Engine Trouble… In More Ways Than One!

By Moonlit Sea

Disclaimer: I don't own Enterprise or the characters all I own is this fic and the character Lt. Karyn Kelly.

/-Thoughts-/

Chapter 8 - Regrets

"Cap'n!" Trip said in shock.

"I came to see if you were all right, but it seems you've managed to sort things out by yourselves." Jon said as he watched Trip and Karyn turn red.

"I'd better be going." Karyn said getting up and walking passed Jon.

Just as the door opened Jon said " Oh and Karyn…" turning to face her.

She turned to face him.

"Don't oversleep."

Karyn turned a deeper shade of red and walked out the door.

Jon then turned back to Trip.

"I know you wanna know how it happened right?" Trip said at the look Jon gave him.

"Just make sure that it doesn't affect your work," he said. Then walked out of Trip quarters, leaving one very confused commander Tucker.

/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/

When Karyn got back to her quarters she sighed happily, leaned back on her door and smiled. Then a voice in her head suddenly said 'What happens when Malcolm finds out?' her smile suddenly disappeared at the thought of what Malcolm would do when he found out. /-Why should I care what he thinks.-/ she told herself and with that got ready for bed thinking nothing more of it.

That night Karyn couldn't sleep she kept tossing and turning. Finally she sat up in bed and sighed. /-Apparently this bothers me more than I though. But why? I'm happy aren't I?-/ then her mind wondered back to the letter Kian had wrote her. 'I hope you manage to find someone too, who knows you might find someone on Enterprise or maybe you already have'
He was right she had found someone on Enterprise she just didn't realise it; the only problem was she didn't know how to get out of her other predicament.

/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/

The next morning Hoshi went to see Karyn as normal. They always had breakfast together it was like a little tradition they had where they would catch up with each other and tell each other the gossip they heard the day before, before starting their shifts. As she turned the corner she was surprised to see Trip just arriving at Karyn's quarters, /-That's odd.-/ she thought /-What's the Commander doing here? Had she made other plans and forgot to tell me?-/

She continued towards Karyn's quarters.
"Commander? What are you doing here?" Hoshi asks curious.

"I was hopin' to have breakfast with Karyn." He said then seeing the confusion on Hoshi's face added, "If ya don't mind."

"No, I can always see her at lunch." She smiles and walks off.

After taking a deep breath Trip chimes Karyn's quarters.

"Just a minute." Comes a reply.
A few minutes later the door opens. Karyn is both surprised and shocked to see Trip standing there.

"Commander!" a very shocked Karyn said.

"Hi." Trip said cheerily ignoring the fact that she had just used his rank. "I thought we could have breakfast together or somethin'. "

"Normally I'd be happy to, but I'm having breakfast with Hoshi." Looking round to see if she could see the person in question.

"She was here a couple of minutes ago. She said she didn't mind if ya skipped a day." Trip explained.

"I see." Karyn paused a while " I guess we better get going then."

Trip smiled and they headed off towards the mess hall.

/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/
(Mess hall)

As Trip and Karyn entered the mess hall Karyn felt as if the whole place was staring at her. It made her feel uneasy.

"You okay?" she heard a voice ask.

"Huh?" she turned in the direction of the voice and found herself staring into Trip's worried face.
She hadn't realised that she already got her breakfast and was sitting down.
"I'm sorry I guess I wasn't concentrating."

"You sure ya okay?" he asks again.

"Yeah. I'm fine." She smiles.

Just then Malcolm walked in and Karyn had a sudden urge to leave.

"Uh… I'm gonna go now." Karyn says.

"Ya know you've still got ten minutes left." Trip says placing a hand on her arm.

"Yeah… well… I… wanna make up for being late yesterday." Standing to leave.

"Hold on I'll come with ya."

When they had left Hoshi wondered what was up with Karyn. -Please don't let lock herself away in her quarter's again.-

/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/

/-I can't do that every time I see him.-/ Karyn thought.

As they continued towards Engineering they heard someone say

"Lieutenant."

Both she and Trip turned round and saw T'Pol behind them.

"Yes Sub-Commander?" she asked.

"I require your assistance with something." T'Pol said.

"Of course Sub-Commander." Karyn replied. She always spoke formally when speaking to the Sub-Commander; she found it worked better than the laid back 'sure okay.'

"What is it that I may help you with?"

"I understand that before you became an engineer you studied science correct."

"Yes."

"The Captain and I believe that you're the best person suited for this mission." T'Pol stated.

"Mission?" Trip asked, "What mission?"

"We will be taking a shuttle down to a nearby planet. While Enterprise stays out of range." T'Pol said to Karyn.

"If you don't mind me asking Sub-Commander why me?" she asked.

"The planet is in a fairly hostile part of space. Your knowledge of engineering may be required if we run into trouble. Your background of science will also be helpful while we survey the planet." T'Pol explained.

"I'll… uh see you in engineering Karyn." Trip said walking off.

"I see." Karyn thought for a moment then asked, "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow ten hundred hours."

/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/
(Captain's ready room.)

"Why her? Why not someone else?" Trip asked.

"Her background with science makes her the perfect person for the job Trip." Archer replied.

"I heard all that from T'Pol. She's an engineer not a scientist." Trip argued.

Archer sighed.
"Her engineering skills will be needed just as much as her science skills."

"But…"

"Trip!" Archer said a little more forceful than he intended. "She'll be fine. Karyn can take of herself."

Trip sighed and nodded he knew Archer was right. He just didn't like the idea of Karyn going into hostile space especially after what happened on her last away mission.

/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/

After her shift Karyn went straight to her quarters. It had been one of the weirdest days she had ever had. First her realisation about her feelings, then the commander appearing at her door asking her if they could have breakfast together and then the sub-commander asking to go on an away mission with her.

"Well at least it good to know that, that year I spent on science wasn't a waste." She said to herself.

Karyn sighed she just wished that she could get things with lieutenant Reed sorted out. At that moment her door chimed making her jump.

"Come in."

"Hey." Travis said as he walked in.

"Hey Travis, what's up?"

"I just came to see how you were doing." Travis answered.

"Huh?" Karyn said a little confused. "I'm fine why wouldn't I be?" she replied with a little laugh.

"Oh just wondering."

"Have you been talking to Hoshi?" she asked inquisitively.

"What makes you think that?" Travis asked.

"Because that's the only reason you'd be here asking how I am." Karyn replied thinking about this morning.

"Hey can't a friend come by to just say hello?"

"Hmmm."

/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/

In the mess hall Hoshi was waiting to speak to Travis, she had told him about Karyn's unusual behaviour this morning and how she was worried about her.
While she waited she also thought about Malcolm's peculiar behaviour and about what Travis had told her about the so-called 'fight' yesterday.

/-I think I know what's going on.-/ she thought with a slight smile.

A few moments later Travis walked in and headed straight for Hoshi.

"Well?" she asked as Travis sat down.

"She sounds fine to me." Travis stated. "Although she did want to know why I was asking if she was okay."

"I know there's something wrong." Hoshi said.

"Then why don't you just ask her?" Travis said.

"Because she'd say exactly the same thing to me as she did to you."

"That there's nothing wrong."

"Right, but there is I just know it."

"Maybe it's because Malcolm won't speak to her." A voice suddenly said.

Both Hoshi and Travis turned in the direction of the voice and saw…

"Captain." Travis said a little shocked.

/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/

When Hoshi arrived at Karyn's quarters she chimed it.
/-This better work.-/ she thought.
Karyn opened the door a few minutes later.

"Hoshi."

"Come on Karyn…" Hoshi said grabbing Karyn's arm and dragging her off.

"Hoshi, where are we going? I can walk myself you know." Trying to get her arm back.

"The Captain needs to see you." Hoshi finally says.

"Really? Well you could of just told me instead of dragging me there." Karyn said catching up with Hoshi.

They entered the mess hall and went straight towards the captain's mess.
"In there?" Karyn asks she thought it was a strange place to be called to specially this late at night.

Hoshi nodded, Karyn sighed and went in. She couldn't help thinking that this was all prearranged some how.
It was dark in the room she hardly see anything, as she looked around the room she couldn't see any sign of the captain anywhere.

/-I knew this was a set up.-/ Karyn thought as walked towards the view port and looked out.

A couple of minutes later the door opened again and a voice said, "You wanted to see me sir?"

Karyn froze at the sound of the voice for she recognised it instantly. Slowly she turned round but she couldn't see who it was because it was so dark.

"Malcolm?" she says nervously hoping he wouldn't shout at her for calling him by his first name.

There was silence for a while then he said.
"Karyn? What are you doing here?"

"I was told the Captain wanted to see me. So I made my way here, actually I was dragged half way by Hoshi." She explained.

"I was told the same thing by Travis, but why would they go to all this trouble?" Malcolm asked.

"You got me." Karyn said.

"To get you two to talk to one another." A voice said out of the darkness.

"Captain?" Karyn and Malcolm said in unison.

As if on cue the lights went up and there stood captain Archer.

"What's going on?" Karyn asked.

"I could ask you two the same thing." Archer said.

"Sir?" Malcolm asks clearly confused.

"You two have been avoiding each other ever since Lieutenant Kelly never showed up for that 'meeting'." Archer said.

"Actually that's not true sir. I went to see the Lieutenant as soon as I could to explain."

"And?"

"It didn't go very well." Karyn said sadly, remembering what happened.

"I gathered that bit Karyn." Archer said. "What happened?"

Karyn then turned back to the view port not wanting to say.

Seeing this Archer turned to Malcolm.
"Mr. Reed? Care to explain." He asked.

"It's my fault sir." Malcolm said.

"Oh?"

"I wouldn't let Lieutenant Kelly explain. I was annoyed that she never turned up." Malcolm explained.

At this point Karyn turned round and stared at Malcolm in amazement.

"Well if you had let her explain you would of found out that she never turned up because she was in sickbay."

Now it was Malcolm's turn to look at Karyn in amazement.
"Sickbay?"

Karyn nodded "Phlox wanted to run a few tests, to see how I was doing." She explained softly.

"I see." Malcolm said, suddenly feeling very stupid for not letting her explain in the first place.

"If you'll excuse me Captain. I have an away mission in the morning." And with that she left.

"Away mission?" Malcolm said slightly confused.

/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/

The next morning T'Pol was in the launch bay waiting for Karyn's arrival. She had arrived early to check over a few things in the shuttle pod before departure.
At zero nine fifty hours Karyn entered the launch bay along with Hoshi, saying how she was going to get her back for setting her up last night. Inside though Karyn was secretly pleased that she had. Now she could put her full concentration into the mission ahead.

"I'll see you when I get back." Karyn said seeing T'Pol waiting for her.

"Just make sure you do come back or you're in big trouble." Hoshi joked.

Karyn smiled and nodded, and Hoshi left the launch bay.

"Good morning Sub-Commander." She greeted cheerily.

"Good morning Lieutenant." T'Pol replied. "Are you ready to leave?"

"Yes."

"Then let's get going." T'Pol said not wanting to waste any time.

They left the ship a little earlier than planned and were soon heading towards the designated planet. It was a quiet journey, Karyn admiring the view whilst piloting the shuttle and T'Pol looking over some the scans she took while still on Enterprise.
As they approached the planet Karyn was amazed at the amount of colour in the atmosphere.

"It's looks just like a rainbow." She said with awe.

"I fail to see the relevance of comparing a planets atmosphere to that of a phenomena which (1)is produce by the dispersion of sunlight by spherical raindrops." T'Pol says joining Karyn up front.

"It maybe that to you Sub-Commander but to me… it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." Karyn replied.

T'Pol was just about to tell Karyn where to land when suddenly the shuttle rocked.

"What was that?" Karyn said as she checked the instruments.

"We appear to be under attack." T'Pol answered calmly.

"Great." Karyn said sarcastically under her breath, as she took evasive manoeuvres.

"When you said hostile I didn't think you meant this kind of hostile." Karyn said as the shuttle rocked once again. "Damn it!" getting slightly annoyed.

"There is only one kind of hostile Lieutenant." T'Pol said while trying to retain her balance.

"We've just lost our port engine." Karyn reported.

"T'Pol to Enterprise."

"Go ahead." Archer's voice said over the comm. system.

"We are under attack…" T'Pol started to say when Karyn interrupted.

"I can't keep her up. We're going to have to crash land on the planet."

Just then a small explosion happened.

"We…our…way" Came a shattered reply.

"Captain we're losing you." T'Pol says.

"I've lost helm control…" Karyn began to say when another small explosion happened. "…And we've just lost communications."

"Try and land in the forest. It'll be harder to locate us." T'Pol said before being thrown backwards.

"I'll try but I'm not promising anything." Karyn said trying to avoid the sparks the helm was giving off. "Hold tight."

The next thing Karyn and T'Pol knew was darkness.

/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/
(On Enterprise.)

"Sir, T'Pol is hailing us." Hoshi said.

"Put her through." Archer said.

Hoshi pushed a few buttons and T'Pol's voice filled the bridge.

"T'Pol to Enterprise."

"Go ahead." Archer replied.

"We are under attack…" T'Pol started to say when another voice cut in.

"I can't keep her up. We're going to have to crash land on the planet."
It was Karyn's.

Then what sounded like a small explosion came over the comm.

"We're on our way."

"Captain…losing…" came a shattered reply.

"I've…lost…helm…" was the last thing that was heard before the conversation was terminated.

There was silence on the bridge for a minute, everyone wondering what happened and if they were both okay.

"Travis set a course." Archer said while getting up out of his command chair and heading towards Hoshi. "See if you can get them back."

After a few minutes Hoshi shook her head "Sorry sir I can't reach them."

Archer then turned to Travis and asked "Travis how long until we get there?"

"Five minutes sir." Travis reported.

"Archer to Lieutenant Reed."

"Reed here sir."

"Malcolm arm the weapons. I don't want any unwelcome surprises." He said walking back to his command chair.

But just he said that the ship rocked catching everyone off guard and throwing them every which way.

"Captain are you okay?" Travis asked as a stunned Archer got up.

"Yea I think so. What…" But before he could finish the ship rocked again.
Archer pulled himself into his command chair.

"Captain what's going on?"

"We're under attack Malcolm." Archer said as the ship rocked again. "Polarise the hull plating."

"I'm afraid I can't sir. All defences have gone offline, Hull plating, Phase canons, and Torpedoes."

"Damn! Archer to Commander Tucker."

"Tucker here."

"Trip do you think you can get us the hell outta here." Archer said.

"I'll do best, but it's like the fourth of July down here. Tucker out."

Archer smiled at Trip's comment and the ship rocked yet again.

"Sir what about the Sub-Commander and Lieutenant Kelly?" Malcolm asked after hearing that they were leaving.

"We can't help them now Malcolm." Archer replied.

"Permission to take shuttle to the planet and look for them." Malcolm suddenly asks.

"No Malcolm I need you here." Archer replied.

"Yes sir. Reed out" Malcolm replied gloomily.

"Turn us around Travis warp 2.5."

"Aye sir." Travis replied. "The alien ship is matching our speed."

"Trip, how far can we push the engines?" Archer asked.

"I would say only to about 3.5 after that we risk losing main power."

"Travis."

"Aye sir. Increasing to 3.5. We're losing them, they can't seem to match our speed."

Back where Enterprise was first attacked a shuttle pod not spotted by Enterprise or the alien ship is now heading towards Karyn and T'Pol as fast as it can go!