Allrighty folks, this here's a story 'bout Malcolm Reed.
It might start off a bit slow... but don't you worry- I've got plans. Big plans.
Plans involving our fav. Lieutenant becoming a bit... immature.
:D
---
Malcolm Reed leaned over his schematics of the weapons drive. Well, technically they weren't his schematics, but they might as well be.
Running a finger down the padd that contained all the Enterprise's weapon's drive information, he again ran into the same problem he'd been running into ever since his monthly overview two days ago.
Blinking, he ran a hand over his tired eyes. He glanced up and saw that the mess hall had now emptied except for the forlorn Ensign playing with her food in a dark corner. Reed looked back down at the padd.
A small hitch was all it was, really. He sighed. Of course, small hitches could always grow into a life or death situation; as he had learned so well on this star ship.
It looked as if he would have to go down into the bowels of the jeffries tubes to fix this up.
He gathered up all the padds he had spread out over the table and stood. Of course, he wouldn't be fixing anything tonight. Sleep is what he needed. The Enterprise would just have to wait a little longer.
Reed made his way towards the exit, looking at the Ensign, Hoshi Sato, on his way. She seemed depressed. He paused.
Normally, he wouldn't really consider asking another crewmate about how they're feeling, but he wasn't feeling himself because of sleep deprivation, and Ms. Sato looked miserable. "Problem, Ensign?"
The woman blinked, then looked up at him with surprise. "Oh. I'm just feeling a little blue."
The Lieutenant waited for more. She said nothing, poking at her food again. Oh well. He started for the exit again. He'd tried. She probably just needed some space-
"You see, the Captain yelled at me today." Hoshi said loudly, still staring at her food.
Malcolm groaned inwardly; she actually wanted to talk.
Turning around, he slowly sat down at the table across from her. Clearing his throat, he thought of what to say.
"Oh?"
"Yes." She suddenly threw down her fork, "Y'know, it's not my fault T'Pol doesn't understand jokes!"
He leaned back in his chair nervously. "Uh…"
"All I said was, "looks like the Captain is lost"!" Hoshi exploded. "Then T'Pol-" she said the Vulcan's name with much venom, "says, "Captain, Ensign Sato is under the impression you don't know what you're doing"!"
"Oh."
"Yeah." Hoshi slumped sadly, "Archer didn't like that."
He frowned. The Captain was not an unreasonable man, surely he understood the Ensign was joking? "Uh, that doesn't seem like a viable reason to yell at you, though."
Ensign Sato grabbed a lock of her hair and twisted it around her finger. "Well… he didn't really yell at me, per say."
Ah. Reed valiantly attempted not to grin. "Per say?"
"Well, all right, maybe I exaggerated a little bit." Hoshi said exasperatedly, "But the gist of it is still the same!"
Malcolm smirked, "What, exactly, did he say?"
Hoshi pressed her lips together, twisting the fork in her food. Then she said bitterly, "Oh, he just… rebuked me in front of the rest of the crew there." Her eyes looked haunted at the memory, "It was mortifying."
Malcolm ran a hand through his short hair; he didn't know Hoshi Sato very well, so he had to choose his words carefully. "You shouldn't let it get to you. Knowing the Captain, he's probably forgotten the whole incident by now."
The Ensign managed a small smile, "Yeah, you're probably right." She sat taller and cleared her throat. "Sorry to bother you Lieutenant, I was just…"
Reed stood up, gathering his padds again, "No problem." He looked down at her, and said sincerely, "Next time you shouldn't let it get to you."
She laughed, "I'm just hoping there won't be a next time!"
Malcolm smiled lightly, already walking towards the exit. "G'night Ensign."
"Night Lieutenant." She called, "And thanks!"
-----
Malcolm lifted his cup of coffee. Black coffee.
He shouldn't of stayed up so late last night he thought bitterly, taking a sip of the bitter liquid, grimacing. Screw the damn schematics.
He yawned.
"Everything all right, Lieutenant?" Jonathan Archer asked from his seat at the Captain's chair.
Reed started, quickly setting down his cup and pressing some buttons in front of him. He looked up. "Yes sir."
"Good." Archer said, inspecting the viewing screen, "Wouldn't want you nodding off when we're about to make first contact."
"First contact? But sir," Malcolm exclaimed, surprised, running his scans of the planet below them again, "there's no sign of any sentient species down there--"
Archer chuckled, "Thought that would get your attention."
Malcolm heard a lighter voice giggling, and after looking across the bridge, he saw Hoshi Sato was the culprit. Not even trying to hide the fact she was laughing at him!
His ears burned brightly.
The scans he had re-done blipped onto his screen. Strange.
"Captain." he called, his fingers flying over the controls. "You might want to come see this."
Archer was by his side as Reed pulled up the new information he'd found. "It looks like a small ship."
Reed nodded, "Yes, it seems to be empty."
"All righty. Looks like we have take a little trip." Archer said, rubbing his hands together, "Reed, you and Hoshi will accompany me down to the planet to check this out."
"Yes sir." Malcolm said, still studying the small ship.
----
Reed carefully stepped out onto the planet, holding his tricorder and phase pistol.
Surveying the area, he saw a huge ocean to his left, and a grassy plain expanse to his right. No mountains to be seen. Or enemies for that matter.
"All clear Captain--" He turned around and saw that Hoshi and Archer were already on the surface. He sighed, sometimes he wondered if Archer really understood what Reed's job was.
"Chief of Security indeed." he muttered as the other two pulled ahead of him and wandered toward the ship they had come to see.
Archer walked up to the ship's side, pressing his hand against a small square barely larger then his hand. The ship bleeped once in response, and the square turned red.
"Looks fairly new." Reed commented about the machine. In fact, it looked like it had just been cleaned; shining brightly in the sun.
"I wonder who left it here?" Hoshi said, her hands resting on her hips.
Archer took his hand away from the square, "It doesn't seem to want to let me in."
Malcolm flipped his pistol lightly. "Should we…?"
Archer nodded.
They both shot the door on full blast and after a little while a good-sized hole appeared.
"I'll go first." Reed said, then, not waiting for an answer, he ducked his head and walked through the hole.
It was dark in the ship, but he could see well enough. There were simply two seats seated at the front, and basic supplies strewn about the room.
He heard Hoshi and Archer coming in behind him.
"Rather disappointing." Malcolm said as he seated himself in one of the seats at the front.
"What?" The Captain asked, looking at some sort of weapon he found.
Reed tried to turn on the ship as he answered, "This mission. There's nothing here."
Hoshi sat down next to him, watching as he worked, "Nothing's better then something bad, right?"
"Of course." he answered, "But it's still boring."
Archer set down the gun-shaped thing he'd been admiring, then picked up a palm-sized box. There were some alien inscriptions written on the top.
"Hoshi. Can you read this?" he asked, holding out the box for her.
She took it from him carefully, straining her eyes in the shadowy room. A second later, she laughed.
"What? What does it say?"
She handed the cube back to him, still grinning. "I'm pretty sure it says 'box'."
He chuckled, " Original."
"What's in it?"
"Just what I was about to find out." Archer said, then slowly lifted open the lid.
Inside, lay a dozen or so marble-sized spheres. He carefully lifted one, holding it between his finger and thumb. "It's like, water."
Malcolm stopped his futile attempts to start up the ship, turning to look at the box.
The globules did indeed look like water that had been molded into marble-shapes. "Do you mind if I have a look?" he asked.
Archer handed him the box, still holding his one sphere. "Wonder what they're for."
"Maybe they're some sort of food?" Hoshi offered helpfully as Reed picked one up himself.
"Could be." Malcolm shrugged, "They can't have been very important, if they were just left behind in this ship."
"True enough. Here." He reached over and placed the sphere back in the box. "Let's take them back to the ship. Run some tests."
Malcolm followed suit, closing the box, "Yes sir."
----
"What is the point of making balls of water?" Malcolm asked Porthos later that night, who had wandered out of the Captain's quarters and found the Chief of Security on his way to his own quarters.
He flipped the box upside-down, ignoring the crewmate he passed in the hall. "It's just a box…" He wished the Captain had allowed him to take that neat gun weapon he'd found. Now THAT would have been fun to study. Much better then any 'water' thingies. The gun looked as if it might have an inner polarized--
"Lieutenant!"
Reed looked up to see Hoshi Sato jogging towards him, shattering his thoughts. "Do you mind if I take that?" she asked as she neared him.
"Why?" he said handing it over to her.
"I think I might have read the inscription on the top wrong." She sounded slightly embarrassed, "But I need to make sure."
"Oh? What do you think it says now?"
Hoshi shook her head, "I don't know, but I'm going to go translate it now."
"Well, all right, but do you think I could take some of those spheres? I still have no idea what they really are."
"Oh sure." She held out the box to him, holding up the lid. He grabbed a handful, careful not to crush them.
"All right. Thank you lieutenant." Hoshi said, already walking away.
He watched her go, noticing the way her hair gleamed in the artificial light. It didn't seem possible for hair to shine like that.
Huh.
----
Malcolm halted outside his quarters, looking down at Porthos as the doors swished open. "You coming in?" he said, the little face looking up at him curiously.
He sighed, kicking the dog lightly in the haunches, causing him to move forward into the room. "Don't want the door to crush you."
Malcolm followed the dog inside, immediately heading over to one of the empty cups on his nightstand, dumping the water balls into it.
"Computer, lights."
Lifting the cup, he peered through the glass.
Yep. Just a bunch of water balls.
He wasn't quite sure what to do next. He'd already run preliminary scans to no avail. Should he break one of them open? But what if they were actually some sort of eggs?
Running a hand through his hair out of annoyance, shaking the cup lightly, his mind raced. Suddenly he had an idea. Dr. Phlox probably had much more able equipment prepared to handle something like this.
He grabbed a few of the spheres, setting the cup back on the nightstand with the rest of them.
"Come on dog!" Malcolm called to Porthos who had made his way into the bathroom, "I'll drop you off at the Captain's."
He waited for the dog to come out, and after a minute of silence, he sighed in frustration. Eager to end the mystery of the water orbs, but mostly impatient, Malcolm went into the bathroom and lifted Porthos, careful to hold him away from his body. He definitely didn't want any dog-hair on his jumpsuit.
Holding back a sneeze, Malcolm left his quarters, forgetting to turn off the lights.
- Unfortunately, the globules nestled in his glass cup didn't fare well in light. In fact, not too long after Malcolm had left, they began to melt.
----
"Please Dr. Phlox! For the last time, I'm fine!" Malcolm snapped, knocking away the Dr.'s hand before he sneezed into his Kleenex.Phlox rolled his eyes, "It is quite obvious you're not fine at all, Mr. Reed." He turned away from the irritated Lieutenant and lifted his scanner. "It seems that you have developed an allergy towards canines."
No, really? He thought angrily, but simply said, "Do you think we could get back to the water--"
"Yes, I suppose we should." Phlox interrupted. He waved a hand towards the microscope already housing one of the spheres Malcolm had brought, "Actually, I believe it would be best if you left, Lieutenant. I wouldn't want you contaminating the specimens."
He was more then happy to oblige. It was embarrassing enough to have Dr. Phlox take over an assignment the captain had assigned to himself. And now to find out he was allergic to dogs… "Send me your findings, would you?" he asked over his shoulder, blowing his nose in a fresh tissue.
"Of course." Phlox called, poking the orb with some tweezers as the doors swished shut behind him.
Reed wiped a hand across his watering eyes, sneezing again. Damn dog.
Sniffling and sneezing the whole way, Malcolm stepped onto the turbo-lift and told the computer where to go.
"Hey, you're not lookin' so good Loo-tenant."
Malcolm jumped about a foot in the air.
His heart beating wildly, he spun around and saw Commander Tucker leaning against the wall, his arms crossed.
"Do you think you could possibly announce your presence next time?" Malcolm asked nasally, blowing his nose.
Trip raised an eyebrow. "Funny, that's what I thought I had jus' done." He pushed himself up off the wall, "Anyhow, you're lookin' worse for wear Reed. You seen Dr. Phlox yet?"
He rolled his eyes, irritated. "I just came from there."
"Good. I hope he gave you somethin'." Trip said, watching as Malcolm sneezed again.
The turbo-lift suddenly came to a standstill.
"Guess this is my stop." Tucker said, giving him a wide berth as he stepped off the lift. "By the way, tomarraw's movie night… you've picked out the movie right?"
Malcolm blinked, "What?"
Trip sighed, "It was ya' turn to pick out the movie this week, Loo-tenant."
"Oh right." Malcolm recalled agreeing to the request last week. Why had he agreed to it anyway? He dabbed his eyes with the tissue, "I'll do that."
Trip shook his head, saying sarcastically, "Don't get so excited!"
On that note, the turbo-lift doors slid shut.
----
Malcolm stumbled into his quarters with a sneeze, already pulling off his Starfleet jumpsuit which was covered in dog-hair.
This was exactly what he needed-- a new allergy to be added to the already lengthy list.
Malcolm grumbled to himself sulkily, grabbing the top quilt from his bed and wrapping the suit in it.
He threw the bundle into a corner of the room, wishing that today was laundry day. Oh well. Hopefully the quilt would block off the dog-hair smell until next week.
After taking a shower and washing himself clean, Malcolm slipped on his boxers and collapsed onto the bed.
Malcolm was more tired then he probably should be. He was feeling more and more depressed and sullen lately;
loneliness
and not for any particular reason, either.
He shifted his position on the bed, now laying on his right side.
Already his sniffling and eye-puffiness was decreasing, but he knew that if he ever wanted to be in the same vicinity as the Captain, he would probably have to get some sort of shot from Dr. Phlox.
He sighed.
"Computer. Lights off."
Swallowing and trying to get rid of that scratchy feeling in his throat, Malcolm blindly reached for one of the cups he kept on his nightstand.
Unfortunately, he grabbed the cup that was filled with the melted water spheres.
He downed the whole cup of water without a second thought.
Unusually refreshed, Malcolm quickly drifted off to sleep.
---
And so end-th chapter one...th.
Preview for next chappie: The Enterprise crew is confronted by a pair of very angry aliens and Malcolm begins to have some very strange symptoms...
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