Enterprise 07
The next morning, Trip walked into the mess hall to find Anne sitting by herself, staring off into space. Every once ine a while, she'd put a forkfull of food in her mouth and chew slowly before swallowing, but mostly just staring off. he grabbed his breakfast and walked over to her table. "Mind if I join you, Lieutenant?" he aske dpolitely. She jerked and looked up at him, blushing. "Ah, sorry. Please, have a seat Commander. I 'pologize for staring off like tha'." "Don't worrya bout it. And please, jsut call me Trip. Almost everyone else does around here." She blinked. "Are ye sure 'bout that'?" she aske dshyly. "Ye don' mind?" "Not at all. We're all alone out here, so we might as well get comfortable wtih our fellow crewmembers. Right?" She paused and nodded. "I s'pose so. Things here are diff'rent than they were on the Genesis." "How so?" "Well, for one thing, I kent everyone there. I don' doubt tha' I'll get to know everyone here soon enough, but 'tis no' the same thing. Some fo them, like Tyler, I'd kent all my life. Others, like Alex and Ensign Ryuuyama for years before we were all posted on the Genesis. Secondly, Ye're no' quite as, well, no' quite asclose as we al were. There's something about doin' things like our last misison tha' pull you t'gether like tha'. The only thing tha' I can think of tha' was tha' close would be like a family. yes, tha's is. It was like bein' surrounded by brothers and sisters." "Enterprise hasn't really had too many crises. Nothing really life threatning. Well, except for that giant sticky web thing that almost killed four of us, including myself and Captain Archer." "Really?" she perked up. "I'd love t' hear more about ye're adventures out here." "Only if I can heaer about yours." He smiled only to be surprisedwhen her face fell. "I'm sorry, Commander. I canna talk about tha'. Starfleet command has classified tha'." she stood, leaving her unfinished breakfast, and left the mess hall. Trip watched her go, puzzled. "Was it something I said?" Malcolm bumped into Anne on her way out of the messhall just in front of the turbolift. "Are you all right?" "'Tis nothing, really." "Then why do you look like you're about to fall apart? Did something happen in the messhall?" "No. I told ye. T'was nothin' t' be concerned about. I just didn't sleep well last night. Tha's all." She shoved past him onto the lift. "See you later, Lieutenant." Malcolm frowned at the closing lift doors. Shrugging, he headed into breakfast.
Over on the Genesis, a sleepy Tyler lurched into the messhall. Alex looked up from her table and gestured for him to join her. Tyler's hair was in dissaray and his uniform was looking like it'd been slept in. "You look like hell, Tyler." Alex observed around a mouthful of fruit. "Thank ye for statin' the obvios, Alex." he growled, and then yawned. "Tha's the same thing tha' my mirror told me this mornin' when I got up." "What'd you do, anyways? Fall asleep in your uniform?" "No' intentionally, no." Alex smirked. "I take it that you didn't sleep well either. Aside from the fact that these uniforms are really not comfortable to sleep in." "I remember." Tyler said, wincing. "At least I had my own bunk to sleep on this time." "Dream at all?" "No." His reply came a little too quickly, indicating that he had dreamed, but didn't want to talk about it. "All right then." Alex swallowed the last of her juice and stood. "Listen, I need to recalibrate the targetting scaners. If you aren't too busy running tests down in engineering, I coudl use your help with it." He nodded. "If I have time. I promised 'o help Crewman Howard with some maintenance on C deck. A power conduit blew this morning an' they haven' gotten around to it yet. Luckily, 'twasn't a vital one, so leaving it until my duty shift wasn't a hardship." "Crewman Howard? Isn't that the one you were complaining about during our last mission?" "Yeah. He seems t' have matured consid'rably since then. Thankfully. I need ev'ry hand I can." Alex sighed and looked Tyler in the eye. "Do yourself a favor and eat something beofre your shift starts. You'll need it." Tyler watched his best friend walk out of the messhall and picked up an uneaten piece of apple from her plate. He munched absentmindedly, looking out at the Enterprise. He shuddered, remembering the dream he'd had last night. His head sunk to the table. It wasn't that the dream was a bad one. He'd wanted to stay in it forever, but knew that what he'd dreamed could never be possible. "True happiness doesna exist anyways." he mumbled into the tabletop and stood up, ignoring the looks he was getting from the crew in the room. He made a token effort to straighten his uniform and ran a hand through his hair on the way to the turbolift. Yawning, he told it to go to engineering. Once there, his engineers greeted him politely, ignoring his disheveled appearance, and returned to their tasks. "Crewman Howard?" Tyler called out. "You still here?" A non-descript brown haired man in his early 20s stood up from behinda console. "Yes sir." "Good. Let's get t' work on tha' conduit. The sooner 'tis done, the better I'll feel." "Sir?" he asked, puzzled. "I jus' need somethin' t' do, tha's all." "Ah. I see sir. Shall we?"
An hour and a half later and a lot of bruises later, the conduit was repaired and the lights in that part of C deck were workign properly again. Tyler wiped some sweat from his forehead and backed out. "There. Tha' should do it." "That didn't take as long as I thought it would." "By yerself, it would have take ye longer, but ye weren'." Tyler managed a smile. "Left to myself, it would have taken me all day. No' for a lack o' skill, jus' for somethin' t' do. Y'ken?" "Aye sir. I understand. It's frustrating to be sitting around after our last mission. " He patted his shoulder sympathetically. "Maybe if you put your head together wtih Commander Tucker over on the Enterprise and find some way to boost engine efficiency?" Tyler's stomach lurched. "Tha'll be all, Crewman. Return to engineering and help Ensign Lockley with the plasma injectors." He looked mildly confused, but obeyed the order nonetheles. Tyler banged his fist into the wall above the conduit. "Why can' people stop doing tha'?" he moaned. "All I want is t' avoid him an' they insit on placin' us t'gether. I can' take much more o' this!" He straightened up. "There has t' be a way t' stop this. I don' want t' feel like this anymore!" The comm beside him beeped. "Bridge to Commander Wolffe." He sighed and pushed the button. "Wolffe here." "We recieved a transmission from Enterprise just a few moments ago. It seems that this system has a previously unknown Minshara class planet."Captain Kyle's voice said. "Captain archer has invited yourself and Lieutenant Remscheid to join them in exploring it." "Ye ken my feelin's Cap'n, so why are ye askin' me?" "Because they have an extensive cave system and lots of hilled areas." she paused. "I kow how much you miss the caves and hills of your home, Tyler. As you didn't get to see any oneither shore leave or our last mission, I figured I should give you this oppertunity. Youy never know when it might happen again. So, what do you say, Wolf? Is it worth putting up with the Enterprise crew for a few days? Anda ren't you always telling me that you're an engineer and not a geologist?" Tyler smiled, remembering her remarks about having to collect samples of rock on htheir last mission. "Curse ye." Tyler snarled good humouredly. "Ye ken me too well. All right, all right. I'll go. When do we leave?" "As Commander Tucker and Ensign Mayweather have a fondness for camping, they're leaving tonight. Somethigna bout making up for a not so good shore leave. Should either you or Alex wish to join them, you're free to. I beleive that Ensign Sato and Anne will be joining them as well as Lieutenant Reed." "Thank ye. I have a few things to do in engineering first though." "Don't rush it. I want you down there tomorrow morning at the latest though." "Aye aye Cap'n."
Trip sat down across from Malcolm in the mess hall a few hours after Captain Archer made the invitation to Genesis. "So? Do you think they'll come?" Malcolm rolled his eyes. "I on't know about Alex, but if I know Irishmen, they love their hills. I also talked to Anne about it after we found the planet. She mentioned that Tyler enjoys being outdoors. Things like camping and hiking are favorite activities of his. She also mentioned a fascination with caves. If we get there early enough, it might be possible to find a suitable one that you can show him." Trip's blue eyes lit up. "All i want is a chance to talk to him, to sort things out." "Do you think he knows?" "I doubt it, but I need to get my head on straight, and to do that, I need to talk to him. Alone preferably." He nodded. "I'll do my best. If I get lost, don't worry. I need to have a similar talk with Alex." Trip smiled. "One night and already you can't live without her." "Don't laugh Commander. After all of the failed relationships I've had, I'd do just about anything to be able to have a stable one." "Do you two even have anything in common?" Anne sat down between them. "Aye, they do. I won' make a list, as t'would take fore're. But ye two are as much a pair as two peas in one pod." she shook her head. "I've only kent ye a few days now, Lieutenant Reed, and i've kent Alex many years longer, but I can tell ye this. Ye'll either kill each other orget laong famously. there is no middle ground." Anne tossed back the last of her mug of cofffee and left the table. "Did that strike you as being just a little odd, Malcolm?" He nodded. "Was she listening to our conversation do you think?" "I hope not. She might warn Alex and Tyler, as she's coming with us on the away mission." "Yet I don't think she's interfeer. She seems the reasonable type. If she looks like she'll interrupt wither of us, we'll explain to her what's going on, but only then." "That sounds reasonable. Lets get our gear together and go pick out a good cave for you."
In the end, it was Travis who picked out the perfect cave. There was a small waterfall at the back of it and it was somehow nice and warm. No wind got into the back of the cave and there was a natural chimney to take out the smoke of a fire if one were to be built inside. Trip made a note of its location before they left the area and headed for the hills where camp would be made up. Hoshi and Anne were there already wtih the tents, most of which were set up. A firepit was set up in the center of the tent circle. there was a space left for Alex and Tyler's tent. Anne would be bunking with Hoshi to get to know her better. Alex and Tyler, as they'd known each other for a fair amount of time had no problem wtih sharing a tent, a fact that Trip and Mlcolm both hoped to remedy by the end of their mission. They were sharing a tent. They knew it was somehow wronmg to mix work with personal matters, but with the other two on another ship and every excuse in the worlod to stay there, this would likely be the only chance they'd get to get them alone in a situation they couldn't run away from. Travis shared one with the spare supplies to keep them dry. They had a good fire going and a meal cooking over it by the time a shuttlepod was spotted coming down nearby. The markings on it indicated that it was from the Genesis. "Let the fun begin." Trip said to Malcolm as the girls went to go greet them.
The next morning, Trip walked into the mess hall to find Anne sitting by herself, staring off into space. Every once ine a while, she'd put a forkfull of food in her mouth and chew slowly before swallowing, but mostly just staring off. he grabbed his breakfast and walked over to her table. "Mind if I join you, Lieutenant?" he aske dpolitely. She jerked and looked up at him, blushing. "Ah, sorry. Please, have a seat Commander. I 'pologize for staring off like tha'." "Don't worrya bout it. And please, jsut call me Trip. Almost everyone else does around here." She blinked. "Are ye sure 'bout that'?" she aske dshyly. "Ye don' mind?" "Not at all. We're all alone out here, so we might as well get comfortable wtih our fellow crewmembers. Right?" She paused and nodded. "I s'pose so. Things here are diff'rent than they were on the Genesis." "How so?" "Well, for one thing, I kent everyone there. I don' doubt tha' I'll get to know everyone here soon enough, but 'tis no' the same thing. Some fo them, like Tyler, I'd kent all my life. Others, like Alex and Ensign Ryuuyama for years before we were all posted on the Genesis. Secondly, Ye're no' quite as, well, no' quite asclose as we al were. There's something about doin' things like our last misison tha' pull you t'gether like tha'. The only thing tha' I can think of tha' was tha' close would be like a family. yes, tha's is. It was like bein' surrounded by brothers and sisters." "Enterprise hasn't really had too many crises. Nothing really life threatning. Well, except for that giant sticky web thing that almost killed four of us, including myself and Captain Archer." "Really?" she perked up. "I'd love t' hear more about ye're adventures out here." "Only if I can heaer about yours." He smiled only to be surprisedwhen her face fell. "I'm sorry, Commander. I canna talk about tha'. Starfleet command has classified tha'." she stood, leaving her unfinished breakfast, and left the mess hall. Trip watched her go, puzzled. "Was it something I said?" Malcolm bumped into Anne on her way out of the messhall just in front of the turbolift. "Are you all right?" "'Tis nothing, really." "Then why do you look like you're about to fall apart? Did something happen in the messhall?" "No. I told ye. T'was nothin' t' be concerned about. I just didn't sleep well last night. Tha's all." She shoved past him onto the lift. "See you later, Lieutenant." Malcolm frowned at the closing lift doors. Shrugging, he headed into breakfast.
Over on the Genesis, a sleepy Tyler lurched into the messhall. Alex looked up from her table and gestured for him to join her. Tyler's hair was in dissaray and his uniform was looking like it'd been slept in. "You look like hell, Tyler." Alex observed around a mouthful of fruit. "Thank ye for statin' the obvios, Alex." he growled, and then yawned. "Tha's the same thing tha' my mirror told me this mornin' when I got up." "What'd you do, anyways? Fall asleep in your uniform?" "No' intentionally, no." Alex smirked. "I take it that you didn't sleep well either. Aside from the fact that these uniforms are really not comfortable to sleep in." "I remember." Tyler said, wincing. "At least I had my own bunk to sleep on this time." "Dream at all?" "No." His reply came a little too quickly, indicating that he had dreamed, but didn't want to talk about it. "All right then." Alex swallowed the last of her juice and stood. "Listen, I need to recalibrate the targetting scaners. If you aren't too busy running tests down in engineering, I coudl use your help with it." He nodded. "If I have time. I promised 'o help Crewman Howard with some maintenance on C deck. A power conduit blew this morning an' they haven' gotten around to it yet. Luckily, 'twasn't a vital one, so leaving it until my duty shift wasn't a hardship." "Crewman Howard? Isn't that the one you were complaining about during our last mission?" "Yeah. He seems t' have matured consid'rably since then. Thankfully. I need ev'ry hand I can." Alex sighed and looked Tyler in the eye. "Do yourself a favor and eat something beofre your shift starts. You'll need it." Tyler watched his best friend walk out of the messhall and picked up an uneaten piece of apple from her plate. He munched absentmindedly, looking out at the Enterprise. He shuddered, remembering the dream he'd had last night. His head sunk to the table. It wasn't that the dream was a bad one. He'd wanted to stay in it forever, but knew that what he'd dreamed could never be possible. "True happiness doesna exist anyways." he mumbled into the tabletop and stood up, ignoring the looks he was getting from the crew in the room. He made a token effort to straighten his uniform and ran a hand through his hair on the way to the turbolift. Yawning, he told it to go to engineering. Once there, his engineers greeted him politely, ignoring his disheveled appearance, and returned to their tasks. "Crewman Howard?" Tyler called out. "You still here?" A non-descript brown haired man in his early 20s stood up from behinda console. "Yes sir." "Good. Let's get t' work on tha' conduit. The sooner 'tis done, the better I'll feel." "Sir?" he asked, puzzled. "I jus' need somethin' t' do, tha's all." "Ah. I see sir. Shall we?"
An hour and a half later and a lot of bruises later, the conduit was repaired and the lights in that part of C deck were workign properly again. Tyler wiped some sweat from his forehead and backed out. "There. Tha' should do it." "That didn't take as long as I thought it would." "By yerself, it would have take ye longer, but ye weren'." Tyler managed a smile. "Left to myself, it would have taken me all day. No' for a lack o' skill, jus' for somethin' t' do. Y'ken?" "Aye sir. I understand. It's frustrating to be sitting around after our last mission. " He patted his shoulder sympathetically. "Maybe if you put your head together wtih Commander Tucker over on the Enterprise and find some way to boost engine efficiency?" Tyler's stomach lurched. "Tha'll be all, Crewman. Return to engineering and help Ensign Lockley with the plasma injectors." He looked mildly confused, but obeyed the order nonetheles. Tyler banged his fist into the wall above the conduit. "Why can' people stop doing tha'?" he moaned. "All I want is t' avoid him an' they insit on placin' us t'gether. I can' take much more o' this!" He straightened up. "There has t' be a way t' stop this. I don' want t' feel like this anymore!" The comm beside him beeped. "Bridge to Commander Wolffe." He sighed and pushed the button. "Wolffe here." "We recieved a transmission from Enterprise just a few moments ago. It seems that this system has a previously unknown Minshara class planet."Captain Kyle's voice said. "Captain archer has invited yourself and Lieutenant Remscheid to join them in exploring it." "Ye ken my feelin's Cap'n, so why are ye askin' me?" "Because they have an extensive cave system and lots of hilled areas." she paused. "I kow how much you miss the caves and hills of your home, Tyler. As you didn't get to see any oneither shore leave or our last mission, I figured I should give you this oppertunity. Youy never know when it might happen again. So, what do you say, Wolf? Is it worth putting up with the Enterprise crew for a few days? Anda ren't you always telling me that you're an engineer and not a geologist?" Tyler smiled, remembering her remarks about having to collect samples of rock on htheir last mission. "Curse ye." Tyler snarled good humouredly. "Ye ken me too well. All right, all right. I'll go. When do we leave?" "As Commander Tucker and Ensign Mayweather have a fondness for camping, they're leaving tonight. Somethigna bout making up for a not so good shore leave. Should either you or Alex wish to join them, you're free to. I beleive that Ensign Sato and Anne will be joining them as well as Lieutenant Reed." "Thank ye. I have a few things to do in engineering first though." "Don't rush it. I want you down there tomorrow morning at the latest though." "Aye aye Cap'n."
Trip sat down across from Malcolm in the mess hall a few hours after Captain Archer made the invitation to Genesis. "So? Do you think they'll come?" Malcolm rolled his eyes. "I on't know about Alex, but if I know Irishmen, they love their hills. I also talked to Anne about it after we found the planet. She mentioned that Tyler enjoys being outdoors. Things like camping and hiking are favorite activities of his. She also mentioned a fascination with caves. If we get there early enough, it might be possible to find a suitable one that you can show him." Trip's blue eyes lit up. "All i want is a chance to talk to him, to sort things out." "Do you think he knows?" "I doubt it, but I need to get my head on straight, and to do that, I need to talk to him. Alone preferably." He nodded. "I'll do my best. If I get lost, don't worry. I need to have a similar talk with Alex." Trip smiled. "One night and already you can't live without her." "Don't laugh Commander. After all of the failed relationships I've had, I'd do just about anything to be able to have a stable one." "Do you two even have anything in common?" Anne sat down between them. "Aye, they do. I won' make a list, as t'would take fore're. But ye two are as much a pair as two peas in one pod." she shook her head. "I've only kent ye a few days now, Lieutenant Reed, and i've kent Alex many years longer, but I can tell ye this. Ye'll either kill each other orget laong famously. there is no middle ground." Anne tossed back the last of her mug of cofffee and left the table. "Did that strike you as being just a little odd, Malcolm?" He nodded. "Was she listening to our conversation do you think?" "I hope not. She might warn Alex and Tyler, as she's coming with us on the away mission." "Yet I don't think she's interfeer. She seems the reasonable type. If she looks like she'll interrupt wither of us, we'll explain to her what's going on, but only then." "That sounds reasonable. Lets get our gear together and go pick out a good cave for you."
In the end, it was Travis who picked out the perfect cave. There was a small waterfall at the back of it and it was somehow nice and warm. No wind got into the back of the cave and there was a natural chimney to take out the smoke of a fire if one were to be built inside. Trip made a note of its location before they left the area and headed for the hills where camp would be made up. Hoshi and Anne were there already wtih the tents, most of which were set up. A firepit was set up in the center of the tent circle. there was a space left for Alex and Tyler's tent. Anne would be bunking with Hoshi to get to know her better. Alex and Tyler, as they'd known each other for a fair amount of time had no problem wtih sharing a tent, a fact that Trip and Mlcolm both hoped to remedy by the end of their mission. They were sharing a tent. They knew it was somehow wronmg to mix work with personal matters, but with the other two on another ship and every excuse in the worlod to stay there, this would likely be the only chance they'd get to get them alone in a situation they couldn't run away from. Travis shared one with the spare supplies to keep them dry. They had a good fire going and a meal cooking over it by the time a shuttlepod was spotted coming down nearby. The markings on it indicated that it was from the Genesis. "Let the fun begin." Trip said to Malcolm as the girls went to go greet them.