DISCLAIMER: If I owned them, I would tell you.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This was going to be part of Chapter 5, but they were too long, so I split them up. I'd say I'm sorry for leaving you in a cliffhanger, but I'm really not…J I'm no techie, so if my Treknology is off in here you'll have to excuse it.

RATED: PG now because of battle and death.

CATEGORY: General

ARCHIVES: Do ask first.

THE SECRET LANGUAGE

CHAPTER SIX

Under normal circumstances, Amber would have taken some pleasure from being in this situation with Trip. He was holding onto her as if his life depended on it, and Amber had always thought she would like it if he did that. But right now, she didn't. All she felt was fear.

Where was John? She tried looking around for him, but Engineering was completely dark. She couldn't even sign to ask what had happened. She couldn't hear anything, either. Stay right where you are. She thought. If you don't move, nothing will hurt you.

A light flicked on. Amber released a breath she hadn't even known she was holding. "Trip?" She signed.

"Here." Trip signed, turning the light to face her.

"What happened?" Amber asked.

"The alien ship must have fired on us again." Trip signed. He quickly looked up, as if listening to something. He nodded and said something Amber couldn't lipread. Then he turned his attention back to her and took her arm. "John's hurt."

Amber felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. Sure, John was a pain in the neck, but she didn't want him to be hurt. Without him, she'd have no way of communicating with the crewmembers that didn't know sign language.

Trip wove their way through the rubble of broken console parts, hanging ducts, and injured crewmen to John. John was lying in a pool of blood on the floor with another crewman kneeling over him. If Amber could have shrieked, she would have. She didn't know exactly what shrieking was, just that it was a sound people-mostly young girls-made when they were scared or startled. Instead of "shrieking", she covered her face with her hands. When she uncovered her face, Trip was kneeling down next to John, saying something to the crewman, and apparently calling for help.

"What happened?" Amber signed. Gosh, that's a good sign to know in Starfleet! She thought. "Trip! What happened?"

"He fell." Trip signed, pointing to John. "When the blast hit us, I saw him fall off the platform." Trip pointed to the platform above main engineering. Amber looked up. It was quite a fall, and John must have hurt himself pretty badly. Shuddering, Amber forced herself to look away from him. "Is he OK?"

"No pulse." Trip signed, shaking his head. "They're bringing him down to Sickbay to see if Dr. Phlox can help him. But, he's lost so much blood…" Trip's signing trailed off and he shook his head. "I don't know if they can revive him."

Amber bit her lip and hugged herself. "I hope he's OK." She signed.

Trip didn't respond verbally, just hesitantly put his arm around her.

"Captain?"

Archer sat up from where he'd been knocked onto the floor. "Did they fire?" He asked.

"Ohhh yes." Mayweather answered. "They targeted our power and weapons systems. We have no weapons, and we couldn't fire them even if we had them."

"Damage reports?" Archer asked, hauling himself to his feet.

"We don't have any power, sir." Mayweather said. "I can give you the damage report for the bridge, if you'd like."

Archer gave that a slight smile. "Thanks, Travis, but I know what happened here." The bridge was a mess. Well, this would keep the maintenance crew busy for a while. "Do we still have communications?" Archer asked.

"Yes sir." Travis responded.

"Good." Archer said. "Archer to Tucker!"

"Tucker here, sir." Came Trip's voice.

"What's happening down there?" Archer asked.

"Lots of damage." Trip said. "John fell off the platform into main engineering. He's hurt bad."

"How's Amber?" Archer asked. "She OK?"

"Physically, yeah." Trip said. "I caught her before she fell too far. She's kind of worried about John, though."

"Understandable." Archer said. "Listen, Trip, I want you and the rest of the Engineering staff to start working on restoring power. Dr. Phlox is gonna have an awful lot of patients on his hands, and without power he can't do much for them."

"Will do." Trip said.

Meanwhile in Sickbay, Dr. Phlox had had hands full with injured. Most of the injuries were fairly minor-a scrape here, a bruise there, a twisted ankle, a banged head. Ensign Scott's interpreter had come in accompanied by Commander Tucker, Ensign Scott, and three other Engineering personnel. According to Commander Tucker, the interpreter had fallen off the platform into main engineering when the ship had been hit. Phlox was trying everything he could, but without power he couldn't do very much besides stop the bleeding.

"Will he be all right, Doctor?" Commander Tucker asked.

"I can't say for sure." Phlox replied. "It all depends on how quickly we can get power back up so I can assess his injuries. And I do believe that getting power back up depends on you." He looked at Commander Tucker and Ensign Scott. Ensign Scott stood behind Commander Tucker, hands covering her mouth.

"Right." Commander Tucker took Ensign Scott's hands away from her mouth gently and signed something to her. She nodded and followed. "Trinneer, Keating, Park, let's go!" Commander Tucker called to the three other Engineering personnel who had come in with him. They followed him out of Sickbay.

"OK, Amber, good." Trip said, even though Amber couldn't hear him. She couldn't have even seen his signing, since her entire upper body was stuffed inside the ship's wall looking for a damaged power conduit.

Amber kicked the wall with one foot, which was the signal for "Take me out, I found something." Trip and the crewman named Trinneer dragged her out. "What did you find?" Trip signed.

Amber motioned into the wall. "The conduit is damaged." She signed. She then went into an intricate explanation of what was wrong; going so fast Trip couldn't understand it.

"Whoa, whoa, Amber, slow down." He signed. "Slower. What happened?"

Amber sighed and began to sign slower. "The conduit is damaged." She repeated. "It needs to be fixed by fusing wires A and B back together, and then connecting wire A-1 with wire F-6. That should restore power to this section of the ship."

"Is sickbay in this section of the ship?" Keating asked.

Trip nodded. "The sooner we get power, the sooner Dr. Phlox can help those people." He motioned to Amber. "Get back in there."

"Must I?" Amber winced.

"If you want John to live." Trip signed. "Just kick the wall if you need anything."

"It's just a small sprain, Ensign, nothing to worry about." Phlox said. "I might recommend that you stay away from high places while the ship is being fired upon from now on."

"I will, Doctor." The ensign said. "Thank you."

"Uh, Doctor?" Phlox turned around to see a frightened-looking young lieutenant standing over Mr. Sinclair's bed.

"Yes, Lieutenant Bakula, what is it?" Phlox said, striding over.

"What's this man supposed to look like?" Lieutenant Bakula asked, pointing at Mr. Sinclair.

"Well, certainly not like this." Phlox said. Mr. Sinclair's skin was an ash gray, and his wound had obviously reopened, since there was large amount of blood on the bed where he lay. "Oh, my." Phlox said when he took Mr. Sinclair's pulse.

"What?" Lieutenant Bakula said.

Phlox looked up. "He's dead."

"All right, Amber!" Trip said as the lights came on.

"Good work, Ensign Scott." Park said, helping Amber out of the wall."

"Dr. Phlox to Commander Tucker." A voice interjected over Trip's communicator.

"Hey, Doctor!" Trip said. "Hey, did we do it or what? We'll leave the lights on for ya!"

"I have unfortunate news." Phlox said.

Trip's smile faded. "What is it?"

"Ensign Scott's interpreter is dead." Phlox said.

Chapter 7 coming soon…