The Scavenger Hunt- Pt. 2

The Scavenger Hunt

By Bella (Pandora’s Muse)

Rating: PG, humor, romance (Slight innuendo and language)
Special Thanks to: Lopaka Tanu for her editorial services and Christy for her help with the continuation page.
Disclaimer

Part Two

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“Commander." Trip looked up at the sound of the sub-commander's voice.

"Yes?" The Vulcan walked over slowly to where her partner was sitting and going over their inventory.

"I have acquired a few more items." She stated in a low and soft voice. He looked around the room, trying to figure out why she was being so secretive.

"O.K." He replied in the same tone. "What is it?"

She leaned up against the table to the commander's side and tried to act as nonchalant as possible. T'Pol opened her hands and placed the items on top of the others that Trip had already pulled out.

"Lavender body, lotion, red lipstick, confetti, a spiked collar! Where'd you get all these T'Pol?" Tucker exclaimed. She looked at him pointedly before responding in a still hushed tone.

"You may want to lower your voice Commander."

"Where'd you get all this?"

"Hoshi." Trip's grin fell and he furrowed his brows in thought.

"Wait," He paused and looked at the items, "Why would Hoshi give you these?"

"She didn't." T'Pol said swiftly and looked around the room to make sure they were not being watched.

"You stole them from her!" T'Pol's head whipped around.

"Commander, lower your voice."

"Sorry, it's just . . . Wow, T'Pol. I don't know if we should do that . . ." He began, running a hand through his hair.

"You put water in the vial." She stated slowly to add effect. He gave her a sidelong look before giving up.

"Ya right, we did." Trip began to stuff the items inside their bag. This game was just getting better and better. He'd never admit it, but stealing and breaking the rules with T'Pol gave him an adrenaline high that raised an otherwise normal Scavenger's Hunt to a whole new level.

"I wonder where they got this." Trip mused, holding the spiked collar in his hands.

"I presumed that they obtained it from the captain." T'Pol replied, taking the collar from his hands and placing it inside their satchel.

"I dun' think so." Commander Tucker said. "Porthos' collar had silver spikes. That one has gold. Plus, Cap'n set off to the bridge with Porthos, and his collar."

T'Pol seemed uninterested in the origin of the collar and instead focused on organizing the items they had attained. Meanwhile Trip leaned back in his chair and snuck a look at Ensign Sato, who was sitting with a man. He seemed to have handed her a ring of some sort and left the table.

Hoshi stood from the table and wandered over to where Ensign Mayweather had been speaking with two young women. She knew these women had already been interviewed by both other teams and was a little frustrated that Mayweather would waste his time with them.

"Travis, where's our bag?" Ensign Mayweather looked up from his conversation and pointed to a table a short distance away.

"There." He quickly returned to his joke, that moments later reduced the girls into short fits of giggles. Hoshi rolled her eyes and moved on to the table he had pointed to.

She picked up the bag and immediately knew something was wrong. It felt lighter than it used to be. Hoshi swiftly opened the bag and began rummaging through its contents. She threw it down with a huff.

"Travis!" She exclaimed. He abandoned his flirtations at the ensign's tone and joined her side.

"What's wrong?" Travis asked, concerned. Hoshi picked up the bag and let it drop again.

"We've been robbed!"

"What?" Mayweather's eyes popped out as he took up the bag and started digging about as the Ensign had earlier.

"Robbed! Someone has stolen from us!" She went on to rant in several different languages, none of which Travis recognized.

"But who?"

Hoshi looked around the Mess Hall with squinted and suspicious eyes. Finally her eyes fell upon the lieutenant and the doctor. Malcolm was closing his backpack and seemed a little too self-satisfied. Of course, the chief of security. Who else would be so devious and so good at it?

"Malcolm." Hoshi murmured under her breath. She swiftly crossed the room to where the other team was standing and talking with each other.

"You did it, didn't you?" Ensign Sato spit out, with a forced smile. Malcolm looked back at her, taking a moment to gather a reply.

"I don't know what you're talking about Ensign."

"All right, then would you like to explain why four items have been stolen from our bag?" Hoshi shot back, trying to be as civil as she could. Usually she'd handle it better but she just hated cheaters.

"Are you sure Ensign?" The doctor asked from the lieutenant’s side.

"Yes, we're sure." Mayweather confirmed, looking in the bag again.

"I don't know what to tell you, Ensigns. Other than that we weren't the ones who pilfered from your bag." Malcolm informed, earnestly. Hoshi and Travis exchanged a glance. He seemed like he was telling the truth, in Sato's opinion.

"Can we check your bag to make sure?" She asked, a bit calmer than her previous statements.

"Sure." Malcolm handed over the bag and crossed his arms across his chest, overseeing their search. He trusted Hoshi but he still didn't want to take a chance that she was pulling a ruse on him.

"They're telling the truth." Hoshi gave the bag back, Half-heartedly. "Then who stole from us?"

"There's only two other people that would get my vote. " Lieutenant Reed said, pointedly looking over in T'Pol's and Trip's direction.

"Where was your bag?" Doctor Phlox asked, appearing to have drawn the same conclusion as his partner.

"It was right over there on that empty table." Mayweather explained. The doctor nodded his head.

"I saw T'Pol over there next to a bag a few minutes ago. I thought it was theirs." Both Hoshi's and Travis' jaws fell open as they turned and looked in the Vulcan's direction.

"T'Pol?" Ensign Mayweather choked.

Hoshi didn't take her gaze off the woman. She watched as the sub-commander looked around the room suspiciously, while leaning up against the table beside the commander. That was more than a little unusual in its self. Trip was to her side, throwing things haphazardly into their backpack; he appeared a little too eager to have that bag filled and closed. After he was done, the sub-commander moved away and sat in the chair opposite him.

"That little . . . chine!" Hoshi grumbled under her breath, stomping her way over to the commanders. Travis followed close behind.

"That sounded French." Doctor Phlox mused.

"It is." Malcolm confirmed, turning his back on what he knew was destined to be a scene. "She called her umm . . ." He cleared his throat. "A bitch. Essentially."

Hoshi set off across the room with the full intention of giving Tucker and T'Pol a piece of her mind. She'd expect it somewhat from Trip, if he took it serious enough and thought it would do no harm. But she never would expect it from T'Pol. Though the more she thought about it, she should've. Logic governed the Vulcan and logic could be twisted any way they wanted.

It seemed to take her forever to get to the commanders. She had to move around tables and wait for crewmen to move their seats. Finally she made it to the woman's side and opened her mouth to give a good rant in the Vulcan's own language, respectively of course. She wasn't stupid.

"Time's up!"

Captain Archer walked to the front of the room. All three teams gathered in front of him, their packs ready. He looked at them and their collections and smiled shortly.

"I'm very proud of you all and how you've taken this game so seriously. I can't be long, so I'll make this quick." Jonathon Archer stood straight, with his hands behind his back. "While you were on the hunt, I was called up to the bridge. We came across a transport ship that has invited us to shore leave on their planet."

The senior officers, excluding T'Pol, shared quick looks as they waited for the captain to continue.

"And so, I'll need you to come up to the bridge as soon as you've found someone to take care of those. I'll expect you in a few." He quickly turned and attempted to leave.

"But sir!" Hoshi interrupted. Captain Archer turned and looked at the ensign patiently.

"What about the game?" Lieutenant Reed asked for the ensign.

"What about the game?"

"Who's the winners?" Hoshi pushed, trying to not sound too needy.

"We don't have time to tally. And the game was just to take your minds off the boredom. Since we've come across something of interest, there's really no need for it anymore." Jon explained away. "So, you're all winners."

With a quick grin, he exited the room, leaving most of his senior staff speechless.

"Bugger!" Malcolm cursed under his breath.

"You can say that again." Commander Tucker stated in a friendly manner. "And we would've won too."

Hoshi turned to the man and his partner who was opening their bag. She raised her hands on her hips and managed to look very menacing for such a small woman.

"Because you stole from us, Commander." Ensign Sato threw back at him.

"I dunno what ya talkin' 'bout, Ensign." He rebuffed. T'Pol finally pulled out a few items from the bag and turned to the young woman.

"I believe these are yours, Ensign." She remarked as she handed the lipstick, bag of confetti, and lotion to the woman. Hoshi opened her hands and took the items, her mouth ajar. She looked pointedly at her commander and he cleared his throat and tried to avoid her gaze.

"Thanks, T'Pol." Commander Tucker said through clenched teeth.

"This is yours as well." The Vulcan said matter-of factly as she handed the collar to the ensign. "The commander also expressed interest in where you acquired that item."

"Yeah," Trip picked up, gladly accepting the distraction, "Where'd ya find it?"

"Travis' quarters." She said with a smirk. "I think this is yours."

Hoshi handed the spiked collar over to the blushing ensign. Both Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Reed chocked in a sort of laugh. Mayweather faked a laugh of his own and took the collar.

"Laugh all you want. But it has its uses." He said through a smirk. The group stopped laughing immediately and watched as the Ensign left the hall.

"Well this has been pleasant. But I must report to sick bay." The doctor said, interrupting the silence. "Good day."

"I suppose we should go too." Reed said to his crewmates.

The four disposed of their bags to the two women sitting at a table nearby and headed to the bridge. Looking back, they knew that they had taken the game a little too far but it had done what it was supposed to. They no longer were bored with the monotony that had plagued their duties for the past couple weeks and they were left with memories of the game they were not soon to forget.

Especially Ensign Sato, she did not forget the commanders’ actions when they took their shore leave. It took a painful and rather long, in the commander's opinion, recovery for his severe sunburn to heal and sub-commander T'Pol never did find her candles again.

And of course everyone tried to forget what they learned about Travis Mayweather that day.

~FINIS~

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Nine of you have made comments

That was really funny. I really enjoyed the interplay between the characters. It even seemed realistic for T'pol to take the game seriously and even to cheat. Your characterizations were dead on! Thank you!

LOL that was great!

Golden spiked collar, eh?

rofl

Heeheehee....This was cute!

I like this story. It was funny. I enjoyed seeing the crew in a different situation, like a scavenger hunt. But I was kind of disappointed at the end. I thought there should have been more. Are you planning a sequel?.....I hope.

I have a grin as wide as the moon - that was brilliant. Loved it. Well done.

Very entertaining. That was great. Do it again sometime, thanks!

NICE.

That was funny!!!! I was laughing about T'pol cheating and Travis's colar. Curious, what did he use it for?????