The Sacrifice - Ch 6

The Sacrifice

By Triplover

Chapter Six

Success and Failure

The night was long for both Sub-Commander T’Pol and Commander Trip Tucker. Both had much on their minds. Fear gripped Commander Tucker as he realized that soon enough he would die. And T’Pol was unable to articulate her emotion since she did not have the experience with such things. More than this though, they both had thoughts of each other. Trip Tucker found his thoughts on T’Pol a welcomed distraction after his earlier thoughts on his coming execution.

Trip’s only regret was that he wasn’t able to say it to her out loud. That he wasn’t able to tell her out-right that he loved her to her face. Trip still had trouble believing it himself. Wasn’t it just a few years ago that the two were mortal enemies both bent on annoying the other to death? He’d always thought of T’Pol as the emotionless ice queen. Yet before when she had been there with him all she had done was made him feel… well… better. Trip didn’t know how to describe what had happened not that long ago. The emotions that showed in both of them were foremost in his mind. T’Pol had never let anyone see her true feelings, at least not to his knowledge. He found it hard believe what had occurred not but hours ago. The intimacy they’d felt through neuropressure sessions had changed so much. What used to be a completely bewildering relationship between the two was now changing into something even more bewildering.

When he’d first met her Trip didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her. Now he trusted T’Pol more than anyone else on Enterprise which to even his surprise included the captain. Trip hadn’t liked Vulcans very much. It wasn’t like he was raised to hate other races with different ideas or anything but Trip knew more than anyone how deceptive the Vulcans could be. He’d seen first hand just how unfeeling they really were. They accepted other races for their unique ideas and cultures but looked down on Humans as a lower species just because they weren’t more logical and didn’t control their emotions more. They just made him so angry sometimes and as the years had gone by; somehow he’d ended up hating them.

T’Pol was different. She was better than Soval or the other Vulcans he’d met. But Trip hadn’t seen that until much later in his life. He’d treated her like public enemy number one and ever since then had been trying to make it up to her. Although it wasn’t like she had helped. T’Pol seemed just as willing to fight with him whenever they had a disagreement. She had probably been just like him, thinking of the Humans as illogical and untrained Terrans. Trip could see why she’d feel that way. When they first began to explore they’d been acting like wide-eyed children. It was inevitable that one day it would all blow up in their face. And it had. Here Trip was in the expanse trying not to think about his future as he thought about the Xindi attack and how everything had changed because of it.

Maybe the Vulcans had been right. Maybe they should have waited. Or maybe they should have stopped holding us back and helped for once! Your ears getting a little pointy there Trip? He didn’t know what to think anymore. The engineer’s thoughts were scrambled and sleep eluded him in the prospect of his fate. Trip had once told Malcolm that he’d hoped to have a little Charles Tucker the forth one day but now that dream was about to die along with Trip Tucker himself. Trip had always wanted children. He loved kids and was so sure he’d make a great father. He’d have two kids, a girl and a boy. He remembered talking to Ruby about that. The boy would be Charles Tucker and the girl would be… well… that was up for grabs. But now that was just a dream that would never come true.

Trip shook his head. Why was he so sure that the Roelorians would execute him? He should be thinking positively. He could still have those two kids. Trip knew that Archer was gonna get him out of his prison no matter what. T’Pol said it herself, they had gotten into these kinds of things before. Why was he so sure he’d die this time? It was then that it came to him like a ton of bricks.

Could he want this? Could he actually want to die? No! He wasn’t like that. He couldn’t… could he? What was he thinking? Trip loved life… didn’t he? Trip shook his head. What are you thinking? Of course I love life! I mean, so I lost my sister. And so the world is in danger of being destroyed. And maybe I do feel bad about what happened to Sim when I was supposed to be the one dead… but… I don’t wanna die!

Trip sighed. So why did he feel this strange feeling in his heart like it was his fate… like fate was finally coming to get him. Trip knew he should have been the one dead before after that accident. Sim shouldn’t have been the one killed. Maybe it was his time. Just maybe fate had let him live just a little while longer so he could do what needed to be done and was then going to do what should have been done before.

I don’t wanna die! Not until Earth is safe! I need to help Enterprise find that weapon… I need to be there. But the other voice inside his head knew better. They don’t need you that bad. They have other engineers and you may be good but you’re not so important that if you die it’s the end of the world. Captain Archer’s the best captain for this mission; he can find the weapon and save Earth without you. Trip knew the other voice was right. They could do it without him. Maybe it was his time. Just maybe… he was supposed to die now. The thought weighted heavily on Trip’s mind but for some strange reason it didn’t bother him as much as it should. He wasn’t afraid. In fact, Trip was ready. If Archer could find no way to save Trip… then he’d just have to accept that as his fate and do what had to be done. As long as Enterprise was safe… then Trip would be fine with his fate.

Trip shook his head slowly. “Trip, ya told Malcolm he was the grim reaper and here ya go doin’ the same god damn thing! Who knows, maybe somethin’ will happen and you’ll be okay! It could happen! For all you know Malcolm and the captain could be cookin’ up a plan right now! You’ll see. Everything’s gonna end up fine. It always does. Doesn’t it?” Trip had no answer for that one. The fact of the matter was… he didn’t really know. Yet still, there was no fear. Trip wanted to be ready for anything. He didn’t care if he was becoming Malcolm or not… the fact of the matter was… Trip didn’t know what would happen to him.

==

Malcolm Reed sat quietly in the mess hall working on his plan, which he would submit to the captain first thing in the morning. The captain had asked for both him and Hayes to come up with something and they were close to done with their proposal. “The transporter gives us an advantage but with that field in place around the cell it’ll be hard to get to him. We’ll need the team to turn off the field before we can transport him to Enterprise.”

Hayes looked over at Malcolm and smiled. “My people can do that easily.”

“So can mine.” Malcolm hated Hayes’ smug attitude and was sick and tired of hearing that sentence all the time. His people were just as good as theirs.

“I thought we already settled this. Your people should stay on board the ship. My people are meant for this kind of thing.”

“We did just fine before you came on board when there was a situation where men were being held prisoner. I’m quite sure we’d be fine.”

“Lieutenant Reed, this isn’t about that and you know it. You just don’t like the fact that my people are better trained to deal with this kind of thing than yours. This is what we do. You’re a Starfleet officer and so you’re trained in all kinds of other things. This is our specialty. This is what we’re bred to do.”

Malcolm held back any anger that was fighting its way through him and focused on the plan. This was no time to argue about who was better than who. “Just because we’re trained in things other than fighting doesn’t mean where any less qualified,” he stated before taking his cup of coffee and downing the rest in the cup. Malcolm quickly got up and got some more before returned to his work. “But I am willing to compromise. We can have both Starfleet personnel and military. At least my people will know how to disable the field.” The last sentence he mumbled and was relieved when Hayes didn’t hear it. It would have probably made things worse.

“Fine. I’m sure we’ll work well together,” Hayes muttered, although Malcolm detected sarcasm in his voice. “So are we done here?”

“I believe we are. The captain will be most pleased. We’ll have to go to warp as soon as he’s on board. The government might have police cruisers or god knows what. We should be prepared.”

“No argument here.”

Malcolm nodded in approval and stood. Hayes did the same as they both looked at each other for a brief moment, neither liking the other. “Good then I’ll send this to the captain and prepare my people,” Malcolm told the man just before walking out the door. He never heard the statement Hayes made after that although he detected some foul language in the first part of the sentence.

==

By morning Jonathan Archer had a feeling no one had rested well. Even T’Pol had dark circles around her eyes and both Malcolm and Hayes looked just as tired. They’d worked very hard on the plan to save Trip and Archer couldn’t have been more proud of them. Everyone stood around as they listened intently to Malcolm and Hayes’ plan. It seemed well thought out and the captain was sure it would work. Although he didn’t like the thought of using the transporter he knew that it was the only way. And so far it hadn’t killed anyone.

“… so once he’s onboard we’ll have to jump to warp. We'll have to get out as fast as we can. Who knows what could be behind us,” Malcolm was saying.

Archer looked over at Travis Mayweather. “Did you hear that Travis? Jump to high warp as soon as he’s on board.” Travis simply nodded not saying a word.

“What about Commander Tucker? Does he know about any of this?” Hoshi Sato asked.

“How could he? None of us have been able to speak with him with the exception of the captain and even then I’m sure the guards were listening,” said Malcolm.

“He doesn’t need to know anyway. It’s not like we need him to do anything,” Hayes added.

“Well we don’t have much time. We’ll need to start getting everyone ready. We only have today left before Commander Tucker is executed. Let’s go people, we have work to do,” Archer at last stated rather coldly and immediately everyone filed out per his orders.

==

Three hours later and everyone was ready with their assignment. Travis got ready to go to warp as soon as he was given the word. Hayes prepared his men and Malcolm his men, while Jonathan Archer sat in his chair with nothing to do but wait. He’d thought about joining the people going down to shut off the field but knew it would probably be a bad idea. It was best to stay on board, which he was quite sure Malcolm and Hayes would agree with. He waited and waited until Malcolm’s voice came in through the com.

“Reed to Captain Archer. My team is ready,” came the British voice of his armory officer. Archer touched the com.

“Understood. Good luck.”

“Thank you, Captain, I’m sure we could use all the help we can get,” Malcolm said before cutting off the com.

Archer let out a deep breath and sat straight in his seat. “Here we go.”

==

It took only seconds before Malcolm Reed found himself surrounded in light just before appearing on the dark planet before him. Here it was night. It confused the hell out of him and he was sure everyone else. Hayes looked at him, silently asking for direction. Malcolm took in a deep breath and pointed straight ahead. “Here we go.”

==

The building, which held the controls to the field, only had a few guards posted. Three of which Malcolm caught walking around the perimeter, and if Enterprise’s sensors were correct, four inside. It didn’t take long for them to overpower the three guards outside and when they finally reached the doors, Malcolm had no trouble getting in. But on the inside, though, things were not as simple. Each guard must have been alerted to their presence because they put up much more of a fight. Malcolm didn’t know how but they knew… perhaps they’d tripped an alarm… he couldn’t be sure. But what he was sure of was that they’d have to get each guard before they could safely go inside. Phaser fire flew out through the opened doors. Malcolm scrabbled to the side along with the rest. Hayes and a few other MACO took the other side. “Why is it never as simple as it should be?” Malcolm asked out loud although didn’t expect any answer, this of course did not stop Hayes.

“Because this is the real world, Lieutenant, and in the real world things are never easy.”

==

When finally each guard was gone everyone ran inside, all quick to get done what needed to be done. Malcolm ran over to the console on the far end of the building, which seemed to look like a command center. Malcolm soon realized how much it helped that they were at night on this planet. They’re defenses were practically nonexistent since most would be asleep. Malcolm’s hands flew over the controls with grace until he heard systems shut down and the screen showing the field disappearing before him. A smile grew on his lips. He then took out his communicator and opened it. “Reed to Archer, it’s done.”

==

Trip Tucker had been pacing back and forth in his cell. His hands were shaking slightly from the nervousness he felt. Tomorrow was the day he would die and it had finally hit him like a ton of bricks that it was almost over. But when the beam of light surrounded him until he couldn’t see and suddenly his surrounds changed he couldn’t help but smile. Enterprise! Standing before him was T’Pol who’d been working the controls. He stepped off the transporter pad and yet again more beams of light and more people appeared on the pad. T’Pol touched the com. “T’Pol to Archer. We have them.”

==

“Now Travis!” shouted Archer and suddenly the twinkling lights before them turned into long white strips as they passed by.

==

It was then that Judge Corrow was given the information of Commander Tucker’s freedom from his cell. His eyes flashed in anger as he banged the com for his captains. “Corrow to Captain Yolin! Enterprise is trying to escape with Commander Tucker! Use whatever force necessary to get him back!”

“I’ll inform the fleet, Judge Corrow,” came the man’s voice.

==

Malcolm Reed, Sub Commander T’Pol and Trip Tucker all walked onto the bridge. Malcolm and T’Pol took their stations while Trip lingered, looking around the ship. He was smiling slightly and Archer could tell that he was glad to be back. He stood and walked over to his engineer. “Welcome back, Commander.”

Trip looked over at his captain. “I’m glad to be back. Wasn’t really lookin’ forward to bein’ tortured to death.”

Archer cocked his head.

“Some of the guards let me know how they execute their prisoners. Let’s just say it’s not fun,” Trip explained as his complexion paled at the mere thought of what would have happened. The captain was unable to say anything more when they heard Malcolm’s voice calling out.

“Twelve ships are in pursuit, Captain! My god… it’s a fleet! They’re all chasing us.”

Captain Archer was quick to Malcolm’s side. “What?”

“They’re getting close. They're right behind us!”

“The lead ship’s hailing us,” came Hoshi’s voice. Captain Archer turned around to meet her unwavering gaze.

“On screen.” Jonathan walked over to his chair and took a seat as a man appeared on the screen before them.

“I am Captain Yolin of the starship Coligar. Give us the commander and we will not destroy your ship!”

“I won’t let you execute one of my officers!”

“Give us the commander or you will ALL die. I’ll give you three minutes before opening fire.” The captain told him and the screen went blank.

Archer glared at the screen before him. He simply stood there for a long time with nothing to say. Everyone was quiet as they looked at the captain. What could they possibly do now? It was over. Jonathan Archer looked at Trip, his friend. With a long breath he turned to Malcolm Reed. “Charge phase cannons, I want weapons. Polarize the hull plating, do anything and everything you can. I won’t go down without a fight,” he said sternly then turned to his chair and sat down. He looked straight at the screen, which showed all those many ships before him waiting for their answer.

Malcolm looked down until he felt a strong hand stop him from following the captain’s orders. He looked up at the man to see Trip Tucker’s eyes on him with a look of determination on his face. Malcolm swallowed. “Trip, what are you doing?”

Trip moved his hand away from the console and looked around at the captain. “No, Cap’n. I don’t think so. I won’t let you do this,” he said in a soft voice.

Archer’s head snapped to look at him. “What?!”

Trip walked over in front of him and smiled grimly. “You're not gonna risk the safety of Enterprise just to save me.” He had a look that Jonathan Archer had never seen before.

“We’re not just giving up!”

Trip shook his head. “You have a mission.”

“We need you!”

“No you don’t. I trained my people to do their jobs better than anyone. They can do this without me… you can do this without me.”

Archer shook his head; he couldn’t seem to believe it. Trip wondered why the man was fighting it so much. Trip knew it was wrong, but since they’d entered the Expanse their friendship had gone to the side. He didn’t think Archer even cared anymore. But the look on his captain’s face said it all.

“Trip! This ship needs its Chief Engineer. I know that you’ve trained good people, good engineers but they’ll never be you.”

“They’ll do fine, Cap’n. Let me go. Just let me go.” Everyone watched Trip with their eyes wide in horror. The thought of letting their Chief Engineer, their friend, die seemed almost like a nightmare come true. They’d saved him not but a minute ago and yet they were still going to lose him. Trip understood that. But he wasn’t going to let them fight for him, especially when they would lose. “The fact of the matter is, we can’t beat them, we just can’t win. And I won’t let you sacrifice this ship for me.”

Captain Archer was glaring at him now. “I don’t plan on sacrificing anything, Commander! That includes you!”

“You can’t be serious, Cap’n! There are at least twelve ships out there. Unless ya got a plan….” Trip was willing to agree to any other ideas. It wasn’t like he wanted to die. Who would? But he didn’t know how it was possible to get out without losing everything. The captain said nothing. He had no plan. Trip knew. “Yeah, thought so.”

But still the captain shook his head. “There’s got to be a way.” Archer didn’t want to give up. But it was the only way. Why couldn’t he see that?

Trip was tired of fighting the inevitable. Why wasn’t the captain just as tired? This was Trip’s future. There was no way out. “There isn’t one. Ya gotta let me go.”

T’Pol walked over next to the captain. “We have gotten out of these… instances before. We can do it again,” she fought. She was fighting this too? How illogical of her. For the first time he could finally see real emotion on her face. It wasn’t much, but it touched Trip nonetheless. Trip took a step closer to her.

“Sometimes luck just runs out T’Pol.”

No one said anymore as they all realized he was right. Trip looked around at the people before him. His friends, his family. Enterprise had become his home. And Trip didn’t want to see it disappear because of him. Hoshi and Travis were standing now. They both looked almost hurt. He then looked at Malcolm. The armory officer was standing there looking at him and Trip could see only one thing… fear. Finally Trip looked at Archer and T’Pol again. His heart was breaking with every face. He exhaled loudly and closed his eyes. “I know… this isn’t fun for me either. I don’t wanna die… but you all know that there’s no other way. We couldn’t possibly get through a fight with them.”

Archer put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it tight. “How are we going to save Earth without you?”

Trip shrugged. “Enterprise has got the best captain on its side. The Xindi don’t stand a chance,” Trip told his friend. Archer tried to smile but seemed to fail. So he instead nodded slowly. Trip knew Archer couldn’t just say yes. But Trip knew that nod was a yes. He nodded back and looked over at T’Pol. Suddenly everyone around them disappeared. It was now or never. Trip knew that now. He only had one last chance to show her how he felt. It was time to stop cowering away from this, from his feelings. T’Pol took a step closer to him about ready to speak as his hands moved to her face and their lips touched.

Jonathan Archer had thought he’d seen it all. But when he saw his first officer and his engineer kissing as deeply as those two were, even he couldn’t hold back a gasp in surprise. On the bridge everyone went from upset to complete shock. Sure, they had all heard the rumors, but to see that it might just be true… he had never believed them but now he couldn’t help but wonder if they were true. Archer felt deep sadness at that moment as he watched the two still holding each other, lips pressing against one another. Trip was about to die and T’Pol would loose him forever. Archer could see it now. There was something there between them. And now it would be ripped away from them. Archer had once felt something for T’Pol but in that moment all he wanted to do was take Trip Tucker’s place so that those two wouldn’t have to suffer. T’Pol may have been Vulcan but he could see by how tightly she held him just how much she wanted him to stay. Archer secretly wished he’d been the one condemned for the crime. He hated seeing both of his friends lose something that they deserved so much. Life just didn’t seem fair. This wasn’t how things were supposed to be. God dammit! Why did Trip have to die? All of this was Jonathan’s fault. He should be taking Trip's place. He should be the one to die… not Trip.

Finally they broke away and Trip Tucker looked deep into her eyes. T'Pol looked back at him but said nothing, her face betraying none of her emotions. “See ya 'round,” he told her then stepped back and looked at the crew.

Trip wanted to smile but could only watch the look of shock among the bridge crew. That was how he wanted to remember them. Not saddened. Amused, surprised, shocked… anything but saddened. He walked over to Malcolm first. Malcolm seemed to waver at his sight. Trip rested a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks,” he then said and walked away from him and towards Travis and Hoshi. Trip nodded at Travis and then walked over to Hoshi. Their eyes locked and he took her hand to give it a light squeeze.

When Trip was done with his goodbyes he headed towards the turbolift doors. Trip took one last look around at the crew. Not totally wanting to leave, but not wanting to stay either. It was the only way. Trip had to do it; he had to protect his friends. Trip turned and walked into the turbolift, unable to turn around and look at them. He instead looked down at the floor, and waited as the doors closed.

T’Pol felt like her legs were going to fall out from under her. She couldn’t talk, couldn’t think. Only one thing was left in her as she watched the turbolift doors close: Emptiness. All that was left was emptiness. Charles was gone, and this time he would not be coming back. She walked back to her post and looked down, not focusing on sensor readings but the floor. She had to control herself; she could not show the sharp pain she felt. She was Vulcan. And as much as she wished to be able to for once let things out, she knew she couldn’t. T’Pol locked her feelings up in the bottle that was her heart. But she was sure that not even that would be able to hold the intense emotion she now felt: Hopelessness. The future now seemed hopeless. For what future could she possibly have, when the one she wanted to share it with would be dead?

Archer kept back the hateful look as he put the Captain back on screen. “Captain Yolin. Commander Charles Tucker is en route to meet you. We will surrender him peacefully.”

Captain Yolin frowned slightly. “I understand, thank you. I know it is difficult to give up a crewmember to be killed. But I have my orders. My ships will be watching you very carefully, Captain, so I suggest that this not happen again. If it does I WILL destroy Enterprise. I am truly sorry, Captain,” Yolin told Archer just before the screen went back to the ships surrounding them.

Archer watched them in silence. Everyone was silent. For a second he wondered if they were even breathing. He’d just lost his best engineer and his best friend all at the same time to be killed. And it hurt like hell.

A/N: Hopefully this explains why the captain obviously cannot do anything to save the Commander this time! With Enterprise being watched there is little any of them can do! But don’t worry guys… this is only the beginning… well sort of! And I hope I showed you why Trip’s being such a grim reaper… funny how you guys thought of that… I guess we had the same mind on that. I made this one the same time I made the other chapter but I had some correcting to do. And to those who are waiting for the answer to the question on Trip’s future well… check out the next chapter and find out! I know you guys have been waiting long enough.

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