To Boldly Go Once Again-Ch 17

To Boldly Go Once Again

By Eratta

Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Chapter 17

From his seat in the captain’s chair, adrenaline making him feel years younger, Trip watched the bridge crew as Enterprise, with her double complement and a lifetime of battle scars, glided through the cold space back to the scene of her last skirmish. Keeping an eye on their trajectory through the palm-sized monitors on extension of both arm rests, Tucker said a quick prayer as his thoughts turned to his two best friends, one of whom also carried his heart with her.

“Captain,” The voice floated back from directly ahead of him, the back of the young ensign’s head the only obstruction of the viewscreen they all watched. “We’re 0.75 lightyears from the site.”

“Thanks Pallavi. Slow us down, then match reverse and forward thrusters.”

The action served to cancel forward momentum of the ship, leaving it floating in space, exposed. Out of the corner of his eye, Trip could see Malcolm begin to squirm, clearly unhappy with the utter lack of cover and vulnerability.

“I don’t like this.” He vocalized. “Better to just go in there and get this over with than sit here like ducks on a pond.”

“We don’t know for sure that the Commodore and T’Pol are still on that planet, or if they’ve been captured. Best thing to do is wait to see what the Suliban do.” Tucker argued. He knew, just knew those two would do something, whether it was hijacking a cell ship or destroying the entire helix itself. Hell, for all I know, some temporal agent’ll show up now and let me know what to do, he thought, half-seriously. He couldn’t deny the disappointment when no such messenger from the future materialized in front of him on his bridge.

“And how long do we wait?” Reed persisted.

“Knowing those two, not long.” Lt. Sato muttered, just loud enough for her arguing superiors to hear. Reed rolled his eyes. Tucker gave her a tiny grin and a wink.

“Just sit tight. We’ll know our moment when we see it.” He announced, settled back again in the captain’s chair with all that was left of his Tucker aplomb.

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

Deep within the bowls of Columbia, six figures stealthily crawled between the steel plates that formed the winding corridors and decks of the vessel. They moved slowly, stopping whenever T’Pol’s tricorder registered a Suliban life form and breathing as shallowly as possible to avoid being detected themselves. Having made it thus far, T’Pol gathered that the soldiers were not carrying any significant detection equipment of their own, which led her to believe they were merely foot soldiers, and not very dedicated to their task at hand. Perhaps this utterly ridiculous plan would be successful, after all. Stranger things have happened, she mused, not forgetting the particularly strange and unexpected relationship between herself and a certain exasperating human. If we survive this, she told herself, I’m going to have to be honest with him before I disappear again. He deserves that much. It went without saying that she would also have to be honest with herself.

She stopped again, putting a hand out behind her to stay the humans that followed. Just a few more turns and they would be directly below the bridge. From there, it was a simple matter of coming up through the deck plating, storming the bridge, sealing it off and flying the ship out before any remaining aliens on the ship or the helix could react to stop them.

A simple matter, indeed.

T’Pol managed to lead the group without detection to their destination. They were towards the front of the bridge, almost directly below the viewscreen. Creeping back behind it, she and Seltzer climbed onto the service rail behind the screen, putting them on level with the deck plating of the central control of Starfleet’s vessel. They needed no tricorder to know at least three of the soldiers were in the room; she could smell them and the others could see them between the scant centimeters between heavy steel plates. A glance to her right confirmed that two of the women, Baker and the young beauty Alanna were silently dismantling the couplings that held the plates together while Archer and Mayweather braced it, keeping the loose plate from shifting once its support was gone. Quick nods and eye contact relayed the message that the operation was complete, and T’Pol moved to take the phase pistol that was strapped to Baker’s waist. The third woman, Seltzer, also unsheathed her weapon on the other flank of the group.

On T’Pol’s signal, the men lowered the plate that separated the viewscreen from the floor, allowing the two women to take aim and fire off three well-placed shots. The Suliban were down before they’d seen their attackers.

The six wasted no time in fanning out across the bridge, manning the crucial stations. Mayweather made a beeline for the pilot’s seat while T’Pol found herself seated at the science consol. Seltzer manned the communications station and Baker settled herself at the tactics consol, clearly familiar with it by the way her fingers caressed the various data readouts. The remaining member of Columbia’s elite team went to the back of the room, standing at attention at the situation consol and the access panels behind it.

Archer surveyed everyone’s readiness with a quick sweep of his eyes.

“Is the lift secure?” he asked. T’Pol nodded as Mayweather relayed the status of the ship.

“The impulse engine’s already warmed up.” He said, his voice made light by surprise. “They must’ve been getting ready to fly ‘er out themselves.”

“How many others are onboard?” Archer asked, coming to lean over the younger man’s shoulder to see the read out for himself.

“Ten, maybe 15.” Alanna called from the back, her head whipping back and forth from the panels displayed there, blinking at her with information.

Archer couldn’t believe it. It was so easy. Too easy The suspicious nature that captaincy had instilled in him was on full alert. The possibility of trap was always viable, and growing more so with every turn of this mission.

“We have to leave. Now.” T’Pol said. “Before anyone realizes we’re here.”

Archer nodded, and even as he did Mayweather was bringing life to the impulse engine, beginning to move to battered ship.

“Warp would’ve been better, but we can at least make a break for open space.” He murmured, attention focused on maneuvering the stripped ship between the wrecks that surrounded it without sacrificing speed.

“This is the best we’re going to get, unless someone wants to take on whoever’s probably in engineering right now.” Archer answered.

“We might still have to.” Baker quipped. “We don’t know that Enterprise is waiting.”

The three who had served together on the ship in question did not need to answer her, or even trade looks with each other.

“Brace yourselves,” Baker announced as the bridge lights dimmed automatically, an alert sounding. “They’re coming after us.”

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“Captain.”

Hoshi turned to Tucker and motioned him to her side. He did so, crossing to her station in three great steps. Finally, something was happening.

“What is it?”

“It’s Columbia.”

Tucker’s eyebrows rose, but he did not vocalize the disbelief. Instead he waited for Hoshi to finish hearing the message before relaying it to him.

“They’re heading our way, a dozen cell ships hot on their tail.”

“It can’t possibly be T’Pol and Archer flying that ship all by themselves.” He stated, confusion making an ugly furrow between his eyes.

Sato shrugged. “I don’t think the Suliban would chase their own. What are your orders?”

Tucker stepped back, thinking furiously. He directed the order to Reed.

“Polarize the hull plating and get the phase cannons online.”

“I’ve got a headcount.” Sato announced to the bridge. “It’s the Commodore and T’Pol, plus four others. They say there are also a number of Suliban scattered through the ship, but they’ve sealed up the bridge and should be safe for now.”

Returning to the last order, Malcolm warned, “We’ve still got fried relays and minimal support from the last fight,” despite knowing it would change nothing.

Trip punched a button on his chair consol.

“Bridge to Engineering.”

“Go ahead.”

“Warm ‘er up.”

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

Archer swayed on his feet as another volley from the collection of cell ships in pursuit rocked the ship. Claxons were sounding, exhaust venting from above the consoles and he could barely stagger over to Baker’s side.

“We’re not going to make it.” She told him grimly.

“Columbia is less than a lightyear away.” Seltzer argued. She jumped back as sparks burst from the exposed wiring to her left, shielding her face with her arm as her hair singed.

Another series of hits rocked the ship, throwing T’Pol from her seat as the ship pitched violently off-course. Whatever had remained of life support was now gone, and it was several long seconds they spent in abject darkness before the weak emergency lighting winked to life. The viewscreen was offline, as were most internal and external sensors.

“The ship can’t take any more of this.” Baker was saying, one hand cupping the bloody gash that sliced through her bicep. Where did she get that? T’Pol wondered as her eyes adjusted and her mind fell back into problem-solving singularity.
“We can hold out.” Archer insisted, defending the integrity of the ship as he always would.

“No, we can’t.” T’Pol interjected. Archer whipped around to face her as she continued, the grooves in his face carved deep and set with grime. “The chances of salvaging Columbia were always slim; we’re effectively blind now. For all we know, there are hull breaches and collapsed decks, not to mention Suliban trying to work their way in here right now.”

“So what’s the plan?” Mayweather asked. He had left his position and was now tending to Baker’s arm, tearing a piece of his undershirt and using it to tightly bind the limb.

“Enterprise will be coming for us. If they can isolate our position they should be able to transport us aboard.” Archer mused aloud, pacing again in the small space not strewn with debris and exposed wiring. A third huge blast threw them off their feet. T’Pol felt her ribs bruise as the breath was knocked out of her lungs. She’d gone headfirst over her consol onto the deck, and though she remained motionless for several seconds until the stun had worn off, she was conscious.

Gingerly lifting herself off the plating, her heart jumped into her throat at the sight of the Commodore stretched motionless below the viewscreen. He must have hit it, was her only thought as she crawled to him, registering movement behind her as a sign that someone else was also conscious and following her.

“Oh no.” Seltzer’s voice breathed beside her ear. Together they rolled the man over, and T’Pol, blood rushing noisily through her ears, checked for a pulse. Upon finding it, though sluggish, she nearly sighed with relief.

“He’s alive.”

She straightened as much as her protesting ribcage would allow, eyes narrowed to pick out the others. She could see Mayweather helping Baker to her feet, and the sounds from the back of the room indicated Alanna’s movement forward. The sirens had long since quieted, and all that could be heard in the room were labored sets of breathing. The air was thin, even to her lungs, confirmed emergency life support wasn’t coming online and there were most likely several hull breeches. But the silence also meant that something was happening outside. T’Pol didn’t dare allow herself to hope that Enterprise had arrived and drawn the attention of their pursuers, so she instead returned to the more immediate problem.

“We can’t stay here.” Alanna’s voice sounded small, though she was just feet away from the group now gathered around Archer. Mayweather had maneuvered him into a seated position and was trying to wake him by lightly slapping his face.

“We don’t exactly have anywhere else to go.” Baker retorted. T’Pol concurred with both the women, and stepped in with her overriding command.

“Stay here and try to revive Commodore Archer. Breathe as little as you can.”

“And where are you going?” Travis demanded.

“To a porthole, first. We need to know what’s happening. And then I’m going to see if we can get to a shuttle. Assuming a shuttle is still there, and that we can get the bay to open. I’ll come back once I know how things stand.” There were too many variables for it to be a good possibility, she knew, but it was better than waiting to suffocate in the prison they had created for themselves.

“Someone should go with you.” Seltzer said. T’Pol shook her head, already standing and picking her way through the rubble that remained of the bridge, back to the little passage behind the viewscreen they had used.

“I can move faster on my own.” At the protestations, she turned her sternest look at them. “That’s an order.”

In a softer tone, she added, “look after him,” and disappeared into the dark.

Chapter 18

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Nine of you have made comments

"Breathe as little as you can." Heh. That's our girl. Always the comedienne.

Can't wait for the rescue! This is exciting. Keep going, please.

Honest with him before she disappears again? Oboy :) Somebody smack those two.

I'm so glad to see a newupdate thanks Eratta this is agreat chapter I've really been enjoying this story hope you'll date this story again soon.

Completely agree. I'm very glad to see this continuing. Will be interesting to see what happens with the "reunion" since Trip has previously indicated that he is finally to "move on" past T'Pol and she still wants to hide from him. Sure hope that they can actually TALK ...
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“Columbia is less than a lightyear away.” Seltzer argued.
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Is that supposed to be "Enterprise is less than..."? It seems really weird...

Nice new chappie. Update soon! :)

nicely done. Poor T'Pol always having to save Archer

where chapter 16???

brilliant story cant wait till the next chapter

That's a good point. Where IS chapter 16? Is there just a snafu or something? If you go to ch16 via the Author Sort, it's the same as this chapter...