Narcosis: Chapter 2
by Piper
See Chapter 1 for disclaimer and other story notes.
~*~
On the lower level of the space station T'Pol, Trip, and Eli West were making discoveries of their own.
It hadn't taken long to figure out that this level housed the living quarters. Most of these doors, unlike the ones they had encountered earlier, opened easily with a touch. The first three all led to tidy rooms, complete with single bunks, dressers, and desks. There they found some stacked papers written in alien symbols with graphs and tables that T'Pol thought must suggest some kind of scientific research.
After the third similar room T'Pol recommended that they split up to search the others. She took the next one on the right, Eli went left, and Trip headed for the end of the hallway.
When he stepped into the room, Trip decided he had definitely gotten the best end of the deal.
It reminded him of a hospital chapel, only more ornate. There were rows of pews facing a raised area in the front, but the walls caught his attention. They boasted windows showing off the stars intertwined with intricate pictures of flowers, animals, and other symbols he didn't recognize. He was in awe—until he reached the front of the room.
The majesty was marred by a greenish, humanoid body lying across the steps.
He sucked in a breath, then spoke through their comm. "T'Pol, you'd better come see this." She was at his side in a matter of minutes and took a bio-scan of the body.
"Dead?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yes," she responded. Together they rolled the body onto its back.
"I don't see a mark on him," he commented.
"Sir?" He turned to face West, who had just come running into the room. The boy was already pale, and as he spotted the body he turned a shade whiter.
Trip moved closer to him, blocking his view as he did so. "Hey, Eli, it's alright. Take a breath," he said gently.
Eli's gaze finally settled on Trip. "No, it's not. I found something too."
Trip and T'Pol traded a glance, then followed West back to the room he had been checking. He led them to the small adjoining bathroom, then stood back, looking away. One glance told them why.
This body wasn't nearly as clean as the other one. Bright red blood coated the wall and the side of the greenish head. He had fallen to the floor, but the weapon was still in his right hand.
The Vulcan and the human shared another glance. Something awful had happened on this station, and their situation was getting worse by the minute.
Eli, looking a bit sick, had wandered back to sit on the room's bed as he tried to control his breathing. Trip and T'Pol were holding a quiet conference in the bathroom doorway when he suddenly jumped up, looking towards the hallway. "What is it, West?" Trip asked.
Eli looked back at him. "I thought I heard something, sir."
T'Pol raised her eyebrows a bit doubtfully, but the two of them made their way past the shaken ensign to make a quick search of the hallway. Finding nothing, they came back to West. Trip put a steadying hand on the young man's shoulder. "It's alright. We're all a little jumpy."
As Eli took a minute to calm down, T'Pol assessed the situation. Shortly she said, "I advise we reunite with the Lieutenant's party and leave this station as soon as possible."
Tucker nodded in agreement, then switched the comm. to call for Malcolm.
He got no response.
~*~
Hoshi was frustrated. "It's not working."
"Then try again." Captain Archer was more frustrated.
"I've tried ten times; we're not going to be able to contact them until they're outside those walls, sir."
He sighed. Their scans hadn't gone through the structure; now he was finding out that their communications wouldn't either. They had known this was a possibility. That was why he had three ranking officers over there, all of whom had been at the helm of Enterprise and made decisions for the entire crew. They were fully qualified to handle anything that came up.
But that wasn't helping him now. His team needed to know that the planet didn't exactly welcome their presence here. And Archer would feel a lot better if he knew what was going on over there. He still had a bad feeling about this situation, and with each moment he was in the dark his anxiety increased.
"Do we have any read on the planet's sensor abilities?" he asked, addressing the rest of his bridge crew.
"It took them quite a while to notice us, but I'd guess they're keeping a close eye on us now," Mayweather volunteered.
"You think they would know if we launched another shuttle?"
"We can't know for sure. It would be a risk, Captain."
Archer grimaced unhappily. The bridge was silent as he considered his options. After a few minutes he announced, "We'll give them another half hour. Then we take the risk."
~*~
Last they had heard from Malcolm and his party, they were heading up to the next level.
Trip, T'Pol, and Eli wasted no time finding the stairway. Their movements were cautious but quick, as Trip was still getting no response from them. The bodies below had given them a sobering view of their situation, and now they were all a bit worried about what they might find when they reached the others. There was a definite sense of urgency.
When they reached the landing, they found the same bay of laboratories the others had discovered earlier. All of the doors were closed, giving them no clue of where to start. "Let's split up," T'Pol suggested. She motioned Trip to the right and Eli to the left, heading up the center of the main room herself.
"Yes, because look how well that turned out last time," Trip muttered under his breath as he headed cautiously for the first lab on the right.
He opened the door slowly, immediately noticing the broken glass cabinet. Deciding that that didn't bode well, he promptly turned to cast light across the room. What he found froze him to the spot and made his heart skip a few beats.
Forgetting caution he yelled, "T'Pol get in here!" and quickly went to the three prone forms on the lab floor. It wasn't until he got closer that he saw the forth body with familiar green skin. One glance told him she was dead; her neck looked to be broken and she was otherwise a general mess.
It was the condition of Malcolm, Thomas, and West that really concerned him. They were all unconscious—at least he prayed they were only unconscious—but that was the least of it.
Their suits, what little was left of them, were in tatters.
He heard T'Pol enter behind him. She quickly crossed to his side. He crouched and started to reach for Malcolm, but she grabbed his arm. He shook off her grip and stared angrily, but she just said calmly, "Commander, the chemicals."
He took a breath. She was right. To have eaten through an environmental suit, a chemical would have to be pretty toxic. It would likely go just as easily through theirs. But it killed him to simply sit there, not even knowing if they were alive or not.
"Eric!" West had reached the door, and immediately rushed to his brother's side.
"Eli! Don't touch him," Tucker warned.
That wasn't an easy order to follow. It took a visible effort for the younger brother to force himself not to move to help. But he could easily see the state of the environmental suit that had protected his brother, and after glancing around and seeing the chemicals he realized why he was being told not to touch. He crouched beside Eric, but he obeyed Trip and awaited his superiors' decisions.
Tucker was doing the same thing; forcibly restraining himself from touching Malcolm until T'Pol could tell him something. She was a few feet away performing a bio-scan on Thomas. "She is alive," came the verdict a few moments later.
Trip let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "So what's wrong with her?"
"She is unconscious."
"We know that!"
T'Pol's look clearly said that she didn't approve of his emotional reaction. "My scan can tell me nothing more. By my readings, she seems to be fine."
"Oh yeah, she's just peachy," Tucker mumbled. He forced himself to calm down and think. "There's nothing toxic on her skin or what's left of the suit?"
"Nothing that shows on the scan. But that does not necessarily mean there is nothing there."
"Okay. Check Eric," he ordered, then belatedly realized that she outranked him and tacked on, "please."
As she moved to do so, Trip made a decision and tentatively reached to touch Malcolm's face. He was prepared to jerk back at any sign of corrosion, but he felt nothing through the glove. He left his fingers there for a moment before pulling his hand up to visually inspect the glove. He could see nothing.
Deciding it was safe enough, he put his hand on Malcolm's chest and was relieved to feel the rise and fall that signaled breathing. He was alive. Trip turned to tell T'Pol.
At that moment, he felt a slight movement under his hand. He quickly turned back, afraid to find his glove disintegrating before his eyes. It wasn't. He was confused—then he realized Reed had moved.
"Hey, I think we're waking up over here!" he called to the others. He put his hand to Malcolm's cheek again, smacking it lightly. "C'mon Malcolm, wake up for me," he softly coaxed.
He was rewarded when two eyes slowly opened into thin slits, staring up at him. After a moment of confusion, recognition registered. "Commander?" came the weak voice.
"You're eventually going to call me Trip," Tucker said, a happy smile gracing his face. He glanced up as T'Pol knelt on Reed's other side, performing yet another bio-scan.
"He reads the same as the others."
A weak groan sounded from their left. T'Pol moved again as Thomas stirred. Tucker looked from her to the two boys, where Eric was also showing signs of consciousness. Eli looked at Trip questioningly, almost pleading. Trip nodded assent and Eli quickly moved to comfort his brother, placing a grounding hand on his chest and stroking his hair, speaking to him softly all the while.
"Commander?" Trip quickly turned back to his own patient. "What happened?"
"We were hoping you could tell us," T'Pol said, overhearing the question.
Glancing at the alien body a short distance from his friend, Trip said, "I vote we get them out of here, back to Phlox, and ask questions later."
T'Pol considered it. "That would probably be best. We could always come back later if needed." That said, she began to help Thomas to her feet.
Trip sincerely hoped it wouldn't be needed. He turned back to Malcolm. "Can you walk?"
Malcolm looked a little doubtful but said gamely, "Of course."
Trip grinned. Malcolm wasn't one to be held back by much of anything. Still, it took an awful lot of help on Trip's part to get the lieutenant upright, and once there he needed a good amount of support. The others were in a similar situation, T'Pol with Chelsea and Eli with his brother. If they were to meet anyone—or anything—on the way out they would be seriously hindered in protecting themselves. But they had little choice. Despite the scans these three could need real medical attention.
Trip wrapped an arm around Malcolm's waist and pulled his friend's arm over his shoulder. With one last glance at the lab, they headed towards their shuttlepod.
~*~
The half-hour was up. Archer turned to Mayweather. "I'm going to take another shuttle over there."
"Sir, Dr. Phlox hasn't cleared you for an away mission yet."
"I'm not going to stay; I'm just going to get past the communications barrier and tell our people to get a move on."
"Sir, with all due respect, it might take more than that," Travis paused then said, "I'd be happy to do it."
Archer sighed in frustration. He was worried about his people and he hated being put in that position. The only thing worse would be to send more people into the same situation. He wanted to do it himself, but he knew that Travis was right. If he had to fight, he might not have the strength, and that wouldn't help things at all.
Luckily, the decision was taken out of his hands.
"Our pod has just detached from the station," one of the crewmen announced.
"Sir, I'm getting a message…it's Commander Tucker."
Jonathan hurried to Hoshi's console. He didn't have to tell her to put it through; she already had. "Enterprise, this is Tucker. Come in," came the voice.
"Commander, we've been anxiously awaiting your call," he said, sharing a smile with Hoshi as a barely audible sigh of collective relief went around the bridge.
"You weren't worried about us were you, Cap'n?" Trip said teasingly.
"You? Never. You'd never give me cause to worry about you," he responded in kind. Then he reminded himself that this was a time to be professional. "What did you find?"
There was a pause, then "We'll fill you in on everything. But first, you need to have Dr. Phlox meet us ASAP."
"Trip?" Archer asked warily, his moment of joy thrown off. He was concerned, and he and Tucker were close enough that the simple inflection he put into Trip's name conveyed his emotions.
Trip hesitated a moment. Jon's worry tripled.
Eventually the entire bridge crew heard, "Better have the decontamination rooms ready, Cap'n. There's no telling what we may be carryin'.
~*~
To Be Continued
*Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to review! Please continue to let me know if you like it!
It will probably be at least a few days between posts, but I try to get new chapters up within a week. I know what it's like to have to wait between parts!*