were turned off, and she knew the control was sitting in one of Archer’s pockets. Most of the seats were unoccupied, but he seemed to know he wouldn’t be welcome in any of them, so he just made his way behind the captain’s chair and stood there. Watching. Waiting, almost.
“Do you have a reason for being here, Arik?” Archer demanded, turning his chair to look Soong in the eye.
Soong raised an eyebrow. “Do I need one?” he countered.
“Have you finally decided to offer us your help?” Archer persisted, tone still demanding. “It’ll make all of this a lot easier—for us and your… children, when we find them.”
Soong shrugged, leaning down slightly over him. “I’m still considering,” he said. “But I could probably be… convinced.” He reached slowly for Archer’s arm, and just as his fingers brushed the fabric of his uniform, Archer snapped his chair back and let the back hit Soong’s hand away. Soong hissed in pain and yanked his hand back against his chest.
“I’ve done enough convincing,” Archer said firmly. “If you want anything else from me, you’ll have to help us first.”
Soong eyed him angrily. “You’re meaner than you used to be,” he replied. “There was a time when—”
Archer cut him off in a low voice. “There was a time when you cared about people that weren’t your precious Augments,” he growled. “I would call it karma.”
“You think you’re so smart,” Soong hissed. “You think you’re so noble…”
“I could say the exact same thing about you,” replied Archer, his voice filled with venom.
Hoshi was so distracted by their verbal sparring and whatever that almost-arm grab had been that she almost didn’t notice her panel beeping. When Archer looked at her for an explanation, she floundered.
“Uh—message from Starfleet Command, sir,” she reported quickly. “It’s—it seems to be about the doctor, I think?”
“Oh, goodie,” said Soong, dryly.
“I’ll read it in my ready room,” Archer decided, getting up from his chair. “Send it through.”
“Yes, sir.”
Then Soong really did grab Archer’s arm, holding him fast as he leaned close to whisper something in his ear. Hoshi couldn’t make out what it was, but Archer seemed to dislike the idea.
“I’ve gone a long time without reading that,” Archer snapped. “I’m not going to read it now. I don’t care about what you have to say—or had to say.”
“You can’t run from me forever,” Soong growled. “I’m not the sole bad guy here.” He released Archer’s arm. “Just… read the damn letter, Jon. Please.”
“Fine.” Something imperceptible passed between them. “Go back to your quarters. I don’t trust you on the bridge without me here.”
“I’m sure Ensign Sato is more than capable of keeping an eye on me.” Soong surprised her by flashing a smile in her direction. “Isn’t that right, Ensign?”
“Uh, yeah,” Hoshi replied, startled. “Don’t worry, Captain. I’ll make sure he doesn’t touch anything.” She didn’t feel it was necessary to also mention the guards at the door watching Soong’s every move.
Archer paused, then nodded. “Alright. Don’t cause any trouble, Arik.”
“I’ll be on my best behaviour, baby.” Soong grinned at Archer, who glared back. “Go read what those Starfleet shmucks are saying about me.” He waved.
Archer hesitated by the door, as if he still didn’t trust that nothing would go wrong as soon as he left. Then Soong waved him away again and he exited into his ready room, looking annoyed.
Soong walked back to the centre of the bridge, slowly running his hand over the back of Archer’s chair. “So,” he stared, looking up at Hoshi. “Has he told any of you about… us?”
Hoshi imagined he was hoping for a confused, maybe shocked, answer, but she just shrugged. “No, he hasn’t, because it’s his business,” she replied calmly, “but it’s in his personnel file. I don’t know how many people know.”
“Hm.” Soong placed both of his elbows on the chair and leaned over it. “Yeah, that sounds like him. The new ‘him’, anyway. He used to be different, y’know. Before…” He waved his hand vaguely. “Everything.”
“Before you hurt him, you mean,” Hoshi said. “And you went on the run from the law.”
Soong shrugged, an exaggerated frown on his face. “Yeah. That, I guess. I was actually talking about his special training in the NX program.”
Hoshi pursed her lips. “I have to admit I’m a little… curious,” she said carefully. “About what he was like when you two were…” She made a nondescript hand gesture to replace the word she couldn’t find.
“In love?” Soong provided, with a raised eyebrow. “Well. Jon and I were something, alright. We were both young and stupid, don’t get me wrong, but it was… y’know. Good. Things went pretty smoothly until C12.”
“With the embryos.” Hoshi nodded.
“I just couldn’t leave them there, Ensign,” Soong stressed. “Nobody else seems to get it! All this campaigning against eugenics and genetic engineering, and what do they do? Lock up all the leftover Augments before they can even be born. What the hell is that, if not the exact same thing? They at least deserved a chance.” He snorted a laugh and shook his head. “And Jon almost came with me.”
Hoshi blinked in surprise. “He… did?”
“It was his idea, actually,” Soong admitted. “Of course, he meant it as a joke—a hypothetical… I’d been talking so much about them, he was getting a little sick of it and he told me that if I loved them so much, I should run away with them. As a dig at me and our relationship, y’know.” He punctuated the spaces between his words with vague gestures. “And then… well… we talked hypothetically about leaving Starfleet a few times…”
“And then?”
“When I rescued the kids, I sent him a message saying that I’d done something terrible and that he should meet me at some coordinates near the Trialas system.” Soong let out a long sigh. “He never showed up.”
Hoshi wasn’t sure what to say, so she said nothing.
“We never spoke again, until—” Soong waved his hand around at the ship. “I ended up in jail, of course, and he sent me the divorce papers without so much as a word on the side. I sent him a letter back.” He laced his hands together. “He never read it.”
“I’m… sorry,” Hoshi said slowly. “That must have been difficult for you.” She was only half sincere—it was hard to feel bad for a man that very proudly (and repeatedly) broke the law, and seemed to somehow still view himself as the righteous, noble player in the game. But, there was still something in his sob story that rang of genuine sadness. He had loved Archer, that much was true—as strange as it was.
Soong sighed. “There must be at least a thousand other letters that I wrote, too, but they were all destroyed with the rest of my work.” He seemed to be lost in his memories, barely even listening to Hoshi’s responses, when she gave them. This was why she was surprised when he directed a question at her: “Do you know why I didn’t tell Jon what I planned to do?”
“No,” Hoshi admitted, confused.
Soong fixed her with a very pointed look. “Because if he’d asked me not to, I would’ve listened.”
Before Hoshi could come up with a reply, the nearby doors slid open and a baffled-looking Travis stepped onto the bridge. He looked between Soong, Hoshi, and the guards, before managing a, “Hi?”
“Hey, Travis,” replied Hoshi, but she kept looking at Soong, who was now hunched over Archer’s chair as if it could bring him some comfort.
Travis pointed at Soong. “Is he supposed to be here?” he asked.
“Yes,” Soong said, before Hoshi could respond. “Darling Jonny said I could. Not that it matters very much—I was just about to leave.” He brushed past Travis on his way out, gaze fixed on the floor. The guards accompanied him into the turbolift, and then he was gone.
Travis turned and stared at Hoshi, confused. “Did you say something to him?”
Hoshi shook her head. “I think he’s just… lonely,” she admitted. “Lonely and worried.”
“Did he tell you anything useful?” Travis asked, slowly walking over to his station.
“No,” Hoshi said. “Just old relationship trouble. I kind of feel bad for him.”
“For him?” Travis looked at her in disbelief. “We’re talking about the same guy, right?”
“He’s not evil, Travis,” Hoshi pointed out. “He had… good intentions. The road to Hell, and all that.”
Travis made a non-committal sound and turned back to his panel. “I don’t trust him,” he said. “Especially not with how he’s been clearly trying to get in the captain’s good books.”
“Yeah.” And Travis didn’t even know the real reason for his behaviour.
Hoshi wondered how many people would figure it out before Soong left the ship, and how much collateral damage they’d be left to clean up.
Hoshi, Trip, and Malcolm stayed observant.
They didn’t really talk about the Soong-Archer situation again, except for the occasional aside—they were too busy trying to stop Soong’s Augments. But they could all see it—for how ‘over it’ they pretended to be, there was a whole other Archer that kept bubbling to the surface, with Soong’s prompting. Hoshi carefully catalogued these moments in her mind, as she found out about them, like an inspector trying to identify the signs of an impending explosion. They followed thusly:
One: On the transporter pad, preparing to beam after the officers that had been stolen by the Orions.
“You still look like an army man,” Soong snapped. Archer sighed. “Don’t give me that. If they clock you as a Starfleet officer, we’re done. Here.” Casually, he threaded his fingers through Archer’s hair, successfully messing it up just enough. Then he jerked Archer’s coat askew for good measure. “Keep it like that. Now you look like a scumbag.”
“Mm, just like you,” Archer replied, tilting his head to glare down at Soong, but he didn’t attempt to recreate the earlier space between them. “Don’t tell me we have to pretend to like each other, too?” He was teasing. It was hard to believe, hearing that seldom-used tone directed at Soong of all people.
“Nobody down there likes each other,” Soong told him. “Just don’t punch me and we’ll be fine.”
“Don’t try to escape, and I won’t.”
A moment of silence passed between them, along with tension thick enough to cut with a butter knife. Then Soong cracked a small smile. “No promises. You know how I like to keep you on your toes.”
Archer hmph ’d, and returned to his proper spot in the transporter. “Energize.”
Two: In the hallway, while Soong was being rescued by the Augments.
Archer took Malik’s punch, hit the opposite wall, and fell. When he didn’t move again immediately, Soong shot a glare at his son and rushed to Archer’s side.
“What the hell are you doing?” Malik shouted.
Soong didn’t respond; he pressed two to the side of Archer’s neck, and, after a moment, concluded, “He’s alive.”
“Why do you care?” Malik demanded. “He wants to take all of us back to Earth!”
Soong hesitated as he got up, staring at Archer’s limp form. “I… I don’t want you to kill anybody else,” he finally decided. “You can’t change people’s opinion of you by becoming murderers, okay?”
“But—” Malik looked past Soong at the approaching security team, and he cut himself off. “We’re leaving. Now.”
Then he grabbed his father by the arm and nearly dragged him away.
Soong still looked back at Archer.
Three: On Cold Station 12.
“Arik—Arik, listen to me.” Archer was almost pleading. “Don’t do this.”
Soong’s hands were white-knuckled against the console. “I’m sorry, Jon,” he said, shaking his head. “I just can’t go back. And I can’t—there are thousands of people here, do you understand? Thousands of people that will never even be born if I don’t do something. Don’t you get it?”
“Since when are you two on a first-name basis?” Malik interrupted, snappish. “And why are you even bothering? We need that code, not Archer’s approval.” He glared between the two of them with unguarded fury.
Soong opened his mouth as if he were going to reply, but then closed it again and shook his head. He turned back to the doctor.
“Give it to us,” he said slowly, “and nobody else has to get hurt.”
A cruel look passed over Malik’s face as the doctor refused again. “He’s friends with that Denobulan, isn’t he? Let’s put him in another tube and see how long it takes for him to crack.”
“No.” Soong slammed his hand down on the console. “No, Malik, I am not letting you kill anyone else.” His gaze flickered to where Archer and Phlox were contained with the other scientists. “This has gone far enough.”
Malik’s expression hardened. “It’s him, isn’t it? Archer’s made you go soft, Father.” Then he kicked Soong in the stomach.
He hit the reinforced glass right in front of Archer and slumped like a marionette with its strings cut. Archer knelt immediately, pressing his hands against the barrier as if he could somehow reach Soong through it. Malik was saying something, but it was clear neither of them was paying attention. Soong tilted his head to look at Archer over his shoulder and mouthed, “I’m sorry.”
Then he struggled to his feet, and if the glass hadn’t been in the way, their hands would have touched.
Four: in a hallway, again, having just rescued Soong from the escape pod.
There were guards standing around, and Trip among them, but that didn’t seem to concern either Archer or Soong.
“I knew you’d rescue me,” Soong said. “As soon as I found out Malik had lied, that you weren’t dead—”
“He almost killed me,” Archer admitted. “You didn’t know what he tried to do?”
“No,” Soong stressed, his hands balled into fists at his sides. “The plan was just to abandon you all there and leave. I didn’t want—I promise, I—”
“You fucked up,” Archer said bluntly, “but there’s still time to fix it. Tell me how to find Malik.”
“I will,” Soong promised. He took a shaky breath, then repeated, “I will. But, please, Jon—” He reached out, slowly, as if to indicate that he didn’t mean any harm.
Archer stepped forward, meeting him, and Soong’s arms wrapped around his neck. Considering what he’d said, with the ‘I thought you were dead’, it made sense—but still, Trip cursed the fact that his luck was bad enough to make him see his best friend kiss Soong twice.
Trip cleared his throat awkwardly, and Archer and Soong broke apart. Archer shot Trip a very apologetic look. “Uh, I hate to be the one to disturb such a… tearful… reunion…” He cringed internally at his own words. “But, uh, Augment ship? Bioweapon? Impending war with the Klingons?”
“Right.” Archer instantly straightened, returning to a familiar persona that Trip was beginning to realise was a facade. “We’ll talk about this later.” It was directed at him, not Soong. Which meant that Trip was going to have to come clean about already knowing. Damn.
“Uh—yes, sir,” Trip said. “What about…”
“He’s coming to the bridge.” Archer put his hand on Soong’s shoulder, and something smug appeared in Soong’s otherwise stormy expression. “Understood?”
Trip opened his mouth, looked between them, then closed it again. “Understood,” he repeated, with a small nod. It seemed like there would be even more surprises before this was all done.
Five: On the bridge.
Malik blew up the ship.
There were tears in Soong’s eyes. Hoshi didn’t expect anything to happen—they were in front of the entire bridge crew, after all—but an exception seemed to be made. Archer stood, and gestured him over.
Everybody’s eyes were on them, and still, Archer embraced Soong, gently. Soong’s head fell against Archer’s shoulder, and he cried, near-silently. Archer ran a hand over his back.
“Travis.” The captain’s voice was quiet. “Set a new course. As far away from here and back into Federation territory as possible.”
“Yes—sir,” replied Travis.
“Commander T’Pol,” Archer continued, slowly. “I’m taking our guest back to his quarters. You have the bridge.”
T’Pol nodded. Out of all of them, she seemed the least surprised. Even Malcolm was sharing confused glances with Hoshi.
Archer and Soong left, Soong still holding onto Archer like a lifeline.
As it turned out, Malik hadn’t died in the explosion, and Jonathan killed him as he turned on his father. It took a long while for the silence to break after that, sitting in Arik’s quarters and solemnly searching for something suitable to say. In the end, it was Arik who spoke first.
“I’m not angry,” he said hoarsely, toying with the blunt pen in his hands. “You saved my life. And he was—Malik, he was… he wasn’t the child I raised.”
“I still wish I hadn’t had to do it,” Jonathan admitted. “I don’t like killing people.” He paused, then added, “Neither do you.”
“I know. I hate it.” Arik’s head hung low as he leaned against Jonathan’s shoulder. “But I’m responsible for all of this, aren’t I? The dead Klingons, those dead doctors… Udar… Raakin…” His hand closed around the front of Jonathan’s uniform, tugging him closer. “I never should’ve left you,” he murmured.
“I wish you hadn’t, too.” Jonathan carded his fingers through Arik’s hair. “Then I wouldn’t have to take you back to prison.”
“You’re a good man,” Arik muttered. “Too good. I never deserved you.”
In response, Jonathan pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead and said, “I’ll put in a word with Starfleet. Maybe your sentence will get reduced. As long as you stop working on human engineering, of course.”
“Don’t worry,” Arik replied quietly, “I’ve lost my taste for it.” He hesitated, then added, “Maybe I’ll start work on cybernetics. Humans… too messy. Androids…”
“If you get your tech privileges back,” Jonathan put in, “we could talk from time to time.”
Arik blinked up at him. “You’d want that?”
“I…” Jonathan hesitated. “I wasn’t entirely truthful when I said I didn’t miss you.”
“I guessed.” Arik gave him a small smirk. “From the way you kissed me.”
Jonathan pitched a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “We should probably finish getting divorced, too. That’s been put off long enough.”
Arik shrugged. “What’s the hurry?” he asked. Then he raised his eyebrows. “Besides, then you’d lose your special visiting privileges.”
“...alright, you’ve got a point there.”
“And you still love me,” Arik continued. “Don’t you?”
Instead of answering, Jonathan pulled Arik closer and kissed him again.
Trip was standing nervously in front of Jonathan’s desk, his fidgeting almost comical.
“Look, it’s alright, sir—I’ve seen the personnel file, I know about your, uh, former relationship with Dr Soong…” he stammered. “You don’t need to explain anything.”
Jonathan toyed with the folded piece of paper in his hands, settling on the best way to word what he wanted to say. “Actually,” he replied, lightly, “Arik and I have decided not to break off our marriage.”
Trip blinked. And blinked again. And took a deep breath, and blurted, “Permission to speak freely, sir?”
“Go ahead.” Jonathan fought to keep a smile off his face.
“WHAT?! Uh—respectfully, Captain.”
“No, I understand, Trip, let me explain.” Jonathan held up his hands in a gesture for him to hold on. “We have a lot of things to talk about. As his spouse, I get special privileges that make it a lot easier for us to stay in touch. So, it’s just more convenient for… figuring out what happens next.”
“What happens next? I thought he was going back to jail for life,” Trip questioned.
Jonathan leaned forward, putting his hands on his desk. “Well, no,” he said. “Because he helped us, and he’s sworn not to work on genetic engineering again, it’s been decided that he’ll only serve another ten years.”
Trip opened his mouth, said nothing, then closed it again.
“We’ll figure out what we want to do with our marriage then, when he’s out,” Jonathan told him. “Feel free to share this with anybody else who’s interested in my personal life. I know you can’t be the only one that’s… ‘read my personnel file’.”
Trip turned red, and Jonathan had to stop himself from laughing again. “I’m sorry, sir,” he said hastily. “I’ll… make sure everyone else… knows.”
“Good!” Jonathan smiled at him, feeling very pleased with himself. “You’re dismissed.”
And Trip scrambled out of the room like Jonathan had set his uniform on fire.
Jonathan looked down at his desk and chuckled, gaze falling on the paper he’d been staring at all morning. It wasn’t even sealed, and it had his name on it. He was fairly sure he knew what it contained already, but he wanted to see it. Read what Arik had wanted to tell him, all those years ago.
He smoothed out the paper and started at the beginning.