Unseen Peril - Epilogue

Unseen Peril

by Vanishingp2000

For disclaimer see Chapter 1.

~~~~~

Epilogue

Trip Tucker woke slowly, at first unaware of his surroundings. Gradually awareness returned and he was assaulted with a barrage of sounds and feelings.

“Take it easy Trip,” a voice from a long way away intruded into his consciousness.

He turned his head, moaning slightly at a stabbing pain in his side.

“Keep still,” the voice insisted, nearer this time.

Something was pressing down on him and he raised his arm to fend it off but was met with resistance. “Stop it.” The voice again, right beside him this time. “You need it to breathe.”

Gradually it dawned on his befuddled brain that the voice belonged to Malcolm and he forced his eyes open. Reed was leaning over him, holding his oxygen mask in place. Beyond lights were flashing, alarms blaring. He sat up quickly, almost knocking his friend over in his haste.

“Where are they, did it work?” Words tumbled from his mouth as he tried to scramble to his feet.

“They’re gone from here but I haven’t had time to check the systems yet to see if it worked or not.” As he spoke Reed got to his feet, wincing at his own aches and followed Tucker to the console.

The engineer’s fingers flew over the controls for a moment and then he dropped his head in relief. “They’re in the catwalk,” he stated finally. “I reckon it’s safe enough to restore life support, they know we’re out and about now, but I’ll have to leave the temperature and humidity for the moment.”

He made a few adjustments to the console and Reed felt a gentle breeze against his cheek from the overhead fan as the air began recycling again. Tucker meanwhile had activated the comm. “Tucker to the captain,” he said slowly, voice betraying the tiredness he was feeling as the adrenaline left his system.

“Archer,” the captain’s relief could be clearly heard over the comm.

“Life support has been reactivated Capt’n,” Trip told his friend. “Give it another five minutes and you can come and give us a hand.”

Reed smiled over at the engineer before saying, more formally, “The phase pistols had no effect you know, the sooner we can deposit our friends back where they came from the better.”

“Fine by me Malcolm,” Trip agreed. “In the meantime how about letting them know that we’ll restart the warp engine at the first sign of trouble?”

The armoury officer grinned conspiratorially. “Consider it done and just you make sure that they don’t feel safe coming out here again.”

Tucker wiped his hand over his forehead. “Like you said, the sooner the better. It’s hotter ‘n hell in here just now.” As he spoke he began making his way down to the lower level to undo his work on the warp reactor.

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

“I’m still picking up the distress signal Captain,” Hoshi reported as they approached the N class planet again some hours later.

Archer frowned “We’ll leave a marker buoy with a warning message for any other passing ships.”

He smiled over at his chief engineer who had just returned to the bridge. Trip’s hair was plastered to his head and his face bore the marks of his recent ordeal but he returned his friend’s smile cheerfully.

“We’re ready to begin the transport Capt’n,” he said, wiping his sleeve across his brow.

“Then by all means Commander,” Archer gestured grandly.

Trip moved to reroute the transport controls and set the co-ordinates carefully. His face was grim as he operated the transporter time and again, concentration evident on his tired face. Finally he relaxed back and smiled brightly.

“Any one for ice cream?” he asked.

THE END

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A handful of people have made comments

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