Did I Just See a Mermaid?

Did I Just See a Mermaid?

by Hoshissis

Genre: Friendship/Angst
Rating: PG

A/N Set before the expanse. Slight spoilers for Strange New Worlds

Did I Just See a Mermaid?

Enterprise was orbiting above a newly discovered class M planet. They had been here for over a week now, while Tpol had been running numerous scans of the planet below. Even though the crew were aching to go down and see what wonders this world would offer, Captain Archer had given in to Tpol who had insisted on running detailed scans first.

//Can’t be too careful, especially after what happened on the first Class M planet we discovered//, he thought.

Scans were now complete and the planet had been declared safe to visit, there was now a loud commotion in the shuttle bay as various officers and crewmen ran back and forth preparing for the upcoming mission. To the unseen eye it looked chaotic and unorganised, but since Science Officer Tpol was in charge, this was certainly not the case.

One away team consisted of Travis and Tpol; the second team consisted of Captain Archer and Malcolm. Surrounding them were six crew members of Tpol’s science department who would all be running scans of planets, trees and animals that were waiting to be discovered. Prepping the two shuttles was Charles Tucker (aka Trip) the Third, Enterprise’s Chief Engineer. This would usually have been done by some lower members of his engineering team, but Trip had an ulterior motive – he was bored stiff and aching to stretch his legs on this newly discovered world. He hadn’t had any shore leave for the past six months and he was bone weary and tired.

//If I tinker about and make myself useful, while dropping the casual hint to the Cap’n, he might offer to take me down.//

Well that was the plan anyway. Unbeknown to Trip, Captain Archer had cottoned on to this within the first five minutes, but he was deviously playing hard to get making Trip work for it. He had every intention of taking Trip along, since he loved seeing the wondrous look of joy that appeared in his eyes as he gazed out on any new unexplored surroundings, his youthful enthusiasm as he bounded out of the shuttle and the click, click, click of his camera as he snapped images of his surroundings. Images that were downloaded and made up into visual and audio logs of their mission, which were then sent back to Earth for Starfleet to painfully pick apart.

“All finished Cap’n,” said Trip, “Tpol’s, had so many vials and test tubes packed away, they could probably bring back every blade of grass on the planet and still have some left to spare,” laughed Trip. Captain Archer chuckled, that certainly sounded like Tpol – a stickler for detail.

“So, what do you have planned,” asked Trip, trying to sound cagey. “Do you think you will have time for shore leave,” he asked with a twinkle in his blue eyes. “There’s some big mountains that are screaming to be climbed, which border around a huge deep lake.”

“Sounds good!” replied Captain Archer. “I wonder if Malcolm fancies a hiking and diving expedition. I’ll call him over so I can ask him.”
//Damn/,/ thought Trip giving him that hurt big blue eyed look.

“Malcolm, Trip’s just told me about some great mountains and a lake that we could visit while we’re down on the planet. Are you up for some hiking and diving?” asked Captain Archer, looking at Malcolm with a twinkle in his eyes.

Malcolm, who had been watching this teasing display by his Captain towards his engineer decided to play along. “Sure sounds nice and relaxing. Thanks for the tip Trip.”

“Don’t mention it!” said Trip, with a dead-pan look on his face.

“So what are you going to be doing on the ship, while we’re down below?” queried Malcolm.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m sure I’ll find some manifolds to purge or intake valves to tinker with somewhere,” replied Trip trying to inject some semblance of enthusiasm into his face.

“Hey!”, said Captain Archer, “I’ve been meaning to get you to do a Level Five diagnostic on all the power relays. Why don’t you get started on that?” asked Captain Archer, trying to look serious on the outside, while deep down he was laughing his sides off.

Trip threw him a blank stare. “Sounds great, why don’t I paint the hull while I’m at it? Wouldn’t want to get bored, would I?” joked back Trip with a hint of sarcasm.

“Great idea, you do that,” said Captain Archer as he climbed into the pod with Malcolm, both of whom were wearing a huge smile on their faces.

//Damn//, thought Trip, standing there with his mouth open, giving him the son-of-a-bitch-means-it amazed look.

After a couple of minutes, Captain Archer popped his head out of the hatch, “Anything else, Commander?” he asked while trying to look as serious.

“No, can’t think of anything!” replied Trip staring at him with a pair of huge puppy dog pleading eyes. “See ya in three days,” he said before turning around and walking out of the bay, feeling utterly depressed at what was going to be a really boring next couple of days.

At that moment he heard loud laughing from inside the shuttlepod, as the two occupants were doubled over clutching their sides. Trip turned back and gave them the you-evil-son-of-a-bitch stare.

“You only had to ask you know,” chuckled Captain Archer. “Come on, we’ve already got your gear packed onboard and I’ve sorted everything out with Hess.”

“You enjoyed that!” replied Trip, trying his best to sound hurt, while not smiling in the process.

“Course we did,” laughed Captain Archer. “You’re just so damn gullible, it’s hard to resist.”

Trip playfully smacked him on the shoulder while settling down on the seat behind Malcolm.

Captain Archer reached for the comm. Link “Captain Archer to Hoshi, we’ll see you in three days. Take care of my ship, if there are any problems just give me a buzz.”

“Will do sir! Have a great time.”

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Chapter Two

Stepping out of the shuttle, everyone gazed around standing in awe at the planets virgin unspoilt beauty. Captain Archer thought he had never seen a more beautiful sight. Breaking the moment, T’Pol turned to the various officers, crewmen and women handing out data pads.

“You each have your specific assignments, collect as much data as you can then meet back here in five hours,” said Tpol.

“Yes ma’am!”

“Great!” replied Trip. “That should give us time to explore.”

“This is not shore leave Commander Tucker.”

“All work and no play makes Tpol a dull Vulcan,” teased Trip pulling a face, which caused the whole group to giggle like a bunch of school children on an outing.

Not impressed by Trip’s exuberant nature, T’Pol responded with the usual arched eyebrow, before dismissing the group.

---------------------------------------------------

Five Hours Later

Scans had been completed for the day, so Malcolm, Trip, Captain Archer, Travis and T’Pol were walking around admiring the beauty of the planet. Well Malcolm, Trip and Captain Archer were admiring the view; T’Pol was cataloguing all the various species of plant and animal life they had encountered. She admitted that the planet was aesthetically pleasing but it was not logical to use that as an excuse to cease being productive. Part of their travels took them to the deep lake surrounded by mountains, which Trip had noticed up on Enterprise while scanning the planet.

“This lake stretches for miles across. You can’t even see the other side,” said Captain Archer

“Scans indicated it’s about 20 miles wide,” replied Trip who was gauging the distance with his hand over his eyes.

“That distance would make it more of a small sea, rather than a lake,” said Captain Archer. “How deep is it?”

“I couldn’t scan the depth,” said Trip standing on the edge of a rock formation trying to get a closer look with his scanner.

“Be careful Commander, those rocks don’t look very safe,” cautioned T’Pol. “Yeah Trip!” said Malcolm who was keeping his distance. “Be careful you don’t want to fall in.”

Trip threw them the I-know-what-I-am-doing-look before turning around and asked Captain Archer, “Hey Cap’n, maybe we could go get our diving gear and take a look around.”

“Sounds great Trip,” replied Captain Archer. “I can’t remember the last time we went diving.”

Trip grinned with enthusiasm, not noticing that the rock edge was starting to crumble beneath him. He shifted his feet to climb the way back, when the rock edge gave way causing him to fall backwards into the water with his arms flawing.

“Son of a bitchhhhhhh!” he screeched before landing with a huge splash. “Well isn’t this just great!” he said in an annoyed voice.

Everyone was laughing at his predicament, even T’Pol had a slight smile on her face when she remarked “Maybe you will listen to me next time Commander.”

Trip didn’t say anything, but if looks could kill, she would have about one thousand daggers in her body about now.

“So how deep is it,” chuckled Captain Archer.

“Deep enough that I can’t touch or see the bottom,” replied Trip as he tried to grab hold onto what remained of the rock outcrop so he could get his foot up and climb out. Unfortunately his fingers kept slipping and he couldn’t get a grip. This made him fall back into the water again causing a lot of huge splashes.

Far belong, something stirred from its sleep. It was hungry; it had been a long time in between meals. Ripples in the water attracted his attention – something big was near the surface splashing around. Lunch!

“Is someone going to help me out or am I just an object of hilarity for your amusement?” asked a very annoyed Trip treading water so he could keep afloat.

It swam up getting closer and closer. Whatever was causing those ripples was big; it would keep his hunger at bay for a while.

Captain Archer took pity at the sight of his poor friend, “Alright Trip, hang on I’m coming.”

Just as Trip was about to reach up his hand to his friend, he felt something wrap around his leg and pull him under and down. He didn’t have time to cry out, one minute it seemed he was treading water, the next he was holding in his breath fighting to get free as he was dragged way down to the bottom. He kicked and kicked with his free foot until he felt his captor release him. He swam upwards with all of his strength, his lungs felt like they were bursting.

“Trip! Stop kidding around would you,” said Captain Archer as he saw his young friend go under the water.

“Don’t worry sir, he’s just playing around trying to make us feel guilty,” replied Malcolm who was now next to Captain Archer looking down into the water.

Trip burst through the surface gasping for air. Seeing his friends he raised his hand managing to cry out “Help!” before he was dragged under once again.

Captain Archer and Malcolm both looked at each other, unsure of what just happened. “I don’t think he is kidding sir,” said Malcolm feeling rather guilty and looking very worried.

Captain Archer stripped off his boots and dove in, hoping to god that he wasn’t too late.

Trip struggled frantically as he was dragged further and further down, but this time whatever it was that had him wouldn’t let go. He was panic stricken as he felt his lungs cry out for air. Just as he thought his time was up and his eyes began to close, he saw a beautiful vision swim up in front of him. This vision was a beautiful woman with long flowing hair, big blue eyes, a very curvaceous body and what looked liked a fish’s tail. She shot something into the body of whatever had grabbed him, which immediately quivered in pain and let go of its prey. The woman then grabbed hold of Trip and pulled him up towards the surface of the water at great speed, but by this time Trip had already drifted into unconsciousness. Just beneath the surface she let go and let him drift.

Captain Archer had dived about three times already, but he couldn’t see any sign of Trip. He was frantic with worry because time was clocking on for two and half minutes and he knew that Trip wouldn’t be able to hold his breath much longer. He dived under once more praying that he would find Trip this time. He saw something drifting, he swam down and hooked his arms around his friends body and began pulling him up to the surface. Once there he desperately began swimming for the shore pulling Trip with his arm hooked under his lifeless body. Malcolm reached over and helped pull Trip out, while T’Pol did the same for Captain Archer.

“Oh my god he’s not breathing. Get Phlox here fast!” screamed Captain Archer and he frantically began mouth to mouth, trying to breathe the life back into his friend’s body as Malcolm started vital heart massage.

A/N Please review. I would appreciate any thoughts and ideas that I can inject into this story.

TBC

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Three people have made comments

Great Start! Love to see where this goes. Maybe Trip is seeing things due to lack of oxygen to the brain? Great possibilities! :-)

This is really great, I also thought that maybe he is just halluscinating but when he comes to he is convinced he did see a mermaid ,but his friends won't believe him. Anyway can't wait for the next installment. Soon hopefully, thanks.

Hoping for a sequel so it can come full circle!