Almost everyone on the bridge was slightly irritated from the almost constant bickering between Commander Tucker and Sub-Commander T'Pol. Ever since the shift had started, the two had argued nonstop. Captain Archer was incredibly close of giving them each a 'time out' for the rest of the day but he had decided that that would undoubtedly lead to even more problems.
"Captain," the English accent of Lieutenant Reed broke through the current disagreement between engineer and Vulcan. "I'm picking up some…odd readings on sensors."
Even as he spoke, a swirling multicolored portal opened in front of the ship. Archer ordered Mayweather to stop the ship as he stood up to get a better look at whatever the thing was. "T'Pol, what the hell is that thing?"
"Unknown, sir. It appears to be some kind of tunnel through subspace." She and Trip had stopped all hostilities when she began staring at the highly anomalous readings in front of her. A brow arched high as she glanced towards Archer. "Captain, something is emerging."
"Reed, get torpedoes ready," the commanding officer kept his eyes locked on the screen as a small, battered looking vessel emerged from the anomaly. It drifted out rather haphazardly, rolling to the side and back up as if it couldn't get stabilized. Seconds after the shuttle left the rift, the anomaly closed in on itself. When the ship failed to come out weapons firing, Archer glanced at Hoshi Sato. "See if you can hail whoever it is."
A few seconds passed before the ensign shook her head. "I'm getting no response."
"Captain, according to my readings, there is a single person on board," The science officer looked up from her station and stood, hands behind her back and 'brow still raised high in a very Vulcan pose, "Whoever it is appears to be unconscious and also appears to be human."
"Human? Cap'n, we gotta get that person to sickbay! He could be dyin' for all we know!" Trip swung his seat around to glance at Captain.
Archer nodded in agreement. "Agreed. Reed, get the grappler online. Once it's securely in the shuttlebay, you and Trip come with me to greet this person. Hoshi, get Phlox down there, too."
Trip almost leaped from his seat to meet the others in the 'lift. Reed was already fingering the phase pistol he had ever ready at his side. They all were anxious in their own little way to meet the human visitor.
*********
The small team of crewmen met in the shuttlebay. Commander Tucker immediately started looking over the seemingly beaten and scarred shuttlecraft.
"Cap'n, I've never seen a shuttle like this before! It's amazing!" He found a way to open the craft's door, then remaining outside to take scans and tests of the hull and craft itself while the others quickly entered to help the possibly injured pilot.
The man was lying crumpled in the front of the shuttle, bleeding from a cut on his forehead. Blood had already dripped into his shaggy, light brown hair, as well as down parts of his face. Other than that, however, he didn't look too badly injured. Still Dr. Phlox knelt down by the young man's side with his medical scanner in hand.
"Aside from the gash and a fractured wrist, this young man is perfectly fine. He barely has a concussion at all! Quite astounding, considering the bashing this vessel appears to have taken. The human is such a resilient species…"
Archer glanced at the Denobulan nodding while he spoke. "It's good he'll be fine doctor. But is there any way you can wake him up?
"Of course, of course!" Both Reed and Archer stared with souring looks at the doctor for a moment before he started going through his medical yet. "I see, you want me to wake him now. Ah…Of course."
Within seconds, the man was injected with some sort of medication and had already begun to wake up. One hand moved up to rub the cut on his forehead as he opened his gray-blue eyes. He squinted at the figures above him in confusion before realization seemed to set in. A slight smile came across his face. "Jonathan Archer, Malcolm Reed and Doctor Phlox! I'm actually on the NX-01 Enterprise, aren't I?"
"Yes, you are," Lieutenant Reed said as he looked down at the pilot. "You seem to know our names, but we don't know what yours is yet."
"Oh, yeah," The man paid careful attention to stressing the slight southern tint to his accent, grinning coyly at the three before stretching out his hand. "The name's Charles Tucker the Fourth. But, I guess you guys can just call me Chase, considering you guys are like an extended family to me."
The three Enterprise officers glanced at each other in uncertainty at the man's name. An instant later, Trip walked into the shuttle, waving around his scanner and saying something about an entirely new alloy that was in the shuttle's hull. He was met with a shout of 'Dad!' by the injured young man, which stopped the engineer dead in his tracks.