Unexpected - Chapter 5

Unexpected

by Orion9

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

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Chapter Five: Reflections

The Bridge
Enterprise
1300 hours

“Captain, it’s Commander Tucker,” Hoshi reported from her post.

“Put him through,” Archer instructed with a nod.

“Go ahead, sir.”

“Hey, Trip!” Archer greeted cheerfully. “How are things on the planet today?”

“Can’t complain, Cap’n…”

Archer caught the slight hesitation in the engineer’s voice. He sat up straighter.

“Trip? Everything okay?”

“I … uh … Yeah, I guess I’m jus’ waitin’ for things to be over and done with.”

“We all are. Just hang in there a while longer.”

“Will do, Cap’n. … How’re the engines holdin’ up?”

Archer chuckled softly.

“For the last time, they’re fine. You trained your team well, so quit worrying already. That’s an order, Commander.”

“Yes, sir, I’ll try …”

Archer grinned at Trip’s resigned tone.

“We’ll see you at the palace tomorrow.”

“That’d be great, Cap’n. Tucker out.”

Archer leaned back in his chair, a slight frown furrowing his brow. He could have sworn Trip had something else to say. He made a mental note to ask about it when the Commander got back tomorrow. He gave a low sigh. Although unplanned, the break in their journey was not entirely unwelcome. It gave the crew a chance to carry out or finish whatever they had been putting off due to time constraint. He himself had used the opportunity to catch up with some long-overdue reading material and had even taken Porthos down to the planet’s surface for a walk a couple of days ago. Regrettably, they were neither allowed to go near the palace nor was Trip permitted to meet up with the away team.

The rather tense confrontation that took place with the palace officials over that matter might have turned out a lot differently if T’pol hadn’t calmly reminded him of an old human saying. He was glad that she did. When in Rome, indeed, Archer thought with an inward smile. They must have rubbed off onto the Vulcan more than he thought, although he knew she’d never admit to it.

“Captain?” Ensign Travis Mayweather called out from the helm, catching his attention.

“Yes, Travis. What is it?”

* * * * *

The Royal Zenandrian Palace
Zenandria
1310 hours

Trip flipped the communicator close. Malcolm’s distrust of palace security meant he had to report in twice a day, once in the afternoon and another time in the evening. Royal Suitors were not supposed to have contact with anyone outside the palace, but the Lieutenant had been so insistent about the whole thing that the palace officials had agreed to his demands just to get the Armoury Officer off their backs. Trip grinned at the memory of their collected sighs of relief when Malcolm had finally signed off. He had received the communicator that very same evening.

Unfortunately, they were not as lenient when it came to matters regarding weapons so he had reluctantly returned the phase pistol that had been sent along. Of course, he made sure the palace officials knew that he was extremely unhappy about doing so. He smiled. They had literary thrown him out of the conference room in a desperate attempt to stop his incessant complaints.

In a way, he was glad to have the additional security measures, although not specifically for the same reasons as Malcolm’s. It felt good to stay in touch, even if his reports consisted mostly of brief hellos and such. Trip squinted up at the lavender sky, using his hands to shade his eyes from the planet’s twin suns.

If he looked hard enough, he could just make out the really, really tiny black dot that was Enterprise. Knowing that she was up there wasn’t much, but the knowledge itself had helped him to cope with the fact that he was all alone, and unarmed, on an alien planet. Not exactly his favourite combination. After a while, he looked down and stared broodingly at the ground.

He had almost blurted out to the Captain, as well as the entire bridge crew, about the conversation he had just had with Queen Mylir. He had no regrets about his answer to her surprising request but it would have been nice to be able to talk to someone about it. Had the Captain been alone, he would have done so. He guessed he would have to wait until he was back on board tomorrow night. He wondered what T’pol would say if she knew. He gave a very un-Royal Suitor-like snort. Knowing her, it would probably be something to do with logic, probably with little comments about emotions thrown in for good measure.

Several attendants walked past and Trip returned their greetings absently, oblivious to the fact that most of them were wondering why he was standing alone in the garden at this time of the day. Some of them had even looked up at the sky when he did, though they were extremely puzzled as to why he did that. There was nothing there to see but a few small clouds floating by. Perhaps it was a human ritual of some sort – a very unsettling ritual from the feel of it, as it left the few a little dizzy once they finally looked back down. When the Commander had started to stare intensely at the ground, it only reinforced their growing opinion that humans were really a peculiar race. Extremely amiable, albeit unusually inquisitive and talkative at times … but decidedly peculiar.

“Ahem…”

Jolted out of his musings, the engineer suddenly became aware that he was drawing perplexed looks from a nearby group of palace officials, who looked curious enough to start asking questions. Strange, he had been seeing a lot of that expression on their faces lately. Desperate to avoid another conversation with them, which usually ended with them shaking their heads at him in exasperation, he flashed them a sheepish grin of apology and quickly disappeared inside before they could say anything.

Once the Zenandrians had lost their initial suspicions of him, they had turned out to be quite nice. While they treated him well, he wasn’t used to doing practically nothing all day, and being followed around while he did just that almost drove him nuts, especially on his first day here. He sighed. It’s good that this is endin’ tomorrow. Any longer and I’m gonna get a real bad dose of cabin fever.

Looking at the clock, he stifled a yawn and decided that he had just enough time to grab something to eat and perhaps a short nap before his meeting with the princess in the library. He hadn’t been sleeping well these past few days and he knew he could be somewhat cranky when that happened. Given his present situation, who could blame him?

As he walked towards the kitchen, he reflected idly about the other four men who had also been chosen. As far as he could tell, they were somewhere around in the palace, for he had heard them mentioned in passing conversations. But try as he might, he hadn’t seen hide or hair of any one of them since the first day. He wondered if it was just him or that they had isolated everyone from everyone else. Then again, it could be just simply because that their paths had yet to cross; not surprisingly, considering the size of the palace grounds.

Still lost in thought, he rounded a corner and was almost knocked off his feet when someone ran headlong into him.

“Oof!”

The Royal Guards, who were close behind, raised their weapons in automatic response. They quickly relaxed when they saw who the other person was. Behind her, the princess’s Imperial Guards lowered their weapons as well.

“Oops!”

“Whoa, Your Highness,” Trip laughed. He reached out a hand to steady her when she stumbled slightly as she looked up to see whom she had run into. “Slow down before you give our friends back there a heart attack.”

“Sorry, Trip,” she smiled. “Did I hurt you?”

“Nah … jus’ got the wind knocked outta me, that’s all.”

He knelt down beside her and looked her over.

“What ‘bout yerself? You ’kay?”

She nodded. He stared thoughtfully at her for a moment. The extremely intelligent but unusually solemn ten-year-old had been a regular companion ever since he repaired a toy for her. He remembered his conversation with her mother and wondered, yet again, about what had really happened. Perhaps she would tell him when she was ready. Right now, he’d just stick to finding out why she wasn’t in the Study Room, as she should rightly be. He raised an eyebrow at her.

“Aren’t you s’pposed to be studyin’ or sum’n?”

Xanindra giggled softly and put her finger to her mouth.

“Shhh! Not so loud! I told Jhanine that I needed some time to collect some data and feedback on inter-species marriages.”

Trip choked back a laugh.

“What? An’ she believed you?”

She shrugged.

“Not really. But I think she understood why I couldn’t spend today studying. Besides, I can always make up for it the day after tomorrow.”

He nodded.

“So whatcha plannin’ on doin’ then?” he smiled.

“Actually, I was just coming to look for you,” she grinned mischievously back at him.

She grabbed his hands and pulled him to his feet.

“C’mon, I want to show you something.”

TBC

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