Chapter 3
Trip's head was pounding when he woke up. His stomach had settled a bit, for which he was grateful, but now his head gave him hell. And he was still tired. He would deliver the containers to the Science Department personally and then ask Phlox for a nice little sedative that would knock him out for at least twelve hours.
He scrambled to his feet, crying out when sudden pain radiated through his leg. Right, he had brought back a gash as a personal souvenir. He twisted his leg to get a look at it and grimaced. The tear was more than ten centimeters long and pretty deep. It was already beginning to ooze pus. Another reason to visit Phlox. Using the pilot chair as support he awkwardly stood up, hissing in pain when he put weight on his foot. Maybe he should dress the wound before taking off. But he decided against it. Searching for the med-kit and treating his leg would delay him even more. He checked the time. It was almost twelve hundred hours. Trip frowned. An hour late already, and it would take him another forty minutes to reach the rendezvous point. That would give Jon another reason to reprimand him. Of course, Trip Tucker could even mess up as easy a mission as collecting a few stones. He shivered. Why was it so cold in here? Maybe he should put on his uniform. But he should dress the gash before he did that, and there was no time for it. With a deep sigh he fired up the engines and took off.
Forty minutes later Trip was at a loss. He had checked his sensors twice. He was at the right coordinates. Enterprise should be right here. But she wasn't. He could however detect traces of her warp trail. His blood ran cold. Had Jon left him here in the middle of nowhere? Maybe he wanted to teach him a lesson and would come back in an hour or so. But why?
"Tucker to Enterprise. You forgot someone here. Enterprise, come in." No answer. The channels were open and the frequency was the right one. Trip tried again. "Enterprise, come in."
They had to hear him. Had Jon told Hoshi not to answer his hails? Would she obey such a command? Malcolm would protest, wouldn't he? What about leaving no one behind? Trip started to panic. "Enterprise, do you read? Answer me, Enterprise. Hoshi, come on, you can't do this to me."
Silence. Trip adjusted the frequencies and tried again, but it was of no use. Enterprise had abandoned him. "Lesson learned, Cap'n," Trip muttered as he shut the engines off and let the shuttlepod drift. He wanted to be here when Enterprise came back. He rubbed his temples. What he had been thinking was nonsense. Jon would never leave him behind. It was more plausible that they had got a distress call and decided to help before they picked him up again. He still couldn't fathom why they wouldn't answer his hails, but there had to be a logic explanation. He'd just had to wait. So he closed his eyes and let himself drift off.
"Tucker to Enterprise, please come in." It felt like the thousandth time that he tried to hail the ship, but there was only static. He'd been out here for almost two days and Trip was growing more and more desperate. Had something happened to Enterprise? But what catastrophe could have happened in this god forsaken spot of the universe?
Two days alone in space with every minute passing by at a snail's pace. He had tried to sleep to pass the time, but every time, after a few minutes, nightmares had woken him, one worse than the other. So, he just stared into nothingness and tried to ignore the pain. He didn't know what was the worst, the headache, the cramps in his stomach, or the fierce throbbing in his leg. Trip knew that by now he was running a high fever. He shivered one moment and started sweating the next. He had found the medkit, had cleaned and dressed the wound and given himself a shot against the pain. But it had worn off long ago and there wasn't any more. Every time he stirred, a sharp sting went either through his leg or his head, depending on which part of his body had moved. Since the day before there was also this nasty nausea that threatened to overwhelm him. He tried not to give in to vomiting, because both his head and his empty stomach took great offense to it. He looked up at the airlock. He could spare himself a lot of pain if he climbed up there. He was dead anyway. His comrades had left him. There was no inhabited planet in the vicinity and he couldn't survive long in the shuttlepod. So why not end his misery? The thing was, he just didn't have the strength to get up.
"Can you tell me more about the nebula?" Archer asked T'Pol. He had to admit that he was eager to explore it and the excitement had improved his mood considerably. Maybe he would even talk to Trip that evening, to clear the air.
"Shuttlebay to the Bridge," he heard a young female voice before T'Pol could answer.
"Bridge," Hoshi answered with just a hint of curiosity.
"This is Ensign Frasier, I was ordered to restock the supplies of Shuttlepod One, but …"
"But what, Ensign?" Archer got up.
"Sir," the young woman stammered, "I don't understand, it's not here."
"What do you mean?" Archer frowned. "What is not here?"
"The shuttlepod, Sir. It's gone."
The bridge crew exchanged surprised glances. Even T'Pol raised an eyebrow. "This is illogical, Ensign," she admonished the crew member. "Where else would it be?"
"I don't know, Ma'am, but it's not in the launchbay," Ensign Frasier replied, a small edge to her voice.
"Thank you, Ensign," Archer said, and he cut the connection. "Locate Shuttlepod One," he ordered T'Pol.
She tapped away on her controls and her eyebrows rose even further. "I can't, Captain. The transceiver seems to be offline."
"Why would it be offline?"
"I do not know, Sir."
"When did Commander Tucker report back?" Jon asked Hoshi.
"I didn't even know he was gone." Hoshi checked her logs. "I have no report of a shuttlepod leaving or coming back."
"I had ordered him to collect more samples from that planetoid for the science department, because the ones they got were soiled." Jon looked at T'Pol. "I met Crewman Brown from Science that morning and asked her if they had received more samples, which she confirmed. I assumed Trip was back already."
"Two of the containers were accidentally misplaced when they were delivered," T'Pol informed him. "They found them behind a cupboard and the samples were perfectly fine."
"Are you saying there was no need to send someone back for more?"
"Why didn't you confer with me before you did so?" T'Pol straightened her already straight shoulders.
"What does that mean?" Malcolm asked from his station. "Have we left Trip over there? That can't be."
He was right, it couldn't be. Archer hit his comm panel. "Bridge to Commander Tucker."
His call was met with silence.
"Archer to Engineering."
"Hess here, Sir."
"Can I speak to Commander Tucker?"
The young lieutenant hesitated. "I'm afraid not, Sir."
"Where is he? It's the middle of his shift."
"I don't know, Sir."
"He didn't report for duty today? When have you seen him last?"
"The day before yesterday in the morning, Sir. He had once again worked a double shift and he looked like hell, if you pardon me the expression. I suggested that he ask you for a day off so that he could catch some sleep. I assumed he had done just that, and when he didn't show up this morning I surmised that you had given him another day off. Heaven knows he needs it."
"What do you mean he had worked a double shift – again?"
"For the last two weeks Commander Tucker has worked almost non-stop. I have no idea when the man slept. No matter what time I came to Engineering, Commander Tucker was there. He told me that he had trouble sleeping."
"And you haven't seen or heard from him since then?"
"No, Captain. I guess he's in his quarters, sleeping."
"Thank you, Lieutenant."
Dread began to rise in Jon's stomach. Could it be possible …?
"Locate Commander Tucker," he asked Hoshi.
"Commander Tucker is not on board," Hoshi reported a few moments later with wide eyes.
"Hail Shuttlepod One."
Hoshi nodded, but after a few moments she shook her head. "I can't get through, Sir. Something is blocking our calls."
Jon cursed under his breath. "Turn around, Travis. Back to the planetoid. Full speed."
And the anger was back. What was Trip thinking, switching off the transceiver and not contacting the ship when he was delayed? Now the nebula had to wait, and Jon didn't like that a bit.
