Past Rewards, Future Torment - Chapter 5

Past Rewards, Future Torment

by Hoshissis

Disclaimers in Chapter 1

AN: Thanks to everyone that’s reviewed.

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Chapter Five

Captain Archer, T’Pol and Lieutenant Reed were all gathered together in the armoury.

“What do you mean an explosive?” asked Captain Archer

“When Commander Tucker indicated that he was picking up anomalous energy readings with his scanner before the explosion, I decided to check the debris to see if I could pick up a trace reading. I found these,” said Malcolm, pointing to numerous pieces of debris on his workstation bench. “When pieced together they can make a detonator. That anomalous energy reading suggests it can be powered remotely. Couple this together with traces of a chemical compound my scanner picked up around the edges of the conduit, which amongst other things can be used as an explosive, tells me one thing – this was no accidental explosion, it was planned. Someone wanted to seriously hurt or kill Commander Tucker.”

“Why would anyone want to kill Trip?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.”

“Does Trip know about this?”

“No, I thought I’d come straight to you first.”

“I suggest we keep this information from him at the moment,” said T’Pol.

“He has a right to know that someone tried to bloody kill him.”

“We can’t be certain about that. You said ‘it can’ for both the bits of debris and the traces of chemical compound, meaning a detonator and explosion is one aspect that they ‘can’ be used for but you’re not 100% certain, am I right?”

“Yes, but….”

“Until we can prove as fact that they were used as a detonator and explosive, we don’t need to cause Commander Tucker any undue stress or worry.”

“T’Pol’s right, let’s be absolutely sure about this before we say anything to Trip or anyone else. Malcolm, work with T’Pol to find out as much as you can about who could have done this and why. Report back to me the moment you find something.”

“Yes sir!” replied Malcolm, not entirely sure that they were doing the right thing.

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After the meeting with the Captain, T’Pol and Malcolm decided their next plan of action. While T’Pol was doing a further and more in-depth analysis on the debris and chemical compound traces, Malcolm decided to go back to the Phoenix – he wanted to investigate the whereabouts of everyone who had been near that conduit during the previous 24 hours. Even though he didn’t think any of Enterprise’s engineers had anything to do with the explosion, he still checked out everyone who’d had contact with the ship and, fortunately, they could all be accounted for. Next on his list was the crew of the Phoenix, which was going to be difficult since he didn’t know them, so he was going to have to be very discreet in his questions.

“Malcolm how’s Commander Tucker?” asked Caroline. She was sitting in the Phoenix’s mess hall having a cup of coffee when she’d noticed Malcolm enter the ship.

“He’s going to be fine thanks. He’s got some broken ribs and a badly ripped up foot, but it’s nothing the Doc can’t handle.”

“Thank god for that. I just can’t understand or work out why that conduit blew; we’ve never had any problems with it before.”

“Could you, Mark or any of the crew have accidentally touched or knocked something loose when you were fixing life support or could the blow out in the engine room have worked something loose?”

“I don’t think so. I fixed the life support systems myself and their not connected anywhere near here; same with the engine blow out, which didn’t affect any of these systems. Mark was in here last night working with Captain McGane on some repairs to the environmental systems on that wall, but apart from that no one else has been near here except me, Commander Tucker and your ship’s engineers.”

“Oh well, that’s Sod’s Law for you,” said Malcolm sitting down next to here with a drink himself. // Well, well, well, Captain McGan, // thought Malcolm as he quietly sipped his drink. // He’s got the expertise and he would have had plenty of time to do some tampering. The only problem is why would he want to? I think I’ll ask Hoshi to do a background check on him and Caroline. //

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Trip was resting back in his quarters. After much deliberation on his part and constant pestering by Trip, Phlox had decided to release him from sickbay on strict orders that he was to rest. This wouldn’t be a problem thought Trip, lying on his bed reading a book - he wasn’t quite feeling up to par yet as his ribs were still sore and his bandaged foot would need another couple of days of eel therapy before he would be able to walk again without a limp. Malcolm had called earlier to say that he would be round later to keep him company and watch a movie, so Trip decided to catch up on how the repairs for the Phoenix were progressing.

T’Pol had taken care of things while he was unconscious, but she had promised to keep him in the loop by relaying information, schedules and reports back and forth for him while he was convalescing. Her offer had really surprised Trip; it had shown him just how much T’Pol had adapted to living and working with humans over the last two years. Two years ago T’Pol wouldn’t have dreamed of making an offer like this, she would have said it illogical and a waste of time, doing the work herself and not bothering about hurting her colleague’s feelings. Slowly though, she had learnt to work with nasty, smelly overemotional humans, seeing how much pride and value they put into their jobs, trust and friendships. She had adapted to take all this into account to become an excellent First Officer and a valued friend to both Captain Archer and Commander Tucker.

“Hoshi to Commander Tucker….”

“Tucker here”

“Commander there’s a private message just come through for you.”

“Relay it to ma quarters Ensign.”

Trip hobbled up to his computer screen and pulled up the message.

Sorry to bother you but could you meet me in the Phoenix’s Cargo Bay 2? I think I have found something that will relate to the recent explosion in the Engine Room. I need your valued knowledge to confirm my findings.

Thanks
Malcolm

“I wonder why he didn’t buzz me on the comm. or leave it for later,” muttered Trip. // Might as well go and see what he’s found, // he thought as he limped out of the door.

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Phoenix Cargo Bay 2 ten minutes later

“Hey Malcolm!” shouted Trip as he walked through the door, glancing both left and right. “Malcolm!”

// Damn, where is he. I’ll kill him if this is a wind up, ma damn foot is killing me. //

“Malcolm, where are ya?!”

Suddenly the lights went dead.

Trip turned around to see what the problem was, when the door suddenly closed. Trip hobbled to the door and tried to open it but it was locked from the outside.

“Enjoy your tomb, Commander,” someone quietly responded.

“Who’s there? Where’s Malcolm?”

“He’s not here; I used him as an excuse to get you here.”

“Well I’m here now, just what the hell do ya want?”

“Why for you to die of course. Since you had the bad manners to survive my plasma conduit explosion, I thought I’d get you where you couldn’t escape this time. Oh, by the way, the little something I mentioned in my message will ignite in about 45 seconds. See how you like being trapped in a smoke filled tomb.”

“Hey!” shouted a desperate Trip as he banged on the door. “Open the damn door!”

All of a sudden he heard a loud crackling noise, a bang, and then smoke started to curl out of the main junctions and started to fill up the cargo bay.

Trip was panic stricken, “Help! Help! Somebody open the door!” he cried while banging on the door.

Nothing but silence greeted him.

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Four of you have made comments

Love your take on Trip and Malcolm, once again! Trust Malcolm to look into the backgrounds of McGan and Caroline to see if there is anything amiss.

Augh! What? NO!

Love the story, hate the cliffhanger!

Can't wait to see what happens next...

I love this story. But can't Trip use his communicator to call Enterprise for help?

like the others h8 hte cliffhanger, why can't someone let him know what he did?