The Kirghiz Steppes

The Kirghiz Steppes

By Mctrip7

Rating: PG-13
Genre: Suspense, Angst, Romance
Archive: Trip
Disclaimer: I understand that all the characters belong to Paramount and will not be sold.
Summary: It only takes a moment . . .

~~~~

Chapter 1

Katya was called “Daughter of the Wind”. She was often seen riding her pony, Pavo, with her dark hair flying in the wind as she sped across the beautiful green slopes of Kazakstan. She lived with her family on the Steppes in what was once called Russia. There was her mother, Lara; her father, Anton, and two older brothers, Alexi and Sergi. Her name was really Katrina, but her family called her Katya. (Pronounced Kat’ya)

On this beautiful spring morning, Katya was racing on foot across the grassy terrain with her pet mongrel, Titan. She fell to her knees from exhaustion.

“Titan, come back,” she shouted at the animal. “I’m out of breath. I can’t take another step. Come back! When I’m rested, I’ll race you to the river.”

The dog had stopped when she called, but he did not come back to her. He sat at attention right where he was. When she did not catch up to him, he began to whine.

“What’s wrong, boy? Did you find something?” she called to him. “Bring it here to me.”
Titan didn’t move but began to bark.

Katya arose and started walking toward him. Her teenage frame was slender and straight as an arrow, just like her mothers; but she had the olive skin of her father. Soon she would be a beautiful woman. Her name, Daughter of the Wind, fitted her perfectly.

“This better be good, my friend,” Katya mumbled. “I am tired and I need to rest.”

As she neared her pet, she could definitely make out the hand of a person. She stopped and moved ahead cautiously. There appeared to be no movement from the sparsely clad young man. Katya was now close enough to see that he was badly injured.

There was dried blood covering half of his face and part of his chest where his shirt was burned away. His left leg was at a peculiar angle and he appeared to have been holding his stomach. Katya had to turn her head away. She thought she was going to be sick; but Father had always taught them to think of the injured first. Let them know you care, be it human or animal.

Katya made herself say “Good Morning”.

The person stirred and moaned softly but did not open his eyes.

She turned to Titan. “Father, go fetch Father. Go!” The dog whined, hesitating. Katya repeated her order “GO!” This time Titan took off, heading for the farmhouse.

When she looked down again, a pair of the bluest eyes she’d ever seen were staring back at her. She wasn’t afraid. Through all the blood and dirt, he had a kindly face that only expressed pain.

She felt his forehead and he definitely was running a fever. She took her water bottle from her backpack and as she unscrewed the top, he attempted to rise up. With a gasp he fell back to the ground, unconscious.

She took a piece of cloth from her bag, moistened it and pressed it against his lips.
She repeated it and the third time, he opened his eyes again.

“Don’t try to move. Let me do it.” She slipped her arm under his shoulders and held the bottle to his lips. “Slowly, now. You can have all of it, but don’t try to drink it all at once.” She smiled at him as he took a sip of the water. “My name is Katya. I live near here.”

He tried to say something, but it only sounded like croaking. She gently eased him back to the ground.

“Don’t try to talk. There’ll be much time to tell me who you are and how you got here.”

He looked up, frowning. He didn’t seem to understand.

At the sound of footsteps, Katya turned in their direction.

“Oh, Father, I’m glad you are here. This man is badly hurt. He needs more medical care than we can give him here. Can we take him to the Village?”

“We shall see, my daughter. First, let me examine him.”

Seeing her patient’s worried expression, Katya quickly said “Do not worry. My father is a physician.” It was obvious he did not understand her.

Dr. Chekov took his ID Card from his wallet, holding it so Trip could see it.

Trip’s worried expression changed to a kind of smile as he noted the medical symbol on the card. He nodded his head.

Alexi, Katya’s brother, arrived just as her father moved the patient’s leg, which brought a gasping moan. “Alexi, we will need to make a stretcher,” the Doctor informed him. “There is some canvas and a couple of poles in the barn. Be sure to tell Sergi he is needed here, too. Be quick.”

Their patient could only watch, an occasional tear running down his cheek.

Doctor Anton Chekov had once been a very famous physician, having studied in Moscow at the University. Today he was a farmer-rancher. Since the Strangers had come into their Village, everything had changed for everyone.

He turned back to the young man. “When we get you to the house, I’ll have something to relieve your pain. How did you get here? Where do you come from?”

Katya spoke up. “He raised his arm when I asked him that same question, Father. I think he was trying to show me.”

As Commander Charles “Trip” Tucker, III , Chief Engineer on the Starship Enterprise, tried to speak, only a squeaky, raspy voice could be heard.

“Don’t strain your throat,” Dr. Chekov said as he felt around Trip’s collar bone. You’re dehydrated. You must have been here sometime.”

Sergi came running with the stretcher. “Alexi will be here in a minute, Father.”

Dr. Chekov raised his head. “We can’t move him until I have finished my preliminary exam.” To Trip he said in English “Do you feel pain when I touch your stomach?”

Trip nodded his head.

“How about here?”

Again a nod. “And here by your hip?”

That brought a gasp and then a nod. Dr. Chekov had already concluded that Trip had a back injury. He just wasn’t sure how serious it was.

“Sergi, we will need a long wide board . . .

“I have one, Father.” It was Alexi.

They were able to roll the canvas under their patient. They stretched it tight and lifted him up far enough to slide the board under him. Trip passed out. The Doctor knew they needed to get him to their dwelling as soon as possible so he could complete his exam. The swelling could be obscuring some of the damage. Katya put a cool compress on Trip’s forehead again. He really felt feverish.

Maman met them at the door of their dwelling. To her husband she said “I am boiling all of your instruments. You have not used them lately.”

After the strangers came to live among them, Dr. Chekov had cautioned his family not to mention his previous connections. These alien people had not wasted any time before becoming involved in the affairs of the local community.

They said they were from another locale on the Steppes. Their appearance was that of a neighboring community; however, Dr. Chekov had witnessed their arrival, unknown to them, and had informed his family that they did not look like anyone he had ever seen before. He did not tell them these strange people had arrived in what appeared to be some sort of spacecraft.

The rural residents were spared some of the infiltration, but they had learned to be cautious.

Dr. Chekov directed the young men to rest the stretcher on their long wooden table in the dining area. Katya brought a bowl of warm water and began to wash the dried blood from Trip’s face. Black and blue spots began to appear in its place.

“He must have been in some kind of fight,” Katya mentioned as her brother began cutting Trip’s shirt away.

“These are burn marks. Some are healing but these look ghastly. I think they are infected”, Alexi advised his father, showing real concern.

Dr. Chekov said “I’ll need you to assist me, Alexi; so scrub up. We will definitely have to take him into the Village, but not until I’m sure he can be moved.”

“How bad does it look, Father?” Sergi asked.

“It appears his back is broken; however, he can still move his arms and legs; so it may only be a small fracture. He should remain perfectly still on that board until I know a little more.”

It had been late morning when Katya found Trip, and it was now past midnight as Dr. Chekov pulled the light blanket up over Trip’s shoulders.

“Anton, you must come now and rest. I have some supper for you. Everyone else has eaten and now you must. Katya can sit with the young man. Come.”

“Lara, when you get that tone of voice, I know it is time to listen,” Dr. Chekov said as he took his wife’s hand.

“It’s serious, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Yes, his back has a fracture. Without an x-ray I can’t determine if it is just one, though. His left leg is broken as well as his collarbone. Both wrists are badly sprained and he has serious burns all over his body. It almost looks like he has fallen off a burning building – but there are no buildings out here in the countryside; and we would certainly have heard if there had been a big fire!

“Didn’t Katya say something about him raising his arm when she asked him where he came from?”

“She said she thought he tried to.”

“Could he have survived a fall from an aircraft?” Lara asked.

“I don’t think that’s possible. There is no oxygen, your blood would boil; but that would explain his injuries. We’ll just have to wait until he can tell us.”

A low moan came from their patient. Dr. Chekov looked at his meager supplies as he said, “He has to have another shot to relieve his pain. Maybe Alexi can pick up some more morphine at the hospital without drawing too much attention.”

“Oh, Anton, do be careful.

~~~~

Chapter 2

SEVERAL DAYS EARLIER . . .

Chaos reigned on Enterprise! As they were assuming orbit around Earth, they were caught in a tractor beam and boarded. They were expecting some dignitaries from Earth and were taken completely by surprise when the strange looking aliens swarmed aboard their ship. Enterprise’s unarmed crew was no match for the aliens’ scatter-ray guns. Travis, caught in the crossfire, tried valiantly to keep the ship steady; but in no time the aliens took over.

Lieutenant Malcolm Reed and Commander Charles “Trip” Tucker had just finished repairing the antenna array on the starboard side of the giant starship. Slowly they made their way to the airlock. With magnetic boots it wasn’t necessary for them to have a tether; however, it took time to move around.

As Malcolm and Trip entered the airlock and the door slid shut, they began removing their helmets.

“That sure must have been some meteor shower,” commented Trip. “Almost every rod was damaged.” Placing his helmet on the floor beside Malcolm’s, he said “Let’s get out of these suits and head for the Bridge. Communications should be back on line by now and the Captain’ll be getting ready to welcome the dignitaries.”

As Malcolm opened the inner door, he stopped dead still. Trip’s momentum carried them into the corridor. Ahead of them several aliens were moving at a trot. Hearing the noise behind them, they turned reaching for their guns. Trip and Malcolm were on them before they got a shot off and a scuffle began. The aliens were not a species they recognized. Trading punches, Malcolm was able to get a clear shot at his man and he decked him.

Trip’s opponent proved a little more elusive. In their scuffle the alien had raked Trip’s comm.. badge off and bloodied his face with it. As they continued to trade punches, Trip shouted to Malcolm to let the Captain know they had been boarded. Hitting the wall comm., Malcolm waited for Hoshi to answer. Nothing. After the second try, he called the Armory on his emergency line. Nothing. With that he turned toward Trip, who seemed to have things under control, and shouted that he was off to the Bridge.

Trip and his man had moved back toward the airlock in their scuffle. Landing a solid blow, Tucker attempted to drag the alien into the airlock only to have his leg grabbed by the alien’s partner. Tripping, he fell into the airlock himself. Catching his foot on the door, he was able to prevent its closing; however, the brute started kicking his shin and Tucker knew it was only a matter of time. He reached to hit his comm. button, only then realizing it was gone. He grabbed for his helmet, but it slammed against the wall; however, he finally retrieved it and stuck his head inside snapping it shut just as he felt the air moving. He clawed at the control panel catching some buttons as the outside door slid open. .

Frantically, Trip grabbed for the handhold at the bottom of the airlock. His momentum swung him under the edge of the saucer. He held on for dear life. With no comm badge and a damaged radio, he had no idea whether or not Malcolm had reached the Bridge. He began pounding on the door. No response. Mentally checking his options, he decided to try to make it to the launch bay. As he swung his body forward to have his boots make contact with the hull, his eyes were adjusting to the dark. He slowly put one foot in front of the other. Being upside down didn’t make it any easier, either.

After a few treacherous steps, he noticed a small object near some of the struts by the launch bay door. A pod! But whose? Right now he didn’t care. He began making his way toward it. As he came nearer, he could see how rusty and scarred it was. Could be space junk that got caught in the struts. From his position he couldn’t see any hatch to open or any handholds. He tested one of the struts. Finding it secure, he swung his boots down affording him a look at the far side of the pod. There it was. Making his way around, he grabbed the handle. It opened easy enough but what he saw gave him a start. There was a big metal box with colored wires and pulsing lights attached to it!

Trip decided “What the Hell?” He was already committed anyway and he couldn’t just leave it here! Talking to himself he said “Mal always said the red one was usually the detonator so save it ‘til last. The box doesn’t seem to be anchored to anything. Maybe I can just drop it into space. Re-entry friction will trigger it.”

Concentrating so hard on his task, Trip almost forgot the only thing between him and Earth was one metal strut about 3” wide. “Whoa’ there! Hold on, you don’t have a tether,” he reminded himself, continuing to talk out loud. He decided he had to get the box out of there, pull the wire as it fell and take his chances.

He propped one foot against the pod opening, the other still on the strut, and grabbed the box with his hands, pulling the red wire out as the box fell. Once the box was gone, he grabbed the hatch mechanism and pushed himself forward, falling into the pod head first. At that moment the big ship nose-dived causing the hatch to slam shut. Wedged in, Trip could hardly move. As he was struggling to reach the control panel, he wondered if the bomb had gone off, hoping it wasn’t still hanging on somewhere. “So far, so good!”

Reaching above his head, he thought he found the communications panel; but when he pressed it, the thing fell off in his hands and the rest of the lights started blinking. Nothing responded.

“Damn! Can anybody hear me? This is Commander Tucker calling Enterprise. Come in, Enterprise! Anyone! Answer me!” Nothing. Suddenly the big ship leveled off, then it started to climb sharply. Trip’s helmet slammed the side of the pod, fracturing. He tried holding it together, but he knew he was losing air. He had the sensation of falling again. When he tried pushing all the buttons and twisting all the knobs on the desk top, he became aware of things hitting the port holes – meteors. As dizziness slowly became a factor, Trip muttered. “Didn’t these aliens have to breathe, too? This bucket of bolts is going to fall apart if anything big hits it!” Suddenly the little pod started tumbling. “What the hell did I trigger with that last knob I twisted? If I could see those alien symbols, maybe I could guess what they mean,” the engineer mumbled as he lost consciousness.

The next thing Trip was aware of was that he felt like he was drowning. The pod was filling with water and was sinking. Trip pulled himself through the opening where the hatch had been and clawed wildly at his suit only to find that not much of it was there. He couldn’t breathe. Somehow, he managed to get his head out of what was left of his helmet realizing that his right arm didn’t work. It was numb. He tried to lie on his back so he would float. The water was ice cold. He knew he had to get out of it somehow.

The current was pulling him along pretty fast, so he must be in a river. He began to slow down, all the while using his left arm to paddle toward the bank. Finally he got tangled in some brush and was able to touch the bottom when he pulled himself up. He couldn’t put any weight on his left leg. It just buckled under him. After what seemed like hours, he reached the bank and crawled out of the water on his hands and knees. How long he lay there, he had no idea. It had been dark when he reached the bank and now it looked like the sun was setting. He was shivering. Some distance away he saw a haystack and felt that he had to reach it as soon as possible. Using his left arm and his right leg, he inched his way toward it, collapsing ever so often. He was aware of the morning sun and another sunset before he reached his goal. He was also aware of the empty spot in the pit of his stomach. After a while it didn’t seem to matter so much. He felt drowsy and dreamy. He was with friends, he knew, but he couldn’t see their faces. They were all glad to see him, but they didn’t tell him their names. And then he would drift off to sleep again. It was so nice to be warm again. In fact, he was getting hot.

Meanwhile. . . . . .

The crew of Enterprise was beginning to get the upper hand with the aliens until Travis slumped over his console. The big ship took a nosedive into the atmosphere. One of the aliens pushed him out of his seat and started pulling levers attempting to regain control. Enterprise began a steep climb. In the confusion Archer was able to toggle one of the switches to make his comments ship-wide. As the crew was alerted to the aliens, they grabbed phasers, put them on stun and went looking for the intruders. Within the hour, the MACCOs with the help of Malcolm’s security team, rounded up all the aliens. Travis was taken to sickbay.

On the Bridge, Archer had the one who appeared to be the leader by the collar as he said,
“Who are you and how did you get here? Where did you come from?”

No response.

“Hoshi, where’s the universal translator?”

“We’ll have to get them talking to have something to work with, Captain.”

After some coaxing, the alien leader began to demand something of Archer. The Captain smiled as he said “Let’s keep it going. Has everyone reported in?”

It was Hoshi who informed him that everyone except Commander Tucker had checked in.

Archer hit the comm button. “Trip, report in. Are you clear down there?”

Silence.

“Trip, report in.” Still no reply. “Computer, Commander Tucker’s location?”
Archer nodded to Malcolm, who was already checking with his Security Team. He left the Bridge immediately.

The computer reported that Commander Tucker was not on board Enterprise.

“Captain, Reed here. You need to come down here, sir.”

As Archer came toward the airlock, his worst fears were confirmed.

“Seems there was a struggle here, sir. Some of the buttons are broken. Things must have taken a nasty turn after I headed for the Bridge,” Malcolm informed him.

His voice deep in his throat, Archer murmured “This can’t be, this can’t have happened. Where’s their leader?” he shouted. “I may push him out the airlock” he said as he headed for the turbolift.

Reaching the Bridge, Archer made a b-line for the leader of the aliens. “I want to know who is responsible for shoving my Engineer out the airlock!” he said as he grabbed the man by the collar.

“I don’t know Captain. No one has mentioned the airlock to me, but I will find out.” The universal translator was working, finally, Archer noted.

“Kelly, check our orbit for the last 30 minutes. Alert Star Fleet! Figure as best as you can where Trip might have landed. Get Admiral Forrest. I’ll take it in my Ready Room. Oh, and Malcolm, take these men to the Brig and chain them to the wall, if necessary.”

Kelly, who had replaced Travis, nodded to the Captain. “I’ll be in my Ready Room,” Archer said as he left.

As Admiral Forrest’s image appeared, Archer said, “Admiral, we’ve been boarded by some aliens that are living on your doorsteps. I have about thirty prisoners that I need to beam down. The sad news is that one of them pushed Commander Tucker out an airlock. If you have been tracking our approach, you might have some idea where he could be.”

“Jonathan, you don’t think he might still be alive, do you? I’ll do everything I can from here. Send the prisoners down. Your Science Officer has the coordinates. Let me know if you learn anything of the whereabouts of Tucker. Forrest out.”

TBC

Continue to Chapter 3

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Four of you have made comments

Brilliant! I love the way you started with Trip being injured. I couldn't take my eyes from the screen. Plus, landing on an alien world which hasn't had first contact yet, that's something I've been trying to write for ages, and I've never got it right, you got it spot on! Good One!
The only thing is, in enterprise they don't have comm badges yet and they don't have the big computer thing they talk to yet either (I don't know what it's real name is, computer thing.)

Good story. Pls update soon!

Quite an interesting story you've got going there. It's an unique plot and I can't wait to see where you go with it

Good story; keeps one on the edge. WOW!

Neat story. Thought it was very interesting and well written and hope to see more soon.