Little Lizzie - Part 2Little Lizzie By: TLR
******************************************************************* Part 2 Trip and T'Pol remained in each others arms for several hours, resting back against the metal bulkhead to try and regain their strength. Trip's head and body still reeled with pain from the many hits he took at Mr. Daniels' hand. The gash on his neck had stopped bleeding, but continued to throb even through T'Pol's best efforts to divert his mind from the pain. But that's not what occupied Trip's mind right now. He was angry....angrier than he'd ever known and wondered if just a little of it was coming from the petite woman he held in his arms. Trip could feel almost a homicidal rage running through his thoughts and knew that given what Paxton had done to this point, no court in the land would blame him for what he longed to do to the man. But somehow, he knew that at least part of those darkest thoughts were T'Pol's and slowly became aware of the reason she always insisted on controlling them. For what went through his mind was more gruesome than any horror film he'd seen. Images of his hands ripping the mad scientist's head from his body, ripping his windpipe from his throat, all were too much for Trip to believe he had in him. Not that the thought of taking a phase pistol and blasting him out of existence wasn't part of his own ideas. Right now shoving that maniac out an airlock would be like putting out the trash and Trip knew he had to control his own thoughts, not to spark even darker ones in T'Pol. Never before had Trip realized the struggle Vulcan's went through in controlling their emotions. If her rage was any indication, then their way of suppressing such strong emotions was probably a good idea. Now he could see why all the stories he'd heard about Vulcan's distant past were so violent. (These people could make Klingons look like girl scouts.) He mused and felt a wondering thought question his terminology. Trip absently rubbed her back and turned his mind back on trying to think up a way to get both of them out of there. He looked around the room, checking for air ducts, maintenance shafts, anything big enough they could crawl through and get back to their daughter. That thought sparked a bit of sadness on his part. Concentrating, Trip tried to reach out once more to the little girl and found his own abilities lacking. He looked down at T'Pol who was still sitting defeated and worn. Her shoulders slumped forward a bit against his, her head rested in the crook of his neck heavy like it had no energy to lift of its own accord. His shoulder detected the presence of wetness, that Trip could only interpret as tears, although he wasn't about to call the woman on her laps. For after all, she had just found her baby was the prisoner of a mad man who was torturing her in his own way. What mother wouldn't be crying about this. "It's gonna be all right." Trip offered softly into her hair rubbing his chin across it gently to help ease her tensions. "Focus on her.... and see if she can feel you." T'Pol took a long breath and relaxed even further into his embrace. Her mind wondered through the vessel until it came upon the sleeping form in the bassinette. "She is sleeping." T'Pol returned her voice seeming a bit more comforted by the fact that her daughter had finally stopped calling out for her parents. "Can I sense her?" Trip asked wanting to be connected to the child's mind as T'Pol's was. T'Pol once again breathed in and out slowly. Suddenly Trip was no longer in the dank cell, but was standing with T'Pol beside the incubator that held their child. She was resting, sucking on her thumb in a most human way, taking some comfort in its presence in her mouth. Her eyes wriggled back and forth beneath their lids indicating the little nymph was dreaming. (Can you see her dreams?) Trip thought to T'Pol through their bond. The sound of the bolt being jammed back broke both their concentrations and abruptly Trip's mind was back in that dankness along side the woman he loved. The door opened to reveal Paxton and Grieves walking into the room. The commanders didn't move from their embrace, Trip still feeling T'Pol's weakened state. "Aw look, how touching." Paxton mocked..... "Even in death...these two just can't seem to keep their hands off each other." He looked to Grieves and awaited a response. "Makes me want to puke." The tall African American male replied with a smirk crossing his lips. "Indeed" Paxton was truly tired of the sight. "You'll be happy to know that your daughter has successfully gotten through yet another round of inoculations. That little booster you gave her got her back to normal and ready for another trial." He again examined his nails rather than look at the response from his captives. "I said you leave her alone." Trip eased T'Pol against the bulkhead and started to stand but was warned by the raising of a rifle butt into his face by Grieves. "How touching......He's showing concern for that mutt of a child of his. Such a Human trait, and look she's being as Vulcan as ever sitting there emotionless, although she does look a bit worn from her time here." Grieves looked at T'Pol, who was now sitting head down, eyes tilted up in a gruesome fashion, directed at her prey. She lunged with lightening speed and caught Paxton's throat in her hand before Grieves could get his pistol up and pointed at her. The expression on her face was the same as she had in sickbay after her time aboard the Seleya. She was out of control and was about to get killed for her slip. Trip ran up and pulled her off the man, before Grieves had a chance to pull the trigger. He eased her back over to the bunk and held on to her tightly, as her stare never left the object of her rage's desire. Paxton rubbed at the pressure marks on his throat. With a free hand, he lowered the barrel of the weapon that Grieves held. "There will be time for that later." He managed. "For now we need the Bitch, so let her be." Trip rubbed at her arm, trying to break T'Pol's concentration on killing Paxton. Her head tilted downward, and in his mind Trip could feel her contemplating her laps of control. She leaned back into him and nuzzled her head into his chest. T'Pol felt truly embarrassed by her outburst, but also felt it was an instinctual thing. For it was in a Vulcan's nature to kill those, that would harm a child. Even the laws reflected as much, in that there were only a few crimes dictating the death penalty. Harming children was one of them. Had she slipped or was she merely carrying out the law as her people saw it, this thought took over her mind and she regained her control by contemplating it's validity. Trip could feel her control coming back as she stopped trying to get to Paxton and was contented in staying against his frame. "This connection you have with the child......It's an intriguing thing. You must have felt it before you came here." Paxton asked, trying to spark yet another round of emotions in the Vulcan. He seemed pleased by her outburst as it proved to everyone her species were no better than a wild pack of dogs and needed to be eliminated from their planet for the safety of all humans. "How could she.....we didn't know about the child until Susan Corey contacted us at the conference." Trip returned hoping to spare T'Pol from having to speak to the man. "I didn't ask you.....Of coarse you didn't know......You are only Human after all and a weak one at that for having fallen for this animalistic breeding female. I was asking the bitch." "I said leave her alone." Trip warned him again at his harsh treatment of his beloved. "She couldn't have known about her......Until now we didn't think her to be possible." "How long have you been in contact with her?" Paxton ignored Trip's words and awaited a response from the Vulcan. "About a month." T'Pol whispered softly in a low and angry tone. "What?" Trip was truly surprised. "I thought so." Paxton admitted..."It was about a month ago that we started having problems with Susan's connection. The patient must have sensed your connection and that sparked its rejection of the surrogate one. Well now we'll know better. Our next attempt will be with a surrogate, but only after the parents are dead.... Grieves, make a note of that for our further experiments, will you." The tall male just nodded in response. The two turned to leave and bolted the heavy door behind them. Daniels took his place on guard outside the door. Trip turned T'Pol in his arms and brought her face to his. "You've known about her for a month?" he asked truly hurt by this admission. "I wasn't sure what her thoughts were. At first they were guttural and I thought they were my own basic thoughts creeping into my mind. I hadn't even recognized our bond at this point." T'Pol looked downward, feeling a bit saddened that she didn't recognize her own daughter, so she could have saved her sooner. "Then when I became aware that we might be bonded, I assumed those thoughts were your baser instincts. Hunger....sadness.....urgency. It wasn't until Phlox told me about the DNA that I realized I had been in faint contact with her all along." T'Pol continued to send waves upon waves of guilt through their bond and Trip could feel the sorrow over her mistake. "It's okay.....this is all kinda new to me too." He brought her back into his arms and rubbed gently along her spine to relax both of their thoughts. "Now we know about her, she can get her strength from us." "Not for long..." T'Pol uttered. "These inoculations Paxton is using are weakening her. She will die if we don't get her out of here." "I know." Trip returned even more scared than T'Pol. "There is something else Trip." the Vulcan started and pulled back to look up at him. "We must destroy them..... destroy them all." Her words were grotesque to her own mind, but they held an unyielding truth that Trip was about to know. "Destroy them?" He questioned. "They have the ability to make more children.....They have the knowledge. Even if we get her off this ship and safely aboard Enterprise.....They will not stop there. Paxton and his league are madmen. They will do whatever it takes to achieve their sick vision. They must be annihilated." Trip swallowed hard. He knew she was being logical, but couldn't believe that a Vulcan of all people was talking about mass murder. "Isn't there any other way?" He asked a bit uneasy about what he knew was the only way possible. "No....If even a few of them survive, they could start anew. They have our DNA. Do you really want any more of our children to suffer as the others did?" Trip thought back at the nine who didn't make it, then softly agreed. "We must rig the ship to self destruct and get to an escape pod with the child before it happens. Then Enterprise can use the transponder Malcolm gave you to track us." T'Pol had given this tremendous thought and Trip was overwhelmed by the seemingly flawless logic of it all. "Yes but the first item is this door and the guards beyond." He reminded her of their previous jail break. "I will tend to that." T'Pol stated sitting upright and erect. She closed her eyes and called out to the child in her mind. Trip touched her shoulder and could sense what T'Pol was expressing to the infant. "Cry out...... Cry out loud and don't stop..... We need you My'ail.....Help us get to you.......Cry out for us......Cry out loud......" T'Pol urged the child to express its dissatisfaction so that Paxton would be forced to retrieve them from the cell. Several minutes went by and to Trip's surprise, it worked. In came "Hey you.....Vulcan.....Your brat is squalling for you and she won't shut up." He scowled. "She is in need of our touch. We must go to her and comfort her before she will stop." Trip and T'Pol both rose to their feet. "She doesn't need both of you....You stay put." He motioned to Trip. "With one of you in custody, the other will think twice before trying anything. Now get moving." Trip looked at T'Pol who shot him back a telling glare. Within seconds she disappeared threw the door. Daniels bolted and latched the metal portal, taking up his position on guard again. Trip paced the room once more. What seemed an eternity, turned into torturous moments for Trip. His beloved was out there trying to save both him and their baby. He wanted nothing more than to rip off the door and go charging after them both, but knew that T'Pol was well capable of handling herself with her Human captors. Another moment passed and Trip thought he heard a distinctive thump outside the door. The latch clanked and Trip readied himself behind the door to spring on the person entering. He was surprised to find it was T'Pol dragging a very unconscious Daniels by the shoulders in with her. "What happened?" he asked. "He got a really bad headache." She replied unknowingly responding in Trip's sick sense of humor. Then T'Pol went back into the hallway and pulled in the body of a very dead Grieves. "Headache too....?" Trip questioned her. "Migraine" again she wasn't ready to deal with her actions, just kept their objective in her mind. T'Pol picked up Daniels' phase rifle from the floor, while Trip searched Grieves' uniform for his palm pad. There in his back pocket was the item and he handed it to T'Pol for a quick review. She pulled up the ship's schematics and ran through them screen by screen, committing to memory every aspect as she went. Finally she pulled up the engine diagrams for Trip's appraisal. "Is it possible?" She asked wondering if her plan could be implemented. "You be careful....and get to her as soon as you can.... She needs you." Trip locked his eyes softly to T'Pol's and drew her into an urgent kiss before letting her go. She nodded softly. (You as well Thy'all.) T'Pol sent through their bond and Trip felt truly soothed by her words. Even though he didn't know the meaning, he was sure that she was expressing her love for him in the only way she could. That brought an even greater urgency to his mission. He wanted a life with these two women and wasn't about to let some mad man keep him from that. They exited the room, both heading in different directions. They bolted the door behind them to prevent Daniels from warning anyone if he should awaken from the head bashing he'd received at the Vulcan's hand. *** Trip made his way along the corridor reaching the metal steps that led to the lower engineering level. He placed the strap of Daniels' phase rifle over his head to free his hands for the descent. Silently he placed his feet on each rung and made his way down two levels without being detected. He was just a few hundred meters from his objective, when he heard faint sounds of conversation coming from the hallway ahead. Trip checked his phase rifle again and found it to have a heavy stun setting. He set it and held the gun at ready waiting to see who it was threatening his progress. Into sight came two Terra Primers casually talking as they walked the halls towards him. Trip crouched in the stairwell and tried his best not to be seen. He went unnoticed as they turned down an adjacent passageway and continued their stroll. Trip let out a sigh of relief. As angry as he was at these people, he was not the sort who could kill and he knew it. But Trip also knew what T'Pol had said was correct. They wouldn't stop, just begin again and the thought of the nine children and the Vulcan female that had been tortured and killed already were making his task seem more justified. For these people were madmen, as anyone who believes in genocide is. History had several of such men in it and all were stopped only by their own demise. So now why was he so against what he knew he had to do. Trip concentrated hard as he looked down the hall for anyone else. (It was because of T'Pol) he realized. He could feel her humanity warring within her. Her natural need to protect her offspring, faced off against her social conscience about violence and the need to suppress it. He knew after all was said and done, T'Pol would be the true one to suffer, knowing that her actions directly resulted in so many deaths. (How was she gonna recover from this one.) He wondered and realized that maybe it was a good idea that he was the one rigging the ship to explode and not her. Trip saw that the coast was clear and began his run for the door of engineering. He hit it quickly, opening and spraying the room with phaser fire in a broad sweeping motion. T'Pol made her way through the many chambers and back to the room that held her daughter. Along the way she used her neck pinch to disable anyone who came into her path. Quietly and stealthily she made her way past many check points, hiding the unconscious bodies behind bulkheads and into other chambers that had doors that would lock. It was as if she was invisible to everyone around her, but knew she could be detected at any moment. She called out once more to her child for her to continue the distraction until she arrived and the little girl obeyed. Reaching the chamber door, T'Pol opened it slowly knowing that there was a presence just inside that wasn't that of her daughter's. She saw the clinic physician standing at the side of the incubator trying to talk the child down from her loud tirade. From his voice, T'Pol could tell the man was tired of hearing the little one's noise and was not so gently trying to shove a rubber item in her mouth. This sent rage through her mind and instead of gently disabling the man, knowing he was the one responsible for most of her daughter's fears, she knocked him out with a more violent chop to his neck. This caused the doctor to slump instantly to the floor and T'Pol wasn't sure if she'd done more damage then she had been attempting too. Without checking him, she quickly scooped up the child in her arms, wrapping the blanket tightly around her. The child stop crying instantly and looked wide eyed into its mother's face. She displayed a warm smile that soothed T'Pol's angry thoughts and refocused the Vulcan on her mission. Quickly T'Pol turned and left the chamber again locking and bolting the door. She made her way through the chambers locking each and disabling the mechanisms as she went. No one would follow her.....she made sure of it. Then she was on her way with child in hand toward the escape pod. The little baby relaxed in the comfort of its mother's arms and remained quiet as her parent instructed her through their bond. *** Trip looked up after the initial phaser fire. Just as he planned he had taken everyone by surprise and no one had the time to duck. Around the room lay several crewmen, heavily stunned. Trip made his way over to the fusion reactor. He disabled the alarm array then started to work on the overload sequence. If his plan worked, then the ship would go up without warning anyone to its dyer status. That would by them time. He began systematically disabling the overrides and set the generator toward an overload. Having finished his work, Trip turned and quickly exited the room, locking and phasing the controls to prevent anyone from following. He made his way along the passageway back to the ladder. Again he re-holstered his weapon to free his hand for the climb. It was only moments as he made it toward the section where the escape pod lay. He rounded the corner, again ducking the observation of the crewmen, unaware that they were in grave danger. He saw T'Pol holding their child as she lurked in the corner just outside the pod. He moved to her. "Why are you standing here....Get in the pod." He ordered. "The pod has an alarm sensor. If I got in, they would be alerted to my escape and I wouldn't have had time to wait for you." she returned holding the child tightly against her. "We must enter together." Trip looked at the mechanism and saw it was tamper proof. He nodded. This would make their escape harder since they could easily shoot at the pod once the alarm had alerted them to their escape. "You go ahead, I'll go back to engineering and take out their weapons." He ordered and started back toward the stairwell. "There isn't time." she returned grabbing his shoulder firmly. "We must attempt it now, there is only a few minutes left and we need to get far away from the ship to be clear of the blast. Trip nodded and opened the hatch. A loud piercing alarm rocked the ship as he hurried to get the door open enough to get his family through. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." A very familiar voice came from their left and T'Pol realized that Paxton stood only 10 feet away. Beside him stood a female guard, her phaser trained right at the child's head. "You're quite clever, but not clever enough....Hand me the child." he demanded and watched as T'Pol remained motionless. Paxton and the guard came closer. Trip moved to block the fire from the other two and was within arm's length of the rifle's end. "I said hand her over." Paxton yelled out and T'Pol simply lowered her head as her eyes once more reached up at them. She concentrated heavily on the female guard, as if trying to will her by shear force. Again Paxton was growing impatient and wasn't paying attention to the motions of his accomplice. Slowly the guard's finger flicked the stun switch to kill. Trip noticed this and wondered if the woman was in league with them. He then felt the waves upon waves of controlling thoughts flowing from T'Pol into this woman's brain. He watched in horror as she turned the weapon from them to Paxton and with the same concentration, opened fire on the man killing him instantly. Trip lunged at the young woman before she could regain control and took her out with one punch. He then hustled T'Pol and his child into the pod, turning to see the incredible sight they had just witnessed. Then he climbed in and closed the hatch. Several more guards came on the run and found the unconscious one and their very dead leader. Trip took the controls and piloted the craft as far and as fast as he could from the main ship. "Estimated time of destruction is 52 seconds." T'Pol reminded him gently as she scooped the child closer to her frame. The baby felt soothed, not responding at all to Trip's worry about their circumstance. He hit the controls for maximum velocity and began to fidget with the transponder that was hidden in the lining of his mining clothes. He wriggled it from the seam and handed it to T'Pol who activated it without hesitation. The pod faltered and Trip became aware of the fact that the distance between them and the mining ship was closing. To his horror, the ship was giving pursuit and soon would be in firing range. Even sooner they would be close enough to take out the pod with their own destruction. He tried to calm his fears, but felt a knowing hand on his shoulder. "We did our best......At least no more children will suffer because of that mad man." T'Pol eased up beside him and allowed the baby's head to brush against his arm. Trip still piloting the pod, slipped an arm protectively about their beings, and wished with all his might for a miracle. He leaned his head against T'Pol's trying to soften the realization of what was about to happen to them. He took a deep breath as he could hear the countdown in her head. Quickly thinking....."we gotta get outta here.... That ship's gonna...." There was a loud rumble and the ship shuttered a bit. Captain Archer, who had been working the controls, came forward and helped the three from the pad. "We saw the ship building toward overload... I ordered us warped outta here once you materialized." He smiled and righted Trip as the seriousness of the situation finally took hold of his legs. He looked over at T'Pol holding the tightly wrapped bundle in her arms. "Is that?" He asked almost too amazed for words. "She is our daughter." T'Pol returned and moved the coverlet to expose the little cherub's face. Its eyes were wide and expressive, still holding on to that thumb and sucking madly. She cast her gaze upon the captain studying him in a way that he knew only T'Pol's child could do. "She's magnificent isn't she Cap'n." Trip came up and returned his protective arm about his brood. "She certainly is...." Archer agreed and watched as the little girl went about studying the different aspects of his features. Then she caught sight of her father's face and was quickly distracted. She wriggled and let go of the thumb momentarily while she babbled and cooed. Trip watched her with great delight, calling her his little sugar plum....his sweet little bundle of joy and various other pet names that Vulcan parents were not accustom too. He cooed back at her shamelessly and T'Pol could only stand there watching her child respond so positively at such an emotional display. Finally she spoke...."We should get her to Phlox.....She is in need of medical attention right now." "You're right." The Captain returned and motioned for the pair to proceed as he and Trip brought up the rear. Archer slapped a friendly hand of congratulations on the young man's back that elicited a soft wince. Jon looked worried by this. "Sorry Cap'n, there were a few rough moments down there." Trip tried to play it off, but for the first time Archer was noticing the bruise marks about his neck, head and shoulders through the torn mining jumpsuit. "Phlox needs to have a look at both of you too." The captain ordered and neither argued the point.
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 commentsHmmmm, well, I'm glad to see a TBC on this as I always prefer a happy ending, and anything like that would be preferable to what we saw tonight on the show. But the way T'Pol is written here, I'm surprised she needed anyone's help to get the baby back. We've never seen her use the 'neck pinch' before and she takes out men twice her size. The bond between the three of them makes everything known! On the other hand I love the positive interplay between TnT and between Trip and the baby. Fantastic! I still haven't seen Terra Prime yet - I'm outta town and at a graduation...But this sounds great, if only Lizzie didn't die :( Keep it goin! I'm anxious to see the crew's response to her, I was hoping Hoshi'd be in the transporter room and go over to her ;) I'm glad for this fic. I refuse to watch Terra Prime or the last episode. My family told me what happens, so I don't need to watch it for a very long time, maybe never. Thanks for cheering everyone up with an upbeat, positive view of the baby. I don't know your plans for the next chapter, but thanks anayway for thus, so far. Wow, great story! I can't wait for the next part. Yay! Happy ending! I like happy endings. Stupid Paramount Garbage Face. Can't wait for the next part! :) Very cool... I haven't seen Terra Prime yet, but from this spoilers, this is shaping up to be better than that. I'm glad that there will be more to the story. Thanks for the feedback....I too am very depressed about everything. Terra Prime was actually a good show if you leave out the part of the baby dying....Everyone got an interesting part and there was lots of time with T'Pol and the baby. I would have liked to see more of Trip/TPol and the baby though and I definitely would have like to see a hug at the end instead of a hand hold, but I guess it is in keeping true to her character....As for the last episode, thanks to the HOT bulletin boards, I chose never to watch it. I can't believe that B/B would be so dumb as to use 2 old characters, and I do mean old, they really didn't hold up well as the preview demonstrated, to entice loyal T/T followers to watch that garbage. I mean....T/T end up breaking up just after Elizabeth dies and keep working as friends for the next 6 yrs....then to have Trip die off as a memory told by two Next Generation characters as a history lesson. I could have handled Terra Prime as the last episode, cause then there would be a promise of a good movie outta this. But with Trip gone, I will never allow myself to get sucked into anything these two assholes or Paramount or UPN for that matter put out. They have totally lost a customer here.....Next section will be out by Monday hopefully, running a little late due to that horrible last episode.....T if only was ''terra prime'' like this.. great story loved it. Absolutely brilliant! Loved this to pieces and so very glad Trip, T'Pol and baby all got off that maniac's ship in time. Would have loved to have seen this on the screen. Ali D :~) This is great so far! Keep it going! there were nine previous clones that didn't make it?? - sorry, but that's a bit too morbid for my taste... |
