Woo! Sorry this took me so long. School's bogging me down. Did you know algebra is really hard? Homework City.
Hoshi's a little nosy. It's needed, though.
I'm really not a fan of this chapter. It's like, bad. I'm so sorry!
But, it's one of the last ones, so you won't have to suffer through this fic for long.
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"How long are all the upgrades gonna be takin'?" Trip asked as he jumped from one of the ladders in engineering section. The engineer had been running around like a lunatic the entire morning, and Chase found himself wondering if his father had always been so energetic and eager. It had, after all, been at well at least decade and a half since the two actually had a conversation in person.
"Five hours, probably. Like I said, the warp core and weapons will have to be offline for two or three hours so I can reroute some of the circuitry. Then we'll just need a couple hours to fix everything up." Chase replied as he climbed up the stairs to the warp core. He couldn't understand how Trip did that so much -- the steps were damn steep.
His father said something he didn't catch, as the younger man was more interested in setting his plan into motion. He continued to doubt his actions, wondering if he was doing the right thing. Trip had left, allowing his mother to go insane and his life to be thrown into chaos. I won't kill him...I'll just scare him so he won't leave mom...Maggie didn't want me to kill him. It was all Maggie's idea to keep Trip alive. And there was the fact that he would never exist if his father died before he was born…
Chase's concentration was broken when he felt a tap on his shoulder, and whirling around, he was suddenly face-to-face with Trip. The engineer grinned, "You zoned out on me for a sec. When are we gonna be cuttin' off the weapons and my engines?"
"I can right now. Then we can get the work started." There was no turning back now. No turning back at all as he watched his father call up to the bridge to tell them the upgrades were about to get underway. No turning back as he worked with his father to shut down the two systems.
It would only be a matter of time before his mercenaries dropped their cloaks and began attacking Enterprise. There was no turning back.
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Hoshi found herself walking towards Chase's room. After he had told her what had happened, she couldn't get some questions out of her mind. Why had he never talked to Trip again? Even now, Starfleet had ways of communicating from deep space, and after nine years, Trip would probably want to talk to his son. Was their falling out actually that horrible? The ensign found it hard to believe.
Reaching the door, she pushed the controls and waited. She chewed on her lip as she wondered if he'd started the repairs early. The linguist pushed the button once more and the doorway slid open. A glance towards the panel told her she'd hit the wrong button.
"Chase?" No answer, "Are you in there?" He must already have gone down to engineering... Every moral in her body told her to back from the doorway and talk to him later, but her curiosity got the best of her and instead of walking away, she invited herself inside. She was an explorer after all, no matter how new she may be at the job.
There was nothing remarkable inside his quarters, making Hoshi feel even more ashamed of her intrusion. A few pictures were set up, showing Chase with a dark-haired young woman that she assumed was his sister. But, other than that, there was nothing to clue in anything about Chase's past or personality. No pictures of him with Trip, or him with T'Pol. Her eyes swept the room one last time as she started to back out.
That was when she noticed his computer. Captain Archer was on the screen, aged at least a decade or more and looking incredibly solemn. The linguist inched over to the computer, finger hovering over a key to play whatever message Chase had of her captain. She'd already entered his quarters and looked around, how could hurt to play a private message. Her conscience nagged her to stop where she was and leave. But what if the captain just so happens to be talking in an alien language? Then it's my duty to translate it. However implausible that was, she still found herself playing the message.
"Chase, Maggie… It's Jon. I know that Trip was coming to visit with you two, but I have some horrible news. The ship your father was on was attacked again while coming to Earth from Tau Ceti. I hate to tell you this...but Trip's dead." The words were painfully articulated, as if practiced over and over so he wouldn't choke up on this most distressing of messages. "The ship was destroyed and we found your father dead in an escape pod. The doctors at Starfleet Medical couldn't revive him, and they say he died of massive internal injuries."
"I know this must be hard on you two. You just lost T'Pol, and now Trip's gone, too. I'll be there to give you all the support that I can, and Malcolm and Hoshi have already been informed of the news. We'll all be here for you, so you know you won't be alone. He was our friend and your father, and we'll miss him terribly. Just know you're not alone."
Hoshi stared in horror as the message ended. So that was why Chase and Trip hadn't talked again, Trip had died. She couldn't believe that such a thing could have happened. It must have been so hard for Chase to be back in the presence of his dead father, it was no wonder that he had barely spoken to him.
She knew that she should leave. But as she watched the screen in disbelief, a new message, just received appeared in strange lettering. The words look familiar, and she realized with a shock that they she'd recently translated those very words when they'd been in that minefield. The Romulans were contacting Chase, and they clearly said that the attack was underway.
((Nope, not the best. But at least I updated it! Y'gotta be a little bit proud!))