A Familiar Face in an Unfamiliar World
An hour later found Commander Tucker sitting in chair in sickbay, holding his head in his hands as he tried to digest everything that the doctor and the science officer had told him. It was a whale of a tale as far as he was concerned. Then they showed him a mirror. It didn't reflect a gawky twenty-three-year-old with an Academy hair cut and a handsome tan. Instead it showed him a confident looking thirty-something who had been in space for the better part of a year. It wasn't that Trip disliked what he saw. The fellow in the mirror wasn't too shabby looking, even if he was past his prime. He just wasn't what Cadet Tucker had expected to see.
"So this is twelve years in the future, and I'm on board an honest-to-God star ship in deep space?" he asked, rephrasing the question for the fifth time. All things considered Phlox thought he was taking it rather well.
"And you are its chief engineer." added Phlox.
Tucker could not bring himself to repeat that phrase: chief engineer. It sounded too good to be real. It was his life-long dream come true.
"Do you remember Captain Archer?" T'Pol asked him.
They, the doctor and herself, had yet to inform the captain of their ... predicament. Trip just didn't seem ready for another surprise, and she expected Captain Archer to be a bit peeved, to say the least.
"I don't know any Captain ..." he began to say. Then he looked up at her and blinked. "You don't mean Lieutenant, j.g. Jon Archer, do you?" he inquired.
"I believe so."
"Jon made it all the way to captain? If that don't beat all!" laughed Tucker, suddenly seeming more like himself.
"Affirmative. Captain Archer is the commanding officer of the Enterprise. He chose you for this mission." explained T'Pol. Commander Tucker was grinning ear to ear by the time she finished the explanation.
He slapped his knee and asked, "Well, where is he? I want to see Jon. I bet he looks prim as a peacock in that captain's uniform."
Phlox seemed to be debating whether or not to call for the captain, but T'Pol walked calmly to the nearest comm panel, and, after pressing a few buttons, said, "Sickbay to Captain Archer. Please report here at your earliest convenience.
The doctor looked at her rather oddly as she returned to her seat as
though nothing had happened. The science officer rarely did anything spontaneous
and because of that, he did not admonish her for it, despite his own misgivings.
How would Cadet Tucker react to a Jonathan Archer so much older than the
one he remembered? Would he even recognize him?
The captain felt every eye on the bridge on him as he gracefully left his chair and turned the bridge over to Lieutenant Reed at the tactical station. He did not have a good feeling about what was waiting on him down in sickbay. T'Pol's voice had sounded strained, and that was unnerving enough for anyone who had ever known a Vulcan, especially Vulcan as ... Vulcan as Sub-commander T'Pol.
If his science officer were well enough after her procedure to call him down from the bridge, then that could mean only one thing: something had happened to Commander Tucker. Archer shook his head as he waited for the lift doors to open. If it were serious, then Phlox himself would have informed him. Archer was certain of that. But for T'Pol to call him ... it had to be seriously out of the ordinary.
When Jonathan Archer walked into sickbay, the last thing he expected to see was Trip Tucker sitting a chair, speaking rather animatedly with T'Pol and Phlox. Nothing seemed to be wrong. Then Trip glanced over his shoulder at the sound of the door opening and closing. His face was as white as a sheet as he stood up, swaying unsteadily as he looked Captain Archer up and down.
"You've gotten old!" he blurted out, staggering, only to be caught by T'Pol and guided back into his seat.
Archer was too taken aback to answer him with a witty retort. He could only frown and look at the ship's physician uncertainly.
"Commander Tucker has amnesia." said Phlox.
"I thought I told you to stop calling me that."
"Amnesia?" questioned Archer blankly, walking toward his friend. "Trip?" he inquired, trying to get the commander to look him in the eye.
Tucker seemed to relax at the use of his nickname. It made everything seem so much more normal, more real. It connected present context and memory. No matter what else had changed or happened, he was still Trip to Jon Archer, whatever his rank.
"Jon, they tell me that you're a captain and I'm a commander. Is that so?" he asked.
"That's right, Trip." he answered, noticing how Tucker responded favorably to the use of his nickname. "Seniority, you know." he added, cracking a smile.
Trip smiled and shook his head before saying, "I'm guessing it all must be true then. We're on a star ship far from home and I'm the ... chief engineer."
"Of course."
"This is going to take some time to digest, Jon. It seems like I was just finishing my last class on warp field integrity ..."
Captain Archer took a deep breath and looked at Phlox. He could see that the doctor felt uncomfortable under his penetrating gaze. T'Pol was looking at the deck with her hands clasped behind her back, an unusual posture for a Vulcan.
"It will all come back to him, right?" Archer questioned them both, but the Denobulan doctor in particular. "Right?" he asked, raising his voice slightly.
"I don't know, captain. I'm sorry, but I just don't have the answer
to that question." replied Phlox, his shoulders slumping.
The sickbay of the Enterprise was rarely crowded. It was a small ship with a conscientious crew who had yet to encounter anything too terrible. Casualties were usually minimal and physician's work load relatively light. That day, as T'Pol and Archer stood watching him perform many tests on Commander Tucker, sickbay felt very crowded to the doctor, especially as he worked under the probing and watchful eye of his commanding officer and cool stare of the Vulcan science officer.
"Still nothing?" questioned Archer as Phlox looked at another scan and shook his head.
"I am afraid that ... Trip ... should rest before I conduct further tests." said the doctor, wincing at the use of the nickname. Tucker had violently objected to being called commander and chafed even at a respectful 'sir' thrown his way by the cordial, yet formal Denobulan.
"I will escort him to quarters then." volunteered T'Pol. Archer and Phlox looked at her oddly. The request was uncharacteristic of the science officer. Even Trip had a quizzical look on his face. "I am retiring to my own quarters, which are not far from ... his." she explained, refusing to call him Trip because of all the emotion-tinged memories that the sobriquet stirred.
"Very well. I am sure that the captain has still more questions for me to answer. You may escort him." said the doctor.
"Follow me." she said curtly to Tucker, who was leaning on a bio-bed and watching the conversation.
"Gladly." he muttered.
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