Darkness Unfolding - Part 9

Darkness Unfolding

by The Watch Stander

Disclaimers in Part 1

~~~

Part 9

Daniels was already on his ship when Archer & Reed arrived. T’Pol had been left in charge of Enterprise and Major Hayes would cover security while they were gone.

Malcolm was glad that Archer had chosen him as he felt personally responsible for what had happened to Hoshi and Trip. He also kept remembering how he had failed in his dream and wanted to be sure there were no slip ups. Trip was one of his closet friends on Enterprise and Malcolm had no intention of losing him.

I just hope we’re in time, he thought.

Archer turned to face him before entering the shuttle. "Did you bring the explosives as well as the other equipment?"

"Yes, Sir. We’ll have plenty of fire power, along with stun grenades and timed detonators."

He then smirked," should make a loud bang."

Archer nodded satisfied and entered the ship followed by the Lt.

Daniels was seated at the controls and beside him was a co pilot seat where Archer sat. Reed loaded the equipment in the rear then took a seat back there. It was a small ship, similar to the shuttle, but it would only hold five people. Reed could understand why Daniels had asked them to limit themselves to just the three of them.

The ship seemed to be humming around him as he sat in the rear seat, making him wonder what kind of power this ship used and how fast it was capable of going.

Archer had the same thought.

"Just how fast can this ship go?" He asked as he looked around. The humming sound had not escaped his notice as well and had piqued his curiosity.

Daniels smiled, "About ten times as fast as yours."

Archer just stared at him, speechless.

Daniels added, "Don’t ask how, Captain. I’m not allowed to elaborate on what can be done and not done in the future. "

"By the way, you’ll need to fasten that safety harness around you." He turned and looked back at Reed. "You too, Lt. Reed. This may require some fancy flying and I can’t have you two bouncing around in here."

Archer did as he was told and Reed followed suit.

Ten times, kept echoing thru his head, ten times warp 5! It’s unbelievable.

They exited Enterprise without incident and before Daniels headed for the asteroid field, T’Pol called them.

"Good luck, Captain. We will wait for approximately 6 hours here then if you’re not back, continue on our previous heading."

Archer was glad he had left her in charge; a cool head was needed now on Enterprise and he had no doubt that even without them returning she would continue on her mission to save Earth and not make irrational decisions.

"Understood, Archer out."

Daniels headed toward the asteroid field. Blackness still surrounded them, but the asteroids were clearly outlined on both the screen before Daniels as well as the one in front of Archer. It was an amazing piece of technology that made the blackness seemingly disappear.

Daniels punched in several numbers on his instrument pad then hit another switch. This caused a sudden surge that seemed to encompass the whole ship. Archer was dying to ask what it was, but knew better for Daniels had been adamant about not revealing any of his ship’s technology.

"You’d better brace yourselves, this field is huge and we need to hurry, so I’m going to have to go into a higher speed mode. It could get a little intense. If it gets to overwhelming, just close your eyes."

Archer looked back at Reed who suddenly looked very pale. Then it happened, a sudden surge and they sped forward at a speed Archer couldn’t even begin to imagine. There wasn’t any force against his body that he had expected as the cabin must have adjusted for the speed rate, but just the same the visual was intense. Asteroids seemingly came at them at lightening speed, but whizzed by just as fast, never so much as even jolting the ship. When he glanced at Daniels he was surprised to see a calm demeanor on the man’s face. The pilot was just looking straight ahead as if this were nothing.

Archer looked back at Lt Reed and wasn’t surprised to see that the Lt’s face was still pale and his eyes were now closed. Jon smiled to himself and turned back to his screen.

I wonder how soon we’ll catch up to them and whether Trip and Hoshi are all right.

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

Trip was almost through the second sequence of commands that would open the door somewhere before him. He could tell by the number of lights and short beeps that it was working. A few more beeps and the sudden whoosh of a door opening was his reward.

"Gotcha!" he exclaimed triumphantly.

Hoshi followed him out the door, both carefully checking to be sure they weren’t being guarded from outside and that there wasn’t anyone nearby that might observe their escape. The room they had just left must have been a cargo bay, for their were tracks on the floor of what might have been sleds or pallets. It was probably where they stored their booty from their raids.

Trip signaled Hoshi to remain near the door while he checked the corridor ahead for any sign of the aliens. When he reached the first turn he signaled her to join him and she quietly made her way down the corridor.

The next corridor consisted of a number of doors along the wall that Trip thought might contain other Enterprise crew members. He quietly advanced on the first one and used his ear to the door to listen for any signs of occupancy. It was difficult to hear so he took a chance and used the switch on the control panel to open it. Inside was someone’s quarters and after a brief search for weapons they came up empty handed. Leaving there they in turn searched each following room as well. There wasn’t anything they could use for a weapon in any of the rooms.

Halfway down the hall they were forced to hide in one of the rooms as an alien made his way down the corridor. Trip guessed he was going to check up on the prisoners, but was horrified when the alien opened the door of the room they were hiding in. Trip quickly jumped the alien trying to surprise him, even managing to knock the weapon out of the aliens hand as he entered.

However, Trip was soon overpowered as a backhanded strike sent him careening against a wall. The alien immediately picked Trip up and held him off his feet against the wall. A huge pair of hands stated to choke the life out of the engineer.

Trip was just starting to see black spots in front of his eyes when all of a sudden he felt the pressure being released and he collapsed to the floor. He lay there choking and trying to breathe.

Hoshi had watched the Commander attack the alien and seeing the weapon spin across the floor quickly retrieved it. A quick glance for the setting on the weapon didn’t reveal anything. She decided that whatever its setting, stun or kill, it was the one he was planning on using on them and was therefore justified. She aimed and fired. The alien sank to the floor releasing Commander Tucker.

She tucked the weapon into her belt and went to help Commander Tucker.

Trip was finally able to breath, but his head was still spinning from the earlier blow. He looked at the downed alien near him then up at Hoshi who was trying to get him to stand up. "Did I win?" he asked groggily.

Hoshi shook her head, "Sure slugger, it was that right cross you threw that did it!"

"Great!" He made an attempt to stand as every muscle in his body screamed in protest. Hoshi put his arm over her shoulders and helped him up.

"We need to get out of here before someone else comes looking for him." She said.

Trip nodded, his mind still fuzzy and together they managed to leave the room. Once outside it was Hoshi who led, checking the hallway ahead for any signs of others. Trip watched as the once shy and introverted communications ensign drew the weapon from her belt and forged quietly ahead. Both he and Malcolm had taken an interest in teaching her how to survive out here and he was glad to see that she had progressed nicely. She would need to be tough in order to survive.

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

Daniels slowed the ship as they approached what seemed to be a very large asteroid. Archer immediately noticed the structure hidden in one of the asteroids craters. It looked like a round building complex that was used by settlers on planets like Mars and the moon. It would be an ideal place for pirates to hide away from the main travel lanes of the Expanse and give them the ability to sneak away from any pursuing ships. The simplicity of it made Archer smile. Their attackers were clever, but not clever enough.

Archer watched Daniels push another button and the ship again seemed to surge with energy.

He turned to Archer, "I have an invisibility cloak, but you already know about those since you have one of the Suliban ships. It’s no longer a secret. We’ll sneak in and try to dock at one of the rear areas that seems to be no longer used. I don’t detect any fuel discharge there. We’ll be invisible to all of their detection equipment."

Archer decided to make a suggestion, "I"ll take Lt Reed and go inside, you stay with your ship incase we’re captured. This way you could go back to Enterprise and help T’Pol."

Daniels smiled. "You won’t fail. However, I want you to do one thing for me and believe me it’s necessary or I wouldn’t ask."

Archer looked serious wondering what it could be. "All right."

"Before you leave here, you must set the explosives I asked you to bring to destroy this complex. If you don’t, we’ll only be fighting these same invaders further down the road. They won’t give up and neither will their employers."

Jon seemed reluctant to kill everyone in the complex so cold bloodily, but then he remembered Trip dying in his arms and he became resolved. "Ok. I’ll keep in touch and once we have Trip and Hoshi safe we’ll blow the complex."

Daniels smiled and reached out a hand to shake Archer’s ,"Good Luck, Captain."

Jon shook it and then proceeded to help Reed open the hatch into the complex docking station.

Malcolm made sure each of them was well armed with both a phase pistol as well as a plasma rifle. They also had explosives and timers with them.

God help anyone that gets in our way, Reed thought as they headed down the corridor.

Archer used his tricorder as they went to search for life signs and so far they had found a total of six in the complex. Two humans were among those six, so at least Trip and Hoshi were still alive. They headed for the area the two human life signs seemed to be located at.

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

Trip finally seemed able to clearly focus on what was happening around him. Hoshi had pushed him up against the wall as they both heard the approaching footsteps coming from around the corner of the connecting corridor. Unfortunately, the only place to hide was the fuel supply room down the hall or the generator room across from it, both were too far away for them to reach before being spotted by the approaching aliens.

Hoshi decided to take a gamble and see if she could shoot the aliens as they approached the turn. She just hoped that all her target practice with Lt Reed would help her now.

Both she and the Commander held their breaths as the footsteps came closer. Hoshi waited till the very last second and then darted out firing at will. One of the aliens was hit, but the other had managed to evade the shot and kicked out at her weapon. He managed to hit her firing arm disarming her, then knocked her to the floor. Trip dived for the pistol, but was stopped by the alien who grabbed his foot and yanked him away from it. Trip coiled up and tried to kick his attacker but the man had too good a hold on his ankle. The alien drew a knife like weapon from his belt and Trip managed to lung at the hand holding it. It wasn’t a fair fight and somehow Trip’s hand was slashed by the weapon as he tried to scamper away to get into a better attack position. The pistol however was now in the alien’s hand and it was aimed at Trip. As he looked at the pistol pointed at him he wondered when the alien would shoot and tried to brace himself. He heard the discharge and cringed but when he felt nothing he noticed the alien collapsing before him. In the distance Jon and Malcolm were running down the hall toward them.

He could have cried when he saw them.

"Capt’n! Malcolm!" he managed to shout joyously.

Archer was beside him in a moment as Reed checked both Aliens and then went to Hoshi, who was starting to sit up.

"Trip, are you all right?"

The engineering had a dozen black and blue marks on his face and looked like hell.

"I am now that you guys are here," he managed to say

Jon crouched down beside him smiling, glad to see him alive and still in one piece. It wasn’t until Trip reached out his right hand to touch Jon’s shoulder that Archer noticed the blood covering it.

"What’s this?", Jon asked as he gingerly took Trip’s hand to examine the wound.

Trip tried to make light of it, "Just a souvenir from a fight I lost!"

He flinched as Jon applied the antiseptic causing it to sting and quickly bandaged it with tape and gauze from a first aid kit he had. There was no time for further first aid as they needed to leave.

First however, they needed to set the explosives.

Archer pulled Trip to his feet then went over to where Reed was holding Hoshi up. The ensign had a bad wound on the side of her head. Malcolm had treated it and bandaged it , but Hoshi seemed very unstable on her feet. She felt like her head had been separated from her body, but was glad to see Malcolm just the same.

Reed smiled at Trip when he saw that the engineer looked worse for wear but alive at least.

Archer made his decision, " Malcolm, take Hoshi back to the ship then come back and help us set the charges. "

Reed didn’t like the sound of this. "But Sir!"

"That’s an order, Lt. Trip can help me set the charges. Hoshi could never make it to the ship alone. Trip doesn’t know his way there, so it’s up to you to take Hoshi."

"Yes, Sir." The Lt. reluctantly agreed. He put his arm around Hoshi’s waist then turned to leave.

Archer said softly, "And hurry back!"

Reed nodded then headed down the corridor with Hoshi stumbling beside him.


TBC

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One person has made comments

yey! Go Malcolm, Go Malcolm!!!

:D gr8 chapter! looking forwards to more.