Between A Rock and… Another Big Rock

By Didi

Disclaimer: (Hate these things.) I do not own any of the recognized characters, places or things in this story. This is purely as pleasure writing and no profit shall be made from it. Any copyright infringement I may be committing is unintentional and without malice. I would be more than happy to STOP, just tell me. There, does that cover it all?

Rating: PG 13 for now.

Summary: The crew goes hunting underground.

Timeline: Set before the episode "Azati Prime" in Season 3.

Author's Note: I told myself not to do another Star Trek story after reading several spectacular ones already posted. Cannot possibly compare. But I couldn't help myself. No particularly pairing at this point, it's just story with little hints here and there. Hopefully, there won't be too many booing in the back when I'm through. If you've read my first fic, you'll know that I'm a Hoshi fan. This story will be Hoshi centric but hopefully I've given enough 'airtime' to everyone to keep the hissing down.

Also, I don't know Major Hayes's first name so I'm going to follow Gia's example and call him Matthew (Matt) Hayes. A solid name of a very solid man. (Sigh, Major Hayes is such a wonderful character played oh-so beautifully by Steven Culp. I'm so going to miss him. But we can all watch the actor on the new show "Desperate Housewives.")

Spoiler: Everything up through "The Hatchery." (I'm being nicely cautious here.)

Key: "Spoken" "Thoughts"

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Chapter One - Recon

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"And this thing is where?"

"Nowhere I want to be at," came the cheeky reply.

"Not funny, Trip," Archer said with a grime face. Rubbing his forehead with more force than necessary, the captain looked up to regard his armory officer and science officer with a look that bordered painful. "And the information is accurate?"

"There would appear to be no reason for these people to be untruthful," T'Pol said stately, her Vulcan control allowing no clue of her actually thoughts. "They do not appear to have any connection to the Xindi."

"I don't like it," Lt. Reed stated in his blunt manner. "It could be a trap."

"They could have all been traps but it's never stopped us before," Trip pointed out with a shrug. Truth be told, the idea had already cross the chief engineer's mind and readily been dismissed. As it's been pointed out to him since entering the expense, this whole damn mission was a risk in itself; why stop at the little ones now.

"Caution isn't a luxury we have at the moment, Malcolm," Archer reminded his armory officer and looked at his ceiling as he considered his options. The pencil stuck there from an attack some months back was still there, lodged between the almost invisible seams of the ship. It was but one of the few remaining souvenir from Earth he's been able to keep. That and Porthos. "Give me the details again."

T'Pol's ready data pad was handed over immediately. "It's a subterranean cavern just below the surface of the oceanic planes. Our best estimate that it's approximately ten thousand feet below sea level on this planet. The only entrance is under the third mountain over on the eastern region of the fourth continent."

"The only land entrance you mean," Archer said softly.

"No," T'Pol replied with one arched brow in what could be described as annoyance… if she weren't Vulcan. "If that were the case, I would have specified." Then again, T'Pol has been on the ship almost three years now. Some human traits could have rubbed off. "The area just over the cavern from the water entrance is the junction of three currents. The vortex created by the intersecting currents would crush any vehicle that attempts to approach from sea."

"Including a shuttle?" Trip asked skeptically.

The only answer received was a pointed look.

"But there's a tunnel that goes from the mountain down into the bottom of the ocean?" Lieutenant Reed's expression mirrored what Tucker and Archer were feeling. "That's positively illogical."

"Perhaps," T'Pol replied softly. "But it is what it is."

"And Hoshi has double checked the UT's translation on this doohickey, right?" Trip asked once more. The thought of spending three days walking blindly underground wasn't his idea of a good time. "How do these people know that the Xindi's been using their home planet to build this thingy?"

"A molecular de-stabilizer," T'Pol informed him coolly. It never ceases to amaze her how little of these technical terms the obviously competent engineer remembers. "Perhaps we should ask Ensign Soto to join us."

Because he could sense that his second-in-command was losing patience with them, if Vulcans can lose patience, Archer nodded. "Good idea," reaching over and punching the intercom button on his desk. "Archer to Bridge."

"Bridge," Ensign Soto's sweetly tuned voice answered.

"Hoshi, would you join us in my ready room please?"

"I'm on my way, sir," Hoshi answered and clicked off.

Turning, then communications officer exchanged a curious glance with Travis before shrugging her shoulder to answer his silent question. Rising, she gave way to Ensign Donald Tanner to take over her position as she headed for the Captain's ready room just off to the side of the Bridge. Taking a moment to steel herself as she always does, she pressed the chime.

"Come in," Archer's voice carried through the door just seconds before the door slide open.

"You wanted to see me sir?" Hoshi asked, her eyes taking in the other senior bridge crew quickly. "Must be serious for the heads to be in a pow-wow."

"Yes," motioning to the seat next to Lt. Reed. "Give me a quick report on your visit to the surface," he ordered pleasantly.

Perhaps had he been a little sterner, a little more captain-like, Hoshi might not have been as nervous. But there was something about his casualness that put the already slightly jumpy ensign on alert. "Well…um… I visited what appeared to a market place at noon hour; there were several hundred people in attendance. I spent about four hours listening before I attempted to make contact with any of the locals. I had a few casual conversations and I bought some organic materials for Dr. Phlox..." She paused and frowned. "Is that what this is about, sir? The materials I got for the doctor?" her eyes flew to T'Pol, who had examined the purchases upon her return. "I didn't know they weren't …"

"No, no," Archer raised a hand to calm her. "Relax, Ensign. You didn't do anything wrong. I just wanted a first account report of your visit."

"Was my written report not sufficient, captain?" Hoshi asked, more than just little nervous now. It won't be the first time she's been called in here to be reprimanded for insufficient reports, even when there was nothing to report. Of late, the Captain's impatience with the lack of progress manifests itself through reminding his officers about their written reports. Being the ship's live translator and the communications officer, she was one of the few people that were required to file her progress every two days; which equate to Hoshi getting the blunt of the blows more often than not.

Those late-night ice cream and sympathy sessions with Liz Cutler was putting back the much needed weight she had lost in the grueling months since they've entered the Delphic Expanse. Of course, she was losing the pounds faster than she was putting them on, making her look gaunt and aged.

"The reports were perfectly fine, Hoshi," Jonathan Archer's brow rose at her wide, apprehensive-boarding-alarm expression. The girl looked like a scared child expecting a bully to jump out at her. And apparently, he was the bully. "Oh boy, I've really done it this time." With a sigh, he leaned forward on his desk, which only served to show him the white-knuckles Hoshi had folded in her lap. He's been overworking her again… hell, he's been overworking everyone of late. "I just wanted to talk to you. Get a feel about what you learn down there. Not everything is conveyed through paperwork and reports."

A tiny line appeared between Hoshi's brows as she turned and looked at Commander Tucker, who nodded encouragingly; Lt. Reed, who tilted his head in a sort-of shrugged agreement; and then at Sub-Commander T'Pol, who stared back expressionlessly… as usual. Strangely enough, T'Pol's non-encouragement steadied her. Since no one looked ready to jump down her throat Hoshi nodded her head slowly and took a swallow, not even realizing that her mouth had gone bone dry. "Okay," her mind replaying her away mission not two days before. "Um… I met an officer, a militia officer name Fe'Lui that was on break. He had probably one too many of the Rukia – that's the Jukinarian's version of whiskey – when he started to talk about something going on with one of the provinces."

Rubbing her forehead, she tried to recall every vivid detail of the rather slurred conversation. Of course at the time, she had also been trying to keep the man's hand/tentacles from her thigh. She found that little game to be rather distracting but endured it to keep the man talking. "He kept talking about an extra amount of activities that was causing what he called the…" she closed her eyes and carefully translated the words, "'Great Shakes,' which I took to mean earthquakes. It was a quiet town so the movements of off-worlders were watched carefully. Lots of 'Scale-Skins' were around."

"Reptilians," Trip all but growled the word.

Glancing at him, Hoshi felt a prickle of apprehension at his feverish gaze. It was all too obvious to anyone on board that the chief engineer had more than just the mission in mind as they hunt for Xindis. "It's all in my report, sir," feeling the need to be formal in her address; the barrier of rank helps sometime to keep her nerves steady.

Trip was brought up short by her wide-eye stare. He offered her a smile, one that was filled with pride and gratitude. "You've done good Hoshi-girl." It tormented him that he wasn't as proficient at intelligence gathering as the rest of the staff seemed to be. This would be the second time Hoshi's come through for them. "First that god-awful experience with Tarquin and now this." Contrary to Hoshi's belief, more than one crewmen had seen what she suffered through for this particular assignment. "Sucks to be a women at time."

"Hoshi," Archer handed the PADD to her. "You went to the tunnel entrance and took pictures. Why?"

Feeling slightly unsettled by the way he asked the question because she didn't really have a good reason other than, "I thought it would be a good idea."

"It was," the captain nodded encouragingly, "It was an excellent idea."

Reed frowned at her though. "But you shouldn't have gone on your own, Ensign. You could have encountered enemy defenses."

"I was in local disguise, sir. No one would have questioned my being there. The outer caverns are used for the town storage."

"You could have still exposed yourself to unnecessary dangers by doing a recon. You should have reported your findings and waited for backup."

"It was a walk in the woods," she couldn't help but think to herself; yet she knew the armory officer was correct. This was a reconnaissance mission with a dozen others and she shouldn't have risk their cover by heading off on her own and possibly getting capture. Bowing her head, she was really just too tired to think of any good defense as she might have done once upon a time. "Yes, sir. I apologize for my neglect. It won't happen again."

Malcolm felt like he'd just kicked a kitten… a sweet defenseless kitten.

"Lighten up, Malcolm," Trip injected nonchalantly. "She didn't get hurt and she got some good stuff."

"Precautions have to be taken," Reed couldn't help but reply resisting the need to reassure the dejected ensign by his side.

"It won't happen again, sir," Hoshi repeated a little more firmly this time.

"Enough," Archer ordered. "Mr. Reed, Ensign Sato took initiative and verified her information, that's fine with me." He turned the thought over in his head a little more. "Ensign, you will from now on be more cautious and curb your enthusiasm a little for sake of security. While you did well in this instance, there was a chance that this could have not gone so well and I cannot risk having our mission compromised. Lt. Reed is correct in his assessment, take more precautions. Is that clear?"

There was a long silence. "Yes, sir."

Archer could just make out the hurt in her voice. He truly wished he could make her understand his position here but time is not a luxury that they have. And he was her captain, not her den mother. "Tell me about this cavern the Xindis are using."

The bitter taste in her mouth forced her to swallow before she could speak. "The way Fe'Lui describes it: it's more underground city than caverns. Most of the tunnels are natural formations but some were created to facilitate storage and hiding areas."

"Hiding?"

"The planet, all of the continents, is plagued to seismic activities; most of them are caused by the volcanoes," she didn't add that she found this after an hour of quiet time in the home of the living library where she had a short but informative conversation with a women that reminded her a little too much of her mother. "All the major towns, and even the smaller ones, have evacuation places where they can hide during eruptions that regularly destroy their establishments."

"Well, that would explain the lousy work they do on their housing," Trip muttered. "No point in building something that's going to stick around if Mother Nature's gonna knock it over in a year or two."

"Right, in fact, the smaller towns have some permanent housing in their underground facilities. But even those get destroyed sometimes during larger quakes."

Reed scowled at her. "And you discovered all this by speaking with this officer?" He had to wonder how long that conversation had been.

"No," shaking her head. "Most of the geological information came from their living library."

"Living Library?" Trip asked, confused now.

"That's what the locals call her."

Archer frowned for a moment before understanding came. "The historian you were talking about in your report."

"Yes."

"Oh," Reed and Tucker nodded as they finally caught up.

"Perhaps it would be more constructive were Mr. Reed and Cdr. Tucker to read Ensign Sato's report before we continue," T'Pol suggested in her quiet logical manner.

Trip made a face at her. "I kind of like these oral reports. Easier on the eyes."

"But hardly efficient," T'Pol replied calmly.

"Captain," Ensign Sato handed the PADD over again. "The cavern entrance didn't tell me much, except the depth and capacity as a storage site. I do know that they have been used for long term housing during a more dangerous time in the Jukinarian history."

"And this thing about a power source…"

"There is something equivalent to a massive nuclear power plant down there. It's what powers the city. And there is also an energy storage unit down there for when they need to shut down their energy generator, it can hold enough energy to support the entire city for four Jukinarian months; and this is with everyone underground." She had been much impressed by that information.

"An energy storage unit?" Reed's face went even paler than his usual pallor. "No wonder the Xindi is using this location."

"And how long is a Jukinarian month?" Archer asked quietly as he absorbed all this, which didn't quite have as much impact in writing as it does when delivered with a calmly efficient voice.

Closing her eyes, "Forty-three earth days with twenty-six hours in each day," she replied after a long pause as she made the calculations in her head.

"That's a lot of juice," Trip murmured half in fear and half in awe. "And here I thought this was just a nice little trade post."

"Okay people," Archer regarded them with steely eyes. "I want a plan."

To be continued….

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Teaser from Next Chapter: "Are you children through gossiping?" Major Hayes asked dryly as he gazed at his people with a frown that spoke volumes.