Title: Aquarius

Authors: Sita/T'eyla

Genre: Angst/Action/Adventure

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Trip and Malcolm crashland on a water planet. Tucker/Reed friendship.

Disclaimer: Paramount owns Enterprise, we do not.

AN: Warning: Spoilers for "Minefield".

Chapter 1

Lieutenant Malcolm Reed stared out the shuttle window, compelled by the vast spaces of blue interrupted by white streaks of lower clouds which were hanging like immovable chunks of ice over the waters of planet XR-539. Ever since they'd entered the atmosphere he had seen nothing but water down there, which was not surprising, considering the fact that more than 95% of the planet's surface was covered in H2O, water, disgusting colourless stuff or whatever you wanted to call it.

When Enterprise had arrived at this world three days ago, the bridge crew had been staring in awe at the blue globe hanging before them in the darkness of space, and T'Pol had gravely announced that this was the planet with the largest amount of surface water the Vulcan explorers had discovered so far. He'd been the only one who hadn't been very impressed by that, and he'd sympathized with T'Pol as she'd raised a disapproving eyebrow when Ensign Mayweather had dubbed the planet 'Aquarius', a name which had made Archer, Hoshi, and Trip chuckle and left Reed and T'Pol at sea.

No pun intended, Reed thought sourly, never taking his eyes off the moving waters below them. He hadn't been too concerned then, though; he hadn't been able to think of a reason why it should be neccessary to send an away team down to that planet. But unfortunately Captain Archer had, and he'd ordered Malcolm to accompany Commander Tucker on this mission. Before they had boarded the shuttle the Captain had taken him aside and asked him if there would be any *problems* with this mission. Reed, cringing at Archer's worried tone of voice, had assured him that he was going to be just fine. But now, staring out the window and trying not to think of how it would feel to actually be down there in the water, the current trying to draw him under, he felt not quite so fine.

"...by the way, do you like it?"

Startled out of his thoughts, Malcolm looked up at Trip who was sitting in the pilot seat and had just turned his head in Malcolm's direction. Reed frowned.

"Do I like what?"

"'Hair'!" Trip rolled his eyes in exasperation. "That's what I've been talkin' about the last five minutes. Do you like 'Hair'?"

Reed wondered if Trip had lost his mind after all. "Whose hair are we talking about?" he asked carefully. Trip shook his head.

"You haven't been listenin' to me at all, have you? I'm talkin' about 'Hair'. 'Hair' as in 'Hair', the musical." He noticed Reed's confused expression and grinned. "You know... " He cleared his throat and suddenly broke into song:

"When the moooon is in the seventh house,

And Jupiter aligns with Mars,

Then peeace will guide the planets,

And lo-ove will steer the stars..."

"I get it, Trip, I get it," Reed said hastily. "'Hairs'. It's a musical."

"Not 'Hairs'. 'Hair'! It's the musical we watched last Friday at movie night, when you were working."

"Ah. Yes." Secretly Malcolm congratulated himself on the decision not to have gone to movie night after all. Trip, ignoring him, chatted on, turning back to his console. "That's why we named the planet 'Aquarius'. 'Aquarius' is a song from that musical. Didn't you wonder?"

"Um... no," Reed said, looking out the window again. There was silence for a few moments, then he heard Trip's voice behind him.

"What's wrong, Malcolm?"

"Why?" he asked, turning around, trying to sound surprised by the question. Trip glanced up from the shuttle controls.

"Talkin' to you today is like talkin' to a wall. You could at least say yes or no once in a while."

"Sorry," Reed mumbled, avoiding Trip's eyes, hoping the Commander wouldn't pursue the matter.

Of course there was something wrong, but he had no intention of explaining it, not to Trip and not to anyone else. He had told Archer, of course, but that had been at a time when he'd thought he wouldn't live to see any water ever again, and ever since that day out in the minefield he'd regretted letting anyone in on that well-kept secret of his. He didn't really know why he hated talking about this so much. He was ashamed, yes, but that wasn't all of it. Somehow, by admitting that he was afraid of water, afraid of drowning, he was giving a part of himself away, admitting that he was weak. Aquaphobia, this particular weakness was called. He hated the mere sound of the word. It reminded him of someone hysterically screaming their heads off at the sight of a mouse, of old ladies talking to shrinks about their ailments. And these things were certainly nothing he wanted anyone to associate with him. He did feel a bit guilty for not telling his best friend about it, but at he same time he remembered a conversation he'd had with Trip some time ago, when Trip had told him with mild amusement about some great aunt of his who was deadly afraid of spiders. He knew he was being silly, but somehow he just couldn't bring himself to say anything, not able to stand the thought of having people laugh at him behind his back.

Suddenly the shuttle gave a lurch, interrupting his train of thoughts and nearly throwing both of them out of their seats.

"What happened?" Reed asked, getting up and looking over Trip's shoulder at the console. Trip was operating the shuttle controls with deliberate speed.

"I dunno for sure. The starboard engine just broke down."

Reed opened his mouth to ask how far they were from the surface when suddenly the shuttle jerked again, making him stumble.

"Dammit!" Trip switched off the emergency klaxon which was giving off shrill beeping noises. Reed gripped the backrest of the pilot seat, and, checking the displays, he saw that the other engine had given up the ghost as well.

"It's those bloody interferences," he said, and felt his stomach jerk simultanously with the shuttle as he threw a glance at the display, checking their altitude, and discovered that they were still more than seven hundred feet above the planet's surface.

"We need to get the shuttle down as quickly as possible," Trip said, trying to stabilize the pod on its descending course. "Let's hope we'll make it to the coast."

For the first time Reed raised his eyes, looking out the main window of the shuttle. For a moment he saw nothing but water, stretching endlessly in all directions, but then a thin line appeared on the horizon, growing steadily as they sped towards it. And that moment he knew they were not going to make it. The coast was still too far away, and they were rapidly losing height. They would have to land on the water.

Reed noticed he was still gripping the backrest, his knuckles turning white, and deliberately loosened his grip.

"Do you think the shuttle is still up to an emergency landing?" he asked, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. Trip shook his head, shutting off another alarm which had started blaring a moment ago.

"I don't know. The stabilizers just went offline."

"I'll try to get the emergency system online," Reed said, feeling a desperate surge of hope rise within him. He stumbled back to his seat, glad to be able to turn his back on the dismal sight of the water coming nearer and nearer, and bent over his console. Just as he had initiated the starting sequence, there was the sound of wires short-circuiting and he heard Trip cry out in pain. He looked up and saw smoke billowing from the helm.

"Trip!" He was about to get up, but Trip waved him off.

"I'm alright," he said, frantically batting away the smoke, "but we've lost navigation control. All systems are offline."

He turned around to Reed and Malcolm saw the Commander was trying very hard to keep the panic in his voice under control as he spoke.

"We're not gonna make it to the coast."

And although Reed had known this, he felt his insides contract at these words. Through the window he could see the white crests of the waves below, and in the distance the thin line had become the broad silhouette of a rocky coast, but it was still too far away. Too damn far away.

He knew he should be doing something now, anything to prevent the shuttle from crashing, even though it was futile by now, but he could only sit and stare at the moving watermass below. Although he knew it was going to happen, he couldn't bring himself to believe he was actually going down into that churning hell of an ocean. It was like waking up and finding your nightmare had come true, that feeling of reality hitting home.

Trip was frantically punching away at the burnt-out console, but, of course, it wasn't reacting to anything he did. The shuttle was creaking now like it was going to fall apart any moment, drowning out the shrill sound of the alarms howling away at the main console.

Biting back the nauseous feeling that was building in his throat, Reed closed his eyes and clutched the armrests of his chair like his life depended on it. A moment later he heard Trip's voice as if from very far away:

"Prepare for crash!"

There was a roaring noise around him, a splash and a splutter as the engines died completely. The shuttle shook and jerked as it made contact with the water surface, and both of them were thrown out of their seats as it bounced along on the waves. Reed hit the deck and felt a stab of pain in his right arm as he was thrown against the back of the pilot seat. He looked around for Trip and saw he had been flung against the helm, but was already getting up again, holding onto the console as the shuttle gave a last few lurches and then quieted down.

Reed got up, noticing the steady rocking under his feet as he took a few careful steps in Trip's direction.

"Are you okay?" he asked, surprised at how calm his voice sounded. Trip turned around and Reed saw blood dripping from his nose.

"I'm fine," he said, throwing a glance at the main window. "We need to get outta here ASAP."

Reed turned his head and froze. Right in front of the window there was water, not a smooth sea anymore as it had been when he had looked at it from above, but a churning, moving mass of waves. Somewhere at a distance he could make out the coast and could even see the outline of some trees growing there, but it could as well have been a hundred miles away. Trip had said something about getting out of here, and it sounded like a good idea, but how were they going to do that without actually getting into the water? Because one thing he knew for sure: He couldn't get into that water.

Trip was frantically rummaging around in one of the storage compartments, carelessly throwing its contents onto the floor until he finally found a survival kit. He wrapped its straps around his waist and fastened the seal, turning around to Malcolm.

"You okay?" he asked and continued, not waiting for an answer. "We need to get into the water as soon as I open the hatch. When the water gets in, the shuttle will sink in no time."

Grabbing Reed by the arm, he pulled him over to the hatch.

"We need to keep together, alright?"

Reed saw him reaching for the panel beside the hatch and wanted to stop him, to tell him not to do this crazy thing - we're going to drown, for God's sake! - but he couldn't. His throat had closed up and he couldn't even yank his arm free from Trip's grasp. He was paralyzed.

"Ready?" Trip said and in the same moment the hatch flew open. For the first time Reed actually saw the water not through a window, but right there in front of him, hearing it roar and feeling the waves crushing against his feet. It was freezing cold and there was no getting away from it for it was flooding the shuttle at an incredible speed. He tried to retreat into the shuttle anyway, feeling his chest tighten up - I've got to get away from it! - but Trip was pulling him forward and into the waves.

He lost the ground beneath his feet and for a terrible moment the water was all around him, closing over his head and darkening his vision. A moment later his head bobbed up again and he gasped for air, trying to scream at the same time, but no sound came out. Trip had released him the moment they had hit the water and was now a few feet ahead, moving away from him without looking back. Desperately, Reed tried to keep his head out of the water and felt he was moving too, away from the rapidly sinking shuttle. Again, he tried to scream, but somehow he couldn't get enough air, not even to breath, and his head was spinning. Another wave crashed into his face and water got into his open mouth, leaving a slimy layer of salt on his tongue. Coughing, he tried to draw in some air, but only succeeded in swallowing even more water, and his chest was tightening up, making it impossible for him to breath. His vision was beginning to darken around the edges and he felt his wet uniform pulling him down, but he couldn't fight it anymore. The water closed over his head once more and he knew this time he wouldn't be coming up again. The last remnants of his will to fight were fading away and he felt almost relieved when the blackness closed in on him, taking him away.

TBC...