Stranded - Chapter 4

STRANDED

By Vanishingp2000

Email: vanishingp@supawoman.com

Rating PG 13 – English –Adventure/Drama/Friendship

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

*****

Chapter 4.

Hours had passed and still no sign had been found of the missing shuttle. The Bridge was filled with a quiet tension, each of the senior officers had remained at their posts way beyond the end of their duty shifts, each determined to be there to help their missing comrades.

Hoshi stretched surreptitiously trying to ease the taut muscles at the back of her neck. She had been sending a continuous signal for hours but there had been no response, no sign that her message had been received. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and ran another diagnostic, something about the bandwidth of the signal bothered her. That’s it, she realised excitedly. It was obvious now that she had seen it. A small part of the signal was being blocked, or more accurately absorbed, rather than being sent on with the rest of the message. She might have continued to miss it except for the fact that the missing part of the signal was the transmitting wave, without it no one would ever receive the message.

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“Hang on Capt’n.” Trip gasped as he hauled himself painfully over an overhang, swearing under his breath as his leg caught yet another rock. He was quite sure they were moving his way deliberately. “Nearly there,” panting he let himself lie still for a moment to catch his breath, before looking down from the summit to where he had left Archer perched precariously on a ledge barely inches wide. Lying flat on his stomach he reached his hand towards his friend. “You do the steering and I’ll do the pulling,” he said, “but take it steady so’s I can be sure we won’t slip.”

“Not my favourite choice,” Jon called up from below, reaching upwards gingerly until his hand met Tuckers. “Ready when you are.”

Trying to guide his broken leg away from the rock face Archer used his left hand to steer and pushed up with his right leg to give Trip what help he could. He was painfully aware that his friend was as exhausted as he was and neither would normally have considered climbing a mountain in this condition. However, these were far from the best of circumstances. Somehow they made it and Trip pulled Archer up beside him with a grateful sigh before collapsing back onto the ground.

It was getting dark and they still had to find the shuttle so Trip allowed himself only a short rest before clambering to his feet again. He struggled over to the trees shaking his legs to get the kinks out, there, just as he had predicted was the missing bit of his sleeve, confirmation if he had still needed it that this was indeed the valley he had scrambled through before. “I’m getting to really hate this place,” he murmured showing Archer his trophy. “It’ll be a while before I want to go hiking again.”

Archer smiled. “Can you see anything?” he asked.

Tucker moved further across the ridge until he could see into the next valley. He laughed, “It’s a bit like Noah,” he said.

“Come again?”

“The Ark was stranded on a mountain top wasn’t it?” Trip asked. “Well the shuttle has been wedged up against that ledge we climbed over, looks to be fairly stable. Might be our luck is changing.”

“Perhaps we should have just stayed put,” Archer suggested.

“Only if you felt like drowning.”

“True,” Jon acknowledged tiredly. “I take it all the water has gone now?”

“Looks to be dry as a bone, course there’s no tellin’ if the water damaged the systems.”

“They’re sealed watertight,” Jon began before realising he had been suckered. Trust Trip to try and lighten the situation.

An hour and a half later it was all but dark. Trip eased Archer back into the shuttle, having assured himself that the vessel was stable, and sank gratefully into the navigator’s seat. There was plenty to do but he figured he’d just give himself a minute or two.

Tucker’s head dropped suddenly to his chest and he jerked his eyes open. Dammit, he thought, there’s no time to sleep. He looked at the chronometer but realised he didn’t know what time they had reached the shuttle. The captain was draped along the bench to the side of the shuttle. He looked grey and his breathing was pained but Trip thought he was asleep. He wouldn’t disturb him. He pulled the backpack towards him from where it sat on the floor and took a long drink of water before getting slowly to his feet trying to ignore the stabbing pain from his leg as the blood started flowing more freely again. He moved to the equipment locker and quietly took out the tool kit and set to work to see which of the ship’s systems could be restored.

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Trip eased himself out carefully from beneath the wrecked pilot’s console and lay back on the floor trying to stretch his cramped muscles, every one of which seemed to be complaining at once. He rolled his head to the side at the sound of Archer’s voice.

“How’s it going?”

Tucker grimaced. “I’ve got the engines online but I’m still working on the controls to fly her with,” he said, groaning slightly as he got painfully to his feet. He handed the captain a water pouch. “How are you doing?”

“Fine, thanks for letting me sleep.”

The engineer wiggled his eyebrows, “not a lot you coulda done lying there,” he said, “might as well get some rest.”

“Thanks anyway.” He looked past his friend through the broken view screen out at the rock face beyond. “Anything happened out there?”

“Got damn cold during the night, but it seems to be warming up again now.”

Archer noticed for the first time that he was covered in a thermal blanket and Tucker had put his jacket back on. “How long have I been asleep?” he asked suspiciously.

Trip rubbed his face with his hands. “Don’t know exactly,” he said, “all night I guess.”

Archer looked in frustration at the stubborn engineer. “Anything I can do?” he asked deliberately.

“Well, seein’ as how you do know a bit about flying this thing perhaps you could suggest some way of jury rigging the console?” Trip suggested flippantly.

Archer let it pass, his friend looked totally exhausted and he recognised the levity as Trip’s way of keeping himself going. “How about a cup of coffee?” he asked.

Trip’s head shot round and he looked askance at the captain. Then he smiled as he realised his friend’s intent. “I’ll put the kettle on,” he said, levering himself to his feet and handing Jon the cups left from their previous brew, how long ago was that? He found he didn’t know. He set a kettle of water onto his jury-rigged hot plate and then sat back and stared at the pilot’s console trying to think. Slowly a smile spread over his face as an idea broke through the fog in his brain.

Without bothering to get back to his feet Trip half crawled, half dragged himself over to the console and reached under it for his tools. He worked quietly for a few minutes while the captain watched without interrupting until the engineer sat back with a smile. “That should do it Capt’n,” he said confidently.

“Well done,” Archer replied warmly, “we’ll try it as soon as we’ve had our coffee.”

He was rewarded with a grin that quickly turned into a yawn as Tucker eased himself to lean back against the rear bench. “Why don’t you lie down for a while?” Archer asked, concerned.

Trip shook his head. “If I stop now I doubt I’d be able to start again anytime soon.” He pulled a face, “I don’t know about you but I’d kinda like to get out of here.”

“No argument here,” Jon agreed. “How much manoeuvrability will we have?”

“Not too bad but we may have a job to keep the speed down enough to let us steer.”

“In other words ‘wait and see.”

“Yep.”

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“Hang on Capt’n, here we go.” Trip sat on the edge of the pilot’s seat, which had been partly crushed in the initial crash. In his hands he held his makeshift control panel and he leaned forwards so as to be able to see past the wreck of the view screen. Outside dawn had broken and although the sun was still low over the horizon he could feel the heat rising up from the ground and into the shuttle. It must have already been into the thirties. He had helped Archer to sit in the navigator’s seat so as to be able to see what was going on and he could feel the man’s anticipation as he sat beside him.

The shuttle lifted slowly off the ground before hovering unevenly as Trip fought the unfamiliar controls. He decided that more height would be safer to keep them away from the mountains and he eased up gently, cursing as a side wind blew down the valley side as they got higher. Finally he found the right balance of control and was able to move the shuttle where he wanted it to go. “Which way? Capt’n?” he asked.

“How about the opposite direction from yesterday, we want to find another way inside after all.”

“Fair enough,” Trip replied turning the small craft in a wide arc, which took up most of the width of the valley, before setting off over the ridge that had marked the valley’s end.

“You see any kind of structure?” Archer asked.

“Nope,” Tucker shook his head, “I’ll head for those mountains to the west, may be there’s something beyond them.”

Some minutes later Trip wriggled round in his seat. “What do you make of that Capt’n?” he asked pointing towards the western horizon.

“It’s the boundary of the bio sphere.”

“Yep, you can see the uneven haze but I reckon it’s not just the haze that’s uneven.” Trip’s voice had risen as he began to get excited. “There’s something disrupting the energy flow, maybe we could get outside of the sphere.”

“Maybe we don’t want to get outside of the sphere,” Jon pointed out wryly, “the atmosphere out there may not be too pleasant!”

Tucker pulled a face. “You may have a point there,” he admitted dryly, “but one way or another the way out has to be out there.”

“Let’s just take it one step at a time. Head over there and we’ll have a look see.”

Trip set the shuttle in motion again heading towards the distant horizon. The closer they got the more he was convinced that they were approaching an energy field. He could almost feel it in the air, it made the hairs on his arms stand up and prickle. He said as much to Jon. “Is that the professional engineer’s description?” his friend laughed.

“It’s the professional engineer’s opinion,” Trip replied slowing the shuttle still some distance away, “something’s not right.”

As he spoke the red pulsing light appeared behind the shuttle out of their line of sight. It seemed to be waiting but then began pulsing ever more brightly until the beams of light began to encompass the shuttle itself.

“Whoa,” Trip gasped as the shuttle suddenly began to race forwards again. Frantically he adjusted his controls to try and change the direction but to no avail. “Hang on Capt’n,” he shouted, “we’re being pulled in.” Out of control the small craft quickly built up speed as the light enveloped it and hurtled both the vehicle and its occupants at a dizzying speed towards the crackling horizon. Inside both men watched in helpless fascination, now totally immobile as the ever more colourful waves of energy approached.

TBC

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