Title: Twelve Days 4

Author: ZenosParadox

Rating: PG-13

Summary: RS, Tu. Reed and Sato experience 10 lords, 11 pipers and 12 drummers as they investigate a derelict space station with Tucker and Ensign Partridge. 3 of 3 chapters; 4th of 4 episodes.

Disclaimer: The Enterprise characters belong to Paramount. This fiction was written solely for personal enjoyment.

TWELVE DAYS 4

TEN LORDS A-LEAPING

January 4

The sphere existed in the cold vacuum of space. A signal was intercepted and lights were suddenly activated. Motivation and purpose now hummed throughout the structure. Rather, it stuttered through the sphere with an au-au-au sound as the system prepared to meet its new charges. Once preparations were complete, they settled down to wait.

~~~~~

"What have you been up to, Malcolm? I thought you'd meet up with me in the gym like you normally do when the Cap'n gives us a morning off," said Tucker to Reed as they sat down to lunch. "Didn't feel like getting your ass kicked?"

"Didn't want to embarrass you again, Commander. I've just been working on a personal project of mine," said Reed evasively. He had spent the morning working on his gift for a certain young lady and he knew his face was turning pink even with this admission.



"Your personal project wouldn't have a Japanese name like Hoshi Sato, would it?" asked Tucker a bit too innocently.

"Hoshi is not my anything," said Reed quietly. He didn't want to protest too much. On the other hand, there was nothing to protest about.

"Uh-huh, that's why the Cap'n will be calling you for a little talk about fraternizing," said Tucker.

Reed looked at Tucker sharply, "The Captain intends to lecture ME about professional behavior?"

"He's really looking forward to it," said Tucker with a grin as he enjoyed the sense of payback his announcement brought.

Reed simply shook his head and said, "Perfect, just perfect. What could possibly go wrong next?"

"All senior officers report to the situation room for a mission briefing. Ensign Daniel Partridge, report to the Captain," called T'Pol's voice over the intercom.

Reed and Tucker turned to look at each other in dismay and simultaneously said, "Gonzo!"

-----

The officers awaited the Captain as they stood in their usual positions in the situation room. Soon Captain Jonathan Archer exited his ready room with Ensign Partridge following behind him mouthing Wow as he looked around the bridge. The Captain had gone to retrieve a PADD from his chair with Partridge still dogging his heels. The officers watched as Archer tapped Partridge's shoulder before he sat in the Captain's chair.

"Go stand by the Science Officer in the situation room." Archer's voice was firm.

"Yes, sir," said Partridge as he hopped up the steps only to take a position where he was constantly hovering over T'Pol

The Vulcan discreetly swung out her elbow to put some distance between herself and Partridge who was breathing down her neck. Tucker noted the maneuver and flashed a covertly raised fist at the Vulcan who appeared to nod slightly in acknowledgement.

"Sub-commander, if you would fill in the team on the mission?" began Archer once he was standing in position.

T'Pol pushed a button to activate the viewscreen. "The sphere you now see appears to be a derelict space station. I would expect a very sophisticated culture constructed it. Notice the infinity symbol they arranged with the exhaust manifolds."

Sato cocked her head at an angle and murmured to Reed, "Looks like an eight-ball."

Reed had to nod his agreement, but wondered if Sato was a pool shark in hiding. "As long as there's not a cue ball waiting to collide with it, we should be fine."

"Vulcan ships have encountered it previously, but found no indication of activity. We, however, have detected some biosigns in the perimeter of the structure, but they all appear to be plant life. I believe it is a botanical bay. Minimal operations are intact and a breathable atmosphere has been maintained." T'Pol projected a series of incomplete schematics of the sphere.

"The shielding prevents us from getting complete scans, so I'm sending an away team to investigate this space station. Who knows? Its builders might have descendents who'd like to know of its existence," Archer explained.

"Sir, perhaps there was a reason it was abandoned," chimed in Reed. Although he knew everyone would consider this his usual paranoia, he had to try. There had been too many weird occurrences of late.

"If so, I intend to find out. Trip, you'll lead the team with Malcolm, Hoshi and Ensign Partridge in Shuttlepod One. You'll explore the station today, then if you indicate it's safe, we'll send you back in the morning for an overnight survey."

~~~~~

The four Starfleet officers exited the shuttle and walked into the alien space station. The lighting was dim, but sufficient for movement. Tucker turned to the others, "T'Pol's best guess is that the command center is smack dab in the middle of the figure eight, so we'll head there first. Lieutenant, lead on."

Reed led the team with Sato and Partridge behind him and Tucker bringing up the rear. Tucker was motivated by a desire to ensure Partridge didn't do anything to screw things up. Since he kept slapping the Ensign's hands away from any control panels, this was a tasking job.

"This appears to be a variation of the Nanykeu language. It's pretty obscure, but there are some references to them in the Vulcan database." Reed and Sato had stopped at a panel.

Sato made some adjustments to the UT and continued. "According to this, the command center is actually at the pole. The center of the figure eight is labeled as waste disposal."

The team shifted direction and made their way to the command center by taking an elevator that carried them around the circumference of the station to the pole. Toward the core the team could see a vast array of pipes leading in all directions and in a variety of configurations.

"I'd bet those pipes were used to maintain the water and nutrients to the hydroponics bay. Shoot, half of 'em are wide enough to walk through. I'm anxious to get a look at those schematics," said Tucker as he scanned the environment with his engineer's eyes.

"Probably used steam to regulate temperature as well. Do you see the exhaust on that pipe?" Reed said as he pointed to a structure as they passed by.

Sato looked away from the core as the lift took them past a lush, green bay along the perimeter. "Amazing. That looks like a piece of the Amazon jungle."

"It can't be. It takes too much energy to produce tropical plants," assured Ensign Partridge. "Look, there's nothing showing up on the scans."

Noticing the murderous look that appeared in the eyes of his colleagues, Tucker merely took Partridge by the shoulders and pointed him away from the core and in the direction Sato had been viewing.

Partridge immediately changed his tune to, "Wow! Look at those plants! That's a tropical jungle. Cool."

Once they arrived at the command center, Tucker turned to Partridge and ordered, "Ensign, point your bioscanner at that entrance and don't move a muscle. Got it?"

Reed turned to Tucker to say, "I thought I was the paranoid one."

"I'm just trying to keep Gonzo busy and outta trouble while we check this out. Hoshi, got anything?" The men walked to the panel where Sato was currently pressing buttons.

"Yes, sir. This map shows the quickest route to their hydroponics controls. The wetlands were kept for five separate environments. They had tropics, orchard, vegetable, grain and flowers."

"That's quite an operation, especially in the vegetable bay. I kinda feel like we're going into Mr. McGregor's garden," said Tucker with a wink.

Reed shook his head. "Don't say that. I've had too many literary allusions showing up in my life lately. I'd hate to see you and Partridge end up like Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny."

"Oh, cool. Stripped naked and whipped? I want to be Peter Rabbit," called Partridge as he overheard their comments.

"I really didn't need to know that," said Tucker through gritted teeth.

This evoked a look of sympathy from Reed. Perhaps he should simply stun the ensign just so that the rest of them could keep their sanity. Sato's voice prevented his making the offer to Tucker. Besides, the engineer had his own phase pistol.

"Lieutenant, there's something here called Security Control." Sato was already using the UT to translate the panel.

Reed approached but turned to Sato for her directions. She interpreted the controls; he made the decisions on which to activate. A small frown appeared on her face, then Sato offered, "This one says lock-down, that's the monitors, the last one is security status. None of them appear to be working except for the last."

"Let's get a report, shall we?" asked Reed as he pressed the button. Characters began scrolling across the screen. Reed gave a perplexed look to Sato who immediately began adjusting the UT. They were soon able to understand the message. "...ten Logically Replete Drones secured..."

Tucker exchanged a shrug with Reed. "Reckon we have a case of the Terminators on board? You know, killer android, glowing red eyes, 'I'll be back'?"

"You watch too many science fiction movies, Commander," murmured Reed.

"As long as it isn't some creepy alien dripping acid with hidden jaws and a rat's tail," said Sato with a shiver of disgust.

The message continued before the men could say anything about how preposterous that sounded. "...Logically Replete Drones contained in cell five..."

"Let's have a look at these drones," said Tucker. Reed traced a finger along the schematics and with a questioning look to Sato asked, "Cell block five? Let's go. Hell! Where's Partridge?"

"Wow! Cool!" echoed down the corridor. Reed, Sato and Tucker took off in a sprint.

The corridor had a series of doors with window panels. At cell block five, they pushed Partridge aside to take a quick peep inside thinking they would find a menacing presence.

"They look like the toys I used to build when I was a kid," said Tucker as he viewed the inert mechanisms.

"They seem pretty harmless," said Sato as she noted the resemblance of a smiley face on the units. Except for one unit in the middle with four-digit claws, the drones had arms that ended in a U-shape.

"They seem fairly useless," said Reed as he observed the springs on the bottom of the drones. Did these robots move like slinkies?

"They're cool!" said Partridge, followed by, "Oops!"

The door slid open as Ensign Partridge's left elbow collided with a small red button. Sato, who had been leaning against the door, began to fall into the room. Reed quickly grabbed her at the waist to prevent a tumble, but her hand grazed against the claw of one of the robots while she regained her balance. "Ouch!"

Tucker closed the door as Reed pulled Sato back and immediately inspected her hand. "Are you alright? How did you get hurt?"

Sato had a sheepish expression as she shook her hand. "I'm fine, I just got poked in the hand. It was like getting a paper cut."

Then they heard it. Boink-chink, boink-chink. The drones were moving by taking little jumps, generally into one of their neighbors. The Starfleet Officers watched as one did an entire flip.

"The door opening must've activated the units. No sense in messing with 'em since they're safely locked up," said Tucker as he moved away from the observation window to grab Partridge's hand away from a panel on another door. Tucker gritted his teeth and said, "Stop that!"

Reed's attention was still drawn to the robots. "One, two...five...seven...ten. They're all there. What was their name again?"

"Logically Replete Drone. Why? Not again!" Sato shook her head.

"Ten LoRDs a leaping? I think I'd have felt more comfortable if they slithered," sighed Reed. "There appears to be no threat especially if we keep their door closed. Still, there must be some reason they were placed in the brig."

"Hoshi can download the security archives tomorrow. Let's check out the closest botanical bay to see whether we can interface with it," said Tucker. Sato and Reed took the lead with Tucker and Partridge behind them.

Tucker gritted his teeth again when Partridge said, "Heheh, I dropped my scanner back there, Commander."

"Retrieve it then get back to us on the double, Ensign," said Tucker without a trace of his Southern accent. At this rate the Chief Engineer would need to make use of Dr. Phlox's dental skills. His jaw tightened and he could almost feel TMJ asserting itself.

Partridge loped back through the corridor and saw his scanner. He took one last peek into the LoRDs. The ensign waved at the robots through the observation window with his face pressed against the glass and one hand leaning against the panel.

"Partridge, getta move on!" called Tucker.

Sato and Reed were already in the lift, so her hearing failed to detect the whirring sound in the panel that held the robots safely in their cell or the au-au-au the drones began to emit.

-----

Back on Enterprise, Tucker provided a positive report for the space station. "Cap'n, the station has some interesting designs for hydroponics. I'd like to download the information. The drones we found are safely locked in a cell and shouldn't be a problem."

"I'm still not sure about how harmless the LoRDs are, Captain," said Reed.

"You're not gonna let some wind-up toys scare you?" Tucker taunted with a smile.

Reed countered, "I'd feel better if we deactivated the units. Other than that, there appears to be no risk at the station."

"Good. The team will leave tomorrow morning at 0800 so you can complete your surveys. Pack for an overnight stay. Enterprise will keep its rendezvous with the Vulcan ship in the meantime and will be back for Shuttlepod One in 30 hours. Will that be enough time?"

Tucker looked to Sato, who nodded. In the background Ensign Partridge was saying, "Cool! Overnight, just the four of us? Wow!"

Archer turned to Partridge saying, "Better start packing, Ensign. Dismissed."

The remaining officers turned a pleading look to their Captain. Tucker began, "Cap'n, we can't take Ensign Gonzo."

"T'Pol wants to make sure the Vulcans do NOT meet Ensign Partridge. They're doing a proficiency report of her department. Partridge would just be an embarrassment," explained Archer calmly.

"I thought the entire crew was personally picked by you, Cap'n," said Tucker.

"There are a few instances where I had to rely on the advice of others," responded Archer evasively, then he admitted, "Ensign Partridge is the stepson of Admiral Williams. The Admiral was very insistent that Partridge be shipped out on the next vessel leaving Jupiter Station and that was us. Look, just keep him busy and out of trouble. What harm could he do scanning vegetables?"

His three officers crossed their arms over their chest and looked askance. The Captain merely shook his head and asserted, "That's an order. Now, Trip, if you'd let me speak to Hoshi and Malcolm alone? Thanks."

-----

"...so while I'm willing to accept the relationship, you two have to make sure you're being discreet in front of the rest of the crew."

Archer thought it had gone well as he spoke to the wall between his officers' shoulders, but when he turned his gaze to their faces he noticed the dumbfounded expression on Reed and the mischievous look on Sato.

Reed found his voice first and said, "But, sir, I haven't, I mean, we aren't--"

"Now, Malcolm, there's no sense in denying it. We've all seen it coming. You certainly weren't sleeping in the room assigned to the men during our last mission. And we could see you rolling all over each other in the grass the other day. You two just have to learn to keep your hands off of each other while on duty, that's all I'm asking."

"But that was the effects of the grass! Dr. Phlox--" Reed was insistent on trying to defend Sato's honor.

"Told me all about the grass. Its effects become especially strong when the woman is with an appropriate stimulus. So, yes, I understand you two had a bit of help that day. That's why we're having this talk now. No necking in the corridors, no lunchtime trysts and no, uh, intimacy except within your quarters. Believe me, between Porthos and T'Pol, they can locate activity faster than it can be perpetrated. Dismissed."

"But--"

"Malcolm, it's all right," said Sato as she dragged Reed out of the Captain's ready room. She turned to Archer to say, "I'll just talk to Malcolm so he won't be confused by exactly what's acceptable, Captain,"

As Reed followed Sato, he asked in a bewildered voice, "Did the Captain just accuse us of having an affair?"

"No, he just told us to behave discreetly," said Sato. They arrived at her quarters and Reed merely followed her in.

"But why should we be worried about being discreet unless he thinks we're involved with each other?" Reed turned to Sato in a desperate attempt to understand what had just happened. And why was she giving him that smile?

"Captain Archer just wants us to avoid certain behaviors in public. Like this for example," said Sato. She then put her hands on either side of Reed's face and kissed him thoroughly. Reed was even more dazed when Sato released him.

"Is there mistletoe around here?" Reed looked above him fully expecting a sprig to suddenly appear, although his hands remained firmly around her waist.

Sato grabbed Reed's chin and kissed him again. He pulled away to say, "I'll call Dr. Phlox. There's obviously been some residual effect of the Masqueran loco weed."

Reed's hand was almost at the comm link when he stopped and turned, "Wait. Did Trip put you up to this? Or was it Travis? I bet it was the both of th--"

"Lieutenant Malcolm Reed! You are a complete brick. No, you're a concrete block, the densest blockhead on the starship Enterprise. Now kiss me," said Hoshi as she approached him with a smile.

"You just called me a blockhead and you expect me to kiss you?" asked Malcolm, still not believing that she was operating under her own volition. Hoshi was in his arms and he was worried he'd wake up from one of his dreams.

"I'm making accurate observations, so I deserve to be rewarded, " said Hoshi as she ran a finger along his jawline.

Yes, that did make sense thought Malcolm as he bent to capture her mouth. He could drown in her kiss and it would be the sweetest death imaginable. After a long moment, Malcolm could only pull away far enough to put his forehead against Hoshi's. He was breathing heavily and looked into her flushed face. He found his courage and began to say, "Hoshi, I--"

That's when she slumped into his arms. Odd. His kiss had never made a woman pass out before.

-----

"No sign of hypoglycemia, hypotension, or vestibular abnormalities," said Dr. Phlox in a cheery tone as Sato began to rouse from her stupor. Interesting. The Masqueran grass had really increased her endogenous estrogen levels. That accounted for the proceptive behavior Sato had experienced. The physician ended with, "Nor is she pregnant."

"Not pregnant? What do you mean?" asked Reed.

"Oh, have you been trying? I thought humans preferred a formal marriage ritual before procreational sex, but, Lieutenant, if there is a problem I'm sure I can help develop some therapy--"

"I'm perfectly healthy, Doctor. Look, we have NOT been intimate, we've just slept together," said Reed as he helped a groggy Sato sit up.

"I see," said Phlox in a tone that indicated he knew a human who needed a refresher course on sex education.

Reed was now rubbing Sato gently on her back as he supported her with one arm. She blinked then asked, "What happened?"

"There are no residual psychological effects of the Masqueran grass and nothing else is wrong that I can find. Now, if you'd like a complete scan, I can take you to medbay, Ensign. No? Then I would say it was just over excitement. I recommend you two engage in some quiet activity for a while," said Phlox as he left Sato's quarters.

Malcolm was even more confused than when he first came in. Was her fainting when he kissed her a good thing or a bad thing? "Hoshi, in all my experience with women, I have never had one to faint dead away when I kissed her."

"I don't faint. I just have a small memory gap. You were going to contact Phlox to check me out again--that's all I can remember." Hoshi suddenly looked at Malcolm. "Did you say you were kissing me?"

"Ah, you don't remember that? Why don't I leave you to get some rest then? I'll see you tomorrow," said Malcolm and made his escape.

Malcolm went back to his quarters and considered his present dilemma. Everyone thought he and Hoshi were having some passionate affair when she couldn't even remember kissing him. Perfect, just perfect.

-----

That night, Malcolm dreamed he was a prince who kissed his princess. Rather than wake up the beautiful maiden who had taken the form of Hoshi, the kiss put her into a long sleep. Two LoRDs suddenly appeared to carry the sleeping beauty away, but her body kept bouncing up and down as if on a trampoline as they bounded off carrying the litter. Malcolm kept trying to catch Hoshi, but the dream ended without success. Malcolm woke up with a firm decision to test the preposterous idea. He made up his mind to kiss Hoshi Sato just to satisfy himself that he didn't put her to sleep.

*****