(Disclaimer in chapter one)

Chapter Two

Jonathon Archer waited for the noise and commotion to stop. When it did, he lifted his head. He didn't want to even turn around, but he did. He didn't want to see an empty corridor behind him, but he did. And he didn't want to call the bridge and tell them he was okay, and be a Captain during a crisis, but he did.

The explosion had been huge but it seemed to have been confined to engineering. Somehow this fact did not comfort him. Archer managed to overwrite Trip's lock on the door controls. When it opened a wave of searing heat hit him. Smoke filled the room and fires still burned.

He had to protect his face from the heat with his arm. "Trip?" He called. There was still a chance that he could have survived. Stumbling down the ladder (Which was burned black and still hot) he burnt his hands but he couldn't care right now.

"Captain!" Came a reply. The wash of relief that Archer felt was undescribable. Trip had survived! Unbelievable! He must be lying hurt somewhere.... Archer tried to shout again but coughed instead. The smoke was making his eyes water. "Where are you?" He called hoarsely.

Jon managed to open his eyes wider than a squint and scanned the room. He saw Trip standing (Standing?!) in pretty much the same position he was standing in when Archer had seen him last. He was standing pretty damn close to a fire but he didn't seem to be coughing or even feeling the heat. He didn't look injured at all.....

A team of crewmen (including T'Pol, Mayweather and the Doctor) were outside engineering in minutes. Instead of Archer carrying Trip's dead body out of engineering, it was Tucker who had his arm round the Captain.

To say the crewmen looked confused would be acutely accurate. The Doctor went first to the Captain, the seemingly more injured of the two. Most of the other crewmen went into engineering to put out the fires and generally control the damage.

Travis went over to Trip. "Trip, you got out okay?" He said, hugely relieved that no-one (as far as he knew) had been killed by the explosion.

"No...." Trip said. This puzzled Mayweather.

"Are you hurt?" He asked. Perhaps the Commander meant he got out but wasn't okay.

"No, I'm......absolutely fine....." The other breathed. "I'm going to sickbay with the Cap'n." He said. He wanted to see if Jonathon was alright. Travis watched him go. *He must be confused, in shock or something.* He thought, and went to help the others inside.

Sickbay.

"Is he alright?" Trip said as soon as he entered the room.

"Aside from a lot of bumps and bruises and some smoke inhalation he should be fine." Phlox told him. "I heard you were in the vicinity." He added.

In the vicinity. An understatement. In, on, around and at the vicinity was more like it. "I was there." Trip said bluntly.

"Are you alright?" Phlox asked, on first noticing the rather severe burns on the Commanders uniform.

"I'm fine."

Phlox stared at him a little longer than usual then continued to look over Archer. T'Pol entered at that point. Before she could ask, Phlox answered. "He'll be fine."

Jon stirred and coughed nastily, drawing the attention of the others in the room. "How you feelin' Cap'n?" Trip asked immediately.

"I could ask you the same thing." He said, sitting up on the bed. He looked over Trip. Apart from his clothes being converted to nothing more than black rags, he didn't appear to be hurt at all. "You were in that room when.....you should be dead."

"Sorry to disappoint you." Trip laughed halfheartedly. He was in actual fact dazed by the whole situation and couldn't quite get over the fact that he had lived - and didn't have a scratch on him.

"You were in the room when the overload occurred?" T'Pol queried. "You could not have survived." She said matter-of-factly.

"Well.....here I am." He laughed again, disconcerted.

The doctor turned to Trip and scanned him up and down. He was silent for a moment while he looked at the results. "No burns, no bruises. No scratches, no grazes. Mr Tucker you are in perfect health." He paused for another moment. He had felt the ship jolt all the way from sickbay. It was no small explosion. "Are you sure you were in engineering when the explosion occurred?" He asked casually.

"He was there." Archer stated.

"Yeah I was there." Trip reiterated, less sure of himself.

"You could not have come from that room unharmed." T'Pol told him.

"You don't have to tell me!" Trip voice bordered on a shout. He was aware of the facts and couldn't even begin understand them himself.

"Alright, alright, enough. The most important thing is no-one was killed. Now we need to fix this ship if we ever want to move anywhere again. Trip you up to it?"

"Of course." Trip replied. "I'd like to change first though." He indicated.

"Permission granted." Archer smirked.

~~~~~~~~

Later, in the charred scrap heap that used to be engineering, Trip and the team of engineers were surveying the damage. Trip was in a world of his own. He was standing in the place he'd been standing the moment the engines exploded. It was less than five metres from them.

How could that be? Maybe he wasn't standing there. Maybe he was out of his head with panic, or fear. "Commander Tucker?" Someone called.

Trip snapped out of his trance. He turned to the female officer next to him. She handed him a pad and walked off. He looked over the data and sighed. It was going to take a hell of a lot of time and effort to get things even to a satisfactory level. "Is there anything in this room that is working?" He mumbled.

He didn't realise the Captain was standing behind him. "The door seems to work." Jon's voice arose. Trip spun around.

"Cap'n. Didn't see you there. You feelin' better?"

"Just some smoke inhalation. I'll be fine." Jon held his gaze.

"I know what you're thinkin' and I can't believe it either."

"I sure as hell can't come up with an explanation. Perhaps we were witness to a miracle today." He grinned. Trip reflected it. Trip didn't really believe it that sort of thing.

"Probably just luck."

~~~~~~~

That night Trip couldn't sleep. But it wasn't because of any 'emotional stress' that he was feeling. He simply wasn't tired. When Trip first noticed this, he realised he wasn't hungry or thirsty either.

Instead of worrying about this sudden onset of symptoms, he used the time and energy to finish some of the work that had been piling up. After all, he'd have a hell of a lot more tomorrow.

***END of CHAPTER TWO***