Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own Enterprise or any of the characters.
Summary: Enterprise investigates a Vulcan Ship's disappearance.
Chapter 1
Sub-Commander T'Pol studied the results of the test she'd been running. Enterprise had spent the last day and a half studying a planetary nebula nearing the end of its life. Compiling the data, T'Pol had noticed some unusual gravitational surges that appeared to erupt from the white dwarf at its centre. While they were now heading away from the nebula, the last surge was a particularly large event and had caused Enterprise to veer slightly off-course.
"Ensign Mayweather, you will need to correct your course setting by 0.04 degrees starboard."
"Aye Sub-Commander," came the reply from the helmsman. T'Pol raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Ensign Mayweather's tone sounded...annoyed. It appeared to be a common element among some of the junior officers and crewmen whenever she gave corrections or criticism on their work. As she understood her duties aboard, checking on junior officers was well within her scope as the second in command.
She filed the latest example away for later contemplation and returned her thoughts back to compiling data. She was interrupted a few minutes later by the rather noisy entry to the bridge of Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Reed. Lieutenant Reed seemed to be highly amused about something. The Commander, rubbing his arm as if it was in pain, looked less so. T'Pol listened to their conversation for a few seconds as they walked to their stations.
"All right, quit it. It's not that funny."
"Sorry," Lieutenant Reed apologised.
"That sounded sincere." Commander Tucker replied.
"Well, what did you expect?"
"Some sympathy, my arm's aching."
"I think I'll save my sympathy for Ensign Lee. You were the one who barrelled the poor guy over."
"It's not my fault. He came out of nowhere," the Commander defended.
"Well maybe if you'd been paying attention to where you were going instead of staring at the ground, you might have noticed him sooner."
"I was thinking about something."
"Well then..."
Finding nothing particularly interesting or amusing about the topic T'Pol tuned the conversation out and bent her head back down to return to her work. A question from the Commander distracted her once more.
"Where's the Cap'n?" Commander Tucker was staring at the Captain's chair with a perplexed look on his face.
"In his ready room," she replied.
"Ah." Commander Tucker started to head towards the ready room door, but stopped when T'Pol continued.
"Now would not be the best time to disturb him." At the Commander's questioning glance she clarified, "He's taking a call from Admiral Forrest."
"Oh," the Commander bit his lip and frowned at the ready room door as if considering whether to disturb the Captain anyway. Finally he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head slightly, "Guess I'll talk to him later then."
"That would be best," T'Pol agreed as the Commander made his way back to his station.
Captain Archer emerged from his ready room a few minutes later and immediately started issuing orders.
"Hoshi, a set of co-ordinates should have come through along with the communication from Admiral Forrest. Transfer them to Travis' console and then to the situation room computer. Travis, as soon as you get the co-ordinates from Hoshi lay in a course and engage at Warp 4.5. Then both of you can join everyone else in the Situation Room."
"Aye sir," the two Ensigns responded.
T'Pol rose from her station and, along with the others, proceeded to the back of the Bridge where the Situation Room was located. She placed herself at a spot directly opposite the Captain, while Commander Tucker took a position on her left and Lieutenant Reed stood to her right. Ensigns Sato and Mayweather, joining them a few moments later, stood off to the Captain's left. T'Pol turned her attention to the map now displayed on the centre console. A red marker indicated the co-ordinates that Ensign Sato had transferred over. The area of space around the marker seemed empty of stellar phenomena.
"Starfleet got a call from the Vulcan High Command an hour ago. Apparently one of their Science vessels, the T'Roth, was at these co-ordinates." Captain Archer pointed at the red marker. "They were performing some kind of deep space experiment. They were due to check in two days ago. They didn't. The Vulcans have asked us to go and check it out."
"Why us?" Commander Tucker asked.
"Enterprise is the closest ship to the T'Roth. The nearest Vulcan ship is three weeks away at high warp. We can be there in four days."
"Why did they wait so long to ask us to go and take a look?" That question came from Ensign Mayweather.
"You'd have to ask the Vulcan's that," Captain Archer replied, throwing the question in T'Pol's direction.
"The Vulcan High Command has several procedures in place to deal with late replies. They would have gone through these procedures fully before sending a vessel to investigate." The answer seemed to satisfy everyone although Captain Archer and Commander Tucker did appear to share a glance. To what end, T'Pol couldn't fathom.
"What kind of experiment were they running?" Lieutenant Reed asked.
"They wouldn't say." The Captain sounded frustrated by the lack of detail.
"Probably somethin' dangerous, considerin' they were in the middle of nowhere," Commander Tucker postulated.
"Not every science experiment conducted in deep space is a dangerous one, Commander."
"Then why aren't they answering hails?"
"I don't know," T'Pol answered.
"They could have been attacked," Lieutenant Reed added.
"Or their transceiver array could simply be damaged. Until we have more information, it is useless to speculate on the cause of the T'Roth's silence."
"Still, best to be cautious Sir," Lieutenant Reed advised.
"I was planning to be careful Malcolm. Here's what I want. T'Pol, see if you can find a way to improve the sensors. I want to know what we're going into as soon as possible. Trip can give you a hand if you need it. Malcolm, same with the tactical systems. If your right and they were attacked, I want to be ready. Hoshi, I want you scanning the area for comm signals, distress beacons or otherwise, any signal might be important. Everyone clear?" Everyone nodded their assent. "Good. Get to work."
As everyone turned to file out of the situation room, Commander Tucker fell in beside T'Pol.
"Think you'll be able to get more out of the sensors?"
"Perhaps, but I'll need to run several simulations to determine which method would be best," T'Pol replied.
"Okay." Trip nodded. "Well, I'm headin' on back to Engineering. Come on down when you've run your simulations and we'll get started on the upgrading." With that, he headed off towards the turbolift. Captain Archer joined him at the door to the turbolift and they both stepped inside. T'Pol returned to her station and got to work on the simulations.
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In the turbolift Commander Charles Tucker III, better known as Trip, watched his best friend out of the corner of his eye. Captain Archer seemed to be in a pensive mood. Trip could certainly understand that. Disappearing Vulcan ships weren't exactly an everyday occurrence.
"You think we'll find it?" Trip asked, more to break the silence than out of expecting an actual answer.
"I'm not sure what I think we'll find."
"T'Pol doesn't seem all that worried."
"T'Pol wouldn't seem worried if someone cut off her arm."
The Captain had a point, Trip conceded, but so had T'Pol. "Still, she could be right."
"She could be, but my instincts tell me this one's not going to be that simple."
The turbolift stopped on G Deck and they both got out. Walking along the corridor they continued their conversation.
"If Malcolm's right about an attack we may need some speed."
"Don't tell me you want me to invent a Warp Six engine in five days."
Archer chuckled at the comment, "No I don't think even you could do that, Trip. Being able to maintain Warp Five for longer might be helpful though."
Trip knew that Archer was talking about the last and only time they'd hit Warp Five. Escorting a Vulcan ambassador from the planet Mazar, they had been attacked by a criminal faction who wanted the ambassador dead so that she couldn't testify against them in a future trial. While the engine had reached Warp Five, it had overheated fairly quickly and the Captain had had to resort to a bluff to buy time for a Vulcan ship to come to Enterprise's aid. Trip had been thinking through the problem ever since and had some theories that may improve the efficiency.
"That I might be able to help you with," he told Archer.
"Glad to hear," Archer patted him on the back in a friendly gesture as they made their way through the door and into Engineering, "but let's hope we won't need it."
Trip made his way over to the alcove where his computer was situated and started pulling up the specs for the sensor grid. It wouldn't hurt to look over it himself before T'Pol got there. In fact, maybe he could figure out a way to improve the sensors even more. He let a smile cross over his face as he imagined how T'Pol would react if one of his idea's was better than her own. It was a few seconds before he realised the Captain was still beside him. He looked up at Archer questioningly,
"Somethin' else wrong?"
"Actually, I was going to ask you that question."
"You were?" Trip had no idea what the Captain was getting at.
"Was there some reason you were on the bridge earlier? As I recall, you worked the late shift last night so you could purge the impulse manifolds. I would've expected you to be in bed, or at least off duty."
"Oh, that."
"Yes?"
"It's nothing. I just wanted to talk to you about somethin'." Trip had been working the late shift as the Captain noted, but when he'd got back to his quarter's in the early hours of the morning he'd found that he hadn't been tired. So he had decided to check some of his mail. Some of the news wasn't exactly what he'd expected, or wanted, to hear. He'd hoped to talk to the Captain about it, to sort out his feelings. However, with news of the missing ship, it seemed to pale in comparison, and he figured putting it off until later would be best.
"Well, I'm listening."
"It's really not that important. It can wait until after the mission."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah," Trip nodded his head. "I'm sure."
"Okay then. After the mission." Archer emphasized the last to let Trip know that he wouldn't forget about it. "I'll be on the bridge if you need anything." The, or if you change your mind, part of the sentence went unspoken but Trip heard it loud and clear. Trip was grateful for the offer, but if they really were heading into a dangerous situation as the Captain clearly believed then his time and thoughts were better spent making sure Enterprise was running at peak efficiency. Pushing all other thoughts out of his head he got to work.