"The Fairest One of All" CHAPTER TWO
"Are you trying to tell me that you come from some sort of parallel universe? From a ship identical to ours?"
"Not exactly identical, no." It didn't surprise Charlie Tucker any that Archer wasn't immediately buying into his story about two Enterprise's, complete with two sets of crews. "I know it sounds crazy, Cap'n." The engineer said while keeping a close watch on the alien doctor who was approaching with some sort of scanner in his hand. "But you're not gonna find anythin' wrong with my noggin."
"Well, you have to admit, Trip. Brain damage is a little more plausible than you beaming back from some sort of different dimension."
"I know it is." It took all the will power that Charlie could muster not to flinch away when the alien got too close to him. These are nice people, he told himself over and over again. They weren't gonna hurt him.
"There doesn't seem to be any damage to his brain." Phlox reported before continuing his exam.
Managing to keep still, Charlie kept a wary eye on the doctor's scanner as it started to move lower. "I think you'll find that your Trip Tucker and I are physically identical, except..." Charlie glanced at the bulge on the left side of his abdomen. A bulge that the doctor's scanner was rapidly approaching. "Except in one big way."
Phlox, concentrating on his readings, only half heard what Tucker said. "Your DNA corresponds with Commander Tucker's previous readings." Phlox muttered, then moved the medical device lower. Charlie caught in his breath as Phlox finally scanned the lump. The doctor's eyes grew very wide and a startled "Good Lord" popped out of his mouth.
"What is it?" Archer wasn't sure if this was his Trip or not, but the memories of his grief were still clean and sharp in his mind and he didn't think he could bear it if Tucker was really hurt. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, Captain." Phlox replied. "It's just that..." The doctor hesitated for a moment, glancing up at Tucker and asking a question with his eyes. Charlie nodded his permission and Phlox made his report. "Commander Tucker is pregnant."
THAT send a bomb of shock throughout the room!
"What?"
"I can't believe it!"
"Not again."
"No. Not again." Charlie corrected. "Still."
"Still?"
Phlox nodded, continuing his scans. "Commander Tucker is correct, Captain. I'm reading the presence of a Xyrillian fetus, approximately four weeks old. The infant appears to be half way along in it's development cycle."
This was the moment that Charlie was dreading. He knew he hadn't been able to take as good care of his girl as he wanted to, and he was terrified to ask this next question, but he had to know. "Is she all right?"
Everyone in the room heard the tremble of fear in Tucker's voice. The sound of a parent frantically worried about his child. "I'll have to do more detailed scans in sickbay, of course." Phlox said, "but she appears to be healthy."
Charlie's eyes closed as he let the relief wash over him. That was what he desperately wanted to hear. That was why he came.
Malcolm relaxed a bit when he saw Charlie's reaction. The second he heard that Tucker was pregnant, every fiber of the armory officer's being went on full alert. This couldn't be their Trip Tucker. He was an intruder in their midst. Reed began to long for a phase pistol, but then he heard the fear in Tucker's voice, fear and concern for his child. That's when Reed knew one thing. This man was not a threat.
Archer was never concerned for the safety of Enterprise. They outnumbered Charlie four to one. No, the captain was more interested in establishing the bona-fides of Tucker's story, so he sent T'Pol to the bridge to check out the sensor logs to see if anything unusual showed up. Anything besides a pregnant Trip Tucker that was.
"Okay." He told the engineer. "Say you really do come from a parallel universe, a story I have not swallowed whole just yet, despite the presence of that." He pointed to the bulge. "But if you're really telling me the truth, then there is one thing I want... no, I need to know. "What..." Archer's voice broke a little and he had to clear it and try again. "What happened to our Trip Tucker?"
Charlie seemed to sag a little. How to explain? "That's kinda complicated, Cap'n"
"At least tell me if he's alive." Archer didn't even try to hide his desperate tone.
"Yes." Tucker was firm. He wanted no misunderstandings here. "Your Trip Tucker is alive."
The relief in the hall was palatable. For the moment the mere fact that Trip was alive filled Archer's mind, leaving no room for anything else. Then, after a few minutes, the practical aspects of the captain's personality began to take hold and Archer returned to the matter at hand. "Well, if Trip's alive then where the hell has he been for the last three days?"
"Mostly he's been listenin' to me brief him about the warp three reactor on my ship."
It was obvious to Archer that the engineer totally believed this cockamamie theory of his, but the captain had a hard time grasping the fundamentals here. A parallel universe? The whole idea was ridiculous, and yet Archer had to admit that a temporal cold war was crazy too, and he knew that particular wild tale was true. Then again, traveling through time was one thing, but traveling through different universes? "How did Trip manage to get his ass over there, or you over here?"
"I'll be happy to tall ya, Cap'n, but it's gonna take a little while to get all the explainin' in."
"Take your time."
Charlie was debating about where to start when suddenly he turned pale and swayed. The engineer would have fallen if Phlox hadn't reached in and grabbed him. "Sorry." Tucker gasped. "My little girl uses up a lot of my energy. Sometimes I run short before I know it."
"We should get you to sickbay." Phlox said. "I want to examine you more thoroughly anyway."
Charlie was barely standing now. "I don't care what you do. I just need ta lay down for awhile."
"We'll get you to a bed right away." Phlox shot a look at Archer. When the captain nodded his permission, Phlox began to guide Tucker to sickbay.
The captain's mind was full of questions as he watched them go, but he knew they would have to wait. This man may or may not be the friend that Archer knew, but he was alive, and Archer was determined to keep him that way.
**********
Charlie seemed familiar with the ship, but would have passed right by sickbay if Phlox hadn't called him back. The engineer whistled when he first saw the medical facility. "This is your sickbay?" When Phlox nodded he continued. "On my ship this is just a storage locker.
Phlox gestured for Charlie to lay down on the biobed and started his exam. "I gather that my counterpart is not the doctor on your version of Enterprise."
Charlie hesitated for a moment, as if he didn't quite know what to say. Then he settled for a simple no. "We do have a medic though. He's pretty good at patchin' up broken bones and stuff like that."
"I see." Phlox replied a bit absentmindedly. Most of his attention was focused on his scans and he didn't like what he was seeing. Not at all.
Charlie didn't pick up on the doctors mood. He was thinking about his friend Danny, their medic, and how overwhelmed they both were when they learned that he was pregnant. "Babies were kinda out of his league, though.
"You mean you've had no pre-natal care at all?" Horrified, the doctor immediately centered the focus of his scans on the fetus.
"Well, Danny did help a couple of women birth their babies, but this never happened to a human male before. At least not in my universe."
"Not in this one either. Our Commander Tucker was the first as well."
"Danny tried his best, but..." Charlie waved his arm around the room. "He didn't have any stuff like this to work with." A look of panic began to fill the engineer's eyes. "She is gonna be all right, isn't she?"
Phlox could clearly see that Charlie was frightened and hastened to reassure the distraught man. "Everything is going to be fine, Commander. I promise."
Charlie latched onto the doctor's reassuring tone and forced himself to believe what Phlox was saying was really true. Maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe his little girl was really gonna be okay.
**********
Time passed then Archer arrived in sickbay to check up on his guest. T'Pol had just given him her report on her check of the ships internal sensors, and he wanted to ask Charlie about them. The Vulcan did pick up something unusual in one of the low range theta bands at the exact moment that Charlie materialized on the transport dais. Upon further analysis T'Pol discovered that there had been similar spikes in the band over the last few days, including the day that Trip disappeared. Archer wanted to know what was going on and Charlie was the only one who had the answers, but apparently Archer's questions would have to wait. The engineer was asleep.
"He had been bordering on exhaustion." Phlox reported to the captain. "But these last few hours of rest should help revitalize his energy levels."
"Good." Archer glanced at the sleeping man who looked so much like his friend. "Any word on confirming his story."
"Despite the presence of a maturing Xyrillian fetus you mean?"
Archer winced a little and nodded. He knew that the re-appearance of the baby was pretty solid proof that Trip's... Charlie's story was true, but Archer wanted to know if there was anything else that could back up his wild claim.
Phlox settled this question once and for all. "This man is not our Charles Tucker."
"You're sure?" Archer was surprised. He hadn't expected the doctor to sound so positive.
"I'm sure." Phlox led Archer to the computer terminal and started displaying the results of his scans. "This Commander Tucker is not the same robust, healthy individual that I examined last week." Phlox gestured to the display. "I want you to take a look at this, Captain."
The screen showed a tri-dimensional image of Tucker's skeletal system. As the captain looked closely at it he saw several dark lines criss-crossing the bones. "What are those?"
Phlox wasn't surprised that Archer recognized the anomaly immediately. "Those are scars of healed breaks, Captain."
"You're kidding?" Archer had a hard time believing that all these scars could belong to one person. The skeleton was covered with such marks. It didn't seem that there was a bone in Tucker's body that didn't show a break on it. What could have caused such damage? "Was he in some sort of accident?"
Phlox shook his head. "I'm afraid not, Captain. Some of these scars are much older than the others, while some are quite recent, and this one..." he pointed to a sharp mark displayed on Tucker's upper right arm. "...is quite fresh. I'd say his arm was broken only three to four weeks ago, then the break was healed by a matter re-sequencer."
"So..." The import was beginning to sink into the captain. "No one incident caused all of these injuries?"
"I'm afraid not."
"You're saying that he's been abused?"
The look on Phlox's face confirmed Archer's guess. "For most of his life it appears."
"Damn it." Archer breathed, trying to take it all in. What kind of hell did this man come from anyway? Then the captain remembered the look on Charlie's face when the engineer first saw him. Tucker had been afraid of him. Of him! Mayweather and Reed told Archer that Charlie had seemed to be afraid of them as well. Grim, Archer looked at the display again. He bet he could guess who was responsible for most of these injuries.
Phlox broke into his thoughts. "I'm afraid there's more, Captain."
"More?" How the hell could there be anything worse than this?
Phlox sighed. There were times when he tired of being the constant bearer of bad news. "In addition to the history of physical injuries, this man has been suffering from malnutrition for quite some time."
"You mean he hasn't been getting enough to eat?"
"Exactly. His caloric intake has been, oh I'd say on average a third less than our daily requirements. This is one reason why his body hasn't developed to the same physical level as our own Commander Tucker. And he was quite right to be concerned about the effects of his malnutrition on the development of his unborn child."
Oh God, Archer thought as a burst of panic flashed right through him. While still not clear as to what was going on, he couldn't help but be concerned when the life of a child was at stake. "Is she going to be all right?"
"I think so, yes." The doctor's unexpected good prognosis allowed Archer to breathe a little bit easier. Phlox went on. "While it was true that the reduced nutrition that the commander was receiving did inhibit the child's development somewhat, I do believe that I can enhance the baby's condition with growth stimulating hormones. That combined with upping the commander's caloric intake to proper levels should allow the fetus to develop normally from this point on."
If Charlie stayed here. Archer hated to ask this question, but he did anyway. "What would happen if he went back to where he came from?"
Phlox's expression went grave, in the way that only a doctor can when the information he has to share is not good. "If Commander Tucker were to be returned to that environment then I am quite sure that he would suffer a miscarriage. If that were to happen, given the primitive nature of the medical care that I understand to be on that ship, I am not certain that the commander would survive such an event.
Damn it. That was what Archer had been afraid of.
"Even if by some miracle the baby should survive to term," Phlox went on. "I am quite certain that both the child and the commander would die during the childbirth."
The captain didn't take this news well. He couldn't recall a time when his feelings were so divided. Archer looked down again at the commander, sleeping peacefully, perhaps for the first time in his life. Yet Archer pictured his Trip, his friend, living on the other side right now. The image of Charlie's skeleton covered with breaks haunted Archer. Maybe Trip was trapped on the very same ship, with the very same people that caused all off that damage. Archer had to get him back, yet he couldn't let this Tucker return to that hell, with a baby no less. Archer's quandary magnified ten fold. What the hell was he going to do?
To be continued......
"Are you trying to tell me that you come from some sort of parallel universe? From a ship identical to ours?"
"Not exactly identical, no." It didn't surprise Charlie Tucker any that Archer wasn't immediately buying into his story about two Enterprise's, complete with two sets of crews. "I know it sounds crazy, Cap'n." The engineer said while keeping a close watch on the alien doctor who was approaching with some sort of scanner in his hand. "But you're not gonna find anythin' wrong with my noggin."
"Well, you have to admit, Trip. Brain damage is a little more plausible than you beaming back from some sort of different dimension."
"I know it is." It took all the will power that Charlie could muster not to flinch away when the alien got too close to him. These are nice people, he told himself over and over again. They weren't gonna hurt him.
"There doesn't seem to be any damage to his brain." Phlox reported before continuing his exam.
Managing to keep still, Charlie kept a wary eye on the doctor's scanner as it started to move lower. "I think you'll find that your Trip Tucker and I are physically identical, except..." Charlie glanced at the bulge on the left side of his abdomen. A bulge that the doctor's scanner was rapidly approaching. "Except in one big way."
Phlox, concentrating on his readings, only half heard what Tucker said. "Your DNA corresponds with Commander Tucker's previous readings." Phlox muttered, then moved the medical device lower. Charlie caught in his breath as Phlox finally scanned the lump. The doctor's eyes grew very wide and a startled "Good Lord" popped out of his mouth.
"What is it?" Archer wasn't sure if this was his Trip or not, but the memories of his grief were still clean and sharp in his mind and he didn't think he could bear it if Tucker was really hurt. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, Captain." Phlox replied. "It's just that..." The doctor hesitated for a moment, glancing up at Tucker and asking a question with his eyes. Charlie nodded his permission and Phlox made his report. "Commander Tucker is pregnant."
THAT send a bomb of shock throughout the room!
"What?"
"I can't believe it!"
"Not again."
"No. Not again." Charlie corrected. "Still."
"Still?"
Phlox nodded, continuing his scans. "Commander Tucker is correct, Captain. I'm reading the presence of a Xyrillian fetus, approximately four weeks old. The infant appears to be half way along in it's development cycle."
This was the moment that Charlie was dreading. He knew he hadn't been able to take as good care of his girl as he wanted to, and he was terrified to ask this next question, but he had to know. "Is she all right?"
Everyone in the room heard the tremble of fear in Tucker's voice. The sound of a parent frantically worried about his child. "I'll have to do more detailed scans in sickbay, of course." Phlox said, "but she appears to be healthy."
Charlie's eyes closed as he let the relief wash over him. That was what he desperately wanted to hear. That was why he came.
Malcolm relaxed a bit when he saw Charlie's reaction. The second he heard that Tucker was pregnant, every fiber of the armory officer's being went on full alert. This couldn't be their Trip Tucker. He was an intruder in their midst. Reed began to long for a phase pistol, but then he heard the fear in Tucker's voice, fear and concern for his child. That's when Reed knew one thing. This man was not a threat.
Archer was never concerned for the safety of Enterprise. They outnumbered Charlie four to one. No, the captain was more interested in establishing the bona-fides of Tucker's story, so he sent T'Pol to the bridge to check out the sensor logs to see if anything unusual showed up. Anything besides a pregnant Trip Tucker that was.
"Okay." He told the engineer. "Say you really do come from a parallel universe, a story I have not swallowed whole just yet, despite the presence of that." He pointed to the bulge. "But if you're really telling me the truth, then there is one thing I want... no, I need to know. "What..." Archer's voice broke a little and he had to clear it and try again. "What happened to our Trip Tucker?"
Charlie seemed to sag a little. How to explain? "That's kinda complicated, Cap'n"
"At least tell me if he's alive." Archer didn't even try to hide his desperate tone.
"Yes." Tucker was firm. He wanted no misunderstandings here. "Your Trip Tucker is alive."
The relief in the hall was palatable. For the moment the mere fact that Trip was alive filled Archer's mind, leaving no room for anything else. Then, after a few minutes, the practical aspects of the captain's personality began to take hold and Archer returned to the matter at hand. "Well, if Trip's alive then where the hell has he been for the last three days?"
"Mostly he's been listenin' to me brief him about the warp three reactor on my ship."
It was obvious to Archer that the engineer totally believed this cockamamie theory of his, but the captain had a hard time grasping the fundamentals here. A parallel universe? The whole idea was ridiculous, and yet Archer had to admit that a temporal cold war was crazy too, and he knew that particular wild tale was true. Then again, traveling through time was one thing, but traveling through different universes? "How did Trip manage to get his ass over there, or you over here?"
"I'll be happy to tall ya, Cap'n, but it's gonna take a little while to get all the explainin' in."
"Take your time."
Charlie was debating about where to start when suddenly he turned pale and swayed. The engineer would have fallen if Phlox hadn't reached in and grabbed him. "Sorry." Tucker gasped. "My little girl uses up a lot of my energy. Sometimes I run short before I know it."
"We should get you to sickbay." Phlox said. "I want to examine you more thoroughly anyway."
Charlie was barely standing now. "I don't care what you do. I just need ta lay down for awhile."
"We'll get you to a bed right away." Phlox shot a look at Archer. When the captain nodded his permission, Phlox began to guide Tucker to sickbay.
The captain's mind was full of questions as he watched them go, but he knew they would have to wait. This man may or may not be the friend that Archer knew, but he was alive, and Archer was determined to keep him that way.
**********
Charlie seemed familiar with the ship, but would have passed right by sickbay if Phlox hadn't called him back. The engineer whistled when he first saw the medical facility. "This is your sickbay?" When Phlox nodded he continued. "On my ship this is just a storage locker.
Phlox gestured for Charlie to lay down on the biobed and started his exam. "I gather that my counterpart is not the doctor on your version of Enterprise."
Charlie hesitated for a moment, as if he didn't quite know what to say. Then he settled for a simple no. "We do have a medic though. He's pretty good at patchin' up broken bones and stuff like that."
"I see." Phlox replied a bit absentmindedly. Most of his attention was focused on his scans and he didn't like what he was seeing. Not at all.
Charlie didn't pick up on the doctors mood. He was thinking about his friend Danny, their medic, and how overwhelmed they both were when they learned that he was pregnant. "Babies were kinda out of his league, though.
"You mean you've had no pre-natal care at all?" Horrified, the doctor immediately centered the focus of his scans on the fetus.
"Well, Danny did help a couple of women birth their babies, but this never happened to a human male before. At least not in my universe."
"Not in this one either. Our Commander Tucker was the first as well."
"Danny tried his best, but..." Charlie waved his arm around the room. "He didn't have any stuff like this to work with." A look of panic began to fill the engineer's eyes. "She is gonna be all right, isn't she?"
Phlox could clearly see that Charlie was frightened and hastened to reassure the distraught man. "Everything is going to be fine, Commander. I promise."
Charlie latched onto the doctor's reassuring tone and forced himself to believe what Phlox was saying was really true. Maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe his little girl was really gonna be okay.
**********
Time passed then Archer arrived in sickbay to check up on his guest. T'Pol had just given him her report on her check of the ships internal sensors, and he wanted to ask Charlie about them. The Vulcan did pick up something unusual in one of the low range theta bands at the exact moment that Charlie materialized on the transport dais. Upon further analysis T'Pol discovered that there had been similar spikes in the band over the last few days, including the day that Trip disappeared. Archer wanted to know what was going on and Charlie was the only one who had the answers, but apparently Archer's questions would have to wait. The engineer was asleep.
"He had been bordering on exhaustion." Phlox reported to the captain. "But these last few hours of rest should help revitalize his energy levels."
"Good." Archer glanced at the sleeping man who looked so much like his friend. "Any word on confirming his story."
"Despite the presence of a maturing Xyrillian fetus you mean?"
Archer winced a little and nodded. He knew that the re-appearance of the baby was pretty solid proof that Trip's... Charlie's story was true, but Archer wanted to know if there was anything else that could back up his wild claim.
Phlox settled this question once and for all. "This man is not our Charles Tucker."
"You're sure?" Archer was surprised. He hadn't expected the doctor to sound so positive.
"I'm sure." Phlox led Archer to the computer terminal and started displaying the results of his scans. "This Commander Tucker is not the same robust, healthy individual that I examined last week." Phlox gestured to the display. "I want you to take a look at this, Captain."
The screen showed a tri-dimensional image of Tucker's skeletal system. As the captain looked closely at it he saw several dark lines criss-crossing the bones. "What are those?"
Phlox wasn't surprised that Archer recognized the anomaly immediately. "Those are scars of healed breaks, Captain."
"You're kidding?" Archer had a hard time believing that all these scars could belong to one person. The skeleton was covered with such marks. It didn't seem that there was a bone in Tucker's body that didn't show a break on it. What could have caused such damage? "Was he in some sort of accident?"
Phlox shook his head. "I'm afraid not, Captain. Some of these scars are much older than the others, while some are quite recent, and this one..." he pointed to a sharp mark displayed on Tucker's upper right arm. "...is quite fresh. I'd say his arm was broken only three to four weeks ago, then the break was healed by a matter re-sequencer."
"So..." The import was beginning to sink into the captain. "No one incident caused all of these injuries?"
"I'm afraid not."
"You're saying that he's been abused?"
The look on Phlox's face confirmed Archer's guess. "For most of his life it appears."
"Damn it." Archer breathed, trying to take it all in. What kind of hell did this man come from anyway? Then the captain remembered the look on Charlie's face when the engineer first saw him. Tucker had been afraid of him. Of him! Mayweather and Reed told Archer that Charlie had seemed to be afraid of them as well. Grim, Archer looked at the display again. He bet he could guess who was responsible for most of these injuries.
Phlox broke into his thoughts. "I'm afraid there's more, Captain."
"More?" How the hell could there be anything worse than this?
Phlox sighed. There were times when he tired of being the constant bearer of bad news. "In addition to the history of physical injuries, this man has been suffering from malnutrition for quite some time."
"You mean he hasn't been getting enough to eat?"
"Exactly. His caloric intake has been, oh I'd say on average a third less than our daily requirements. This is one reason why his body hasn't developed to the same physical level as our own Commander Tucker. And he was quite right to be concerned about the effects of his malnutrition on the development of his unborn child."
Oh God, Archer thought as a burst of panic flashed right through him. While still not clear as to what was going on, he couldn't help but be concerned when the life of a child was at stake. "Is she going to be all right?"
"I think so, yes." The doctor's unexpected good prognosis allowed Archer to breathe a little bit easier. Phlox went on. "While it was true that the reduced nutrition that the commander was receiving did inhibit the child's development somewhat, I do believe that I can enhance the baby's condition with growth stimulating hormones. That combined with upping the commander's caloric intake to proper levels should allow the fetus to develop normally from this point on."
If Charlie stayed here. Archer hated to ask this question, but he did anyway. "What would happen if he went back to where he came from?"
Phlox's expression went grave, in the way that only a doctor can when the information he has to share is not good. "If Commander Tucker were to be returned to that environment then I am quite sure that he would suffer a miscarriage. If that were to happen, given the primitive nature of the medical care that I understand to be on that ship, I am not certain that the commander would survive such an event.
Damn it. That was what Archer had been afraid of.
"Even if by some miracle the baby should survive to term," Phlox went on. "I am quite certain that both the child and the commander would die during the childbirth."
The captain didn't take this news well. He couldn't recall a time when his feelings were so divided. Archer looked down again at the commander, sleeping peacefully, perhaps for the first time in his life. Yet Archer pictured his Trip, his friend, living on the other side right now. The image of Charlie's skeleton covered with breaks haunted Archer. Maybe Trip was trapped on the very same ship, with the very same people that caused all off that damage. Archer had to get him back, yet he couldn't let this Tucker return to that hell, with a baby no less. Archer's quandary magnified ten fold. What the hell was he going to do?
To be continued......