"There." Trip said, leaning back from a blinking console in a Jefferies Tube. "That should correct the problem."
"Good." Hoshi said, fumbling with the padd she was using to write out her dictionary. "Cause we've got other work to do in the…" She paused, pulling out another padd from beneath her dictionary. She flipped through a list of repairs. "The starboard nacelle and a couple of air ducts. Those two should be our top priority."
Trip smiled at her. "I thought I was the chief engineer around here."
"You are. But you've been acting kind of funny lately to qualify."
"Excuse me?" Trip answered playfully.
"Archer to Ensign Sato." The comm. panel interrupted. Hoshi crawled to the nearest comm. panel, which was at the end of the tube.
"Sato here."
"Hoshi, remember that time, before the Xindi, when the wisp things took control of Trip?" Archer asked.
"Yes sir, I remember. Believe it or not sir, I think that's what's happening to him now. He's obsessed with bread!" Hoshi told him, lowering her voice so Trip wouldn't hear. He was packing his tools back into their case.
"You knew and didn't tell me before?"
"No sir, I had my suspicions but not enough proof."
"Good work, ensign. Try and get him to the catwalk. Malcolm… 'Trip' and I will meet you there."
"Aye sir." Hoshi agreed.
"Archer out."
"Trip, you ready?" Hoshi called down the tube.
"Yep. Let's go!" Trip crawled towards her and led her out of the tubes. When they climbed out into the corridor, Hoshi suggested they go to the nacelle, first.
"Alright, no problem." And he led them off toward the starboard nacelle, to the catwalk. On the way, Hoshi continued with the dictionary. She has having troubles with a few words. The wisp, having been in control of a more advanced ship, had pieces of technology that Hoshi couldn't even put a name to if she had it right in front of her. A few words included the warp core (But Enterprise has warp engine, Hoshi thought), plasma duct, and isolinear chips.
"Here we are!" Trip said suddenly. Hoshi looked up. A ladder, off to the side of the hallway, led up to the catwalk. "Females first." Trip smiled. Hoshi smiled, too.
She began to climb up the silvery ladder, and was almost in the catwalk, when suddenly Trip whammed his tool case against her head. She slumped, and fell to the floor.
Trip, seeing no one else in the corridor, ran back towards the Jefferies tubes.
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Sorry long time no write. I've been working on that other story a lot offline, and thinking about other stories for the series.
And Academy… I got one review saying "Continue" and another saying "Perhaps." And that's it. So I'll be stopping with it, for now, anyway.
And YES! I have been planning this out from the beginning. Pretty much the only reason I started this story was because I thought Wouldn't it be great to write my own little story about the wisps? That was just THE best episode! J