Songs in Red and Grey

Disclaimer: Enterprise doesn't belong to me, I wish it did. The only thing I get out of this is someplace for my imagination to run riot.

Chapter 4

The ECS Vector reached Coriolis just over two days late. It would have arrived considerably later if it hadn't been for Trip spending the majority of the journey modifying the engine to make the most of the available power. Lieutenant Commander Ohta had been pleasantly surprised to find another half warp factor had been squeezed out of her engine. Trip had also managed to help out with repairs and suggest some strategies for the lack of spares for the old engine. This involved modifying newer parts to make them back compatible; it could be a little time consuming but it was better than having no spare parts at all. He knew that he should write up what he'd done so that other cargo ships from the same class could take advantage of his ideas, but he wasn't sure how he'd explain how he came up with the idea. A large part of it had been gained from looking at the engine itself. He was sure he'd think of something given enough time.

Trip looked down through the window in his cabin at Coriolis below him and sighed. It was time for him to leave the ECS Vector and get on with his job. He'd packed up all his belongings again and was waiting for Ensign Gilmour to come and get him. There was a knock at his door but instead of Ensign Gilmour standing there, it was Captain Evarra.

"What can I do for you, Captain? I'll be out of your hair as soon as I can." Trip offered Evarra the only seat in the cabin, but the Captain declined it with a small shake of his head.

"I wanted to thank you for your help with the engine."

"I was just doing my job."

"Your only duty here was to sit back and let us take you to your next post," said Evarra.

Trip shrugged. "I doubt I'll get much chance to play with another engine of this model for a while. I never could resist a challenge anyway."

"You don't seem the typical Special Projects type," said Evarra. "Mostly they keep themselves to themselves on these journeys, sit in their quarters and clean their weapons."

Trip laughed. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I used to work with a bunch of MACOs like that. Believe me when I say I'm just as bad as them when I want to be."

"You've done me a good turn, Commander, so I thought I should do you one. I bet Colonel Andros hasn't given you the full story of what you've got yourself into here. I'm not sure that even I have the complete picture, but I've put everything that I know onto this padd. Read it when you get down to the surface."

Trip accepted the offered padd. "Couldn't this get you into a lot of trouble? When they say classified, they really mean it."

"I didn't get this detail by being an outstanding individual, Commander, but I suspect that you'd already guessed that."

Trip nodded. "I got that impression. What does Andros have on you?"

A corner of Evarra's mouth quirked upwards. "That would be telling, Commander. What does she have on you?"

"A ship called Enterprise and a rather grey past."

Evarra gave Trip a quizzical look. "I wasn't aware that Special Projects had been around that long."

"I was a member of the original Special Projects. I'm getting the distinct impression that this new incarnation doesn't bear much resemblance to the old outfit. What's going on down there?"

"I have already said too much. Come, I'll accompany you to the shuttle."

Trip smiled. "After you, Captain."

Trip wasn't able to extract any further information from Evarra on their walk to the shuttle and the Captain made his excuses once they reached the shuttle bay. One of the crew was ready to take Trip to the surface and the journey down was uneventful, without even a little turbulence to enliven things. Coriolis was exactly what he had expected from reading the reports, it was a planet of grass plains and small settlements. The MACO base was near to one of these settlements, but it had a large area of grass and high fences surrounding it. What Trip hadn't expected was who he found waiting for him when he landed.

"Welcome to Coriolis," said the dark haired figure.

"Colonel Andros, I guess I should have expected you to be here. You didn't need to greet me in person though, I'm sure you've got people for this sort of thing."

"This is my base, Commander, and sometimes I like to greet the new arrivals."

"Lucky me."

Andros gave him the kind of smile that crocodiles give people just before they take a bite out of them. "This way, Commander."

She led Trip to the door of a complex of buildings. She pressed the switch on what looked like a com point, but also had a keypad below it. "Colonel Daria Andros, clearance code alpha one seven two."

"Voice print recognised," said a computer generated voice. "Enter entry code."

Andros entered a seven digit code and the door slid back. "First order of business tomorrow, we'll take your voice print and give you an entry code. You need it to move around the base as well. Of course you'll only be given access to the areas you need."

Trip followed her inside. The interior of the complex was a grey concrete corridor with doorways leading off it. "Of course. This looks like a pretty big place. What else have you got going on here, Colonel?"

"You know better than to ask that question, Commander."

The padd that Evarra had given him was burning a hole in his pocket.

"Your quarters are in the Engineering facility. That's where you'll be teaching as well."

"Teaching is one word for it." Trip stepped over the threshold of the building and an alarm began to sound.

"Your weapons, Commander," said Andros. "The base security system detects any unauthorised weapons brought into the building."

"This is my sidearm," replied Trip, producing his Enterprise issue phase pistol from his bag, complete with holster. "I don't like giving it up."

"You won't be needing it here." Andros received the weapon and passed it to the MACO who was standing guard by the door.

"Yeah, tell that to my Armoury Officer."

"It will be returned to you when you leave. Now, hand over the others," said Andros.

"What others?" Trip put on his best innocent expression.

"You don't spend three years in Special Projects without developing a healthy desire to hide weaponry. So hand them over."

Trip retrieved the boot knife that he was carrying. "I suppose you want my pocket knife too?"

Andros nodded, while Trip sighed and shook his head. The pocket knife in question had been a present from Captain Archer, but it was a necessary sacrifice. Andros was right, no one who had been in Special Projects would have come to Coriolis with just a phase pistol. The MACOs loved their weapons and just because he was only an honorary MACO didn't make him any less cautious. The boot knife and pocket knife were to draw attention away from the very special weapon that Reed had given him and was still buried deep in his kit bag. He now mentally crossed his fingers that the same detectors that had found his phase pistol would pass over the carefully concealed scanner that was really a phase pistol.

The MACO guard checked his screen once more and gave Andros a nod as Trip handed him the pocket knife. That seemed to be the all clear.

"This way, Commander," said Andros.

Andros took Trip through one of the doors off the main corridor into what was probably a recreation room. A group of MACOs were waiting there, none of whom were in uniform but they all wore rank insignia on their plain green overalls. The group straightened to attention as Andros approached.

"At ease," said Andros. The group relaxed slightly. "This is Commander Tucker of Starfleet. He'll be joining us for a while."

Trip groaned inwardly as Andros mentioned that he was a member of Starfleet. Presenting him as an outsider from the start wouldn't make his job any easier here. He needed to get on with these MACOs, not rekindle forces rivalry. Maybe he was worrying unnecessarily, he should really give his new colleagues a chance before he started to draw conclusions from first impressions. He had some experience of MACOs and how they tended to regard Starfleet though. The MACOs he'd met in the Delphic Expanse hadn't been particularly willing to fit in with the Enterprise crew.

"Hi there," said Trip, with a smile.

"Corporal Jensen, please take Commander Tucker to his quarters and then give him the ten cent tour."

"Yes, ma'am," replied the young black man.

Trip barely heard the order, he was too busy taking in his surroundings, and noting the insignia on the shoulders of the MACOs. Mostly the group were officers, and more intriguingly for a base supposedly teaching technical information, they were almost all medics.

"I'll catch up with you later, Commander," said Andros and Trip couldn't help but feel that there was something ominous in her tone.

Jensen led Trip out of the room and down the corridor once again. Trip memorised the route as he went, if for no other reason than it would be useful to be able to find his way around the base. Again he found himself falling back on his MACO training and it was because he felt like he was in a hostile environment. In theory this was a friendly base and he shouldn't have needed to worry, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something very wrong about this whole set up, above and beyond the ethical and legal aspects of what went on here.

As Andros had ordered, Jensen escorted Trip to his assigned quarters. Trip left his bags there, although pocketed the scanner to prevent its discovery, in case someone decided to go through his bags. Evarra's padd was also placed in his back pocket for the same reason.

Jensen then took Trip on the promised tour of the base. The structure was large, with coloured lines on the walls leading the way to the main areas such as the mess, main operations, West Wing, East Wing and the High Security facility. As all the corridors were of the same uniform grey concrete the colour coding was necessary to help the staff navigate.

A whole Engineering workshop complex had been equipped for Trip's part of the project. There were already some Coriolan engineers working there and they would be the people that Trip would be training to build a warp engine. He briefly said hello but proper introductions would have to wait until the following day when the program started properly. It was getting late by the time Jensen had finished and Trip was tired. The corporal finally left him in his quarters to rest, saying that he'd be back in the morning to take him to breakfast at 0700 local time.

Trip made a half hearted attempt to unpack his belongings but he was too tired. He noticed that some things in his bags had definitely been moved while he'd been on his tour of the base and was very glad that he'd taken the scanner and padd with him. Obviously Andros wasn't above checking out her new arrivals and she was probably aware that with Trip she needed to watch him twice as carefully. People might leave Special Projects but their training never left them. Couple that with his engineering expertise and Trip was most likely one of the most dangerous people on the base.

He gave up unpacking and decided to use the time before he fell asleep to shower, and then he'd read Evarra's padd. He stepped into the small bathroom, undressed and fiddled with the shower controls until the water was at a comfortable temperature. He stepped under the water and found himself experiencing the nearest thing to bliss that was possible in his current situation. It was the first proper long shower that he'd had since he left Enterprise. The ECS Vector's dated water recycling system severely limited the amount of water available for bathing and he'd only been able to wash rapidly. He shut off the water feeling more refreshed and towelled himself dry. He wrapped the towel around his middle as he left the bathroom and then settled down on the bed to read the padd.

He turned on the padd and discovered that it was blank. He couldn't believe it at first. He'd had several padds in his bag so perhaps this was the wrong one. He got out the others to be sure, but found that every single one of them was blank. He sat on his bed looking at the blank padd in his hand, absolutely fuming and kicking himself for not reading it earlier. He'd wanted to wait until he was in a safe location, but now he wished that he just read it on the shuttle down. The only thing that he could think of that made any sense was some sort of data deleting field at the entrance to the complex. He couldn't begin to guess why though. He could see why top secret data shouldn't leave the facility but surely people would want to bring data into the facility.

He flopped back on the bed in defeat. This was definitely Andros' doing, and he suspected that she knew that Evarra had given him something. Most likely the data deleting field was only turned on when someone was leaving the facility but Andros had arranged it to be active for his arrival. That could also explain why she had chosen to meet him personally. That meant that she had spies on the ECS Vector, and probably in the facility as well. He was going to have to watch his step very, very carefully around here.

"This is the schematic for a gravimetric field displacement manifold, commonly known as a warp reactor. It has eight major components. The deuterium tanks, plasma accelerators, antimatter injectors, dilithium chamber, power transfer conduits, warp nacelles, warp coils and bussard collectors. This is what we're going to be building. I know it looks pretty complicated to you now, but once we've gone through the theory it should make more sense."

Trip's opening was met with enthusiastic scribbling on the padds from the assembled class, who sat in chairs in front of him. They attentively took notes on every detail of the schematic that was displayed on the large screen at the front of the room. The attitude of the Coriolans, although very welcome, bemused Trip. He certainly didn't remember his compatriots in OTC being this eager to learn about warp theory. Then his classmates at OTC hadn't had names that were six syllables long either. He was still reeling from going round the room and asking everyone their names. It had taken some time and he was never going to be able to remember them all.

"Right, warp theory 101. A warp reactor works by forming a bubble of subspace around the ship and then distorting the space in front and behind the ship. It's kind of like a surfer riding a wave."

A hand was raised and Trip nodded for his student to ask their question. He had already briefly outlined how they should indicate if they had a question. The gesture of putting a hand in the air seemed to amuse them and he wondered if it had some cultural significance.

"A surfer?"

Trip immediately realised his mistake and he was sure that it would be the first of several of this kind. "You don't have surfers? You get a board, paddle out into the water on it and wait for a big wave to carry you back to the shore. It's a sport where I come from." He received several blank looks. "Okay, let's do a bit of practical experimentation."

Trip looked around for some suitable materials. He picked a large sheet of some sort of heavy plastic and a small cylindrical cardboard box which had previously held retrobolts from the label on the side. He laid out the plastic sheeting and placed the cylinder on its side on the sheet. "Everyone gather round. Come on, don't be shy."

The students looked a little bewildered at his actions but made their way to the front of the room where Trip had laid out the experiment. Trip gave one end of the sheet a sharp shake up and down and created a good wave that rippled along the sheet, carrying the cylinder in front of it until it reached the end of the sheet. The cylinder rolled off the end of the sheet and crashed into the wall in front of it.

"Do you see what I mean? The wave I made carried the cylinder down the sheet. It's the same in space with a ship. Come on, why don't you try it?"

Trip indicated for the nearest of the Coriolans to try it, while he went to reclaim the cylinder from where it had landed. The first of his students to try it was timid but it was obvious that he had understood what Trip was getting at as the cylinder rolled along the undulations. After seeing their friend try, the rest of the class wanted to have a go which resulted in much amusement as other objects were found to try out. Trip used this to point out how much better the smooth, round ones did than the square or knobbly ones. It was the best ice breaker that he could have imagined. Unfortunately Colonel Andros arrived just as the last class members were taking their turns.

"I appear to have walked in on play time." Andros entered unannounced and she looked distinctly unhappy.

"It's a demonstration of warp theory," said Trip. The class behind him had gone silent for a moment, but as Trip moved closer to Andros they returned to the experiment, ignoring the interruption. Trip got the distinct impression that they'd never experienced this type of practical learning.

"You've got two months to teach these people warp theory. You don't have time for games, Commander."

"Yeah, well I don't have time to rewrite all my notes either, but it looks like I'm going to have to, since all my padds were mysteriously wiped when I walked through the door of this place." The words were out of Trip's mouth before he'd even thought about them and suddenly he wondered if confronting Andros about this now was such a good idea.

"If you had let me know that you were planning to bring electronic data with you then I would have arranged for your padds to be kept intact. That doesn't explain what you're doing here."

"Sometimes the best way to explain something, and get people to learn it, is to give them a practical example. I'm teaching something pretty damn complicated, warp theory. I'm guessing that's not something that you know anything about."

"You have me there, Commander."

"Did you just come down here to insult my teaching methods or did you want something?"

"Just seeing how you're settling in, but also to bring you a dinner invitation. The Coriolans want to meet you. I've set up a small welcome dinner with the senior staff and the high ranking Coriolans. The Premier is particularly interested to see who is teaching his son."

Trip groaned inwardly. "His son?"

"Yes, Tjearigeshearithen Dvortshangharichantor is the son of Premier Dvortshangharichantor." Andros pointed out one of the young male Coriolans who was enthusiastically taking part in a second run of the experiment.

"You've been practising that."

"It's either practise or offend the highest ranking dignitary on the planet. Believe me when I tell you that this planet is too important to lose because of a slip up in etiquette."

"I don't think you've explained why that is exactly."

"Need to know, Commander," said Andros.

"And I don't need to know?"

Andros just gave him another one of her crocodile smiles. "I'll leave you to your class. Dinner is at 1900."

"I don't suppose this is something that I can take a rain check on? We've got a lot to do here." Trip indicated the workshop around them with a wave of his arm.

"No rain checks, no excuses. Dress uniform and you will salute me when you arrive."

Trip shook his head. "Only one MACO ever earned the right to have me salute him. I'll call you sir or ma'am or whatever you prefer, but you're going to have to live without me saluting you."

Andros' eyes narrowed. "We'll see about that before your tour here is up. See you tonight, Commander." The Colonel left the workshop, the door slamming behind her.

"Not if I see you first," Trip muttered, under his breath. He turned back to his class who had again gone quiet.

The young man that Trip recognised as Tjearigeshearithen raised a hand, and Trip nodded at him to go ahead.

"I heard the Colonel telling you that my father is the Premier."

"Yeah, she mentioned it."

"I hope you will not hold it against me. Not everyone here shares his politics."

Trip nodded. "It's not my place to judge what your people are doing or your political views. I'm just here to help you build a warp engine. That's all. As far as I'm concerned you're just another engineer. Now, we've got a lot to cover before we can even begin to move on to the more complicated stuff."

Despite his speech, Trip decided that he should at least look into what Premier Dvortshangharichantor's views were. After all, he was expected to eat dinner with the man. For the moment however he needed to concentrate on teaching his group of young engineers the basics of warp theory. He'd have time later to investigate the political situation on Coriolis.

Trip dismissed his class at about 1800, which just gave him enough time to head back to his quarters, shower and get into uniform. He hadn't worn it for some time now and it was itchy and stiff when he put it on. Earlier that day, after Andros had declared her dinner plans, he had gone by the quartermaster and arranged for the correct patch to be put on his uniform. He didn't want his Enterprise patch to be seen here. The less these people knew about him the better. He could have asked for one of the new patches from this new incarnation of Special Projects, but it hadn't seemed right. The unit emblem was no longer a mosquito, but a wasp.

Trip took this to mean something more than just an artistic decision. A mosquito was subtle, people didn't notice them until they'd been bitten and their blood sucked. Wasps were obvious and everyone knew that they were malevolent, they didn't bite, they stung. Wasps hurt and didn't get anything from the hurt, at least mosquitoes took something away with them for the trouble that they caused. To him that was the difference between what he and Darwin's Special Project's unit had done and Andros's outfit.

He arrived at the mess hall a little late. He'd calculated this to annoy Andros, not because he wanted to cause her trouble with the Coriolans, but more as a pay back for her visit to his class earlier. He wasn't disappointed by her reaction. The scowl on her face was carefully hidden away as she turned back to her guests after registering his arrival, but he knew he'd irritated the immaculately dressed, perfectly organised, Colonel. In her world everything was regimented, it was time to teach her that wasn't what Trip Tucker was all about.

There were drinks before the dinner began, which meant some mingling and making small talk was unavoidable. Andros got him back for his lateness by towing him around the room with her and introducing him to every minor Coriolan official present. Needless to say, they all had horribly long names that Trip couldn't hope to remember. Not content with that, Andros then dragged him round all the base's senior staff as well.

"Major Sandrikov, this is Commander Tucker. Major Sandrikov is the head of Security here."

Trip sized up the muscled man in front of him. He was the exact opposite of his previous experience with Security officers. Malcolm Reed was small (well, Malcolm would say "compact"), and nimble. Sandrikov was tall, a good few inches taller than Trip, with a blond crew-cut and he looked like he spent most of his spare time in the gym.

"Hi there, Major. Pleased to meet you." Trip held out his hand to be shaken, but it was ignored.

"I had heard that we were getting a Starfleet Engineer. You were a member of Darwin's Special Projects Unit?" Sandrikov eyed the shoulder patch on his uniform. He had a slight Russian accent that was no where as friendly sounding as Kanatova's.

"Yeah, I was recruited for one mission and ended up staying for three years."

"I was put forward for a position in Special Projects. Darwin turned me down in favour of some Hispanic kid from Miami."

Sandrikov sounded very annoyed and not a little aggrieved. Trip stiffened slightly, defensively. He knew who he meant, "Hispanic kid from Miami" could only be one person. He was talking about Terri Arroya, who was sadly no longer with them. He'd visited her grave in the military cemetery, with the other remaining members of Special Projects, only a few weeks ago. Trip hoped Sandrikov didn't decide to start bad mouthing her, as he wouldn't be held responsible for his actions if he did. He'd liked Arroya and he wouldn't have her memory sullied by anyone, no matter how well muscled they were.

Sandrikov didn't seem to have noticed Trip's change in demeanour and carried on regardless. "He told me I didn't have what he was looking for. Like some pathetic, little, Latino girl who used to run with street gangs did. But then I am still here and she isn't. It looks like I proved him wrong."

Trip's dislike of this man was barely contained. "No, I think he had you down right. Darwin was a good judge of character."

Sandrikov stopped his gloating, his face becoming dark with anger. The two men locked eyes, missing the strange look that slipped across Andros' face at the mention of Darwin.

"I could never respect a man like Darwin. Everyone in his unit was a misfit or reject."

"Better that than a muscle bound jerk who doesn't know which end of a phase pistol is which. It looks like Colonel Andros doesn't care who she lets in."

"It seems that way," replied Sandrikov, looking Trip up and down. "Maybe we should put your theory to the test. I'm sure that no one has bothered to show you the firing range yet."

"Not yet," said Trip, seeing where this was going. Sandrikov had probably seen his record and that would have included his shooting scores. That meant he had at least some advantage, because the Major had no idea how good he really was.

"Be there tomorrow at 0700 and we'll see how good you are with a weapon, grease monkey."

Sandrikov pushed past him, intentionally clipping him on the shoulder.

"Nice guy," said Trip to Andros.

"Nice guys come last, especially in this game," she replied. "He is a good shot though. I hope for your sake that your little macho posing contest doesn't move on to the gym or I could be visiting you in the infirmary."

Any further conversation was interrupted by the party being told that they should take their places at the table. Dinner was about to be served. This was a full formal military dinner with all the frippery and pointless etiquette that went with it. There was even a seating plan, no doubt devised by Colonel Andros to make sure he had a dull evening. When Trip located his name card he found that he'd been sat next to the Premier's son, Tjearigeshearithen. It was near the head of the table where the important people were sitting and this made Trip uneasy. He had a bad feeling that Andros had something planned for this evening and he wasn't going to like it.

Tjearigeshearithen seemed to be slightly embarrassed by the whole thing. "Although I am honoured, it was not necessary for you to sit next to me. I said I did not want any special treatment. You are our guest."

Guests were revered in Coriolan culture, which was probably where Tjearigeshearithen was getting this misplaced sense of embarrassment.

"Listen, Tjearigesh…" Trip stumbled over the name.

"Tjearigeshearithen," the Coriolan corrected.

"Don't you have a nickname or a shorter version of your name that I could use?"

"Nickname?" Tjearigeshearithen looked baffled.

"It's something you call someone for short. Like mine. My real name is Charles but everyone calls me Trip."

"Trip? That doesn't sound much like Charles."

Trip sighed. "Look, forget it, how about I just call you Jerry? Would you mind that?"

The newly christened Jerry shook his head and smiled beatifically. "I would be honoured for you to bestow a nickname upon me."

Trip smiled back. "Great, Jerry it is. I guess this means you should call me Trip."

"Very well. Trip." Jerry tested out the name. "It is very short."

"That's kind of the point. So tell me a bit about yourself."

"About myself? There is not much to tell."

"There's got to be something. Your Dad's the Premier. How come you decided to become an engineer?"

"Even the sons of Premiers have to do something. It seemed like an interesting field."

"You seem to know your stuff. You're kind of young to be an expert in warp theory."

Jerry nodded. "It is a new field. There are very few of us who study it exclusively. Until recently I was considered something of a rebel."

"Huh, kind of like Zefram Cochrane."

"Zeframcochrane?" asked Jerry, making the name sound Coriolan.

"He's the guy who invented the warp engine back home. No one thought it was possible except him. Actually a bit like Henry Archer."

"Was this Henryarcher another of your warp theory pioneers?"

That was all it took for Trip to give Jerry the complete history of the discovery of the warp engine right up until the launch of Enterprise. The history of the warp engine was Trip's specialist subject and he could talk the hind leg off a donkey when he got going on it. Luckily, the young Coriolan was fascinated. They passed the meal in deep discussion to the exclusion of the other guests around the table. Trip was actually starting to enjoy himself, when Andros clapped her hands to silence the chatter of the room.

"Good evening, Officers and Honoured Guests. As you know we are celebrating the safe arrival of a new member of the team, this evening. Commander Tucker, would you please stand."

Trip's cheeks flushed pink, but he stood and smiled awkwardly at the assembled dignitaries.

Andros continued, ignoring Trip's embarrassment at being singled out. "Commander Tucker is one of our finest engineers and is teaching warp theory to some of your own engineers, including Tjearigeshearithen Dvortshangharichantor. I know that this is an important step in your readiness for a Klingon invasion and helping Earth in it's war against them."

Trip gaped at Andros for a moment. When had Earth declared war on Qo'nos? Suddenly another piece of the puzzle settled into place. This was the reason why the Coriolans were allowing them to stay here, because they thought that they were allies against the Klingons. Naturally the Coriolans would be worried about an impending attack from their warlike neighbours, and Andros was feeding their paranoia.

"Thank you, Commander, you can sit down now," said Andros. Her speech had continued while Trip had been lost in thought. He sank back to the relative safety of his chair. He had known that something was really wrong with this set up, and there it was, blatantly thrown in his face. Maybe this was what Evarra had been going to tell him on the padd. Trip wasn't sure what to think, but he knew that he was complicit in this lie, just by being here. He was also well aware that, for the moment, there was no way out for him. Lying and Special Projects seemed to go hand in hand.

He'd sold Andros his soul in exchange for his place on Enterprise. He was beginning to wonder if it had been worth it. Then again, it hadn't just been his soul up for sale, and he was glad that he'd kept Archer out of this. For the first time that evening he reached for the bottle of wine on the table and poured himself a glass. He never got drunk in public, it was old rule drummed into him by Darwin, but one glass wouldn't hurt. He needed something to occupy himself and stop him stomping up to Andros to demand that she tell everyone the truth. Jerry was talking enthusiastically again, but he couldn't summon up the will to return his eagerness. Tonight he'd allow himself the luxury of sulking; tomorrow he had to show Sandrikov that he was more than just a grease monkey, and after that he'd work out what to do about Andros.

The next morning Trip arrived at the shooting range, after a rather broken night's sleep, to find not only Sandrikov waiting for him but a small audience of MACOs. Obviously word had got round that there was to be a shoot off between the newest arrival and their head of security. No doubt everyone would be expecting the Major to beat him hands down, and Trip wondered if they wouldn't be correct in their expectations. His recent session with Reed had proved that he wasn't up to previous form. He'd definitely let Sandrikov get the better of him last night. He should never have agreed to this public display of his shooting ability, it could have been an ace up his sleeve, and he might regret revealing it.

Shaking his head, he went to sign out a practise weapon. Corporal Jensen was on duty at the sign out desk.

"Morning Corporal," said Trip.

"Good morning, sir. If you could just sign here." Jensen indicated a line on the padd.

Trip noticed another signature scrawled above his. "Looks like Major Sandrikov made it down here before me. How's his form looking?"

"As good as always, sir. Sandy's our highest ranking shot. Rumour is that he was a sniper back in the day."

"Great, just what I wanted to hear."

"If it's any consolation, sir, the betting pool is giving your odds as forty to one."

"That's terrible, Corporal."

"But great if you're betting against Sandy, which I am."

"And why, with those odds, would you even think about betting against the Major?"

"Because I'm pretty sure Colonel Darwin never recruited anyone who couldn't shoot straight."

"And how would you know that, Corporal?"

"He was my CO a while back," said Jensen. "He used to like putting us through our paces."

Trip smirked. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

"Don't let me down, Commander. I've got my poker money riding on this."

"I'll do my best, Corporal," said Trip. He took the weapon that was issued to him, a phase rifle of standard MACO issue. Jensen handed him a pair of ear protectors, which he took resignedly. He went over to the firing range where Sandrikov was already waiting and sized up his opponent. Last night, taking this guy down a peg or two had seemed like a good idea. Now, he wasn't so sure. He knew he could shoot straight, but he wasn't sure that he was better than Sandrikov. After all, he wasn't even the best shot on board Enterprise, let alone in Special Projects.

"I was beginning to wonder if you'd decided to stay in bed," said the Russian Major.

"And miss the look on your face when I wipe the floor with your ass? Not a chance."

"You seem very certain of yourself. I congratulate you on your bravado, Commander. I suggest we keep this simple. We set the targets at the maximum distance, maximum difficulty, anything else wouldn't be a real test. Highest score after three target sequences wins. If we draw, the one with the highest individual target sequence score wins."

"Whatever you want, Major. Let's get this over with."

Trip heard the door of the firing range open behind him and he looked over his shoulder to see who had entered. It was, of course, Colonel Andros. He should have known that she wouldn't be able to resist checking out the contest. He turned back in time to see Sandrikov giving Andros the smallest nod in acknowledgement. Trip realised that the contest had become a medieval jousting match, and Andros was the lady who had picked her champion in the shape of Sandrikov. This was all a set up, a carefully calculated plot to humble him and show him who was boss. A set up that he'd walked right into it. Well, almost.

The first target was ready to go. "This is your home turf, Major, after you," said Trip.

"No, Commander, you are the guest so you should go first. I insist." It was said politely but it was anything but polite in its intention. Sandrikov expected that Trip wouldn't know the computer program that the targets were using and this meant he wouldn't have a chance to watch him shoot first.

Trip stepped up to the line and gave a nod to Jensen, who was operating the computer that controlled the targets as they zipped around. The program began, and Trip was pleased to see that it was the same training program that the MACOs had used on Enterprise, as he had thought. Unfortunately he'd been training on the Starfleet program recently, but at least it wasn't a total surprise. His focus narrowed down to the task at hand and he acquitted himself well, missing only a handful of the first targets.

Sandrikov was smirking, however. Trip stood back from the line and gestured for Sandrikov to take his place. The program began once again and Trip was able to watch what he was up against. Sandrikov was good, there was absolutely no doubt in Trip's mind about that. He silently rooted for his opponent to miss. He watched the Major take down almost every single target, only missing the second from last. It was very nearly a perfect score, which meant that Trip was already behind.

Trip took position again, concentration written on his face. This time he did better and got his eye in early. The sequence ended and he had managed to score a perfect one hundred percent. Sandrikov looked less happy this time as they changed places, he obviously hadn't expected Trip to give him much competition. Once again Sandrikov was able to obtain a near perfect score, this time missing one in the central sequence. Trip was still behind however and his last run would need to be perfect to make up for the misses in his first.

Trip stepped up to the line for the final time. His concentration was good, but he couldn't obtain a second perfect score and he missed the very last target drone. That gave him six misses overall to Sandrikov's two. Again the Major was smiling, knowing that all he had to do was repeat his previous performance and he would have the match. There was tense silence through out the firing range as he stepped up and took his firing position. He hit the first targets easily, but in the second wave he missed two and then he shocked the audience by missing a third and fourth in the last batch of targets. One of the missed targets had been a particularly nasty shot that seemed to disappear under the phase rifle beam and reappear an inch to the left. Sandrikov was not at all happy as he removed his ear protectors and looked to Jensen for the score.

"You both missed six targets, sirs," said the Corporal. "But Commander Tucker was the only one to get a perfect score on a sequence, so he takes the match."

The assembled crowd broke into somewhat disjointed clapping. Trip guessed that quite a lot of them had bet against him. He couldn't quite stop the huge grin that broke across his face, but then he didn't really care if he came across as a bad winner. Sandrikov was certainly a bad loser. He gave Trip a dark look, threw his phase rifle to the ground, kicked it into a corner and then strode out of the firing range.

Colonel Andros came over to where Trip was stowing away his weapon, rather more carefully than his opponent. "I think you may have upset Major Sandrikov."

"You think?" Trip grinned, evilly. "If Enterprise's Armoury Officer saw how he treated his weapons then he'd tell him that he deserved to lose."

"You've shown him up, Commander. I'm not sure that was a good move on your part. He could make life very difficult for you here."

"Yeah, well, I'll take my chances."

"You may think that this is some small victory in an ongoing war, Commander, but he lost. You didn't win anything." Andros was telling him that he hadn't gone up in her estimation with this little display. He was still stuck here doing what she wanted. She met his eyes briefly, before turning on her heel and leaving the range.

With the entertainment over, everyone was filing out of the range and off to their duty assignments. Jensen came over to collect the phase rifle that had been so unceremoniously dumped. "That last sequence for Sandrikov was a bit tricky. It almost looked as if the targets changed course in the middle of the program."

"Yeah, it did look that way, didn't it?" Trip's features were carefully schooled into innocence.

"Some people might think that the computer was acting up."

"They might think that," replied Trip, in a nonchalant tone. He checked that everyone had left the range and then took a small box out of his pocket. It looked as if it had once been a standard issue communicator, but it had been rather modified. Trip flicked open the lid with his thumb and pressed a switch. Then he went around the sign-in desk to the computer terminal. A few strokes of the keys had him through the security protocols and into the control program for the target drones. A few more strokes of the keys got rid of the small changes that he had made to the target practise program, that were activated at the right moment by his hastily put together remote control. He'd only needed it for the final sequence as it had turned out.

"Are you sure you want me to see this?" asked Jensen.

"Doesn't matter now," replied Trip. "All I needed was to beat Sandrikov in front of witnesses and make a point. Andros can't push me around like she thought she could."

"When did you find time to set this up?"

"Last night, after the party broke up. I didn't feel much like sleeping and I was damned if Sandrikov was going to win this. I'm not the greatest programmer in the world but I know enough to get by, and target computers aren't exactly warp engine controller software." Trip usually left any really complicated programming to Ensign Lauritsen and T'Pol, they were far better at it than he was and took half the time that he would have done. His programming skills were purely functional and not exactly elegant.

"In other words, you cheated."

"I'd call it improvising." Trip smiled mischievously. "The way I look at it, if he'd been smarter then he would have got here first."

"I'd never call Sandy smart, but a word of warning, Commander, he's a mean bastard when he wants to be. You'd better watch your back." Jensen looked serious and Trip believed his warning.

"Don't worry, Corporal. I can take care of myself." Trip hoped that he wouldn't be made a liar.