Chapter Twelve: Whispers in the Dark

The transporter room vanished to Geordi's eyes as he and Data beamed over to the Defiant with their selected team from Engineering. Geordi was eager to get to the bottom of this. It perplexed him. Just as he could tell it had perplexed everyone when they gathered in a briefing room to discuss it.

"This isn't your average temporal rift," Kira said.

"How so?" Lieutenant Felton, from the Enterprise engineering team, asked.

"Because, usually when a rift opens in the timeline, everything changes," Kira said. "And nothing's changed from yesterday, believe me. If things had changed, you would know it."

"Would we?"

Kira nodded. "Now," she continued, brushing aside all questions, "as all of you know, we're going to Spacedock to scan the Enterprise computers. We really need to get to the bottom of this. Or we could lose history as we know it."

-

Hoshi bolted up in bed. The voice had come again. "Show yourself. Please, I need to know who you are." There was no response. She didn't really expect that there would be one. With a sigh, Hoshi got up and dressed. There was no point in trying to sleep. Not with this mysterious presence keeping her awake.

"You're crazy," she told herself, as she left her quarters and went down the corridor. "It's nothing...nothing..." She was so preoccupied that she never saw T'Pol. That is, until she bumped into her.

"Oh! Sub-commander, I- I'm sorry, I didn't see you."

"That much is clear," T'Pol said. "Where are you going? It's late."

"I don't know...I couldn't sleep."

"Dr. Phlox could take care of that. Maybe you should go to sickbay."

Hoshi didn't know how to tell T'Pol that she was hearing voices. The Vulcan woman would never believe her.

"No, I – I'll just go to the mess hall, and get something..."

"Ensign, what's the problem?"

"It's nothing," Hoshi said. "Really," she added, when T'Pol raised her eyebrows.

"Come. I'll join you."

"All right."

They went to the mess hall, which was darkened and deserted. T'Pol ordered the lights turned on and got tea for herself and Hoshi.

"Tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"Ensign, you're not alright and you won't go see Dr. Phlox,"

"I told you, it's—"Hoshi broke off as the lights suddenly dimmed.

"What's happening?" T'Pol asked, looking around.

Hoshi stood, as she heard the voice again. As fast as it had come, it was gone again and the lights were back. T'Pol was watching her intently. "You didn't hear that, did you?" Hoshi asked.

"The voice?" Hoshi nodded.

"I've been hearing it for some time now," Hoshi said.

"I have as well," T'Pol said, rising from her chair. "We must speak to the captain immediately." She went over to the comm. unit on the wall. "T'Pol to Captain Archer."

"Archer here. T'Pol, what's going on? It's the middle of the night!"

"Captain, this is important," T'Pol said. "It's about what you said earlier. You may be right."