Rating: R
Genres: challenge, romance
Keywords: bond
An unforeseen emergency wrecks the evening T'Pol Hoshi,Trip and Malcolm had planed and Trip literally feels the heat. It's a contribution for the December 2009 challenge.
This chapter is a tad hard on Captain Archer, but even intergalactic heroes are just human.
As the turbo-lift door hissed open, the four senior officers ran onto the bridge and relieved their counterparts of the graveyard ship.
"Sorry to wreck your evening," Archer apologized. "We've picked up an automated distress call of a Vulcan ship."
"Did they identify themselves?" T'Pol asked.
"The name is T'Planit," Hoshi added, listening to the recording. Archer shot T'Pol a questioning look.
"It's an ambassadorial courier - the personal transport of Ambassador Soval," she answered; her face hid her shock only badly.
"How long to the rendezvous?"
"2.1 hours at warp 5.2, Sir," Travis answered.
"Another ship is approaching them," T'Pol interrupted. "They are ahead of us bearing 246 mark 25."
"They're traveling at warp 4.8 and at our current speed will beat us to it by 10 minutes," Travis added.
"Who is it?"
"Unidentified. The power signature is close to that of a Kumari-class, but not identical," T'Pol reported, typing and pushing away at her console visibly more frantic than usual.
"Too risky," Archer decided. "Trip can we get more out of the engines? As long as we don't know who they are, we've gotta be there before them."
"5.3, maybe 5.4 for a while, but we'll be redecorating engineering in the worst way in the process. We haven't completed all redesigns yet. And we'll probably be out of spares afterward."
"Damn!"
"I take care of it," Trip answered and started towards the turbolift.
"Commander," T'Pol called after him. He stopped and shot her a questioning glance. "Be careful."
"Always, Commander," Trip answered with a short smile and sped of into the turbo-lift.
Archer watched bemused, by T'Pol's mother-hen gesture, but also noted how consequently they had switched from date-mode to duty-professionalism. Trip had even addressed her by her rank. Wonders never cease.
"Anna, take the auto-routines offline and control the intermix-ratio manually, keep it 0.3 below recommendation. That'll relieve the pressure a bit," Trip barked as he ran into engineering. "Rostov purge the manifolds!"
"What's wrong?" Anna Hess asked as she raced over to the console.
"We're gonna red-line the engines and it'll soon be a hellhole in here," Trip answered, frantically checking all his readouts. "Tucker to bridge, Cap'n here ready down 'ere! Start 'er at 5.3. I'll ping ya if we're ready for 5.4"
"Ok, give it a shot Cap'n," Trip barked into the com 20 minutes later.
"Travis, warp 5.4."
"We should pass them in 5 minutes," Travis reported.
"Hold her steady, Ensign. Trip, how's the status in engineering?"
"Engineering's... oh for pete's sake!..." Trip's swearing was interrupted by the muffled sound of a small explosion and an audible thud, which sounded suspiciously like a Commander hitting the deck. Another furious Russian blue-streak sounded over the com, which made Hoshi gasp and blush deeply.
T'Pol watched Hoshi's reaction. Considering Ensign Sato's radical change in facial coloring, it could only mean that her mate's latest venture into foreign-language outbursts contained an even stronger message than mating with someone's mother. It did not sound like he had paid much attention to her latest advise of being careful.
"'Everything OK' would sound different," Archer sighed. "Keep the channel open, Hoshi, just in case Commander Tucker's..."
"Cap'n, I'm evacuat'n all non-critical personnel from engineering! We've got 60° centigrade down 're. It's a damn hell-hole. I can hold it for another 2 minutes or so, any longer and we're gonna have to get out and push 'er home."
"Ok, Trip, hold it for 2 minutes, then we go back to 5.1"
"Like the sound 'o that..."
"T'Pol, where's the other ship?"
"We passed them 0.55 minutes ago. At Warp 5.1, we would reach the T'Planit 4.5 minutes before them."
"Ok,Travis, 5.1, give Trip a break."
"Aye..."
"EVERYBODY GET DOWN! T'S GONNA BE NASTY!" Trip's shouting sounded through the still open connection to engineering. A series of explosions were followed by an almighty thud, very suspiciously sounding like someone violently slamming into a bulkhead. The connection went silent and only hissing sounds - probably coolant leaks - remained.
"Archer to Engineering!"
"Engineering, Hess here. We have casualties, we can sustain 5.1, nothing more. Engineering is a mess," a very heavily breathing Lieutenant reported.
"We'll send help," Archer offered. "T'Pol, Malcolm, go down, see if you can help."
"Aye, Sir."
"Oh, bloody Hell!" Malcolm uttered, when he followed T'Pol into engineering. The air was scorching hot. "T'Pol, over there!"
They found the unconscious body of Commander Tucker and T'Pol reached for his neck to check for a pulse. She found one, but it was weak and unsteady. "T'Pol to sickbay, medical emergency in engineering."
"On my way," Phlox replied with the calm of a man who had seen such a situation thousands of times.
"Commander, I'll check for other casualties, maybe you can keep an eye on Trip," Malcolm offered and T'Pol answered with a grateful glance and a nod.
"Two more injured, but they can walk. Looks like Trip took the brunt of it," Reed reported just two minutes later, when the medics and Dr. Phlox arrived.
"No spinal injuries," Phlox summarized. "Load him on the stretcher and off to sickbay. Where are the other casualties?"
Captain Archer, Lt. Reed and Commander T'Pol filed into the ready room.
"What's the status?" the captain asked.
"Commander Tucker, Lt. Rostov and Ensign McInally are in sickbay. Severe damage to the EPS grid, but Lt. Hess is convinced it is repairable. A life support team is working on returning the temperature in engineering to normal levels as quick as possible," T'Pol summarized.
"Ok. We will reach the T'Planit in about 30 minutes. Lt. Reed, assemble a team of MACO's to accompany T'Pol to the ship when we get there,"
"Aye, Sir," Reed nodded and left.
"How's Trip?" Archer asked, once Malcolm has left.
"Phlox says he is stable," T'Pol answered tersely. "We should concentrate on planning the rescue-mission."
"Of course," Archer nodded. "We can't dock, just in case this mysterious ship is hostile, so you've got to go in a shuttlepod. We've got about 4 minutes before those guys arrive. I don't think that'll be enough."
"There is one option," T'Pol answered. "We could sling-start the shuttlepod."
"How's that work?"
"We will spool up the shuttlepod's engines and open the launch bay doors. After we drop out of warp, Enterprise comes to an emergency full-stop from maximum impulse speed. The inertial energy will catapult the shuttle out of the bay. That will give us more speed than possible on own propulsion for at least 30 seconds."
"Sounds dangerous."
"It is, but it is the only chance to dock with the T'Planit in under 4 minutes."
"Have you done something like that before."
"No, but my theoretical calculations have shown the risks to be manageable."
"I would start to argue with you, but you've proven me wrong often enough, so I'll trust your instincts."
"Thank you, Captain."
"Commander," he called out, before she reached the door. "Be careful,"
"Always, Captain," she answered and Archer couldn't help smiling.
Sergeant Amanda Cole and her MACO's stood lined up, waiting for Commander T'Pol to arrive.
"Ten-hut!" Amanda ordered as T'Pol entered.
"At ease," the Vulcan returned and addressed the soldiers.
"The transfer to the target will be fairly unpleasant, the human term would be 'a wild ride'. It is imperative that you all strap in firmly as soon as we board the shuttle. Once we are aboard, I expect my directions to be followed to the letter. Board the shuttle."
"Ten-hut, right-face."
T'Pol watched the MACO's move in an orderly, always choreographed manner. Her fondness for structure and order admired this, but she also wondered if this was an instance of what Commander Tucker liked to call 'showing off' on behalf of the MACO's.
As soon as the shuttle's hatch was closed, the launch bay was depressurized and the doors where opened, despite Enterprise still being at full impulse-speed. The T'Planit was visible directly ahead.
"Shuttlepod 2 to Enterprise, we are ready to start."
"Acknowledged. Start in 30 seconds."
The countdown was nearing completion. Amanda Cole was startled slightly when she heard the Vulcan in the pilot seat mutter, "Here we go."
She couldn't follow up that thought as suddenly her breath was taken away by a massive acceleration. A hideous screeching sound filled her ears as the shuttle slid across the launch bay floor and was hurled out of the door, leaving two smoking trails behind.
Sergeant Cole became increasingly worried, since it looked like the Vulcan would smash them head-on into the ship. At what looked like the last possible moment, the pointy-eared pilot forced the shuttle into a steep dive and, after a while, into a steep ascent as they dove below the Vulcan transport. Once the obstacle was cleared, the passenger's stomachs where field-tested as the shuttle was yanked into a looping roll, ending with them facing the opposite direction of where they came from, with T'Planit's docking port almost dead-ahead. Spooling down the engines, T'Pol coasted the last part of the distance and they docked with a hefty clunk.
"Enterprise, we have docked," she reported, just over 2 minutes after being catapulted out of Enterprise's launch bay.
"Jesus Christ!" Travis exclaimed with wide opened eyes as he watched T'Pol's shuttle-acrobatics.
"The other ship is approaching," Malcolm reported. "They're charging weapons."
"Full power to hull plating," Archer barked before being thrown to the floor as a phase cannon hit rocked the ship.
"Full hit to phaser cannons, one offline."
"Torpedoes, full yield!"
"Their shields are down," Malcolm analyzed as the screen showed two of the Mark II photonic torpedoes smash into the attacker, who looked like a Kumari-class cruiser of the Andorian Imperial Guard.
Another hit rocked Enterprise. And Malcolm reported that both cannons were now useless.
"We could ram them," Travis offered.
"What?" Archer looked at him in disbelief.
"With shuttlepod 1, the way we discharged T'Pol," Travis clarified.
"Aw, what the hell?" Archer grumbled. "Depressurize launch bay 1, prepare to open doors."
Travis performed the same L4-maneuver that they had used once to get rid of Duras and positioned the ship directly behind the attacker.
"Open doors, full emergency stop in 10 seconds!"
When Enterprise came to a sudden halt, the crew looked on as the uncontrolled shuttle hurtled towards the Andorians and exploded as it smashed into their propulsion section, setting off a bigger, secondary explosion.
"They're dead in the water, Sir," Malcolm reported with the tiniest of smug smiles.
Wordlessly, T'Pol directed the MACO's along the corridors. Even for her disciplined emotional control, the picture looked grim. Vulcan corpses littered each room they had entered so far. The walls were scarred from the fire-fight had had happened with whomever responsible for the massacre. Two critically injured survivors had been found so far and transported to Enterprise's sickbay.
As they entered the meditation chamber, T'Pol's control lapsed for a second as she gasped audibly. Soval!
"Hoshi, get me the Vulcan High Council. I'll take in my ready room."
"Aye, Sir."
"It is agreeable to see you again, Captain Archer," T'Pau opened with a nod.
"Nice to see you, too, Minister."
"I was informed that you have found Ambassador Soval's ship."
"Yes, it was boarded and most of the crew was murdered. We have rescued 3 survivors, all in critical condition."
"Is Ambassador Soval among the survivors?"
"He is. T'Pol says he is in a healing trance and thinks that we need a Vulcan healer as soon as possible."
"A healer is on his way. We have been in contact with the Andorian government. The Andorians, who attacked the ship are criminals. Commander Shran of the Imperial Guard is on his way, he also is bringing a healer."
"I see. In the mean time, we will try to do what we can for the survivors. Do you have any information that could be helpful for us?"
"I could not give you any more information than your Commander T'Pol. Is she not available?"
"She is, thank you Minister."
"Peace and long life, Captain Archer."
"Live long and prosper, Minister T'Pau."
Heavily sighing, the Captain sat back in his chair for a while.
"Ah, Commander," Phlox greeted with a hushed voice as T'Pol entered the darkened sickbay,
"How are they?" she asked and the dark rings under her eyes were a manifestation of her exhaustion.
"The Ambassador is still in his healing trance, but his vital signs are starting to stabilize, albeit on a very low level."
"Unfortunately Commander Tucker does not seem to be reacting well to my therapy. He has only marginally improved. I'm sorry that I do not have better news for you."
"No need to apologize, Doctor. I am here to offer my help. Once the crisis is over, I shall give you all information you'll need, but for the moment it is important that I can get into close contact with Commander Tucker."
"So the rumors are true that you and Mr. Tucker are - as the humans say - an item, finally?"
"We are more than that," T'Pol replied with a stern look. "Once I'm in sufficient contact, you will notice that Commander Tuckers vital signs will drop to a low level, but they will stabilize and gradually improve."
"You want to put Commander Tucker into the same healing trance as Ambassador Soval?"
"Yes, he cannot initiate it on his own, but I can assist him. Once the healer arrives, he will know how to proceed."
"You are a bonded pair?"
"How do you know?"
"During my years in the IME I have worked a long time on Vulcan. It appears that I have gained the trust of your people to be given such delicate information. That opens a lot of new therapeutic options."
"Indeed. How is the physical constitution of Commander Tucker? The biobeds are fairly narrow, I would have to position myself on top of him."
"You are delicately built. Your weight will not cause any problem."
"I see."
"I'm relieving you of duty for medical reasons, please go ahead. I will put the privacy screens in place."
"Thank you doctor."
After being assured that their privacy as secure, she removed the blanket and looked at the pale figure of her mate. He was clad in only his blue skivvies. She removed her uniform and laid herself down on him. She kissed his neck gently while she initiated the trance. Their katras started their joint work of healing him.
What is it that I wanted to do? There is something I forgot, Phlox thought an hour after the two Commanders started their trance. You're getting old, Phlox. Checking his monitor he noticed that the vital signs of Commander Tucker started to improve. Smiling to himself, he returned to his microscope to continue his analysis.
Captain Archer walked through the corridors, but his mind was somewhere else. Ever since he had seen his 4 senior officers happily chatting on a double-date, he had felt even worse. Although he was happy for the two couples and had given his stamp of approval without hesitation, their very happiness hammered the fact home that he was alone. Never had the saying 'it's lonely at the top' been more spot-on.
His mind wandered back to the climbing tour with Erika and the almost glorious sensation of waking up with a female body in his arms. ONCE - once in over four years he had not woken up alone. But Erika was now on Columbia, married to Starfleet, just like him. A divorce had never looked like such a good prospect before.
The doubts about continuing his service on a star-ship had been with him ever since the end of the Xindi mission. Erika had almost eradicated them on their tour, but only almost and now they grew back, bigger and bigger by the day.
Still brooding, he absentmindedly entered sickbay, trundled over to Trip's biobed - and froze. How dare they shove it in my face like that, his mind screamed and a poisonous tidal wave of sadness and irrational envy raced through his mind. The ship's half-naked chief engineer was in his biobed with the first officer in her underwear lying on top of him, both closely entangled, her lips pressed to his neck and her right hand's fingers resting on his face in a way that almost reminded him of the peculiar face grab of T'Pau, before she mind melded with him.
"What the hell?"
The growling question roused Phlox, who had not noticed Archers arrival, from his analysis. In a surprisingly swift movement, considering his robust build, he grabbed the puzzled Captain and dragged him away from the bed before hurriedly closing the privacy screens again.
"Doc, what's going on in there?"
"That is none of your business," the usually lighthearted Denobulan shot back in visible anger. "How can a man of your experience be completely put out of his depth by the simple task of grasping the concept of a privacy screen?"
Ignoring the doctors question, the Captain got angry himself. "I gave them permission to have a relationship. That doesn't include the permission for T'Pol to come to sickbay and snuggle up to her boyfriend every night. This is a medical facility and not a cheap motel."
"Considering that you are stumped by something as simple as a privacy screen, I wouldn't expect you to be able to tell a Vulcan healing trance from an intimate encounter," the doctor growled in a low voice. "Commander T'Pol has been relieved of duty and will remain so until the arrival of the Vulcan healer. And now please leave my sickbay or I'll have to declare this a quarantined area to enforce your departure.
Archer was taken aback. Not too many people in his life had ever had the nerve to call him an idiot. The most enraging thing was, though, that he realized that Phlox was right. He had jumped to a stupid conclusion, due to his depressed mindset and an irrational pang of envy. Wordlessly he turned to leave, but stopped again.
"I'm sorry, Phlox, I was out of line."
"You were, but your reaction is understandable. Maybe it would help if you sat down."
Nodding, the Captain took a seat.
"Captain, if you remember, we had a discussion here, 3 years ago. There was a period of sexual tension between you and your first officer. It was understandable. Humans, males especially, are not designed to endure long periods of time without sexual intercourse. So these tensions are unavoidable. Your professionalism and your discipline allowed you to endure it without acting on any urges."
Archer was uneasy, but somehow he hoped Phlox would soon get to the core of his problems.
"But that is not your first and foremost problem, is it?"
"No, Phlox. In those early days of our mission, somewhere around the start of our second year, I think I developed a bit of a crush on T'Pol. Maybe it's still lingering somewhere back there," Archer sighed and pointed at his temple.
"That may well be, although I doubt that. It would explain some of the envy you felt, when seeing Commanders Tucker and T'Pol in a situation like that. I believe, however, you are experiencing something much more taxing: loneliness."
Archer just nodded with a frustrated expression.
"Commander Tucker was once your best friend, but he turned to T'Pol for help, while you secluded yourself. And you have no family. As your doctor and a friend, I can give you only one advise. Remove the reason for your current predicament before it grows into a depression. I'd say you are not very far from it now."
"I know, Phlox. I've been pondering to resign from Starfleet for a while now."
"Why should you resign? After more than four years of heroic service, Starfleet would be extremely ungrateful if they would deny you a year or two of hiatus. Or maybe you could take a post at Starfleet Command?"
Archer had a far away look and didn't answer the doctor immediately.
"You're right Phlox. Please don't speak with anyone of the crew, I want to tell them myself."
"What has been said stays here, you know that. But please promise me something. If you have symptoms like today again, report back to sickbay."
"What symptoms?"
"Did you deliberately violate the privacy of your senior officers?"
"No, I didn't even plan to come to sickbay. I just happened, somehow," Archer admitted with embarrassment.
"That's what I'm talking about. Although you're not as close as you once were, Commander Tucker is still your friend. You feel isolated and you start to get depressed, you sought the presence of a friend, even if he's unconscious. I'll give you this mild anti-depressant," Phlox explained and administered a hypo-spray. "I think we should set up a daily consultation. It doesn't have to be long, but I would like to monitor your psychological condition."
"We'll do that, thanks Phlox. Hope you're not angry anymore."
"I never was. If I had just ushered you away, we wouldn't have had that discussion. You would have left and your problem would continue. I had to be a bit... creative to get you to open up"
"So you expected me to come here?"
"No, it was a somewhat lucky coincidence. I would have had to approach you however in not to distant a future, but that would have been most likely for the purpose of declaring you unfit for duty."
"You're one helluva doc, Phlox."
"You're welcome."
Phlox look relieved that he was spared the task of relieving Archer from command - for now. With a sense of having forgotten something - again - he returned to his analysis.
"Doc?"
Malcolm and Hoshi walked into sickbay in the early morning.
"Ah, Lieutenant, Ensign. What can I do for you?"
"We couldn't find Commander T'Pol and when we did a scan, we found her here," Hoshi answered. "Two days ago Trip and T'Pol told us of their... connection and that it might be necessary to put her in close contact with him to help him heal. When we saw that exactly that had been done, it got us worried about how serious Trip's condition is."
"They told you that they're bonded?"
"Yes, Doctor. Probably not every minute detail, but quite a lot. So how does it look. T'Pol's biosign was awfully weak when we did the scan," Malcolm added.
"They trust you a lot to give you that much information."
"We're friends doc. They actually gave us permission to inform you should anything happen to them, but you seem to know it already."
"I do. Don't worry Mr. Reed. The biosign is so weak, because she has initiated a healing trance. In fact, Commander T'Pol is making excellent progress. She is expending a lot of energy, but if the recuperation continues as it is, they'll awake by the evening."
"Can we see them?" Hoshi asked.
"Considering that they trust you so much, you can, but be cautioned, their posture may look somewhat... intimate."
"Trust me Doctor, even those two just looking at each other can be utterly intimate," Malcolm answered with a smile as Phlox indicated them where their biobed was.
Hoshi quickly grabbed the blanket and put it over their friends sparsely clothed figures, wondering, why Phlox hadn't done that.
"Even when they're out of it you can see just how bad they've got it for each other," Hoshi whispered as a single tear of emotion ran down her cheek.
"Yeah, would you have though that a Vulcan would be as romantic as to put herself in trance while kissing his neck?" Malcolm took Hoshi's hand as they watched their friends in their peaceful slumber.
"Phlox, had it a specific reason, why they where without the blanket?" Malcolm asked when they came back from behind the screens. "I don't think that T'Pol would be most pleased to come back from that trance, knowing that she'd been flashing her underwear all day."
"How could I have forgotten that?" Phlox gasped and started to race towards the biobed.
"Don't fret it, Doc. We noticed in time," Malcolm reassured the shocked Denobulan with an encouraging smile.
Hoshi and Malcolm left to start their shift.
"Morning, Captain," Hoshi and Malcolm greeted as they entered the bridge.
Shortly after having taken the com console, Hoshi turned towards Archer. "We're being hailed. It's Shran."
"On screen."
"I see you have done half my job already, pink-skin."
"Always eager to help, Shran. Good to see you again."
"Are some of your own people on that ship?"
"A detachment of MACO's; we boarded and apprehended them. Minister T'Pau told us that Andoria considers them criminals."
"They are. Get your people out and tell me when you have them," Shran requested grimly.
Shran, Shran, the blue-skinned man!!!!!! Oooh and he's really ticked off too, cannot wait.
It's funny to think that they know what "suspiciously like a Commander hitting the deck" sounds like, but Trip's so accident prone I suppose they do know what it sounds like now. An enjoyable story, made even better by the tender TnT moments.
Crackling. That's the right word.