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Unseen Peril - Chapter 5

Author - Vanishingp2000
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Unseen Peril

by Vanishingp2000

For disclaimer see Chapter 1

~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 5

End of flashback.

Trip Tucker woke slowly, at first unaware of his surroundings. It was quiet, peaceful and he felt relaxed as he opened his eyes.

“Take it easy Trip.” A voice off to his left, somehow familiar. He turned his head and looked into the smiling face of Jonathan Archer.

“Welcome back.”

Tucker frowned and tried to think back, somehow he knew he hadn’t expected to be here. He raised his hand to rub his eyes and found it encased in a burn dressing. He frowned again, half closing his eyes in puzzlement as he looked across at his captain. “Malcolm?” Trip struggled to sit up looking wildly about him until his gaze rested on a nearby biobed on which Reed lay breathing steadily.

“Take it easy,” Archer repeated gently pushing the engineer back down onto the bed.

“What happened?” Tucker rasped, his voice hoarse.

“You don’t remember?”

Trip shook his head slowly. “I remember leavin’ the ship. Malcolm and I went down to the planet. There was a distress call?”

Archer nodded but waited to see if his friend could remember anything more. Tucker looked pale and, apart from the hand, his body was a mass of bruises. Considering the state of the shuttle the latter was hardly surprising the captain reflected.

“We crashed,” Tucker spoke slowly, trying to piece events together in his mind. There was a lot of interference as we entered the atmosphere.”

Archer nodded encouraged. “We picked up your distress call when the storm cleared,” he said, watching his friend closely. Trip was looking at his hand.

“I was tryin’ to fix the power when I got this. I don’t remember sendin’ a distress call.”

“Perhaps Malcolm…”Jon began.

Trip closed his eyes trying to picture the shuttle. His memories were hazy to say the least. In fact, he couldn’t even remember the crash. “How did you manage to pick us up?” he asked.

“When the storm cleared so did the interference in the atmosphere. Travis and I were able to home in on your signal. The shuttle was in a hell of a mess, it’s a wonder either of you survived.”

“I can’t remember crashing.”

Archer smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry,” Phlox says it’s not surprising to have some memory loss.”

“Did you recover the shuttle?”

Jon looked surprised. “Are you kidding, the wreckage was scattered for several hundred metres among those rocks. Like I said it’s a wonder you came out of it alive.”

Trip lay back and closed his eyes and Archer made as if to leave but stopped as Tucker spoke again. “Where are we now?”

“Still in orbit but there’s been no further sign of the distress call and I’m not risking anyone else so I wasn’t planning on staying here much longer, just waiting for you two to see what you can tell us.”

“We can’t leave yet.”

“Why not?” Jon was puzzled. “You remember something?”

Tucker looked frustrated and rubbed his eyes again, trying to think but his mind was like a cloud, misty and nebulous. He rubbed harder at his forehead attempting to rub away the sudden pain behind his temples. The more he tried to remember the worse it was getting.

Archer noticed his discomfort and motioned to Phlox who was watching discretely from the other side of sickbay. The doctor came over and aimed his scanner at Tucker.

“How are you feeling?” he asked in his usual considerate manner.

“I’m fine Doc,” Trip answered, his mind elsewhere. “Just a bit of a headache.”

“You are lucky to have as few aches and pains as you have,” Phlox remarked, reaching for a hypo of analgesic. “The captain showed me his scans of your crash site. You and Mr Reed were remarkably fortunate to escape with your lives. As it was the lieutenant suffered a concussion.”

“He hit his head, the shuttle was……………..aagh” Trip broke off clutching his head with a cry of pain.

Phlox immediately picked up his scanner again while the captain tried to ease his writhing friend back onto the bed. At length the doctor managed to inject the hypo into Tucker’s neck and the engineer gradually relaxed back against the pillow unconscious.

“Doctor?” Archer’s tone was curt, worry for his friend evident.

“I’m not sure Captain, the scans show nothing wrong.”

“That sure as hell wasn’t ‘nothing.’”

Phlox nodded absently, surveying the readouts above his patient’s bed. “When did he first show signs of a headache?” he asked.

“Not at first, he seemed quite relaxed when he woke up, though he couldn’t remember much. The headache started when he tried to remember.”

“Mmm, it may just be the stress of trying to recover the memories but it does seem an extreme reaction. Can you let me have the composition of the gases on the planet Captain, perhaps the commander was exposed to something which may have caused his headaches?”

Archer moved to the comm. panel and called T’Pol on the bridge to request the information before returning to stand between the biobeds. “What about Malcolm?” he asked.

“He is still deeply unconscious with a concussion, I don’t want to wake him.”

Archer sighed and looked down at his officers, his friends, feeling the anger rising within him. He wanted answers and somehow he knew that that meant staying around.

“Look after them,” he instructed the doctor, “Let me know as soon as either of them wakes up.”

Phlox nodded, once again engrossed in his readings so that he didn’t notice as the captain left the room.


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

The light flickered at the edge of his consciousness somehow demanding his attention. As he watched it approached slowly out of the darkness becoming brighter so that he couldn’t make out anything beyond it. It was mesmerising and he found that he couldn’t move, even his eyes seemed drawn by the light and he felt his heart rate increasing as the beam pulsed ever nearer.

“Mr Tucker. Commander,” Phlox raised his voice as he tried to rouse his thrashing patient. The engineer’s biosigns were fluctuating dangerously as he was enveloped in the throes of a nightmare, his eyes moving rapidly beneath the lids. Finally the signs began to stabilise as Trip showed signs of waking and Phlox relaxed slightly only to take a sudden step backwards as Tucker shot upright with a shuddering breath. He looked around wildly before registering the doctor standing beside the bed. Closing his eyes he leaned slowly back on his elbows and tried to slow his breathing.

“That’s right Commander,” Phlox spoke soothingly as he ran his scanner over the engineer. “Try and relax.”

“What happened?” Tucker whispered, eyes still closed as he ran a hand over a face soaked in perspiration.

“You had a nightmare.”

“I did?” Trip wondered. “I don’t remember.”

“Don’t worry about that, I rarely remember my dreams.”

“You hardly ever sleep Doc,” Tucker’s voice was stronger as he eased himself back and relaxed into the pillows.

Phlox put down his scanner and fetched a damp towel which he handed over and Tucker wiped his face and neck gratefully.

“Thanks Doc,” he muttered handing the cloth back and looking across at the neighbouring biobed. “How’s Malcolm?”

“I believe that he will be rejoining us soon. He is showing a higher level of consciousness.” As he spoke Phlox moved across to the comm. unit on the wall to call the Captain as he had promised. Privately he hoped that the captain would be able to draw his friend into conversation and unlock some of what had happened down on the planet. Something was causing the engineer’s nightmares and he wasn’t happy about the stresses that the submerged memories were causing the young man. He collected a glass of water and returned to Trip’s bedside proffering the drink.

Tucker sat up and drank gratefully, letting the cool liquid soothe his throat before swallowing. He grimaced as a stabbing pain skittered across his temple but the pain was soon forgotten at a moan from the other bed. He turned to watch as Reed slowly opened his eyes, screwing them shut again immediately against the light.

“Hey Malcolm.”

Reed opened his eyes again, turning his head slowly in Trip’s direction. He smiled slightly at the engineer then lay back exhausted.

“Well Mr Reed,” Phlox kept his voice quiet in deference to the sick man, “It’s about time you woke up.”

“How,” Reed swallowed and tried again. “How long was I asleep?”

“Long enough, I can’t be sure how long you were unconscious before we found you but you have been back on Enterprise for nearly ten hours.”

“What happened?”

“Well now, Mr Tucker can’t seem to remember at present.”

“Don’t even try Malcolm,” Tucker warned, remembering his headache the last time he’d tried to remember.

Reed looked blearily over at the sickbay doors as Archer entered. He looked weary and unshaven which surprised him but the captain smiled warmly at the sight of his two officers awake once more.

“Gentlemen,” he said, catching Trip’s eye. “How are you feeling?”

“Much better,” Tucker replied as Reed tried to sit up only to find himself held down by the doctor.

“Not just yet Lieutenant. You suffered a serious concussion and will need to rest here at least until tomorrow.”

Reed pulled a face but, truth to tell he didn’t feel up to moving anyway so he let himself drift and tried to follow the conversation between the captain and Tucker.

“We were able to recover the shuttle’s logs but most of the data was degraded. T’Pol’s working in it now to see what can be salvaged.”

“I remember a storm. We were hit almost as soon as we entered the atmosphere. Must have crashed pretty much straight away.”

“You’re very lucky that your suits remained intact. You were thrown about on those rocks but you both had your suits and helmets in place.”

“I’m glad that we did,” Trip said dryly.

“Of course, but you see what I’m getting at. The shuttle was destroyed but you found time to put your helmets on and they survived the crash.”

“So they can’t have been exposed to any chemicals then Captain?” queried Phlox.

“Not unless the shuttle started breaking up before it hit the ground and before they got their helmets in place.”

“Born lucky I guess,” Tucker stated closing his eyes against what he could only describe as a ‘flickering’ in his mind. He still couldn’t remember what had happened but he recalled well enough what he had felt the last time he tried to remember so he figured he would just take Jon’s word for it and wait until T’Pol could recover something from the shuttle’s logs.

“When can I get out of here Doc?” he asked, suddenly anxious to be up and about.

“Perhaps in the morning, if you get a good nights sleep.” Phlox raised his eyebrows at the look on Tucker’s face and smiled to himself as the engineer got the message and sank back down onto his pillows.

Archer smiled at them both, relieved to see them awake and comfortable. “Get some sleep, I’ll see you in the morning.” He said quietly.

Malcolm’s eyes were already closing as he gave in to the inevitable but Trip nodded. “Sure thing Capt’n,” he replied settling himself more comfortably on the bed.

Archer left quietly after exchanging a few words with Phlox and neither noticed the small pool of water that oozed silently across the floor towards the air vents.

TBC


Continue to Chapter 6

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