Behind Blue Eyes
By Thalia Drogna
AN: We're still in flash-back land here.
Trip was making the final adjustments to the mechanism which would render the weapon useless. It wouldn't destroy it but it would damage it enough that the Klingons wouldn't be able to work out what to do with it. Antonia came dashing back down the corridor.
"I just forgot one of my padds," she said going to pick up the forgotten padd. "You there yet?"
"Nearly," replied Trip, twisting two wires together to make the final connection. "There, done." He collected his tools together and grabbed the rest of his gear. "Let's go." They walked from the room and straight into the arms of a waiting Klingon who grabbed them roughly.
The Klingon said something in his native language. Whatever it was Trip didn't like the sound of it. He switched from engineer to MACO in the space of a couple seconds and executed a perfectly aimed kick to the leg of the Klingon who held them. He cried out in pain and dropped them which gave Trip another opportunity to get in a couple of punches. Unfortunately his resistance was short lived as suddenly another Klingon was shouting at him.
He turned to see one of the other Klingons holding a weapon to Antonia's head. She looked very, very scared and tiny against the huge Klingon. He knew what the Klingon had shouted even without a translator. If he caused anymore trouble then they'd kill Antonia. He put his hands up, hoping that they'd recognise it as a gesture of surrender.
"Okay, okay," he said, "I get the message. I give up." He gave Antonia what he hoped was a reassuring look and would let her know that he was pretty sure that the Major would be coming to get them.
They took his phase pistol from its holster. The Klingons then roughly pushed them back into the generator room. There was more shouting in Klingon while two of them argued over a small box. Finally they seemed to get it working.
"What are you doing here?" shouted the Klingon and Trip realised that they must have been adjusting a translator.
"We're here on a scientific mission," said Trip.
The Klingon that was holding him hit Trip, and Antonia struggled against her captor.
"Leave him alone," she said.
"Quiet," spat the first Klingon. "I don't believe you. How many more are there of you?"
"It's just us two," replied Trip. He hoped that at least the Major and the MACOs could get away from the planet even if Trip and Antonia were now trapped.
"What is this room for?" asked the Klingon.
The Klingon hit him again when he didn't answer fast enough. Trip tasted blood in his mouth, but kept quiet. In his experience Klingons preferred to use their fists rather than their brains, the real trouble was when you got a smart one who knew how to use both. The fact that this Klingon was interested in what they'd found suggested that he was one of the smart ones and Trip knew that meant trouble.
"This white light is very interesting, I wonder what would happen to someone who walked into it," said the Klingon, pacing. Trip had no idea what the white light would do if someone walked into it but he didn't want to find out. The Klingon took one of Antonia's padds and threw it into the light. It vanished in a small shower of light, disintegrated. The Klingon grabbed Antonia, picking her up by her arm as if she were no heavier than a doll. "I think you found a weapon. You will tell me how to use it. Or your friend will die." He held Antonia as if to throw her into the white light. Antonia was trying very hard to be brave but Trip could see the fear in her eyes.
"Fine, it's a weapon," said Trip. "But I can't tell you how to use it, because I don't know."
"Then she dies," said the Klingon and drew his arm back, about to throw.
"Wait!" shouted Trip.
"How does it work?" asked the Klingon again.
"It's a black hole generator," said Trip. Then there was the sound of phaser fire in the corridor.
"You double crossed me," said the Klingon. "No one double crosses a Klingon." And he threw Antonia into the white light. Antonia screamed, putting a hand out to try and stop her fall. Then she was gone. Vaporised by the white light.
"No!" shouted Trip. It was as if it had all happened in slow motion, he tried to move to save her but the Klingon holding him just gripped tighter. Then he didn't have a moment to think as Major Darwin and Sergeant Carter stormed into the generator room phasers blazing. In the confusion Trip got free and made his way to join the MACOs. The Klingons pulled out their weapons and began firing back. The phaser blasts hit some of the machinery in the room and a fire broke out. Smoke made it difficult to see more than a few feet in front of his face and he coughed as his lungs fought to draw in air.
"Where's Antonia?" shouted Darwin.
"Dead," said Trip. "Let's get out of here."
One of the Klingons fired at Darwin and he ducked out of the way.
"No!" shouted Trip, "the containment unit!" but it was too late. The Klingon's last phaser blast had missed Darwin, who'd shifted at the last moment, and the shot had gone straight through the panel behind him. He heard the hum of the room go quiet and then the ominous sound of bending metal as the black hole reasserted it's influence on the universe. Trip saw a small pin hole appear in the floor in a flash of white light as the black hole began its fall towards the centre of the planet. "We have to get out of here, now!"
The MACOs and Trip made a run for it, firing back towards the Klingons as they ran. Trip pushed the door shut behind himself to slow down any Klingons who decided to follow them. They made it out of the building and ran for the shuttle. Trip was the last to board the shuttle and he hesitated slightly as he was about to get on. He couldn't believe that Antonia was dead. They'd never lost a member of the unit on a mission before.
"Trip, get your ass in here!" shouted the Major and it was enough to jerk him out of his reverie. He jumped into the shuttle just in time to see the Klingons make it out of the building. The building crumbled behind them. "Go, go, go!" shouted Darwin to Fenner over the sound of the shuttle's engines.
Trip collapsed in a seat as Fenner lifted them off the ground, the Klingons firing their weapons but they were already high enough not to have any worries about them hitting anything. Kanatova took one look at Trip's bleeding lip and bruised face and went to get the medical kit from the back of the shuttle. She tended to his cuts while Darwin watched with concern. Trip was semi-dazed, the adrenaline finally leaving his system and he began to shiver. Kanatova wrapped a blanket around Trip's shoulder and pressed a hypospray full of painkiller to his neck which made him feel slightly better. Even Kanatova's painkillers couldn't dull the pain of loss that he felt. He noticed that she was being more gentle than usual, being a MACO medic she was used to dealing with soldiers and was usually extremely businesslike in her treatment of minor injuries.
Trip looked around at Darwin, defeat and pain in his eyes.
"They killed Antonia," said Trip, "and I let them. All my training and I wasn't able to do a damn thing to stop them."
"Trip, you were surrounded by Klingons. There was nothing you could have done," said Darwin.
"There's more. When the containment unit was destroyed the black hole was able to start sucking in matter again. That generator is busy eating into the planet. Pretty soon there isn't going to be anything left of it. We killed those people, Major," said Trip.
"It wasn't us, Trip, it was the Klingons. They're the ones who destroyed the containment unit," said Darwin.
"If we hadn't been there, then they might never have found this place," said Trip.
"You don't know that," said Darwin, but in his heart of hearts he felt it just as much as Trip. They had killed these people. "How long before the black hole destroys Faranor?"
"Don't know. A small singularity like that, maybe a few hours, perhaps a couple of days," said Trip, gloomily. "The planet will be unstable long before it's destroyed."
It was a very subdued group that returned to the Thak Tikh but they were met by Hathaway in the docking bay which was never a good sign.
"Sir, the Klingons detected the shuttle launching from the planet," said Hathaway.
"Get us out of here," said Darwin.
"Rob, the Klingons can make warp six, we're only warp four capable," said Hathaway.
Darwin knew they were in trouble when his first officer called him by his first name. "Then we'd better get moving," he replied dryly. "Trip..." he started.
"I know, we need a constant warp four. I'm already on my way," said the Engineer, as he headed for the engine room, just as the Red Alert sounded across the ship, except this one was in Andorian so the screens flashed "Ngaaz Gook" in big Andorian script.
Trip arrived in the Engine room to find Rush already there. He noted that they had just gone to warp and were already at warp three with their speed climbing.
"Watch that inter-mix ratio," said Trip to Rush. "We're taking her all the way."
"Yes, Lieutenant," replied Rush.
They climbed steadily to their top speed of warp four. It was then that the problems began, the Thak Tikh may have been theoretically capable of warp four but that was on paper and they'd never taken her that high before or for a sustained period.
"Eed! Buud aph leph!" shouted the computer. It flashed up on the screen as well, in giant red flashing Andorian letters.
"What the hell does that mean?" asked Rush.
"We're over heating," said Trip. His grasp of Andorian engineering terms had become pretty good over the past few years. "Trip to the bridge, Major we're going to have a core breach if we carry on at this speed for much longer."
"How long before that happens?" asked Darwin.
"Ten minutes, maybe twenty at most," replied Trip.
"Eed! Buud moop toz thi!" said the computer.
"Great, just great," muttered Trip. "Warp core breach imminent!" he shouted down to Rush. "We've got to figure some way to cool her down or else eject the core." Then the over heating core became the least of their problems as they felt the jolt of a Klingon disrupter hit their hull.
"Eed! Duv kheezh!" shouted the computer.
"Now what?" said Trip. He thumbed the com, "Didier, what the hell does "duv kheezh" mean?"
"Oxygen leak," replied Didier without hesitation.
"Trip to bridge, we're venting oxygen from sector...three, I'm closing the emergency bulkheads, get everyone out of there," said Trip.
"Understood," replied Darwin. "The Klingons are still on our tail but we're trying to shake them. We're entering Vulcan space so hopefully they'll break off their pursuit then." In the background he could hear Hathaway and Carter calling weapon ranges to each other as they manned the Thak Tikh's guns.
"Better be soon Major, we can't keep this speed up for more than a few more minutes, then we're back to impulse or I have to eject the warp core," said Trip. The ship reeled from another impact and a third. The last hit took out a plasma conduit which in turn blew out relays down the starboard side of the Thak Tikh in a cascade failure. The engine stuttered for a brief moment and then shut down propulsion completely. No matter what Trip did, he couldn't get it started again.
"Beezh thooth!" shouted the computer.
"Abandon ship," said Trip in a whisper. He never thought he'd be leaving the Thak Tikh like this.
"That's all folks," came Darwin's voice over the com. "We're all out of options, get to the escape pods and abandon ship. We'll rendezvous on the nearest habitable planet."
"You heard the man," he said to Rush, "get out of here."
"What are you going to do?" asked Rush.
"Set the self destruct," said Trip. Actually he didn't know how to set the self-destruct, he wasn't even sure that the Thak Tikh had one, but he did know how to over load the warp core. He dumped all the plasma into the engine, knowing that in the engine's already unstable state it would take about five or six minutes for it to go critical and then he ran for the escape pods. When he reached them he was just in time to see Darwin climbing into a two-man pod, he waited for Trip and then the two of them launched. The force of the exploding warp core pushed them away from their dying ship, just as the Klingons approached a little too closely and were singed by the blast. It was just enough to stop them from coming after the escape pods.
Trip watched as the Thak Tikh blossomed into flame and he knew that he was flying away from the past three years of his life at the same time he was flying away from the Thak Tikh. The escape pods were programmed to make for the nearest planet with a breathable atmosphere. They formed a small fleet as they zipped through the silent stars. It took a few hours but eventually all five escape pods landed safely on a nearby planet.
"We were stuck on that ball of rock for a week before the ECS Jericho detected our homing signal and picked us up," said Darwin.
Trip remembered it well, he'd had plenty of time while they were waiting to be rescued to brood over the events of the past few days and every time he thought about it, it was like someone had plunged a knife through his heart. At first they had all been too stunned to take in the magnitude of the disaster but as the days went by it hit home with its full force. Trip mourned for Antonia and marvelled at how a single life could almost mean more to him than the ten thousand that they'd also taken.
"We were all hauled up before the General to explain what had happened, but nothing ever came of the investigation. After that they broke up the unit. I tried to persuade Trip to join my new team but he wanted to get back to research again," finished Darwin.
There was a moment of silence, while Archer gave the two men in front of him a long hard look. Trip looked back at Archer nervously, he knew he was in big trouble this time. More than just big trouble.
"I don't even know where to begin," said Archer. "Not only did you visit a pre-warp civilisation, irreparably contaminating their culture, but you ended up destroying their planet, killing ten thousand people and getting into a fight with the Klingons. You have no idea how much damage you may have done to intergalactic relations with that stunt."
"And Antonia died for nothing," said Trip, his voice dull with past grief. "We didn't get the generator or any of the technology that we came for. I even had to leave most of her padds behind. There's a nice black hole growing where Faranor used to be."
"Jesus Christ, what the hell did you think you were doing? I don't know how you can stand before me and tell me that you did this for Earth. You were completely irresponsible," said Archer.
"I assume that you believe the ship on Deneb IV to also be carrying one of these singularity generators?" asked T'Pol.
"That's pretty much the size of things," said Trip. "We think the ship belonged to the race that the Faranoans called the Builders."
Archer pressed the switch on the com on his desk. "Archer to Mayweather, resume previous course at warp four."
"Aye, sir," replied the young Ensign.
"Thank you, Captain," said Darwin.
"Don't thank me yet, Colonel. I will not allow a disaster of the magnitude of Faranor to occur again. T'Pol, I want you and Trip going over everything we have on that black hole generator. This time we're going to be prepared," said Archer.
"Those files are classified," said Darwin.
"Not any more," said Trip. "I'll get them for you, T'Pol."
"Trip, she's a Vulcan," said Darwin.
"Yeah, she is, but she's also Enterprise's Science Officer and my friend," said Trip.
"If you do not wish me to talk about the information that you show me, then I will not do so," said T'Pol.
"Thanks, T'Pol," said Trip.
"What are you going to do about what we've just told you?" asked Colonel Darwin, looking pointedly at Captain Archer.
"I don't know. I'm not even sure that there is anything that I can do since you were operating under orders from an authority within the Earth government. If it was up to me I'd throw both of you in the brig and court martial you," said Archer.
Trip had never felt so worthless and miserable in his whole life. It had been bad enough after Faranor had happened, but somehow it was suddenly like a fresh wound in the face of his friend's condemnation. Darwin had the air of the guilty about him but he didn't seem to be fighting with himself in the same way that Trip was.
"But it isn't up to you," said Darwin.
"No it isn't, but I can make sure that you don't go down to that planet alone and I can make sure that we conduct the mission right this time," said Archer.
"Captain, the less people who go near that thing the better. I have a pretty good idea how to disable it safely but I don't want anyone there who doesn't have to be," said Trip.
"Let's get one thing straight, Commander," said Archer. "You don't have the right to have a say in what happens here, you lost that right when you lied to me about your past. We are doing this my way, as of now."
"Yes, sir," replied Trip, in an unhappy tone. His Captain had just told him that he no longer respected his opinion and that hurt a lot.
"Captain, with all due respect, this isn't your area of expertise or your area of command. Your orders from Admiral Forrest are very clear, you are to hand command over to me once we reach the planet," said Darwin.
"Then be my guest, call up the Admiral and tell him what you just told me, Colonel. Tell him how you and your Special Projects unit killed ten thousand people and see what he has to say about your orders," said Archer.
Darwin looked Archer in the eye, trying to work out if he was bluffing or not. In theory a Star Fleet Captain and a MACO Colonel were the same rank, but on board their own ship the Captain would always have authority. Unless, of course, they had orders from their superior to hand command over to the Colonel, it was why Darwin had been careful to get the proper papers of authority before he came aboard Enterprise. If they called Forrest then he would have to give out confidential details to the Admiral, which he didn't want to do. Far too many people now knew about Faranor. General Whittaker could speak to Forrest and straighten things out without giving the details but that could take a while. Archer had to be certain that Forrest would back up any decisions that he made, and Darwin didn't think it was worth wrangling over who got overall command of the mission with the Klingons breathing down their neck. As long as Archer got him and Trip to the Deneb IV, that was all that mattered. He had more important things to do before they got to the planet than argue with the Captain in any case.
"I want it noted that you are going against direct orders," said Darwin.
"Fine, so noted," said Archer. "You're all dismissed. I'll contact you when we reach Deneb."
Trip had never been so glad to leave his Captain's presence and the accusing eyes that he felt burning into his back as he walked from the room.
"I just can't believe it," said Hoshi. It was lunch time and she sat in the mess hall eating with Travis and Reed. The Lieutenant had explained a little about Trip's time in the Special Projects Unit, enough to explain what had happened on the bridge and hopefully keep Hoshi and Travis from getting more curious, but he hadn't gone into details of individual missions.
"Me neither," replied Travis.
"Believe it," said Reed, "it's true. I've got the bruises to prove it."
"And you're telling me that he's better at hand to hand combat than you are?" asked Travis in disbelief.
"A lot better," said Reed.
"It does explain a few things though," said Hoshi.
"Like what?" asked Reed.
"Oh the letters to a MACO Major named Hathaway, and Phlox isn't the only one who writes to a friend in the Interspecies Medical Exchange you know. Trip's been sending letters to a Doctor Anna Kanatova on Vulcan ever since we left space dock. Plus how many people do you know who know the Andorian word for Engine?" said Hoshi.
"Well you do for one," replied Reed. "How did you ever find out that he knew what the Andorian for engine was? He's been very careful not to let anything slip."
"It was when the Andorians found us in the Expanse," replied Hoshi. "We were having trouble with the Universal Translator making sense of the Andorian Engineering terms. Commander Tucker said something to one of the Andorians in Andorian as if he knew what it meant. I just assumed that he'd picked up a few phrases from the Andorians while they worked, but he seemed to know too much too quickly. It was only because he helped that we managed to get the translation program working for some of the really technical stuff. Come to think of it, I'm sure he avoided me for a couple of weeks after that, maybe it was because he didn't want me asking any questions."
"I suppose that was one of those times when he knew his knowledge could save Earth and he just had to hope no one looked too closely," said Reed, "and no one would have questioned him on it if Colonel Darwin hadn't come on board."
"Captain Archer looked really angry," said Travis.
"Yes, well, I think you would be too if you'd just discovered your best friend of ten years was lying to you all that time, or at least keeping a very big secret," replied Reed.
"Yeah, I mean you think you know someone..." said Travis.
"It must have been awful for him," said Hoshi. "Imagine keeping a secret that big for all these years."
"I think that's the least of his worries, Hoshi," said Reed.