Stranded - Chapter 7

STRANDED

By Vanishingp2000

Email: vanishingp@supawoman.com

Rating PG 13 – English –Adventure/Drama/Friendship

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

*****

Chapter 7

Trip came to slowly, painfully, at first aware of little other than a sea of pain. Gradually it localised around his leg and his hand, both of which were throbbing unrelentingly. He was lying on a hard surface, slightly rough beneath his hands and all about him was still. No water, no rain, no torrent, and no darkness. Damn it all, his sluggish brain registered his surroundings slowly. We’ve been moved again. And not a moment too soon.

He opened his eyes and squinted against the sudden light. He could just make out Archer’s prone form at the edge of his vision and he pulled himself towards him, not yet having the energy to get to his feet. “Capt’n,” he rasped, surprised at how weak his voice sounded Coughing he tried again. “Capt’n, how’re you doin’?” Trip reached out to shake his friend gently and was rewarded with a soft moan.

Archer too was lying on the ground but, unlike Trip, he was on his back. He opened his eyes slowly, blinking to adjust to the light. The look on his face changed from a grimace of pain to one of incredulity as Tucker watched. “Capt’n?” he queried, “you OK?”

“We’re back,” Archer breathed. At Tucker’s look of bemusement he elaborated. “We’re on Enterprise.”

“What?” Trip looked up and about him. Jon was right they were lying on the floor of the corridor near the transporter room. The transporter was still and they were not on the transporter pad, nor was there an operator in sight. So how? “What?” he repeated, “what happened?”

Jon shook his head struggling to sit up. Absently Trip helped him lean back against the wall then pulled himself wearily to his feet, reaching for the Com panel. “Tucker to sickbay,” he called then pulled a face at the lack of response. “Tucker to sickbay,” he tried again.

“Try T’Pol,” Archer suggested but that too drew a blank as did a general call shipwide. A sense of dread settled over them as exhaustion brought about from the trials of the past few days pulled at their resolve. Finally, Trip straightened up from the wall where he had been leaning and reached down to pull Archer to his feet.

“Let’s get to sickbay,” he said, “get cleaned up then perhaps we can find out what the hell is goin’ on.”

Jon pushed himself off the floor and took Tucker’s proffered hand. His mind was reeling. Where was the crew? Had they had to abandon Enterprise? And if so why? Nothing seemed wrong, on the surface at least. As soon as they had been to sickbay he would send Trip down to engineering and then the bridge. They had to find out what had happened.

As quickly as they were able they made their way to sickbay. They saw no-one on the way. The ship was eerily quiet, the warp engines off line, as Trip had been quick to point out, and a look through a viewport as they passed gave no hint of their location. There were no stars streaking past, in fact there was an ominous haze enveloping the ship for as far as the eye could see.

Reaching sickbay at last Trip helped Jon to lie on a biobed and hobbled off in search of hyposprays and clean dressings. A call for Phlox had yielded nothing but silence and their sense of apprehension deepened. Returning Tucker handed Archer a drink of water and touched a hypospray to his neck. “There ya go Capt’n,” he offered, “that should start to work pretty quickly.”

Jon lay back gratefully and waited for relief from the pain. He couldn’t relax though, not while his crew was missing. His mind sharpened and focussed on minute details. Something nagged at his consciousness, something out of place but he couldn’t quite place it. Trip was searching along Phlox’s shelves for a medical scanner, his worry for his friends apparent to Archer by his hurried movements. He reached the bat cage in his search and suddenly Jon realised what was nagging him. The bat’s cage. “Trip,” he wondered aloud, “hasn’t that bat’s cage moved?”

Tucker looked about him absentmindedly, his thoughts on other things. “Nope,” he said after a quick glance. “Don’t think so.”

“Have a proper look,” Archer urged.

Trip stopped what he was doing and looked again, finally shaking his head. “Nah, it’s where it always is.”

“No, it isn’t,” Jon spoke slowly. “I remember coming in here just before we left and Phlox was feeding it, it was definitely on the other side of the column.”

Trip shrugged, “OK, if you say so. Does it matter?”

“Not sure,” Jon pulled himself up to lean on his elbows and grimaced in pain as his leg protested.

Tucker was immediately at his side, scanner in hand. “Take it easy,” he soothed, “that analgesic oughta be working by now.”

“Must be a bad batch. Did you have any?”

Trip nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah,” he pulled a face, “still hurts like hell.”

“It needs to be cleaned, so does your hand. Pass the dressings over and I’ll do it.”

Tucker dragged over a chair and handed the captain the medical supplies before sinking slowly into the seat. He held his hand out to his friend. The burns had developed into ugly blisters on the skin, which were in danger of bursting. He shuddered to think what might have happened if they had stepped more quickly out into the rain.

Archer opened the medkit Trip had handed him and searched through for burn cream, he couldn’t risk anything more than first aid but Trip’s hand needed treating as soon as possible before infection set in. Finding what he was looking for he put the kit to one side, took the top off the tube and squeezed. Nothing. “Damn,” he swore, squeezing again with the same result.

Tucker smiled mirthlessly raising the scanner towards Archer’s leg, a nasty suspicion forming in the back of his mind. “How’s your leg Capt’n?” he asked, grimacing at the result on the scanner.

“Huh?” Archer was searching the medkit for burn dressings at least and didn’t immediately register what Trip was saying. He was in a hurry to find out what had happened to the rest of the crew.

“I’m not getting’ a reading from the scanner Capt’n, there’s no cream in that tube, the Com doesn’t work and, most importantly there’s no-one here.” Trip spoke slowly and deliberately watching Archer for a reaction, it wasn’t long in coming.

Jon stared at his friend in silence for a moment as realisation dawned. “You think this is another biosphere?” he said incredulously.

Tucker nodded morosely. “It makes sense,” he said, “much as I wish this was Enterprise at least it means the others are probably safe.”

Jon nodded, relieved for the most part. Better the two of them stranded than everyone lost and at least this sphere was more comfortable even if nothing worked. “How did ‘they’ know?….” he began.

“To create this?” Trip waved his arms about, pulling a face, “I was scanned remember, probably its taken this long for them to come up with an Enterprise sphere. Even so two days is pretty impressive.”

“It would also explain why everything looks right to you but not to me, it’s your memories that were used.”

“We’d better make the most of it while we can.” As he spoke Trip reached over and took the medkit from the bed next to Archer.

“What do you mean? Make the most of it.”

“Well we’ve never been more than a day in any of the spheres, for whatever reason I don’t think they can maintain them for any longer than that. At least here we know where things are and may be able to use that to help us. The only trouble is, if this is a sphere, we still need to stick together.” He looked regretfully at his friend, knowing that moving again was probably the last thing Jon wanted to do. “I’ll see what Phlox has got in the way of dry clothing and maybe I can find you a proper splint at least.”

Archer nodded, thinking aloud. “Best to think through what we need and may be able to find before we move. Restock on medical supplies, water, food. How about engineering what may be there that you could use. Could you make a working communicator to break through the interference?”

“I can sure as hell try,” Trip replied grimly. “If they’ve scanned my mind there should be more in engineering than anywhere else, even if it doesn’t work at the moment.”

“Where do you suppose we could find a way out from here?”

Tucker shrugged, “could be anywhere. Might be the airlock or shuttle bay but I don’t see why it couldn’t just be the other side of any door.”

“Surely it would need to be near the perimeter of the sphere?” Archer reasoned.

“Maybe, but were we near the centre when we were in the first cave? There’s no way of tellin’.”

Archer grimaced before resolutely taking the medkit back from his friend and taking out a dressing for Trip’s hand. He made a thorough job, putting a second dressing on top of the first to try to give what protection he could. That done he had Tucker rest his leg on the biobed next to him and then cleaned away the soiled dressings and reapplied a fresh bandage. The wound was clean but remained as ragged as when it had first happened. Clearly it had bled several times since Trip’s accident and still required sutures but that would have to wait. Again Archer applied a double dressing before handing the kit back to his friend.

Trip eased himself off the bed and began to search through Phlox’s cupboards for fresh supplies and clothing. Eventually he found a couple of sets of pyjamas that the doctor kept for his patients. “Guess these’ll have to do us for a bit but we’ll have to collect something warmer for when the climate changes.”

Archer laughed. “Perhaps it’s as well there’s no one around to see us. Where do you think you may have ‘remembered’ some clothes?”

“My quarters,” Trip frowned, “probly not anywhere else now that I think of it, unless you want a spacesuit. Perhaps we’d better take these wet things with us, they’ll dry.” As he spoke he began to take off his wet clothes as quickly as possible replacing them with Phlox’s things. It felt good to be dry again. As soon as he was done he helped Jon, taking time to strap his leg to a splint he made from four unworkable padds found on Phlox’s desk.

Finally they were ready to leave. They had taken anything useful they had been able to find, unfortunately it didn’t amount to much. Only non-operational items were complete and of them only objects that had been in Trip’s mind when he was scanned had been reproduced. Archer agreed with his friend that engineering was likely to be the most productive part of the ship for them as the chief engineer’s memories were likely to be most detailed there. That left them with another problem though. How to get there? As they had already discovered, the ship was non-operational which included turbolifts and access tubes were not a favoured option for either of them right now.

Eventually they decided to just get moving and see what happened, as Trip had pointed out nothing had been making sense before so maybe things would be just as mixed up here.

After five minutes of searching along the corridor outside sickbay, peering into every door it appeared that Tucker’s hunch had been right as the next door they opened revealed the Mess Hall, far removed from where it should have been but a welcome sight nonetheless.

Trip smiled in grim satisfaction as he helped Archer to sit in a chair and then moved towards the food slots. “I wonder what I ‘remembered’ here?” he joked.

“I hate to think,” Jon teased as he realised how hungry he was. Right now anything would be good. He smiled as Trip came back with a tray laden with a pasta dish, two slices of pie and bottled water.

“There you go Capt’n, get stuck in.”

“Thanks Trip,” Jon smiled and reached for his fork. Tucker was already taking a mouthful and Jon jumped as his friend recoiled in shock.

“Dammit,” he growled, “I should have known.”

“What is it?” Archer asked surprised, “what’s wrong?”

“Tastes like polystyrene,” Tucker groaned, “I doubt there’s any goodness in it at all.”

Archer pulled a face. “Perhaps the water’ll be OK.” He said. “We can manage with that if nothing else.”

“Humph,” Tucker grumbled but broke the seal on his bottle all the same, trying the contents carefully. “Tastes OK,” he said finally, “I guess water is a constant.” He went back over to the food slot and took the remaining bottles, adding them to the pack he carried. “Guess I’ll have to find another pack, we’re getting’ a bit overloaded here.” He finished the water from his bottle and looked over at his friend. “Ready to go?” he asked, trying for a spark of enthusiasm. Even to his own ears it sounded false. They seemed no closer to finding a way out than they had been two days ago.

Two hours later they finally came to engineering. Having looked through every door in their path they had visited astrometrics, the armoury, Archer’s ready room, where they had salvaged a field jacket and the bridge. It was strange to find places tumbling on top of each other but it also made it impossible to predict what they might come upon next. Frustratingly the bridge itself yielded nothing useful as absolutely nothing worked. The only thing of interest was the viewscreen which afforded a good view of the energy barrier at the edge of the biosphere, confirming what they already knew.

Engineering was quiet and strangely still, apart from the obvious lack of people there were no lights on the panels and the room looked unfinished somehow. Trip reflected that he had never appreciated how much the subtle hum of equipment was a part of his working environment. He missed it.

Tucker settled the captain in the chair at his workstation and went to see what he could scavenge. Clearly he had been thinking of a busy time of day when his mind was searched, which was just as well. Not so much happened during the nightshift and there wouldn’t have been much left about. As it was he managed to salvage several items that, while not working at present, he could reassemble to make a communicator that would have a much greater range than their handheld models usually employed. He also collected together some tools to supplement the ones from the shuttle’s emergency kit.

“What do you think Capt’n?” he asked when he had finished, “shall I make a start on this?” he indicated the communicator parts, “or do you think we should try and find a way to the power source?”

Archer grimaced. “Much as I would like to have a working communicator I think our best chance of getting home is still to disable the power source and walking here is a lot easier than it has been in the other spheres.”

Trip nodded. “I agree. We’ve been here several hours already, not counting the time we were unconscious when we got here. It must be getting time for the weather to get bad.”

“You know you’re right,” Jon agreed. “I never really thought about it before but each time we’ve moved the weather has been bad.”

“Yeah, I reckon the weather outside the spheres is what causes them to break down. Maybe that’s why they didn’t settle here after all.”

“Could be, if so who’s maintaining the spheres now then?”

“More importantly, why?”

“And why the sensor block?” Archer wondered readying himself to move again. It was getting harder each time to find the energy and resolve but giving up wasn’t in his nature and he knew that Trip would never give up on him so there really wasn’t much choice. “Wonder where we’ll end up this time?”

Tucker laughed, “Maybe T’Pol’s quarters,” he suggested.

“When were you last in there?” Archer wondered innocently causing Trip to laugh out loud completely unabashed by the question.

As luck would have it the door from engineering led directly into Tucker’s own quarters and he used the chance to change into a fresh uniform and found some warm clothes for the captain also. They were a little short but fitted well enough. “Better than pyjamas,” Trip joked.

“Yeah, you know I was beginning to get a bit cold. Maybe night is coming outside.”

“Prob’ly right, it’s a little hard to tell in here.” Trip peered out his viewport, using his good hand to shade his eyes. “It’s a shame we can’t turn these lights off, might see better,” he reasoned. “There is something out there I think, a break in the blackness.”

He helped Archer up from his seat by Trip’s desk and together they stared into the blackness. “It’s not really a vacuum out there of course,” Jon offered.

“Yeah, I know,” Trip agreed slowly, “but how do we get out there? D’you see where I mean?” he asked after a few moments.

“To the right, about three o’clock? It’s slightly darker than everywhere else.”

“Yeah,” Trip sounded relieved. “So,” he repeated, “how do we get out there?”

“Where’s the nearest exit?”

“Well normally….” Tucker began then laughed, sucked his teeth for a moment then began looking in his closets, the bathroom, tapping the back of the shower, under the bed before giving up in disgust and sitting back on his bed in frustration. His eyes narrowed as he stared across the small room looking past the captain to his desk. Suddenly a twinkle appeared in his eye. “That shouldn’t be there,” he said in triumph crossing the room quickly then getting more slowly to his knees.

Archer looked on bemused as Tucker slid the desk chair to one side and crawled beneath his desk, tapping the wall with his good hand. His head poked out and he smiled up at his friend. “Care for a little space walk Capt’n?” he asked.

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

Many miles above their heads Enterprise slipped into a high orbit, Mayweather guiding the great ship carefully, establishing orbit around a planet you couldn’t see either visually or on sensors wasn’t something to be rushed. Finally he relaxed slightly in his chair. “We are in orbit Sub Commander,” he reported.

“Thank you Ensign.” T’Pol looked up from her viewer at the science station a reflective look on her face. “There is nothing to be seen on the sensors so we shall adjust our orbit to allow for a standard search pattern. I estimate that it will take 2.5 days to complete. Ensign Sato,” T’Pol turned to Hoshi at the comm station, “have you picked up anything on audio?”

Hoshi shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry Sub Commander,” she said, “I’ve been going through all bandwidths but there’s nothing yet.”

“Lieutenant Reed,” T’Pol turned to Reed at tactical, “have you been able to pinpoint the source of the energy spike?”

Reed shook his head in frustration. “I can give a general location but that still gives us thousands of square miles to search. I’m sending the co-ordinates to the science station now.”

A tense silence descended on the bridge as everyone concentrated completely on the search for their missing colleagues. There was a pervasive feeling that time was running out.

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

“I feel like Alice crawling down the damn rabbit hole,” Archer groaned as Tucker helped him to ease through the opening he had found beneath his desk. It felt somewhat surreal moving from the well-lit environs of Tucker’s quarters into absolute blackness. Once through the opening they were able to get to their feet although the ground beneath their feet was once again uneven. Trip held the flashlight out in front of them searching for the anomaly they had seen from the viewport. He shone it briefly behind them curious to see what the ship would look like from outside. It bore no resemblance to the sleek lines of the real Enterprise but then they hadn’t really expected that it would.

“Somehow we’ve got to try and slip in,” Tucker warned, “we don’t want to be ‘moved’ again.”

“They may not be ready to move us,” Archer reasoned, “we haven’t been here that long, there may not be another sphere ready.”

“I still can’t work out whether they’re trying to help us or hinder us.” Tucker said, grunting as he tried to juggle the flashlight with his injured hand, needing his right hand to support his friend.

“Here,” Archer offered, seeing the problem, “let me.”

Tucker handed over the flashlight and Archer steered it as best he could in front of them. It made little impression on the blackness that became more intense the further they moved away from the ship. “I’m not sure that we wouldn’t be better off without the light,” Archer said after they had struggled forwards for a couple of minutes. “It’s not bright enough to show anything but it’s masking what we were able to see from the ship.”

“Y’may be right,” Trip agreed slightly breathlessly, “go ahead and turn it off.”

Archer complied and the sudden blackness left them disoriented. Letting their eyes adjust to the darkness they gradually became aware of a low humming that seemed to be coming from off to their right. Peering towards the sound they could just make out a small patch of intense dark. Moving forwards they stumbled slightly, having no point of reference in the darkness. Trip focussed on the patch and steadied them before moving off again. After a moment or two they were able to adjust their movements so that they could carry on more steadily.

The patch seemed to grow slowly and the hum increased as they approached and gradually they were able to make out occasional flickers across the area of blackness. Finally they came to within a few metres of the anomaly and its nature became clear.

“It’s the boundary,” Archer spoke for them both, disappointment heavy in his voice.

“Yeah,” Tucker agreed, “but I think it’s faulty, we may be able to short it out.”

“Without getting fried?” Archer asked dubiously.

“Preferably,” Trip agreed dryly. “Look, the entire rest of the boundary is completely black, nothing at all. I reckon this area is breaking down, if we can short it out, even if only for a few moments, we should be able to slip through.”

“OK, how do we go about that?”

“We throw something at it and hope we don’t attract too much attention.”

“That technical?” Jon laughed, “got anything in mind?”

Tucker reached down to the ground and asked Jon to shine the flashlight about in front of them. The ‘space’ they were standing on was strewn with rocks and he selected a couple of large ones. “We need to be ready to move,” he cautioned. “It may not last long. They obviously have some pretty sophisticated systems operating around here.”

“The only thing that bothers me is what we’ll find on the other side.”

“Only one way to find out.”

Archer nodded in the darkness. Trip was right, their only option was to go on and try to work with whatever they found once through the barrier. “Ready when you are,” he said, tightening his grip on his friend’s shoulder, ready to move as soon as Tucker gave the word.

Trip drew his arm back and threw the largest of the rocks at the barrier. Immediately on impact there was an intense electrical discharge which threw them to the ground. Trip managed to shield Jon from the worst of the impact by pulling the captain on top of him but the pain was excruciating nonetheless as the broken bones in his leg jarred together. Archer cried out and fought to stay conscious.

The humming had stopped. From his place on the ground Trip tentatively reached out and aimed another rock at the barrier. Nothing. Quickly he hauled himself out from beneath Archer and reached down to pull in his friend over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift. Jon’s hold on consciousness finally slipped and he became limp in Tucker’s grasp. Straining the engineer moved as quickly as he could towards the hole. It was now or never.

He could see nothing, beyond was pitch black but a muted humming was beginning to build and he could feel the electrical discharge tickling along his skin. Throwing caution to the winds he pushed on through the gap and stepped into hell.

TBC

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