Authors Note : Here's the next couple of chapters. Sorry it took so long. Real life & all that.

Chapter 3

The next couple of days passed by quickly for most members of the crew. Everybody was pitching in to help get all the work completed on time. Even Travis, whose main job was to fly the ship, had been called down to Engineering to help with the engine improvements. Right now he and Commander Tucker were camped out in front of the Warp Core, eating some dinner which had been brought down from the mess hall. Travis was enjoying the moment. It reminded him of when he was a kid on the Horizon. On special days, like a member of the family's birthday, his mother and father would pack a lunch and they would have a picnic under the warp core. Of course the Horizon warp core could only do 1.8, so it seemed even cooler to be sitting under a warp 5 engine. Since they were taking a break, Travis figured now would be as good a time as any to ask something he'd been wondering about.

"How much extra range will we be able to get out of the sensors?"

Trip swallowed the mouthful of food he was eating then replied, "We should be gettin' readin's about twenty minutes earlier than normal."

"Twenty." Travis couldn't help but let disappointment show in his voice.

"Travelin' at Warp four five, that's a fair bit Travis," Trip defended.

"I guess." Travis conceded. "Still, I'd prefer to know what was going on sooner rather than later."

"You're not the only one. Take my advice and don't ask the Cap'n what he thinks about it. Seriously." Despite that last warning, Trip's face held a small smile. "Besides, upgradin' the sensors any more would've taken a hell of a lot longer than three days. Just ask T'Pol, she ran all the simulations. And when I say all, I mean..." Trip paused, "Somethin' wrong?"

"No."

"C'mon Travis, you look like you just swallowed a lemon."

"It's just... Sub-commander T'Pol."

"What about her?"

Travis quickly related his tale about how T'Pol had corrected his work a few days ago. Trip listened thoughtfully, then asked, "Have you tried talkin' to her?"

"That's what Malcolm said I should do."

"Well I agree with him. For once," Trip joked.

Travis wasn't sure, "What would I say?"

"Exactly what you just told me. She's not gonna bite your head off."

"I don't know about that."

"She's a Vulcan. Everythin's logic and reason to them. The fact that you might get upset about it probably never even crossed her mind. She's never gonna figure it out if you don't tell her." Trip stopped then narrowed his eyes at Travis, "Truthfully, I'm not sure I can figure it out either."

"What?" Travis was shocked by Trip's last statement.

"What's gotten you so worked up about this? It's doesn't seem like you, Travis."

"I already told you." Travis defended.

"No, you didn't."

"I don't think she likes me." At this confession, Travis squirmed uncomfortably. He felt like an idiot. Letting himself get so worked up over something so simple. He'd told himself a million times it didn't matter, it wasn't like it stopped them from working well together. Not everybody has to like you Travis.

"Why not?"

"Lots of reasons," Travis shrugged. "We've barely said two words to each other off duty."

"And that bothers you." Trip's words were more of a statement than a question, but Travis answered anyway.

"Well yeah. I've always gotten along with everybody." Before Trip could say anything else, Travis spotted T'Pol headed there way. He motioned for Trip to be quiet. "Shh! Here she comes."

"Commander. Ensign."

Trip swung around to face T'Pol, without any signs that he'd just been talking about her two seconds ago. "T'Pol. What can I do for ya?"

"The work in Engineering has been completed. I'm heading to the bridge to start purging the buffers. I estimate it will take 4.3 hours." She handed the engineer a pad and then clasped her hands behind her back, patiently waiting for his reply. Travis tried not to stare at her, instead he kept focussed on Trip. For his part, Trip was reading the pad, frowning in concentration and seemingly oblivious to everything else in the room. After a few minutes he looked up and handed the pad back to the science officer.

"Looks good. That'll give me time to finish up here and visit the armoury. How about I meet you up on the bridge at about midnight?"

"Very well." T'Pol started heading out of engineering. Trip faced Travis once more and jerked his head in T'Pol's direction as if to say, Go on, follow her. Travis glanced at T'Pol's retreating figure and gulped. Looking for an excuse not to go he blurted,

"What about the engines?"

But Trip wasn't that easily swayed, "I can finish up here, we're nearly done anyway. Go." That last part sounded almost like an order in Travis's mind. He nodded quickly to the engineer and then rose to leave. By this time, T'Pol was already out of engineering and halfway down the corridor towards the turbolift. Travis called out to her as he ran to catch up.

"Sub-commander, wait!"

T'Pol halted and turned back to face him.

"Ensign?" She queried. Travis took a deep breath. It's now or never, Travis. His mind held out the ultimatum.

"Could I talk to you for a minute."

"Is it important? I'm very busy."

"It's important to me."

"Very well." T'Pol squared her shoulders, clasped her hands behind her back and waited patiently for him to begin. Travis glanced up and down the hallway. It was empty at the moment but that could change at any minute.

"Here?"

"Where would you suggest Ensign?"

"I don't know. Somewhere a little more private maybe." Travis suggested. T'Pol nodded in acquiescence.

"Follow me." With that she moved down the corridor a few paces and opened the door to one of the cargo bays. Travis followed her inside.

"Is this better, Ensign?"

"I guess." Travis brought up a hand to scratch the back of his head as he looked around the bay. Containers of all shapes and sizes filled the room. Reading a few of the labels he found they were mostly engineering supplies. He knew the Sub-commander was waiting for him to start, but he wasn't quite sure where. Taking a deep breath, he plunged in.

"Um, I wanted to ask why you corrected my course on the bridge the other day?"

"Enterprise had shifted off course. I thought it best to alert you."

"It had only just gone off course. Why didn't you give me a chance to find it myself?"

"And how long would you have suggested I waited?" T'Pol's question caught Travis by surprise. He hadn't thought about it like that. You can't wait forever to correct something, it could lead to disaster. But this was different, his mind added.

"Okay you have a point, but in this case it was only a slight change and I check my course every hour. The next review was just about to come up."

"I know." Travis's face must have shown the confusion he felt at that statement, because T'Pol clarified, "I read your duty reports."

"So then you know. In my case it wouldn't have hurt to let me find it by myself."

"So what you suggest is that I should give leeway to certain crewmembers over others?"

"No, just..." Travis trailed off as he realised he had lost the argument. He had to admit that wouldn't be fair to anybody. He bowed his head in defeat. "I'm sorry, I guess you're right."

T'Pol nodded in acceptance of his apology.

"I would suggest that if you wish to avoid this in the future, you should conduct your checks more often. Is that all Ensign?"

"Yeah," Travis answered, but as T'Pol turned to leave he blurted out, "Do you like me?" T'Pol's head swung back around, one eyebrow raised in question. Travis realised after he said it, that his question could be taken the wrong way, so he added, "as a friend I mean."

"I'm a Vulcan." T'Pol answered as if that explained everything.

"So you can't have friends?" Travis thought that was a load of rubbish. He was pretty sure she was friends with the Captain and Trip. Instead of answering that question though, T'Pol went back to the original question,

"From what I understand, friendships involve a sense of familiarity. Other than that you are a competent helmsman and what I've read from your profile, I know very little about you."

"Oh." Travis was disappointed and he dropped his gaze to stare at his boots. He supposed it was true; he didn't really know all that much about the Sub-commander either.

"Perhaps we can change that." Travis's head snapped up as T'Pol's words registered in his brain. "After this mission," she added.

"I'd like that." Travis grinned. He couldn't stop smiling as he accompanied the Sub-commander all the way back to the bridge.

*************************

It actually took Trip another hour to finish the work on the warp engines by himself, but he didn't care. As he left engineering to make his way to the armoury, he didn't see any sign of Travis or T'Pol. He hoped the young helmsman had sorted his problem with T'Pol out. T'Pol could be a - well, he wasn't really sure what she could be - a pain in the ass on certain occasions that's for sure, but at other times he almost thought he could understand her.

As he entered the armoury he spotted Malcolm, hunkered down by one of the torpedo tubes. The armoury officer's hair, normally neat and tidy, was mussed and his sleeves were rolled up. A definite sign that the lieutenant had been working long hours. He must have heard the sound of the doors opening, because he looked up as Trip entered.

"Commander," he greeted.

"Malcolm," Trip acknowledged the greeting. "How's everything goin'?"

"Good. We're just about finished actually. Mostly thanks to your team. They did practically all the work."

Trip doubted that. Malcolm wasn't really the type to just stand back and let someone else do all the work. Still, if Malcolm wanted to give the credit to Trip's people, he sure wasn't going to knock it back. They deserved it every day in his mind.

"How's things in Engineering?" Malcolm asked.

"We're gettin' there. I just came by to check on a few things. Do you mind? It shouldn't take long."

"Not at all."

Trip moved the armoury's computer terminal and started bringing up the data he needed. He trusted his team, but he wouldn't be a good chief engineer if he didn't double-check the work himself. The last thing the Captain needs is a fault at a crucial time.

"So. What did you think of the movie the other night?" Malcolm asked, moving to stand beside him.

"It was pretty good. I don't remember seein' you there."

"No, I was busy unfortunately. I, uh... heard that you went with T'Pol?"

"Yep, but I don't think she enjoyed it much." Trip smiled at the memory.

"Oh, I didn't know you two were dating." Malcolm made the remark in such an offhand and innocent way that it took a couple of seconds to register in Trip's mind. When it finally did sink in, Trip blurted out loud, "We're not dating!"

Several crewmembers, from both Malcolm's armoury team and Trip's own engineering team turned to stare at the outburst. Malcolm shot them all 'go back to your business' looks and then cleared his throat before asking in a lowered tone,

"You're not?"

"No." Malcolm still looked disbelieving so Trip thought a full explanation might be in order. "The Cap'n and I were talkin' about the movie durin' dinner that night. T'Pol wasn't real impressed and so the Cap'n told her she shouldn't dismiss somethin' she'd never seen for herself. He basically conned her in to goin'. Told her to think of it as a cultural experience. We were all supposed to go together but Porthos got an upset stomach I think the Cap'n had been feedin' him cheese again. Anyway, since he had to take Porthos to Sickbay that left just the two of us."

"Ah. I see." Malcolm seemed, relieved, was the best way Trip could think to put it.

"Bothered you huh?" That was the second time in as many hours that Trip had asked the question. Both times had been in relation to T'Pol.

"No!" The Lieutenant sounded particularly unconvincing.

"Malcolm." At Trip's 'fess up tone, Malcolm let out a sigh.

"Truthfully I wasn't sure what to make of it." He glanced around to make sure no-one else was in hearing range, "I know I said I think she's pretty, but it's not like I expected anything to happen between us in reality. Of course, I never really thought anything would happen between her and anybody. I guess I was just a little shocked more than anything."

"Oh." Trip nodded in understanding. Then a thought struck him. With all the work going on, he hadn't gotten around to paying Malcolm back for his little stunt the other day. A little light teasing wouldn't hurt, he thought, it'd only be for a minute or two. Pity he'd already nixed the date notion, but maybe he could make something of it anyway. Pitching his voice so it sounded as if he was trying too hard to be casual and keeping his attention focused on the control panel, he spoke,

"So, if someone were to ask her out, you could deal with it?"

"Why, were you planning on asking?" Trip figured he mustn't have got his tone right after all because Malcolm didn't sound particularly worried.

"Not plannin' exactly, but..." Trip shrugged and deliberately left the sentence hanging. That got a better reaction, Trip noticed as out of the corner of his eye he could see Malcolm turning to him, shock written all over the armoury officers face.

"Well, I suppose..." Malcolm stopped, cleared his throat, then started again, "If that's what you really want..."

Got him, Trip's mind crowed. He was just about to turn and tell Malcolm that he'd been joking, when the door to the armoury opened and Captain Archer walked in. Malcolm must have also heard the door open because his demeanour changed immediately. He straightened up, took a deep breath and turned to address the Captain,

"Captain."

"Malcolm." Archer acknowledged, before turning to face Trip, "Trip. Engineering told me I'd find you here."

"And here I am." Trip answered, but his mind really wasn't on the Captain's presence. He was focused on Malcolm, who was currently backing away from the both of them.

"Well then I'll get out of your way. There's a few things I need to do anyway. If you'll excuse me Sir." He turned and practically fled the scene.

Damn it, Trip berated himself. Now Malcolm's gonna go away thinkin I'm planning on asking out T'Pol. He briefly considered calling out to Malcolm as he walked away, but dismissed the idea. It would only embarrass his friend in front of the Captain. Malcolm had some funny idea's about what was appropriate behaviour in front of the Captain and Trip doubted this would fall into that category.

"Trip." Archer's hand waving in front of his face got Trip's attention away from Malcolm's retreating form.

"Sorry Sir. I was just thinkin' about somethin'."

"I can see that. Nothing bad I hope."

"Nah, it'll work out." As soon as I get a spare minute, I'll track Malcolm down and sort it out, Trip decided. He refocused his attention on the Captain, "What can I do for you Cap'n?"

"Just wanted an update."

"Well, weapons seem to be fine and we managed to fine-tune the engines some..."

"Why do I get the feeling there's a but coming?" Archer asked in mock annoyance. Trip gave an apologetic grimace.

"We haven't had time to run any simulations. I can guarantee that the engines will last at Warp Five longer, but I can't guarantee how much longer."

Archer nodded in understanding, "It'll have to do. What about the sensors?"

"I'm meeting T'Pol on the bridge later." Trip checked the chronometer on the console, "Assuming nothin' goes wrong, we should be done about an hour after that."

"Only an hour?" The Captain seemed to be considering some options. "Well in that case, you can finish it up in the morning."

"What?"

"The morning, you know, it generally follows the night. When you've had a nice long sleep." Archer's emphasis on the word sleep tipped Trip off into what the Captain was getting at.

"I've been sleeping." Trip defended.

"Really," Archer sounded and looked as if he didn't believe a word of it.

"You can ask Ensign Harper. She had to wake me up so she could use that computer console. Must've gotten a good fifteen minutes in."

"Is that supposed to be funny, Commander?"

Trip let out a heavy sigh. "What'd you want me to say Cap'n. The work needed doing."

"You didn't have any trouble scheduling everyone else's double shifts so they got some rest time off." Archer pulled a duty roster padd from behind his back. "T'Pol has also been managing to get some rest time in. In fact, it was T'Pol who alerted me to the fact that you haven't been resting."

Trip rolled his eyes at the news that it was T'Pol who ratted him out. Figures.

"Don't give me that look Trip. I'm going to need my Chief Engineer on the ball when we get to those co-ordinates."

"I know," Trip answered dejectedly.

Archer's tone turned to one of concern, "I know we agreed to wait until after this mission is over, but if what's bothering you is affecting your sleep, maybe we should talk about it now."

"No. It can wait. Really." Trip added the last when it looked like Archer was about to say something else. He dropped his gaze from Archer's face to stare at the top of his boots. "In fact the whole thing is stupid."

"It can't be that stupid if it's bothering you so much."

"Your only saying that 'cause you haven't heard it yet." Trip mumbled.

"Well then, if it is as stupid as you claim, then you shouldn't have any trouble getting some sleep, should you?" Archer asked, although it came out sounding more like an order to Trip's ears. Trip nodded in understanding. Archer clapped him on the back in reassurance that everything would be fine.

Trip briefly considered making T'Pol wait for him on the bridge all night in payback for ratting him out, but Malcolm's visage invaded the thought. He'd screwed up that, no telling what would happen with T'Pol.

He turned to Archer. "Will you tell T'Pol we'll finish up in the mornin'?"

"Will do." Archer agreed. They both exited the Armoury together, Trip throwing one last glance around to try and spot Malcolm. No sign of him anywhere. Must've left while I was talkin' to the Cap'n.

They rode the turbolift together in silence, but just as Trip was getting off at his deck, Archer called out, "I'd better hear that you got a good night's sleep in the morning, Commander."

As the turbolift doors closed on Archer's face, Trip blew out a sigh, which somehow turned into a yawn. He rolled his eyes in annoyance at himself for that. He was just thankful he hadn't done it while the Captain was still there. "Probably woulda marched me right to my door and tucked me in," he muttered under his breath as he walked to his quarters. Opening his door, he surveyed his room as he entered. The place was a mess. He'd barely been in here the last few days, only stopping by for a shower or change of uniform. His eyes drifted over to his desk where the letter from a few days ago still showed up on his computer screen. He must've forgotten to turn it off. He marched over to it and shut it off angrily, "I don't care," he tried yelling at the now blank screen, but it turned into another yawn halfway through. Maybe I'm just too tired to care. Now that the Captain had brought it up, he really did feel exhausted. Flopping down on his bed he bent down to remove his boots. Beyond that, he really couldn't care. Swinging his legs up onto the bed he thumped the pillow once to make a dent and laid his head down and fell into a fitful sleep.