xxx
Enterprise
"Welcome aboard, Captain Morrissot," Trip saluted the captain of the Transport Vernes as soon as the airlock opened.
"Glad to see you Captain Tucker!" she replied eagerly.
Captain Morrissot had the diminutive stature of a sprite, making Trip feel like a giant among men. He fell in step next to her as they proceeded to the Enterprise private dining room, followed by Lieutenant Reed, Ensign Sato, and Captain's Morrissot's Fist Officer, Lieutenant Nagez. The muscle in Trip's jaw was clenching and unclenching rhythmically as they made their way down the corridor. It would have been unseemly to point out that the Vernes was two days late, so he didn't. Another two days, and whatever Phlox said, that was two days on top of three days, on top of two days to come... days would turn into weeks and weeks into months if he wasn't careful, and he was already dancing on the thin edge of a knife.
Other than her size, Captain Morrisot was no different in person than on the screen. Trip realized the camera on the Vernes was set up to erase any the difference. It made sense, given the many more or less savory characters a transport might encounter. Dinner had been eaten and they were now talking shop, and what had brought the Vernes here and Enterprise along with it.
"I apologize for the delay," Morrissot said. "We ran into gravitational flux along the edge of the Laplace Nebula. Something to do with the rotation of the main planet, my science officer could tell you if I had one," she added with a smile.
The reference to the science officer was cutting a little close to the mark. Trip forced a smile, "Nothing to it, we all know how space can be." He lied convincingly. That earned him a pointed stare from Reed.
Hoshi kicked Malcolm under the table. Now was not the time to mention the strange behavior of the Captain, how he'd been like a caged bear for the past two days, impatient with everyone, keeping an eye fixated on the chrono as if he could force the Vernes to appear by sheer force of will.
Trip looked down at his knife. He was well aware he'd been somewhat of a tyrant lately. But they should have been at Siva-Llebpmac days ago already. That took precedence over everything.
Morrisot was going on, "Captain Archer's reputation is well established. That's why we requested Enterprise provide cover."
Trip turned to her, "Our own Science Officer is not aboard, we're picking her and Captain Archer up as soon as we see you safely through the Straits." He flashed his most ingratiating smile, "We could pick them up first, if you want." In the shocked silence that ensued he quickly went on, "But Enterprise is ready to ensure your safety, and we will!"
Malcolm exchanged a look with Hoshi. He wasn't sure Trip had been joking when he offered to pick up their missing officers. Ever since they left, he'd been behaving as if it was tearing him up inside not to go to Siva.
xxx
Archimedes
They had trudged through flatlands with tall grasses and spare patches of trees, before the patches of trees grew more numerous and denser. Soon after they'd encountered the first hillocks, small elevations that they negotiated slowly, weighed down by the packs on their backs, unable to turn around or do much other than put one foot ahead of the other and start again. Now they were in a semi-mountainous terrain, at much higher elevation than they'd started from. The going was even slower, more treacherous, the trail a thin ribbon of grass and dirt between the trees and the abyss. A fall off the edge would have meant certain death. At least Snagtooth and Eyebrows didn't insist on any kind of pace, happy to walk leisurely in front and in back, their slim rucksacks not looking like much of a hinderance at all. The other men with them, they were all men, seemed also content with the relaxed pace.
Archer rolled his shoulders, trying to switch the contact point of the pack's bindings. They had been biting into the soft flesh of his shoulders since day one and said shoulders were now a painful mass of bruises and cuts. There was no position that was less painful but he tried anyway. His entire body hurt, every muscle stiffened by strain and overuse. Their days had become a repetitive hell of being tied to a tree, being released to pick up the packs, walking until fatigue felled them, and then being tied up again. At least the rebels fed them plentiful amounts, not enough given the work they had to do, but well enough.
He looked ahead at the winding path disappearing into the woods, measuring how far they had come, how much farther they still had to go. He had no idea where the North camp was but it made sense it would be in the mountains. The suns were dipping into the second half of the sky, they would be pitching camp soon. He'd help along by falling into a heap as soon as he spotted a good enough space, large enough that everyone had a place to stretch. T'Pol was right ahead of him. He had taken to walking behind her, where he could better keep an eye out for her.
It all happened in a heartbeat. He saw her take a step slightly to the right of the trodden path, saw her ankle shift over a tuft of grass. She had to take another step further to the right, the weight of the pack pulling her even farther right, where the mountain ended in a sheer cliff. Given a normal pack, all she'd have to do was pull faster forward and she'd be back on track. But her tethered hands kept her from re-centering the monstrous pack and its weight kept pulling her towards the abyss.
Before Archer had even time to think, he lunged forward and grabbed her by the waist, dragging her back towards the forest side, body-slamming her against a tree. It knocked the break off both of them. The impact had thrown him against her and he stood there catching his breath.
And then the world shifted. All he wanted to do was press his lips on hers, grind his hips all the way to the center of her being, intoxicate himself with her scent. He had a vivid vision of himself doing just that, he could almost feel the pressure of her lips as if it was real, the heat of her hands against his back, the feeling of her nails lightly scratching him as she was overcome by passion. One swift move and he would be entering her.
"Captain?"
The vision evaporated in a flash and Archer found himself pressed hard against her. He jerked back as if bitten by a snake, hoping she hadn't felt his erection. He was unsure what had come over him. He wiped his forehead and face with trembling hands, blinking, trying to come to terms with the incredibly vivid vision and the effects it was still having on his anatomy. "It's nothing," he heard himself say as if from a great distance. "It's nothing," he repeated. But his brain was screeching it was not nothing.
T'Pol's face was flushed green, a thin edge of sweat under her hair. But then she'd been looking like that a lot lately. She didn't reply, and somehow that helped ground him. It didn't mean anything.
Snagtooth's arrival lowered the tension.
"We're stopping here!" He announced loudly. "Get the packs off them!" he directed the closest men.
Eyebrows was his way to them from the head of the line. "Why are we stopping?" he asked.
"You didn't see it," Snagtooth replied, "Almost lost that one over the edge." He threw a thumb back towards T'Pol, who was still braced against the tree. Then seeing that Eyebrows was missing the import, he added in a hushed whisper, "She's got the weapons pack."
At least that what Archer thought he'd said. He shot a glance at T'Pol, she'd definitely heard every word.
She just looked back at him impassively. Darn Vulcans.
xxx
Enterprise
Morrissot and Nagez were on the near side of the command center table, Trip, Travis, Sato, Reed and Jean Lessett were grouped on the other side. Trip had left Riekke in charge, what better training than manning a ship idling in space.
They were all looking at a projection of the Hydra and Zepahlis systems, with the Straits showing as an inch-long dark line between masses of densely packed and highly unstable stars. Lessett leaned over and used her fingers to zoom in on the Straits, blowing them up until they occupied the entire screen, revealing their irregular contours and shape. They looked like a dog leg, a large funnel-like passage, the Upper Straits, leading to a sharp elbow into a narrow spindly strait, the Lower Straits. The Straits were renowned for being difficult and treacherous. Only the most seasoned pilots could even pretend to navigate them safely and yet a constant flow of ships went through. A ship using the Straits could go from the Hydra Nebula to the Zepahlis Sector in a few days. Otherwise, the route around the unstable patch of space would take several months.
"Here," Jean traced the Upper Straits with her finger, the clearance is about two miles." She looked pointedly at Travis. "I'm told that for a pilot that's like hitting the broad side of a barn." Travis nodded his agreement.
Nagez leaned over, cutting Lessett off. Trip made a mental note of the man's behavior. Nagez was speaking as if he had the weight of experience. Perhaps he did. Trip thought he'd cut him some slack. "In the Upper Straits," Nagez was saying, "the black holes and forming novas on each side -"
"We call them astronomical events," Lessett corrected.
"Fine. The astronomical events then, are far enough away that the ships hardly feel the pull. But then the Straits bend because of that forming star here," he pointed it out, "and that's when the ships get pushed and pulled in all directions. It's a rocky ride."
Lessett spoke in turn, pointing with her finger "At this junction here, we have several astronomical events, all square to each other. The strain on the ships reaches a maximum just as the channel for a safe passage narrows considerably. We'll have five hundred yards clearance on each side, give or take a few."
Travis was examining the chart closely. Nagez nodded, "Five hundred yards is tight for a ship like Enterprise, but that's still more than you get in space dock." Everyone chuckled.
Lessett went on, "The ships will have to maintain a minimum speed of subspace point three through the Lower Straits. Because of the pull, we'll need an engine speed of point 35 to get to an effective speed of point 3. Anything below and we could be sucked off course during a flare-up." She paused. "There are numerous flare-ups," she added, almost as an afterthought.
There was a silence as everyone considered what would happen if the ship was pulled off course. It happened at times that a ship would stray a few yards in the Lower Straits, never to be seen again.
"No worry about the speed," Trip finally said in the silence.
Morrissot turned to him, "You'll be following us?"
"We'll be right behind you," Trip answered. "We're going to keep a distance of seventy miles between us at all times. At least Travis will," he added with a smile at the pilot.
"But when we come out of the channel..." Morrissot's voice trailed off. The whole point of having Enterprise escort the Vernes was to fend off the pirates that operated right at the exit of the Straits. Seventy miles gave them plenty of time to plunder the cargo. The very precious top-sensitive major-Starfleet-investment cargo.
"When you exit the Straits, the pull from the various astronomical events disappear. Your speed will be shoot to subspace point 35." Lessett explained.
"At that point you cut down to subspace 3, so as not to hit anything," Trip picked up.
"And the pirates jump you," Reed added.
"That's right," Trip nodded, "That's what happens with everyone. But Enterprise won't cut back. So we'll basically come out on top of you."
"And the pirates," Reed added again.
"They won't be expecting us," Trip ended. He looked around at the room, "I want everyone on my team to have these charts tattooed on the inside of their eyelids. We need to navigate this like we've been there a hundred times before. Travis, run all the simulations you want, get anyone you need to help you prepare."
"Aye, sir!" the helmsman confidently replied.
Trip turned to Malcolm, "Lieutenant Reed, we'll be on battle stations from the moment we enter the Straits. I want everyone on alert. Ensign Sato, you'll need to spend the entire time glued to the communications station. I want to intercept any pirates' conversation before they even have it."
"Aye, sir!" "Yes, Captain."
Trip turned to Lessett, "How long will it take to go through?"
"Based on an effective speed of warp three, we should be through the Upper Straits in a day, another day for the Lower Straits. Two days, perhaps three."
Trip nodded. He turned to the group, "You have your orders."
xxx
