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 9 - Confessions
" I think we lost them sir." Travis said.
"Drop out of warp."
Suddenly main power went down.
"Trip what's going on?" Archer asked.
"Sorry Cap'n we just lost two anti-matter injectors. We still have anti-matter on-line but before we can go anywhere we have to get at least one injector up and running. It's gonna take three maybe four days to get warp drive back! Impulse engines are a bit easier 'cos we just blown a couple of power converters and I already got a team on it. I'll have them on-line in a couple of hours!"
"But at impulse it would take us three weeks to reach the planet where Karyn and T'Pol landed. The alien ship has probably gone back after them by now." Travis commented.
"What? You mean that they haven't come back yet? But I gotta a signal that the launch bay doors opened before we went to warp!"
"Malcolm." Archer suddenly said.
"Malcolm?" Trip said slightly confused.
"T'Pol and Karyn's shuttle was attacked and crashed on the planet they were surveying. Malcolm asked if he could take a shuttle and go after them, I told him that I needed him here." Archer explained. "Trip we need those engines."
"I'll get on it right away. Tucker out."
"Bridge to Armoury."
"Ensign Hunt here sir."
"Is Lieutenant Reed still there?" Archer asked, hoping against hope that he was wrong and it was just a computer glitch.
"No sir, he said he was going to the bridge." The ensign replied slightly confused.
"Damn you Malcolm!" Archer said to himself.
/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/
On the planet Karyn slowly regained consciousness.
"Oh… what happened?" she asked.
"We have crashed on a planet in hostile space." T'Pol answered.
"Huh?" Karyn said, still not fully aware.
Things sparked around her and she felt strangely light-headed. She shook her head trying to clear it and immediately regretted it.
"I haven't felt this bad since my engagement party two years ago." She said holding her head.
"We can't stay here, this will be the first place they'll look." T'Pol said opening the shuttle door.
Outside the shuttle was lush, dense forest that appeared to go on for miles.
"Is it me or has it suddenly got colder?" Karyn enquired, rubbing her arms.
T'Pol turned back to Karyn; it was perhaps ninety to a hundred02 degrees outside and yet she was complaining of it being cold. T'Pol regarded her companion critically, and spotted the reason why Karyn was cold.
"You're bleeding." She stated, looking for her scanner within the debris.
"Huh? Bleeding?" Karyn repeated as she wondered what T'Pol was on about. She noticed that her right hand was red; she stared at it in amazement.
After finding her scanner T'Pol continued to scan Karyn to see how badly she was injured. She found that Karyn had a huge gash on her right arm, which was bleeding heavily.
Karyn on the other hand had no idea what was going on; all she knew was that she was on some planet with the sub-commander. But she wasn't interested in that so much as she was more interested in why her hand was blood red. She stared at it intently, thinking that the answer would appear out of nowhere.
"Lieutenant." T'Pol said trying to snap Karyn out of her 'trance'. She shook Karyn gently not wanting to make her injury any worse. "Lieutenant!"
"Sub-Commander?" Karyn was startled, as if realising for the first time what was going on. She was looking around at the wrecked shuttle pod in amazement. "We made it?"
"Yes, but you have been injured." T'Pol explained. "We must salvage what we can."
"Right." Karyn carefully got up and helped with what she could.
After salvaging what they needed Karyn and T'Pol left the shuttle pod and walked through the forest. They walked for about hour when Karyn stopped.
"Can we rest now?" She asked as she collapsed to the ground.
T'Pol turned to Karyn and saw her sitting on the ground resting next to a tree.
"We have to keep moving."
"To be honest I don't think I can walk another step." Karyn replied.
T'Pol took out her scanner and scanned the area looking for a suitable place to rest. There seemed to be some kind of cave formation five meters away.
"There appears to be a cave five meters ahead. It would be safer to rest there rather than out here, where we can easily be attacked." T'Pol states.
"I guess." She replied as she got up. "Ouch!" she yelped after her arm scraped against the tree she was using to help herself up.
"Are you all right?"
"Yea… just a little pain that's all." Karyn explained. "Let's get going. The sooner we get there the sooner I can rest." She bit her lip, desperately ignoring the pain that surged through her arm.
They'd only gone a few feet when Karyn thought she heard something.
"What was that?" she said looking round.
"What was what?" T'Pol asked.
"That sound. Didn't you hear it?"
"No, it appears that your loss of blood has made you paranoid."
"Maybe you're right." Karyn said with a sigh.
Suddenly just as T'Pol was walking past a nearby tree a strange sound was heard then the tree exploded.
"I suppose you didn't hear that either." Karyn said a little too sarcastically while running towards her to see if she was okay.
Then the same thing happened again and again.
"They've found us." T'Pol stated.
"Gee what gave you that idea." Karyn quipped while running and dodging weapons fire. "How far is it to the cave?"
"Another three metres." T'Pol replied just dodging a weapons blast.
/-I wish Malcolm was here.-/ Karyn thought.
Just then one of the weapons found their mark: Karyn's leg. She yelped in agony and fell to the ground landing on her injured arm. Hearing Karyn's cry of pain T'Pol turn back to see her lying on the ground.
"Lieutenant are you okay?"
"I've been shot." Karyn replied, trying to ignore the pain in both her arm and leg.
"Can you get up?"
"No, I don't think so."
Then Karyn heard a rustle behind her, she turned to look and saw a reptile like figure with brownie coloured scales and piercing yellow eyes. They wore a greeny yellow all in one flight suit. And were heading straight for Karyn. She tried to scramble away but couldn't move fast enough with just one arm. Just as the figure bent down to grab her he was suddenly knocked side ways, as Karyn looked over to see what had happened she was amazed to see…
"Malcolm?" she gasped in a state of shock.
But what she was even more amazed at was what Malcolm was doing. He was repeatedly punching the alien saying 'I'm not going to let you do that! How dare you shoot at her! How dare you shoot her!' it took another two or three punches to make Karyn come out of her shock. Slowly but carefully Karyn got up then dragged herself towards Malcolm and the now seriously incapacitated alien, and with all the strength she had left. Used her good arm to pull him off the alien.
"I'm okay. I probably look half dead but I'm okay." She says reassuring him. "But thanks for the concern." She smiled.
Malcolm nodded then looked at his hands they were covered in blue blood. He was amazed at what he had just done.
Then a voice shouted "Lieutenant." And was recognised immediately as being T'Pol's. She hadn't seen the little 'scene' that went on a few moments ago as she was unable to move from her place due to weapons fire. Now that it had stopped she looked over and was very surprised to see Malcolm standing with Karyn.
"We'd better get going." Karyn said dragging her leg along the ground.
"Are you sure you can manage?" Malcolm asked.
Karyn turned to him and said, "Hey, I may look incapable of doing things, but I assure you I am still capable of doing some things." With her good hand on her hip.
Malcolm smiled at that comment and watched as Karyn 'tried' to walk away. He reached her just as she was about to fall and neatly caught her.
"You may be able capable of doing some things Lieutenant, but walking isn't one of them." Malcolm said as he picked her up and walked towards T'Pol.
Karyn sighed, "If you insist… sir."
"I do."
/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/
(Enterprise)
In his quarters Jon paced.
"I should have never let T'Pol talk me into letting them go to that planet." He thought out loud.
Porthos sat and watched as his master paced about adding a 'woof' every now and then.
"I should of stuck to my original decision and took the ship in."
Then T'Pol's voice came into his head. 'There is no point risking the ship. We don't know just how hostile this species is. If we took Enterprise to the planet, it could very well be destroyed. I suggest taking a shuttle pod, it has less chance of detection.'
That was the statement that won him over.
"Less chance of detection." He repeated as he sighed and looked out the view port.
He then turned and sat on his bed, to which Porthos went over and put his head on Archer's leg. Jon looked down at his dog and smiled. "I know they can take of themselves." He said while stroking the beagle's head.
"Woof."
He then went over to the comm. "Trip how are those engines coming?"
"Impulse is back online and we should have warp day after tomorrow." Trip answered.
"I thought you said it would take four days to fix warp drive."
"Yea well… we just can't leave 'em stuck on that planet can we."
Jon again smiled that was Trip's feelings talking.
"Just don't over do it Trip. Archer out."
/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/
In the mess hall Hoshi sat staring out the window wondering how Karyn was getting on.
"You okay?" a voice asked.
"Huh?" she says as she turned to face the person.
"I asked if you were okay?"
"Yea Travis. I'm okay. A little worried I guess."
"They'll be all right."
Hoshi smiled then turned back to the window.
"I know. But I can't help worrying." Hoshi smiled before continuing, "She always did say I worry to much."
"Karyn?" Travis asked taking a seat.
"Yeah." She laughed a little before continuing. "I remember one occasion a month or so after we first met, Karyn and I took a trip to an asteroid belt. She'd fly so close to the asteroids that I thought we'd crash."
Travis laughed.
"I kept asking her not to fly too close, but she always laughed and said 'Now that's no fun.' "
"So that's why you're always a little nervous of asteroid fields."
"I'm not exactly nervous about them Travis. I just don't like them" she stated.
They both laughed.
"So that's where that ship disappeared to." A voice said.
"You know Captain you really should stop doing that." Travis said turning to him.
"Doing what Travis." He asked with a smile knowing full well what Travis meant.
"How are the repairs going sir?" Hoshi asked turning to face him.
"They're going well Hoshi. Trip says we'll have warp back day after tomorrow." Jon answers.
"Day after tomorrow? I thought he said it would take four days to fix warp drive." Travis said slightly amazed.
"To quote Commander Tucker. 'We just can't leave 'em stuck on that planet now can we.' " Archer said doing his best impression of Trip.
They all laughed.
"Now you all wouldn't be making fun of me would ya?" Trip said appearing at the table.
"Us?" Travis replied a smile "Never right… Cap'n?"
After a little laugh Archer replied, "Right Travis."
/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/
(On the planet)
T'Pol, Karyn and Malcolm had just reached the cave. Malcolm placed Karyn near the back of the cave. It was a very large and deep cave but it suited their needs of shelter and protection against any more attacks. After making sure Karyn was all right Malcolm went up to the entrance where T'Pol was 'keeping watch'.
"I'm surprised the Captain allowed you to come to the planet." T'Pol said looking at the readings she was taking with her scanner.
"He didn't exactly allow me to come." Malcolm answered.
"He either did or he didn't Lieutenant." She said now looking at him "Personally I would have kept you on Enterprise."
"He did."
"If he wanted you to stay on Enterprise then what are you doing here? Not that I'm not grateful that you saved me from that alien." Karyn threw in, joining the conversation.
"He was… sort of busy at the time." Malcolm answered trying to avoid the question.
"Doing what?" T'Pol asked curiously.
"Er… he was… er…" trying to think of a reason. He couldn't tell them the real reason for he knew they wouldn't be pleased, but by the looks on their faces they weren't going to give up until they knew. He sighed. "Trying to get the ship out of danger."
"The ship was under attack." T'Pol said.
"And you left?" Karyn exclaimed, annoyed as well as surprised.
"How badly was the ship damaged?" T'Pol asked.
"They took us by surprise and managed to take out our defences with one shot. Other than that I'm not sure, besides Commander Tucker's comment about it being the fourth of July down in engineering." He answered.
"That means that they took some pretty heavy damage. Sounds like we might be here for a while." Karyn says. If she weren't injured she would have slapped Malcolm for leaving Enterprise when they needed him.
"So you left against the Captains wishes." T'Pol stated.
To which Malcolm gave a nod.
"You're lucky I'm injured Lieutenant or I'd hit you." Karyn said her annoyance clear in her voice. She did not care that he was a senior officer.
"Well I couldn't just leave you here could I." Malcolm said to Karyn a little surprised that she used his rank.
"We would have been just fine thank you." Karyn answered back.
"Would you have preferred getting grabbed by that alien instead?"
Karyn just turned her head and looked at the back of the cave hoping they thought she was just annoyed. The pain in her arm had drastically gotten worse she hadn't noticed it, make that ignored it until now she closed her eyes and bit her lip trying to withstand it. She held her arm tightly trying to make the pain subside if only a little and gradually it did. It was a little more bearable now she relaxed only for the pain to get worse. She immediately tensed again, retightening her grip which again made it subside once again. She was grateful but didn't relax this time. As she slowly opened her eyes a single tear rolled down her cheek.
"Either way you are here. And you can watch over Lieutenant Kelly while I go and see if I can find some food and something to treat her injuries with." T'Pol said walking off.
Malcolm sighed he had disobeyed the captain to come here and help only to find that they didn't want his help. Then he heard "Will nothing go right for me! First Kian, then Trip, then having amnesia, then that kiss and now this! Oh I hate my life!"
/-Kiss? What kiss?-/ Malcolm wondered.
He turned to Karyn seeing she was still facing the back wall and holding her right arm tightly. He wondered why she was holding it so tightly as far as he knew the
only injury she had was on her leg.
"What kiss?" he asked curiously.
"Hm?" Karyn asked turning back to him.
"I said what kiss?"
"Kiss? I didn't say anything about a kiss. In fact I didn't say anything at all." A little confused, she didn't realise she had spoken out loud. She then gave a little yawn. "I need to get some sleep." Her eyes were closing.
"Karyn." Malcolm warned, seeing she was drifting off.
He took one more look outside to check there no one there then went to her. He shook her gently to wake her up; he couldn't let her fall asleep not until her
injuries had been seen to. "Karyn wake up."
"Hm? Just a few more minutes Mum, I promise I'll get up." She replied sleepily turning a little only to receive a stabbing pain in her leg.
"Karyn you have to wake up now… That's an order."
She smiled a little before saying "Yes sir." Slowly she opened her eyes only for them to start to close again a few seconds later.
Malcolm was starting to worry if he couldn't get her to stay awake she might fall into a coma caused by blood loss. "Karyn you have to stay wake." He pleaded.
"I'm trying… but it's not working." She answered joking a little.
"Please… you have to stay awake." He was running out of ideas as to how to keep her awake and the warm environment wasn't helping either.
"Don't worry I'll…be… okay." She was slowly dropping off to sleep.
/-I have to keep her talking.-/ he thought.
"Karyn what did you mean by 'that kiss'?" he asked it was the only thing he could think of and for some reason it just kept going round in his mind.
Karyn's eyes opened slightly then she asked
"What kiss?"
"You mentioned it earlier along with Kian, Trip and having amnesia."
"Did I?"
"Yes."
"Oh you mean when Trip and I kissed. But how did you know about that?" her eyes starting to close again.
"You… kissed the… Commander?" he asked surprised.
"Yea…although…I kinda regret it now." She replied trying to keep her eyes open and stay with the conversation. Even if it was a topic she didn't want to discuss at least at was helping to keep her awake.
"Why?"
Karyn looked at him she still felt tired and it showed but she was awake enough to have a proper conversation.
"Why did I kiss him? Or why do I regret it?" she asked.
"Both."
"It was a spur of the moment thing I guess." She sighed and looked at the ground. Which made her look as if she had closed eyes again. "I mean I wasn't expecting him to turn up outside my quarters the next morning asking if we could have breakfast. Why do you ask?" now looking at him.
"But why did you kiss him in the first place?" answering her with a question.
Karyn smiled "You didn't answer my question."
"And you haven't answered mine."
"I'll make you a deal Malcolm. I'll answer your question if you'll answer mine." She said slyly.
"All right." Hoping Karyn would answer first.
"It was because of you… and Trip."
"Because of me?" now he was confused. How could it be because of him?
"Kinda. You see I had heard about the little 'fight' the both of you had, and I went to see Trip about it." She explained.
"But that still doesn't explain…" he says before Karyn interrupts him.
"It will…" she looked down at the ground once again. "I found him in engineering and asked if we could talk. He agreed and we made our way to his quarters…"
Malcolm didn't like sound of the way this was going. He was kind of glad Karyn wasn't looking him or she might have seen the hurt he was feeling.
"We talked for a bit… about you mostly."
"Me?" He was surprised at how honest she was being.
"And it just happened I guess." She finished.
"But why were you talking about me?" Malcolm wondered aloud.
"Well I've told you why I kissed Trip now it's your turn to tell me why you wanted to know." Karyn said with a slight yawn then looked at him her eyes nearly closed.
"I was just trying to keep you awake." He answered trying to hide the real reason.
Karyn may not have been looking properly at him but she could tell he was lying just by the sound of his voice. "Yeah… and I'm married to the Captain." She replied sarcastically.
"I'll be sure to tell him." They heard T'Pol say.
Malcolm turned round while Karyn 'reopened' her eyes. They both saw T'Pol standing at the entrance to the cave.
"Thanks, I'm sure he'll be pleased to know." Karyn joked.