The docking arm lowered and clamped onto the roof of the shuttlepod, guiding it safely into the launch bay. The doors closed and air was pumped into the room; twenty one percent oxygen, seventy nine percent nitrogen, a breathable atmosphere for all eighty four crew members on board the NX-01 Enterprise.
After checking that all systems in the pod were shut down the away team disembarked, exiting through the side hatch. Trip was first out, soon followed by John, then Malcolm and lastly Hoshi.
"I don't think I've ever had as much fun before." Trip had a grin on his face. "Those people are really nice… what are they called, again?" He queried, glancing at the dark hair linguist, his mind having forgotten the name of the aliens.
Hoshi sighed and shook her head. "Aurellians." She repeated.
"Despite their very Klingon look about them." Malcolm commented. He never cared much for Klingons, not many of the crew did, the violent, disgusting, hostile species that they were. "I had half expected to find myself in a fight with them."
John gave a short laugh. "At least they eat proper food… dead, cooked food."
"Now that is a bonus." Trip said, pointing a finger at the captain's very true statement.
Aurellians were distantly related to the Klingons, they had the same appearance, cranial ridges that varied between each individual. But they were no where near as hostile and warrior like as their brothers.
The four of them headed to de-con for the standard scanning of harmful foreign microbes and bacteria, John stopping at a command panel for a brief second, pressing the white button. "Archer to the Bridge, take us out of orbit."
After a very short pause there was a reply from the helsman. "Aye sir. Heading?"
"Wherever you feel like, Travis." He replied and followed the rest of the team.
They stripped down to their skivvies and entered the room. Being the only girl in the group, Hoshi was a little shy of undressing in front of three higher ranked male officers who where also stripping down to the standard blue skivvies. The bright blue light flashed on and the temperature rose several degrees.
"Who knew that you could celebrate for so long and not get tired?" Trip sighed, rubbing his eyes slightly and tried to stifle a yawn.
"If you ask me…" Malcolm began, turning to look at Trip. "They should spend more time perfecting their aim than having fun." This received a couple of sighs from Trip and John, who were about to say something before Reed continued. "Not one of them managed to hit me with a wet sponge."
"And yet they managed to get us." Trip stated, placing his hands on his waist after indicated Hoshi, John and himself.
"You weren't even trying. The objective was to avoid being hit."
Hoshi sighed. "It was too hot… that water was nice and refreshing. No wonder you had more to drink than us."
Malcolm could see he was going nowhere with the conversation, but tried to keep going nevertheless. "Heat had nothing to do with… I just liked it."
"Sure you weren't just trying to impress the young woman… what was her name? Leonal?" Trip pressed, trying to get to the bottom of Malcolm's deepest secrets.
"I won't deny that she was beautiful, despite the cranial ridges."
"Ah ha! I knew it!" Trip pointed at the Armoury officer.
"But a species who do not have great weapon systems is not my type." Malcolm continued
Archer sighed slightly and looked at Hoshi. He would have to spend the next hour or so listening to his two closest friends bantering and arguing about the Aurellians and love life. It was true, he had found a few of the women attractive, and their lifestyle and customs had proved quite fascinating to both him and Hoshi. It was obvious that Trip's mind was clearly on love and fun, whilst Malcolm was the opposite; All work and no play makes the Armoury officer a happy man.
"Why don't the two of you just agree to disagree?" The captain suggested, hoping to keep his sanity.
"C'mon Cap'n… you know that ain't no fun!" Trip smiled and both he and John laughed slightly. Malcolm sighed in defeat as they began to apply de-con gel B all over their bodies, helping with each other's backs.
It was a while before the four of them were back on duty. A microbe had been brought back with them, but with Phlox's slimy gel it had been neutralised.
Archer was just resting in his ready room, reading a book; 'Octopussy'. All about a British spy in the twentieth century. He'd heard a couple of other crewmen talk about James Bond and had decided to check him out for himself, and so far he was quite enjoying it.
Malcolm was happily making sure that all tactical systems were online and in perfect working order, ready in case the ship encountered a sudden unprovoked attack. You never knew who you were going to meet in the dark, endless ocean of space. His eyes glanced up and over to Hoshi every now and then, watching her for a couple of seconds, watching her slender fingers run over the console in front of her.. Each time he couldn't help but smile at her, but he couldn't explain why. Did he have a crush on the Japanese woman? He soon found he was beginning to find it hard to concentrate on the task at hand. Here he was sitting at his desk, with a beautiful woman sitting opposite, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Tapping the buttons lightly with the tips of her fingers, she kept getting the feeling that someone was watching her, bu when she did look up, no one was looking in her direction.
The chief engineer busied himself in engineering, making sure the duty roster was up to date, keeping his eyes on the warp core, and giving the maintenance crew their orders with a few odd jobs of fixing things around the ship. Naturally Trip couldn't stop thinking about the three days he had spent on Aurel. He had originally gone down to help fix some machinery, and soon the invitation to stay longer cropped up, and he just couldn't say 'no', forcing him into a situation to force Archer to remain and get a sense of what the planet was like
Eventually the night shift took over the duties and the away team could get some well deserved rest, sleeping soundly in their rooms, Archer sleeping with his trusty beagle by his side.