TITLE: Dear Annie ("First Flight" and "Bounty")
AUTHOR: Mara Greengrass
AUTHOR'S E-MAIL: fishfolk@ix.netcom.com. Feedback is better than chocolate.
PERMISSION TO ARCHIVE: Yes, just let me know.
CATEGORY: Gen
RATINGS/WARNINGS: G
SUMMARY: Hoshi writes home after the events of "First Flight" and "Bounty."
DISCLAIMER: Enterprise and all its crew belong to Paramount and many other entities with expensive lawyers. I am making no profit from this story.
NOTES: I've been procrastinating on finishing off the season for long, it took another commitment to goad me back to this...In any case, thanks as always go to Captain Average for the stupendous beta.
* * * * *
Dear Annie,
You haven't lived until you've seen a dark matter nebula lit up like a fireworks display. It was so beautiful, so awe-inspiring, it *almost* made everything else worthwhile. I hope Captain Archer feels the same way, because he's been having a particularly rough time of it recently.
The beauty of the nebula was also a nice change of pace from our usual hectic schedule of getting injured, shot at, and insulted in new and exciting languages. Mind you, T'Pol wasn't entirely certain there *was* such a thing as a dark matter nebula, so naturally the captain had to prove her wrong. He and Trip came up with a plan to shoot some kind of charge that would make the dark matter show itself. Don't ask me to explain it, I'm no physicist, as you well know.
The captain and Trip were having a pretty good time until Admiral Forrest called with bad news: one of the men who'd worked on the NX project with them was killed recently in a climbing accident. I suppose Captain Archer wanted to be alone, because he jumped in a shuttle to go shoot charges at dark matter, leaving poor Trip behind. At the last minute, T'Pol insisted on going, so at least he wasn't flying around alone.
When I got off duty, I found Trip sulking in engineering and dragged him to get some dinner. It took half an hour to make him a bit less grumpy, but finally he told me the story of how he met the captain and all about the man who died.
Trip was a lieutenant working on the NX program and the captain and this other man (AG Robinson), were test pilots. Robinson was chosen to fly the first test flight. He screwed up by refusing to abort, blowing up the ship and nearly dying in the process.
The Vulcans panicked, Starfleet panicked, and the NX program was shut down. But the captain, Trip, and Robinson conspired to--get this--steal the other prototype to prove that the design worked.
Trip didn't put it this way, but I get the feeling that one of the reasons Captain Archer and Trip are such good friends is the faith that Trip showed in Henry Archer's engines. There aren't many things in the world that mean more to Captain Archer. Of course, I would imagine it doesn't hurt that the first time they met, Trip was apparently busy yelling at a bunch of high-handed, interfering Vulcans. Some things never change.
Anyway, Robinson and the captain flew the prototype, leaving Trip to get taken into custody by Starfleet. But it didn't matter because they'd already proved that the design worked, it could fly above warp 2.
Forrest couldn't decide if he was excited or pissed as hell, apparently, and he bawled out all three of them. But the project was back in business, as even the Vulcans couldn't argue with a successful flight.
Trip was very nostalgic about the engineering and the time he spent working with the captain, but a bit less so about Robinson. "I never liked the sonuvabitch that much," he said, "but Jon did, and I worshipped Jon. And he seems pretty broken up about AG's death."
Just then, somebody behind me shouted, and we both nearly fell out of our seats. But when we looked out the windows in the mess, we forgot everything else. Trip's charges had done the trick and the dark matter nebula glowed like nothing I'd ever seen before.
The captain was looking a lot less stressed by the time he and T'Pol returned to the ship. I wonder what the two of them talked about while they were out there.
Anyway, it's too bad things couldn't stay so peaceful for very long. We did some exploring in that sector, finding what the astronomers and physicists assure me are some fascinating stellar phenomena.
The geologists went gaga over one particular planet that was uninhabited, but had a breathable atmosphere, so T'Pol, Trip, and the captain took a couple of teams down to explore. They were really enjoying themselves, too, so I hated to interrupt, but a Tellarite ship showed up and demanded to talk to the captain.
He, Trip, and T'Pol all came up, but T'Pol got stuck in decon. The Tellarite was very strange, first quite rude (as we'd been assured Tellarites acted normally), then offering to show the captain around the planet. Over Malcolm's objections, the captain agreed, and the Tellarite docked with Enterprise and Trip and the captain went down to meet him.
Next thing I knew, my sensors lit up, informing me of weapon fire on D deck! Before security could get there, the Tellarite ship broke away--taking a few bits of Enterprise with it...such as our captain.
Unfortunately, with T'Pol stuck in decon for the foreseeable future and the captain gone missing, Trip was stuck in command, instead of supervising the repair of his beloved ship.
The repairs went quickly, although, between Trip pacing and Malcolm's sotto voce cursing, it seemed an interminable wait to those of us on the bridge. They always forget how good my hearing is, you know. I was impressed, though, as I didn't realize he could curse in quite so many languages. If his repertoire could be expanded, we might just make a linguist out of him yet.
With repairs completed, we began tracking the Tellarite ship, all of us trying to figure out how we were going to get the captain back without blowing it up. When we dropped out of warp and found...a decoy, emitting a facsimile of the Tellarite ship's signal.
We had to start over, which led to more cursing. T'Pol was still out of commission and we were starting to get worried. I don't think any of us had realized what a calming influence she is when she's present. Not to mention, she builds a mean escape plan when necessary.
We found the signal again and, hoping against hope the Tellarite only had one decoy, set off at top speed.
By the time we found the source of the signal, the Tellarite was gone. Another ship was there, the sole occupant was doing some repairs, so we contacted him. He told us the captain was "probably halfway to Klingon space by now."
I suppose we shouldn't have been surprised that the Klingons want him back, but it's been a while since we got him out of Rura Penthe. I suppose we'd put the problem out of our minds and gone on with our jobs. Malcolm's low cursing became so creative, I started to think there might be a monograph in it.
Trip ordered us on our way to Klingon space and went back to wearing a hole in the deck plating. (Apparently they teach pacing the deck in command school. Who knew?) Just when we really needed T'Pol back on the bridge, she must have taken a turn for the worse. Phlox said she'd left sickbay and we had to evacuate the rest of the deck and send down a security team in EV suits to find her. Malcolm had to stun her, but at least he got her back into treatment. Poor guy. Not only did he have to shoot a woman he...admires, but he had to shoot a superior officer. Kind of a nightmarish day for an armory officer, what with having lost his captain earlier.
Just when we were beginning to despair of finding our captain, a message came in. From the Tellarite. Trip looking ready to shoot the guy personally, but thankfully the sense of the message got through before Trip said anything rash.
On the Tellarite's instructions, we took off at top speed for the Klingon ship that now had Captain Archer--depending on the word of the alien who had kidnapped him in the first place.
We arrived just as an escape pod ejected from the Klingon ship and they were maneuvering to grab it. In a brilliant piece of flying, Travis got us in, grappled the escape pod into launch bay two, and got us out of Dodge.
The captain looked a bit worse for wear, but Phlox was able to fix him up pretty quickly. Ah yes, Phlox, our friendly neighborhood miracle worker. Happily, while the captain was shooting his way off the Klingon ship, Phlox was finally curing T'Pol. She walked onto the bridge along with the captain by the time our next shifts rolled around. I think if she hadn't frowned so repressively at us, we might have cheered.
It felt good to have things back to normal. And poor Trip, I've never seen him *so* happy to give up that captain's chair. He practically ran off the bridge in order to get to engineering.
We've got everyone back safely, and the ship is more or less back in one piece. Not bad. I'll count that as a win, I think. It makes me yearn for the days when my biggest problems were being turned down for a date by that guy from Mexico (what *was* his name again, anyway?) or the possibility of getting a B+ on an exam instead of an A because you dragged me out the night before.
Well, at least I only have to worry about the crew's safety, not yours. At least as long as you don't go climbing any mountains! But I know that's about as likely as me becoming an avid spelunker, so I won't worry. Hugs to everyone.
Love,
Hoshi
AUTHOR: Mara Greengrass
AUTHOR'S E-MAIL: fishfolk@ix.netcom.com. Feedback is better than chocolate.
PERMISSION TO ARCHIVE: Yes, just let me know.
CATEGORY: Gen
RATINGS/WARNINGS: G
SUMMARY: Hoshi writes home after the events of "First Flight" and "Bounty."
DISCLAIMER: Enterprise and all its crew belong to Paramount and many other entities with expensive lawyers. I am making no profit from this story.
NOTES: I've been procrastinating on finishing off the season for long, it took another commitment to goad me back to this...In any case, thanks as always go to Captain Average for the stupendous beta.
* * * * *
Dear Annie,
You haven't lived until you've seen a dark matter nebula lit up like a fireworks display. It was so beautiful, so awe-inspiring, it *almost* made everything else worthwhile. I hope Captain Archer feels the same way, because he's been having a particularly rough time of it recently.
The beauty of the nebula was also a nice change of pace from our usual hectic schedule of getting injured, shot at, and insulted in new and exciting languages. Mind you, T'Pol wasn't entirely certain there *was* such a thing as a dark matter nebula, so naturally the captain had to prove her wrong. He and Trip came up with a plan to shoot some kind of charge that would make the dark matter show itself. Don't ask me to explain it, I'm no physicist, as you well know.
The captain and Trip were having a pretty good time until Admiral Forrest called with bad news: one of the men who'd worked on the NX project with them was killed recently in a climbing accident. I suppose Captain Archer wanted to be alone, because he jumped in a shuttle to go shoot charges at dark matter, leaving poor Trip behind. At the last minute, T'Pol insisted on going, so at least he wasn't flying around alone.
When I got off duty, I found Trip sulking in engineering and dragged him to get some dinner. It took half an hour to make him a bit less grumpy, but finally he told me the story of how he met the captain and all about the man who died.
Trip was a lieutenant working on the NX program and the captain and this other man (AG Robinson), were test pilots. Robinson was chosen to fly the first test flight. He screwed up by refusing to abort, blowing up the ship and nearly dying in the process.
The Vulcans panicked, Starfleet panicked, and the NX program was shut down. But the captain, Trip, and Robinson conspired to--get this--steal the other prototype to prove that the design worked.
Trip didn't put it this way, but I get the feeling that one of the reasons Captain Archer and Trip are such good friends is the faith that Trip showed in Henry Archer's engines. There aren't many things in the world that mean more to Captain Archer. Of course, I would imagine it doesn't hurt that the first time they met, Trip was apparently busy yelling at a bunch of high-handed, interfering Vulcans. Some things never change.
Anyway, Robinson and the captain flew the prototype, leaving Trip to get taken into custody by Starfleet. But it didn't matter because they'd already proved that the design worked, it could fly above warp 2.
Forrest couldn't decide if he was excited or pissed as hell, apparently, and he bawled out all three of them. But the project was back in business, as even the Vulcans couldn't argue with a successful flight.
Trip was very nostalgic about the engineering and the time he spent working with the captain, but a bit less so about Robinson. "I never liked the sonuvabitch that much," he said, "but Jon did, and I worshipped Jon. And he seems pretty broken up about AG's death."
Just then, somebody behind me shouted, and we both nearly fell out of our seats. But when we looked out the windows in the mess, we forgot everything else. Trip's charges had done the trick and the dark matter nebula glowed like nothing I'd ever seen before.
The captain was looking a lot less stressed by the time he and T'Pol returned to the ship. I wonder what the two of them talked about while they were out there.
Anyway, it's too bad things couldn't stay so peaceful for very long. We did some exploring in that sector, finding what the astronomers and physicists assure me are some fascinating stellar phenomena.
The geologists went gaga over one particular planet that was uninhabited, but had a breathable atmosphere, so T'Pol, Trip, and the captain took a couple of teams down to explore. They were really enjoying themselves, too, so I hated to interrupt, but a Tellarite ship showed up and demanded to talk to the captain.
He, Trip, and T'Pol all came up, but T'Pol got stuck in decon. The Tellarite was very strange, first quite rude (as we'd been assured Tellarites acted normally), then offering to show the captain around the planet. Over Malcolm's objections, the captain agreed, and the Tellarite docked with Enterprise and Trip and the captain went down to meet him.
Next thing I knew, my sensors lit up, informing me of weapon fire on D deck! Before security could get there, the Tellarite ship broke away--taking a few bits of Enterprise with it...such as our captain.
Unfortunately, with T'Pol stuck in decon for the foreseeable future and the captain gone missing, Trip was stuck in command, instead of supervising the repair of his beloved ship.
The repairs went quickly, although, between Trip pacing and Malcolm's sotto voce cursing, it seemed an interminable wait to those of us on the bridge. They always forget how good my hearing is, you know. I was impressed, though, as I didn't realize he could curse in quite so many languages. If his repertoire could be expanded, we might just make a linguist out of him yet.
With repairs completed, we began tracking the Tellarite ship, all of us trying to figure out how we were going to get the captain back without blowing it up. When we dropped out of warp and found...a decoy, emitting a facsimile of the Tellarite ship's signal.
We had to start over, which led to more cursing. T'Pol was still out of commission and we were starting to get worried. I don't think any of us had realized what a calming influence she is when she's present. Not to mention, she builds a mean escape plan when necessary.
We found the signal again and, hoping against hope the Tellarite only had one decoy, set off at top speed.
By the time we found the source of the signal, the Tellarite was gone. Another ship was there, the sole occupant was doing some repairs, so we contacted him. He told us the captain was "probably halfway to Klingon space by now."
I suppose we shouldn't have been surprised that the Klingons want him back, but it's been a while since we got him out of Rura Penthe. I suppose we'd put the problem out of our minds and gone on with our jobs. Malcolm's low cursing became so creative, I started to think there might be a monograph in it.
Trip ordered us on our way to Klingon space and went back to wearing a hole in the deck plating. (Apparently they teach pacing the deck in command school. Who knew?) Just when we really needed T'Pol back on the bridge, she must have taken a turn for the worse. Phlox said she'd left sickbay and we had to evacuate the rest of the deck and send down a security team in EV suits to find her. Malcolm had to stun her, but at least he got her back into treatment. Poor guy. Not only did he have to shoot a woman he...admires, but he had to shoot a superior officer. Kind of a nightmarish day for an armory officer, what with having lost his captain earlier.
Just when we were beginning to despair of finding our captain, a message came in. From the Tellarite. Trip looking ready to shoot the guy personally, but thankfully the sense of the message got through before Trip said anything rash.
On the Tellarite's instructions, we took off at top speed for the Klingon ship that now had Captain Archer--depending on the word of the alien who had kidnapped him in the first place.
We arrived just as an escape pod ejected from the Klingon ship and they were maneuvering to grab it. In a brilliant piece of flying, Travis got us in, grappled the escape pod into launch bay two, and got us out of Dodge.
The captain looked a bit worse for wear, but Phlox was able to fix him up pretty quickly. Ah yes, Phlox, our friendly neighborhood miracle worker. Happily, while the captain was shooting his way off the Klingon ship, Phlox was finally curing T'Pol. She walked onto the bridge along with the captain by the time our next shifts rolled around. I think if she hadn't frowned so repressively at us, we might have cheered.
It felt good to have things back to normal. And poor Trip, I've never seen him *so* happy to give up that captain's chair. He practically ran off the bridge in order to get to engineering.
We've got everyone back safely, and the ship is more or less back in one piece. Not bad. I'll count that as a win, I think. It makes me yearn for the days when my biggest problems were being turned down for a date by that guy from Mexico (what *was* his name again, anyway?) or the possibility of getting a B+ on an exam instead of an A because you dragged me out the night before.
Well, at least I only have to worry about the crew's safety, not yours. At least as long as you don't go climbing any mountains! But I know that's about as likely as me becoming an avid spelunker, so I won't worry. Hugs to everyone.
Love,
Hoshi