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Past Rewards, Future Torment - Chapter 4

Author - Hoshissis
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Past Rewards, Future Torment

by Hoshissis

Disclaimers in Chapter 1

AN: Thanks to everyone that’s reviewed. Sorry it’s been a while for this chapter, I’ve started a new job, so I don’t have a lot of spare time now.

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Chapter Four

The next day Commander Tucker and five of his best staff were hard at work getting stuck into the Phoenix’s repairs – four were assessing the hull damage outside while Trip, Caroline and Billy were inside getting started in the engine room. Trip was really impressed with Caroline, she was pretty, great to get along with and even though she was a freighter engineer, she really knew her stuff. She seemed a bit leery of him, since he caught her staring at him on a number of occasions with an odd expression on her face, but he was willing to chalk it down to general boomer attitudes towards Starfleet. Captain McGane was another matter entirely; the looks he’d got off him during dinner with the Captain last night and today had been down right venomous and full of general hatred. Trip just couldn’t understand it since he had never met the guy before yesterday and he couldn’t understand what he had done. He tried asking Caroline but she had brushed him off with a weak excuse regarding stress and pressure, so in the end he decided to forget about it and just stay away from him.

“I’ve realigned the anti matter couplings and replaced their outside housing,” called Caroline who was working with Billy on the far side of the engine room, “do you want me to start the stream compression yet?”

“No the pressure flow is still too high, I need to check something first. Gimme a minute will ya,” shouted back Trip as he walked over to them, puzzled by the readings he was getting on his scanner. It was as if there was an energy source restricting the plasma flow, but there shouldn’t be anything like that there.

“What’s the problem?” asked Caroline.

“The readings indicate there’s a restriction……….. “ BOOM! Trip didn’t get a chance to finish as the conduit exploding right in front of him, careening him to the other side of the room, where he lay in a crumpled heap covered in debris.

Billy and Caroline instantly ran over to where he lay, while the four crew men, who were working outside, ran into the engine room after hearing the explosion.

“Don’t touch anything!” said Billy instantly taking charge, “We might do more harm than good. Call Phlox and Captain Archer at once and tell them what has happened. Sam get an extinguisher on that plasma fire. Frank run and get the heavy lifting gear, we might need it.”

“Sure, I’m right on it.”

“Okay, I’ll be right back.”

“Is he alive?” asked Caroline.

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to risk moving anything until Phlox arrives. Tell him to get a move on, will you?”

“He’s on there way now.”

Two minutes later Doctor Phlox bounded through the door with two stretcher carriers, taking in the scene in front of him. He immediately ran to the pile of debris under which Commander Tucker was half buried. “He’s alive, but his bio readings are fluctuating. Let’s get this off him quickly so I can assess the situation better.”

“Alright guys you heard the Doc, let’s get the Chief out of there,” shouted Billy. “Frank bring that lifting gear over hear, carefully now. Easy with that piece; steady! Steady! That’s it guys, just a little more.”

Finally after a long five minutes had elapsed, they were able to lift away a heavy piece of bulkhead that was blocking their path to fallen comrade. Phlox immediately ran to stablize Commander Tucker, just as Captain Archer, T’Pol, Malcolm Reed and Captain McGane ran into the room.

“How is he, Doc?” asked Captain Archer in a concerned tone of voice.

“He’s lost a lot of blood from a bad leg wound, concussion and a few broken ribs. I’ll know more once I get him to sickbay,” said Phlox as he indicated to two crew men to lift Trip carefully onto the stretcher. “I’ll comm.. you as soon as I get him stable.” Then without a backward glance he rushed off following his patient to sickbay.

“What the hell happened here?” asked Captain Archer to no one in particular.

“I’m not sure it all happened so quickly,” replied Caroline who looked pale from shock. “We had just finished replacing the anti matter couplings and their outside housing. I asked Commander Tucker if he wanted me to start regulating the stream compression, but he said no because the pressure was too high. He then said he had to just check something out and started walking up to the conduit, which then blew up.”

“Malcolm!” said Captain Archer turning to address the armoury officer, “Get some extra men over here to finish clearing all this away, then I want a complete investigation to find out exactly what happened. T’Pol, carry on with the repair schedule from where Trip left off - you’ll be in charge until Trip’s better. If anyone wants me, I will be in sickbay finding out how he is.”

“Captain!” said Captain McGane, “If you don’t mind, me and Caroline would like to help in the investigation. After all it is my ship.”

“Of course. If you will excuse me,” replied Captain Archer before retreating out of the room.

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God, he groaned, his head was pounding. It felt like a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. The feeling got worse as he carefully opened his eyes to the glare of sickbay’s overhead lights.

“Hey take it easy, don’t try to move too much. You’ve been unconscious for quite a while.”

Focusing on the voice and the tender touch of a hand on his shoulder pushing him down, he slowly became aware to the presence of Captain Archer sitting next to him.

“Are you in pain? Do you want me to call Phlox?”

“Na, it’s just a headache, ya don’t need to call Phlox, although I think ya should go looking for that star ship which ran me over,” smiled Trip, trying to lighten the moment. “Seriously, what happened?”

“A plasma conduit blew, which sent you flying before landing on top of you with a ton of bulkhead segments.”

“Ooach! Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Only you Trip, only you!” chuckled Captain Archer patting his arm. Then looking more serious, “Do you remember what caused it? Caroline said you were walking up to the conduit after noticing something was wrong on your scanner.”

“Sorry Sir, it’s all a bit of a blur.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll come back to you later. Why don’t you get some rest, you’ve had a bad concussion and lost a lot of blood. I’ll come back and see you later - I think we’ve got some things to talk about.”

“Yeah you’re right, I think it’s about time we cleared the air,” yawned Trip, “See ya later, Cap’n!”

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It had been five hours since Malcolm had started his investigation, and to say it was driving him crazy was an understatement. Something was just not right. It looked like a blown plasma conduit explosion and the debris was certainly consistent with one, but he was receiving some odd readings that indicated a foreign presence, which was out of place for an explosion like this. Captain McGane and Caroline had recently left to get a bite to eat in the Mess hall, so Malcolm decided to take a break and join them. // I’ll go and visit Trip in sickbay first though, maybe he could shed some light on this., // he thought as he walked out of the room.

“Hey Malcolm, how’s things,” said Trip as he spied Malcolm walking into Sickbay.

“A lot better than you that’s for sure,” chuckled Malcolm looking at Trip’s bandaged ribs and his plastered foot. “How do you feel?”

“Better. Foot still hurts like hell and I swear I can feel something wriggling down there. If I find out Phlox has stuck one of those god forsaken creatures down ma foot I’ll shove it where his sun doesn’t shine next time I see him.”

“Just hope it’s not one of those Rigelian Blood worms - last time Doc used them on my leg the bugger stayed put for a week. I was scared to go to the toilet in case it decided to pull a surprised exit.”

Trip just grimaced at the thought.

“Anyway I want to ask you something. Caroline said before the explosion you were getting some unusual readings on your scanner; care to elaborate.”

“Yeah, it was if there was some sort of energy source in the vicinity, which was causing a restriction to the plasma flow. There should have been nothing like that so I couldn’t understand why I was picking it up.”

“Hmmmmm…… you’ve give me an idea of what to check for now,” said Malcolm. “Get some rest, I’ll pop by later.” With that he turned around and walked out of sickbay, so deep in thought that he didn’t see or hear Trip say goodbye.


Back in the Phoenix’s engine room he began to search the debris and the exposed conduit for anything that could be associated with a power/energy source. Pretty soon he found trace readings of a chemical and numerous bits of material that were equivalent with the required readings, so Malcolm decided to take them back to the armoury to piece together what caused the restriction/overload/blockage. After two hours of painstaking work, he reviewed the result with a shocked and startled expression on his face; “Bloody hell, I think I’d better get the Captain, he’s not going to like this.”

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Please review. Opinions and Criticisms are appreciated.


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Four of you have made comments

Hi! I am from Germany and I love all your stories. This one is great. I am looking forward to the next chapter. Please update soon!

When you decide to become a published author, let all of us fans know! You are doing great!

Whoa! Yet another great chapter... Poor Trip... He's always in the wrong place at the wrong time... Can't wait to see what happens!

How did i know that someone would hurt him, love the story but why can't any one just be nice to trip for once.