TRIP FICTION

TripFiles
TripFocus
Tuckerites
TuckerNuts
Trinneer
¡TRIP!

If you are seeing this paragraph, the site is not displaying correctly. You can see the content, but your current browser does not support CSS which is necessary to view our site properly. For the best visual experience, you will need to upgrade your browser to Netscape 6.0 or higher, MSIE 5.5 or higher, or Opera 3.6 or higher. If, however, you don't wish to upgrade your browser, scroll down and read the content - everything is still visible, it just doesn't look as pretty.

What Does Not Kill Us- Chapter 20

Author - Thalia Drogna
Fan Fiction Main Page | Stories sorted by title, author, genre, and rating

What Does Not Kill Us

by Thalia Drogna

Rating: R
Genre: Action/Adventury, Angst, Hurt/Comfort

Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters, I’m just borrowing them

~~~

Chapter 20

Trip was fairly certain that he had died, the pain had been so intense that he was almost sure that it had killed him. It had felt like a knife had been driven through his head. If it hadn’t killed him, he had no right to be alive. Thus, when he did finally peel his eyes open and found himself lying on his own bed in his quarters he was very surprised, and even more surprised to see Archer sitting beside his bed.

“This is getting to be a habit,” he said.

“Doc, he’s awake,” said Archer and Phlox came into view. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” said Trip, lying expertly. A sharp intake of breath as a dagger of pain hit gave him away. “It still hurts a bit,” admitted Trip. He tried to get up but Archer stopped him from rising. Even as he moved, his head reminded him why he’d collapsed in the first place, it still felt like he had a really bad hangover. Phlox was checking readings and taking scans.

“I’ll give you an analgesic,” said Phlox and sorted out the required hypospray, which he pressed to Trip’s neck. The pain dissipated almost immediately.

“Trip, your eyes,” said Archer.

“What about them?” asked Trip.

“They’re silver,” said Archer. He located Trip’s shaving mirror and held it up so that Trip could see them. Trip stared into blank silver eyes that weren’t his own; his blue irises had completely disappeared.

“Weird,” said Trip. “I can see fine.” In actuality Trip knew exactly what the silver eyes meant. The homing beacon had been activated and was calling the nanites home.

“What happened?” asked Archer, looking concerned.

“I wish I knew,” said Trip, which was a half truth at best. “Suddenly my head felt like someone ran a shuttlepod over it. I just asked an innocent question and it was as if every nanite in my body had something to tell me, really loudly…” he trailed off. “Damn,” he said with feeling, remembering why he’d asked the question in the first place. “Captain, you have to get me off Enterprise now and don’t let the away team go down to the surface.” Perhaps he could persuade Archer to help him, that would certainly make things easier for him.

“What? Why?” asked Archer looking worried.

“The Xindi found the nanites, they know I’m here. That outpost isn’t what it seems, you can’t let the away team go down there,” said Trip urgently.

“It’s too late, Trip, they’ve already left,” said Archer.

“Then get them back!” said Trip, alarmed.

“I can’t, it would jeopardise the whole mission and probably get them killed if we break radio silence. By my estimation, they should be entering the base by now,” said Archer.

Trip looked at Archer, “we have to warn them then.”

“Warn them of what?” asked Archer.

“I…I don’t know, but there’s something in that outpost that is really bad, Captain,” and I need to get down there, he added to himself, I have to get down there, it’s where I’m meant to be. The images in his head were all jumbled and he couldn’t make sense of them, it was making it hard to think and overriding everything was the need to get down to the moon. He couldn’t tell Archer that though. He just had to concentrate on putting on a good enough act now that they’d leave him alone.

“Tell me about how the Xindi found the nanites,” said Archer.

Trip started up in bed again, he had to get off Enterprise but he still wanted to keep the ship safe. “The Xindi sent a scan frequency out and the nanites responded. They told them where we are. It’s not exactly their fault, it’s what they were programmed to do and I didn’t know about it until they told me, but it means the Xindi know we’re here. They may even know that the away team is coming. Captain, you have to put me in a shuttlepod now!”

“I can’t do that, Trip,” said Archer.

“But you have to,” said Trip. “The nanites will give away our position to the Xindi.”

“If they have told the Xindi where we are then it’s already too late,” said Archer. “Putting you in a shuttlepod won’t help matters.”

“They need the nanites to track us. Even if they don’t get us this time, if you let me stay on board they’ll be able to tell where we are all the time we’re in the Expanse. You have to get me off the ship,” said Trip.

“And how would you survive in the Expanse without Enterprise?” asked Archer. “You’re asking me to sign your execution order, Trip.”

“This is no time for sentimentality,” said Trip.

“The answer is no, Trip, end of conversation,” said Archer.

“Is there something that you want to tell me, Captain?” asked Trip, “because I’m getting the feeling that there’s more to this than you’re letting on.”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” replied the Captain, he still didn’t want to tell Trip about his second run in with the Xindi. That incident had left him with a feeling that letting Trip fall back into enemy hands would be more trouble than avoiding a few Xindi ships. “I’m more interested in why Phlox found you lying on the floor of your quarters.”

Trip sighed, he really didn’t have time to play along. He had to leave. The nanites sent him the message again “we need to leave, we need to get off this ship, we need to go down to the moon.” It was a powerful message and he was finding it hard to ignore, especially since it matched his own desire to keep Enterprise safe. Trip told the nanites to be patient. He was left with the need to answer Archer’s question before the Captain realised that he was holding his own internal conversation with the nanites in his head.

“It was weird,” said Trip, “the nanites told me a whole bunch of stuff, but they sent it to me all at once and I still can’t make sense of it all. It felt like hundreds of people were shouting real loud at me all together. My head hurt so much that I barely got to the com to call Phlox. I think I came round long enough to tell them to call you and then I was out of it again.”

“Captain, Commander Tucker needs to rest,” said Phlox. “His brain activity is very intense at the moment and I would prefer if he could be left to sleep for a while. His brain needs time to process the new information which the nanoprobes imparted to him.”

“It sounds like you understand what happened,” said Archer.

“To a certain extent,” replied Phlox. “His brain was simply overloaded by the amount of information that it was trying to process and therefore caused Commander Tucker to experience the severe headaches and dizziness that he did. His brain has now managed to take in the information but has locked it away until it can be processed which would normally happen during sleep. If the Commander ever expects to have access to this information, he needs to rest and let his unconscious brain do the sorting out for him. What I don’t understand is why they decided to send this information to him now.”

“Why are his eyes silver?” asked Archer.

“I’m not sure but I think that it has something to do with the increased nanoprobe activity in his brain,” said Phlox. “I don’t think it’s dangerous, as long as the Commander’s sight isn’t affected, it’s probably nothing to worry about.”

“I’m kind of tired,” said Trip and faked a yawn. The nanites were insistently telling him that he had to leave Enterprise and go to the outpost on the moon.

“I’m not surprised,” said Archer, patting his friend on the shoulder. “I’ll be back later when you’re rested.”

“I’ll see you later, Captain,” said Trip, amiably. Archer left and a few minutes later, after giving Trip a thorough check, Phlox followed him.

“Now we can leave,” said the nanites to Trip.

“Yeah, now we can leave,” said Trip.

****

The outpost was crawling with nanoprobes. They were running through the conduits and pipes above the away team in their millions. The conduits were lined with glass, one of the few materials that the nanoprobes didn’t seem to be able to manipulate. T’Pol scanned the nanoprobes, but as she hadn’t brought her modified scanner with her she was unable to ascertain the interior structure of the nanoprobes that were passing over their heads like so many insects. T’Pol certainly didn’t want to contemplate what would happen if one of the conduits was damaged.

“What does this mean, Sub-commander?” asked Reed, very quietly. The away team was huddled together behind some crates in a corridor of the outpost.

“I don’t know,” said T’Pol. “Our mission remains unchanged, we still need to reach the computer core and download as much information as possible. My scans indicate that we should proceed in this direction.”

“Suppose these nanoprobes are the kind which destroy technology, the Xindi could use them against Enterprise in the future. We brought explosives to destroy the computer core. We should destroy the nanoprobes,” said Major Hayes.

“That is not our mission,” said T’Pol. “We don’t have time to rethink our plans at this stage. We should proceed to the computer core as quickly as possible.”

“Once we have downloaded the information we could plant the explosives,” suggested Reed.

“Which would take more time than we have,” said T’Pol. “We have no evidence that these nanoprobes are even harmful.”

“We have no evidence that they’re not,” said Reed.

“We don’t have time to debate this. We have our orders, the computer core is out main objective,” said T’Pol.

“We may not get this opportunity again, Sub-commander,” said Reed.

T’Pol paused, obviously turning over what Reed had said in her mind. “Very well,” she said, finally. “Lieutenant Reed, Ensign Mayweather and I will carry out our primary mission, Major Hayes and Corporals Romero and Cole will plant the explosives. We will rendezvous at the cell ship as planned.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Hayes, Romero and Cole. Mayweather and Reed simply nodded. The two teams split up, Hayes and the MACOs planting the first set of explosives at their current position. T’Pol, Reed and Mayweather set off down the corridor towards the computer core. Almost immediately they heard footsteps coming towards them and had to duck into a storeroom to avoid detection. A squad of Xindi reptilians marched past them, completely unaware of their presence in the darkened room. Reed hoped that Hayes and the two MACOs would manage to find an equally good hiding place when the Xindi reached them. Reed estimated about fifteen Xindi reptilians had just walked past them which would be too many for the Major and his men to deal with on their own.

Once they were sure that the Xindi had gone past, T’Pol signalled for them to continue on down the corridor. They arrived at their first major obstacle fairly rapidly. The security around the computer core was very tight and in order to enter the room which held the computer core all the Xindi scientists had to pass a checkpoint. T’Pol and Reed had been aware that there was a barrier between the two areas but had not been able to scan sufficiently to work out what the barrier entailed. As they now saw, the checkpoint was a sealed airlock room which scanned the occupant and compared the scanned biometric data with the records of authorised personnel. It would be difficult to fool the system into letting them in and even if they could fool the computer then there were guards on the other side who would recognise them as intruders immediately.

“What do you think?” asked Reed.

“We should fine an alternative way in,” said T’Pol. She scanned the corridor. “There are conduits above us that lead into the restricted section.”

“Yes, but they’re full of nanoprobes,” said Reed.

“The nanoprobes did not harm Commander Tucker,” said T’Pol.

“That’s no guarantee that these are the same variety,” said Reed.

“Can’t we bypass the biometric scanner?” asked Mayweather.

“It would take me some time to make the required adjustments the scanner, and we would still have to get past the guards,” said T’Pol.

“All we need is a few minutes to get to the computer core. If we short circuit the biometric scanner and shoot the guards, even if they get to the alarm, we should still have time to get to the computer and download the data.”

“If our scans are accurate and the computer codes are genuine,” said T’Pol.

“If they aren’t then we might as well go home now,” said Reed.

“Very well,” said T’Pol. “I will re-calibrate the biometric scanners so that we appear to be authorised personnel. Be prepared to attack the guards as soon as we leave the airlock.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Mayweather. Reed nodded and checked the setting on his phase rifle.

****

The nanites were very helpful in Trip’s escape plan. He now knew that most of what had been downloaded into his head had come directly from the outpost. He was now in possession of a map of the outpost, radio protocols and codes to enter the base. Trip had also realised that since their communication with the Xindi outpost the nanites were being much more forthcoming with information about their own functionality. It hadn’t taken him long to work out that he couldn’t take down the guard through brute force, he wasn’t up to that yet. The nanites had explained that in the same way that they had accidentally shocked him they could direct their electrical energy to act as a sort of biological tazer. All Trip had to do was touch the guard and they would do the rest.

Trip picked up his crutches and made his way to the door. He pressed the button beside the door and it opened.

“Ensign, I could do with a hand here. Would you mind just coming in for a second?” he said, putting on his best Trip Tucker smile and congenial southern manner. Trip recognised him as Ensign Prior, one of Reed’s security staff. Earlier in the day one of the MACOs had been on guard duty and he certainly wouldn’t have fancied his chances with persuading him to abandon his post, but Ensign Prior knew the Commander well and would therefore be far more likely to do him a “favour” without suspecting a thing.

“Of course, Commander,” said Ensign Prior, returning Trip’s smile. As soon as the Ensign was through the door Trip had his hand on his arm, ostensibly to steady himself as he put the crutches down.

“Now,” he told the nanites and they did their stuff. Within seconds Ensign Prior lay on the floor, stunned by the jolt of electricity that had just passed through his body. Trip left him where he fell, he didn’t have the time or strength to move the security officer. Besides that the nanites were telling him what to do next and he had to do what they said. He went to his computer terminal and the nanites interfaced with the system. He watched as they shut down the sensors along the path he would need to take to the shuttle bay and locked out the bridge controls to the launch bay. When he got there all he’d need to do was a little manual rewiring and no one would be able to stop him from taking off, it was easy. It had taken the nanites seconds to do what Trip himself would have taken at least fifteen minutes to do, and that was assuming they hadn’t locked out his command codes. Trip also got them to disable a few other systems while they were at it that he knew would come in handy later.

Trip opened his door again and after checking the corridor, he picked up his crutches and made his way to the turbo lift as rapidly as he could. He didn’t meet anyone and a turbo lift was waiting for him when he reached the end of the corridor.

“I suppose you arranged for the waiting turbo lift?” he asked the nanites.

“Yes,” they replied. “We’re in a hurry.”

He got in and keyed for the launch bay. It was only a few minutes before the doors opened on E deck and he was nearly at his destination. He was still surprised by how easy the whole operation was being, he told himself to have a word with Malcolm later about security for the launch bay. For the moment he had to focus on getting down to the moon outpost. He ducked around a corner quickly as a crewman came down the corridor, he hoped he hadn’t been spotted but he knew he could always stun him if necessary. It would slow him down though and he didn’t have time to waste.

Finally he was at the launch bay. He went in and shut the door behind him, taking care to double lock it and, to make sure, he pulled out a couple of wires that were vital to the door’s workings. It would take a couple of Engineers a few minutes at least to repair that by which time he’d be long gone. He went to the control console and let the nanites cancel all the security protocols which would have prevented him from leaving without clearance from the bridge. Then he climbed inside shuttlepod one, shut the door behind him and sat down in the pilot’s seat. The nanites overrode more security protocols and opened the launch bay doors. He started up the pod and prepared to takeoff.

Trip caught sight of his own reflection in the window of the shuttlepod, his eyes shining silver. For a moment his true self reasserted itself and told him how unnatural that was, but then the nanites reminded him of what his current goal was. A few minutes later he was leaving Enterprise and had laid in a course for the moon.

On the bridge Hoshi had just told Archer that someone was launching a shuttle.

“Shut the launch bay doors,” Archer said.

“I can’t,” replied Hoshi. “I’m locked out. It’s Commander Tucker’s security code.”

“Who’s guarding Commander Tucker at the moment?” asked Archer.

“Ensign Prior,” replied Hoshi.

“Hail him,” said Archer. Hoshi tried to raise the Ensign without success.

“He’s not responding, sir,” said Hoshi.

“Damn,” said Archer. “It has to be Trip. Hail the shuttle. Hess, see if you can get a transporter lock.”

Lieutenant Hess sat at the Engineering station. “I’ll do my best, sir,” replied the Lieutenant.

“Channel to the shuttle is open, sir,” said Hoshi.

“Trip, I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing but I want you to turn around and come back immediately,” said Archer.

“I’m sorry, Captain,” came the familiar voice, “but I have my orders.”

“Orders?” asked Archer. “I haven’t given you any orders.” Archer didn’t like the sound of this.

“The orders came from the outpost and I can’t disobey them, sir,” said Trip over the radio.

“Trip, listen to me. Those orders aren’t real. They came from the Xindi. You have to listen to me, turn the shuttle around and come back to Enterprise.”

“I can’t do that,” said Trip.

“Trip, you have to fight this. Don’t listen to them, you’re about to betray Enterprise. After everything you went through to protect us, you can’t let the Xindi win like this,” said Archer.

“This is for the best, Captain. I can’t stay on Enterprise. Tucker out.” The last statement was said with such finality that Archer knew the conversation was over. He indicated to Hoshi to cut the connection.

“Hess, can we transport him?” asked Archer.

“I’m sorry, sir. Someone has scrambled all the transporter systems. I wouldn’t want to risk using it again until I can perform a complete diagnostic,” said Hess.

“Can we use the grappling hook?” asked Archer.

“It isn’t responding to my commands. I’m locked out of the system,” said Hess.

“I’m getting the distinct impression that my Chief Engineer may have had something to do with that,” said Archer.

“He’s about the only person on board who would have known how to disable all those systems,” said Hess. Even she herself wasn’t familiar with all of Enterprise’s systems to that degree.

Archer watched helplessly on the view screen as the shuttle sped away from them towards the moon’s surface. He was out of options, there was nothing more he could do.


Continue to Chapter 21

Return to Chapter 19

Back to Fan Fiction Main Menu

Have a comment to make about this story? Do so in the Trip Fan Fiction forum at the HoTBBS!