"Malcolm."
"Sir."
"Having any luck with those targeting scanners?"
"Well I can say it's not the particle convertor. Honestly, I'm fast running out of ideas."
"Maybe you should get Trip to take a look at it. Now that your back on speaking terms."
Malcolm seemed surprised by Archer's last statement.
"How do you know that?"
"Trip told me. Last Night. He's right isn't he?" Archer questioned. From the look on Malcolm's face he wasn't so sure. But why would Trip lie?
"Yes, he's right. He didn't tell me he'd talked to you that's all."
"Well it wasn't much of a conversation." Truthfully Archer wondered if it could be called a conversation at all. Trip had cut off the conversation pretty quickly, before Archer could even question what all the fuss had been about.
"Mmm," Malcolm nodded, seemingly lost in thought. This just intensified Archer's curiosity. Clearly something was going on between the two. He was just about to pursue the topic further when Hoshi Sato came around the corner.
"Captain. Lieutenant."
"Hoshi."
"Ensign."
"Lieutenant, I'm glad I found you. I was in Sickbay talking to Dr Phlox and he asked me to give you this. He says you left it when you came in earlier." Hoshi produced a padd and handed it to Malcolm.
"Thank you."
"Your welcome. Well I'd better be off. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," both men replied. Archer studied Malcolm who was still watching Hoshi walking away. He didn't appear to be sick, but he didn't think Malcolm was in the habit of going to Sickbay without a reason. Perhaps that's why Malcolm was here in the first place, to tell him he was unfit for duty tomorrow.
"Should I be worried my armoury officer's not going to be fit for his duty shift tomorrow."
"No Sir."
"So why were you in Sickbay?"
"Oh. I was just escorting someone there."
"As I recall, you worked your shift in Waste Extraction today?"
"Yes."
"So the only person you should have seen would be Trip." At Malcolm's way too innocent to be believable expression, Archer could only add, "I don't suppose you'd tell me if I asked why Trip needed to go to Sickbay?"
"I think that's something you should discuss with him yourself Sir."
"Maybe I will," Archer conceded.
"I think that would be best. Well, I'd better be off myself. Need to get some sleep in before my shift tomorrow. Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
Archer watched Malcolm walk away in much the same way the armoury officer had watched Hoshi depart. He'd left awfully fast, and it was unusual for Malcolm to start an off-duty conversation with him in the first place, which was obviously the intent. Something didn't seem right with the whole meeting, and it all seemed to point out that there was a problem with Trip. Looking down at Porthos, he asked,
"I don't suppose it would be practical to wake Trip up now, especially since he's been in Sickbay all day."
Porthos just barked and wagged his tail in response. Archer bent down to pat his beagle and then continued on his walk.
********************
Malcolm Reed breathed a sigh of relief as he rounded the corner and moved out of sight of Captain Archer. It wasn't the most brilliant plan he'd ever devised, but it seemed to have gotten the job done. Assuming the Captain followed up on his plan to talk to Trip. Well you've done all you can, Malcolm, he told himself, its up to the two of them now. Ensign Hoshi Sato was standing at the end of the corridor waiting for him. As he approached he handed back the padd she'd given him.
"Thanks for that."
"No problem. I wish I knew what it was about though." She gave him her best puppy dog expression.
"Nice try, but I already told you it's private."
"I don't see why you couldn't just tell the Captain you'd been to Sickbay. It can't be that big of a problem. Your still standing up."
"Ha .Ha." Malcolm replied dryly.
"Fine don't tell me then. It'll probably be round the ship by breakfast anyway." Hoshi shot off as she brushed past him, heading for the turbo lift.
Malcolm heaved another sigh. She was probably right and no doubt she'd be adding her own part to the mix. Still, as long as Captain Archer talked to Trip it didn't matter. Hopefully the Captain was pondering what he heard tonight enough to give him the push needed to start the talking.
**************************
Jonathon Archer was indeed pondering the situation. In fact, he was still pondering the situation the next morning during his briefing with T'Pol. They were travelling through a region seemingly devoid of anything interesting, so Archer had decided the general morning meetings in the situation room could be replaced by a one-on-one meeting so as not to disrupt anyone's duties, until further notice. He needed to talk to Trip, but when was the best time. Interrupting Trip during his shift in Engineering to have a heart-to-heart chat wouldn't work. In fact being dragged away from his engines would likely only make the engineer even more stubborn and unwilling to talk.
"Captain." T'Pol's call pulled Archer out of his contemplation.
"Sorry. I guess I tuned out there for a minute. What were you saying."
To most observers, T'Pol's expression would have seemed to remain unchanged, but Archer thought he was becoming more adept at reading subtle changes in his Science Officers facial features which suggested a change in her...well, feelings is probably too strong a word...mood. Her expression at the moment however seemed to belie slight irritation, but her voice carried no hint of it as she repeated her previous statements. He presumed this growing affinity to her moods was due to their growing friendship. He smiled to himself at that. Friends with a Vulcan, who would have thought, but he liked to think it was true. Despite the fact that at times she could still irritate him beyond belief with her Vulcan Logic, at other times he wondered how he would have been able to run the ship without her. He shook his head at his own thoughts, he was starting to drift out again. Putting up a hand to stop T'Pol, he reiterated what he thought was her general point,
"Basically, what you're saying is that there's still nothing on the long-range scans that looks interesting."
"Yes."
"Fine. Anything else need discussing?"
"I believe that's all."
"All right then. Dismissed."
T'Pol turned to go, but just as she reached the doorway, Archer called out to her. She twisted her body around to look back at him, one eyebrow raised in question.
"Would you mind eating in the Mess hall with the crew tonight? There's some things I need to talk to Commander Tucker about. In Private."
"Of course. Is that all?"
Archer nodded and T'Pol turned back towards the door and exited onto the bridge. Now all Archer had to do was get Trip to the dinner table. They hadn't had a meal together since being released from Sickbay after their near assimilation by an alien life form, dragged away from it's home and finding itself aboard Enterprise.
"Well, that's going to change," he stated firmly to the empty room. It was time for a visit to Engineering.
***************************
Engineering was its usual bustling environment but Commander Charles Tucker III wasn't at his usual post in front of the Warp core. Archer ended up having to ask a passing crewman where to find the Chief Engineer. Trip was at the back of the room, his upper body seemingly swallowed up by a console. Archer waited patiently for Trip to emerge. Startling somebody under a panel only led to concussion in Archer's experience. It was only a few minutes before Trip finally came out from under the console. If he was surprised by Archer being there he didn't seem to show it. Probably saw my feet as he was sliding out.
"Capt'n."
"Commander." Archer nodded towards the console. "Nothing too serious I hope."
"Nah. Just replacing a power relay. What brings you down here?"
Archer figured one little white lie wouldn't hurt in this situation,
"Just taking the tour. It's more interesting than looking at nothing on the view screen."
Trip smiled at the joke.
"Still nothing on the scans?"
"Apparently not. Truthfully, I'm amazed T'Pol finds enough things to fill up her reports, but she manages."
"Don't worry, somethin' will turn up, then you can go back to wishing nothin' was happenin'."
"True enough."
"Well, this place is running fine. I was about to go to the armoury and take a look at the targeting scanners, so if there's anything you need..."
"No. Like I said, just having a look. I think I'll visit Sickbay next, maybe the Doctor will let me play with his bat for a while." Archer made the statement in a joking manner, but tried to pay attention to Trip's reaction to hearing about Sickbay. Malcolm had said Trip was there yesterday. He didn't seem to react at all, however. Not even to laugh at the joke. That confirmed it in Archer's mind, something was definitely wrong with his best friend.
"Well in that case I better be going. Malcolm's probably tearing his hair out by now." Trip started heading out towards the centre of Engineering.
"Oh one more thing before you go." Trip turned to look back at Archer. "I was wondering if you were planning on attending dinner tonight?"
"Tonight?"
"Yeah. You've been missing from the last few. I was starting to think you didn't want to know me anymore."
"No. I've just been busy."
"Well, try to be unbusy tonight. Without you around Dinner has been real short on conversation lately." Archer decided to conveniently leave out the fact that T'Pol wouldn't be at this evening's dinner.
"Yeah, I guess it wouldn't be. We should try and get her to tell us a story some time."
"If you can think of a way, I'm all ears." They both smiled at the thought of T'Pol reciting a story. "So what do you say?"
Trip slowly nodded his head,
"I'll be there."
"Glad to hear it."
**************************
At dinner that evening, Archer was beginning to wonder if he had heard it. Trip was half an hour late. He dismissed paging Trip because if his Chief Engineer was avoiding him, he could always lie about an emergency, something that would be a lot harder to do while staring him in the eye. He was going to have to go looking for Trip himself.
First stop was Trip's quarters. He didn't really expect Trip to be there but it was a place to start. After pressing the door chime five times, he punched in his override code and entered to make sure. No sign of Trip, or even any sign that he'd been in the room recently.
Next he checked Engineering. Archer spotted Lieutenant Hess and beckoned her to come over.
"Can I help you Sir?" She asked.
"I was wondering if you knew where I could find Commander Tucker?"
Hess thought for a few minutes before replying,
"He should be off shift now, but perhaps he got delayed in the Armoury, he was heading there about 15 minutes before his shift ended."
"The Armoury? I thought he went there this morning."
"He did, but he couldn't find what the problem was. I guess something came to him this afternoon, because he just dropped everything here and made a beeline for the armoury."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes Sir. I was just coming on shift at the time and he handed over the reins early."
"Thank you Lieutenant."
"No problem Sir. I hope you find him."
"So do I. So do I." Archer muttered as he left Engineering and headed to the Armoury. Entering the Armoury he found Lieutenant Reed still at work.
"Shouldn't you be off duty?" Archer asked looking around for signs of his wayward Engineer.
"Yes, but since Commander Tucker managed to fix the problem with the targeting scanners I thought I'd do a little catch-up work." Malcolm replied. Curiosity overcame Archer for just a brief second,
"What was wrong with the scanners?" The problem had been bugging his Armoury officer for days and in truth, Archer felt much better knowing they were fixed himself.
"Nothing."
That wasn't the answer Archer was expecting.
"Nothing?"
"Apparently it was the console that was malfunctioning. It kept giving off false readings that the scanners were off line when in fact they were perfectly calibrated the whole time." Malcolm sounded particularly annoyed by that fact, and Archer could understand completely.
"Didn't you run a diagnostic on the console at the beginning?"
"Of course, but Trip said the malfunction was in a different part of the system and that it was shunting off excess power generated from the fault through the scanner console. When the scanner console couldn't handle it, it gave off the false readings. Since the console itself wasn't the origin of the problem however it didn't show up on the diagnostics. You'd have to ask him if you want a better explanation than that. How on earth he figured it out is beyond me."
Archer had seen Trip solve quite a few seemingly unsolvable problems over the years. He'd still never figured out how his friend made the leaps of logic he did sometimes. Thinking of Trip reminded Archer why he was here in the first place.
"You don't happen to know where Trip's gone do you?"
"No. He didn't say. I assumed back to Engineering."
"How long ago did he leave here?"
"About an hour ago." Malcolm picked up on the urgent tone Archer was putting into his voice. "He's not in Engineering is he?"
Archer shook his head,
"Or his quarters. I don't know where he is, but he was supposed to be meeting me for dinner."
"You could always try paging him."
"Assuming he'd answer." Archer was starting to feel frustrated and increasingly worried.
"Would you like me to organise a search," Malcolm suggested.
"I don't think we need to go that far just yet," Archer started to reply, but it suddenly occurred to him that Malcolm knew a lot more about what was going on with Trip than he did. "Are things with Trip really that bad?"
Malcolm let out a long breath.
"I don't know." Archer was about to say that if Malcolm was really the friend to Trip he claimed to be he should tell him everything, but Malcolm continued before he had the chance. "I know you think I know a lot more than I'm saying, but really I don't. All I know for sure is that he needs to talk to you about what's bothering him."
"All right. If you hear from him, can you let me know?"
"Of course," Malcolm agreed readily.
Archer set off from the Armoury. He was wandering aimlessly trying to rack his brains and think where Trip might go. He was coming out of Sickbay, another dead end, when he nearly walked into Travis.
"Sorry Sir. Are you all right?"
"I'm Fine." Archer replied shortly.
"Are you sure? You look lost," Travis commented, then seemed to realise who he'd been talking too. "Uh, Sir."
Archer barely even noticed.
"Yeah. Listen, you haven't seen Commander Tucker around have you?" It was a long shot, but he was getting desperate.
"Sure. I saw him about ten minutes ago going into Launch Bay 1."
Archer stared at Travis in surprise. Sometimes long shots pay off.
"Launch Bay 1?"
"Yes Sir. I was coming back from the Sweet Spot when I noticed." Archer barely heard Travis's reply, he'd taken off at a run for the Launch Bay. He didn't want to think about why Trip would be going in there. They hadn't used a shuttle pod in ages and there wasn't any upcoming missions either. The only possibilities Archer could think of weren't exactly helping ease his mind. Hang on Trip, his mind shouted..