Darkness Unfolding - Part 5

Darkness Unfolding

by The Watch Stander

Disclaimer: Paramount Owns Enterprise and all of its crew. The wonderful interpretation of these characters is owned by the cast of Enterprise. The fun of writing this story about these characters is owned by me and is in no way intended to infringe on any of these rights and is done without payment or profit on my part.

An: Thanks to all who have stayed with this and I hope it isn’t too long winded.

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Part 5

Phlox was just putting away his medical supplies that lay scattered about sickbay when Commander Tucker came through the door. The engineer was holding a cloth to his head that was soaked with blood.

"Commander, need I assume that you put off till now to come and get treatment for that injury?" Phlox wasn’t surprised by the Engineer putting it off though, as he knew how much he hated coming to sickbay.

Trip looked at him chastised, but his head was throbbing so badly now that he didn’t care what any one said. He just wanted the pounding to stop.

"Doc, my head feels like it’s coming off. Can ya do something?"

Phlox looked at the injured man before him and realized that no amount of recriminations were about to change Commander’s aversion to sickbay.

"Have a seat over there," he pointed to a bed.

Trip walked over unsteadily as his eyesight was beginning to blur. He obediently sat on the side of the bed.

Phlox picked up a med scanner and ran it over the Commander. "Ahh, I see the problem."

Trip looked at him, "What? I just fell and hit my head. That’s all!"

"I see. Well, Commander, you have a slight concussion. I’ll give you a local painkiller, but it’s only to mask it. You may still have some pain. That I’m afraid you will have to live with till we can be sure there aren’t any further complications."

Trip sighed. "That must be why I thought I saw that figure," he mumbled to himself.

Phlox picked up on what was said right away. He paused, then administered the shot to the Commander’s neck. After cleaning away the blood, he applied the healer to seal the cut.

"What was that you were saying?" he asked, not unkindly.

Trip felt the painkiller working, it was starting to ease the pounding in his head and making him feel a lot better.

"I thought I saw a crewman coming down the tube toward me. He looked transparent for I could almost see through him. Must have been a hallucination from my injury, cause it happened after I’d fallen."

‘I see, and just who was this crewman?" Phlox asked nonchalantly.

Trip looked embarrassed, "Well, that’s the whole thing, it was me. So you see it had to be a figment of my mind. Hope you don’t think I’m crazy, Doc. It seemed so strange."

Phlox looked seriously at the engineer. "Not at all, Commander. You need to lie down while the painkiller works. Excuse me a moment, I have to make a call."

Trip did as he was told, slowly resting his aching head on the pillow as he lay back on the bed. As he closed his eyes, the throbbing pain in his head started to recede as the pain killer started to take affect.

Phlox went to the back of sickbay where he could make the call without being overheard.

"Sickbay to Captain Archer."

A weary voice answered him. "Yes, Doctor?"

"I need you to come down to sickbay. Commander Tucker is here and there is something you need to be told."

There was a brief pause, "Is Trip ok?"

The inflection in Archer’s voice showed concern, so Phlox tried to ease the anxiety.

"More or less, he has a concussion. There’s something I want you to hear."
"All right, I’ll be right down."

Archer looked down at the damage and injury report on the desk before him. Earlier he had only gotten a third of the way through it when he had finally rested his head on the desk and fallen asleep. The dream he’d been having was disconcerting. In it he had been on the bridge while the ship was under attack. He could remember holding Trip as he lay dying, but before the dream progressed any further Phlox’s call had awoken him.

It must be something important for him to drag me down to sickbay. Maybe Trip is badly injured and he’s not telling me.

That thought alone made him move quickly. Remnants of the emotions the dream had stirred up in him were still with him. They disturbed him and now hearing that Trip was injured brought the dream back in full force.

When he had accepted this mission he knew some or all of them might not return, but he never wanted to admit to himself that it might be someone as close to him as Trip that would be taken.

Archer needed to get to sickbay, but first he stopped in the head to throw water on his face which made him more awake. After quickly drying his face, he left.

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

Malcolm Reed normally considered himself a stable individual, mostly reserved and always in control. It was these attributes which made him a fine security officer.

Right now though, he felt out of control, as he sat up in his bed in his quarters drenched with perspiration and feeling like he’d been put through a wringer. The dream he’d just awoken from still haunted him.

In his dream he was on the bridge while they were being attacked by Klingon warships. There was havoc everywhere as shot after shot pounded the ship causing damage all around him. While trying to defend themselves they were boarded by Klingon soldiers.

The scenario still played out in his mind. Trip was there with him as well as Archer, Hoshi, T’Pol and Travis. In the ensuing combat with the boarders he managed to dispatch two of the attackers and save Archer. However, the scene that followed was painful to remember. Archer had gone to the war room at the rear of the bridge to check on Trip while Malcolm finished calling for a security detail to come to the bridge. Afterwards, Malcolm looked back at the war room and saw Archer holding Trip. Reed immediately called for a medical team knowing there was a problem.

He then headed for the war room to join Archer. As Malcolm approached them, he saw the blood on the engineer and from the look on Archer’s face, realized Trip’s wound must be serious.

Malcolm’s heart started to race from fear and it felt like he’d been punched in the chest. He tried to deny that this was happening. Trip shouldn’t be lying there dying.

I’ve failed, this is my fault.

Suddenly, he woke up. The dream left him shaken and drenched in perspiration. His emotions were in turmoil as well, for Trip was a friend, one of the few he had on Enterprise.

How could I possibly have let him be killed on my watch. I’m supposed to protect my friends, they count on me.

Sitting here in the dark he wondered if this scenario were to really happen, would he fail his friends.

It took him a long time to finally get back to sleep.

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Archer entered sickbay in a hurry, afraid of what he might be told. Phlox intercepted him and drew him aside into his office. He then told Archer what had happened to Trip and what he had seen.

"I’m glad he’s going to be all right. But why the urgency over some delusion that he had." Archer was upset that he had been given the wrong impression about the Commander’s well being.

Phlox looked at him seriously. "That’s just it, Captain. He saw himself as that apparition and he said it was transparent."

Archer, clearly confused now, shook his head. "Is there something you’re not telling me, Phlox?"

"If what the Commander saw was a result of his injury, I would make nothing of it. However, that’s not the reason. "

Archer looked at him closely wondering where this was going. The next sentence sent a shiver through him.

"There were 12 other people that I treated for various injuries, that said they’d seen the same thing. Apparitions of themselves walking or doing normal everyday activities. That’s too much of a coincidence for it to be a medical condition."

Archer was taken back by the revelation that maybe there was more to what Daniels was saying after all. His dream came back to him as well. Something wasn’t right and it had to do with Daniels.

I need to talk to Daniels right away.

He looked over at the medical bed Trip lay on, "Are you sure he’s going to be all right?"

Phlox gave him one of his famous smiles, "Of course, Captain. I just felt that you needed to know what was happening. The Commander just fell asleep, or I would have had him tell you in his own words. "

Archer smiled relieved, "That’s ok. Let him sleep. I have a feeling I’m going to need him back in engineering very soon."

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TBC

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One person has made comments

i think i was right bout the timelines thing then :D kool!

this is going gr8 and its not long winded, it's telling the story at a gd pace.

keep it up :)