Something- Ch. 4

Something From Nothing

By tigerkitten

PG, General, Romance
Disclaimers in Chapter 1

Chapter 4

Day 3

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The deep sultry voice was back. As he drifted on the edge of sleep, it cascaded around whispers in the back of his mind. He felt as though he should wake up and hear what the voice had to say, but his body and mind were floating detached and just out of reach. It felt wonderful. Wonderful and calm. He longed to hear that sultry voice again. As if in answer to a telepathic plea, it spoke, "Understood, Captain. We will await the transporter at our original location."

Trip sat upright immediately. He blinked repeatedly and tried to clear the sleep from his brain. His face wore a silly smile of deep contentment, and he smacked his lips several times, trying to wake.

T'Pol handed Trip a cup of water, and he nodded his thanks. "You get through to the cap'n?" he croaked.

"Yes. The comm system appears to filter out much of the noise that blocked our earlier transmissions. However, Mr. Reed does not feel that he can transport us through the cave walls."

"Cave?" Trip asked, feeling that he was still missing something of significance.

"Yes, the path we took led into the mountains. I have only seen enough to know that we are in a series of caves, some natural, some carved by humanoids."

"So, is Malcolm expecting us home for dinner?"

"No. The next window of opportunity will occur at approximately 09:30 tomorrow."

"How long's that give us?"

"Just over twenty-four hours."

"Right," he pronounced loudly, rubbing his hand through his hair to wake up. As he stood, Trip scratched at two days worth of stubble on his chin. "Let's take our breakfast with us and get moving, then."

As he passed by T'Pol, she wrinkled her nose slightly, but made no other move. Trip leaned back and into her face. "No more jokes about me smelling, now Sunshine. You’re looking none to fresh anymore, yourself," he said, winking.

That wasn't entirely true. She looked much more at peace than he had seen for the past two days. She was at least as dirty as he was, but something about the way she carried herself made dust and dirt look like a regal mantle, rather than scruffy grime.

"I feel completely rested," she began in retaliation.

"Yeah, me too," he said, "I had the best sleep of my life." Handing her a piece of fruit, Trip raised his eyes to her almost shyly and said softly, "I can see why you put so much store in meditating. I feel like I could handle anything today." He lowered his eyes quickly, embarrassed. T'Pol could think of nothing to say in response.

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"Empty again," Trip said, unnecessarily. "They built enough of these hangars to house all of Starfleet, and every one of them so far's been empty. You said there were more levels of these things?"

"Yes, but only on this far side where we're blocked from the wind. Five empty hangars hardly makes a fleet, however, Commander, if they were even intended for such."

"Don't know of any other reason why you'd carve a whole big enough to hold a spaceship, completely open to the outside, unless you actually expected to park a spaceship in it."

"There could be many reasons why." "Yeah, yeah, yeah," he interrupted, grinning at her, "There I go again, shooting off my mouth and jumping to conclusions. This one doesn't look half finished, though. I think maybe we started off in the wrong direction. Let's back track and see what's on the other side of hydroponics." "That seems a logical course of action," she said, not even put out by his banter.

They didn't have to travel far to find what they were looking for. The first room to the left of the hydroponics lab was a big as any of the others they had found that day. This, too, had no far wall, and faced out towards the back of the mountain. This hangar was different from the others, though. This one contained a ship.

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The glaring red light continued to bathe the consul to their right in a metered glow. Its insistent flashing cast weird shadows all along the hull of the ship, bouncing back from irregular crevices and juttings of the rock fall that had crushed its hull.

T'Pol had stopped short, and Trip unconsciously laid a supportive hand on her back. She didn't even seem to notice it was there.

"Think there's any body in there?" Trip asked, one eye squinting in consternation. "Not alive, surely," T'Pol replied blandly. He noticed that she avoided looking at the ship, though.

Instead, T'Pol made her way to the consul that took up most of the wall to their right. Closest to them, Trip could make out a panel much like the one in hydroponics, but T'Pol headed more towards the center, where the red, flashing bulb was housed.

He made his way to the closest panel, and tapped his way through a series of screens. T'Pol stood up and turned to him just as he said, "Tucker to Enterprise." Before he'd finished talking, the pulsating red stopped, and he realized that lights similar to those in hydroponics lined the ceiling.

The Captain's excited voice replied, "Great going Trip! Enterprise is clear and ready to move into orbit." "Can't take the credit for that one, Cap'n. T'Pol's your miracle worker." She nodded her head slightly in acknowledgement. "You finding any damage done to my ship?" "Your ship?" Archer laughed, "Enterprise is just fine, Trip." Trip's face split into a wide grin, "Glad to hear it. We'll poke around here the rest of the day, and see you guys bright and early tomorrow morning." "We're looking forward to it, Trip. Archer out."

Turning to T'Pol, Trip asked, "So, what'd you do?" "I turned it off." "That's it? We came all this way to flip a switch?" "Apparently." "Huh. Hardly seems worth the trouble." "Perhaps we should find out what caused the disturbance, to prevent it from capturing Enterprise again."

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"Okay, I think I've got it, " Trip called over his shoulder. T'Pol came to him and leaned in to see the screen in front of him. Trip tried not to think about what might be brushing up against his back just then. When he looked back again, she was so close that he could feel her breath against his cheek. "Uh, you were right," he went on, turning back to the screen, "These are definitely security controls. Looks like they had scanners keeping an eye out for aerial attack, and this was set to freeze the enemy in their tracks. I guess the rock fall triggered it, and it was still looking for something to catch when Enterprise flew right into the trap."

T'Pol nodded in understanding, "I have found nothing in the way of logs or other records. It appears that data has been removed, and in fact the system seems to be in the first stages of shutting down. The only information still available was in the hydroponics lab. All of the records were still in place, including all classifications of plant life, and history of germination."

"You think they were engineering new species?"

"It would appear so. Detailed records existed for all fauna, including references to fields in the settlement, and a detailed inventory of genetically enhanced seeds that were to be packed aboard the ship."

"Guess that settles it, then. The only place to find the rest of that information is aboard that ship."

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Entering the ship was easier than they had thought, but both were reluctant to do so, having a reasonable idea of what they could expect to find.

"Perhaps we should leave them to rest peacefully." "No can do. Someone's been waiting a long time to find out what happened to these people. You know the Captain's gonna wanna tell them, if he can."

Holding his breath, Trip stepped up and into the front of the craft. There was no one in the corridor where they entered. Making a sharp left, Trip headed for what he hoped was the bridge.

The door to the bridge opened less easily, being partially blocked by rubble. Fallen beams and hanging wires prevented them from entering, but they could see no signs that anyone had been here when the disaster struck.

Trip turned to look at T'Pol and nodded in unspoken agreement. They turned to walk the other way down the corridor. As they walked, they passed rows of what appeared to be long storage bins. The door had been knocked off of one, revealing a sleeping berth, much like those on board ancient railroad cars. The ship was much smaller than Enterprise, barely big enough to be called a starship. It reminded Trip of the diagrams he'd seen of old 747 jet airplanes. What they found on the other side of the far door reinforced this thought.

Through that door, they found exactly what they'd been expecting. Skeletal remains filled the room. They were seated in rows, the safety harnesses still in place, though in many cases they protected little more than dust. Many had been crushed by the rock fall, others burned by a centuries old flame whose scars were still visible. They had found the former inhabitants of the settlement.

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They'd had to go back out and through an entrance at the back to locate the storage area. The cargo door was still open, and just inside a body was crushed under the weight of a large case. There was little space left in the hold, the job of loading clearly almost finished. Two more charred remains were tucked in amongst the cargo. Much of it was undamaged, but everything was packed away and looked unlikely to hold what they sought.

They had managed to locate the catalogued seeds, clearly marked with a pictogram as well as alien writing. The two canisters were not large, so they took them out, conscious that they may be of significance.

Returning to the bridge, Trip watched in anxious anticipation, as T'Pol squeezed herself under the fallen beam.

"You sure you don't want my help?" "Thank you, Commander," she replied, losing patience, "As I've said, there is barely room for one amongst this debris. I have located the ship's comm system and will pass out the storage module as soon as I have freed it."

It seemed much longer than the moment it took for T'Pol to come through on her promise, but soon she was passing a large cylinder through the opening. She came through herself soon after, emitting a small gasp. "What is it?" Trip yelled, ready to drop the canister and rush to her aid. "It's nothing, Commander," came the calm reply as she stepped through the doorway, "I merely scraped my injured arm against something." "Let me see it," he demanded, setting down the canister. T'Pol was about to protest as he took her arm and ran gentle fingers around the edges of the bandage. Head bent in concentration, a lock of hair fell across his brow as he peeked under the dressing. T'Pol resisted the urge to brush it away, marveling instead and his feathery touch along the rim of her injury. "Doesn't look like you're bleeding again," he said, looking up and straight into her intense gaze. He cleared his throat and dropped her arm. "The wound's closed up pretty well and is healing all right. It's not hurting you, is it?" "No, it's fine." "Oh, uh, good." Not sure what else to say, Trip picked up the canister and led the way off the ship.

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"It's too garbled for us to make anything out of it, Cap'n." "Okay, Trip. Hoshi will see what she can piece together and run it through the translator matrix you sent us. Check back with us at thirteen hundred hours." "Will do, Cap'n. Tucker out." Turning to T'Pol, he said, "Well, guess we're off duty for an hour or so. Whadda ya' say? Feel like a picnic?" Raising a sardonic brow, T'Pol preceded him into the hydroponics lab.

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"What! No stuffed animals? What do the kids hug when they get scared at night?" "Vulcan children don't hug. Or become frightened." "What, no hugs? No sloppy smooches? No zurbursts?" "Zurbursts?" "What about tiddlywinks?" "Tiddly-what?" Seeing Trip's unabashed grin, T'Pol said, "You are making these up." "No! It's a game human children used to play with sticks, or coins, or something." "You don't remember?" "Nah, they didn't have those kinds of games when I was a kid." Seeing her features settled into what he called her 'I don't get annoyed, but you're annoying me' look, he batted at her arm and asked, "What games do Vulcan children play?" "Vulcan children don't play games. They have learning toys to promote problem solving and logical thinking. The computerized toys are sophisticated enough to run Enterprise's sensor relays." "Yeah, I remember," he said, munching on his lunch, unperturbed, "So I'm guessing that duck, duck, goose would be right out?" "Human children play with farm animals?" she asked in confusion. "Some do, I suppose," he replied, smirking with smug satisfaction. T'Pol chose to ignore him.

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"Who's there?" she asked in monotone. "Interrupting cow." Seeing her look of consternation, he added, "Go on, now it's you're turn." "Interrupting cow, wh-" "MOOOOOOoooo!"

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Trip nearly choked on the sip of water ration he'd just taken. "What?!" "I asked what is meant by achieving 'a home run'?" "Yeah, I got that. Where'd you hear that?" "I overheard one of the technicians from Engineering talking very loudly with his friends, late one night in the mess hall. They seemed very amused that I could hear them. He mentioned something about a date with Ensign-" "Don't tell me! I officially don't want to know." "Oh, they were not discussing a sport, then?" "Well, I wouldn't say that."

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"Hoshi's gotten most of it pieced together and is running it through the translator message now. Hold on, here it is"

The voice they heard was jovial, and contained a good bit of excitement to it. What they heard next was definitely a log of the settlement's history:

.was supposed to have been keeping a daily record.one thing and another, you know how scientists are.detailed accounts of every drop of water given to every seed, but absent minded when it comes to personal logs. Right, I know, I know, this is supposed to be official. I'll get to it. Our purpose in coming to this planet was two-fold. First and foremost, we are scientists, and the exploration of our field is always. Second, was to carry out our official mission. Overrun with a healthy population, we found ourselves unable to grow enough food to sustain our own people. Curing disease more quickly than we were able to control population growth, we found our arable land used instead to house people, our livestock grew weak and died, and the temperature increasing, causing water for hydroponics to grow scarce.

We came here in the early spring of this planet...base of the mountain was rich in silt. We immediately set up our base nearby, keeping the ship behind a large outcrop on the other side of the field...still close enough to use to generate water for irrigation.

We were here for some days. First storm hit unexpectedly. Lost all of our tents and caused considerable damage to the ship's systems, which were directly in the path of the wind.

Forced to retreat to the mountains, we were able to carry some of the equipment with us. Though we had come here with the hope of saving our people, we were now struggling merely with survival...It was in that first season of storms that we located the underground lake which eventually fueled our hydroponics. Amazing discovery of glowing lichen, not strong enough to encourage plant life, but more than able to emit light as bright as day, and very willing to be transported to other areas and encouraged to grow there.

The ship was immediately hidden behind the mountain, and eventually repaired enough to fly. By that time, we had begun to carve out areas in the rocks, and had created a sort of hangar bay in which the ship could be stored.

.lives continued that way for the rest of the year. Hopeful that the new hydroponics would be the answer to our problems, we created several more labs. Also bays, in order to house the ships. Additional settlers anticipated. It was several months before we once again reached another set- back...the two labs on that side. Unfortunately, it was the very wealth of potable water that we had found that was their downfall. We had concentrated so much on reaping the benefits of the underground water, that we failed to see the dangers. Eventually collapsed from decay of hidden streams within the rocks, nearly taking two lives within them. Though we continued to use the mountains caverns as a quarry with which to build the settlement, it was clear that eventually...would all collapse.

Fortunately, we had just made our greatest discovery, as we have told you in several of our reports. The silt that we had found at the base of the mountain had been blown there by the wind, and caught between the mountain and the outcrop of rocks.

.necessary to build the settlement several miles out, in order to catch the full force of the winds. The buildings were designed...walls of rock several meters thick...the fronts angled directly into the wind in order to funnel it towards the center courtyard...The front door can then be moved back to a safer distance, allowing the building to keep the aerodynamic shape.buildings at the back . built closer together, causing the wind to be trapped within. Throughout the season, the silt eventually gathers in the courtyard, and the walkway is now the perfect height for planting during the growing season.

...using the water that is brought from the aqueduct beneath the underground passage.the genetically enhanced seeds are able to grow to full height in half the time, making it possible not only to grow them in this climate, but also to be used within the few remaining growing areas of our homeworld, making it possible to have multiple crops in one growing season.

...looking forward to returning to our families. Five years is a great deal of time to be away, but we are pleased to be bringing such miraculous relief home to our people...seeds and food stores have already been loaded into the cargo hold...as soon as the hydroponics have been dismantled, we will return home, leaving the settlement and equipment ready for the next group of heroes.

...from the planet Halaudin, signing off...until we meet face to face, once again.

There was an uncomfortable silence as the tragic story sank in. Eventually, they heard the Captain's voice, "Trip, do you think you could find these enhanced seeds, the settler mentioned?" Trip lifted his head from a concentrated study of his shoes. "Yeah, cap'n," Trip croaked, and cleared his throat, "We've already got them. We'll have them at the rendezvous." "Good. We'll see you at 09:30. And, Trip, you two be careful down there. Archer out."

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It was late by the time they had finished replaying the message, and packing up the seeds and supplies they would need for the morning. Since it had managed to survive and untold number of years, they felt it was safe to stay in the hydroponics lab.

They had eaten their dinner, and Trip had joined T'Pol again in meditation. The ship's log had unsettled him, and he found it hard to concentrate, anxious to get back to the settlement, and back to Enterprise.

They'd spoken only a little that evening. Trip could see that T'Pol was drained, and ready to sleep when she'd finished meditating.

"C'mon," he said patting his lap, "lay your head down."

"I don't think so."

"Don't be stupid," he said, frowning sidelong at her.

"Stupid? I am not."

"Yeah, sorry. Human colloquialism. Don't be illogical. You're still not up to snuff, and we don't have another soft place to lay that broken head of yours."

T'Pol considered herself fully healed, but could not think of a reasonable argument. Perhaps she was not completely herself after all. Reluctantly, she lay her head down, shifting awkwardly to find a comfortable position.

"How did your family feel about you being assigned to a planet so far from home?" he asked quietly.

"Vulcans have been traveling to distant worlds for several millennia. It was a source of honor to my family that I was assigned to such an untried planet. The assignment renewed a great deal of respect for them."

"Renewed? What does that mean?"

"I should not have spoken of it. It is a private matter," she said, beginning to rise.

"Hold on now, you can't just drop a bombshell like that without an explanation," he said evenly, smoothing her hair a little.

"My family was considered.unconventional by Vulcan standards. They did not conform to some of Sa'arek's teachings, they did not always instill Vulcan tradition in their children as they were expected."

"Then how did you-"

"My parents died when I was still in my twenties. Quite young for a Vulcan. I caused further consternation in my family by choosing to live on my own, though I was strongly encouraged to embrace Vulcan traditions more closely. My continued education, and my posting to Earth did much to undo the damage done by my parents' choices."

"What's so bad about them making a few choices against the grain?"

"Vulcans do not live 'against the grain'. Our culture is seeped in thousands of years of tradition. I am pleased to have restored my family's honor, though I do wish I had had someone to guide my decisions and act on my behalf."

"That's why no one stood up to Kaas' parents for you?"

"Yes. It would have been the duty of my guardian to broker changes to the marriage contract, but I had none."

"I'm sorry."

"I do not regret my decision to remain aboard Enterprise." Her voice had slowed and become thick with the sleep she was trying to avoid.

Trip stroked her hair again briefly. When her breating became more even, he leaned his own head back, and closed his eyes.

Continued in Chapter 5
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