TITLE: The Omega Training Mission
AUTHOR: Erin Chase
SUMMARY: A short flashback fic involving Trip and Archer on a training mission.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any characters from Enterprise or anything.
NOTES: A little fic on a little snippet of information I heard during Strange New World about Trip and Archer on a training mission.
FEEDBACK: Always a pleasure
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The Omega Training mission. There were seven of them there waiting for the ready signal. Jonathon Archer, their commanding officer, looked them all over. It was a brand new group, bar Trip who had somehow managed to talk Archer in to letting him 'tag along' again.
The briefing had just taken place. Archer knew it off by heart by now. He had lost count of how many recruits he had taken out. The group were to go down to Titan, a planet that had a zero-g atmosphere. The idea was to get a real feel for working with EV packs.
They had been on Titan for around an hour. Apparently something was wrong with the remote door - it wouldn't open. This had delayed the mission somewhat. Everyone was restless, not to mention bored. Trip was fiddling with a radio that had been broken for months.
Finally a voice sounded through the coms. "Okay Alpha team, we've corrected the problem. You have a go."
There was a combined sigh of relief from the whole room. Everyone instantly cheered up. "Alright people, you heard the man, let's go" Archer ordered spiritedly.
"I can't get enough of zero-g." Trip said as he came alongside the captain.
"Try doing this four times a day." Archer retorted.
"Any time" Trip replied.
"Alright team, you have your orders. Get to it." Archer told the others who proceeded to break of into three pairs. Trip couldn't actually take part in the mission seeing as he'd already completed it so he was technically there as a 'supervisor.' At least that what Archer would say to anyone who asked. In reality, there was a spare suit and Trip had an hour to kill.
"Alright, I bet this team screws up."
"Why do you say that?" Archer wondered.
"Everyone screws up." Trip said jokingly. "Except my team of course." He added.
Ten minutes into the mission, something blew up. Trip smiled knowingly while Archer went to check it out.
"Sir I don't know what happened, I fed the pipe into the relay but it rejected it." One of the recruits said.
It was probably a malfunction. The only thing that was supposed to go wrong on the mission was already planned out, and this wasn't it.
"Well make a diagnostic crewman." Archer prompted.
The woman looked at her colleague for help it seemed he had less of a clue than herself.
"I'll give you five minutes to sort out the problem and then I want a report." Archer told them and walked away. It was a pretty decent thing to do.
Trip had gone up onto a ridge to get a good view of the planet. After sorting out the problem and watching the team solve the planned problem, Archer went to join him while the others finished up.
"Trip what are you doing?" "Trip?"
As Archer approached he saw something was horribly wrong. Trip was incredibly pale. He was sweating profusely and his eyes darted about as if it were completely dark. But the worst thing of all - the power indication lights on his EV pack were out. All of them.
"Trip, clam down, you're pack has frozen, you have to get back inside." It was only then that Archer realised his friend was trying to take off his helmet. "Trip, no!"
He broke into what would compensate as a run in this atmosphere and tried to stop Trip, who evidently, was not paying any attention to anything but removing his helmet.
"I'm gonna suffocate!!!" He shouted. By now the others were paying attention. Though most of them weren't sure if it was part of the training.
"Trip you will die if you take off your helmet." Archer said as calmly as he could. He had reached his friend and was trying to look at his EV pack while stopping him from committing suicide.
"Get off! I'm gonna suffocate!" Trip blurted. At his point he fell to the ground taking Archer with him. But this didn't stump the determinism. Nitrogen narcosis will do that to a man.
Luckily, if that was the right term to use, another effect was the inability do simple tasks - like releasing the locking clasps for a helmet.
"Harlin!" Jon yelled to the nearest crewman.(And the only one's name he could recall) "Get the door to the base open NOW!"
Harlin leapt into action, making a break for the door straight away. Meanwhile Trip was getting more and more frantic. Though it most likely wouldn't do any good, Jon tried explaining what was going on to Trip, to try to calm him down.
"Trip, your EV pack froze up and you are suffering from Nitrogen narcosis, you know what that is don't you?" Trip didn't say anything and continued to struggle. "It impedes your rational thought. Think about what you're doing!" He tried. He had managed to pin his arms down. "Harlin is that door open yet?!" He shouted away from Trip.
"It's stuck Sir, it won't open."
"Get it open!" He ordered.
"I'm going to die" Trip breathed and kicked Archer away from him. He screwed up his eyes and snapped his hands to the locking releases on his helmet.
"Trip, do not remove your helmet, that's an order!" Trip froze and opened his eyes. "Trust me."
"Door's open sir!" Harlin called.
About goddamn time. Trip was escorted back to the base swiftly. As soon as the door was safely closed, Archer removed Trip's helmet for him. The return to sanity came about instantly.
"Oh my god" He breathed, remembering vividly that he almost committed suicide.
"Tell me about it." Archer replied, then turned to Harlin. "We really should get someone to fix that damned door."