Chapter 5
Madison pulled the blanket back over them as the chill of the air started creeping in once again. She nuzzled his neck as he held her, his eyes drifting shut contentedly.
"Malcolm?"
"Yes..." he answered cautiously. He wasn't complaining... she had been the most amazing woman he'd ever been with, though their first time still remained an unparalleled highlight in his life, but he was only human... he had limits, and he had reached them.
She propped herself up on her elbows, staring down at him. "Stay..."
He opened his eyes and looked up into her anxious face. He sighed. "I can't. My friends are probably already looking for me... I must go home... where I belong." He stroked her shoulder comfortingly, carefully avoiding straying too close to her spine.
She seemed to have been expecting it, but it still came as a blow. She dropped her eyes, obviously crushed. She seemed to contemplate something seriously for a moment, then took a deep breath. "Take me home." she said, determination in her eyes.
He sighed deeply. It wasn't as if the thought hadn't crossed his mind. He had tried to figure a way to take her ever since they had reemerged from the underground passage. Try as he might, he couldn't see any way around regulations. They could offer passage for beings in trouble, but he could find no way to justify taking someone from their home planet with no necessary destination. "I don't think I can..." he said sadly.
It was as if something died in her eyes. She looked away, then nodded in understanding. She quickly slipped off him and out of the bed. She hurried over and got another gown, slipping it over her head.
He didn't know what to say. He didn't want to raise her hopes, only to crush them later. He watched her as she made tea in silence. As he sipped his tea, he realized he still hadn't eaten anything... but as he drank the tea, even the faint ghost of hunger that had begun to creep over him vanished.
He looked around, up at the shelf that held her dishes. Cups. A spare pitcher. A couple of pots for making tea. It suddenly dawned on him that there were no plates at all.. no utensils other than the thin rod she used to stir the tea... no bowls except for the one she had washed his hands over... He looked down into the clear liquid in his cup and smelt it. This appeared to be what she lived on.
It was hard to believe someone could survive on clear liquids alone, but he couldn't deny that it filled him, and he felt no lack of energy... well, except for the energy she had drained out of him in the last couple of hours.
She filled his cup again, then got up and went over to her table, uncovering the equipment and settled down in the chair, picking up some of the loose circuit boards.
He watched her for a while, sipping his tea until it was gone, then settled back, feeling exceedingly tired. He was asleep almost before his eyes had closed.
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Hoshi brightened suddenly. "You reading this?" she shot over to Travis for confirmation.
He tapped some keys and nodded, "A live comm signal."
"Open hailing frequency." T'Pol called out, striding forward.
"Open." Hoshi replied after a few taps.
"Lieutenant Reed, can you hear me?" She asked.
There was a crackling, rustling noise, then silence.
"Malcolm, are you there?" she said a bit more urgently.
There was a pause, then a soft, timid voice answered, "Malcolm?"
T'Pol and Hoshi looked at eachother. "Who is this?" T'Pol asked carefully.
"Madison." there was a static filled pause, then the voice continued. "Malcolm want go home. Come get."
"We would like to come and get him, but the storm is preventing it."
"Yes... I ask Ooroko. Storm stop soon... Come take Malcolm home."
There was a beep from the console.
"The transmission is gone." Hoshi sighed.
"Subcommander..." Travis called over, then looked up. "The storm is starting to lose intensity."
She straightened up. "How soon until we can get through to the surface?"
Travis checked the figures, "If it keeps going the way it is... forty, maybe fifty minutes."
"Prepare a shuttlepod." She said, gazing out at the huge planet that filled the viewscreen.
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Malcolm awoke to lips gently kissing him. He smiled and kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her. It didn't slip his attention that the body pressed against him was naked once more. He broke the kiss and sighed, "I really have to go. My friends will be looking for me..."
She pulled back a little, looking sadly down into his eyes and nodded. "Soon... you go home soon. Dark is fading, wind go... light come soon, and then go home."
He listened. The storm had indeed started dying down. He couldn't hear the creaks of the house or the howl of the wind anymore. He knew it wouldn't be much longer before a search party would manage to find him.
"Before you go," She said tentatively, imploringly, "Last time?"
He looked up into those big beautiful eyes and had to smile. How could he say no to that face?
He pulled her to him and then made love to her one last time. He took his time, kissing and caressing her... making sure it was an experience she wouldn't soon forget.
When it was over, he held her, his heart aching as she cried softly on his shoulder. It was a while before she collected herself.
When she had dried her eyes she got up, dressing quickly. She poured some tea that had been warming by the fire and handed it to him, then hurried over to the table, shoving a couple more scraps of wire and metal into his already stuffed looking backpack. There were strips of dark material over where the rips had been.
He got up, wrapping the blanket around him for warmth, and crossed the room to her. He slipped his arms around her waist and held her to him, kissing the side of her neck. "I'm sorry, Madison. There is nothing I'd like more than to take you with me... I'm simply not allowed..."
She nodded. "Understand. Dress. Friends come soon."
"Probably." He sighed, wondering how hard it was going to be to find his way back to the landing site. He certainly wasn't looking forward to trudging through that snow again.
She shook her head, "Definite. I call."
He stiffened and released her, "What?"
She picked up a tangle of wires and circuits. He instantly recognized the little microphone and receivers. "You got it working?" He asked in astonishment.
She nodded, handing it to him and walking away. He studied it for a moment, then saw the little button she had attached as a breaker. He pressed it, "Enterprise? Can you hear me?"
It crackled and hissed, but suddenly he heard a familiar voice. "Lieutenant Reed?" T'Pol asked calmly.
"Yes!" He said hurriedly, "I'm in a house on the edge of the village..."
"We have been informed. We are entering the atmosphere and should be at your location in approximately ten minutes."
He felt a surge of relief... and a competing surge of guilt and regret. "Understood. I will be awaiting your arrival." He said, then turned it off as one of the circuits started to spark.
He set it down on the table, then turned to look for Madison. She was walking back with a neat little stack of his clothes.
He took them and donned them quietly as she busied herself putting fresh logs on the fire. Though there was some warping of the material where she had obviously tried to mend the clothes, they still had a gash across the side. She HAD managed to get the blood stains out of them at least.
He put the 'communicator' in the top of the pack but it barely fit. He felt around the sides and discovered several bulges that his own equipment couldn't account for, even when disassembled. "What's in here?" He asked, trying to move the shrapnel aside to see without unpacking.
"Things not needed. Gift." She said softly.
He sighed and went over, sitting down beside her. "You don't need to give me a gift." He said gently.
"Most seeds. They not grow here now. You take home so they live." She said, studiously not looking at him.
"Madison..." He said, pained. He slipped his arms around her and she shifted over, wrapping herself around him, kissing him passionately.
They spent a few blissful minutes just wrapped up in the warmth of eachothers embrace. Finally he had to break the kiss, looking up. He could now hear the unmistakable sounds of an approaching shuttlepod.
He sighed, holding her very tight for a moment, then whispered, "I'll see if I can talk them into letting me take you... I'll try to find a way..."
She nodded, eyes down, then carefully disentangled herself from him. He got up and went over and donned his environmental suit (minus the now mangled remains of the breastplate and helmet). He saw that she had repaired it in the same manner as his pack. He examined the dark strip closer. It was a strip of cloth with some sort of dried tar or pitch on one side. Well, it appeared to do the trick. He checked his pack over with a heavy heart. As he finished fastening it she hurried over to him. She held out a large, finely knitted coat of a natural off-white color.
"What's that for?" He asked.
"You. Is cold." She said, working his arm into the sleeve, not waiting for any arguments.
He looked down at it as she fastened it shut using the long cords and loops built into it. It was double layered and looked like it had taken a very long time to make. She flipped up the hood as a knock sounded at the door. He grabbed up his pack and got over to the door just in time to help her get the last bar out of place.
T'Pol's cool gaze met him from behind a clear faceplate. She looked him over, noting his new coat, and then looked at Madison. "This must be Madison."
"Yes," Malcolm said, glancing at the nervous look on the young woman's face. "I needed to talk to you about that... she's asked to be allowed to come with us."
T'Pol gave him a very shrewd look, then said, "That would have to be a decision for the Captain to make." She said diplomatically, though from her glance in Madison's direction he knew she didn't think much of the idea.
"Then I need to talk to him." Malcolm said doggedly.
"He is... indisposed at the moment. At any rate, we have to hurry. The sun is up, and I believe the shuttle was spotted by the natives on approach. It is not safe here."
Malcolm looked over at Madison, who was shivering from the cold as she stood there in the snow in her thin gown and bare feet. "I'll talk to him." He reassured her, taking her hand.
She gave him a sad smile, "Just go home Malcolm. It is all right." she let go of his hand and folded her arms protectively in from of her.
He sighed, then followed T'Pol back to the shuttle.
He watched out the little window in the door as the shuttle rose into the air. She was standing there a couple yards from her front door, ignoring the cold as she watched him go. He sat down as she dropped out of sight, starting to work the fastenings open on his coat.
"Who or what is Ooroko?"
Malcolm looked up, surprised, "That's Madison's pet... bizarre little creature actually... how do you know about it?"
"When this 'Madison' contacted the Enterprise, she said she had asked Ooroko to turn off the storm that was preventing us from retrieving you... and the storm did indeed begin to break up shortly thereafter." T'Pol said evenly.
Malcolm looked at her, completely baffled. "How could Ooroko turn off the storm?"
"That is precisely what I would like to know." She replied.
Malcolm shook his head, "It's just like a kind of cat... except it has eight legs... well really six legs and two appendages that look more like arms... it did have opposable thumbs on it's hands and showed definite signs of intelligence, but I hardly think a little thing like that could control the weather. Unless..." He tried to remember all she'd said, "She did say that there used to be technology here... from what she said, very advanced... and that she knew about it by going into the forest... maybe there's something in there that could effect the weather? Something that she could have taught this Ooroko to turn off?"
T'Pol arched an eyebrow, considering it. "That is a possibility... the study of this planet was cut quite short when one of the teams of observers was discovered and slaughtered, so there may have been a hidden, cloaked technology of some sort they didn't have time to discover."
"She also said that this planet is dying. Sounded like some kind of global cooling..."
"We noticed." T'Pol said in her usual emotionless tone. "The population is down to only seven percent of what it was when it was studied less than fifty years ago. The planet is spiraling out of orbit, drifting further and further from it's sun. In a couple more years it will be completely uninhabitable."
"Well then we have to go back there and get her! We can't just leave her here to die!" Malcolm said tensely.
"As I said, that is up to the captain."
"Well then get him on the communicator so we don't have to waste all that time making a second trip." Malcolm said with determination. Surely the Captain wouldn't make him leave her now...
"As I said, the Captain is unavailable. He was injured when that creature attacked the away team."
Malcolm's stomach fell, "How badly?" he asked fearfully. It had been several days since the attack, surely the doctor would have fixed him up by now?
"The bite he received contained a potent venom. Dr. Phlox was able to slow the effects for a time, but in the last couple of hours he has taken a turn for the worse."
"I have to see him..." He suddenly remembered the present Madison had said she put in his pack. He dug the smashed components out of the way, letting them scatter onto the floor of the shuttlepod. T'Pol merely watched him without comment.
At last he pulled out a large, organic shaped piece of carved wood. It took him a minute to figure out how to open it, but finally he was able to pull out a thin wooden peg, which left the lid free to slide to the side.
There were about thirty hollows dug into the wood, each filled with a different kind of seeds and capped with a carefully carved piece of clear, softly glowing blue crystal. "There are about thirty kinds of indigenous seeds here..." he slid the lid shut, noticing a similar peg on the bottom of the piece. He flipped it over and pulled out the second peg. It opened just like the other side, to reveal yet another set of crystal capped seeds. "Make that about sixty. Maybe one of them would help?"
T'Pol accepted the odd container and began examining it.
Malcolm looked in the pack again. There were a couple more items still in it. He lifted out the cloth bag and opened it. It looked like weeds. He gave it a sniff and smiled, recognizing it.
"What is in there?" T'Pol asked, looking up.
"Tea." he said with a little grin. He leaned back, an ache of longing in his chest. He sat there quietly, wondering what would happen to her if he was not allowed to bring her along.
He pushed those thoughts aside as the shuttle docked. He quickly gathered up his pack and coat and hurried out. T'Pol matched pace with him, carrying the seed container as they made their way up into the decontamination chamber.
Malcolm hurried over to the comm panel, "I need to see the Captain."
Dr. Phlox peered through the window with a genial smile, "I'm sorry Lieutenant, but procedures must be followed."
"But..." He said, trying to catch a glimpse of the Captain through the window.
"I know you must be concerned, but the last thing he needs right now is to contract some alien virus."
Malcolm sighed, but couldn't argue with that. He reluctantly stripped down and waited for the doctor to complete his scans.
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