Let the Dead Bury the Living

By Thalia Drogna

AN: Thanks to all my reviewers. This is nearing its end now, I promise.

Trip lay on the sofa in the lounge of the cabin waiting for Phlox to put the needle into his arm. The needle that was supposed to be making him better but only seemed to be making him worse. The Doctor had arrived a little over an hour ago, jovial as ever, breezing into the cabin and extolling the virtues of fresh air. Trip wouldn't have minded but so far he hadn't been able to go outside due to the previous night's alarm.

So far the morning hadn't gone particularly well for Trip. It had started out okay, Archer had made Trip breakfast in bed, which he had eaten most of, breakfast being the one meal that he usually didn't have too much trouble with. Archer then came to get him out of bed and he'd found Trip asleep again. He didn't remember falling asleep and when he did wake up, he'd tried to get up but he'd been too weak to get far on his own. He had to wait for the Captain to come and help him up so that he could go to the bathroom. Archer practically carried him into the lounge and placed him onto the sofa. Even the short move had made him tired again.

Phlox came over with his kit and began to rig up another bag of the IV solution for Trip's therapy.

"I'll make you some lunch," said Archer, heading over to the kitchen. He wanted to give Trip a little privacy while he was with the doctor.

"Thanks, but I'm not hungry," said Trip. Archer tried not to show his disappointment, watching Trip get thinner and thinner was killing him.

"You should try to eat something," said Phlox as he set up the IV.

"Tell you what, I'll make some toast and coffee and you can see if you feel more like it once the doctor's started your therapy," said Archer. He got a reserved nod from Trip, so disappeared into the kitchen.

"How are you feeling today?" asked Phlox, jovial as ever, running the scanner over Trip.

"Not so great," said Trip. "I just want to fall asleep all the time. How much more of this do I have to go through?"

"The nanite levels in your bloodstream are falling. Another four weeks approximately, if nanite levels continue to fall at their current rate," said Phlox.

"Better get it over with for today then," said Trip, miserably, holding out his left arm. He still wore the brace because the hairline fracture was refusing to heal, which Phlox had said was something to do with the anti-nanite drugs impairing the healing function of his body. Phlox was giving him regular injections of something that Trip couldn't pronounce to counter it.

"We used the left arm yesterday," said Phlox. "It's the right arm's turn today."

Trip sighed. "Sorry, Doc, I forgot."

"That's all right, it's my job to remember these things," said Phlox.

Trip held out the other arm and winced as Phlox inserted the needle and taped it in place as he did everyday. For some reason the procedure never got any easier and Trip still had to mentally prepare himself every time Phlox approached him with a needle. With the IV started, Phlox then loaded a hypospray which he pressed to Trip's neck.

"That should stop the nausea," said Phlox.

"Thanks. Don't suppose you can do something about the aches?" asked Trip.

"Did you take your painkillers when you woke this morning?"

"Yeah, they helped," said Trip.

"Then I'd prefer not to give you anything else for another hour or so, unless the pain is severe," said Phlox.

"Guess I'll have to put up with it for a bit then," said Trip. "You going to do the questionnaire?" Phlox had worked out a series of questions that he used to gauge Trip's condition.

"Of course. If you would report your condition to me accurately then I wouldn't need to use the questionnaire, as you call it. Have there been any new symptoms?" asked Phlox, referring to his padd.

"No, just the usual," replied Trip.

"How are you eating?"

"I ate breakfast," said Trip.

"That doesn't answer the question, Commander," said Phlox.

"I don't really feel like eating," said Trip, with a sigh.

"How did you sleep last night?"

"Not too well."

"More nightmares?"

"Actually last night it was more to do with Malcolm's security alarms going off by mistake," said Trip.

Phlox made notes on the padd. "What time was that?"

"I didn't really check the time, about 2am I guess," replied Trip. "I took some of the painkillers you gave me and I got back to sleep pretty quickly once they started working."

"So you were in pain when you awoke?"

"Yeah, most mornings I ache when I wake up. Guess that's been the case for a couple of weeks now," replied Trip. "It seems to be the same now when I wake in the night."

"On a scale of zero to ten how would you rate the pain? Ten being extreme and zero being none."

"Three, maybe four. I was able to get up and take the pills." The pain scale was something that Phlox and Trip had worked out together. They aimed to ensure that Trip's level of discomfort was two or below. Trip tended to underestimate his pain levels, so Phlox knew that the aches had been bad enough to prevent him from returning to sleep. Anything above two on the scale would affect Trip's mood or his ability to function, depending on the level of pain experienced.

"You feel up to coffee and toast?" asked Archer, coming out of the kitchen with a plate of toast and a mug of coffee.

"I suppose I could give it a go. Not sure if I'll be able to keep it down though, but it's better than another IV," said Trip.

"And it is preferable for your body to take in nutrition naturally," said Phlox. "Although keeping your body hydrated is the main concern."

Trip looked at the dry toast that Archer presented him with. He took a bite off the toast, forcing himself to chew and swallow, it tasted bland but anything exciting just made the nausea worse, so dry toast was about the best he was going to get. He followed it with a mouthful of coffee. The combination didn't sit well in his stomach, but he persevered, knowing that the Captain wanted him to eat. If he was patient, most days, Phlox's medication would kick in and he'd be able to keep the food down. The problem was that eating anything was such a chore and not necessarily a pleasant experience. Even the smell of food cooking was enough to make him sick sometimes.

"Did Malcolm work out what was wrong with the Security systems?" asked Trip.

"He's still working on it," said Archer. "T'Pol's helping."

"Maybe I could give him a hand later," said Trip.

"Trip, your post in this operation is that couch," said Archer. "You're here to rest and get well."

"I'm here as bait," Trip pointed out.

"You can do both."

"But once we've caught Davis they're either going to send me back to Enterprise or ship me off to Starfleet Medical." A small shiver of revulsion at the idea of the hospital ran through Trip. He hated hospitals.

"I guess I forgot to mention that this is your home now until Enterprise ships out."

"Really?" asked Trip, looking like he'd just been given a great birthday present.

"Really," replied Archer.

Suddenly Trip squeezed his eyes closed and clenched his jaw. He shifted uncomfortably.

"Trip?" asked Archer, worriedly, crouching down beside his friend.

"Just give me minute," replied Trip, taking deep breaths.

"Commander?" asked Phlox, scanning Trip.

Trip took a shuddering breath and opened his eyes again. He was still breathing heavily.

"Do you need more pain medication?" asked Phlox and received a reluctant nod in response from Trip. Phlox loaded a hypospray and pressed it against Trip's neck. Almost immediately the pinched lines of pain left his face and he blinked at the relief he now felt.

"Better?" asked Archer.

"Yeah, much," said Trip.

"You feel up to playing cards with me?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Should have asked Hoshi if I could borrow her Mah Jongg set, then I could have taught you how to play," said Trip. He looked up at Phlox. "I'm getting worse, aren't I?"

"It's nothing that we didn't expect," said Phlox.

"You're not a very good liar, Doc," replied Trip.

"The symptoms are more severe than I anticipated," admitted Phlox.

"What does that mean?" asked Archer.

"The worse the symptoms the more likely it is that the Commander will not make a full recovery," said Phlox.

"I had a feeling that's what it meant," said Trip. "So you going to get the cards or do I have to find them? You know that I kill at Go Fish, don't you? Hey, do you think you could persuade Malcolm and T'Pol to take some time off, and then we could play poker."

Archer had to admire Trip's tenacity, even if he had obviously decided that it was better if he just didn't think about how sick he was. Trip had padds full of Engineering data that he was doing his best to work his way through when Phlox and Archer would let him. His usual method of dealing with anything difficult was to find enough work to do that he could just ignore the problem until it went away. Of course that didn't work with everything, some problems just refused to disappear unless they were dealt with, and this was one of those. Trip was going to have to face facts soon, and Archer had made a mental note to be there when reality eventually did crash down.

It was a full week before Reed found out what had caused the false alarm. When he did he wasn't sure whether to laugh or be even more worried. A dead raccoon lay on the porch of the cabin and he never would have believed, if he hadn't seen it for himself, that the raccoon was the cause of all their problems.

"I'm fairly certain that raccoons shouldn't have nanites in their bloodstream," said Reed, as he presented Archer with a padd that detailed his findings. "He's testing our security."

"I agree," concurred T'Pol. "The animal that we found had been purposely infected with nanites and no doubt driven towards our security measures. The nanites had been altered to adapt to the raccoon's body. It was the low level of nanites in the animal's blood that confused the sensors at first," added T'Pol."

"One of the automatic weapons got it," said Reed. "It detected the nanites in its bloodstream, even at that low level, after we recalibrated the sensors to be more sensitive. Which at least reassures me that our systems are working."

"I have extracted some of the nanites from the raccoon and I will be performing an analysis," said T'Pol. "If you'll excuse me then I would like to resume my work."

Archer nodded at T'Pol and she disappeared into her room where she had set up her scientific equipment.

"How's Trip doing today, sir?" asked Reed.

"About the same," said Archer.

Archer looked over at Trip who lay on the sofa in his usual position, fast asleep. The pile of padds sat on the table untouched so far today. He'd probably wake up a little later, afternoons seemed to be when he had most energy. However, today had been particularly hard on Trip, so far he hadn't been able to keep even dry toast and coffee down, and that was becoming a pattern. Phlox's anti-nausea drugs were having less and less effect as they warred in his system against the anti-nanite drug. Phlox had been worried that Trip was becoming dehydrated so had started an extra IV in addition to his anti-nanite therapy.

"I can't help but wonder if I made the wrong decision," said Archer. "I've brought him to a beautiful location and he can't enjoy any of it. It's probably worse than watching the engineers finish the repairs to Enterprise. If he was well he'd be out diving in that lake or fishing or swimming. He hates sitting around doing nothing."

"This has got to be better than being stuck on Enterprise," said Reed. "Besides, I'm sure he could manage fishing. Assuming that it was carefully supervised of course."

"Are you volunteering, Malcolm?" asked Archer. "I didn't think that you'd be one for fishing given your aquaphobia."

"I have a fear of drowning, sir, that doesn't mean that I can't take part in a sport that involves standing on a nice dry bank," said Reed.

"What about Davis?" asked Archer.

"Well he's definitely not inside the perimeter," said Reed. "Trip and I won't be far from the cabin, just the end of the pier, and I'll take a nanite detectors and sonic field generator. It's not much of a holiday if all he gets to do is stay inside."

"Another week, Malcolm. If he hasn't made his move by then, you can take our Chief Engineer on a fishing trip."

"So do you want to talk about it?" asked Trip. The two of them sat on the end of the pier, their legs dangling over the edge. They both held fishing rods that suspended lines into the water below them. A pile of fish was growing beside them.

"Talk about what?" asked Reed.

"Jessica leaving," said Trip.

"Why would I want to talk about it?"

"Well I thought you might like to get it off your chest."

"I don't have anything to "get off my chest" as you put it."

"But it is over between you?"

"Yes," said Reed.

"Come on, you were seeing each other for a long time, and I know you were pleased to see her again. You risked your career for her."

"It was a mistake," said Reed.

"You told me that you loved her," said Trip.

"I did," said Reed and paused before adding more quietly. "I do."

"And?"

"It's complicated, Trip. Once I was reinstated we couldn't continue to see each other. You don't get out of a court-martial twice. She's still an Ensign and I'm a senior Lieutenant. Either we had to get married or one of us had to leave the Fleet, neither of which was a reasonable option. I would have married her, but then I would have had to leave Enterprise to be with her and when it came down to it, I couldn't do it."

"You decided to stay on Enterprise rather than marry Jessica?" asked Trip.

"I suppose I always assumed that she'd wait for me to finish my tour of duty on Enterprise, but I've rather burned my bridges now," said Reed.

"I know how much Enterprise means to you, Malcolm, but are you sure it's more important than your relationship with Jessica?"

"At the moment, yes," said Reed. "I'm still not sure that I made the right decision, but Enterprise is where I need to be."

Trip's fishing line twitched. "Hey, I got another one, they're really biting today," said Trip. His arms were beginning to ache again though and he didn't have enough strength to pull the fish up. Reed grabbed the rod just before it dropped from Trip's hands.

"Sorry," said Trip.

"Don't worry. We've been sat here quite a while, I'm beginning to get cramps myself," said Reed.

Reed put his own rod down and pulled in Trip's fish. He grabbed the net and brought the fish onto the pier. As the fish hit the deck, the nanite detector suddenly began beeping insistently. Trip and Reed both looked at each other.

"Trip, get back to the cabin, now," said Reed.

"Malcolm…"

"This is not a debate. I'm responsible for your safety. It could be another malfunction or it could be Davis. I'm not taking a chance with your life," said Reed. He stood and helped Trip to his feet. Trip had that look which he got when he was being stubborn.

"Trip, please," said Reed.

Trip still didn't look happy but he nodded grudgingly and they turned to go back into the cabin. Their path was blocked by a growing black mound that bled out of the pile of fish that they had just caught.

"He can't have…" said Trip.

"He did. He split himself into small enough parts that the nanite detector wouldn't fire off and hid in the fish."

"Which we caught and brought ashore for him," said Trip, with disgust.

"Yes, it was nice of you," said Davis, as his face formed. "But even if you hadn't I would have found another way."

Reed positioned himself between Trip and the black amorphous form of Davis.

"Malcolm, what are you doing?" said Trip, not liking the way Reed was protecting him.

"Stay behind me, Commander," said Reed, his eyes not leaving Davis. "You're not getting him so you may as well go."

"If not me then, someone else will come," said Davis. "Besides how are you going to stop me?"

Reed looked at Davis, the black squirming mass of human being shaped monster that stood in front of him. He knew that Davis would attack them as soon as he saw Reed go for his phase pistol. The fact that he'd actually be reaching for the sonic field generator wouldn't make any difference to Davis.

"If you want Commander Tucker then you're going to have to get past me first," said Reed.

"That can be arranged," replied Davis. "I've been waiting for a chance to take you down for some time now. Be assured that I'll make it as painful as possible."

Reed decided that he had no choice but to reach for his phase pistol and as he did so a sea of black liquid launched itself at Trip around Reed's side. Reed fired but he missed and couldn't risk another shot without hurting Trip. In the Commander's weakened state he didn't want to stun him. Trip fell backwards under the weight of Davis and landed heavily on his back on the wooden boards of the pier.

Trip desperately struggled with the treacle-like substance that was doing its best to envelop him, but he knew it was a losing battle. His muscles had ached already before he'd been attacked and his strength was pitiful. It barely took five seconds for Davis to overpower him and begin to suffocate the life out of him. He could feel the black liquid pouring into his nose, ears and throat, cutting him off completely from the outside, even as he tried to scream. He gave up the fight and felt oblivion calling him. Then suddenly he felt the black liquid pulling itself out of his body, but by then his body had been without air for too long and blackness of a different type closed in around him.

Reed saw Trip go limp and knew he was unconscious, he barely had time to check that Trip was still breathing before Davis had finished reforming and turned upon him. He was back in his human form and he didn't look very pleased.

"What did you do?" asked Davis, menacingly. "I can't transform."

Reed held up his sonic field generator, no bigger than a scanner but an considerably lot more powerful in this situation. "T'Pol and I came up with a new frequency. This one stabilises the nanites into their default pattern. In your case, your human form."

"If you think that gives you the advantage then you're sadly mistaken. Changing shape is only one way that I can use the nanites." With that pronouncement Davis made a grab for the sonic field generator which Reed pitched into the lake as far out as he could.

"Don't worry, it's waterproof," said Reed.

Davis growled in frustration and kicked out at Reed. Reed blocked and aimed a punch at Davis, which he in turn dodged. The two of them moved into a series of attacks and counter attacks, each proficient in hand to hand combat. As they fought, Reed realised with horror that Davis had become rather better since their previous meeting. Last time they fought it had been on the Weather Station on a walkway above vats of nanites and Reed had beaten his enemy by making the most of his experience. He'd had the speed of Davis and known his training was basically the same as his own. Now Davis had suddenly become faster and stronger, the nanites turning him into something new and more dangerous.

Every time Davis connected with Reed he weakened his adversary but Reed wasn't sure that his attacks were having much affect on Davis. His kicks and punches almost seemed to bounce off the shining black flesh of the nanite monster. Meanwhile, Davis landed several punches and Reed fell to the ground, dazed from the onslaught. Each punch from his enemy seemed to have a lot more force behind it than he anticipated.

He pulled himself to his feet just as Davis aimed a lightning fast kick at his legs and he was suddenly on the ground again, but this time he took Davis down with him. He felt blood drip from the corner of his mouth where Davis had landed a punch earlier. Reed knew beyond doubt that he was losing, but he wasn't going to give up until he couldn't physically fight any longer, he owed that much to Trip.

He gathered his strength and threw Davis off. He glanced back towards the cabin, mentally judging how far away it was and with it what he needed to spring the trap. They had never expected to have so little warning of Davis' arrival. Reed rolled to his feet before Davis could recover and began limping as quickly as possible down the woodland path towards the cabin.

Davis was on him before he'd got very far, grabbing him from behind and throwing him painfully to the earth of the path. Reed was beginning to wish he had the advantage of being part nanite. He rolled and aimed a punch at the black figure. He gained the upper hand for a moment but Davis was soon attacking again. Reed crawled towards the cabin knowing that the closer he got the more likely it was that he'd lure Davis into one of their automatic devices.

He didn't have the strength anymore to get up and fight, just to pull himself along. Davis was showing little sign of even having been in a fight. He walked over to Reed and kicked him hard in the stomach. All Reed could do was grab for the foot when it made contact.

"You're out of time, Malcolm," sneered Davis.

"Not by a long way," wheezed Reed.

"Why is it that you don't know when you're beaten? You've caused me so much trouble with your stupid tricks. You've lost, Reed, and there's nothing you can do. You know I'm going kill your friend, and I promise his death will be just as painful as yours."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," said Reed, his breath coming in gasps. "Your problem was always your overconfidence. Never underestimate your enemy, Ian, or they might just surprise you." He pulled on the foot he still held and Davis lost his balance. Reed took the opportunity to struggle to stand and limp forwards again, he knew his goal couldn't be more than a couple of steps away. Davis chased after him and suddenly the silence of the forest was broken by a loud klaxon as the nanites came into range of the cabin's detectors.

Reed crossed his fingers that he had the system set up properly and, when he felt the first spots of water on his skin, he knew that he had. He limped over to a tree and leaned against it looking back down the path at his enemy. The spots of water splashed on the black liquid of Davis' body and smoke rose where they hit. Davis watched as he body began to dissolve before his eyes.

"What is this?" asked Davis as he fell to the ground. The liquid burned like acid and was enough to stop him in tracks.

"Anti-nanite liquid. The same thing that we're using to get rid of Commander Tucker's nanites only a hundred times stronger. We have sprinklers with reservoirs of the liquid set up all around the cabin."

Davis was enraged but weakened by the liquid. He made a last attempt to launch towards Reed, but was stopped in his tracks when he hit an invisible wall that buzzed and fluoresced when he made contact.

"Something new that I came up with during my time as Armoury officer on Enterprise," said Reed, trying to be conversational, but the pain he was in from the fight was making it hard to gloat.

"Force field," snarled Davis. He turned and tried to get round the side of the field but another shining wall of light had now miraculously appeared. It was the same on all four sides.

Reed heard footsteps behind him and Archer and T'Pol appeared on the path running towards him.

"You may have caught me, but no prison can hold me," said Davis, pacing like a caged tiger behind the force fields.

"We'll see about that," said Reed.

"My nanites can talk to other technology. Your force field is controlled by a computer," said Davis.

Reed had a bad feeling that he knew what was coming next. The force fields were still experimental and wouldn't hold indefinitely. Davis would now be reaching out with the nanites to override the force field controls. Reed located the control box for the sprinklers and force field by his foot, next to the tree. He looked down in time to see the box begin to spark.

"No, wait…" said Reed. "You don't understand, it's linked to the sprinklers as well." However, by the time he had got the words out, the box of electronics was already dying.

The light shower that the sprinklers had produced suddenly became a torrential rain and Davis let out an inhuman cry of pain. The malfunction had opened the valves on the tanks of liquid completely. Reed had set the sprinklers so as to keep Davis immobile but not kill him, this much liquid would quite probably destroy every nanite in his body. There was nothing that Reed could do other than watch as the black effigy of a man dissolved into a puddle of black liquid that washed away down the path. Reed needed to get out of there too as the liquid in the sprinklers wasn't exactly kind to ordinary human beings. The harsh cry of the monster that Davis had become continued on until the head had completely dissolved taking with it the mouth that had been screaming. Reed wasn't sure if he'd ever heard such an eerie cry of pain and anger.

Archer and T'Pol finally reached Reed who now lent heavily against the tree.

"Trip," he murmured, finally losing the fight to stay upright and sliding down the tree to the ground. "He's still down on the pier." Reed saw Archer and T'Pol exchange a quick look, before Archer turned and ran down the path towards the pier. The sprinkler had run out of liquid and now occasional drips fell to the forest floor.

"Are you able to walk?" asked T'Pol, businesslike as usual.

"I think so," said Reed. He pulled himself upright using the tree trunk as leverage. He almost fell twice on the way back to the cabin, but T'Pol was always at his side ready to give assistance should it be required. They met Phlox coming quickly down the path towards them. He stopped to scan Reed but the Lieutenant waved him off and directed him to the lake side where Trip and Reed had been fishing.

"There aren't any serious injuries. I'll be back to check on you as soon as I've tended to Commander Tucker," said Phlox as he moved as quickly as he could down the path.

T'Pol helped Reed into the lounge of the cabin and to a chair. She retrieved the first aid kit from the kitchen and began to tend to his most obvious wounds, mainly scrapes from his several falls, and the odd cut. His ribs ached but they didn't feel broken and he was sure that everything else could wait until Phlox returned from tending to Trip.

He hoped that Trip was okay, he hadn't had much choice but to leave him lying on the pier while he dealt with Davis. At least that threat was now dealt with. Reed closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair feeling as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He would, of course, have to make sure that no one else came after Trip but he had a pretty good idea how he could do that, even if it might cost him something.