Let the Dead Bury the Living
By Thalia Drogna
AN: Sorry this was a long time coming. Thanks to all those who are sticking with this one.
T'Pol and Mayweather docked the shuttle in the bay and immediately made their way to the bridge with T'Pol's sensor data. She went to the Captain's Ready Room, knocking but not waiting for the call to enter.
"T'Pol, what did you find?" asked Archer, looking up from his work.
"Commander Tucker is on the weather station. He is not well," said T'Pol. "We need to get to him quickly."
"I'll tell Malcolm to move the rescue up," said Archer, his hand moving towards the com button.
"There is something else," said T'Pol. "Commander Tucker was not the only source of nanite scan signatures."
"What?" asked Archer. "How many?"
"Commander Tucker has approximately two billion nanites in his bloodstream. We detected approximately two trillion nanites on the weather station. That would be enough nanites to infect thousands of people," said T'Pol.
"They can't all have come from Trip," said Archer. "How did they get them?"
"They would only have needed to take some nanites from the Commander. If they had the correct conditions and information they could speed up the replication of the nanites," said T'Pol.
"So they've got a nanite farm. What are they planning on doing with them, T'Pol?" asked Archer.
"That is unknown," replied T'Pol. "However I do not believe that they have done this purely for scientific curiosity."
Enam had tired quickly of sick bay. Now she and Ghanima were exploring the ship with the typical curiosity of the Tanu. She and her daughter had already located the mess hall, Engineering and the observation lounge. Finally she came to a heavy looking door on a corridor. It had human script lettering on the bulkhead beside the door but she had never taught herself how to read the human language, only speak it. She decided to open the door and find out what was on the other side of it.
She pulled back the hatch to reveal the Armoury. She was immediately interested in what she saw. The arrays of weapons and the controls called out to her to inspect them. Unfortunately there were several humans present who would no doubt want her to leave just as they had done in Engineering. She spotted Lieutenant Reed and went over to him.
"What's going on?" she asked.
Reed was startled slightly by her silent approach. "Enam, what are you doing here?"
"Exploring, it's what I do," said Enam.
"This is a restricted area and no place for children," said Reed, removing a broken phase pistol that was waiting to be repaired from Ghanima's small hands. Ghanima looked at him crossly. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave," Reed added.
"You know, you humans can be incredibly dull sometimes," said Enam. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I could help you? I am a professional guide." Ghanima had given up trying to retrieve the phase pistol while Reed was watching and had moved off to inspect a torpedo.
"That wasn't what I heard," replied Reed. "I heard that you were a professional thief."
"So? You're trying to steal back your Commander Tucker, aren't you?" asked Enam.
"I suppose you could put it like that," said Reed. He sighed. He saw no harm in accepting her help and he did need it, the station was proving a difficult nut to crack. It had an awful lot of security features for a weather station. "Fine, these are the schematics of the weather station. I need a way in and a way out. This is where we think they're holding Commander Tucker."
"It's very central," said Enam, "and probably well guarded."
"Really, I hadn't thought of that," said Reed sarcastically.
Apparently the Tanu did not have sarcasm or she was just ignoring his tone because Enam carried on oblivious. "Well obviously. He is their prize. He must be worth a lot of money to them."
"I don't know about being worth money," said Reed, "but he is definitely important to them."
"This central shaft runs the length of the station," said Enam. "Maybe we could use it to penetrate to the level that we need."
"I'd looked at that, but there's a problem," said Reed.
"Traps?" asked Enam, her eyes lighting up.
"I guess you could call them that. Laser grids are placed at intervals up and down the shaft. They turn them off if they need to do maintenance in the shaft but we won't have that luxury," said Reed.
"If they can be turned off then there's a way in," said Enam. "That's your entrance. Now getting out is another matter."
"Yes, a far more tricky endeavour. Not only will we have alerted them to our presence but we don't know how badly the Commander has been injured. If T'Pol's right then he may not be in any state to help us with his rescue. We have to plan for a difficult time."
"You sound as if you've done this before," said Enam.
"Rescued Trip?" said Reed. "I'm beginning to lose count." A cold feeling gripped his stomach as he remembered finding Trip on the Xindi ship, tortured and unaware. He had thought he'd been too late until he felt the thready beat of Trip's pulse under his fingers.
"Planned for difficulties," said Enam.
"That too," said Reed. "There's another part to this mission as well. We have to find out what they're up to. There must be a reason behind the kidnapping."
"We need a diversion," said Enam.
"Actually all we really need is to split their forces," said Reed.
"How many men were you planning on taking with you?" asked Enam, innocently.
"Five or six. I doubt that I'll persuade the Captain to stay behind while I do my job, so better say six," said Reed.
"Make that seven and I think you might be in with a chance," said Enam, "especially if one of those seven is me."
"Eight," said a familiar voice from the door. Reed turned to see Shran leaning against the doorframe. He obviously wasn't completely well but he did look much better than the last time Reed had seen him.
"Has my Armoury suddenly turned into Piccadilly Circus?" asked Reed, annoyed. "What are you doing out of sick bay?"
"I got fed up with that Denobulan nursemaid fussing over me," said Shran. "It sounds like you're going to need help with rescuing Commander Tucker. I'm offering you my help. I prefer it when your Captain owes me so I thought I'd get the score table off to a good start."
"What makes you think I'm going to take either of you with us?" asked Reed.
"Because you need me," answered Shran and Enam in unison, both turning to stare at the other with a mixture of disbelief and anger.
"Oh good," said Reed, bitterly, "and I thought this was going to be a simple rescue mission."
"How are you doing today?" asked a voice that Trip recognised. He was having a lot of trouble focusing his eyes at the moment. He had no doubt that he'd been drugged heavily and that was why he was having so much trouble making his body respond to his demands upon it. He managed to turn his head a little so that he could see the figure who stood outside his cell looking in at him. Davis again. The past few days Davis had come by regularly to taunt Trip and the Engineer was getting very tired of it.
"Been better," mumbled Trip, "but then I guess you knew that already."
"If you hadn't been so much trouble then we wouldn't have had to do this," replied Davis. "Of course, I wanted to beat you into submission but the doctors tell us you wouldn't survive that. This is almost as good though. If we have to keep drugging you like this you'll eventually become addicted, unable to live without the drugs we give you. Now that would be an interesting experiment."
Trip closed his eyes trying to block out the unpleasant dizziness and floating feeling. It didn't work, the dizziness and dislocation were as much inside him as out. The nanites had long since given up trying to communicate with his befuddled brain. Not that they had been much help before, but their silence was even more ominous than their previous unintelligible chattering. He'd stopped trusting their information as soon as he'd realised that he was being drugged, he knew how that could effect the nanites. The reports he'd been receiving from them didn't seem to be correct, one moment they told him that all their systems were fine and the next they were shouting warnings at him.
"Anyway," continued Davis, "we've got something different planned for you today."
The door opened and some doctors entered the cell. Trip opened his eyes and tried to focus on what was going on. They wheeled equipment into the room and Trip recognised it immediately. Sound modulation equipment.
"They tell me that this will reprogram the nanites," said Davis. "When we found your notes on how the nanites can be reprogrammed with sound, the science guys got very excited. Of course I'm more interested in just what it will do to you if we hit the wrong note."
"You don't understand what you're doing," said Trip. "You could destroy the nanites or yourselves. We don't know everything that they're capable of. At the moment the failsafes are turned on but if you mess with them then I don't know what might happen."
"Then we'll just have to find out," said Davis.
Last time Trip had tried this it had almost killed him, he knew he was now in a lot of danger. If he'd realised back then just how reckless it was to mess about with the nanites then he probably wouldn't have conducted the experiment, even if it did mean that he was able to transmute them into a benign force. He knew exactly how much destructive power the nanites could wield, he'd seen Ven Dath's red prototypes and he knew that they had to be derived from the same nanites that lived within his body.
"Please, you've got to listen to me," said Trip.
Davis and the scientists ignored Trip. He gave up fighting against the drugs they had given him and sank into oblivion as they turned on the sound modulation equipment.
By the time Archer arrived in the Armoury to be briefed on Reed's plan, Shran, Enam and Reed were discussing the fine details. Reed had to admit that the two aliens had helped considerably with refining his ideas and now he was far more confident that the rescue mission was actually going to be a success.
"What is going on here?" asked Archer. "You're meant to be in sick bay."
"We were bored," said Enam. "You didn't expect to keep me in sick bay with a whole ship to explore, did you, Archer?"
"I had hoped that you might at least ask before you went exploring," said Archer. He was also wondering why the usually diligent Armoury Officer hadn't kicked both Shran and Ghanima out of his Armoury.
"Actually, sir, Enam and Commander Shran have been quite helpful," said Reed. "Enam solved the problem of how to turn off the laser grids so that we can enter the space station and the Commander has been helping me with our exit plan."
"Yes, but why are they helping you?" asked Archer.
"I figured that you got me off Harrar with Ghanima, so I should help you get your friend off that space station," said Enam. "Tanu do have some honour, you know. We don't like unpaid debts any more than your blue friend does." Her tail twisted in the air behind her as she talked.
"What about you, Shran? What's your motive here?" said Archer looking at the Andorian.
"Let's just say that I'm getting my first shot in early, before I end up owing you for something," said Shran dryly.
If the situation had been different then Archer might have laughed. As it was, Trip was in danger and he didn't have time to joke or argue. He was also disturbed that Shran felt that he needed to store up favours with Archer. What was it that the Andorian wasn't telling him? He decided that if he couldn't beat them then joining them might be the next best thing. "I don't suppose that I can dissuade either of you from coming with us?"
"Not even a remote possibility," said Enam.
"No," said Shran in a tone that refused any argument.
"Very well then," said Archer. "Welcome to the team. Run through the plan for me Malcolm."
The Lieutenant was about to begin when T'Pol entered with a padd in her hand.
"I have the scans that you requested, Lieutenant," said T'Pol, moving to join the party clustered around the Armoury console.
"Thank you, Sub-commander," said Reed, accepting the padd.
"Thanks, T'Pol," said Archer. "You'd better be getting back to Earth if you're going to make it in time for the verdict pronouncement from the Dohn Zhu."
"I had intended to be late," said T'Pol.
"Late? Why?" asked Archer.
"I will be accompanying you to rescue Commander Tucker," said T'Pol.
"T'Pol, if you're late…" said Archer, and trailed off. He honestly wasn't sure what would happen if T'Pol didn't arrive for the verdict of her Dohn Zhu but he was pretty certain that it couldn't be anything good.
"I will most likely be found guilty in my absence," said T'Pol. "However, you will need my technical knowledge to obtain the evidence that we require against Senator Nash and Lieutenant Davis."
"You're risking everything that you've worked for, T'Pol," said Archer. "You'll just be proving to them that you're as unreliable as they say you are."
"My time on Enterprise has taught me many things," said T'Pol. "One of which is that the needs of the few occasionally outweigh the needs of the many. You have always said that I am as much a part of this crew as any of its human members. I will not be left behind."
"Malcolm, I guess you'd better make room for one more," said Archer. He had no wish to be on the wrong side of T'Pol and after all, she was the one who would have to bear the consequences.
Reed had decided to keep the rescue team to eight members. He had handpicked three security officers to join the five that they had already decided upon. Ensigns Hooper, Scott and Prior had been the lucky ones. They assembled in the transporter room in their space suits. Hess was at the controls, making the final few checks to the system. It had only recently been repaired and she was taking no chances with the lives of the rescue team.
"You know that this is the absolute limit of the transporter's operation," said Hess.
"We've been over this, Lieutenant," said Archer. "We know the risk and we know what we're doing."
"Yes, sir, it's just that Commander Tucker will kill me when he gets back and finds out that I've over-clocked the transporter," said Hess. "He told me never to do this, ever, and threatened some pretty dire consequences if I tried it."
"Don't worry, Lieutenant, I'll explain it to the Commander," said Archer. He knew there was a very good reason why Trip wouldn't let anyone do what they had just done to the transporter. Much like the phase cannons, the transporter could be made more powerful if it was allowed to draw power directly from the impulse engine. The extra energy could turn it into a long range transporter which could drop the rescue team in space next to the weather station. It was a one shot deal, however, the power needed to transport the team that far would blow every circuit in the transporter assembly. Hess had estimated that its repair might take a week and would probably mean getting replacement parts from Jupiter Station. When they were out in deep space they didn't have access to Jupiter Station's stores and hence Trip's warnings not to overload the transporter. Some things were just too expensive and delicate to keep replacing.
"Let's go," said Archer.
The team stepped up on to the dais and sealed their space suits. If this worked then their next steps would be in open space. Once everyone had confirmed that their space suits were sealed and checked, Archer nodded at Hess. She nodded in return, her eyes telling them in no uncertain terms to bring back her boss safe, and activated the transporter.
The transporter room disappeared in a haze of sparkling air and suddenly eight people hung in space with the Earth beneath their feet. The weather station was to their right. The station's sensors shouldn't be able to detect them, their scans were looking for ships rather than men, if their intelligence was correct. Eight bodies hanging isolated in space shouldn't be a big enough target for them to detect. They were maintaining radio silence until they were inside the station, they had no guarantee that the station was not listening in to the frequency of their suit radios.
Archer activated his jet pack and the rest of the party followed him towards the station. He regulated the thrust carefully, if he was too fast then the momentum would throw him into the station and bounce him back out into space. That could be a disaster because he might not have enough fuel to get back or he could injure himself severely and they didn't have the time or resources to deal with injuries. Archer was worried enough about how much Trip was going to slow them down.
They landed softly on the outside of the station, only Enam going a little too fast, Reed having to reach out a hand to grab her as she almost detached herself from the station's exterior. She nodded her thanks to the Lieutenant before attaching her safety line and they began the task of opening the maintenance hatch. Archer let Reed and Enam do their work while he and the rest of the team kept watch for trouble. The maintenance hatch was linked to a number of security systems that needed to be bypassed before they could enter the station, but Enam and Reed knew what they were doing. A vibration transmitted by the station's hull let them know that the hatch had been opened. However they still had to wait as Reed and Enam disabled the laser grids that ran up and down the shaft. Supposedly these were to prevent delicate equipment being damaged by debris but Archer had his doubts about whether they had ever been put to that use.
Reed gave them the signal that they had been successful and then lowered himself down through the opening. The others followed him down the narrow shaft, barely wide enough for them to drop down with all the equipment that they carried. Archer had flash backs to the Aquatic's level on Harrar station, but he reminded himself that there would be no giant squid lurking at the end of this tunnel.
About half way down the shaft was the exit that they needed. There were only three entrances to the maintenance shaft, one at the top, one at the bottom and one in the middle. The middle one would take them directly to the heart of the station. Again there was more security to be bypassed but Reed was getting a feel for their systems now so this took much less time. He pulled back the hatch and they entered an airlock. Finally they stepped out into the station corridors. Thus far their plan had worked perfectly.
They removed their helmets and breathed in the air of the weather station. They took off the space suits which were clumsy and would impede their movement and stowed them in the airlock.
"So far, so good," whispered Archer. "Everyone okay?" He received a series of nods and affirmatives from the team. They shrugged their packs onto their backs and prepared to move out. T'Pol and Enam would take Ensigns Scott and Prior and make for the computer core to attempt to retrieve whatever they could on the plans Nash had for the nanites. Meanwhile Archer, Reed, Shran and Ensign Hooper would find Trip. The two teams would rendezvous back at the station's shuttle bay where they would find transport off the station. T'Pol hadn't wanted to take command of the secondary mission, wanting to be with Archer when he found Trip but eventually she recognised that it made more sense for her to use her computer skills to extract the information that they needed.
Archer caught the eye of his Vulcan second in command, "good luck and don't be late." T'Pol didn't reply but gave an almost imperceptible nod of her head, then she and her team moved away down the corridor in search of answers.