What Lies Within Us- Chapter 14

What Lies Within Us

by Gabi

Disclaimers in Chapter 1

*******

Chapter 14

When Hoshi Sato pushed the small trolley laden with food through the sickbay doors, she heard Commander Tucker's voice: "Bishop to E6, Lieutenant, and... checkmate. Hey, I said E6. You're cheatin', Malcolm."

"Hey guys," Hoshi interrupted. "What about some food?"

Malcolm looked up and smiled at her. The Commander's head lay motionless on the pillow, but he peered at her from the corner of his eyes and she saw a grin spread on his face. Hoshi tried not to let any of her dismay show as she realized that the Commander was no longer able to move his head.

"Could you put that aside, Lieutenant?"

Malcolm cleared the table, and Hoshi placed Trip's plate in front of him.

"Mmm, what're we havin'?"

"Meatloaf and mashed potatoes."

"Smells great."

Hoshi handed Malcolm his tray, then placed a napkin on Trip's chest.

"Any news from the bridge, Hoshi?" Trip asked.

"Nothing at all. It's quite boring up there, to tell the truth. T'Pol told me to ask you if you're going to talk to her later about the calibrations of the cloaking device."

"Oops." Trip's eyebrows drew together. "I totally forgot about that appointment yesterday." He glanced at Malcolm. "First I come to the briefin' without shavin' first, and then I forget about those technology configurations of hers. D'you think she's gonna see to it that I get the sack?"

"Hm." Malcolm shrugged, calmly proceeding to shovel some more mashed potatoes into his mouth. "Maybe you can make it up to her somehow. If you're lucky, she'll even understand why you couldn't make it yesterday."

Hoshi looked from one man to the other. Their good-natured bantering seemed a little too morbid for her tastes. On the other hand she saw these sarky comments were just another way for Trip to ease some of the tension. And if sarcasm was his way of dealing with the situation, then it was fine with her.

"That appointment with T'Pol wasn't the only one you forgot about," she teased. "What about your massage?"

"Sorry, Hoshi. I'll make it up to ya, promise. I had a meetin' with the Cap'n yesterday, so I couldn't make it."

"And you think I'll accept that as an excuse? Believe me, buddy, I'm gonna make you pay for that one!"

They laughed, as if it were perfectly normal for the Chief Engineer to lie paralyzed on a bed in sickbay, and have the Communications Officer feed him his lunch. But it helped a great deal, simply laughing once in a while.

"Tell T'Pol I'd be happy to help her," Trip said finally. "If it's okay with her to come down to sickbay, I'd love to take a look at those configurations." He raised his eyebrows. "Wow, the idea of integratin' that cloakin' technology into the ship's system... we'd be able to sneak up on every vessel or planet without them noticin'."

All of a sudden Trip broke off, staring absentmindedly into space.

"Commander?" Hoshi asked, frowning.

"Malcolm! What if the aliens didn't let us escape after all! What if they're still followin' us with their vessel cloaked, and are jus' waitin' to jump us with our weapons offline!"

Malcolm froze, fork still in mouth, staring at Trip with a mixture of shock and dismay on his face. Then he sprang to his feet, carelessly dropping his fork onto the tray.

"Damnit!"

"Have T'Pol scan for space fluctuations. Even the most sophisticated cloakin' field is bound to cause some small fluctuations. Or maybe there's another area the scanners can't identify."

Malcolm only nodded and hurried out of sickbay, the double doors sliding shut behind him.

-###-

The corridors were quiet and deserted as Captain Archer made his way down to sickbay. It was night on Enterprise, and alpha shift had long since retreated to their quarters. Jon was relieved there hadn't been any bad news from sickbay lately; Trip was bored, but he seemed to be feeling fine. There was no sign of the paralysis taking possession of his respiratory system, and Jon began to hope his friend would be spared this particular fate, at least. Nevertheless, Phlox had refused to let Trip sleep in Jon's quarters yet again, and the Captain saw his point. If any emergency arose, it was better to have Trip in sickbay where the doctor could help him. And if he couldn't take Trip with him, then he would simply stay with him in sickbay.

Smiling, Jon stepped up beside his friend's bed. It was almost midnight, but Trip wasn't asleep.

"How do you feel?"

"You don't want me to answer that, do you?" Trip's eyes came to rest on his friend. Drawing himself a chair, the Captain took a seat beside the bed. He reached out and put a gentle hand on Trip's cheek, turning the engineer's head so Trip could look at him.

"Anyone come to see you today?"

"Lieutenant Hess was here and told me news from Engineerin'. And a few hours ago Travis and Hoshi came by to bring me dinner."

"Actually I was planning on bringing you dinner myself, but you managed to mess up schedule yet again with your theory about space fluctuations."

"I know. T'Pol was gonna come and talk to me about those cloakin' configurations. Didn't show up, though."

"Yep, she was busy scanning for those space anomalies you mentioned."

"Did she find any?"

"She did."

Jon saw Trip would have wanted to scramble to a sitting position at these words, but the engineer could only close his eyes for a brief moment, taking a deep breath.

"Are they movin'?"

"They are. But we can't be sure the fluctuations are indeed being caused by a cloaked vessel."

"Sure, and if pigs had wings, bacon would fly."

"There are several explanations for that phenomenon, and T'Pol informed us about every single one of them, of course. But she, too, thinks it's the aliens causing the anomaly."

"What are you gonna do?"

"T'Pol's keeping a close eye on these fluctuations. Malcolm has rearmed Security, placed guards everywhere and equipped the Engineering crew with phasers in case we're being boarded. Right now he's busy working on the torpedoes to try and increase out shooting range."

"I don't think they're gonna spring an attack on us. If they wanted to attack us, they'd've done so long ago. They know we're no match for them."

"That's true," Jon admitted. "They could have blown us to pieces any time they wanted to. There's no need for them to sneak up on us and then attack all of a sudden."

"Maybe they're not aimin' at blowin' us to pieces," Trip said slowly. "You know what I think, Cap'n? To me, it looks like they only want to retrieve their technology. I think they're hopin' to avoid a fight with us." Archer gave him an astonished look. "Maybe they aren't quite as violent as we thought," Trip continued.

"Not violent?" Jon took a deep breath. "Just look what they did to you, Trip! And you're saying they're not violent?"

"You may have a point there, Cap'n. But... how would you react if someone sneaked aboard Enterprise, downloaded our technology and then tried to get away with the data?"

"We didn't download any data from their ship."

"No, but down on that moon, we did."

"Only because you thought the building was deserted."

"Does that make any difference?"

Archer stared into space, thinking. "Well, be that as it may, in any case we're prepared for them if they attack."

"Did you increase warp speed?"

"The alien vessel reaches Warp 8, at least. How're we going to escape them with Warp 5?"

"I see your point." Trip grimaced. "Warp 8," he repeated then, his face brightening up again. "I'd love to take a look at their engines one of these days."

"You should've asked them to give you a tour when you were on their ship." The instant the words had left his mouth Jon bit his lip, mentally kicking himself. He was about to apologize to Trip when the suddenly the comm gave a crackling sound.

"Security team report to Engineering. We're being boarded."

Archer dashed over to the wall, slamming his hand down to the comm button. "T'Pol?"

"There are eight bio signs, all of them down in Engineering."

Not taking the time to give her an answer Archer was out the sickbay doors, heading down the corridor towards the turbolift.

-###-

It was obvious the aliens had not been expecting them to offer any resistance.

The first two to board Enterprise were being stunned by the Engineering crew only seconds after they'd materialized. The other six left of the boarding team quickly scrambled for cover, opening fire on the Engineering staff who were still trying to stun them. A few minutes later Malcolm burst into the room followed by his team, threw a quick glance around, then barked at his Security guards to spread out and encircle the intruders. He soon realized that the aliens' weapons had a greater shooting range than their Starfleet phasers, but his team made up for that lack using fighting tactics the aliens' rather disorganized formation was no match to. Using the warp core for cover, the security team slowly approached the intruders, and after only a few minutes time several of their opponents lay stunned on the deck.

The aliens were already about to retreat when Archer entered Engineering in a run, drawn phaser at the ready. At his feet he saw two aliens lying unconscious on the deck. When Archer got to his knees beside them, they began to dematerialize.

"Lieutenant Reed!" Archer shouted in the direction of the weapon fire.

"Sir?" came the immediate reply. Firing his phaser in the direction of the intruders, Malcolm came running towards him. "We managed to stun six of them, sir. They're beaming them back."

"I need to have one of them, Lieutenant. Take one and see to it that they don't beam him back, I don't care how."

Malcolm nodded, letting his eyes wander over the room. His team were still searching the corners, phasers ready in hand, but the fight seemed to be over. Reed's eyes fell on one of the aliens who seemed to be rather tall even for one of their species. Grabbing him by his thin, spider-like wrists, Malcolm dragged the alien over to the warpcore where the electromagnetic field would prevent any transporter beams from picking him up.

Walking over to where the alien lay, Jon took a closer look at the tall being. Trip and Malcolm had been right; it was indeed a quite strange looking species.

The comm chirped. "T'Pol to Captain Archer."

Jon pressed the button. "Report, T'Pol."

"The alien vessel has decloaked and is now remaining at a distance of about 2000 kilometers."

"Keep an eye on them, T'Pol. Notify me immediately if there are any changes." Jon turned to Malcolm. "At least we have a hostage now. They'll endanger one of their own crew members if they try to attack us."

"Shall I take him to the brig, Captain?"

"Can they beam him out of there, Lieutenant?"

"No, sir. The brig is shielded, any transporter beams would be deflected."

"Good. Have him guarded, and notify me as soon as he regains consciousness."

-###-

Archer felt worry weighing down on him like a ton of bricks as he made his way down to the brig. There was no use in fooling himself. One single prisoner didn't guarantee the safety of his ship. The aliens were a lot more advanced, and their transporter technology made Enterprise's pale in comparison. They might not be able to beam their crewman out of the brig, but there was no reason why they shouldn't simply transfer the whole Enterprise crew onto their vessel. Or start another attack. Archer knew the odds were not in their favor if that happened. If he'd only been able to talk to the prisoner. A few minutes ago he'd ordered Hoshi to try and find a way of written communication with the stranger. She'd managed to decode the aliens' written language, so maybe they could find a way of using it for communication.

Entering the brig, Archer saw Malcolm standing guard in front of one of the cells, inspecting the various instruments the alien had had with him.

"Lieutenant? What are you doing here?"

"My job, sir." Malcolm raised an indignant eyebrow.

"I don't think it's the Security Chief's job to stand guard in the brig."

"There are no regulations against it, sir."

"No there aren't." Jon knew that Malcolm had a personal interest in this particular prisoner being guarded as closely as possible, and decided on dropping the subject.

"How is he?" Archer jerked his chin in the direction of the alien who sat on the narrow bunk, obviously feeling very uncomfortable.

"Not so good. To a person taller than 3 meters Enterprise's dimensions are rather small."

Grinning sourly, Archer stepped up beside Malcolm. "Were you able to identify any of these, Lieutenant?"

Malcolm tilted his head to one side. "Some of them." He picked up some kind of phase pistol. "I'm sure this is a weapon of some kind. A little more advanced than ours." He took another piece of equipment. "This could be a communicator. And this..." he picked up some kind of mask connected to a small container," is probably a respirator. I don't have the slightest idea what the other stuff is, but I guess they're scanners or similar scientific equipment."

"A respirator?" Jon repeated, throwing a glance at the prisoner. The alien was clearly having trouble breathing.

"I think our air is harder for them to breath than theirs to us," Malcolm confirmed his thoughts. "Shall we give it to him, sir?"

"Yes. Be careful, Lieutenant."

Weapon ready in hand, Malcolm opened the door and held the respirator out to the prisoner. The alien looked first at Malcolm, then at Archer. Then he slowly took the device from Reed's hand, activated it and held it in front of his mouth, taking a deep breath.

"We should also lower the temperature in the cell," Jon said.

"Do you really want him to get that comfortable, sir? I mean, think of what they did to Trip."

"Do it, Lieutenant. Our prisoners are being treated as well as possible. This has nothing to do with Trip."

"Aye, sir."

"And then call Ensign Hanks. He can stand guard the rest of the shift."

"Sir, I want..."

"I know, Malcolm. You see it as your personal duty to guard one of the aliens who did this to Trip. And I can understand that. But I want you to go to Trip and stay with him. I don't want him to be alone now." Jon wiped a hand across his eyes. "Malcolm, Phlox is afraid the paralysis will sooner or later take possession of Trip's respiratory system. It didn't happen this afternoon as he'd said it probably would, but there is still a very high possibility that it will happen, and soon."

Malcolm didn't say anything, but his shocked expression was an answer of its own.

"Trip doesn't want Phlox to hook him up to life support," Jon said quietly.

"But that means..." Malcolm's eyes widened, and his mouth opened slightly. For a moment he only stared at his Captain before he managed to get a grip on himself. There was an expression of utter desolation in his eyes as he swallowed and mumbled, "I see."

"Go to him, Malcolm. We don't know how much time he has left."

Malcolm nodded, seeing the agony in his superior's eyes. The agony of having to put captain's duties before his feelings for a friend. The agony of having to question the prisoner now, of all times, instead of sitting at Trip's side, helping him to stand this through. "I'll be with him," he said quietly. "You can be sure of that."

"I am, Malcolm." Jon resisted the urge to put a comforting hand on Malcolm's shoulder, knowing the Security Officer felt uncomfortable being touched by his Captain in that way.

"Notify me if there are any changes."

Malcolm nodded, trying to swallow past the lump in his throat. When Ensign Hanks entered the brig, he motioned him over to his post, nodded at the Captain and left the room without another word.

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TBC

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Two folks have made comments

oooohhh, doesn't enterprise have a working UT? lol

So, he's not dead yet and you didn't start breathing probs, you captured an alien and started working on a way to communicate. All in all I'M HAPPY.

GR8 CHAPTER

Another nice chapter! Keep updating.