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Negotiations - Ch 5Negotiations By Hoshi’s Sis Rating: PG/13 A/N: Takes place after they have left the Expanse at the end of Season 3, but before the Season 4 episode, “Home.” @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Shran and Captain Archer had just walked back onto the bridge after a nice dinner. Shran had been expecting Trip to join them and tell them all about his tour, but Archer wasn’t too surprised. “This is Trip we’re talking about Shran, I know what he’s like when he’s inspecting a new piece of machinery: he’ll be there all night.” “Maybe I should alert my officer to cancel any arrangements he’s made for later?” “Captain,” interrupted Hoshi, “I’ve just received a comm. Message for Commander Shran from his ship.” “I bet that’s Lieutenant Seldar calling to try and get himself excused,” laughed Shran. “I bet your right,” laughed Archer, “put it through to my ready room Hoshi. He can take it in there. Do you want me to wait here?” asked Archer. “No, join me, this won’t take long. Seldar is just going to have to learn to be more diplomatic.” Inside Archer’s ready room; “Shran…….” “I’m sorry to bother you sir but there’s been an accident. Commander Tucker has been rushed to sick bay.” “We’ll be right there,” said Shran jumping up, looking extremely concerned. “I’ll get Phlox to join us,” replied Archer as he went towards the comm. System, “your doctors are not used to dealing with humans and he’ll be able to help.” “Phlox……. meet me at the shuttle bay, we’re going over to the Wheytan, Trip’s been hurt,” said Archer before they both departed. -------------------------------------------------- “What the hell happened?” asked Shran, as he ran into sickbay followed closely on his heels by Captain Archer and Phlox. “There was a rupture in a plasma junction just in front of him. He received the full blast of the gas before we could reach him. He was having trouble breathing, so I administrated a stabilising agent,” replied Doctor Anders. “You administered a drug without having a complete knowledge of human physiology. Your recklessness could have done more harm than good,” said a very concerned Doctor Phlox, who rushed over to examine his patient. “I was more concerned with keeping him alive at the time, an issue that we might not be faced with now if I hadn’t intervened quickly,” replied Doctor Anders, who was getting quite angry at Phlox’s retort and put down. “Gentlemen,” said Captain Archer, trying to calm the situation down between the two doctors, “can we leave this bickering aside for the moment and concentrate on Trip. How is he doing Phlox?” “Despite my objections to Doctor Anders rash decision, his breathing has mainly stabilised enough for us to remove him back to Enterprise. It’s still shallow, but it shouldn’t present too many problems. I do need to stabilise his metabolism though since I’m getting very erratic readings and his cortical readings are off the scale.” At this Captain Archer threw Phlox a concerned and worried look, “What do you mean Doc, is that bad?” “Before we jump to worse case scenarios, let me get him back so I can conduct a deeper analysis.” “I wouldn’t worry too much, Captain Archer,” interrupted Doctor Anders, “his cortical readings have started too settled since I started treatment. I think it’s just the initial effects of the gas wearing off.” “That definitely seems plausible,” replied Phlox as he carried on scanning Trip’s bio readings with his hand scanner, “although I still would like a deeper analysis just to make sure.” “Why don’t you use our facility here then, doctor? As you can see out facilities is a lot more advanced, so you will be able to conduct a more complex scan of your officer?” “Thank you, Doctor Anders, I appreciate the offer,” replied Phlox as they began preparing Trip for the scanner. Behind Phlox, Doctor Anders threw Lieutenant Seldar a relieved look. “Captain, I’ll let you know the results as soon as I have them,” said Phlox as he began to shooed Shran and Captain Archer out of sickbay. “We’ll be in engineering finding out how this happened,” said Shran as he and Captain Archer walked towards the door, “Seldar, take to where the incident occurred; I want a full investigation carried out immediately.” ------------------------------------------------------- In main engineering, Shran, Archer and Seldar were inspecting the blown junction box and the ruptured plasma valve, “Have you found out the cause of the rupture yet?” asked Shran. “Not yet, but we’re still looking into it,” replied Lieutenant Seldar, “as far as we can tell there was a build up of gas caused by a blockage.” “I want an answer Seldar; I want every conduit checked on this ship so nothing like this happens again. You’ve got 8 hours until the Vulcan ship arrives and we have to depart. Get on it.” Shran was angry that something like this could happen, injuring not only a guest on his behalf, but also a friend. Seldar nodded his head in agreement and began giving his men orders. He was not happy with the situation but he knew he had enough men loyal to him that would enable him to stall the investigation until Stage 3 of the plan could be carried out. -------------------------------------------------------- A couple of hours later Phlox called Captain Archer, T’Pol and Shran into sickbay as Commander Tucker had just regained consciousness. “Hey, you gave us quite a scare,” said Archer softly, as he perched next to him on a nearby bio bed. “Your not the only one,” replied Trip, trying to prop himself up. After a few unsuccessful attempts he finally succeeded with a little bit of help from Archer. “Thanks,” he exclaimed softly, completely worn out from the attempt. “When I said you could have a full tour of the facilities on my ship, Commander,” smiled Shran, “I meant you could observe not actually try them out yourself.” “You know me, I’ve always been a hands on kind of guy,” said Trip trying to inject a semblance of humour into the mood, but from the worried faces around him, along with his throbbing head he could see that it wasn’t working. “I would think a more logical course of action would be to find out how an incident such as this can happen, than standing here making idle chit chat,” said T’Pol turning to face Shran, in what Trip could only ascertain as a sarcastic and very angry tone for a Vulcan. “Just what are you insinuating, Sub Commander”, asked Shran not liking the accusing tone of voice. “If you insist on showing off the merits of technology, you could have least made sure it was working properly first” replied T’Pol stepping up to stare piercingly into Shran’s face. “You damned Vulcan’s and your oh superior attitude……” “That’s enough…….” replied Archer quickly stepping in between the two, “I don’t think this is the time or place to be laying blame on anyone. T’Pol can you go and check to see how when the Selaya is due to arrive.” “Yes sir,” said T’Pol, “I’ll see you later Commander,” before turning round to depart from sickbay, but not before giving Shran another piercing look and an upturn of her eyebrow. With a shake of his head, Archer turned again to Trip who was trying to hard a smirk from his face from the recent exchange. “So, Trip, how are you feeling?” “A bit tired and weak, but definitely a lot better than before. Anyway what the hell happened? One minute I was just standing there, the next BOOM.” It seems there was a build of gas in the conduit, which caused it to explode,” explained Shran. “Another case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Commander,” interrupted Phlox, “a frequent habit of yours if I may add.” Trip threw Phlox a dirty look, even though it did have a ring of truth to it. “I am really sorry that something like this happened, Commander,” said Shran, “I can assure you that someone will be punished for this accident. Andorians pride themselves on hard work, strength and honour – I will not tolerate this kind of sloppiness.” “Hey, don’t worry about it,” replied Trip, waving his apology off with as much energy as he could muster, “I’ve worked in engineering long enough to know that these kinds of accidents can happen through no one’s fault.” Then with a sheepish look at Phlox, “Can I leave now; I promise I’ll go straight to ma quarters.” “I have no objections, Commander,” said Phlox with a smirk, he knew that Trip was in no fit shape to go anywhere, but he knew that if he didn’t let Trip see for himself, he would get no peace for the rest of the night. “If you can manage it that is?” Wearing his ‘I’ll show you face’, Trip tried climbing off the Andorian sick bed unaided, but as soon as his feet touched the floor, fully supporting all of his weight, they collapsed right out under him. It was only the quick prevention of Archer and Shran grabbing each of his elbows that stopped him falling flat on his face. Phlox with his ‘Why don’t you ever listen to me face’, looked at him and said, “Looks like you’ll be my guest tonight, Commander,” he said, before beginning preparations to have his patient transferred to Enterprises sickbay and finishing off with that wide freaky smile. ----------------------------------------------- Have a comment to make about this story? Do so in the Trip Fan Fiction forum at the HoTBBS! Three people have made commentsGreat chapter! It always happens to Trip! I hope those meddling Andorians and their Romulan masters get their come uppance for tampering with Trip. Maybe get their butts kicked by one very irate Vulcan not to mention an incandescent Commander Shran. Ali D :~) Cant wait to find out what they have done to Trip. Please update soon. THANKS. |