Red Rain
By Thalia Drogna
Ensign Lauritsen was unusually talented even for a member of Enterprise's crew. At twenty-four she was the youngest crew member by two years, one month and nine days. Her specialist area was computer programming although she was also an outstanding mathematician. From an early age she had been singled out as exceptionally intelligent and it had always been suggested that she would go on to great things. Her family hadn't exactly been thrilled when she decided to apply to the Academy and join Starfleet. Her grandmother had wanted her to become a doctor but it didn't appeal to her. Her grandfather had hoped that she would remain in academia, but she considered pure study to be dull. She had learnt some time ago that if you tried to please everyone else then you ended up making yourself miserable. Starfleet was what she wanted and Starfleet was where she was going. In fact Ensign Lauritsen was exactly the calibre of candidate that the Academy wanted and hoped for, despite the detail that she was below the usual admission age, her application was accepted.
She had been midway through her studies when Enterprise had first launched, and had never expected that she would get a chance to become part of the crew of the prestigious ship. When the postings had been handed out after graduation she had expected to be sent to the Research and Development facility or perhaps posted to Jupiter Station, instead her assignment had beento the Science team on Enterprise. She reported to Lieutenant Vermes who in turn reported to Sub-Commander T'Pol, or rather Commander T'Pol as she now was, and was one of a small team who were responsible for analysing the data that was collected by the various scientists. She had probably made more advances in the field of Computer Science over the past few months by finding solutions to their problems than a University full of scientists had managed in ten years. Necessity truly was the mother of invention, she realised.
Her mathematical skills were also being tested, Lieutenant Vermes expected her to be able to suggest ways of analysing data that involved complex modelling, and that couldn't be done without an understanding of the mathematical structures underlying the models. In short her job was never the same, one day to the next, because they never knew what Enterprise would encounter and then be required to analyse. T'Pol's latest project had been a case in point. Attempting to pick out a concealed warp trail from background radiation had required considerable work and the use of some chaos theory that Lauritsen had always considered to be fairly obscure. Of course Lauritsen had never expected that they would be hunting Commander Tucker, or that they would find themselves in the middle of pitched battle when they eventually tracked him down.
Now they were safe again and on their way home, Lauritsen had decided that she needed to speak with the Captain. He was, after all, the only person who could do anything about the Commander's situation and she simply couldn't let the Engineer languish in the brig after everything that he had done for her. She still remembered his blue eyes as he took her into his arms and called her "honey". He was the reason that she had joined Starfleet.
She picked off an imaginary piece of dust and straightened her uniform. She needed to look her best for this. She reached out, pressed the door bell and waited to be invited to enter. She heard a muffled "come" from inside the Captain's ready room and opened the door.
"Sir, may I have a moment of your time?" asked Lauritsen, slightly nervously.
Archer looked up from his work at his visitor. The young woman in front of him had an inch of short blonde hair on her head and wore the uniform of the Science team. "Of course. Ensign Lauritsen, isn't it? You were helping T'Pol earlier."
"Yes, sir."
"Take a seat. What is it that I can do for you, Ensign?"
"It's about Commander Tucker, sir," said Lauritsen. She immediately noticed the look on Archer's face change. There was something behind his eyes when she mentioned the Commander's name but she couldn't pin down what it was. It was almost a hurt look but one that disappeared as soon as she'd caught it.
"What about the Commander?"
"Well, sir, you see, it's like this. Commander Tucker saved my life," said Lauritsen.
"He has saved the lives of almost everyone on this ship at one time or another," replied Archer.
"Yes, sir, but this was before I joined Enterprise. I'm the daughter of the late Governor Lauritsen of New Copenhagen." She waited for Archer to make the connection. Most people recognised the name when it was associated with the colony.
"The Governor who was killed during the rebel uprising?" asked Archer dredging his memory for the details of the old news item. He'd just been selected as one of the test pilots for the NX programme when the news had reached them of the trouble on New Copenhagen. He remembered that it had been particularly embarrassing for Starfleet Command, who were trying to convince the Vulcans that humans were ready to be out exploring the universe. The Vulcans had pointed out that civilised people didn't shoot each other. It had taken some serious persuasion to make them believe that this incident was not typical of humanity in general.
"The rebels also killed my mother and sister." There was old pain in Lauritsen's tone as she spoke and her eyes briefly met her Captain's.
"Where does Commander Tucker fit into this?" asked Archer.
"It's a long story, sir," replied the Ensign.
Archer leaned back in his chair. "Why don't you start from the beginning and tell me what happened?"
So Ensign Keisha Lauritsen told her Captain the story of her rescue at the age of ten in the arms of a blond haired Starfleet officer. It hadn't been until many years later that she'd decided to use her computer skills to track down that officer and find out who he was. Commander Charles Tucker III, Chief Engineer to Enterprise, previously seconded to the MACOs for just over three years, during which period he'd been sent to New Copenhagen. She had even found out that Special Projects was who he was working for and had an idea of the type of unit that they were. She'd never plucked up the courage to tell him who she was, she wondered if Commander Tucker even remembered her.
Archer listened in silence while the young woman in front of him told him about how her family had been killed in cold blood. Unnecessary loss of life was something that Archer never thought he'd be able to deal with easily and he felt deeply for the Ensign's loss. Quite a lot of her account was second hand, so she admitted that it might be unreliable, but she had found nothing to contradict it so far. She had heard from her Grandparents the story of how the MACOs had come to New Copenhagen to stop the uprising and had ended up being captured by the rebels. Apparently it had been Trip who had rescued his Commanding Officer and the ten-year-old Keisha Lauritsen before the Loyalists had attacked. Archer once again found himself realising that there was a lot about Trip that he didn't know. He marvelled at how it was possible for someone to appear to be such an open book and yet have so many secrets.
"You know this doesn't change anything?" said Archer.
"I know, but I thought you should at least have all of the facts," said Lauritsen. "He really was only doing what he thought was right. He's a good man, Captain."
"I know that, Ensign," sighed Archer. Trip was a good man but often he was also a man who didn't think before he acted. That was what usually got him into trouble. "But none of what you've told me changes what he did here."
"I just hoped that it might be a mitigating factor," said Lauritsen.
"Does he know that you're on board?" asked Archer.
"Not as far as I know," said Lauritsen.
"Are you going to tell him?"
"I haven't so far."
"He might like to know that the little girl that he saved grew up and joined Starfleet," said Archer.
"Perhaps it's better if I don't tell him," said Lauritsen. "From what my Grandparents said, I don't think he had such a good time on New Copenhagen. He'd probably rather forget it ever happened."
"I'll leave it up to you, Ensign, but I think he'd like to know."
After Ensign Lauritsen left his ready room, Archer found himself summoned to sickbay by T'Pol and Phlox. He arrived to find the two of them examining some scans taken of MACO Sergeant Rush.
"Commander Tucker informed us that he and the other MACOs were carrying information that the Hunters wanted to destroy," said T'Pol. "This is Commander Tucker's most recent brain scan, taken after he recovered from his head injury. The tissue graft healed well and is almost indistinguishable from the rest of the brain matter. However, there is a small anomaly which is also present on Sergeant Rush's scan."
"It's so small that it would be easy to miss if you weren't looking for something," said Phlox. "Combine that with the fact that every human has minute differences in their physiology, and it could easily go undetected. However, if you have two scans side by side with the same anomaly then that indicates something interesting."
"It seems to be an area which is not sending or receiving information," said T'Pol.
"A dead spot? Is it dangerous? I mean will it hurt Trip or the other MACOs that have this thing in their heads?" asked Archer.
"Well if what the Commander told us is correct then he's had this information in his head for about twelve years now. So far it hasn't caused any problems. It does simply seem to be a piece of normal brain tissue that has been co-opted for information storage purposes. Otherwise it is a completely normal part of the brain," said Phlox.
"So can we download the information?" asked Archer.
"Is that wise given what Commander Tucker has told us?" T'Pol folder her hands behind her back.
"I don't know, but unless we have that information we don't have the full picture."
"I need to research this further, but perhaps with Doctor Phlox's help I can discern a mechanism for retrieving the data."
Phlox nodded his agreement. "We would have to be careful. The human brain is a very delicate organ."
"Do your best," said Archer.
"Bridge to Captain Archer."
Archer went to the com. "Go ahead Lieutenant."
"Sir, we are approaching the NX-Theta."
"I'll be right there."
Spending time doing nothing was never something that Trip enjoyed, but given the circumstances, this was torture. He was going backwards and forwards in his mind over the events of the past few days. He couldn't see any other way that he could have played it, but he still felt as if he'd betrayed his friends and his crew. He'd started down a road and now he couldn't turn back. He had to keep Enterprise safe and if that meant doing some questionable things then that was what he would do. Enterprise and the people on it were all that mattered to him, and he wished he could think of another way to do this.
Trip checked the time. He did some quick mental arithmetic. If his estimation of Enterprise's current speed was right, then they should be coming up on the NX-Theta, which would be running at maximum speed. He had spent enough time lying around, it was time for him to get moving. The MACOs were depending on him. He'd had to stop himself from escaping from the brig too soon. Reed's security men were thorough and they checked in on him regularly. As soon as he left they'd know that he was gone and start looking for him. Trip knew that he was good, but even he couldn't avoid the entire Security team searching for him forever.
Trip reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a couple of screws that he'd taken from one of the jeffries tubes on Water's Edge. The screws hadn't been found when the Security officers searched him, which had been lucky. His escape would have been much harder without them, although still possible. It had been too much to expect them to let him keep the screwdriver and pliers that he'd had in his back pocket. Lieutenant Reed would have had a fit if he'd known that his men had missed the small pieces of metal, especially since he was aware of what Trip was capable of.
The first thing to do was disable the cameras. He didn't want to give them a head start on finding him. Getting the panel off was hard without any tools. It had been designed to be almost invisible so that prisoners wouldn't know that it was there. Trip used the head of one of the screws to turn the heads of the screws that kept the panel fixed. Once he had the panel off he could expose the electronics below. He placed one screw on the circuit board carefully and then positioned the second so that it shorted the circuit. A small puff of blue smoke told him that he'd achieved his goal. Now all he had to do was open the door.
He removed circuit boards and wires from the conduit, and began linking them together to get what he needed. In effect he was making a code breaking garage door opener. It should work out what the code for the cell lock was and then send a signal to open it. What he ended up with wasn't pretty, but time was of the essence and he didn't need to worry about aesthetics. He hooked up the power and watched as the jumble of circuits cycled through the codes and beeped at him when it had the correct sequence. The door slid open.
Trip stepped through into the outer chamber. A security officer stood on the other side of the door and Trip had to work quickly before the guard decided to check on him. He put a foot against one side of the cell doorway and levered himself up towards the ceiling. He hit the panel above him until it gave way, opening into a crawlspace. He grabbed the edge of the opening and pulled himself up, closing the panel behind him.
The crawlspace that he was now in was tight and he could only just pull himself along. He was moving more slowly than he had originally planned and at this rate he was going to miss the party. He squeezed himself through the bulkheads and onwards. He reached a junction with a jeffries tube and managed to open the hatch. He shuffled through into the relative spaciousness of the jeffries tube.
"This would be a hell of a lot easier if I had some tools," he muttered to himself. He found the panel that he needed, pulled out the required circuits and wires, and tapped into the communications circuit.
"Trip to NX-Theta."
"We've got you Trip. Enterprise is on our six."
"Exodus is a go. Give me five minutes," said Trip.
"You got it. We can hold out that long. We'll see you in a few."
Trip cut the connection and started to move towards his next destination.
"Sir, we have the NX-Theta in weapons range," said Lieutenant Reed.
"Hoshi, hail them," said Archer.
Colonel Darwin appeared on the screen.
"Archer, if you think you're taking us this easily, you can think again," said Colonel Darwin.
"I don't want to fire on you, but if you don't surrender your ship immediately then you're leaving me no choice," replied Archer.
"You have two of my men and I want them returned."
"I have one of your men. Commander Tucker is a member of my crew. He has been arrested and, as a member of this crew, will be court-martialled for insubordination, among other things," said Archer.
"I'm not arguing with you, Archer, I want both of my men back." The MACO Colonel had a look which refused to take any nonsense.
"You're in no position to negotiate, Colonel," said Archer. "You're out-gunned and alone in the universe. We can help you. Why won't you let us?"
"Because you don't know what you're getting yourself into. Hell, we don't know what we're into, but we know what these Hunters did to Karavia and I won't let that happen to Earth. This is our fight, let us do what we trained for."
"Colonel, this is bigger than just a group of MACOs being attacked. You can't do this alone. Stand down," said Archer.
"I can't do that, Captain," said Darwin, and the screen went blank.
"Lieutenant, target the NX-Theta's engines."
"Yes, sir." Reed's hands moved quickly across his console. He paused for a millisecond and then he performed the same commands again in disbelief. "Sir, I'm locked out and I've detected a transporter signal. We've been boarded."
"Ensign, access the camera in the brig," said Archer.
"It's not operating," replied Hoshi.
"I'm guessing we have Trip to thank for our visitors," said Archer. "Get Security to the transporter room. I want those MACOs in custody." Reed left the bridge at a run.
"Sir, I no longer have access to Engineering controls," said Lieutenant Hess from the Engineering station.
"Helm is locked out too," added Mayweather.
"We have been locked out of all control systems," confirmed T'Pol. "Only Commander Tucker would have the knowledge of our systems to be able to do this."
"I don't care what you do, get me control back," said Archer.
"That will take some time," said T'Pol. "He has encrypted all of the lock outs."
"Hoshi, we need to get past those codes," said Archer.
"Yes, sir. I'm on it," said Hoshi, typing rapidly on her console.
Archer couldn't believe that he was trying to prevent his best friend from stealing his ship. He couldn't believe that Trip would betray him like this.
"Security's on it's way," said Trip as Darwin, Hathaway, Fenner, Carter and Kanatova stepped off the transporter pad, all carrying large bags full of weaponry.
Darwin handed Trip a phase pistol. "Any problems?"
"Not so far. I've locked out everything that I can, but unless we can get to Engineering I can't guarantee that I can keep them locked out," said Trip.
"We'll pick up Rush on the way. Is he still in sickbay?"
"Yes, sir," said Trip.
"Check your weapons are on stun. I don't want any mistakes," said Darwin, looking at his men. "Remember, these people are not the enemy."
The MACOs nodded at their Colonel and checked their weapons.
"Let's go," said Darwin. The MACOs headed down the hall towards sickbay.
Reed's security team arrived at the transporter to find the corridor empty.
Trip and Kanatova burst into sickbay.
"Hi guys," said Rush, from his biobed. "You come to break me out?" His hands and arms were bandaged and he was attached to a drip.
"Hey, Mike, Doc," said Trip. "We've come to get Sergeant Rush."
"Commander, perhaps you should think about what you're doing," said Phlox.
"Believe you me, Doc, I've thought about this a lot. We're taking Mike with us unless you can give me a good reason why he should stay here," said Trip.
"I'm Doctor Kanatova, MACO Medical Corps. I'm his Doctor. Could you fill me in on his injuries?"
"Doctor Kanatova, I would be happier if Sergeant Rush could remain here. He has second degree on his hands and arms. His burns were only minor but this really is the best place for him to get treatment," said Phlox.
"Sorry, Doc, he's coming with us. I can't leave the Captain with a bargaining chip," said Trip.
Kanatova went over to the biobed and helped Rush up.
Carter stepped through the sickbay doors. "Colonel says to hurry it up."
"We're on our way," said Trip, and Carter ducked back out into the corridor.
"Commander, I don't pretend to understand what is going on here, but this can't be the best way to handle it," said Phlox.
"Doc, I don't have time to discuss this. At the moment, I can't see another way. If you see the Captain, tell him that I'm sorry."
"Of course, Commander," said Phlox.
"It's Trip, Doc," he said and followed Rush and Kanatova out of sickbay.