Lost, Part 3

Lost

by

The Watch Stander

A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed this. I will have more to add this week.

Disclaimers: In Part 1

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PT 3- Secrets Of The Dead

Archer and Reed were able to make up a stretcher to move Trip to the other shuttle’s rear area. They placed him gingerly on the couch in the back of the shuttle, careful not to jar him and cause further injuries.

Archer left Reed to tend to Trip while he explored the cargo bay area.

He passed through the first door that was outside the launch area. Inside was a storeroom piled high with equipment that had been casually thrown into the room. It had probably come from the other cargo ships that these people had raided. It told Archer that maybe this ship had a plan to get away, otherwise why bother with stealing equipment.

I’ll take Malcolm with me to the bridge just as soon as Trip wakes up and we’re sure he’s stabilized.

He headed back the way he’d come.

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

Reed was just finishing placing a bandage over the large gash on Trip’s forehead when he noticed Trip’s eyes were slowly opening and trying to focus. Malcolm had a slight smile of relief on his face, glad that the engineer was finally coming round.

At first Trip didn’t see Malcolm, but the ceiling of the shuttle, and he became disoriented.

Where am I?

“About Bloody time you woke up!” Malcolm was grinning now.

Hearing him Trip looked quickly in Malcolm’s direction. “You’re here, I wasn’t dreaming, or I’ve gone to hell.”

“Not yet, you still have time though. You certainly gave us a run for our money!”

“Malcolm, are you sure this isn’t hell? There’s two of you and one was enough to drive me nuts!” Trip slowly replied, still not quite with it and seeing double.

“You took a blow to the head and I would say you probably have a concussion, “ Reed reassured him.

Trip took a deep breath then panicked when he didn’t feel the same pains from hours ago.

Oh God, what’s wrong with me!

“I can’t feel anything, there’s no pain.”

Malcolm looked indignant, “I should bloody well hope not! I put enough pain killers in you to bring down a small horse!“

It took a moment to sink in, “Am I hurt that bad?” Trip asked, afraid of what Reed wasn’t telling him.

The Lt suddenly felt guilty about teasing him when he saw the look of despair on Trip’s face.

Archer chose that moment to enter the shuttle. He smiled when he saw Trip awake and having overheard Trip’s last question, he took it upon himself to answer.

“Let’s just say that you and Phlox are about to become very good friends since you will probably be spending at least a week or more together.”

Trip’s eyes rolled. “Aw, Capt’n, now I really feel terrible.”

Reed just snickered, “Wait till you see what he uses on you! Slimy things, look like slugs and the food is terrible!”

Both he and Archer laughed at the expression of disgust on Trip’s face.

Archer signaled Malcolm and the Lt. quickly left, leaving the two men some privacy.

Archer walked over and crouched down next to the couch so he was on eye level with Trip.

“How do you feel?” Archer watched him closely to be sure he wasn’t in any more pain.

“Not so bad, until you and Malcolm mentioned all that other stuff.”

Archer smiled, “You’ve bruised some vertebrae and a few are pushing against your spinal column, that’s why we have you so doped with local painkiller. You also have a concussion so you need to take it easy.”

A look of relief came over Trip’s face; he wasn’t going to die after all.

Then a look of embarrassment came over his face when he thought about his last transmission and how it must have sounded. “I’m sorry about going to pieces there when I hailed you last. “ He looked straight at Jon with a sad look in his eyes, “It’s just that I thought I’d never see you or anyone on Enterprise again.”

Archer squeezed his shoulder, “Don’t worry about that, I understand. You were badly injured and practically out of you mind.

Everyone on Enterprise was worried about you, and they all contributed to this rescue mission. Wait till you see the improvements they thought of for this shuttle so we could find you,” Archer added, hoping to lift the engineers’ spirits.

Trip looked at him gratefully, and decided to let it rest.

“Where are we Capt’n? This isn’t Enterprise or Phlox would be here.”

Archer took a moment to answer, not sure how much to divulge to the already stressed man, but decided on honesty since he would probably figure it out for himself very quickly.

“We’re in the eye of the Nebula, and it’s literally a graveyard of ships. Looks like five or more have become trapped here, unable to break through to the surrounding nebula. Some type of force is holding us back.“

Trip listened carefully. “You’re saying eye? Like in hurricane?”

Archer smiled again and squeezed Trip’s shoulder reassuringly, “Something like that, we really didn’t have much time to look into it till we found you. Now we’ll see what we can do.”

“Where’s the crew of this ship?”

Archer started to stand, “I’m about to go and find out.”

He didn’t want to tell Trip about the grizzly find on the other cargo ship.

“You take it easy; we’ll be back before you know it. I’ll lock the hatch and use my communicator to tell you when we’re back. He started to turn, then thought better, “Will you be all right?” He didn’t like leaving Trip here alone, but they had to find a way out of here and soon or they would all die.

Trip nodded, still thinking about what Archer had told him.

“Be careful Capt’n!” he managed to say before Archer went out the hatchway.

Archer smiled then left; locking the hatch of the shuttle with a code from outside. If anyone was alive, he didn’t want them surprising the helpless engineer. These didn’t seem to be the type of people that he would trust anyone’s life with. Especially after seeing what they did to the crew on the other ship.
*******************************************

Archer found Reed a short distance away where he couldn’t overhear the two men’s conversation.

“I think we need to go the bridge and see if we can find out any more information that might help us get out of here.”

Reed nodded, “I took the liberty of checking a ship’s layout in the control room. Looks like the bridge is straight down this hall. We pass the crews’ quarters as well as sickbay.”

Archer agreed, “Let’s go”

They entered the hallway and the first quarters they found showed that someone had left in a big hurry. Clothing was left piled on the bed and personal effects were piled there as well. Moving down the hall they found other quarters in the same state. The fourth one had a dead man in it, lying peacefully on his bunk. When they used the scanner on the body, it reported that he’d starved to death.

Things weren’t all that great on this ship, even if they had stolen supplies from the others, Archer thought.

They again headed down the hallway and came to sickbay, this time finding more of the crew lying on beds dead, showing either starvation as a cause of their demise or injuries they’d suffered in the raids.

Archer wanted answers and he quickly left the sickbay to find the bridge. When they entered the bridge area, there wasn’t the chaos that had been evident on the other cargo ship. No one had stripped this ship for its parts. Everything seemed to be in place as if the next watch was about to come on duty any moment.

“Malcolm, use the UT and see if you can translate any of the ship’s log. We might get lucky. I’m going to look around some more. “

There were maps and charts neatly folded on the navigation consol as well as several star charts, so someone had been working on a plan it seemed just like the other ship.

Archer’s attention was distracted by Lt Reed calling him.

“Captain, I think I have something.”

Archer went over to Reed immediately.

Malcolm looked up at him from the console, “A bit of luck, Sir. Hoshi’s download of the Ossarian pirates’ main computer came in handy it seems. This log is recorded in one of the languages used by the pirates that raided us. I’ll let you listen, it’s the last log entry from this ship’s captain.”

Reed pressed the log button:

“This will be my last log entry as I can no longer make it here from my quarters as I am too weak from hunger. It seems our Five Xindi crew decided to work on a plan to get out of here without telling anyone. They also raided and killed the crew of the other cargo ships according to one of my men who went with them. It was suppose to be a visit to obtain mutual assistance not murder.

They took everything from the other ships and then hid the food from us in their own quarters then told me that the cargo crew attacked them and murdered some of our men. This was a cover up; to buy them time to plan their escape.
After making some navigational adjustments on our only shuttle, they took it and left in the night according to one of my men who had been in on the plan, but was betrayed and left behind. They took all the food.

The remainder of my men are dead either from starvation or the wounds they suffered in the raids.

I ask forgiveness for not being a better Captain and maintaining stricter control over my crew. “ The log ended.

Archer looked troubled, The cargo ship Captain didn’t have the way out after all, but some of his crew had found a way. The Xindi had betrayed him, which was no surprise for the Xindi prisoner they had encountered weeks ago had betrayed Archer and Trip as well.

“Looks like we’re back to square one.” Archer shook his head.

Lt Reed had a look of disappointment on his face, “Sorry, Sir. I was hoping it would be of more help. Did you find anything?”

“ Just some more charts and figures, lets take them back to the shuttle and compare them with what we found on the other ship. We need to check on Trip anyhow.” Archer tried a slight smile hoping to lift the Lt.’s mood.

They both needed a positive attitude if they were going to survive this. The shuttles had very little food on board, just enough for a few days and nothing more.

Together they headed back the way they’d come.

TBC

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Three people have made comments

Really enjoying this story, keeping me on the edge of my seat, poor Trip. Wish you could submit scripts for Enterprise - look forward to the next installment.

Good stuff! You've got me hooked so please update again soon! Thank you! :-)

Still really enjoying this!!! Please update soon. Thanks.