To Boldly Go Once Again - Ch 9

To Boldly Go Once Again

By Eratta

Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

A/N: As always, tremendous thanks to Jenna for being such a wonderful beta  Also, I realize the last few chapters have been somewhat confusing. Sometimes I’m not very good at writing out what I have in my head, especially action-wise. For all those blank spots that just don’t make sense, bear with me and use your imagination!

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Chapter 9

The following days were a flurry of activity, and the tension was palpable onboard the ship. The ensigns unfortunate enough to cross Captain Tucker attributed his mood to the situation at hand. But as always, word got around fast on the starship and it wasn’t long before the communications and tactical officers pieced the mounting evidence together.

“Will you look at him?” Hoshi asked, peering over Malcolm’s shoulder at the cross engineer a few tables away.

“No, I will not. Give the man some peace, Hoshi.” Commander Reed scolded, picking through the rest of his meal.

Lt. Sato pursed her lips. “I’m not going to bother him, but it’s stupid how they can barely talk to each other and still manage to be constantly pissed off.”

“T’Pol’s pissed off?” Having spent the majority of the last three days in the armory, Commander Reed had only heard about Trip because his moods were so apparent. T’Pol typically needed to be observed if any change in demeanor was to be discovered.

“There’s something about her that’s just . . . off.” Hoshi said, folding her napkin. “For the most part, she’s fine; just her normal self. But as soon as she has to see or talk to Trip,” She struck her palm against the edge of the tray for effect. “She starts to get agitated and hides tries to hide it behind a level voice and hard face.”

“That bad, eh?” He confirmed, leaning on his forearms. “’Don’t suppose you know what happened between them?”

She shrugged. “You mean on the Xindi Mission? Frankly your guess is as good as mine. There were rumors—I’m sure you heard about the neurotherapy or whatever it’s called.”

Malcolm nodded and moved to rise as Hoshi did the same. “Well whatever it was, only those two are pigheaded enough to let it continue for so long.” They left the mess hall, heading towards the turbolift.

“So,” Hoshi said brightly after a minute of silent contemplation, “Tell me about Cathryn.”

“Ha.” Commander Reed began, straightening and squaring his frame. “You can gossip about anyone you want, Ms. Sato, except me.”

She gave him a wicked grin. “So the rumors are true. You really are head over heels for her.”

He only grinned, and Hoshi chuckled to herself.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

That evening, Captain Tucker paid T’Pol a visit. He entered her cabin when she called and gulped hard as he took a good look at her. She was on the floor, numerous PADDs spread around her pajama-clad form. She looked up at him.

“You have the engineering report?” she prompted. He crouched down to better see her face and handed the object to her. Trip glanced around the profusion of data.

“How’s it coming?” he asked.

“Not well,” was T’Pol’s tight-lipped response. “Commander Reed’s report says one of the phase cannons is malfunctioning and Dr. Sanders has just told me that he’s missing a good deal of medical equipment.”

“How did that happen?”

T’Pol gave him a wry look. “He said this mission ‘was put together so damn fast it’s a wonder that they have surgical gloves.’”

Trip opened his hands in a gesture of apology. “I’m afraid engineering isn’t much better. The best we can do for sustained speed is 3.7.”

T’Pol looked away from him, staring at an empty bit of carpet in silence. “This isn’t going to work,” she said.

Trip sighed. While he wanted to argue with her, the prospects were too grim. “It has to work,” he told her. When she still said nothing, he coaxed her. “What does the Commodore have to say about all of this?”

T’Pol raised her head, a veil of guilt crossing her features. “I haven’t told him yet.” At Trip’s questioning look, she felt the need to elaborate. “When I took the first outline to him, he was…”

“Depressed.” Trip finished, nodding his head. “I did my best to be supportive.” T’Pol said, “But providing comfort has never been one of my strengths.”

Then you don’t know all your strengths. Trip thought. “He gets this way every now and then, thinking about the Xindi Mission. The guilt just eats away at him.”

T’Pol absently nodded. She understood all too well the lasting torment of guilt and regret.

“Give it time, T’Pol.” Trip said kindly. “Once we get this thing underway, he’ll snap out of it. No matter what he’s going through personally, he’ll always put the mission first.”

T’Pol found herself believing him. What a leader he’s become, she thought. Now that conversation had ceased, she realized she was more relaxed. She looked into his warm face, tracing the lines of it as soothing warmth began to unfurl deep in her body . . . and she blinked in near panic.

“Did you see Commander Reed’s combat session on your way up?” she asked, the words rushing out of her mouth.

Trip seemed startled, as though he too had descended into the soothing lull that T’Pol had shaken herself from. “Yeah. They were doing well.” He paused. “I guess we’re as ready as we can be.”

The thought was not a comforting one to T’Pol. “Our ETA is less than twelve hours from now.” Her tone was soft. “You should get some sleep.”

Trip stared at her for just a beat, wondering what he’d done to make her close herself up and dismiss him so suddenly. It had happened so many times, and yet the pain was not dulled by time or frequency. He bit his lip to keep from saying anything rash as he stood and left her cabin. As soon as the door closed behind him T’Pol grabbed the nearest meditation mat and crushed it against her face, trying to keep the emotion from disturbing the still, close air of her cabin.

In his own quarters, Trip made not such attempt as his feelings escaped into the dark.

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According to the meager information supplied by their nemesis-turned-guide, ETA was two hours away when Archer called the final briefing.

“What’s the status of weapons?” was his first question.

“I’ve done all I can, sir.” Commander Reed replied, “Which pretty much means replacing any suspicious relays and fine-tuning the targeting array. But if we take too many hits, I won’t be able to do much at all.”

“The modifications my team made to the engines should allow us to strengthen polarity of the hull plating without expending extra energy.” T’Pol said.

“Which leaves us with the engines.” Archer said, now looking at Trip.

“With the hull polarized I can keep us at Warp 3.7 for seven minutes.” He replied quietly.

“ Seven minutes?” Lt. Sato repeated, her eyes wide. Trip only nodded, his eyes glued to the situation consol they stood around. Archer turned to her next.

“How’s your little project coming along?” he ignored the doubt he saw filling her eyes.

“I think I’ve finally got it working. The jamming signal will look like a glitch and they’ll think the messages we send are from each other.”

“Think you can keep them busy for seven minutes?” Commander Reed asked.

Hoshi lifted her eyebrows at him. “I’ll do my best.”

She, like the others, looked back at Archer. His face was hard, and it was impossible to tell whether the glint in his eyes was warm or cold.

“Let’s get to it”

The senior staff moved to their consoles and at Archer signal, Enterprise hailed the lead Suliban ship.

“Captain.” Silik said, suspicion seeming to hang about him.

“Something’s just happened to the temporal technology aboard my ship.” Archer lied.

Silik’s yellow eyes narrowed. “Happened?”

“All of it simultaneously activated.” He paused for a beat, letting the confusion build in the Suliban’s mind. “I want you to take it off my ship.”

Silik did not look convinced. “Transport it onto mine.”

Archer left his chair and stepped down, closer to the viewscreen. “We don’t know how this technology works, and I won’t have my crewmen handle it when it’s potentially dangerous.” He could see that Silik expected a trap. He said nothing as the other man’s sneer grew. Silik opened his mouth but paused as Lt. Sato addressed her commodore.

“Sir,” she said, just as they’d rehearsed, “Two more pieces are gone.”

This piqued Silik’s attention. “Gone?” he reiterated, eyes sharpening in what Archer read to be worry.

“So far four pieces have dematerialized.” He replied. Silik wasted no time in extra conversation. He closed the channel just as Ensign Kumar at the helm reported that his ship was headed for their portside docking port. Archer commed Mr.Reed.

“Ready down there?” he asked.

“Yes sir, stand-by.”

Archer gave Lt. Armstrong at his right the cue to go to tactical alert. It wasn’t long before internal sensors registered weapon’s fire.

“Sending out the signal” Lt. Sato reported. She looked to her commander and nodded.

“T’Pol,” he said. She was bent over her consol, already transferring messages to Lt. Sato, who translated and dispersed them among the Suliban ships. Among them were “Silik’s orders” not to fire at certain parts of Enterprise because that was where the temporal technology was located. Others, such as “reports” of mechanical malfunctions and damage in a few of the other ships, would be sent out once the firefight began. T’Pol had orchestrated the message pattern to confuse the Suliban as much as possible, which would hopefully buy Enterprise more time.

“Mr. Armstrong, are you locked onto a target?” Commodore Archer asked. At Armstrong’s nod, the commodore ordered him to fire. From there it went so fast that Archer could barely keep up with what was happening. He didn’t know what was happening in the skirmish on the lower decks, and he could only hear the fingers of his science and communications officers flying over their consoles to know they were working furiously to disable the opposing ships. Armstrong disabled one ship’s weapons and destroyed another. He checked the chronometer. Three minutes had already passed. Enterprise took a series of hits before destroying one of the larger vessels. There were now three of the six left. Two of them fired at the starboard nacelle while the other focused on Enterprise’s firing array. The hits shook the ship violently. Ruptured ducts released streams of gas into the bridge as alarms rang from the various stations.

“The starboard nacelle is offline.” The Vulcan reported. “Lt. Sato, re-route power from it to the jamming signal.”

“But look,” Sato answered, “the last two are retreating.”

T’Pol exchanged a look with Archer. “We can’t let them get away.” She said to Hoshi, her voice low and hushed as she delivered the verdict.

“But,” Hoshi began to protest before Archer interrupted her.

“Re-route the power, lieutenant. Armstrong,” he turned to the other lieutenant, “fire at will.” Armstrong carried out his orders and destroyed the fleeing ships. Archer stared at the twin circles of debris as he commed Reed once again.

“Mr. Reed, status.”

“We’ve got them containing in section six of D deck. Two conscious, two stunned.”

“On my way.”

He turned to T’Pol on his way out. “You have the bridge.” Almost as an afterthought he added, “good work.” He left as T’Pol glanced at the chronometer in the corner of her main display panel. It had lasted six minutes and forty-three seconds. And now the real work begins, she thought.

Chapter 10

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Seven people have made comments

Great Chapter! Im hoping that T'pol will come to trust in her affection for Trip. Please update soon.

Figures, T'Pol's as stubborn as they come! Please continue! I'm really enjoying this.

hm..... that (?) is supposed to be a (!) in the dedication. No offense Jenna! I heart you :-)

oOOH, really ratchetting up the tension now. I do hope that Trip and T'Pol get back together again soon, that is even more painful that the fight they have on their hands with the Suliban! Ali D :~)

LOL. Aww. you heart me. Cuuute. Anyway, nice chappie, as usual!

Love it! Riveting! Update!!!!!!

This is a great story! When are you going to update?