Past Rewards, Future Torment - Chapter 8

Past Rewards, Future Torment

by Hoshissis

Disclaimers in Chapter 1

*****

Chapter Eight

“Sir!” replied the security guard outside the Phoenix’s mess hall.

“At ease crewman, are Captain McGane and his family all together in the Mess hall?”

“Yes sir, apart from the assistant engineer Mark, who has been accompanied down to see Doctor Phlox, they needed to restock their medical supplies.”

“Thanks crewman, carry on,” replied Captain Archer and he entered the Mess hall with Trip and Malcolm.

“Captain McGane, Caroline, Sara, I’m glad your all here,” said Captain Archer as he sat down with Trip and Malcolm next to him.

“We didn’t really have much choice did we, you’ve got your guards all over and we’re being ordered around and escorted everywhere. I’m not even in control my own ship anymore.”

“For good reason,” replied Captain Archer in a brusque manner. “Since your ship and crew have been onboard my officer’s life has been threatened twice. So no one goes or does anything without my knowledge until I find out who has been doing this and why.”

“Are you implying that a member of my crew is responsible,” asked Captain McGane.

“Not all of your crew, from the evidence my armoury officer has uncovered it would seem that you or Caroline seem to be the prime suspects.”

“What the hell do you mean by that?” asked Captain McGane.

“You both tried to take Starfleet to court fourteen years again for an official enquiry over your husband’s death,” replied Malcolm looking at Caroline.

“Well excuse me for not bowing down and kissing the almighty Starfleet’s feet,” shouted Captain McGane as he stood up and slammed his fist down on the table. “So what, I had a grievance fourteen years ago, I’m sure I’m not the only one and it sure doesn’t make me a murderer.”

“Trip also said that you have been curious about his career asking him lots of questions,” replied Malcolm, ignoring Captain McGane’s outburst.

“I was just being curious,” replied Caroline. “My late husband used to work for Starfleet, so I was curious about how it’s changed over the years, especially the Warp 5 Project and ship.”

“Normally I would have believed you,” said Malcolm “but I found out from Hoshi that our database has been tampered with and downloaded recently from the launch bay outside. I bet that if I checked your records I’d find a copy,” went on Malcolm to a very guilty looking Caroline and Captain McGane.

“So what’s going on?” asked Captain Archer, determined to get to the bottom of things. “Would anyone care to elaborate?”

“Alright, I’m sorry – I downloaded your database. I had to find out if it was you,” replied Caroline looking at Trip, “I had to know.”

“If what was me, I don’t understand what am I supposed to have done?”

“If you were the one responsible for my husband’s death,” shouted Caroline standing up with tears in her eyes.

“I have never killed anyone,” replied Trip trying to keep in his temper.

“Fourteen years ago you stopped an explosion at the Warp 5 Complex,” asked Captain McGane trying to sort the situation out.

“Yes, I was doing research at the time and I heard an alarm go off, which indicated there was a major problem with the internal pressure of the intermix junction assembly. I managed to get everybody out of the building and tried to rectify the problem myself until help arrived.”

“That’s where you are wrong,” replied Caroline, “you didn’t get everyone out; two people died – my husband was one of them.”

“I don’t understand!” said Trip rather confused.

“You managed to divert the explosion,” explained Captain McGane, “but in doing so, you also caused the emergency bulkheads to release earlier than they should have. Catherine’s husband and his work colleague were trapped in their office and suffocated from the smoke. We tried to get an official enquiry into their deaths opened, but Starfleet blocked us all the way.

Trip looked on shocked and dismayed at this announcement – shocked that two people had actually died by his hand and shocked that Starfleet had actually kept this from him all these years.

“Phlox to Commander Tucker……..”

“Yeah doc!” replied Tucker quietly into his communicator

“I need to see you in sickbay Commander.”

“Okay, I’ll be right there.”

“Trip are you okay!” asked Captain Archer looking concerned. Trip was pale; obviously this news had affected him greatly.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” replied Trip quietly as he turned around to leave, “I’ll see ya later.”

“So that’s what this is all about, bloody revenge?”

“We’ve not acted out any revenge,” replied Captain McGane, “I may not want to be civil to Commander Tucker after what he and Starfleet did to us, but I nor my family have laid a finger on him nor plotted to do so.”

“He’s right!” went on Caroline, “I may have hated his guts for causing the death of my husband, but all that’s in the past. I’ve managed to put it behind me and we’ve all gone on to make a good life for our self. Why would we want to jeopardise that?”

“If you don’t believe us,” said Captain McGane, “the Phoenix’s internal sensor logs should be able to verify our whereabouts of the last few days.

“No offence, but I’m going to have to take you up on that offer,” replied Captain Archer reaching for his comm.. “I have to find out who’s doing this.” “Captain Archer to Ensign Sato…..”

“Yes Captain!”

“I’m sending you some internal sensor data for the Phoenix. Can you get T’Pol to check this to clarify the whereabouts of Captain McGane and Caroline over the past few days?”

“I’ll get right on it Captain, it’ll only be a few minutes.”

“Thanks Hoshi!” replied Captain Archer putting his comm. unit back into his pocket. “Now we wait!”

Five minutes later

“Hoshi to Captain Archer…..”

“Yes Hoshi!”

“I’m sending you the results back now sir.”

Captain Archer looked at his tricorder with surprise, then concern –

“The results confirm that even though you were in Cargo Bay 2 two days ago with Mark, a fact which Caroline clarified, you were no where near the area when Trip was locked in. Neither was Caroline.”

“Vindicated – ooops sorry,” replied Captain McGane cupping his ear with his hand, “I don’t seem to hear an apology from anyone.”

“Bloody hell – back to square one.”

“May not!” said T’Pol, “you mentioned that Mark was in the Cargo Bay two days ago with Captain McGane; do we know where was he yesterday when Commander Tucker was locked in.”

“Mark has nothing to do with this,” shouted Caroline, “leave him alone.”

“Can you be certain about that?” asked T’Pol

“I think I know my son better than anyone, he would never hurt anyone or anything.”

“Maybe not!” replied Captain Archer looking at the new set of scan results that had just come through, “this shows that he was in both areas at both times.”

“Wait a minute, isn’t he in sickbay with Phlox,” asked Malcolm jumping up.

“Archer to Commander Tucker!” shouted Captain Archer into his comm. unit.

No answer.

“Trip!”

No answer. Malcolm and Captain Archer didn’t wait another minute – they ran for the door with Captain McGane, Caroline and T’Pol in tow.

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One person has made comments

What r u doing to me????? i been obsessivly w8ing for this, and now ure trying to kill him gain???? and heres me sneakily hacking the system while i work coz this is calss as entertainment so i aint menna veiw it. I'm loving this but suspense kills plz write more n soon.