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Chapter Three
When T'Pol woke up, Archer was gone. She found herself lying on the ground, her head rested on her arms. The campfire had gone out. Little clouds of smoke still emerged from it, finding their way up in the sky. T'Pol took a big breath. The air smelled so clean, it reminded her of previous away-missions. On Vulcan the air was a lot sharper and warmer, but this place here felt refreshing in her lungs. She wanted to get up and take a look around. She tried to move her legs, but she couldn't. A slight sensation of terror came unto her, which she quickly repressed. I am a Vulcan. I do not feel terror, she reminded herself. T'Pol now used her arms to get her body in an upright position. She observed the surroundings. The wreckage of the shuttle pod was wedged in between two trees, it was in a bad condition. They wouldn't be able to use it anymore. Her glance now wandered over the landscape. It was beautiful. She let herself enjoy it for a bit, knowing that Jonathan did not see her. Although their friendship had grown the past months, she did not want to show him, what was going on insider her. Yet.
In the distance she saw some mountains with snow-tops, right before them was a little lake, surrounded by a forest. Right around T'Pol were so many colorful plants and flowers, she wished to get up and observe them closer. But the thought of being crippled came back to her mind. She most likely would never be able to walk again. T'Pol closed her eyes. She didn't want to pity herself, she needed to be strong now. This was not easy for Jonathan either. Two members of his crew had been killed in this accident, when the shuttle was out of control due to the magnetic field of the planet. Now he would have to take care of the situation alone, he would have to find a way to survive on this planet. T'Pol was not able to help him. She bowed her head. It would take some time for her to adjust to the new situation. Jonathan and her, all alone on this uninhabited planet, with no hope of being rescued.
Footsteps were approaching her. She turned her head to see Jonathan, his eyes looked sorrowful. He carried a shovel.
"Good morning, T'Pol. Did you sleep well?"
"Good morning, Captain. Yes, I did."
He said down next to her.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
She looked around again.
"I would like to observe those flowers later on, if possible."
Jonathan smiled.
"You can't just enjoy the simplicity of nature, can you? Always have to observe, analyze and file every kind of data you find."
She looked him straight in the eye.
"What I meant to say is that I would like to have a closer look, I find those flowers quite… appealing."
Archer looked surprised, but he didn't question her further. He was glad that she was warming up a little. Maybe this whole situation would let her drop some of her Vulcan coolness.
"I'll be glad to show them to you. May I?" T'Pol nodded.
Archer got up and put his arms around her shoulders, lifting her up so he could carry her. He held her close to him, enjoying the physical contact but dared not show it to her. Remember, she is Vulcan. She probably does not want this at all, but she has no choice… T'Pol laid her arms around his neck, so she wouldn't fall down. Archer smiled again. Maybe she does not feel too uncomfortable at all, he thought, but dismissed the thought right away.
He brought her to the flowers. So many colors and smells seemed to overload his senses, he had to be careful not to get lost in the moment.
"Right here will be fine, Captain." He carefully placed her on the ground, next to a mass of purple flowers, they had small blooms, but a very distinct smell. T'Pol reached her hand out to touch them, but just before her fingers reached them, she stopped.
"They are okay, T'Pol. I already scanned the surroundings. There is nothing poisoned around here. Even the water of the lake back there is fine."
She nodded. As she touched the bloom a soft tone emerged from it. She moved her hand back immediately. Jonathan said down next to her.
"What was that?" he asked.
"I don't know, these flowers seem to produce music."
She touched another one, it's tone now was louder and the pitch a little higher than the last one. Archer joined her, together they tried to find all notes of the musical scale. He totally lost track of time. Those flowers eluded him, and T'Pol also didn't seem so tense as usual. When they both reached for the same bloom, he smiled. He only touched her hand for a brief moment, before she pulled it back. Suddenly Archers face darkened.
"What is wrong, Captain?"
"I just thought about Smith and Barthez, they do not have the chance to enjoy these wonderful flowers."
T'Pol was silent for a moment, she thought of a way to cheer him up.
"I heard that there was a tradition on earth, to put flowers on graves. Is it true?"
"Yes, that is right. This is a great idea, T'Pol. That way they can…. enjoy them too."
He pulled the flower out that was closet to him. T'Pol also started picking some, and after a little while they had an enormous amount of little flowers. Archer gave them all to T'Pol, so he could get up and carry her to the graves.
They were simple. No marks, just a little pile of loose lumps of earth reminded him of the location. He held T'Pol in his arms, as she put the flowers down. Again, soft music filled the air. He stood there for quite some time, holding her, listening to the tunes and thinking about the dead crewmen. A loud bang made him whirl around.
"What was that?" he asked T'Pol.
She pointed over to the shuttle pod.
"Something appears to have landed next to it. A box or a container maybe."
"We should have a look at it."
T'Pol wondered if his arms ever got tired of carrying her around, but she dared asking him. In fact, despite being helpless, she enjoyed having him so close. What am I thinking… She had managed to control every thought about and longing for her captain the past months, she didn't want to let this control slip now.
Archer hurried back to the shuttle pod. He saw a metal container right in front of it, a parachute was lying on the ground next to it. The container was still red-hot from passing through the atmosphere.
"Well, we better wait until it cools off…" Jonathan noticed.
"I am… impressed," T'Pol mentioned. Archer looked at her surprised.
"How come?"
"They managed to land this right in front of the shuttle pod, they had to keep in mind a lot of variables. Movement of the planet, possible wind or storms in the upper atmosphere, the time on when to open the parachute…"
Another bang, really close to them stopped T'Pol's contemplation.
"We better get away from here," Archer reminded her, pointing upwards. T'Pol saw at least five more containers on their way down. They moved away from the landing sight, Archer brought them back to the place where they had spent the night. He leaned T'Pol against the tree again, being very careful not to cause her any more discomfort than necessary. They sat there, watching all the containers go down. Not a single missed its destination by more than 5 meters.
"They sure were really hard-working up there," Archer quietly pointed out. He just remembered that his ship was up there, still orbiting the planet, ready to explore new worlds. It has always been his dream to fly through space, to contact new life and have one heck of an adventure. His crew would continue on, sure, they would try to find a way to get him and T'Pol back to the ship, but eventually they would leave, probably called off by Starfleet. The stranded crewmen would be classified as hopeless. No spacecraft would get through the magnetic field without being destroyed, and he didn't want to imagine what he would look like if they used the transporter on him. He heard about terrible transporter accidents, and didn't want to give it a shot here. Archer was not the type to give up, but he slowly felt his dream slip away. T'Pol noticed his change in mood. She didn't know if it was the best thing to do, but she put her hand on his.
"We will get through this, Captain. I am sure. There will be a way."
Archer stared into her eyes for a long time. How he would have liked to hug her for that. She had this ability to give him strength, to cheer him up. She had always been there when he needed her, and vice versa. He thought that he would not be able to carry on without her. If she had died… I wouldn't know what to do.
T'Pol broke the eye-contact first. She felt somewhat uncomfortable. In her was this longing for her captain, she wanted him to look at her, but she reminded herself of her Vulcan heritage again. It is illogical to feel this sort of desire… especially for a superior officer.
"It seems like all containers reached the ground, Captain. It is safe now to go back and open them."
Archer had to force himself to get up. He wanted to sit next to T'Pol and look at her forever, but she was right, they were more important things to do right now.
"I will pick you up if you take back that 'Captain'. I wouldn't consider this an away-mission anymore." He smiled at her. "You called me Jonathan before, and this will do just fine."
She nodded.
"I think it is time to check onto the containers, Jonathan."
After a little while all twenty of them were opened. His crew didn't forget anything. There were medical supplies, food, blankets, material to build a shelter, cloths, cooking utilities, books, soap and other cleaning utilities.
"They sure think we will be staying down here for a while…" Archer was overwhelmed with the amount of objects that were lying around him. T'Pol pointed out a small box to him, that he had not opened yet. He fetched it and sat down next to her. He had some trouble opening it, and when he managed to open the lid, he saw a little force field surrounding the contents of the box.
"May I?" asked T'Pol. Archer handed her the box, she quickly touched just the right places on the outside of the box to disable the force field.
"Wow, how did you know how to shut that off?"
"Lieutenant Reed had been working on this force field, he had informed me about his progress."
"Well, I am glad he did. What is inside?"
T'Pol pulled out a data-padd and handed it Archer. He punched a button and Hoshi's face appeared on the view screen.
"We all hope that this reaches you undamaged. Lieutenant Reed thinks that the force field protects the electronics of the padd, but we cannot be sure of that. You should have received all the containers by now, we sent away twenty. You find all necessary supplies to survive down there. We don't know yet whether we will be able to get you back on the ship, but we want you to know that we are not giving up on our Captain and our science officer."
Archer smiled. He knew that his crew would do everything that was possible to rescue them.
"Lieutenant Reed is working on a larger version of the force field to protect a whole shuttle-pod from the magnetic field, but unfortunately he hasn't gotten very far yet. We will all continue working on a rescue-plan. Nevertheless, every member of the crew recorded a personal message for the two of you, you find them also on this padd."
Hoshi turned the camera so that Archer and T'Pol had a glance at the whole bridge.
"We hope that you are alright down there, and with any luck you two will be up here very soon. End recording."
The screen went black. Archer looked at T'Pol again.
"Seems we'll have to get settled here. What do you think of breakfast?"
"That would be appropriate."
Archer got up to get some food. He found some nicely wrapped plomeek soup for T'Pol and some scrambled eggs for himself. After breakfast I will start building a shelter, he decided.
