What Does Not Kill Us - Chapter 3

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

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Chapter 3

Hoshi sat in her quarters looking at the oblong red box on her desk. It contained her Mah Jongg set. It had sat there ever since she’d been summoned to the bridge with Malcolm, Travis and Trip, she hadn’t had time to put it away on her way to the bridge. Since then she just hadn’t wanted to put it away. Somehow if she put it away it would have definitely meant that one of the four who played that day wasn’t coming back; she couldn’t imagine the ship without Trip, so she hadn’t put it away. If he was coming back though why did she have an empty ache inside her that refused to go away?

They were all worried, Malcolm had an almost haunted look about him. Hoshi remembered their discussion at lunch a few days ago about his and T’Pol’s futile efforts to find out information about the Xindi ship from the merchants on the space station. Hoshi could see the frustration and mounting despair behind his eyes as he told her what had happened. No one wanted to talk to them, they had all already been warned off by the Xindi or they really knew nothing. Malcolm hadn’t given up though, he’d gone back to the station twice more before he’d found the Jorgan merchant.

They had helped the Jorgans before against the Xindi and Reed knew that the Jorgans had no love for the Xindi, although the political situation was complicated by the Jorgan’s relations with their own colonies who had sided with the Xindi in a previous war. The merchant Reed found was from the home world though so was therefore definitely of the opinion that all Xindi were bad. The merchant had given them some pointers about where to find the Xindi ship. He’d heard about a Xindi outpost not far from the space port, he thought that’s where they would take Trip and Reed thought it seemed likely. The only problem was that the outpost was further into Xindi territory and two month’s journey away at warp.

Hoshi had looked at Reed the day the merchant had told them how long it would take to get to the outpost and seen something break inside him. It was then that he’d taken on the look about him that he now had, as if he no longer had a purpose in life, but something forced him forward. He was spending long hours working, he only came out for meals and even then he seemed to treat food as fuel and nothing more. Hoshi hadn’t seen him stop to talk to another crew member for days. She had tried to sit by him one day but the conversation had been completely one-sided and her efforts were too tiring to maintain when she herself didn’t even feel like talking.

Archer was just as bad Hoshi suspected, but as usual refused to show anyone that he might be hurting under his professional captain’s exterior. Hoshi had known Jon before he became the captain of Enterprise and she knew how he dealt with such things. Hoshi also knew how much Trip meant to him.

What had surprised Hoshi the most though was T’Pol. She was even quieter than usual and was spending a lot of time in Engineering. Hoshi wasn’t sure when the Sub-commander had last slept, no one had seen T’Pol finish her shift on time for over a week now. She ate alone, avoiding other crewmembers, particularly Commander Tucker’s friends as if that might remind her of something that was missing. At 1900 each evening she could be found on the observation deck looking out at the stars, when Hoshi asked her why, she had said that she was simply meditating. Hoshi wondered if it was coincidence that 1900 was when Trip would go to T’Pol’s quarters for his Neuropressure sessions.

Hoshi hoped that they found Trip sooner than two months, she strongly suspected that the ship would be falling apart, emotionally, at the seems by then. She knew that she would be if this carried on.

****

Day ten (or was it eleven, he was beginning to loose count) they took him to a lab and put a needle in his arm. They began to drain his blood. They made him watch as they dripped his life out of a needle in his arm. Just tell us one thing and we’ll stop this, they said but he knew they’d want to know another thing if he told them one. He kept his mouth shut. He felt sick and dizzy. Just tell us the top speed of Enterprise, surely you must know that, they said. We don’t want to kill you but if you don’t give us a reason to keep you alive then we’ll have no choice. Trip said nothing. More blood dripped away and the edges of his vision started to blur and go dark.

“Tell us Enterprise’s top speed. What warp factor is Enterprise capable of, Commander?” asked the Xindi.

“Go to hell,” replied Trip in as loud and angry tone as he could manage. Even to his own ears it sounded feeble and soft. He passed out finally. When he woke up they had put another needle in his arm and the blood was being dripped back into him.

“If you tell us what we want to know then you will spare yourself a lot of pain,” said the Xindi.

“Not going to happen,” said Trip, in a tired voice.

“Then we will do this again tomorrow,” said the Xindi.

He was true to his word, for the next three days, they made Trip watch his blood drip away before he passed out and they replaced it.

“Just tell us the top speed of Enterprise and we’ll stop,” said the Xindi. He couldn’t tell the Xindi apart so he had no idea if this was the same Xindi who had been beating him earlier.

On the fourth day of taking blood they didn’t replace all of the blood, they waited until Trip was conscious and then cut off the flow. They took him back to his cold cell and left him lying on the floor shivering and suffering from loss of blood. He floated between consciousness and oblivion, feeling sick and as if he was looking down on himself from somewhere high above. Finally he felt the blackness of unconsciousness claim him. Come on Jon, this isn’t funny anymore, he thought as he passed out.

Continue to Chapter 4

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