Did I Just See a Mermaid?- Part 3

Did I Just See a Mermaid?

by Hoshissis

Disclaimers in Part 1

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Chapter Four

Hoshi was at her station tinkering with the upgrade for the UT, which Commander Tucker had installed before arriving at this planet. She had been really worried at Lieutenant Reed’s frantic call from the surface for Doctor Phlox and when Liz in sickbay had reported back that Commander Tucker had been rushed in barely conscious after being half drowned, her concern had increased. Trip was a popular officer who you just couldn’t help taking a liking to; hearing that he may be hurt certainly raised tensions onboard because nobody wanted to see him hurt in any way. She was feeling a lot better know she knew Trip was okay and resting comfortably. Suddenly without warning a button on her station started beeping - somebody was trying to communicate with them but the UT was having a hard time trying to lock onto the frequency. She checked sensors on T’Pol’s science station, there was nothing on screen to indicate a ship had come into range so whatever this was must be coming from the planet. Hoshi’s curiosity had definitely risen; previous scans on the planet had indicated no sentient life forms other than small animals and insects. So who was trying to contact them and where were they? Hoshi double checked her readings again before informing Malcolm Reed, who was stationed in the situation room just offset from the bridge running scans.

“Lieutenant could you come over here please,” asked Hoshi. “I’m getting some strange readings that indicate something or someone is trying to contact us.”

“That’s impossible Hoshi,” said Malcolm walking up to her station, “all scans indicated that there were no sentient life forms or technology present on the planet.”

“That maybe Lieutenant, but someone or something is definitely trying to contact us. There no other ship within range and my readings definitely indicate the signal is coming from the planet.”

“Let’s check this again before calling Captain Archer and T’Pol to the bridge,” said Malcolm. “We don’t want to raise any unnecessary concerns.”

The readings were exactly the same, someone or something was trying to make contact and the signal was definitely coming from the planet.

“Malcolm to Captain Archer……….”

“Yes Lieutenant, what’s the matter?”

“Yes sir, can you come to the bridge, something has come up. I’ve already contacted T’Pol and she is on her way.”

“Okay, I’ll be right there.”

T’Pol had already arrived when Captain Archer entered the bridge. He felt much better after his rest and just before Malcolm had called him, he was getting ready to see how Trip was doing in sickbay.

“What seems to be the problem?” said Captain Archer as he walked up to Hoshi’s station.

“We’re receiving a comm. signal from the planet,” replied Hoshi who was busy pushing buttons and switches, “but I’ve not been able to lock onto their frequency yet.”

“Didn’t scans indicate no sentient beings or technology?” queried a rather confused Captain Archer.

“Yes!” said T’Pol. “Our scans didn’t detect any creatures that may pose a significant threat like the one that attacked Commander Tucker. Recent readings though by Mr Reed have shown that in certain locations, the lake being one example, minerals in the ground seem to be reflecting our scans back. So we can’t draw any conclusions based on our current data, since it is inaccurate.”

“We haven’t seen any technology at all and I think we would have spotted any cities by now if they were there,” said Malcolm. “No offence to Commander Tucker’s excellent engineering skills, but maybe the comm. or the new UT upgrade has developed a fault?”

“No offence taken Malcolm, have one of Trip’s engineers come up and run a diagnostic on the unit just in case,” replied Captain Archer. “Hoshi, if everything checks out okay, carry on trying to lock onto their frequency, so we can find out just who are mysterious people are. If anybody wants me, I’m going to sickbay to see Trip.”

“Captain!” said T’Pol, “about Commander Tucker, there has been some new developments on his condition.”

“What developments?” answered Captain Archer who, like everyone else, looked at T’Pol with concern in their eyes.

“It seems that the creature had poison tendrils, some of which have been injected into the Commander,” said T’Pol. “Phlox is running tests at the moment to see how bad this is.”

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Captain Archer walked into sickbay; he could see Trip lying on one of the far bio beds awake, while Phlox was at his workstation working on some blood samples.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” said Captain Archer sitting down next to Trip.

“Well for someone who just about swallowed half of the lake, not bad thanks,” replied Trip trying to lighten up the mood. He could see his friend was worried and even though deep down he was to, he tried to downplay his anxiety. “Thanks, that three times I owe you my life.”

“Don’t worry, I’m keeping count,” said Captain Archer in a joking tone of voice. “How do you feel really, you look a little flushed. Do you want me to call Phlox over?”

“No, I’m not that bad really,” replied Trip, trying to sound optimistic. “Ma leg feels numb up to ma knee and I’m getting shooting pains rushing up, but that’s about it. I don’t think I’ll get to be hop-a-long Cassidy yet,” he said laughing.

Captain Archer didn’t look too convinced; he could see Trip was in real pain – after all these years he could read Trip like a book. Trip had that kind of face which automatically let you know when he was lying, a fact that Archer had cottoned on to early on whenever they played poker together and he used it to his advantage.

“So what’s the prognosis Doc?” asked Captain Archer turning to Doctor Phlox.

“The poison is spreading rapidly, during the last 30 minutes it has spread quite substantially,” answered Doctor Phlox with a sad and grim tone of voice. “Nothing I have administered yet seems to have slowed it down. If I don’t find anything to counteract the poison in a few hours it will spread to your spinal columns, once this happens Commander, I’m afraid you will fall I a coma and die within 24 hours.

Trip turned white, Captain Archer looked like he had just been floored – they both turned to look at each other but no words came out.

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

TBC

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Two folks have made comments

Oh my God, the suspense is killing me. You cant stop there!!! Please continue soon.

This is cruel, leaving us hanging like this! Please continue, Soon!!!