Disclaimer: Paramount owns Enterprise and everything connected with it, except Tia Anlor (Tee-ah' Ahn'-lor), who belongs to me and I'm not sharing. (G)
This is the 28th story in this series, the others being 'Casting Call', 'Golden Girl'; 'A Few Words'; 'Glistni'; 'Small Time'; 'Acquisition'; 'What Do I Do Now?'; 'For Want of Kilyiis'; 'Daasii'; 'Noblesse Oblige'; 'Roses and Thorny'; 'Time and Again', 'House of Cards', 'Starlight Maiden', 'Armageddon', 'Luuru', 'Cross and Crown', 'Pulsar', 'Face in the Dark Mirror', 'Time Stream', 'Treaty / Violation', 'Humiliatum', 'Clara', 'Life Goes On', 'Sufferance', 'The Court Martial of Hoshi Sato' and 'Empress Sato'. This story takes place about two weeks after 'Court Martial'. Tia has been on the Enterprise for about eleven months. Later stories include 'Fractured', 'Unification' and 'Two Golden Candles'.
Rating: M. Violence.
"When we start seeing enemies in everyone, we will never know peace."
Extreme Prejudice
by JMK758
Chapter One
Disaster
"Personal Log; Ensign Travis Mayweather, Wednesday, August 22, 0132 Hours. It doesn't happen very often, but I'm finally going to have a chance to get off the bridge and pilot a Shuttlepod to a planet when there is no life-or-death crisis, no one shooting at us and no First Contact or diplomatic worries. Just bring down Lt. Abrams and two of his staff from Life Sciences, wait a few hours while they collect their plant and spore specimens, then shuttle back.
"The best part is that since it's Gamma Shift – we entered orbit half an hour ago and the Captain will want a preliminary report from Life Sciences at the start of Alpha – and I'm on extra hours, I'll get to sleep in this morning.
"I hope Abrams will let me pick some flowers for Jennifer."
xxx
Lt. John Abrams, head of Life Sciences, walks with Travis Mayweather to the Launch Bay. Travis will be piloting Shuttlepod Two to Kitaris IV, a world with a diverse ecosphere but apparently uninhabited by 'higher' life forms; at least to the extent the sensors can detect. They carry several collection boxes; empty now but soon to be filled with a variety of interesting specimens. They and other pilots had made similar runs several times before.
It was one thing to let the ship's sensors collect readings on the planet's ecosphere; quite another to actually go down and see for one's self. This was one of the more pleasant duties aboard Enterprise and John Abrams considered himself lucky to have it. He is particularly proud of his team. All are consummate professionals who can be depended upon to perform their duties with the high degree of scientific discipline such a role calls for.
Just before the pair reaches the Launch Bay, an odd sound from the corridor behind them stops them. They turn back, curious; the sound seems to be an unusual rhythmic shuffle/clicking sound neither has heard before. Whatever it is, neither man has a clue except that it is coming closer, and quickly; very quickly indeed.
A moment later, from around the curve in the corridor, Ensign Elizabeth Cutler and Crewwoman Tia Anlor appear, hand in hand, skipping toward them. Abram's mouth falls open in astonishment an instant before a grinning Cutler sees him and Travis standing outside the Bay and comes to such an abrupt halt she loses her balance when Tia, continuing her mad advance, skips past her, to be pulled to a stop an instant later.
Cutler stands before her Department Head and the ship's senior Pilot, absolutely mortified! Tia had also stopped, but she is still grinning in typically high elation.
"What in the Name of God are you two doing?" Abrams demands incredulously.
"Skipping." Tia answers with characteristic candor.
"Sorry, Sir." Liz apologizes, wishing the deck would just open up and consume her. She'd honestly expected the others to be in the Launching Bay already. She hadn't anticipated just how quickly they would cover the distance. "You see, sir, we were in my quarters -."
"I read had of when humans happy are some time 'skip' did, but idea what meant it I had not." Tia's tones are lyrical even when speaking English; her own language being even more lyrical than French. Her characteristic fractured speech was the combination of English words and Auran syntax, a trait she had never lost despite an almost photographic memory and nearly eleven months among humans.
"She asked me and, well, I tried to show her … and … I guess … it …got out of hand?"
"All the way from your quarters?"
"No, sir; it was just the last fifty meters or so. No one saw us, I swear!"
"Spoke we did of 'putting the Life back into Life Sciences'." Tia volunteered. Liz tried to shush her.
Abrams closes his eyes with a sigh, shaking his head. "Just get aboard."
"Yes, sir." Completely mortified, more so since Tia had volunteered that last piece of information from what, to this point, had been a private conversation; Liz leads her Auran friend through the Bay door.
When Abrams opens his eyes again, Travis is grinning at him. "What are you so happy about?" He demands, not really wanting to know.
"When was the last time you skipped?"
"I have never skipped." Abrams declares, outraged.
"I'm way out of practice; it's been years." He admits, but then considers the two women. "I think it's time I got back into practice."
John sighs. Then he thinks about it.
"You're right."
x
The pre-launch checks accomplished in short order, Travis contacts the bridge. "Shuttlepod Two ready to depart."
"Good flying, Travis." Archer's voice comes back. "See you in four hours."
Travis is not surprised to find Archer on the bridge this late at 'night'. A new world rotating below them, a survey mission, the first of several … one would need rope and tackle to drag the Captain off the bridge. He would stay on while the shuttle launched and then, with nothing to do for four hours, he would turn in; but he would be waiting with barely contained anticipation for a report at the start of Alpha.
Travis turns back to where Abrams sits strapped into the seat one row back and on his right side. Behind him is a very subdued Liz Cutler, Tia strapped in next to her behind Travis. He meets Abrams' eyes even while speaking to Archer. "Have a good night. See you later, Skipper."
He tries not to let the grin on his face slip too much into his voice even as Abrams glares at him. Travis turns off the unit and tries to force the grin off his lips – at least while Abrams is looking.
The deck below the pod opens and the ship falls out of the bay. Travis fires the thrusters, extending the stabilizing wings on either side of the pod, directing the pod down to the green planet below.
x
"Say, Liz…" Abrams says, rotating his seat to face the woman behind him. He had been thinking of what Travis had said to him in private, and also that maybe he had missed out on something. Maybe it was Tia's perennial joie de vivre, but whatever it was, he found it appealing. Besides, he thinks, he cannot really be mad at Liz and wants to mend things, make it clear to her that he is not angry. "You know, when we get a free moment, maybe you can teach me to do that."
Liz, who had been dreading a reprimand, smiles at her chief. "I'd love to."
"As long as they don't have us on sensors." Travis quips as the ship enters the mesosphere. "All we need is for them to be seeing the four of us carousing like in some freaky square dance."
"Four of us?"
"Well, sure!" He exclaims, sparing a glance back at her. "You don't think I'm going to be left out of the fun, do you?"
"It's a deal." Liz agrees with a grin. Abrams turns his seat back around to face front as Travis brings the pod downward, entering the stratosphere.
They had already discussed the kind of terrain that would be best for the variety of specimens they would need. It was just a matter of finding a spot that fitted one of the choices.
x
While the men survey the passing topography, Liz turns to Tia, strapped into the seat across from her. "Well, it's 'official'." She announces, highly pleased.
"Official?" Tia asks, not following her.
"I'm showing." She smiles. "I measured myself when I got out of the shower before you came. 0.9 cm."
"Wow," John Abrams says drolly, turning his seat slightly, "almost a half an inch."
"Don't knock it, John." She 'retorts', a degree of playfulness underscoring their words. "Point nine is still point nine."
"No, I'm happy, I really am."
Something about his words, and the tone behind them, makes her look at him suspiciously. "All right, John, out with it."
"No, really. Up to this point, I didn't believe you were pregnant. I thought it was just an excuse for asking for light duty."
Liz laughs. "And how 'light' have my duties been?"
"'bout as light as you deserve."
"Ho-ho. You're welcome to measure me yourself."
"After you get out of the shower? No thanks. Cein will punch me in the nose."
"I thought you liked living dangerously."
"Accent on the 'living'."
"You know," Liz continues to Tia, "I am just really getting used to this whole thing, but Jim loves it. He says 'Beth, you've never looked more glowing', and corny romantic stuff like that."
Travis glances back. "Don't knock 'corny romance'." He advises.
"Oh, I'm not."
"I notice he's the only one who ever calls you 'Beth'." John observes.
"He's the only one who ever does a lot of things with me."
"Oh-kay. Too much farging information."
Liz laughs delightedly.
x
"How's this?" Travis asks, pointing out the viewport. Abrams turns back around. They are flying at an altitude of 800 feet, and before them is a line of trees on the left of a long, grassy field, stretching on to the horizon. To the right of the long strip is a deep ravine where an ancient river had cut into the soil to a depth of at least 500 feet, deep enough so that at this angle they cannot see the bottom. The strata on the walls of the valley show a variety of layers, each clearly with its own story to tell. The 'forest' is only on the left side of the ravine, the right side rocky and bare for more than a kilometer before the next line of vegetation and foliage.
"Perfect." Abrams says. "We can get a –." The ship rocks violently to port and a half-meter wide hole appears in the starboard fore of the cabin as the pod seems to drop out from under them! Instantly atmosphere rushes out, rapidly equalizing pressure from the high altitude before rushing back in with the speed of their fall, turning the pod into a wind tunnel! The ship starts to list to starboard, rotating on its axis.
"We've lost our starboard stabilizer! Inertial field is out! Hang on!" Travis yells over the wind as they are buffeted about in their seats. The pod continues to roll to starboard as he checks what readings are left on the forward display. "We've lost the entire damn wing! I can't hold her up! Starboard engine is out!"
The pod rolls over and over as the three scientists cling to the straps holding them secure as Travis tries to fight the spin. Emergency systems have locked the seats into a forward facing position. While desperately trying to channel thrusts from the one working engine and the maneuvering thrusters to level their flight, he slaps the communications control. "Mayday, Mayday, Enterprise – Mayday!" He shouts over the roaring wind. "We have been attacked and are out of control, unable to maintain altitude. Need immediate assistance! Can you beam us out?"
There is no answer.
The ship is going down, screaming from 800 feet toward the grassy field between the trees and the ravine. "Brace yourselves!" He shouts, barely heard over the roar of the wind through the shuttle, trying to time the ship's rotation to apply as much thrust as he can at the right instant to get the craft leveled and nose up before the pod slams into the ground!
A second before they hit, the pod is at the right orientation and Travis puts everything into a burst that pushes the nose upward and he tries to halt their spin, but the remaining thrusters cannot accommodate the inertial needs quickly enough. The stern hits hard and the ship bounces, rearing upward and over in a scream of metal, driving the nose into the ground. The pod, following its inertial roll, spins end over end, bow and stern striking the rocky terrain with brutal force, bouncing into the air to crash down over and over, and the ship rolls rightward, everything within slammed about violently.
The inside of the wildly rolling, bouncing Shuttlepod is filled with a deafening cacophony of thunderous impacts and shrieks of rending metal as the pod impacts over and over on all sides, battering everyone within mercilessly.
Liz, clinging to her seat, shrieks in horror and reaches frantically, uselessly, as the restraints on the seat before her break loose and John Abrams is launched 'upward', his body colliding with an oncoming bulkhead, which slams him across the cabin.
The ship does not just roll, but bounces into the air over and over to slam into the ground with bone shattering crashes as it turns clockwise along its axis, and the women watch, horrified as their friend's body is battered about the cabin, far beyond reach or help as they cling desperately to their own restraints, praying those too will not give way and hurtle them about the cabin with deadly force.
Suddenly there is nothing but the roaring wind. No more bouncing, no tearing, just the wind and the sickeningly spinning shuttle rotating clockwise on its long axis. "Brace for impact!" Travis shouts as they fall over the cliff, 500 feet from the river bank below. He tries the controls, but there is no response. There are no working thrusters left to use.
It takes about three more seconds as they rotate and then, as they turn upside down, there is a titanic crash, the reinforced ceiling buckling, the three slammed 'upward' against their harnesses!