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Behind Blue Eyes

Author - Thalia Drogna | B | Genre - Action/Adventure | Genre - Angst | Main Story | Rating - PG-13
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Behind Blue Eyes

By Thalia Drogna

Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters, I’m just borrowing them because it’s fun.

Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action/Adventure; Angst

Author’s note: This idea came to me while watching Trip’s ineptitude in combat training. Then I went to see Suzanne Vega and she sang “Behind Blue Eyes”, originally by Pete Townshend of The Who but also recently covered by Limp Bizkit, and the song fits so perfectly with what I had planned, I just couldn’t resist.

This is set post season three ignoring the cliffhanger ending, I’m assuming it all worked out and everything got back to normal. Spoilers for pretty much everything in here but especially season three.

Archive: yes to EntSTcommunity, everyone else please email me for permission.

*********************************************************

No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
– Pete Townshend, The Who

****

“You really could try a little harder, Commander,” said Reed. Standing in the middle of the exercise mat in the Enterprise gym.

“I’m doing the best that I can, Lieutenant,” replied Trip, who was currently lying in a rather undignified position on the floor where he’d just been thrown by Reed.

“I saw how Corporal Cole threw you onto that mat during our training sessions with the MACOs. Do you really want her to be able to throw you around like a rag doll?” asked Reed.

“To be honest, I wasn’t complaining,” said Trip, smiling mischievously.

“That’s not exactly the point,” said Reed. “You should at least be able to defend yourself properly.”

“Hey, I do alright,” said Trip.

“Yes, but “alright” could get you killed,” said Reed.

“Okay, Malcolm. Let’s go over it again,” he said and pulled himself up off the mat. Reed showed Trip the blocking move again that he’d been trying to get Trip to perfect. So far the Commander wasn’t doing very well at learning the move. Reed had been a little over-zealous on his last attack and sent Trip sprawling onto the floor. However the Lieutenant wasn’t about to be deterred by a little set back and he persevered, this move could well save his friend’s life and maybe those of anyone he was with. Finally after another hour of falling flat on his ass, the Chief Engineer had conquered the move and Reed was prepared to call it a day, feeling that they’d accomplished something.

“So tomorrow we’re working on target practice, right?” asked Trip.

“Yes, that’s right. At least you’re normally better at that than hand to hand combat,” said Reed, with some slight exasperation.

“Well, they don’t usually expect Engineers to have to fight,” said Trip. “All the training I got was the basic self defence stuff they teach everyone. It’s your job to be good at this stuff, Malcolm. Exactly how many times has anyone beaten you in a fair fight recently?”

“Never, although Major Hayes came close,” said Reed, “he was a good soldier.”

“Yeah, he was and he brought Hoshi back safe and sound.” There was a pause as both men remembered their colleague. “Want to get some dinner with me, Malcolm?” asked Trip as they wandered back towards their quarters.

Reed recognised Trip’s attempt to lighten the mood. “Why not,” said Reed.

****

A third of Enterprise’s crew had joined them after they had docked at Jupiter station and at least in Engineering, it was taking a little while for them to get settled in. That meant extra work for everyone else and Trip had been having a hell of a day. It was already two hours past the end of his shift and he was just wondering if he could get out of target practice with Malcolm in order to concentrate on the engine, when the com sounded. He was being called to the bridge. It had already been a long day and he was more than a little tired, but he made his way to the turbo lift and on to the bridge.

“What’s up Captain?” he asked as he approached the gathering in the situation room.

“We’ve been asked to change course and rendezvous with Columbia,” said Archer.

“The NX-02? They’ve only been out of space dock for a couple of weeks,” said Trip. “They can’t be in trouble already.”

“They are not in trouble,” said T’Pol. “They have a passenger for Enterprise.”

“A passenger?” asked Reed.

“Yes, a Colonel Darwin of the MACOs,” said T’Pol. No one noticed Trip stiffen slightly at the name.

“MACOs?” said Reed. “I thought the decision was that Enterprise no longer needed a military contingent on board.”

“Apparently Colonel Darwin has a mission for Enterprise. We’re to rendezvous with Columbia and then proceed on to a destination which will be supplied by the Colonel,” said Archer.

“Why can’t Columbia do it?” asked Trip, slightly more abruptly than he’d meant to.

“Apparently only Enterprise will do,” said Archer, giving Trip a look which meant he was wondering why Trip looked so nervous. “And we’re not doing anything urgent at the moment. I guess the survey of that binary star system will just have to wait.”

Trip had a sinking feeling that he knew exactly why only Enterprise would do and it was going to cause him a lot of trouble.

“I really don’t like this, sir,” said Reed. “Why won’t he give us the details of the destination now?”

“Apparently the mission is of a highly sensitive nature and they didn’t want to broadcast more details than necessary over the sub-space relay,” said Archer. “We’ll know soon enough where we’re going Lieutenant.”

****

It took Enterprise two days to reach the designated rendezvous co-ordinates. Columbia was waiting for them when they arrived before it headed away to its own mission. Trip had spent the two days wondering what he was going to do. He didn’t think that there could be two Colonel Darwins in the MACOs and, if this man was who he thought he was, he’d hoped never to see him again.

As soon as he met the Colonel everyone was going to know that they’d met before and then there would be questions. Trip had better think up some damn good answers that would fool a security officer as vigilant as Malcolm and his best friend of ten years. Both Reed and Archer were getting uncannily good at spotting when he was being economical with the truth. He hated this lying but there wasn’t much he could do about that.

He waited with Captain Archer apprehensively for the Colonel’s shuttle to dock.

The Colonel was a man of about fifty with greying hair and the build of a military man. He wore a MACO uniform which bore the insignia of his rank and more than a few medal ribbons.

“Colonel Darwin, a pleasure to meet you,” said Captain Archer, shaking hands with the officer in front of him.

“Captain, permission to come aboard, sir,” said the Colonel.

“Permission granted. Allow me to introduce my officers. Sub-commander T’Pol, my Science Officer. Lieutenant Reed, my Tactical Officer and this is Commander Tucker, my Chief Engineer.”

Trip decided that there was only one way to do this and that was to get it over with. He snapped off a salute. “Colonel, sir.”

“At ease, Commander,” replied Colonel Darwin, returning the salute.

“Sir,” replied Trip.

“That’s more saluting than you ever did under my command,” said Colonel Darwin, with a slight smile on his lips.

“It’s been a long time, sir,” said Trip and held out his hand, which was shaken warmly by the Colonel.

“It certainly has, Commander,” said the Colonel.

“I take it that you two know each other,” said Archer. “Why didn’t you say something, Trip?” Archer didn’t know what had shaken him more, the salute, or the simple fact that Trip hadn’t told him that he knew the Colonel. They hadn’t really talked about the up coming mission but it was very odd that Trip wouldn’t have even mentioned the possibility that he knew the Colonel.

“Well I wasn’t entirely sure that this was the same Colonel Darwin,” said Trip, hoping that Archer wouldn’t question him too closely on this.

“The Commander served under my command for three years. We were both in the Special Projects Unit. That was over ten years ago now though. You’re lucky to have him, Captain, he’s a fine Engineer,” said Darwin.

“Thank you, sir,” said Trip, blushing slightly at the compliment.

“Special Projects Unit?” asked Archer.

“Yeah, it was a combined-forces unit, we were based on Mars colony,” said Trip.

“Perhaps Trip could show you to your room,” said Archer, “I’m sure you two would like to catch up.”

“Unfortunately as much as I’d like to continue this re-union, my mission is urgent. I need to brief you immediately about the situation,” said Darwin.

“Okay, let’s go to my ready room, everyone else is dismissed,” said Archer, handing the Colonel’s bags to a waiting crewman.

****

Archer offered Darwin coffee when they got to the ready room, but the Colonel declined.

“I would like to say that it’s an honour and a privilege to be working with you and your crew Captain,” said Darwin. “When I heard what you went through to save Earth, I couldn’t believe it.”

“Thank you, Colonel. It was a tough few months. Although I noticed that your record is impressive as well,” said Archer “So tell me about how we can help you.”

“Unfortunately this situation is very sensitive and I am only authorised to give you a limited amount of information. My orders are to proceed to Deneb IV. We lost contact with the Earth Survey Ship Venture about a week ago now and I have reason to believe they came across something interesting,” said Darwin. He handed Archer a padd. “This is the confirmation of my authority from Admiral Forrest.”

“That seems to be in order,” said Archer as he looked at the padd. “What do you think they found?”

“That is classified,” said Darwin.

“Classified?” asked Archer.

“Yes, Captain. I’m sorry but I can’t give you any more details,” said Darwin.

“What can you tell me?” asked Archer.

“I guess I’d best start at the beginning. The ESS Venture was making a routine sweep of the sector when it encountered mechanical trouble and had to make a detour. Deneb IV was the nearest planet with a breathable atmosphere. They detected an alien ship crashed on the surface of the planet.”

“What kind of alien ship?” asked Archer.

“That’s what we’re not sure about,” said Darwin. “But if the information we’ve received is correct then there is the possibility that it could be a very important discovery and we definitely don’t want the Klingons to get there first. Anyway, the last we heard from them was that they were going down to the surface to make repairs and for a look at this alien ship. Then we lost contact with them.”

“What else can you tell me?” asked Archer.

“Not much, I’m afraid,” said Darwin. “I will tell you more if I can, as and when it becomes relevant. There is one thing that I must make clear, I am in command once we reach Deneb IV and I expect your full co-operation once my part of this mission has begun.”

“You’ll have it,” said Archer.

“I know, but it has to be said,” replied Darwin.

“I understand,” said Archer. “Why did you need it to be Enterprise for this mission?” asked Archer.

“Because besides myself, there’s only one other person who knows more about what we believe is on that planet and that person is on Enterprise,” said Darwin.

“Who would that be?” asked Archer.

“Commander Tucker,” said Darwin.

****End of Chapter One****

Archer tried to get more information out of Colonel Darwin but all he would say was that Trip had experience of working with this particular alien technology. Everything else that Archer asked was met with the same reply. Classified. Archer was getting very fed up with that word. There was nothing more that they could do until they reached the planet so he did the only other thing that he could think of and called Trip to his ready room.

“Captain, what can I do for you?” asked the Engineer. He was smiling but it definitely had a nervous edge to it.

“Take a seat, Trip,” said Archer. By his tone, Trip could tell he was in for a grilling and he sat down with apprehension. “I’ve been going over your service record. It mentions that you were assigned to the Engineering Research facility on Mars Colony but I can’t find any mention of you being part of the Special Projects Unit. Hell, I’ve never even heard of this Special Projects Unit.”

“That’s because it doesn’t exist anymore,” said Trip.

“I know, I looked it up. It was a combined-forces unit based on Mars colony. That’s all I can find out about it. It doesn’t say what it did and it doesn’t say what kind of unit it was. Which means only one thing,” said Archer.

Trip interrupted him. “Captain, if you know what it means then you know I can’t tell you anything about what I did in Special Projects.”

“I know, it’s classified.” asked Archer. “What on Earth were you doing that my clearance isn’t good enough?”

Trip gave Archer a look which said it all, there was a lot more to this than he was being told. “I’m sorry, but I can’t say anything about what I was doing,” replied Trip.

“Colonel Darwin is a MACO Colonel. What was he doing in charge of Star Fleet personnel?”

“Originally it was purely a MACO unit. I was seconded to the Special Projects Unit from the Engineering division,” said Trip. “It was only meant to be a temporary assignment, but it ended up being for three years.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me that you served with the MACOs? It could have helped smooth out some of the relations with the MACOs while we were in the Expanse,” said Archer.

“I don’t like to talk about the Special Projects Unit if I can help it, it raises a lot of questions that I can’t answer. It’s just easier if I don’t mention it. I mean, you can see what happens. People want to know what an Engineer was doing attached to bunch of MACOs and I can’t tell them,” said Trip.

“Trip, I know Colonel Darwin isn’t telling me everything about the situation that we’re going into and that could put Enterprise in danger,” said Archer.

“I’m sorry, Captain, but if the Colonel isn’t giving you all the details then he has a good reason and I can’t tell you either. He won’t put Enterprise in danger if he can help it,” said Trip.

“I wish I could be so sure,” said Archer.

“I can’t tell you what we did, but I can tell you that Colonel Darwin was a fine CO. I’ve only ever served under one better,” said Trip, looking pointedly at Archer.

“Trip, if you’re trying to get out of this by paying me a compliment, it won’t work. If Enterprise is placed in danger by your withholding information from me, I’ll bust you back down to crewman. Is that understood, Commander?”

“Yes, sir,” said Trip.

“You’re dismissed,” said Archer. He watched Trip go and then called Lieutenant Reed to his ready room.

“Lieutenant,” said Archer. “I want you to do some digging for me.”

****

Colonel Darwin sat in the quarters that he’d been assigned waiting for the inevitable visit. He didn’t have to wait too long. The door chimed and he called for his visitor to enter.

“Captain Archer just gave me the third degree,” said Trip, leaning against the bed frame with his arms crossed. “You could have at least warned me that you were coming.”

“Sorry, Trip, there wasn’t time,” said Darwin.

“Well, sir, you’d better spill it. What you doing on Enterprise and why do I have a distinctly bad feeling about you being here?”

“You always did have good instincts,” said Darwin.

“Seem to remember that was why you recruited me,” said Trip.

“One of the many reasons,” said Darwin.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I really had hoped that I was never going to see you again,” said Trip.

“I’d hoped I wouldn’t be here. How paranoid is your security officer?”

“Paranoid, but not as bad as you,” replied Trip. “He’s thorough but we don’t bug personal quarters if that’s what you mean.”

“Even so,” said Darwin. “If you wouldn’t mind…”

Trip sighed and pulled out a small black box from his pocket and flicked the switch. He placed it on the desk. “There, we can talk without being listened to.”

“I was just beginning to wonder if you were getting soft,” said Darwin and then related the story he’d just told Archer.

“Sounds fairly routine so far,” said Trip.

“Yes, except that the survey ship detected some unusual readings,” said Darwin. He handed Trip a padd.

“Hawking radiation,” said Trip, his voice little more than a whisper. “From the crashed ship?”

“Yes, and we both know what that means,” said Darwin.

“Damn, it’s just like Faranor,” said Trip.

“Now you know why I’m here,” said Darwin, “and like I told your Captain, you’re the only other person who has experience with this technology. We cannot let this fall into the hands of the Klingons.”

“You got that right,” said Trip. “What’s the plan?”

“You, me and a shuttlepod. We recover the technology and we get out,” said Darwin. “No one else gets near this thing.”

“Agreed,” said Trip. “I don’t want anyone else put in danger.”

“I don’t have to tell you what we need to do if the Klingons get there first,” said Darwin.

“I understand, sir,” said Trip, a dark, cold look entering his eyes.

“I’m really sorry to drag you back into this. I know that you’ve been working hard to put your time in Special Projects behind you. I’ve been doing my best to forget it all as well, but it is good to see you again. It does seem like a long time ago that I found you in the 602 Club,” said Darwin.

“It is a long time ago and you make it sound like I was a stray dog,” said Trip, “I know that you’d already been checking me out for days when you came to the 602 Club.”

Trip had just started working at the Warp Three Complex and was newly promoted to Lieutenant. He was enjoying being on the cutting edge of the warp programme, it was probably the most interesting place in the world as far as he was concerned. He was climbing quickly through the ranks, he was already the youngest Lieutenant on record and was hoping to be the youngest ever Lieutenant Commander.

He and another couple of Engineers were out celebrating his promotion and had been drinking for some time at the 602 Club. Being Engineers they were drunkenly going through one of the supposedly insoluble problems that currently beset the Warp Three programme. Trip had an idea about the warp coil that he thought would solve the problem, but his friends were less than supportive of his solution.

Ruby was as usual waiting tables and between explaining his theory on warp coils to his friends he was as usual guessing the names of Ruby’s children. Not that Ruby had any children yet, but she’d promise to marry anyone who could pick the names that she’d chosen. Trip wasn’t sure what he’d have done if he had guessed them, but it was a fun game to play with a pretty girl.

He hadn’t noticed that he was being watched from the corner of the room by a MACO Major and Captain.

“What do you think?” asked the Captain.

“He’s young, hot headed and arrogant,” said the Major. “Just what we don’t need.”

“He’s also a brilliant Engineer and old enough to understand the realities of life,” said the Captain. “His superiors only have good things to say about him and he knows how to follow orders.”

“That’s Star Fleet, not the MACOs and it certainly isn’t Special Projects,” said the Major.

“We need an Engineer for the team,” said the Captain.

“Yes, but not just any Engineer,” said the Major. “And you still haven’t convinced me that we need a Star Fleet Engineer or that it should be Lieutenant Tucker.”

At that moment one of the other groups of Star Fleet officers jostled Ruby and she spilled the tray of drinks she was carrying. The Commander that she spilt the drinks over was furious.

“You stupid girl, look what you’ve done,” he shouted. “I want to see your manager now!”

“Hey, it wasn’t her fault,” said Trip, going to help Ruby clear up the mess of broken glass and beer. “You knocked her.”

“Are you talking to me, Lieutenant?” asked the Commander somewhat angrily emphasising Trip’s rank.

“Yes, sir. I suggest you apologise to Ruby for making her spill all that beer,” said Trip.

“And if I don’t?” said the Commander.

“Then I’ll be forced to ask you to step outside,” said Trip.

“Trip, don’t…” said Ruby. “It’s not worth it.”

“The hell it ain’t. He’s being impolite and I don’t like it when people are impolite to my friends,” said Trip drawing himself up to his full height.

“After you, Lieutenant,” said the Commander. Trip began to walk towards the door but was jumped from behind by his opponent before he’d gone two steps. However his attacker’s advantage was short lived as Trip managed to get in a couple of good blows before he had his legs taken out from under him. That was all it took for his friends to get involved and a full scale brawl to be started. Ruby carefully extricated herself and got out of the way of the flying furniture.

“This should be interesting,” said the Major, watching it all from his corner.

Punches were thrown, furniture was broken, beer was spilled and at the end of it all Trip was left leaning against the bar wondering what had happened. Everyone else seemed to be either staggering for the door or out cold. Trip had a nasty black eye forming and was definitely going to be sore once the numbing effects of the alcohol wore off, but apart from that, considering he’d helped to start the whole thing, he didn’t feel too bad.

“Lieutenant,” said a voice behind him and he turned around to see a MACO Major standing behind him. “You’ve got a nice right hook on you. I’m looking for an Engineer to work on a special project attached to the MACOs. If you’re interested then come and see me tomorrow at 11:00 hours. My name is Major Darwin.” And he handed Trip a card and left the bar, the MACO Captain a couple of steps behind him.

Trip arrived the next morning for his appointment limping slightly and now with a full black eye. He’d argued with himself for the rest of the night and into the early hours of the morning as to whether he should take up the Major’s offer. In the end curiosity won out. He needed to know what this project was. Nothing could have prepared him for the reality of Special Projects and what he would spend the next three years doing.

He now looked back at the incident with some irony, knowing that five years after he’d met Major Darwin in the 602 Club he’d be drinking beer and commiserating with his current Commanding Officer on the destruction of the NX-Alpha. It had been Archer who had busted the place up that time. He certainly wasn’t the same man who’d walked into Major Darwin’s office that day, and knew to stay out of the fight this time. He could never talk about what he’d done for those three years with Special Projects, so he’d pushed everything down inside himself and ignored it as best he could.

Except these things had a way of coming back to get you when you least expected it. Everyone thought that it was only after the Xindi attack that he’d had trouble sleeping, in fact it had been going on a lot longer than that. For the first year after he was back on Earth he didn’t remember getting a full night’s sleep. It had got better after that, but he would still find himself plagued by nightmares on a regular basis. He’d just about got over the worst of his insomnia when they’d got word of the Xindi attack. Lizzy’s death had set the whole thing off again and made it far worse. If it hadn’t have been for T’Pol he thought he probably would have gone insane. Luckily the only person who knew how bad it had really been was Phlox and he wouldn’t say anything. Or at least he hadn’t up until now, but Trip did wonder what would happen if the truth ever came out.

“I’ve spent the last ten years hiding who I am from my friends,” said Trip.

“Well perhaps after this mission we can both finally put Faranor behind us,” said Darwin.

“It wasn’t just Faranor,” said Trip. “Every mission we went on involved something that I’m not proud of. I know why we did it but that doesn’t make it any easier. And then what happened on Faranor…” He trailed off, unable to finish.

“Antonia?” asked Darwin.

“Yes, Antonia,” said Trip. “We came back from Faranor, she didn’t.”

****End of Chapter 2****

Trip left Darwin a couple of hours later after they had thoroughly gone over the mission specifications, taking his little black box of tricks with him. Another thing that he thought he wouldn’t ever need again, but for some reason he’d kept the jamming device, and as the Colonel always said, you can leave Special Projects but it won’t ever leave you. One of the first lessons that he’d learnt was don’t talk about anything unless you can be sure that no one is listening in. So in order to make life easier and being an engineer, he’d built himself a jamming device. He was pretty sure that it blocked out any attempts at listening in and had put it through some extensive testing. When he’d been told that Colonel Darwin was going to be coming to Enterprise he’d pulled it out and made sure it was still up to date.

Everyone thought Malcolm was paranoid, but if they’d known some of the thoughts that Trip had they would have realised that Malcolm didn’t even come close to Trip’s level. Many people had commented on how easily Trip made friends with some of the aliens that he’d met, no one had ever wondered why he went out of his way to get to know them. They just assumed that he was the friendly type. In fact he was more working to the mantra “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” because in his experience aliens usually turned out to be enemies. Every bit of information he gathered he stored away for future use.

The only problem was that he was naturally outgoing, he did like to make friends, and occasionally that became a liability. The cogenitor had been a classic example. It had started out as an attempt to learn more about the Vissians, as usual the Captain had welcomed them with wide-eyed enthusiasm. Trip played his part well, equally wide-eyed, but studied his potential enemy at the same time. Everything had been going well, he’d befriended the Vissian Engineer and his wife, but when he’d met the cogenitor he’d let his sentimentality take over and all he could do was watch as his good intentions turned to ashes. Another death on his hands.

He really wanted to go and see T’Pol and talk the whole thing through while having a neuropressure session. He never would have believed it but she was by far the easiest person to talk to on Enterprise and the two of them now shared a strong friendship, perhaps more than that. His sleep had been seriously disrupted lately, ever since they’d got word of Colonel Darwin coming to Enterprise. However, T’Pol was a Vulcan and of all the people on board she was the one person he could never, ever tell about Special Projects. He could just imagine what her reaction to Special Projects would be and he wondered if she’d ever speak to him again. Why did this all have to happen now when the two of them had been getting along so well.

There was no doubt in his mind that he was as the Colonel had said “going soft” and for that he at least partly blamed Archer and the crew of Enterprise. These people were his friends. Genuinely his friends. Archer had saved his life more than once now. Lieutenant Reed, who hadn’t been taken in by his charm routine to begin with at all, had stopped him from sacrificing his life when it looked as if they were going to die in Shuttlepod one. Malcolm had called him his friend and coming from the quiet, reserved Lieutenant that had meant a lot to him. So gradually they’d managed to puncture the armour that he’d built up around himself and he’d almost forgotten about the dark world of the Special Projects Unit.

There were no friends in the Special Projects Unit. You relied on the other members of the Unit but he would never have called them friends. After he’d accepted Colonel Darwin’s offer of a special project, he’d been shipped out that afternoon to Mars Colony where he hooked up with the rest of the unit. His old Engineering division had been told he’d been seconded to Mars Colony Research Facility and that was what was going to appear on his Star Fleet record. He told the same thing to his family and friends and let them know that he might be out of contact for a while.

Special Projects wasn’t a large unit, there had been ten of them in all, including their newest member. He was the only non-MACO member and they didn’t let him forget that he was the outsider. These weren’t just any MACOs either, these were the best of the best. Each had been handpicked for their speciality. There was Carter, the weapons expert, Didier, xenolinguist, Arroya, the infiltration expert, Fenner, the pilot, Kanatova, their medic, Rush, the explosives expert, and Dempsey, the intelligence specialist. They were all crack marksmen and top of their class when it came to combat. Without exception they were some of the hardest bastards that Trip had ever come across, and that included the three female members of the team.

He remembered that first mission like it was yesterday. They hadn’t been told where they were going when they left Mars colony but they knew it was going to take three months to get there. That was how long they had to make sure that Trip was ready to face what they were going out to do. Once they were on their way, Darwin had given a briefing about what they could expect and it had finally sunk in just what Trip had got himself into.

Trip didn’t enjoy those three months, if he wasn’t training with the MACOs then he was reading up on everything that Star Fleet knew about alien engineering. Special Projects didn’t carry any dead weight, everyone had to be able to fight in any given situation. He was sure that the other members of the unit took special pleasure in making his training sessions as hard as possible, but he wasn’t known as Tough-as-Nails-Tucker for nothing.

One particular training session had been in hand to hand combat and he was being taught by Major Darwin and Captain Ellen Hathaway, the Captain who had been in the bar with the Major that night in the 602 Club and was the unit’s second in command. Captain Hathaway was a black belt in karate and an expert in six other forms of martial art. She was the hand to hand combat expert on the team and could even beat Major Darwin in a fair fight apparently.

The MACOs had very particular forms of style which they taught and it drew from several different forms of fighting. Trip was doing his best, but he wasn’t naturally a fighter so it was taking him a bit of time to pick up the basics. He remembered Darwin and Hathaway demonstrating the moves and then he tried them out.

“You cannot hesitate,” said Darwin. “If you do then you’ve lost the advantage. I can assure you that your opponent will not hesitate to kill you given the opportunity, so you must do the same.”

Hathaway was graceful in her technique and certainly didn’t hesitate. Trip was clumsy and really found it hard to get used to the idea that he might be required to kill.

“This is Special Projects you’re in now, Lieutenant,” said Darwin, “not bloody Star Fleet. We’re not leaving this until you get it right.”

“I thought you said I had a nice right hook,” retorted Trip.

“You do, Lieutenant, you do, but nice won’t cut it. I demand perfection from my men and that includes you.”

Trip spent the next three months being bruised and sore from all the training but by the end of two months he was competent. By the end of the third month he was giving Hathaway a run for her money, even if she still ended up winning their bouts. And he was damned glad of all the training when they reached their destination.

The Nausicaans had been preying on the shipping lanes for some time. It was an annoyance for the Earth cargo ships that made their way slowly through the star systems to their destination. The Nausicaan raiders would appear out of nowhere, attack the ship, steal the cargo and then disappear again. Recently however intelligence had got word that the Nausicaans were using a new ship, it was faster, had more fire power than their other ships and had been identified as a Andorian light cruiser. It was also causing havoc and was far more dangerous than the Nausicaan’s previous tactics.

Special Projects had been sent out to deal with the problem in their own particular way. Rather than simply destroying the Andorian ship, they were going to steal it, without the Vulcans discovering what they were doing. If the Vulcans ever found out about Special Projects then they could say goodbye to that alliance. The MACOs couldn’t get the ship out on their own though, they needed someone who knew what he was doing with a warp engine, and only a trained engineer would be able to do that. Hence they needed Trip.

As Darwin explained it, the plan was simple. The Nausicaans had a base of operations from which they launched their ships to raid the cargo vessels. It was built into a medium sized asteroid. The MACOs were going to steal the captured Andorian ship and then destroy the Nausicaan outpost, that way the Nausicaans wouldn’t even know to come looking for the lost ship and they’d have sorted out the problem of the raids on the cargo vessels too.

Everything went according to plan for the first part. They entered the base successfully without raising any alarms and then split into two teams, one under Major Darwin’s command, to plant explosives on the outpost’s generator the other under Captain Hathaway’s command to get the ship ready to leave. Trip of course went with the second team who made their way silently to the docking bay. Even though they carried weapons they wanted to avoid using them if possible because of the noise it would make. If the station was alerted to their presence there was no way ten MACOs could steal the ship from the hundred or so Nausicaans that were on the outpost.

The ship they were stealing wasn’t big, it was only meant to take a crew of twelve and could easily be run by half that number. However it had big guns for its size and an engine which was supposedly capable of warp four. It was also much better guarded than their information said it would be. At least ten Nausicaans stood around the ship with weapons held firmly in their claw-like hands. Hathaway indicated to the team to take them down by circling around behind them. So far Trip had stayed out of the fighting, letting the experts take the lead, but now they were outnumbered he was needed to pull his weight and put all of his training into practice.

Trip manoeuvred towards his target and hit the Nausicaan in the throat, killing the alien instantly before he’d even realised that Trip was there. It was the first life that he’d ever taken, but he didn’t have time to dwell on that. He took his second target down in the same efficient manner and made his way to the entry hatch. He pulled out an electronic lock picking device that he’d built for the occasion, he’d put it together after studying the Nausicaan locks Star Fleet had come across so far. It cycled through all the combinations until it found the correct one and the hatch snapped open. He signalled to his team mates that he was in.

“Tucker and Didier, find the engine room and get this thing working. When Didier’s given you enough to be going on, we need him on the bridge,” said Hathaway. All Trip needed was for Didier to identify the labels on the controls and then the xenolinguist would be doing the same thing on the bridge for Hathaway so that Fenner could pilot the ship.

“Yes, Ma’am,” said Trip.

“Get going,” said Hathaway. Didier led the way at a run to the engine room. Just as they arrived the ship shook.

“What the hell was that?” asked Trip.

“Good question,” said Didier. “Didier to Hathaway,” he said into his communicator.

“Hathaway here. We felt it too. Be ready to get us out of here quickly, I’m guessing something went wrong,” said the Captain.

“Corporal, I hope your Andorian is up to scratch,” said Trip.

“So do I,” muttered Didier. “Let’s get to work.”

It didn’t take them long to identify the controls that Trip needed, then Didier left him to figure out how to work the engine. Trip had never seen an Andorian engine before in his life and his reading hadn’t exactly prepared him for it. All he had to help him was some schematics and an Andorian crib sheet from Didier for basic engineering terms. Luckily even alien engines had to have the same basic controls as the ones he was used to, that combined with his experience of solving engineering problems and his instincts were enough to get it up and running.

“Tucker to Hathaway, we’re good to go,” said Trip into his communicator.

“Glad to hear it, the Major’s incoming and he has Nausicaans on his tail. They got into a fire fight after they planted the explosives,” said Hathaway.

“I’ll be ready,” said Trip. The next thing he knew they were taking off and he had his hands full with the engine and other systems. They felt the thud of an explosion as the outpost behind them was destroyed. It wasn’t until much later that he found out what had happened to the other team. They’d been planting the explosives as planned when a guard detail had stumbled upon them, Arroya had been stabbed and Darwin had carried her all the way back to the ship while fighting off the Nausicaans. He had set off some of the explosives early to cover their retreat, that in itself had been extremely dangerous but it had done the trick. Kanatova said that Arroya was going to be fine but it had been touch and go as to whether she was going to make it at one point.

When they were clear of the outpost Darwin came to find Trip in the Engine room.

“Everything under control, Lieutenant?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” replied Trip. “I need to do some more work to understand some of the finer points but I’ll get us home.”

“Captain Hathaway tells me that you held your own out there,” said Darwin.

“I did what I had to,” said Trip. “I guess it was worth it for this. She sure is a beauty,” said Trip gazing at the warp engine which thrummed in front of him.

“Yes, she is,” replied Major Darwin.

“I don’t suppose they’d let me keep her,” joked Trip.

“Well, maybe we can swing something,” replied Darwin and Trip hadn’t really believed that he’d meant it.

It was while they were taking the ship home that Trip suddenly found himself accepted as part of the team and invited to poker games. The Special Projects Unit didn’t accept new members easily but somehow Trip had managed to integrate himself successfully and Darwin was damned if he knew how. Perhaps it was Trip’s infectious enthusiasm for the new engine and his professionalism on the outpost that had proved his worth to the MACOs, but Darwin just suspected it was because Trip was innately likeable.

Trip had assumed that the ship would be going back to Star Fleet Research and Development, but Darwin had other ideas. They couldn’t let the Vulcans know that they had the ship so they couldn’t take it apart at R and D because then the Vulcans would wonder where the ship had suddenly come from. They could work on it in secret, but they still wouldn’t be able to use what they learnt. Darwin decided that Special Projects could make the best possible use of the ship, so it became their transport and of course they needed someone to keep it running. Darwin had invited Trip to stay and he had agreed. According to Darwin he’d only just broken Trip in and he didn’t want to have to go to all the trouble of doing it again with someone else. So Trip became a permanent member of the Special Projects Unit and there wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t wish that he’d walked away after that first mission.

****

Archer had asked Reed to find out everything that he could about the Special Projects Unit. Reed had protested at being asked to break into classified files and also at being asked to spy on a fellow officer. However Archer’s argument that it was for the safety of Enterprise had appealed to the security officer in Reed and so he had agreed.

It had taken him the best part of a day to crack the codes he needed to get into the classified files and then to find anything at all on the Special Projects Unit. What he did find shocked him to his core. He took his findings to Archer.

“Special Projects was a MACO black ops unit,” said Reed, handing Archer the padd with all the information which he had collected on it. “They took the jobs that no one else would do. Mostly search and destroy. Assassination of alien dignitaries who were unfriendly to Earth. Taking out alien bases of operations, that sort of thing. They were working in complete isolation, orders being passed down from high up in the government. Each member of the unit was hand picked by Colonel Darwin for their expertise in their area of speciality. If they were ever discovered then the government would disavow all knowledge of their actions.”

“And Trip was part of this?” asked Archer with disbelief as he scrolled down the padd.

“Yes, and I’d say he’s been lying to us for years about his combat abilities and probably a fair few other things. I can’t find out details of individual missions, just broad indications, and I’m still not sure why they needed him, but he’s listed as part of the unit until it was disbanded.”

“Lieutenant, we’re talking about someone I’ve known for over ten years,” said Archer.

“I don’t think that we can say that we know Commander Tucker anymore,” said Reed.

“He’s one of the most upstanding, open people I’ve ever met,” said Archer.

“I think we have evidence to the contrary,” said Reed.

“I’m sorry, Malcolm, I’m just finding it hard to reconcile the Trip Tucker we know with the man that worked for a black ops unit,” said Archer. “A unit which killed anyone that got in its way.” He flicked on the com system. “Archer to Commander Tucker.”

“Tucker here,” came the reply.

“I want to see you and Colonel Darwin in my ready room in five minutes,” said Archer, his voice devoid of emotion.

“Aye, sir,” came the reply. “I’m on my way.”

The two men arrived together.

“Captain, Malcolm,” said Trip, “what can I do for you?”

“You can tell me why, Trip,” said Archer, his anger barely hidden.

“Why what sir?” asked Trip, genuinely confused.

“Why you joined Special Projects, why you kept this information from me and why the hell I have an ex-special forces Colonel on my ship!” shouted Archer.

“Captain, that information is classified,” said Darwin.

“If I hear that word again then I will throw both of you in the brig,” said Archer. “We know that Special Projects was a black ops unit, doing jobs that couldn’t be given to anyone else. We know the sort of things that entailed. Now answer the damned questions.”

“I recruited Commander Tucker because he was the best in his field as well as being young enough to train. I was impressed by his determination and intelligence, and his record spoke for itself. We needed an Engineer because we were stealing a ship,” said Darwin.

“Stealing a ship?” asked Reed.

“Yes, it was Andorian,” said Trip. “She had a warp four engine.”

“You stole a ship from the Andorians?” asked Archer.

“Well actually we stole it from some Nausicaan raiders,” said Trip. “Anyway the how and where aren’t important.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about Special Projects?” Archer accused.

“Because I knew what your reaction would be. I’m not proud of what we did, of what I did, but it happened and I have to live with that every single day. But with the Vulcans holding us back at every turn it was the only way we could operate. If anyone had ever discovered what we were doing then there would have been hell to pay,” said Trip.

“Trip, how many Nausicaans died for that ship you stole?” asked Archer, quietly.

“I don’t know the exact number,” replied Trip.

“One hundred and twenty three,” said Darwin.

“We destroyed the outpost,” said Trip. He could still see the faces of the two Nausicaans he’d killed in his dreams sometimes.

“And how many other missions like that were there?” asked Archer.

“Maybe a dozen,” said Trip.

Archer looked at the man he had considered to be his best friend up until a few hours ago. “I don’t think I even really know who you are, do I?” asked Archer.

Guilt weighed heavily on Trip’s shoulders. He looked at Malcolm still sitting in the corner and then back at Archer. “I’m sorry, sir, there just wasn’t any other way.”

“If Commander Tucker had told you about his work for Special Projects then he would have been breaking confidentiality,” said Darwin.

“All you had to do was tell me that you did some classified work. Instead you lied,” said Archer. “Why are you here Colonel?”

“I told you, Trip is the only other person who has experience of what we believe is on Deneb IV,” said Colonel Darwin.

“It was our last mission, before the unit was disbanded,” said Trip.

“Let’s just say that it didn’t exactly go according to plan,” said Darwin. “And the less you know about this the better. If the Vulcans start asking questions then I’d prefer if you weren’t put in the position to be able to answer them.”

“He’s right, Captain,” said Trip. “You really are better off not knowing.”

“I can see that I’m not going to get anywhere with this now, but this isn’t the end of this. I want answers and I will get them. You’re all dismissed,” said Archer and he pointedly turned back to his screen.


****End of Chapter 3****

Reed was unbelievably angry, but also bewildered. He couldn’t believe that Trip had kept this from them for all this time, or that Trip, sunny, outgoing, naïve Trip, was involved with a black ops unit. He decided to go to the gym and take out some of his anger on the punching bag. He entered the gym and found the one person he really didn’t want to see already there and doing exactly what he’d planned to do. Reed turned to go back the way he’d come.

“You don’t have to go on my account, Malcolm,” said Trip, noticing the Lieutenant in the mirror. “I’ll leave.”

“No, it’s okay,” said Reed.

“You don’t look okay,” said Trip, undoing his gloves and towelling himself down. “I’m not exactly proud of myself for what we did.”

“You lied to me,” said Reed.

“Yes, you and everyone else,” replied Trip. Wasn’t the guilt already bad enough without Reed rubbing it in?

“All those hours we spent in here teaching you how to defend yourself, was a waste of my time, wasn’t it? I suppose you were laughing your head off behind my back,” said Reed.

“No, Malcolm, I wasn’t,” said Trip, completely serious.

“Well why don’t you show me what you can do, Commander,” said Reed, his tone dripping with anger and provocation, deliberately using Trip’s rank to remind him of the friendship he stood to lose because of his lie of omission. Reed went to the mat that they had been sparring on only a few days earlier.

“Malcolm, I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Trip, about to leave.

“Well I bloody well do. It’s about time you showed me your true colours, Commander,” said Reed and he indicated to Trip to take up the spot opposite him on the training mat. Trip knew that there really was only one way out of this. He really didn’t want to do this but he had already realised that Reed wouldn’t take no for an answer. Reed’s pride had been wounded and he felt humiliated, until they cleared the air between them it wouldn’t be right and if that meant he had to knock some sense into the Lieutenant then so be it. Trip wandered wearily over to take up his stance opposite the Lieutenant.

Right away Reed knew that something was different about Trip. First of all, his stance was perfect and Reed had always had to correct that when they had sparred before. Secondly there was a look behind his eyes that Reed hadn’t ever seen in Trip before. This was going to be interesting.

“Let’s see what you’ve got, Commander,” said Reed. He threw a punch and Trip blocked it. Reed was surprised but didn’t let it show as he quickly went into a sequence of moves that had always taken Trip down in the past. This time it didn’t work. Trip wasn’t where he had been half a second ago and Reed was off balance when Trip caught his kick and suddenly he was on the floor. He righted himself immediately, not giving his opponent time to catch him when he was down. Reed knew that Trip had to have received hand to hand combat training but he hadn’t expected him to be this good. This wasn’t going how he had expected it to.

Reed tried a different tactic, executing a perfect kick aimed at Trip’s midriff, but again it was blocked and Trip moved instinctively to block the next blow. Reed’s attacks were well executed and his technique was flawless, but somehow Trip was blocking every single one. And suddenly Reed realised Trip wasn’t fighting back.

Reed decided that it was time to pull the stops out. He’d been trying not to hurt Trip before, just teach him a lesson about keeping things from his friends, but so far he hadn’t landed a single decent hit. It was time to stop playing and get serious. He knew he was fast, he had the advantage of agility due to his smaller size, but Trip was definitely stronger. He attacked again, watching and learning as Trip deflected the blows expertly, gone was the slightly clumsy Engineer that hadn’t even been able to master the basics last week. Trip was now graceful and fluid in his motions, with the instincts of a fighter.

“Malcolm, we really don’t have to do this,” said Trip, stepping back from his friend trying to bring a halt to the fight.

“Oh I think we do,” said Reed, making a come ahead gesture with his hands. Reed was out of breath and getting no where. He was getting frustrated by Trip blocking his attacks but not attempting any of his own. “I know this isn’t the best that you can do. At least try and hit me.” Perhaps he could goad him into making a mistake.

“You really don’t want me to do that,” said Trip, still in defensive posture. “I’m warning you Malcolm, it’s really not a good idea to provoke me into something you’ll regret.” And then he added to himself, something that we’d both regret.

“What’s the matter, don’t you think I can defend myself. I am only the ship’s security officer,” said Malcolm angrily. Reed attacked again, this time aiming at provoking Trip into fighting back. Trip had no choice but to take the Lieutenant down and as he did it the old instincts came flooding back. He just stopped himself as he was about to make the final blow to his friend’s neck and realising what he’d nearly done, he pushed Reed away and pulled himself to his feet and made quickly for the exit, leaving a dazed Lieutenant Reed lying on the mat wondering what had just happened.

“Shit,” said Reed with feeling. For a moment that had been scary, Trip had looked different. He could have just told me. But then did I really have to do the Alpha male thing and pick a fight with him? I’d better go and find him. He’d been so angry with Trip that he’d forgotten about how his friend might be feeling. He obviously wasn’t exactly proud of his time as part of the Special Projects Unit.

Reed decided that the only place Trip would go was back to his quarters. He made his way down to B deck and pressed the bell. There was no answer.

“Come on Trip, open up, it’s Malcolm. We need to talk,” said Reed, not caring who heard him.

After a brief pause, Trip finally opened the door. He went back into the room and sat down on the bed, indicating the chair to Malcolm. Trip looked down at his hands but said nothing.

“What’s going on, Trip?” said Reed. “I suddenly feel like I don’t know you at all. I thought that we were friends.”

“After what I just did, I’m surprised you even want me as a friend,” said Trip, dismally.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” asked Reed.

“I couldn’t tell anyone to begin with. It was all classified. We all knew that the easiest thing was just not to tell anyone who we were. As far as anyone else knew we were a special research team. When the unit folded that’s what was on my record. Besides, it’s not exactly something that you say when you meet someone. “Hi, my name’s Trip and I used to be a member of a black ops unit.” And I just wanted to forget about it, pretend it never happened, go back to being that naïve kid who didn’t understand what he was getting himself into.”

“But why go through the whole charade of pretending to be inept in our sessions?” said Reed.

“How would I have explained being that good? I couldn’t go back to work at R and D after two years of supposedly being posted at a research station and suddenly be really good at hand to hand combat. Starship Engineers aren’t taught how to fight like I can. Then I was posted to Enterprise and I knew that you would have recognised my style a mile away. I was trained by the MACOs not Star Fleet. It would have raised a lot of questions that I didn’t want to answer.” Trip raised his head to look directly at Reed. “You know you said we’d been wasting our time with you teaching me self defence,” said Trip.

“I think you just proved that I was right,” said Reed. “You’re obviously far better than I am.”

“No, you don’t understand,” said Trip. “I was learning. I was learning how not to kill.”

“So that’s what you’ve been hiding all this time,” said Reed.

Trip nodded. “We weren’t taught self-defence like you’ve been teaching me. We were taught how to kill, efficiently and quickly. We were taught to fight on instinct. Kill or be killed. Most of the time it’s all I can do not to let that instinct take over. I’ve been fighting against it coming out for a long time and today I almost killed you. I’m not fit to serve on Enterprise.”

“But you didn’t. You stopped yourself,” said Reed.

“And what if I hadn’t?” asked Trip.

“Irrelevant, you did stop yourself,” said Reed. “You aren’t that person anymore, Trip.” He went and sat beside his friend on the bed.

“Three months was all it took to turn me into a killer,” said Trip. “And when I was told to kill I did it, without even a second thought, because I knew that if I didn’t they’d kill me and that would jeopardise the whole mission. It’s a terrible way to look at life, Malcolm and the scary thing was I just kept telling myself it was what we had to do. It’s been eating away at me, all those lives we took, I took, and until this week I thought I’d finally managed to put it all behind me. I’ve spent the last ten years lying about who I am and trying to turn myself into the person that I pretend to be.”

“You’ve done a good job, I don’t think any of us would have believed you if you’d told us you spent three years as part of a black ops unit. I guess I’m going to have to give up my “most dangerous man on Enterprise” title,” said Reed.

“Actually I think you’d better keep it. After the unit was disbanded I took an oath, I swore that I’d never kill anyone else, I didn’t want to be that person anymore,” said Trip. “There’s a good reason why I usually stay out of the fighting. I’d rather be killed than take someone else’s life.”

“What made you realise that wasn’t who you wanted to be?” asked Reed. “And why did the unit fold?”

“It was the last mission we were on, a lot of people died. Too many,” said Trip.

“More than died on the Nausicaan raiders outpost?” asked Reed.

“A lot more,” said Trip.

“And this has something to do with what’s on Deneb IV?”

“We think so,” said Trip.

Reed looked at Trip as if he was about to question him further, but then changed the subject. “You know, now I have a better idea of your combat abilities I think we might be able to do something about re-training you.”

“I don’t know, Malcolm, it’s pretty deeply ingrained. I’ve been trying, but you saw what nearly happened today. Most of the time I try not to fight at all, when I have to I’m constantly holding myself back and you know how dangerous that is when you’re fighting. If you think too much it gives your opponent a huge advantage. Maybe it would be best if I just gave up,” said Trip.

“No one on this ship gets away without regular combat training and that includes you. We’re just going to have to try a different technique. And we’ll start by doing a proper assessment of what you can do, rather than the show you’ve been putting on for us so far. We’ll start tomorrow morning.”

“Malcolm, I thought you hated me. I’m pretty sure that the Captain does,” said Trip. “Why are you trying to help me?”

“Trip, we don’t hate you. We were just shocked and hurt that you didn’t tell us who you are. It makes me wonder if you kept this from us, what else you’ve been hiding. It’s going to take a little time to get used to,” said Reed.

“I understand,” said Trip. “I don’t expect you to treat me like you did before. I know I have a lot of trust to rebuild. You have no idea how much I regret not walking away from Special Projects.”

“We all have things in our past that we’d like to forget,” said Reed. “I’m the one who launched the torpedoes at that lookout station on the moon of Azati Prime.”

“On the Captain’s order,” said Trip. “And to save Earth.”

“We still killed them. In cold blood,” said Reed. “What I’m trying to say is that you aren’t the only one who has to live with their demons. You need to talk to the Captain.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Trip. “I’m just not sure that he wants to talk to me.”

“Well maybe you should tell him what’s going on,” said Reed.

“Malcolm, I can’t,” said Trip. “Colonel Darwin is the only person who has the authority to give out that information. I can’t betray him. There’s a lot more riding on this than just my friendship with the Captain, or the safety of Enterprise.”

“You’re not under Colonel Darwin’s command any longer,” said Reed. “You don’t owe him any loyalty. He’s the one who turned you into a killer in the first place.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, I owe him my life several times over and one time in particular,” said Trip.

“One time in particular?” asked Reed.

“Yeah, let’s just say he pulled me out of a really nasty situation,” said Trip. “I may not agree with everything that he did but he was always real careful to protect the men under his command. On the first mission I was on, we were split into two teams and his team met a Nausicaan guard patrol. Arroya was badly injured and he wouldn’t let anyone else carry her, he did it himself. And he managed to get the rest of the unit back to the Thak Tikh without anyone else getting hurt.”

“Thak Tikh?” asked Reed.

“That’s what the Andorian ship was called. Means something like Storm Bringer, or Storm Carrier. The Colonel thought it was kind of appropriate so we kept the name,” said Trip. “The point I’m making is that wasn’t the only occasion he saved one of our lives.”

“I understand that you think you owe him something, Trip, but you need to decide where your loyalties lie. You can’t protect Enterprise and keep Darwin’s secrets.”

“I think I can,” said Trip.

Reed sighed and shook his head. “I hope you’re right. I just have one question,” said Reed. “After that first mission, why did you stay on?”

“One reason,” said Trip. “The warp four engine. It was a real beauty. At that point we hadn’t even reached warp two yet. I knew that if I could work out how it worked, where we’d been going wrong, I could push the warp programme in the right direction without the Vulcans smelling a rat. I was in communication with a lot of the engineers back at the Warp Three complex, or at least I was when we were on Mars Colony. They used to send me stuff about the problems they were encountering and I’d send them back my ideas on how to fix it. Nothing too obvious but enough that when I got back, it was less than two years before we had a working warp three engine and only another eight after that we had Enterprise. Without that Andorian ship, we’d never have got to warp five in less than ten years.”

“What happened to the Thak Tikh?” asked Reed.

“It was destroyed,” said Trip. No matter what Reed said, Trip wouldn’t tell him how.

****

Trip was surprised when shortly after Malcolm left, Archer arrived at his door. Trip offered him a chair but he declined, preferring to stare out of the window.

“You’ll get out there some day,” said Archer.

“What?” asked Trip.

“When AG and I were about to take out the NX-Beta, you wanted to come along and I said to you “you’ll get out there some day.” Except that I didn’t need to bother, did I? Because by that point you’d already been out there,” said Archer. “Hadn’t you?”

“Yes, sir,” said Trip, miserably.

“When I met you, I thought that you were aiming for the same thing that I was. That you were an explorer. Someone who wanted to see the universe just as much as I did,” said Archer. “I couldn’t have been more wrong, could I?”

“You don’t understand, sir,” said Trip. “I did want to get out there and explore, even more so after what I’d seen.”

“You’ve spent ten years lying to me about who you are, why should I believe anything you say?”

“Because the ten years that I’ve known you have been the best ten years of my life. The only reason I didn’t tell you was because I couldn’t. If I’d had my way then you never would have found out, but if I’ve learnt anything it’s that fate has this great curve ball that she throws.”

“So you would have kept quiet about your past if Colonel Darwin hadn’t come aboard,” said Archer.

“Yes, Captain, I would have,” said Trip.

“Damn it, Trip, that just makes it worse,” said Archer. “How am I ever going to be able to trust you again?”

“Look, I know Colonel Darwin needs me for this mission, but after that my resignation will be on your desk,” said Trip, his tone one of someone who had seen this coming for a long time.

“I don’t want your resignation, Trip, I want an explanation,” said Archer.

“You don’t?” asked Trip, not believing what Archer had just said.

“We’ve been friends a long time. I won’t pretend that I’m not disappointed in you or hurt that you never felt you could tell me about this. I won’t pretend that I like what Special Projects stands for and I won’t pretend that I can just forget about this and move on. Friendships are based on trust and I’ve just discovered that you aren’t who I thought you were. You never have been. But you’re still my Chief Engineer and I’ve never had opportunity to fault your work.”

“What are you saying?” asked Trip, his eyes were full of hurt.

“I’m saying that you can keep your job, Trip. At the moment I’m not so sure about our friendship,” said Archer.

“Captain, the only reason I kept all this from you was because it was classified. I couldn’t tell anyone. If you knew some of the things that I know then you’d have trouble sleeping at nights. I was protecting you,” said Trip.

“Were you really?” asked Archer. “Or were you protecting yourself and Colonel Darwin?”

“I won’t say that wasn’t a factor too, but the less you know the less you can tell. I didn’t ever want to put you or any of my friends in a position where they might have to lie for me. It’s bad enough that I had to lie without anyone else getting caught up in this,” replied Trip.

“Just tell me what this is all about, Trip,” said Archer. “What do you and Darwin think is on Deneb IV?”

“You’ll have to ask the Colonel, sir,” said Trip.

Archer shook his head. “Trip, I’m giving you a chance to make things right between us.”

“Please, Captain, don’t use our friendship against me,” said Trip.

“What about Enterprise and her crew? You’re letting them go into this situation blind,” said Archer.

“Sir, you just have to trust me when I tell you that neither myself nor Colonel Darwin would intentionally put Enterprise in any danger,” said Trip.

“Trust is a commodity that’s rather thin on the ground at the moment,” said Archer, and with that final remark he walked out of Trip’s quarters.

Trip sank down on his chair and put his head in his hands. How could everything have gone so wrong so quickly? Only last week he’d been looking forward to the prospect of studying a new planet, perhaps getting to stretch his legs under an alien sun, maybe camping out with the Captain and Malcolm. A few beers and some poker around the camp fire. That certainly wasn’t going to happen any time soon. He’d be lucky if it ever happened again. He’d screwed this up completely, but he wasn’t sure what else he could have done.

Archer may not want his resignation but as soon as this was over Trip would be leaving Enterprise.

****End of Chapter 4****

Darwin and Trip sat in Trip’s quarters, the jamming device once more on the desk. This time Trip was pretty sure that Malcolm would be attempting to monitor their conversation. Even if Malcolm didn’t expect Trip to give up his confidences, he would regard a little spying as fair game. The Captain might even have ordered it with their friendship in tatters as it was.

They had been going through the readings that the ESS Venture had taken in the hope of spotting something new but in Trip’s opinion there wasn’t anything there to spot. After his earlier argument with the Captain, his mind wasn’t exactly on the job either. He found himself between the proverbial rock and hard place. Darwin was one of the finest officers that Trip had ever served with and he trusted him with his life, the two of them had a lot of history that couldn’t be ignored. Equally he couldn’t think of anyone he respected more than Archer, if anyone deserved his loyalty it was the Captain and he’d proved that many times over.

He had desperately wanted to tell Archer about Faranor and what had happened there, he knew it was the only way to even begin mending their friendship, but he couldn’t go against Colonel Darwin’s orders. Giving up confidential information was just something that an ex-Special Projects officer didn’t do. It worried him that Archer was persistent and he didn’t like being kept in the dark, which could lead him into doing something that might get him into trouble.

“Archer isn’t going to take no for an answer, you know,” said Trip to his former Commanding Officer.

“We don’t have any choice, Trip,” said Darwin. “If the Vulcans start asking questions then we can’t have Archer giving them the answers. And if the Klingons get word of this…”

“I know,” said Trip, “I know. It’s just that he’s been my friend for long time and I hate keeping things from him. He’s pretty mad and I guess I’ve lost his friendship for good.”

“I don’t have to tell you that this is more important than one friendship. You know what will happen if we can’t deal with that ship. Faranor will be nothing compared to Deneb IV,” said Darwin.

“At least Deneb IV isn’t inhabited,” said Trip. Other planets in the system were though.

“Thank Ares for small mercies in war,” said Darwin.

“This isn’t war,” said Trip.

“I thought I taught you better than that. It’s always war out here. If it isn’t the Klingons then it’s space itself,” said Darwin.

“Colonel, I’m not Special Projects anymore, that was a long time ago. Enterprise isn’t out here to destroy threats, it’s here to make allies and explore,” said Trip. “The work we’re doing out here is the only reason that I can sleep at nights. This is my way of making up for all those lives we took.”

“When we stole the Thak Tikh it was to save lives, to stop the Nausicaans from attacking our cargo ships. People were dying. The universe isn’t a nice place,” said Darwin.

“No one knows that better than the crew of this ship. I’m just saying that maybe we shouldn’t be applying Special Projects tactics to a situation which doesn’t need them. Earth has warp five capable ships now, we aren’t stuck back on Earth worrying about trouble coming to find us,” said Trip. “Things are different out here now.”

“You lost a third of your crew in the Expanse. Things don’t seem to be that different to me,” said Darwin.

“The difference is that we signed a peace treaty with the Xindi and worked with them against the real threat. The person who made the difference was Captain Archer,” said Trip.

****

It was still a couple of days until they would reach Deneb IV. Trip hadn’t been able to sleep properly since Colonel Darwin had come aboard and it was beginning to effect his work. His relationship with Archer was more frosty than ever. The Captain barely spoke to him if he could help it and Trip was beginning to feel increasingly isolated. So he did what he usually did and threw himself into his work, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d left Engineering. What little sleep he had been able to get had been slumped over a work bench. His stomach had long since stopped complaining that it hadn’t been given any food for a while.

A small voice told him that this was exactly what he’d done when Lizzie had died and it hadn’t helped then. At least he’d always had his friends to help him through that, even if he hadn’t always been prepared to acknowledge their help. Ironically it was the loss of that friendship which he now found he couldn’t deal with. No one could help him deal with his nightmares this time. As Deneb IV got closer he felt the oppressive weight of his past transgressions baring down on him more and more heavily.

Trip had finally gone to see Phlox. All he wanted was a sleeping pill, but of course the Denobulan wanted to know why. Trip didn’t want to tell him all the ins and outs of his argument with Archer or let anyone else in on the secret of his past.

“Commander, if you won’t tell me anything, then I can’t help you. I refuse to prescribe medication without the full facts,” said Phlox. “If you’re not sleeping then I suggest you go and see T’Pol and resume your neuropressure sessions.”

Trip had been avoiding T’Pol. He knew Archer would probably have given her Malcolm’s report on the Special Projects Unit and he just couldn’t face her. Neuropressure was out at the moment. He mumbled something by way of an excuse to Phlox and left sickbay.

Phlox watched Trip leave and then went to the comm. “Phlox to Sub-commander T’Pol.”

“Yes, doctor,” said T’Pol.

“When did you last see Commander Tucker?” asked Phlox.

“I have not seen the Commander for several days. I believe he may be avoiding me,” said T’Pol.

“Interesting,” said Phlox. “I think he may require your help, T’Pol. Perhaps you could schedule a neuropressure session with him for this evening?”

“If you think it is required,” said T’Pol.

“I think it is,” replied Phlox. Trip had definitely looked as if he needed someone to talk to.

****

T’Pol went looking for Trip and was directed to a jeffries tube just off Engineering by one of his staff. She located him easily from the loud cursing emanating from the jeffries tube.

“Commander,” she said entering the jeffries tube. Trip was startled and hit his head on the roof of the tube as he sat up a bit too quickly, which elicited another curse.

“T’Pol!” he said in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

T’Pol took in the sight in front of her. Trip looked like he hadn’t slept for a week and unusually he had a couple of millimetres of stubble growth on his chin. “The doctor asked me to talk with you.”

“He did, huh?” asked Trip. He didn’t like where this was going at all, the last thing he wanted was people thinking he couldn’t look after himself, especially T’Pol.

“He suggested that you may require further neuropressure. I am off duty and you are meant to be. We could go to my quarters,” said T’Pol.

Trip looked at T’Pol trying to gauge how much she knew. “Have you spoken to the Captain?”

“Yes, he appraised me of the situation, including your history with the Special Projects Unit,” said T’Pol. She was her usual calm self and Trip wasn’t detecting any of the revulsion that he had expected from her.

“What did he tell you about what Special Projects did?” asked Trip.

“He indicated that it was a Unit working on classified missions and that you had received training appropriate to that. This seemed to disturb him,” said T’Pol.

“He was talking about combat training, T’Pol,” said Trip.

“I assumed so,” said T’Pol.

“It doesn’t bother you?” asked Trip.

“It is unexpected, however I am familiar with the procedure of secrecy for covert operations. It would have been a break with procedure for you to have told us of your previous assignment,” said T’Pol.

“That wasn’t what I was talking about,” said Trip.

“I understand that your work involved combat and that meant you were forced to take the lives of others,” said T’Pol.

“And you’re still talking to me?” asked Trip, slightly incredulous.

“Before I was assigned to Enterprise I was a officer of the Vulcan Security Directorate. I was forced to kill a fugitive that I had been chasing,” said T’Pol. Her voice was steady but her eyes indicated just how deeply that had effected her. “It was some time before I accepted that there are situations in which I might be required to take life. It was the logical course of action under the circumstances. There are times when the loss of life is unavoidable. It was many years later before I was able to put the incident behind me.”

“But you did put it behind you?” asked Trip.

“Yes, I was finally able to,” said T’Pol.

“I wish I could,” said Trip.

“I do not believe that you would be an ethical human being if you were able to deal with it easily,” said T’Pol and paused for a second to see if Trip would respond. When he didn’t she added, “We should go and begin our neuropressure session.”

“Okay, T’Pol,” said Trip with resignation. They climbed out of the jeffries tube. He knew T’Pol was trying to help him but he just didn’t think that neuropressure would do the trick this time. The single life that T’Pol had taken didn’t compare to the number that Trip had taken. He wasn’t sure that she was right about taking life being the only way sometimes either, he had to believe that there were multiple solutions to any problem and killing wasn’t one that he was prepared to entertain anymore.

Trip could already feel how tired he was even before they reached T’Pol’s quarters. He stripped off the top half of his uniform and tied the arms around his waist. It wasn’t exactly the best attire for neuropressure but he didn’t want to go and change and take up more of T’Pol’s time. She was already doing him a big favour.

T’Pol started the neuropressure, but they didn’t get very far. Trip was so tired that he fell asleep on the floor of T’Pol’s quarters. T’Pol looked at him, assessing whether to wake him, but he had obviously been very tired. He had never fallen asleep during their sessions before, other things had happened but not this. She went to her cupboard and retrieved a grey Star Fleet general issue blanket and carefully draped it over the quiet form on her floor. She gently repositioned the pillow under his head so that it was in a more comfortable position. He didn’t even stir at her ministrations.

Being tired herself, she lay down on her bunk, watching the rise and fall of her unexpected room mate’s chest. This was a man of contradictions, so vulnerable looking when he was asleep, with an obviously fragile centre to his being yet a tough exterior that he let few people penetrate. She understood the reason for that now. She had been surprised by the Captain’s revelation of Trip’s past, but she had already known that there was more to Trip than the easy going front he projected for the world to see.

It was to be expected that the Captain would see this in an emotional way. Where Trip was concerned she didn’t expect anything else from her Commanding Officer, the two men had a close relationship and Trip was often the Captain’s confidant. However she decided that she must talk to Archer about how his obvious falling out was affecting morale on the ship. The crew genuinely liked Trip and respected their Captain, but they were beginning to pick up on the undercurrent present between them at the moment.

T’Pol fell asleep contemplating if there was anything an unemotional Vulcan could do to smooth the relations between the two humans she felt closest to on Enterprise. She was awakened a few hours later by someone crying out.

****

Trip was just about getting used to life on the Thak Tikh. He was making new discoveries daily about the Engine which he was currently in charge of and he was even beginning to think that he was fitting in with the MACOs. After their journey home from the Nausicaan raider’s outpost he’d been invited to join in their games of poker and had even ended up learning their first names. Something he’d discovered they were particularly loath to tell him. After the first couple of weeks he’d managed to persuade them that he was to be called Trip, he wasn’t part of their command chain and it didn’t feel right for them to be calling him “sir” when he was the new guy and had the least experience of any of them.

He quickly tuned into the fact that the unit was a very closely knit group of people. Major Darwin would be happy to come and play a couple of hands of poker in his off hours with his men, or share a drink with them. In fact Trip got the impression that he would have been mortally offended if he’d been excluded. Hathaway was no different and had been known to drink some of the male members of the unit under the table. When they were working they worked hard though, no one questioned orders and everyone was professionalism personified.

Trip was training up Rush and Carter to be able to run the engine in an emergency when the new orders came through. Rush was the explosives expert and Carter knew everything there was to know about every conceivable weapon that Trip would think of. They were about the most technical of the MACOs and hence Darwin’s suggestion that they be the ones Trip trained up to be his understudies.

The new orders which Darwin had received were for a reconnaissance and recovery mission and this time it was something that they would need their resident engineer for. Some back water planet called Kellaris was building a weapon and Earth wanted an assessment of the threat, if there was one, then the destruction of the weapon and retrieval of its plans. It sounded easy enough, nothing they hadn’t done before a half dozen times. Trip had sat the last couple of missions out, not being needed on the ground and much more useful making sure that they could make a quick get away. He was looking forward to being part of the action again and if they did this right no one would get hurt.

They successfully infiltrated the base, Darwin leading from the front but making use of Arroya’s expertise as usual. That was one of his strengths, making use of his men but still taking his fair share of the danger. Rush would be planting the explosives while Trip downloaded the schematics. Of course no plan survives contact with the enemy and this one had been no exception.

They had arrived to find that their intelligence had been wrong, it wasn’t Dempsey’s fault or anyone else’s, the maps they had just didn’t reflect what was on the ground. The computer that Trip needed wasn’t in the same complex as the weapon that they’d been sent to destroy. After a brief consultation with Rush and Carter about the best way to destroy the weapon, he knew they wouldn’t be able to get enough from the scans he’d taken to reconstruct the weapon. He had to get to the computer and get the schematics and then delete them from the data banks so it would be a while before the Kellarins could build another one. Arroya and Trip had made the short journey across the compound to the computer complex so that they could download the files.

“I see two guards,” said Arroya.

“Check,” replied Trip. “Shouldn’t be a problem.” Trip dealt with one of the guards while Arroya took down the other. After picking a couple of security sealed doors they were in.

“This shouldn’t take long,” said Trip, putting down his weapon so that he could use both his hands to work on the computer.

“We’ve got ten minutes before the shift change,” said Arroya. “Will that be long enough?” She stood beside him, eyes scanning the shadows for any movement or indication that something might be wrong.

“It’ll have to be,” said Trip. It only took five minutes to get everything downloaded. Arroya took the lead as they made their way back to the rendezvous area, sneaking around was her area of expertise. Just as they were nearly out an alarm sound. Arroya muttered a curse and suddenly they found themselves facing a contingent of armed guards. Trip somehow ended up pinned down behind some boxes. Arroya was closer to their exit but was hesitating so that she could cover Trip.

“Get out of here!” he shouted to Arroya tossing her the information that he’d collected. Technically he out-ranked her even though he wasn’t a MACO and didn’t have anything like her training in this sort of situation. “I’ll cover you.”

She hesitated for a split second before she did what Trip suggested and made for the exit. Trip was out numbered and pinned down but he was also causing a distraction which he hoped would allow Arroya enough time to get out. Once he was sure Arroya had made her escape he did the only thing he could do, attempted to make a run for it. He knew he didn’t stand a chance and they captured him easily. He remembered thinking to himself, where there’s life, there’s hope. He knew that Special Projects wouldn’t exactly think of it that way. Standing orders were that if one of the team was captured then the rest of the team should prevent them giving up any information. Trip knew what that meant, one of his team mates would be coming to kill him.

The Kellarins took Trip to a prison camp. It was one of the worst places that he’d ever seen in his entire life. The cells were bare concrete, or whatever the alien equivalent of concrete was, with a bucket for sanitary requirements and a bench for sleeping on. There was no heating just a single blanket and he was given a small jug of water each day. He tried to eat the food that they provided him with but it was far too alien and just made him sick. He could hear shouts and screams of fellow inmates echoing down the hall every so often.

He was left alone in the cell for the first day. He spent the time contemplating his predicament and exercising, he couldn’t do much in the small cell but it was enough to keep his mind off things. The second day it became obvious that things were going to get worse. They took him to another room, he referred to it as the interrogation room because that’s what they did there. They hooked him up to some sort of machine and turned on the power. His whole body was on fire, every nerve singing with unbelievable pain and he screamed.

****

Suddenly he was awake again. He was disorientated, where was he? Then he identified the fact that he was on Enterprise, not Kellaris, but he still couldn’t work out why he was on the floor. As he became more lucid he heard a soft voice telling him that he was safe.

“You are safe, Trip. You are not in any danger. It was simply a bad dream.”

T’Pol, Trip realised. It was her floor that he was lying on. He must have fallen asleep during their neuropressure session. Damn.

“Do you understand me? It was only a dream,” said T’Pol again.

“I wish it had been,” replied Trip.

“I do not understand,” said T’Pol.

Trip sighed and related the tale to T’Pol of what had happened. If you woke up screaming on a woman’s floor then he guessed that she had a right to know what all the fuss was about. He left out a few of the important details like the when and where.

“Anyway they asked a lot of questions about who I was and why I was there and where I’d come from. They’d never seen any humans before so they were a bit in the dark about even what species I was. I knew that any answer I gave would cause a bundle of trouble for Earth and I was pretty sure that the Colonel would be planning some way to make sure I wouldn’t be around to give them any answers anyway. Even though I wouldn’t tell them anything, they kept at me for a few days before they gave up and decided that I wasn’t worth the effort. They scheduled their equivalent of a firing squad for the next morning.”

“You are here, so I assume that the firing squad did not complete their assignment,” said T’Pol.

“Yeah, they marched me out to the middle of the compound ready to be executed. I was pretty sick by that point so they needed two guards just to hold me up. Tied my arms above my head to this post that sat there for the occasion and I waited for the inevitable. Except suddenly there’s a whole load of shooting and the next thing I know the Colonel’s untying me. I don’t remember exactly how they got me out of there but I remember waking up in sickbay back on the Thak Tikh and being damn glad to be alive. Took me a week to recover but I made it.

He didn’t have to come back for me. His orders were to make sure that I didn’t give up any information and if that meant killing me then so be it. As my jailers were about to do that for him he could have just abandoned me there but he didn’t. He risked his own life to come back and get me. That wasn’t the only time that he saved my life either.”

“He seems to be a commanding officer of great merit,” said T’Pol.

“Yes, he is,” said Trip. He glanced over at the chronometer on T’Pol’s desk. “Damn, I’m sorry T’Pol it’s two in the morning, you should have kicked me out when I fell asleep on your floor.”

“You appeared to need the sleep. Unfortunately we were unable to conclude out neuropressure treatment so your sleep was disturbed,” said T’Pol.

“I’ll go to my quarters and let you get back to sleep,” said Trip.

“There is no need,” replied T’Pol. “We have shared a bed before. I believe we are both sufficiently tired that we will be able to sleep.”

Trip thought about protesting but he was very tired and the floor was quite hard and it seemed like his quarters were an awful long way away. He fidgeted with the blanket that T’Pol had placed over him before he looked up at her. “Erm, okay, if you’re sure,” he said.

“I would not have suggested it if I was not,” replied T’Pol and went back to her bed and lay down, holding the covers for Trip to join her. Trip moved to the bed sleepily and lay down with his back to T’Pol. He jumped slightly as he felt soft fingers pressing gently on pressure points up and down his spine, but then relaxed.

“This will help you to sleep through the rest of the night,” said T’Pol softly.

Trip’s eyes were unbelievably heavy and he soon found himself drifting into a dreamless sleep.

****

Deneb IV. Just over a day away now and Archer was still no wiser as to why they were going there. At least now it was within sensor range and they could begin to collect information.

“Captain, I have something on long range sensors,” said Reed.

“What is it, Mr Reed?” he asked already dreading the answer.

“It looks like a Klingon ship, possibly a battle cruiser,” said Reed. “They’re on course for Deneb IV.”

****End of Chapter 5****

Trip woke up to find an arm draped over his waist. He was lying in a bed that wasn’t his own wearing only his boxer shorts with a warm body beside him. It was pleasant and it took him a moment to remember how he had ended up in this position. The arm belonged to T’Pol and she had invited him to share her bed, albeit platonically. More importantly she hadn’t freaked out completely at the revelation that Trip had been part of a black ops unit and had even indicated that she had some comparable past experiences. It was the first time since Colonel Darwin had contacted Enterprise that Trip had felt even vaguely happy. He just lay there enjoying the moment and then the spell was broken, the com sounded.

“Archer to T’Pol.”

T’Pol was immediately alert and carefully climbed over Trip to reach the com. “T’Pol here, go ahead Captain.”

“We’ve picked up a Klingon battle cruiser on out long range sensors,” said Archer.

“I am on my way,” said T’Pol, cutting the communication.

“Klingons,” said Trip.

“Yes,” replied T’Pol.

“We’d hoped that they wouldn’t get wind of this,” said Trip.

“You anticipated their involvement?” she asked.

“It was always a possibility,” said Trip. “But I guess I thought we’d been careful enough that they hadn’t worked it out.”

“The Klingons have extensive spy networks,” said T’Pol.

“I’d noticed,” replied Trip.

“I must get to the bridge,” said T’Pol.

“Me too,” said Trip, he scrambled out of bed grabbing his overalls as he did so. “Better shower and put on some clean clothes first. I’ll see you there.” He pulled on his crumpled clothes rapidly. “Thanks for last night T’Pol, you have no idea how much I needed a good night’s sleep.” T’Pol inclined her head in acknowledgement. He gave her one of his trademark grins and with that he dashed out of T’Pol’s quarters and towards his own.

It was only once he had showered and changed that he thought to call Colonel Darwin and inform him of the situation too. The guest quarters were on the way to the bridge so he decided to simply call in on the way.

Darwin opened the door at the first ring of the bell. “Come in Commander,” he said.

“No time, sir. I just came by to report a long range sensor contact with a Klingon vessel,” said Trip. “I don’t have any further details but I’m on my way to the bridge.”

They both knew what this meant. “Damn,” said Darwin. “I was hoping we wouldn’t have to deal with them this time. Lead the way, Commander. I’m joining you on the bridge.”

They entered the bridge and Trip went to his station beside Reed. T’Pol was already sitting at her science station looking intently at the readings that she was receiving. Archer half turned in his seat to look at Darwin, before looking over at T’Pol.

“What does the Vulcan database say, T’Pol?” he asked.

“It is a D5 class Klingon battle cruiser. Usually they carry a crew of twenty and are capable of warp six. It is armed with disrupter cannons,” said T’Pol.

“Colonel, perhaps you can shed some light on why a Klingon battle cruiser is on a heading for Deneb IV,” said Archer.

“They’re going there for the same reason that we are. The ship that the ESS Venture found,” said Darwin.

“Mr Mayweather, drop us out of warp,” said Archer, calmly. Mayweather looked a little perplexed but he obeyed the command.

“Captain, what are you doing? We have to reach Deneb before the Klingons,” said Darwin urgently. Trip looked over at Archer but kept quiet. He hadn’t expected Archer to play this card and given his current record with Archer he’d be better off letting Darwin handle this.

“We’re not going anywhere until someone tells me what’s going on,” said Archer. “I’m not taking Enterprise into a shooting match with the Klingons without a good reason.”

“Captain, you have your orders from Admiral Forest,” said Darwin. “We are to proceed to Deneb IV with all possible haste.”

“Those orders also state that I am in charge of this mission until we reach Deneb IV,” said Archer. “We haven’t reached Deneb IV yet and that means I still decide what we do. I’m not ordering this ship anywhere until I have a better idea of what we’re getting ourselves into. I’ve got some idea of the way that you ran Special Projects and I will not allow you to carry that same gung-ho attitude over to my ship,” said Archer. “You have a decision to make, Colonel.”

“Colonel,” said Trip. “We have to tell him.” Hoshi and Travis exchanged confused glances.

“You leave me no choice, Captain,” said Darwin. “Let’s discuss this in your ready room.”

“T’Pol, Commander Tucker,” said Archer indicating that they should join them. Trip didn’t fail to notice the formal way that the Captain addressed him.

“Not the Sub-commander,” said Darwin.

“She’s my first officer, I won’t leave her out of this,” said Archer.

“She’s also a Vulcan,” said Darwin.

“My ship, my terms,” said Archer. Darwin sighed but indicated for Archer to lead the way to his ready room.

“Right, I want the full story and I want it now,” said Archer when the door had shut behind them.

“It was the final mission before the unit was disbanded,” said Darwin. “We took the Thak Tikh to a planet called Faranor.”

“Thak Tikh?” asked Archer.

“The name of the Andorian ship, means Storm Bringer,” said Trip, his eyes on the floor.

“I am not familiar with any planets named Faranor,” said T’Pol.

“It was what the locals called it,” replied Trip. “That isn’t really the beginning of the story though.” He sighed and began the tale of something that he would rather forget. Something which he’d desperately been trying to get past for the last ten years.

Darwin had called Trip into his ready room on board the Thak Tikh. “We’ve got a new mission, Lieutenant,” he said.

“What’s on the cards this time? If you’re talking to me then I guess it’s something technical that your guys can’t cope with,” said Trip.

“Trip, you’ve been with us three years, you even salute like a MACO, you’re one of the guys now,” said Darwin.

“Never thought of it like that before,” said Trip.

“We’re going back to Earth,” said Darwin. “Briefly anyway. We’re picking up an addition to the team for this mission. She’s a civilian archaeologist.”

“Civilian archaeologist? There are two parts of that that I don’t like, civilian and archaeologist. Why do we need her?” asked Trip.

“This is the mission,” he handed Trip a padd.

Trip read for a moment. The padd detailed an ancient alien city which now lay ruined and had lots of points of interest for their archaeologist. “This isn’t a mission, it’s a dig site,” said Trip. “Major, we’re Special Projects not a science team.”

“Scroll down to the readings that we picked up,” said Darwin.

“What the hell?” said Trip. “These readings… I thought the civilisation on the planet was primitive, pre-warp.”

“It is. We think there’s a cache of alien technology down there, just waiting for someone to come and get it,” said Darwin.

Trip smiled. “You sure know how to cheer me up, Major.”

“I want you to study that data and learn as much as you can about what’s down there before we go planet-side,” said Darwin.

“Yes, sir,” replied Trip with enthusiasm. “So who’s this archaeologist?”

“Her name is Antonia Karasta, her family are military and she was a member of the British Territorial Army. She knows how to keep her mouth shut and she understands military discipline. She’s also one of the top xeno-archaeologists on Earth,” said Darwin.

Trip nodded. “If we need an Archaeologist it sounds like she’s the right one for the job,” said Trip.

“Glad you approve, Lieutenant,” said the Major with a smile, taking the sting out of what could have been seen as a reprimand. “How’s the engine? All looking good down there?”

“Purring like a kitten,” replied Trip, “if Andoria had kittens, which I’m pretty sure it doesn’t.” A few more pleasantries were exchanged and they set course for Earth for the first time in over a year.

Antonia Karasta had coffee coloured skin and flowing long black hair which she kept tied back in a neat pony tail. She was a small woman in both height and build, in her late twenties and with piercing brown eyes. Being the only non-MACO in the unit, which Darwin seemed to think would help put their new member at ease, Trip had been despatched to collect Antonia and take her to the ship. They had hit it off immediately, she had a sparkle about her that Trip loved. By the time they had got back to the Thak Tikh they had formed the beginnings of a serious friendship. After two months travel to Faranor they had got to know each other pretty well.

Trip still couldn’t forget the look on Antonia’s face as he had shown her around the Thak Tikh for the first time. She asked all the right questions. When Trip had shown her the engine she had been duly impressed and wanted to know how it worked. He had taken her down to the Armoury and Carter had been overjoyed when she asked him what the blast yield of the cannons was. She talked martial arts with Hathaway and suggested that maybe the Captain could help her brush up on her kick boxing. Even though the MACOs tried to call her Ma’am she insisted on Antonia, reasoning that she didn’t have a rank, having left the TA some years earlier to concentrate on her academic career and being called Ma’am made her feel old. It reminded Trip of his battle to get the MACOs to use his nickname.

She was first and foremost an archaeologist though, and she didn’t have the level of combat training that the other MACOs had. It wasn’t expected that she would need it for this mission though so Darwin made the decision that she would be better spending her time studying the information that they had on the ruined city than in intensive combat training like Trip had been through. Hathaway didn’t like that, she didn’t want to take someone down to an alien planet if they couldn’t defend themselves, but as Darwin pointed out, Antonia could defend herself. She just wasn’t a trained killer like Hathaway. Besides the MACOs would be there to protect her if necessary. The natives of the planet were supposedly friendly and they wouldn’t be landing anywhere near their settlements anyway.

Faranor was a sparsely inhabited planet, with less than ten thousand people living on it. It was full of dry deserts and open grass plains. The ruins were located in one of the desert stretches. The ancient city was modest by modern standards but it was large enough that it would take a few days to survey and get what they had come for. The buildings were in various states of decay and the sand had blown in drifts around them. The buildings were sand coloured and blended in with the desert. The bare, ruined spires of the city looked like the bones of a picked clean skeleton, poking into the sky. The architecture was distinctly alien in appearance with strange curves and unusually shaped doorways. The MACOs broke into pairs to start scanning the area.

“Why the hell are we on this goddamned dust ball?” said Rush as he scanned the ruins. He hated the desert, dust got into their weapons and everything else. He looked over at his partner, Arroya, in her desert gear in muted shades of beige and brown to blend in with the environment. People thought that deserts were hot places but the wind was making this one very cold. “We’re MACOs not the Survey Corps.”

“You were at the mission briefing the same as the rest of us,” said Arroya.

“I can understand why they need Antonia here and Trip, even Didier has stuff to do translating those marks on the wall, but us, we’re just here to map the place. There aren’t any threats, no infiltration, nothing to blow up,” said Rush. “We’re in the middle of the desert, there’s nothing but us around for miles.”

“Why do you always want to blow stuff up?” asked Arroya.

“It’s what I signed on to do,” said Rush. “I can’t help being a pyromaniac.”

“Sure you can’t. Whatever it is we’re here to get has to be important,” said Arroya. “The readings that Trip had were pretty wild.”

“What would you know?” asked Rush.

“Hey, if you paid attention you’d have picked that up at the briefing too,” said Arroya. “There’s some serious alien technology down here.”

“Yeah, but what? I mean is it weapons or are we just talking alien dishwashers?” asked Rush, semi-seriously.

“Power readings like we were getting, it has to be something more than a dishwasher,” said Arroya, looking at her scanner. “Hang on, I’m getting something interesting. Trip will want to see this.” She fumbled in her top pocket for her communicator. “Arroya to Tucker,” she said into her communicator.

“Trip here, what you got Corporal?” came the southern drawl.

“We’re getting some interesting readings here, Trip. You should come over and have a look,” said Arroya.

“Well it’s got to be more interesting than what we’ve got,” said Trip. “We’re on our way. Get hold of the Major and tell him and Antonia to meet us at your location.”

“Affirmative, Lieutenant. We’ll be waiting for you,” she replied.

Trip and his partner, Dempsey, took a few minutes to get from their area to Rush and Arroya’s position, by which point Major Darwin and Antonia had already arrived. They stood in front of a sand coloured building that was mostly rubble but had obviously been fairly impressive before it had been ruined.

“What we got?” asked Trip. Arroya passed him her scanner and showed him the readings she’d been taking. Trip whistled.

“That’s some serious energy output,” he said.

“Any ideas as to what it might be, Lieutenant?” asked Darwin.

“None at all,” said Trip. “I think we just hit the jackpot though, this is the same thing that we picked up from orbit, just stronger. It’s a weird radiation signature, looks kind of familiar but I can’t place it. I need to get in and have a look at it.”

“We’ll see what we can do about that,” said Darwin.

“Looks as if the structure extends under the ground, quite some distance from the geophysics,” said Antonia. “This is just amazing.”

“Ain’t it just,” said Trip, intently gazing at the readings he was getting.

“What do you call geophysics anyway when you’re on an alien planet?” said Antonia.

“You’d better ask Didier that one,” said Trip.

“It looks like this was some type of municipal building,” said Antonia, “judging by its placement in the city and this courtyard in front of it. I suppose this is what you could call the business district.”

“This is all very interesting,” said Darwin, “but perhaps we should actually go and take a look at what we’ve found.”

“Yes, sir,” said Trip, enthusiastically. He reminded Darwin of a kid with a new toy. In fact so did Antonia, she’d been voraciously absorbing any information that she could find ever since they had been on the planet’s surface. Trip led the way into the building, picking his way over the debris from the fallen ceiling and the random bits of masonry that lay around. After making their way a fair distance into the building they found what looked like some sort of control room.

“Computer consoles,” said Trip as he uncovered some metal table structures. “Look pretty sophisticated.” He brushed the dust off one of them. “And they still have power. How old did you say this city was?” he asked Antonia.

“Over four thousand years. They can’t possibly still have power,” said Antonia and she went to stand beside him to verify what he’d said. “The metal would have degraded by now if nothing else…” and she trailed off, Trip was right the consoles did still have power.

“I think we need Didier’s help with this,” said Trip. “I won’t be able to make head or tail of this unless we can translate some of the labels.”

Darwin called Didier, Carter and Kanatova to come and join them while Trip continued his examination of the various control stations.

“This can’t have been built by the people on this planet, can it?” asked Arroya as she looked around her. Her torch traced out the patterns of an alien design on the walls that could have been writing or simply decoration.

“No,” said Antonia. “It’s not even the same style of architecture and the languages are completely different. I think we’re dealing with an outpost of an entirely different alien civilisation.”

“Couldn’t their civilisation have collapsed back to the level of technology that they have now?” asked Darwin.

“Unlikely,” said Antonia. “It’s just too different to the native civilisation. I won’t rule anything out until I’ve had more time to study the city but all my instincts are telling me that we’re dealing with a different group completely. The people that built this city had space travel and were warp capable. The native Faranoans don’t show any signs of ever having got that far. I’ve read the Vulcan database files on this planet.”

“How did you get hold of the Vulcan database files?” asked Dempsey. “I’ve been trying to get access to those for Special Projects for the past three years.”

“I’ve got some contacts,” said Antonia. “Our pointy eared friends are much more prepared to hand out information to science establishments than they are to the military. You’d be surprised what you can find out if you know the right people.”

“I thought I did know the right people,” replied Dempsey.

Darwin’s com chirped and he thumbed it open, it was Hathaway who had been left on board the Thak Tikh to hold the fort while they conducted their exploration. “What is it Captain?” asked Darwin.

“This may be nothing but we just picked up a Klingon ship on the long range sensors,” said Hathaway.

“Any indication that they’re coming in our direction?” asked Darwin.

“They are on a heading towards this sector of space. No indication that they’ve spotted us yet but I would feel a lot happier if we could get out of here before they get any closer,” said Hathaway. “They aren’t known for their tolerance of other races and they’ve had a couple of incidents with the Andorians recently. They might decide to come over and exact some retribution.”

“Noted, Captain. We need another day or so down here. Have we got that sort of time?” asked Darwin.

“It’s cutting it fine. It’s only because the Andorians made such damn good sensors that we’ve got this early warning,” said Hathaway. “If the Klingons decide to come this direction then they’ll be here by tomorrow afternoon. Maybe sooner if it’s one of those D5s we keep hearing about.”

“Last intelligence was that they’re capable of warp six,” said Dempsey.

“Understood, Captain,” said Darwin. “We’ll be as quick as we can. Keep me informed of their movements. Darwin out.” He looked around at the members of his unit. “You heard her, we’re working to a deadline so let’s make this as quick as possible.”

There was a chorus of “yes sir” from around the room. Everyone got their heads down.

“We need to get down to wherever those weird readings are coming from,” said Trip. “We’re still only scratching the surface of what’s in this building.”

“Well let’s get to it, Lieutenant,” said Darwin. “How do we get down there?”

Arroya took out her scanner again. “There’s a staircase down to the lower levels in that direction,” she said pointing towards the back of the building.

They made their way to the staircase and Trip looked down into the bowels of the building. “Lights are still on,” he said.

“That must be one hell of a power supply to still be going after four thousand years,” said Rush.

It took them the best part of an hour to make their way to the source of the strange readings which Trip had detected. They finally turned a corner and found the room that they were looking for. It was protected by a heavy steel door which was locked. Arroya and Trip managed to crack the lock using Trip’s electronic lock pick and Arroya’s knowledge of how to circumvent locks but it took them over an hour. Trip had the distinct impression that they weren’t meant to go into that room.

Trip was the first to enter the chamber. It was lit by a bright white oval of light about two metres in height in the corner of the room. The light was bizarre and it hurt Trip’s eyes to look at it and if he turned his head too quickly it sort of disappeared or followed him, he wasn’t exactly sure which. It was almost as if the light wasn’t really there at all. The light was strange enough but in the centre of the room was a spherical black metal box. It was held in place by thin metal supports that jutted out from the floor and ceiling. It was the black metal box that was the source of the readings Trip had been getting. Around the edges of the room were more computer consoles and what seemed to be readouts monitoring something.

“This could take a while,” said Trip.

“We don’t have a while,” replied Darwin looking around himself in wonder. “We’ll just have to do the best that we can with the time available. Sorry Trip, I know this is an Engineering paradise. Maybe we can come back once the Klingons have moved on.”

They worked solidly trying to decipher the alien computer readouts and the scans that they took for the next few hours until Major Darwin called a halt. Everyone needed to rest, not least himself. He knew that Trip and Antonia would work through the night if he gave them the chance but he didn’t need them worn out through over work. He needed them fresh to be able to work out the problem in front of them. They climbed back out of the structure and set up the tents just outside the building.

Trip settled down in his tent with a stack of padds, he wanted to look up some additional information that he thought might shed some light on the readings that he was getting. He fed in his readings into the padd and set it to search for anything similar in it’s database. He was asleep when the padd beeped at him to let him know that it had returned his results. It was sufficiently loud that it woke him out of the light doze he’d fallen into. He read through it in complete disbelief.

“Hawking radiation,” he said quietly, in awe. “It’s a goddamned black hole. They’re using a goddamned black hole to power this city.”

****End of Chapter Six****


Continued

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