TITLE: Hidden Truths - Part Nine
SUMMARY: Trip doesn't cover his tracks particularly well.
DISCLAIMER: See Chapter One or Two
NOTES: Heehee thanks for the reviews again, they are my drug! Here's another chapter, I will post another tonight. Peace out, enjoy :D
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Chapter Nine
HAPPY IN THE MEANTIME
It took a degree of discipline for Trip to keep the triumphant grin from his face while everyone was being checked over once more by Phlox. The others were still upset, this time about the destruction of Regis and it's population. Trip didn't much care though. From what he'd seen the Nistet weren't very nice people at all.
"That should do it. I don't think you have concussion, but you should rest for a few days." Phlox said to Malcolm. He was a lot more chirpy than Trip remembered from the last time. "Captain, are you alright?" He moved on.
"I'm fine." Jon answered.
"Commander?"
"I'm good."
Phlox scanned them anyway, as he did before.
"Hm." Phlox exclaimed. "Mr Tucker you have three broken and two fractured ribs...." He said as he scanned Trip. "but they appear to have already been treated." He finished, apparently amused by the mystery. Trip could have kicked himself for not remembering. With all that had happened he'd forgotten to cover his frequent slips. And they had been a lot more frequent of late. He stayed quiet and let the others come to their own conclusions, but it seemed Jon wasn't going to let it go.
"Already been treated? By who? And how did you get broken ribs?"
"Must have been when the building collapsed and split us up." Trip said, trying as best he could to look as bewildered as the others.
"You don't remember?" Jon asked. It didn't sound like something one would forget.
Trip almost broke into a sweat before he remembered the story he'd spun about the injections and their side-effects. "The injections you gave me and Hoshi seemed to have side-effects. Hoshi was having hallucinations and I was feeling dizzy."
"Why didn't you mention this before?"
"Memory lapse?" Trip ventured carefully.
"I'm sorry Sir," Hoshi started. "I didn't experience symptoms for a couple of hours after the jabs. I guess by the time we got back to the shuttle I'd forgotten." Hoshi apologised but she was still wary of Trip's explanations. When she'd seen him disappear it didn't feel like a hallucination. Were hallucinations supposed to feel that way? She didn't recall him getting hurt either.
Trip tried to evade the situation and made a stab at changing the subject. "Listen, I could really use some rest. Cap'n do you mind if I take a coupla hours off?"
"Sure Trip." Jon returned. Trip could tell that Jon suspected something. He couldn't possibly suspect the truth, but Trip feared that questions would be coming his way later. Hopefully not the right ones.
"I think that's a marvellous suggestion." Phlox declared. "I would strongly recommend you all get some rest."
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Hoshi walked back to her quarters with a face contorted with confusion-lines. Somehow she couldn't manage to shake the strange occurrences of late. And they all had something to do with Trip. Should she tell someone about her doubts? Or was paranoia another side-effect? What would Captain Archer say if she went to him?
Then in a blur of her own thoughts, Hoshi bumped into someone. Malcolm.
"Oh, sorry Lieutenant." She said, flustered.
"It's ok. How are you feeling?" He asked politely.
"Fine. You?" Hoshi inquired, after her eyes drifted to the nasty wound that masked one side of Malcolm's face.
"Fine." He smiled. "I was just about to go to the mess hall. Care to join me?"
Hoshi hadn't really been thinking about it, but her stomach was crying out for food. "Sure." She replied happily, then realised that Reed would be the perfect person to tell what happened.
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"He had his hands in someone's head?"
"I know it sounds completely crazy. But it didn't feel like a hallucination."
"Hallucinations rarely do."
Hoshi had told Malcolm everything. He hadn't looked at her as if she were crazy, so that was something. He did, however, look somewhat amused.
"But why would he tell me to hide in the first place? I mean, what really happened with those Nistet?"
"I don't know. What do you think is going on? I mean, if it wasn't the injections giving you side-effects, what was it?"
"I have no idea. It's just bugging me, I can't figure it out." Hoshi finished. She looked down at her plate and realised she'd eaten a huge amount of food. She let out a sigh. "I think I'll go and see Phlox. Maybe he can tell me it was all my imagination."
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"Ensign Sato. Shouldn't you be resting?" The Denobulan asked cheerfully when Hoshi entered the medical-bay.
"I can't sleep." She returned. True, she hadn't tried yet, but how could she with all the unanswered questions she had rolling around inside her head?
"I'd offer you something to help, but with the substance I gave you earlier I wouldn't want to risk it."
"About that - " Hoshi began. Phlox had started the topic for her. "Did you find anything odd about the injections we all had?"
"How do you mean?"
"I was just wondering about Commander Tucker. He had broken ribs. Do you think this substance could have healed them somehow?"
"I very much doubt it. I gave all of the away team Tetexia, the ingredients of which don't hold very interesting traits."
"Then how would you explain his ribs healing?"
"If didn't know any better, I'd say that I repaired the damage myself. But I think I'd recall something like that." Phlox said. "I'd have no choice but to put it down to medical phenomenon."
"Right." Hoshi said, trying to get her thoughts into some kind of order. "Well, if you find out anything interesting, will you tell me?" She asked.
"There is something else Ensign." Phlox mentioned. Hoshi waited. "I've researching Tetexia and I can't find any medical reason for the symptoms yourself and Commander Tucker claim to have had."
*It was Trip that did all the claiming.*
"Thank-you Doctor." Hoshi turned to leave, but before she did, a call stopped her.
"Would all senior staff report to the bridge." T'Pol's voice came over the com.
"Does no-one take my suggestions to rest seriously?" Phlox said, exasperated, but the room was already empty.
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*What now?* Trip thought to himself as he made his way to the bridge. He just wanted to sleep, and get his life back to normal. (Or as normal as his ever got)
When he arrived on the bridge everyone except the Captain was there. Jon arrived promptly though and everyone waited for T'Pol to tell them why they'd been disturbed.
"What's the matter T'Pol? Phlox thinks we should all be resting." Jon said.
"I thought you should see this." The Vulcan announced, and moved out of the way of the viewscreen.
Trip froze in horror when his eyes met the twinkling stars and darkness of space - because painted upon the scene was a purple rift - and it was more than ten times the size of the one he had opened.
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End of Chapter Nine
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