Between a Rock And Another Big Rock

by Didi

The crew goes hunting underground for Xindis. Completed!

14. Into the Fray

Between A Rock and… Another Big Rock

By Didi

Disclaimer: For The Libran Iniquity who still reads the disclaimers: (Clears throat carefully) "I do not own any of the recognized characters, places or things in this story. This is purely as pleasure writing and no profit shall be made from it. Any copyright infringement I may be committing is unintentional and without malice." Was that good enough for you, dear?

Rating: PG 13 for now.

Story Summary: The crew goes hunting underground.

Chapter Summary: Archer awaits news, Mayweather does some fancy flying, Hayes's team run into trouble and everyone's plans are set into motion.

Timeline: Set before the episode "Azati Prime" in Season 3.

Author's Note: Strange, I've been watching ABC's "Lost" for weeks now that I just realized that the guy that played Corporal Chang is a regular on that show. Then I was watching "Spiderman 2" two nights ago and realized he was in that movie as well. Boy, the guy gets around.

Spoiler: Everything up through "The Hatchery." (I'm being nicely cautious here.)

Key: "Spoken" "Thoughts"

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Chapter Fourteen – Into the Fray

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Archer watched the monitor with trepidation as the nose of the shuttle appeared at the edge of the main viewing screen. He'd wanted to be in the shuttle bay to speak with the crewmen before they left, but T'Pol had pointed out the amount of nervousness the officers seemed to display whenever he was around. With the team handling live explosives, it seemed wiser for Archer to stay away. But he certainly wasn't going to ignore their departure.

"Shuttle two has cleared the ship," T'Pol's monotone voice rang across the tensely silent bridge.

"Ensign Tanner, hail them." Archer moved into position just before the captain's seat.

"Channel open."

"Enterprise to Shuttle Two."

"Captain," Lt. Langley nodded her greeting from her seat next to Ensign Mayweather.

"I don't have to tell you guys what's at stake here," Archer said quietly, his eyes conveying his concern. "I also don't need to tell you to be careful."

"No sir." Jennifer Langley tightened her hands on the chair arms just beyond the view of the captain.

Jon nodded his head slowly. "Good luck, people. We await your return."

"Thank you, Captain. Shuttle two out."

The main screen blinked out and was replaced with the view of the space surrounding Enterprise The rest of the bridge crew watched silently as the shuttle bee-lined toward the second moon in orbit, the first of three target locations. There wasn't one person the ship that didn't understand the danger that faced the shuttle team.

Letting out a breath, Captain Archer shook his head and wished for coffee. Twittering his thumbs, he sighed and looked at T'Pol, who quietly raised a brow of inquiry at him. "God, I hate waiting."

-&-&-&-

Travis's hand glided over the controls with practiced ease. But anyone that knew him well could see the set lines about his mouth, the tension in his usually confident hands and the way his shoulders were raised just enough to reveal his anxiety. "One-third impulse."

"Isn't that too slow?" Howards asked from just behind the pilot's station.

"We're moving between the two moons; they both have magnetic gravity fields that could easily be described as atomic bombs to our moon's fire crackers." Mayweather made adjustments quickly as the shuttle began to shift in one direction. "We risk getting ripped apart if we try to force our way between them."

"Howards," Langley turned in her chair and shook her head at the armory officer. "Mayweather ran two dozen simulations on this. Let's let him do the driving."

"I don't mind the questions," Travis said quietly, his eyes never leaving the instruments in front of him. "I'm not the only one on this ship; my opinion isn't the only one that counts."

Howards smiled and clapped the helmsman on the shoulder. "You're a good man, Travis. You know that right?"

A fleeting smile graced the boyish face as the shuttle began to tremble under the stress of the opposing forces. Travis' hands held steady over the controls, ready to make any adjustments needed. "Let's hope I'm as good as everyone thinks I am."

-&-&-&-

"Okay, from here…" Hoshi touched the screen before her and angled the PADD to allow the others to see. "You've got a clear path to the generators. What comes between you and it is your problem now. And this tunnel on the other side will take you straight to the energy unit. My guess is that the destablizer will be somewhere between the energy unit and the generator, and it's also the location that will be most heavily guarded." She switched screens quickly feeling the tension rise as the time grew closer to when they were to initiate their plans. "This path will lead you to the main gathering site, the primary evacuation area for emergencies. There is only one path leading out from the primary room, and that's straight up and out of the caves; keep to the bigger of the passageways, don't head off into any of the smaller tunnels at junction points. Just follow the signs with these symbols." She switched screens again to show them the series of the now familiar symbols. They'd seen them several times now along the different paths.

"I don't plan on needing to know this Hoshi," Trip said seriously though it was obvious he was absorbing every detail she provided. "You are coming back to lead us out." It was an order if there ever was one.

"Oh, I plan on it," Hoshi agreed with a nod. "But contingency plans must be seen to," she added with just a hint of grin.

If Trip could resist it, he might have; but the reality was that he didn't particularly want to. Reaching out, he punched Malcolm on the arm with enough force to knock the armory officer on his rear – though truthfully with the way everyone was crouching, it didn't take all that much force. "You and your lessons."

Rubbing his arm, Lt. Reed sighed without any resentment. "How the bloody hell was I to know she actually pays attention? Half of my men most assuredly don't." He glared at DeMarco, who blushed.

Hoshi shook her head and smiled. "Happy as I am that someone else is in trouble for a change, I think it's time for us to move."

"Agreed." Hayes picked up his much-lightened backpack, which only consisted of the most essential supplies, as were the others since they had unloaded almost everything else in a nearby storage shed for light traveling. "Expect the uproar in ten minutes, give or take two. Romero, let's go."

Romero nodded his head and handed his phase pistol to Hoshi. "I know you're insisting on taking point, so let's arm you okay?"

She gave him a look that asked 'are you insane?' and pulled her side arm from under her cloak. "I'm ready." Why the man thought she would go off unarmed was beyond her comprehension; she was naïve but she wasn't stupid.

"Be careful, Hoshi," Trip said with a grave look of concern. He didn't like this, didn't like this at all.

"We'll await the signal," Reed gave Hayes a significant look as he spoke. "Good luck."

Hayes nodded but leaned close as he passed his former-rival, "I'll bring her back."

"You'd better," Reed replied.

-&-&-&-

"TRAVIS!"

"Hang on!" the helmsman called out as his right hand pulled the shuttle out of the controlled glide through an angled turn and his left hand clutched the panel to keep him in his seat.

"Oh crap!" Briggins hit the wall with his left shoulder and dropped to the ground. The force from the shuttle's sudden movements had left him without a damn thing to hang onto.

"TRAVIS!" Jennifer Langley called out again as the shuttle swung into a tighter arc, increasing the pressure and sending her body crashing into the bulkhead.

"Just one more minute," Travis called out, his white-knuckled hand keeping him upright as the shuttle moved into position on the other side of the gravity well that they had used to pull them out of the third moon orbiting the second planet in the system. "I'm pulling us to a stop right… NOW!"

The abrupt end to the almost unbearable pressure from Travis's spectacular display of shuttle mastery sent every passenger into the exact opposition direction they had all been pressed into the second before, creating quite a lovely mess. There a pause as everyone tried to catch their breath and force their thumping hearts down from their throats toward the correct position in their chests, all while attempting to appear dignified.

Corporal Chang let out the breath he was sure he had been holding the better part of the last five minutes. "That was some flying." He'd heard stories; just never expected to be in one of them. "Don't ever do it again."

Travis laughed weakly and barely managed to ask if everyone was alright without disgracing himself with the need to upchuck. Everything in his body seemed to need to settle back into place after being squished in one direction for too long.

"We're alive, that's good enough for me," Howards responded with a definite sigh of relief, taking several deep breaths to keep his lunch down. "Where the hell did you learn to do that?"

"You don't really want to know," Mayweather assured him as he checked the instruments before him. "We're at a dead stop and far enough away from the Reptilians to go to half impulse if you want us to move further out."

"No, this is good enough," Langley said adamantly as her stomach did another roll before settling back into its proper location. "Let's just sit here for a bit."

"You look a little green, Jen," Howards couldn't help but point out.

"You don't look like Mr. July either," she shot back and sighed. "Let's get that torpedo into place guys. We don't have all day and we've still got the return trip."

"Chang," Briggins called out as he moved to the back of the cabin. "Want to launch this last puppy? I know the MACOs probably don't get a whole lot of chances to play with torpedoes in your line of work."

David Chang smiled and nodded. "We stick mostly to the in-your-face kind of action."

"And aren't we glad you do what you do so very well," Langley grinned and sat back while the boys did their thing. "We've got fifteen minutes guys, let's hop to it." She turned to the young helmsman that was studying the star chart in front of him. "Travis?"

"Hum…?" he looked up vaguely, his mind still wrapped around the next series of problems to handle in order to get them back to the ship without detection.

"Good job," she said with a grin. "Captain would be proud of you."

He returned the grin. "Thanks, but it's not over yet."

-&-&-&-

"Ensign Sato," Corporal Romero whispered.

"You can call me Hoshi," she replied with glittering eyes illuminated by the minimum light they were using to navigate the narrow tunnels. "Is something wrong?"

"We're down to three minutes," he informed her with a quick glance at his commander. Neither one had said a word when Sato had taken point but both were considerably nervous about it.

Acknowledging the time limit with a nod that sent her ponytail bobbing Hoshi glanced down at her map for a second. "We're almost at the junction."

Hayes and Romero both nodded and continued to scan their surrounding with growing unease. Hayes was feeling the pressure as he glanced back at their six. There was no indication that they weren't all alone in what looked to be an abandoned area but something pricked at the back of Matt's head. "Let's step it up."

"Relax, Major," Hoshi whispered back as she holstered her phase pistol and pulled a detonator out of her backpack. "We're here."

"This is it?" Romero asked, his eyes looking around the somewhat narrowed junction where three smaller tunnels connected; one was so small he doubt that he could pass through without angling his shoulders. Not an ideal place for combat.

"Were you expecting something a little more grandiose?" Hoshi asked with a smile as she attached the explosive to the wall with tacking putty. "This is the ideal location; it'll bring down two of these tunnels, cutting off the Reptilian retreat through the smaller passages." Once she secured it, she pulled out a second detonator and moved farther down the wall, attaching it behind a rock and effectively hiding it from view.

Romero and Hayes both looked at her with raised brows.

Sato shrugged her shoulders and continued to work. "Call me paranoid. It's on a remote detonator."

Jason Romero smiled and looked at his commander with a twinkle. "I'd say it was excellent training." Jason winked at her when Hoshi smiled. "Definitely something the major and lieutenant would have thought of."

Hoshi giggled at the disgruntled look on the MACO commander's face. Dusting her hands, "Okay, I'm done. The first one is like an old fashion alarm system; we're going to get all of forty seconds after activation to haul ass before it goes off." Her hand up and revealed a flashing red remote. "Here we go." With a grin at them, she depressed the button. "Let's jet," Hoshi picked up her backpack with one hand and her flashlight with the other before moving swiftly in the direction they had come from.

"Wait," Hayes said as his long legs carried him toward the ensign just as she came to the entrance. It was one thing to let Hoshi take lead when they had no idea where they were going but the return trip was a whole other story.

The Reptilian appeared suddenly, without a sound, without warning. And it was just as surprised to see the humans as they were to see the Reptilian; as were its half-dozen companions.

For a second, no one moved; everyone was too stunned to react.

Then Hoshi SCREAMED! It was loud, high-pitched and ear-piercingly painful… and the perfect distraction.

Grabbing Sato with his left hand and jerking her back, Major Hayes raised his pulse rifle with his right and fired two rounds. At such a close range, the result wasn't pretty or neat. Then without a second thought, he threw himself against Ensign Sato, shielding her between the wall and his own body.

Corporal Jason Romero, trained three years under Major Hayes, dropped to one knee and waited only until the major and ensign had cleared his field of range before his weapon did more damage than should be possible. He ignored his comrades as he focused on the advancing enemy. Ten heart stopping seconds later, Jason's trigger finger stopped in mid-pull.

Silence.

Romero got to his feet with more suddenness then necessary and moved down the hall, watching the bodies that lined the entrance and looking for live targets. Sharpening the scope light on his rifle with his left hand, he scanned the area again quickly. "Clear!"

Major Hayes levered himself away from the wall even as Ensign Sato scrambled for her footing. A long red gash decorated her right shoulder where her uniform had torn. "You alright?"

"Forget that," she answered as she shoved him away and glanced back at the detonator. The seconds were ticking away. "Now would be a really good time to run." Grabbing Hayes' arm, she literally dragged him into the tunnels while pushing Romero ahead of her. "Ten, nine, eight, seven…"

Getting the idea, both men grabbed an arm and pulled Ensign Sato along as their powerful legs ate up dirt and sand while their focus remained on scanning for enemies ahead.

"Six, five, four…" she felt herself being lifted and held aloft between the two MACOs as they move even faster through the narrow tunnel, if that was even possible. "Three, two…"

"Brace yourselves," Hayes called out as he and Romero pulled Hoshi around a corner and pressed themselves against the wall.

Squeezing her eyes shut, "One."

For a second: nothing.

Romero and Hayes looked startled. Then the roar shook the entire tunnel throwing sand and dirt at everything before raining chunks of rock upon them. Hoshi cried out as something sharp and painful hit her back. Hayes rolled across Hoshi's body, shielding her from cascade of rubble coming down upon them. The dusting of rocks had almost stopped when the second explosion erupted; nearly toppling all three officers as the ground underfoot rolled and their footing began to give.

"Shit!" Romero shoved the two officers ahead of him as the tunnels began to come down upon them.

Scrambling along as best as she could with rocks flying and uneven ground, Hoshi was literally pushed ahead of the other two and shoved clear as she heard the horrible sound of the rocks grinding against one another as they began to come apart.

"Move," Hayes shouted as he reached back and grabbed Romero's arm, pulling the MACO forward and throwing the two of them free just as the tunnel behind them collapsed mere inches from their feet.

The dust, kicked up as the rocks settled into place, made it nearly impossible to see for a moment, even with all three lights still in working condition. Hoshi coughed and waved a hand in front of her face, eyes squinting through the polluted air. She pulled the remote for the second explosive from the pocket on her right arm. Major Hayes must have landed on it when he moved to shield her. With sigh, she looked again through the dusty air. "Major? Corporal? You guys still alive?"

Romero coughed once and groaned as he rolled onto his back, feeling every joint on his body creak and crack. "Just barely. You, Major?"

There was no response.

"Major?" Romero was on his knees in a blink of an eye.

"Major Hayes?" Hoshi shone the light into the major's face making him and wince and shield his eyes. "Oh good, you're alive."

Coughing, Matt shook his head and bit back a groan even as a bolt of lighting pain radiated across his shoulder. Unable to hold it back, he gave a muffled cry as he rolled to his side. "Oh hell."

"What is it, Major?" Romero asked as he reached out one-handed to help his commander while the other hand still clutched the rifle to his side.

Hayes pulled away and clinched his teeth tightly before sitting up, letting out a cry of pain as he finally maneuvered into an upright position and felt gravity pull against his injuries. "My shoulder is dislocated."

Biting her lip, Hoshi knelt by him. "What can I do?"

Shaking his head, "Nothing right now," Hayes leaned back slightly against the crumbling wall, unsettling another fine layer of sand and dust. His arm had gone numb with the pain but he knew that the worst was yet to come. Looking up, "Jason?"

Understanding the personal nature of the request by the Major's use of his first name, Corporal Romero nodded and handed his rifle to Ensign Sato. "I'm going to help relocate his shoulder. You know how to use one of these?"

Taking the rifle, Hoshi braced the heavy weapon against her right side and unlocked the safety with her thumb, her trigger finger pressed lightly against the firing mechanism. "I think I still remember from my training days." She gave them both a weak smile. "Admiral Hammett always said there are two things you need to learn if you're the weakest link in the chain."

Jason grinned as he felt around the major's shoulder, feeling the hollow in the joint. For someone who just nearly escaped certain death, he was feeling quite chipper at the moment. "Two things to learn: how fire a gun and how to run."

Swinging the scope light back and forth in the dusty air, Hoshi nodded her head. "I see you were taught from the same school of survival training."

"Nah, it's just common sense," Romero braced his feet. "Ready?"

Hayes closed his eyes and gave a stiff nod. He didn't see the great jerk Romero gave his limp arm but he certainly felt it. Acid on flesh was the only description for the pain. Letting out a cry that helped to ease the pain, Matt sat there panting for a moment, forcing back the darkness that threatened his senses.

"You alright, Major?"

Matt's warped sense of humor chose that exact moment to rear its ugly head. "After living through that lovely hell, for which I cheerfully curse you, and having you drool all over me that one night, I think we're at an intimate enough level of our relationship for you to call me Matt."

Romero stared eyes wide with shock; it was the first time he'd heard his commander crack a joke, and in the field no less. "Major, are you feeling alright?" he made a quick visual check of the major's skull but found no obvious aberrations.

Not having known the major all that long and not accustomed to his usual mode and mood of operations, Hoshi took it for exactly what it was, a grouchy comment from an aching body. "Can I just politely point out who is holding the big stick of destruction at this very moment?"

Jason winced. "You didn't just call…"

But Matt took it all in stride. "Point taken," and stood with some reluctance. Rolling his newly relocated shoulder painfully then leaning over to rub his calf where a rather large piece of what use to be the tunnel had landed, Hayes prepared himself for the next phase. "Let's get going, people. Reed is probably moving the rest of the team into place now."

"And we can't let the good lieutenant have all the fun," Romero added cheerfully.

"Right."

-&-&-&-

"Travis…"

"Hang on," Mayweather called out as the shuttle made a nosedive into the moon's atmosphere.

"Oh god, we're all going to die," Briggins muttered as he clutched the sides of his seat until he could no longer feel his knuckles. Even the gravity unit in the shuttle couldn't compensate for the sudden pressure and speed.

"Please tell me you know what you're doing!" Jennifer Langely said as she grabbed the control panel with both hands and tried to look away from the quickly approaching landmass. "Oh Christ!"

"Mayweather!" Howards shouted just seconds before the shuttle made the tightest U-turn possible shot straight back up toward the planetary atmosphere. "Shit!"

"Oh god, I'm going to be sick." Jennifer pressed one hand to her mouth as the pressure from the movement flatted her against her seat back, making it impossible to do anything but sit there and watch with horror as they broke through the ozone layer and into the space once more.

A great jerk accompanied the sudden deceleration of the ship, startling everyone but the competent helmsman that was still watching the pressure gage on the engines. In the silence of the moment, Travis made minor adjustments as they rode the rotational pull of the planet. "Okay, ETA to the ship is twenty minutes."

Corporal David Chang swallowed once, and then twice, then again when he still wasn't sure his stomach contents weren't going to make another appearance. "What was that for? And if you say that you did just because you can, you're going to die a very slow and agonizing death."

"Would I do a thing like that?" Travis asked innocently as he grinned at the friendly MACO officer. The last two hours had been pleasantly informative when not particularly terrifying.

"I don't know, you always have to watch the innocent looking ones. They're the ones that always manage to get the last laugh." Jeremy Briggins murmured as he checked his own instruments to make sure they could still activate the homing beacons from where they were. "We have to activate in thirteen minutes or we move out of range."

"Cynical, aren't we?" Jennifer asked as she enjoyed what could be the last few peaceful moments for a while to come. "Howards, you want to wait on the countdown?"

Benjamin Howards closed his eyes for a moment to regain some of the equilibrium Ensign Mayweather had so eagerly taken, "Yeah, let's give ourselves a little less running time and a little more distance."

"Sounds like a plan," Jennifer sighed and stared at Mayweather for a moment. "Now why did you decide that it would be funny to see if you can make all of us hurl?"

Grinning wide to make his youthful face even more innocent-like, Travis shook his head at them. "You can blame this one on Lt. Cdr. Meyers. He said it would be great idea to use the planet's gravity pull to gain enough speed to push us through the second ozone without burning too much fuel and leaving a trace. That last exit was mostly on momentum built by our entry."

"Remind me to kill Meyers," Langley muttered.

"Great," Howards sighed and sat back as Chang and Briggins prepared the remotes. "The engineers are playing roller coaster physics. I'm so glad someone is enjoying this."

"ETA, ten minutes," Briggins suddenly announced.

"What?" Howards and Langley both sat up straighter.

"Enterprise has moved," Chang said as he used the short range scanners, "Looks like they're on an intercept course."

"They're using engines," Travis warned as he watched his screen carefully. "The Reptilians are going to spot them any moment now."

Howard got up and went to Briggins's station, "Then let's given them another target to look at. Activate the first two beacons, wait ten seconds and then the third."

Briggins nodded, a little too eager to get it started. "Okay, here we go."

-&-&-&-

Archer leaned further out from this chair. "What are you reading Tanner?"

Tanner's hand moved across the console nervously. "I've got three Star Fleet signals sir."

Feeling his heart rate pick up just a bit, Jon waited a moment before turning to his science officer. "T'Pol?"

"The Reptilians appear not to have…" her sentence trailed as she watched her monitors. "They have detected the signatures."

"And?"

T'Pol looked up with a raised brow of interest. "Three Reptilian ships are moving to intercept."

Archer resisted the urge to jump up and pump his fist in the air but he could stop his grin from bloom across his face. "Has our shuttle returned?"

"ETA, two minutes."

"Ensign Clancy," the captain moved down from his seat to clap the young pilot's shoulder. "Once the shuttle returns to bay, move us closer the planet. We need to be ready to pick up the away team when they appear and not allow the rest of the Reptilian ships to target them first."

"Captain," Lt. Durley called out, his concern clearly written on his face. "What if the away team isn't ready by the time the warheads go off?"

T'Pol turned to watch the captain, a little surprised that another would voice the same question she's been reminding the captain of for hours now. It would definitely an answer she would dearly love to hear.

"Have faith Durley," Archer said with a smile. "We'll solve that problem when we get there."

Durley nodded his head in acceptance then glanced at Clancy, who nodded his head in return.

The sub-commander was certain she was the only one on the bridge that was unsatisfied by that particular response. Humans and their complete lack of logic and trust in faith were simply beyond her understanding.

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Teaser Line: "I'm sure the major can be highly creative when he wants to be."