War and Peace - Ch 3

War and Peace

By: Energy4TripnT’Pol

Rating: PG
Disclaimer: An episode of Star Trek: Enterprise: $ on Paramount’s budget. Getting Trip and T’Pol together: priceless for us desperate fanfic writers. So no, I’m not making money and Paramount owns the series and all the characters involved (mostly).
Genre: Of course romance, slight angst, some mystery, just a hint of everything else . Summary: Archer and company arrive on a planet with traces of Xindi technology. But when Archer encounters a temporal anomaly and meets a Trip Tucker from the future, he learns about a future that two of his friends could have. Meanwhile, Archer is so busy in the anomaly that in orbit, Enterprise has 3.5 hours to leave before a Xindi vessel arrives.
Archiving: No archiving, please.

Author’s Note: This story takes place during the third season of Enterprise before “Similitude” and “Harbinger” (in other words, before any ideas of Trip and T’Pol’s romance, excepting neuro-pressure). I wrote this before I even knew about the episode “North Star”, so forgive me if anything seems like copycatting. ‘The Captain’s Table’ idea is from the omnipedia about each of the series captains, yet another idea I borrowed. Enjoy!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER 3

Tucker was introducing his former captain into all kinds of people, one a Vulcan who actually seemed awed by Archer’s appearance here, some other aliens and humans that Archer had not seen. As Trip made the rounds with him and then ushered him back to the table, Archer was still amazed. “This is incredible,” he mentioned. He chucked a thumb to a pair sitting in a bench seat and said, “Those two said they’ve been to nearly 500 inhabited worlds in their lifetimes. I wonder if we’ll even hit that many?”

Trip shrugged. “Still not sayin’ anything.”

Archer smiled good-naturedly. “I wasn’t trying to,” he replied as Cap brought two more beers and sat them down.

“So, you still think I’ve kidnapped you and this is a hallucination?” the bartender asked Archer.

He lifted the beer and raised his brow. “I never thought that.”

“Ahh, good.” Cap walked back to the bar as a round of laughter broke out in a booth. One of the laughs startled Archer, and when he turned to look Trip laid a restraining hand on his shoulder. Sitting in the booth was A. J. Robinson.

“My God,” Archer murmured. He started to move up but Trip placed his other hand on him and held him down.

“Jon . . .”

Archer groaned in objection. “But I could tell him, tell him not to go.”

“Hey, you do that and who knows what’ll get screwed up,” Tucker protested. “There’s a reason for the non-interference policy in here.”

Archer watched sadly as Robinson swallowed the last in his cup, nodded to Cap, and walked out the doors. As Archer turned to watch him, he felt panged. If I could have just told him not to go on that mountain trip.

Behind him, Trip cleared his throat. “Jon, you have no idea what heartache I’ve been through in here, watching old friends walk through those doors, wanting desperately to tell them about what would happen. But you do that, and people like Kimberly Barnes would never exist. In her place, the main rule of Starfleet is called the Prime Directive. A policy of non-interference in pre-warp cultures.” He paused, and then pointed a finger at Archer. “Just like you once told Phlox there should be.”

That comment turned Archer’s thoughts back to the present. His present. He turned in his seat and looked to Trip. “Phlox still around?”

Trip shrugged. “Can’t say.”

Archer smiled. “I can’t imagine what your life is like now. I bet every time you see Malcolm or Travis you’re reminiscing about old times on Enterprise. I’ll bet anything Hoshi is probably on Earth, teaching.”

At the mention of Hoshi, Trip hung his head. Cap filled two new glasses, then walked over as he saw him and warned, “Trip.”

Archer watched the exchange with interest. “Trip?”

Trip looked to Cap. “Cap, I gotta tell him.”

“Tucker, you know the rules. No.” Cap walked back behind the bar.

Archer looked hard into Trip’s eyes and saw sorrow. “What about her?” he pressed quietly.

Trip shook his head drearily. “Oh, man. I wish I could tell you but--” He pointed his thumb at Cap, speaking quietly to a captain. They watched, rather interested, as his eyes flew open with surprise, then he vanished into a storeroom.

Trip shrugged. “Let’s talk about something else, shall we?”

Archer nodded. “Volleyball: you ever learn it?”

Trip grinned lopsidedly. “Like I told you before. I still prefer football, but I still keep an eye on the finals.”

Archer smiled. “What’s the most exciting thing that’s happened to you over the years? From this point on Enterprise?”

Trip wagged a finger at Archer. “Ohh, nice try.”

Archer smiled as he was caught. “Okay, since you got command?”

Trip leaned back thoughtfully into his chair. “Hmm. Well, there was this one mission to a system called Betranlis. I led a team consisting of my first officer -- she’s the smartest person I know, I swear to it.”

“Smarter than . . . T’Pol?”

“Almost smarter than T’Pol,” Trip replied, chuckling. Archer couldn’t help but grin. Yeah, Trip Tucker was still in there despite the lighter hair around his temples.

“Enough of that. So anyway, we went there. Besides me and her, it was my helmsman. His name’s Watson. And the chief engineer went too. Shepard.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t try and keep that post for yourself.”

“Ohh, I did. Believe me. But a certain person argued it would be too much stress.”

“Doctor?”

Trip grimaced. “T’Pol. Of all people.”

Archer laughed.

Trip continued. “So, we got to the planet. My science officer, communications officer, and some other crewmen, mainly from the science departments, had been on the surface for a few days. We were heading down to meet them and bring samples back to the ship. We get to their pod, and it’s completely deserted. No tracks, no nothin’ to go on.”

“Sounds familiar.”

Trip smiled. “Yeah, slightly. So we split up. Lauryn headed with me. She’s my first officer, by the way. Just thought I’d throw that in. We were checking out their base and suddenly we found this . . . really big hole in the ground,” he said, using his hands to form a circle.

“We looked and found trails down into what looked like a cave network. Lauryn and I get inside, and we find the team, trying to mine this stuff from the walls. Turns out it’s this really strong alloy, like 200 times stronger than steel. And light too. So we help them get it back to the ship. And guess what? Even the Vulcans haven’t ever found this stuff before. So the crew gets to name it. They proposed ‘Triptanium’ as the official name. Didn’t exactly work out that way, but they added it to the elements table and now Starfleet is incorporating it into hulls.”

Archer listened and laughed at various points. He sighed. “Too bad. ‘Triptanium’ sounds like a nice name.”

Tucker shrugged. “Vulcans had a minor problem. T’Pol was nice enough to point out it wasn’t even my real name, like I needed an excuse for the Vulcans to ignore the crew’s suggestion.”

“They still jerks?”

Trip shrugged. “Well, they’re working on it. T’Pol is probably the nicest Vulcan anyone will ever meet, though. That’s a fact.”

Archer smiled, and then turned his attention to the back room. Cap had just exited with something in his hand. He walked to the table and addressed Trip. “You can tell him.”

“What?” Trip asked in amazement.

“You can tell him,” Cap repeated.

“Yeah, I heard that. But what about your non-interference rule?”

“It’s already been nullified. Here,” he said, handing Trip the object he’d been carrying.

Archer craned his neck. It looked similar to a padd. On it was script, and as Trip read it his eyes widened in shock. “You’re kidding me.”

“Trip?”

Tucker laid down the padd and looked Archer in the eyes. “On this mission, after Travis begins to leave orbit, T’Pol detects an object in geosynchronous position of us. We maneuver around and pick it up. Hoshi and I head down to the launch bay and she works on translating it. And then it happened.”

Archer’s eyes narrowed.

Trip gulped. “She had just begun translating it when shots began ringing out. She grabbed her phase pistol and tried to fire back, but one of the shots hit her. In the chest.”

Archer sunk back into his seat.

“After that, the aliens disappeared and took the thing with them. I picked up Hoshi and tried to get her to Sickbay, but by the time I reached the doors . . .” Trip broke off, a single tear on the edge of his eye. “But she was gone. Even all of Phlox’s little creatures and gadgets couldn’t save her.” Trip propped his elbows on the tabletop and laid his face in his hands. “Afterwards, I felt so guilty.”

“But,” Archer quietly roused, “it didn’t sound like there was anything you could do.”

Trip nodded. “Yeah, and you said the same thing afterwards, too.” Trip swallowed the last of his old beer, and then looked towards the table top. “Anyway, she managed to get most of the coordinates. But by the time we got there, they were gone.” He paused. “Ohh, Hoshi. There was something special about her. Felt guilty ‘cause I couldn’t do anything. You understand?”

Archer paused a moment, then nodded.

Trip sighed, and then turned back to the matter at hand. “Cap, why was I allowed to say that?”

“The Xindi time traveled back to that day. After they found out the implications of what she did, they thought, in their minds, they had to stop it.”

“Implications?” Archer queried.

Cap took a seat at the table for the first time that night. “The object contained Xindi script on the exterior. A space marker, of sorts. Hoshi translated it and found it included directions to an actual Xindi trading post.” He leaned forward. “The timeline’s already been disrupted. By doing this, it’s fixing their mistake.”

“But Cap, this could drastically change the future,” Trip reminded him.

“And we could use the directions to the outpost,” Archer mentioned.

Cap leaned back. “Good grief. I would have thought, Trip,” he said, looking at the engineering officer, “that you would want to see Hoshi again. Alive and well.” And looking to Archer: “And you. I realize how much those coordinates would mean to you. But is Hoshi’s life worth it?” He rose from the table and left the two officers to decide the fate of their friend.

* * *

After Phlox declared them finished with decon, Tucker and T’Pol left the chamber. Tucker headed to engineering, not odd regarding the fact that it was his assigned station. However, T’Pol wondered why he would not participate directly in the initial scans for the captain. From her viewpoint, the two were close friends. Perhaps, she reasoned with herself as she walked to the bridge, Tucker was more concerned with having the engines in perfected condition before the Xindi ship arrived.

She reached the turbolift and pressed the keypad. The doors opened and allowed her to enter. She pressed, Bridge, and waited for the lift to reach its destination. As she was emptied onto the bridge, Malcolm Reed walked to her and handed her a padd. “We’ve finished the preliminary long-range scan. There’s absolutely no sign of him anywhere.”

She handed him back the padd. “Any ships?”

He shook his head. “None entered or left orbit during our time here. I was just about to use the quantum sensors to detect any cloaked vessels.”

She nodded. “Proceed.”

In turn, he nodded to Travis Mayweather, cueing him to open the launch bay doors and drop the sensors. He used his controls to navigate them around the vicinity of the ship. He did a complete rotation, sighed, and then announced, disappointedly, “Nothing.”

She looked down at the captain’s armrest and pushed the com switch for engineering. “Bridge to Tucker.”

“Yeah, go ahead.” Tucker’s voice protested frustration and dejection.

“Prepare to leave orbit.”

T’Pol’s request brought her quizzical glances from the senior staff and a shout from the chief engineer. “T’Pol, is your head on straight?”

“Indeed it is. I was only indicating that our quantum scanners only function short range. We need to move Enterprise in order to be able to scan higher orbits.”

“Oh, okay. Don’t scare me like that again. Tucker out.”

* * *

To the Vulcan’s left, Hoshi Sato had begun squirming in her seat. She calmed when T’Pol answered, then turned her attention to a small scan she’d been running. Since she had arrived on the bridge, she was attempting to track Captain Archer’s communicator. The casing and its inner workings weren’t indigenous to the planet, and if was on the surface she would be able to track it.

Or so she thought.

The sensors on Enterprise, combined with those from the shuttlepod, confirmed the fact that his communicator wasn’t on the planet. She slowed down the scans, running them at a quarter of normal speed, and then noticed how the instant the captain disappeared, a distortion appeared within the building.

She breathed, “Hmm,” then checked something else.

T’Pol must have heard her, for she rose and walked over. “Ensign?”

Hoshi turned. “Oh, sorry. I was scanning for the captain’s communicator at slower speeds. The moment he disappeared, a . . . well, I guess you could call it a rift appeared within the building itself.”

T’Pol raised an eyebrow in interest, then moved to her science station and examined Hoshi’s findings. “You are correct. There is a rift.” She moved to Reed’s station. “Mr. Reed. Alternate the sensors to E.M. and then thermal.”

He did so. Immediately, the screen changed to show the map Hoshi had just been looking at. Malcolm’s adjustments made the screen appear in different shades and frequencies. Hoshi squinted when she thought she saw a big, fuzzy ball. When it switched to thermal, she could definitely make out humanoid shapes.

“There!” she shouted, pointing.

T’Pol focused. Indeed, as she pointed out, there were humanoid shapes. Many.

Travis whistled. “Nice job, Hoshi.”

She smiled, but it subsided immediately. The captain hadn’t been found yet.

Reed stood. “Hoshi, what was the translation on the doors?”

“Umm, ‘The Captain’s Table,’ I think.”

He perked up with interest. “Really?”

“Positive. In several different languages, too.”

Malcolm moved to T’Pol. “T’Pol, I’ve heard stories from my grandfather about a place he once went during a seafaring trip. It was called ‘The Captain’s Table,’ as well.”

T’Pol went to the com toggle. Tucker’s voice replied, “Engineering.”

“Commander, please report to the Situation Room.”

* * *

As soon as Trip stepped out of the turbolift and onto the bridge, he immediately noticed the senior staff at the console in the Situation Room. He rounded the corner and jumped the step with the most ease he could muster as the situation was. “What’s up?”

“Ensign Sato has located a rift within the building that she and Captain Archer were exploring when he disappeared,” T’Pol quickly summarized.

Tucker looked at the picture on the console. In E.M. scans, it appeared a big blurry ball. The thermal scans, however, depicted humanoid forms. From their positions, they all appeared to be associated with others, conversing.

He raised his eyebrows, slowly brought up his head, and smiled at the young woman. “And you say you’re just an exolinguist,” he joked at Hoshi.

She smiled.

“But when I looked inside, there wasn’t anybody,” Tucker protested.

Hoshi concurred. “Me, neither. There definitely wasn’t anybody there. Well, that’s not true.”

T’Pol raised her eyebrow. “Explain.”

Hoshi pointed to the building and its surroundings. “Captain Archer and I came up this way. I was translating the signs on these buildings,” she explained, indicating a row of buildings on the right side of the “street.” “When we got to the last one, the one where the captain disappeared from, the lifeform we had detected had disappeared. The captain mentioned he thought it was similar to a saloon. I heard someone say, ‘You’re correct,’ but by the time I got by the doors he was gone.”

“That’s odd,” Reed murmured. “My grandfather said the place he went was like a tavern.” He consulted the padd he held in his hand. “His log. ‘The owner, Cap, says this place is a bar that captains of all times and places and species come. It was extremely odd, very different from even the places in New York City.’” Reed looked up. “The rest of the log says that he conversed with a figure that talked very strangely, like it was a warrior. All about honor and death.”

All the assembled crew, including T’Pol, glanced around at each other realizing the implication, and then Tucker blurted, “Are you saying that your grandfather was actually the first human to make contact with the Klingons?”

Reed sighed. “I wasn’t implying it. But it is a possibility.” He seemed to be pleased he had uncovered this piece of his family’s history when T’Pol interrupted.

“Lieutenant, I believe this may explain the captain’s disappearance.”

“How?” Travis asked.

She pointed to the E.M. scans. “The blurred image could be due to a temporal disturbance. In Vulcan history, some captains said they experienced the same phenomenon. I believe that the captain has entered this disturbance.”

“Can he get out?” Hoshi asked.

“If he entered of his own momentum,” T’Pol replied, “I believe he has the power to leave.”

“So, why hasn’t he?” Trip pressed.

“Perhaps, if there are, as Lieutenant Reed brought out from his grandfather’s log, other people there, he may be engrossed in conversation with one or more of them.” She looked Tucker hard in the eyes. “Conceivably, he may not want to leave. Right now.”

She turned her attention to Reed. “How long until the Xindi ship arrives?”

“About four hours,” Reed responded.

“I wish us to be well out of range before the ship arrives,” T’Pol stated. “This estimate gives us 3.5 hours to retrieve Captain Archer.”

Trip slapped his hands together. “I think what she’s trying to say is, let’s get to work.” He glanced at T’Pol before he headed for the turbolift and back to Engineering.

After exiting the turbolift, he paused and leaned against a bulkhead. Possibilities began running wild through his head. Why was T’Pol supporting the crazy idea of a temporal anomaly? It didn’t make any logical sense for her to do that.

But T’Pol hadn’t exactly been the most logical Vulcan for the past few months, Tucker thought to himself. He smiled as he proceeded to Engineering, happy with the idea of T’Pol sitting in the command chair and making decisions, dare he say it, like a human.

* * *

Archer and Tucker weren’t happy with the idea of deciding Hoshi’s fate. Archer hated to admit it, but his reasoning for proceeding to find the marker was starting to sound like T’Pol. And it scared him. She’d reason that the marker was important, just as Hoshi’s life is also.

Cap had given them a few minutes. Archer looked to the bar, in his face, looking for a suggestion. Cap merely shrugged and wiped the bar.

Archer sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Trip, isn’t it possible that you could tell me the coordinates for the planet?” he suggested.

“I don’t know.” Trip looked to Cap. “Could I? I mean, they’d probably find it eventually. This would just be speeding up the inevitable.”

Cap slung his towel over his shoulder. He propped his hands on the bar. “It’s up to your consciences.”

“Well, doin’ that would spare Hoshi’s life and get you the information off that orb,” Trip highlighted.

“And it would maybe help end this search sooner,” Archer echoed after him.

Cap shrugged. “It’s up to you.”

Tucker nodded his head vigorously. “Yeah, I’m doin’ it.”

Archer agreed. “You have it on you, by any chance?”

Tucker felt a pocket and pulled out a padd. “Old habits are hard to break.” He punched in a few commands, then smiled and handed him the padd. “Here. It’s what Hoshi got.”

Archer looked at the padd. Similar to the ones he personally used on Enterprise, but a little thinner and compact. He took it and scanned through it, saving the coordinates for last. More compact, but it held more information than the ones he used.

Archer held the padd, regarding it for a moment, then looked at Trip. “Thanks.”

Tucker nodded, and then glanced at Cap. “Oh, by the way, you owe a huge tab.”

“What do you mean?”

Tucker leaned back in his chair, relaxed. “Well, first time through here merits a story. Tell one and the drinks are free.”

Cap slung the towel over his shoulder as Trip told Archer all this, and when he finished he came over. “So, start telling, Captain.”

Archer slumped and smiled. “I have to tell a story?”

Trip nodded. “Yeah, it’s customary. You don’t want to hear the one I told.”

“I’m sure.” Archer glanced around. “I don’t know. We’ve been so busy lately that I’ve just forgotten everything else.”

“Oh, come on, I know you. Something that happened before Enterprise. Heck, even something from before the testing projects.” Tucker leaned on the table. “Just a story and you don’t have to pay.”

Archer licked his lips. Glancing to Cap, he raised his eyebrows in a plea of help. Cap only shrugged and said, “Maybe you should tell the story, Captain Tucker.”

“But this definitely isn’t my first visit,” Trip whined to Cap.

“Repetition for emphasis. Just don’t tell your original story.”

Trip shrugged helplessly. “I . . . don’t know. What should I say?”

“Something that changed your life?” Archer suggested.

“Except meeting you?” Trip asked, raising his eyebrows.

Archer grinned. “Come on, Captain. One story. Make it a long one. How about this: tell me why you’ve been mentioning T’Pol so much.”

Oblivious to the distress the crew was undergoing in orbit, Trip’s mind finally settled on something. “All right. Once upon a time.”

Archer laughed and leaned back in his chair.

Chapter 4 (Conclusion

Return to Chapter 2

Back to Fan Fiction Main Menu

Have a comment to make about this story? Do so in the Trip Fan Fiction forum at the HoTBBS!

A whole mess of folks have made comments

I really like this story! I've never read the books, are they anything like this? Bet they'd be great! Keep it comin! :)

This is a great story... I hope that we get to hear what Captain Tucker tells Archer! I'm looking forward to more... Update soon!

Yeah are star trek books worth reading? not something I had considered till reading your post Windrider. This is really cool so far, I love this temporal bar idea, it's great. MORE Soon please

This is gettin to be a good one.
Cant wait to see what Trip tells Archer,,,I hope its why he mentions T'polly so much. :)
Cant wait for the next update.

This is a really good & unique story ...It seems you have an annoying talent for leaving the reader hanging in just the right place...more soon!!!

I'm whippin' them up as fast as I can! Don't worry, the story Captain Tucker tells has to do with T'Pol! Glad to know about another of my hidden talents for writing! More later, Energy

Hey everyone, the Captain's Table books are told from the captain's POV but I altered it due to the storyline. Chapter Four is coming soon, sorry I've been busy!
Energy

Hey everyone, the Captain's Table books are told from the captain's POV but I altered it due to the storyline. Chapter Four is coming soon, sorry I've been busy!
Energy

If anyone still reads this, I'm sooo sorry I haven't updated. I moved and then my hard drive crashed. Thankfully for pencil and paper, it's coming soon!
Energy

If anyone still reads this, I'm sooo sorry I haven't updated. I moved and then my hard drive crashed. Thankfully for pencil and paper, it's coming soon!
Energy