C-28

Chapter 5

A/N: Sorry for the delay, but the semester's nearly over!

See Chapter 1 for disclaimer and all that fun stuff.

Trip struggled through the deep snow and dense trees toward the building. He had to make it there before the Xindi made matters even worse for the unsuspecting bargaining team. He'd covered less than a quarter of the distance and already his uniform was beginning to soak through from the snow that reached a depth just shy of his knees in some places. His pounding head and cramping back didn't help matters either. Silently, Trip berated Phlox for always being right, then silently apologized for the panic he was probably causing the doc by suddenly disappearing off the sensors.
Continuing his journey, Trip skirted the edge of the clearing, looking for the least-steep place to enter the bowl-like depression the building was situated in. Suddenly, someone grabbed him from behind and pulled him back into the cover of the trees, covering his mouth with a gloved hand at the same time.
"Listen, the Xindi has found out you are not with the others, but he now plans to use them to bargain for you. Unless of course he decides to turn them over to his people for money instead, which would probably be smarter on his part." The Draden from the shuttle muttered the last part of his sentence to himself.
Trip overheard it nonetheless and glared at the young man. "Where are they?" he asked.
"The same room where you met earlier. The Xindi was in a nearby control room at the time. If you have a way of warning your people, now would be a good time. I can't go in there with you though. If the Xindi sees me, I'm a dead man. He thinks Solead's the only one here."
Trip nodded. He knew he couldn't use his voice in any communication as it would let the Xindi know he was, in fact, present. He could try one other thing though...

++++++++++

Solead returned from the control room to find Archer and Reed pacing, while the engineers stood off to the side quietly. "Have you come to a decision regarding my terms?" asked the Draden.
"Yes, we have. I think..." Archer paused as he heard his communicator beep. "Excuse me a moment, Solead. This is Archer," the captain said, flipping open the device. When no one answered, he repeated, "Archer. Go ahead."
Abruptly, the communicator erupted into a series of beeps and static. "It must be malfunctioning," Archer said, about to switch it off.
To Reed, something in all that jumble of sound was too familiar, so he quickly asked Archer for it. Listening carefully, his suspicions were confirmed. "That's very odd, Captain. Didn't we have this exact same problem once before?" He looked at Archer very intently, handing the still- squawking communicator back. He had stressed 'before' just enough for Archer to get the hint.
The captain allowed the static to run a moment longer, then switched it off and stowed it in his pocket. The static, was, in fact, Morse code, but Archer didn't at all like the message. Xindi setup. Get out. Trip. Archer glanced at Malcolm who gave the slightest of nods to indicate that he'd heard the message.
"Sorry about that, Solead," Archer said, trying to keep his tone neutral. "The Expanse has been affecting our communication devices as well."
The Draden nodded, then pressed on, "Your decision, as you were saying?"
"We have decided to comply with your request. We will return to Enterprise and collect Commander Tucker, then return here to complete the transaction. The delay should be no greater than half an hour, but if you are busy, we can schedule another time."
"I am afraid that won't be possible," a voice said from the other side of the room.
The group turned toward the voice, finding a reptilian Xindi with some form of energy weapon trained on them.

++++++++++

"Well, I've done what I can without givin' myself away. In the time it takes me to reach that building, I'd say we'll pretty much know whether they've gotten the picture. If not, I'll just have to go inside and show that Xindi that my price is much higher than he thinks it is."
"The minute he sees you, it's all over. He'll shoot your friends and take you captive. You're the only one worth keeping alive because you can give him information, but your captain's head and three other humans' as a bonus, and that Xindi's secured himself a nice cozy position someplace within his government, probably a nice little mansion in the Xindi tropics."
"Then I'll just make sure he doesn't see me. I'll trade ya." Trip held out his jacket to the Draden.
"You're out of your mind, but hey, don't take my advice. I'm sure I don't know what I'm talking about," the Draden shook his head, but began taking off his full-length, hooded fur parka.
"Take it, but I don't want your coat. If that Xindi sees me wearing it, he'll kill me just as quickly. I'd rather be cold."
"Whatever," Trip shrugged, starting to put on the coat, then stopping as the sling prevented him from progressing more than halfway. "Dammit! Care to give me a hand?"
The Draden smirked. "I don't even wanna know what happened to you, man." He helped Trip unfasten the sling and ease the parka over his arm, which Trip found he couldn't move at all now without pain. Somehow he managed to get the coat all the way on and buttoned, and then he stashed the phase pistol and communicator in the pockets. "My advice is still to take the shuttle and save yourself."
"Well, fortunately for my friends, I'm not willing to take that advice. Ya sure ya don't wanna come?" Trip asked, returning the Draden's smirk.
"No thank you. I hope you survive." With that, he was gone. Trip shook his head, pulled up the hood of the parka, which was much warmer than even the heavier jacket he'd been wearing, and started toward the building.
His progress through the snow seemed to take forever as he did his best not to fall. Walking down a steep incline and having to wade through snow at the same time was a tall order which he didn't have the patience for at the present time. Nearing the entrance after several minutes, Trip paused for a moment. He thought he could hear people talking and one of the voices sounded like Jon's.
Not ready to make his presence known, even in disguised form, just yet, Trip moved around the outside of the building toward the origin of the voices. After some searching, he found a door half-hidden within a snowdrift. Though he couldn't make out quite what they were saying, they were definitely louder here, so Trip quietly pushed his way through the snow. Finding the door unlatched, he drew his phase pistol and cautiously swung it open. The room was empty.
Empty as in devoid of persons that was. There was a panel of consoles along one side of the room, with monitors on each of them. Trip glanced at each one, until he came to the meeting room. He was out the door and three steps down the corridor before the scene fully registered in his brain. It was one Xindi to four Starfleet officers, only two of which were armed. He would improve those odds slightly, but only if he could aim sufficiently with his left hand.
He needed a plan and he needed it quickly. The room he would be entering had two doors if he remembered correctly. The Xindi was facing the one he was closer to. The other door would be Trip's point of entry, but it was too far away for him to blast the Xindi from behind with his weapon. That gave him the advantage that the Xindi wouldn't be able to blast him back on sight either. A definite plus. Then an idea struck him.
Sometimes the best strategies were those that no one was expecting, and those that weren't all that logical. T'Pol would no doubt disapprove if she knew what he was planning, but it was the best diversion he could think of on such short notice. No doubt the impact of running would not feel pleasant, but his legs were one of the few parts of himself he could trust to work at the moment, assuming he didn't have another spasm...
He reached the door a moment later and paused to catch his breath and listen. A voice that he didn't recognize was questioning someone rather nastily. It had to be the Xindi. "Here goes nothin', Tucker," he muttered, pulling open the door. Just as he'd hoped, the element of surprise did the trick. The Xindi, apparently very shocked to see anyone else at all, released his hold on Malcolm. Then everything happened at once.
Trip entered the room at a full run, still clad in his Draden accomplice's parka. Reed threw himself backward and attempted to kick the Xindi's feet out from under him. The Xindi jumped, and Reed missed him, but Archer lunged and knocked his weapon clear.
Enraged, the Xindi swung at Archer, connecting with the captain's eye, knocking him backwards. Trip was halfway across the room by this point, and dived to the ground, rolling, just to confuse any weapons that might have been aimed at him. He hadn't been able to see because of the hood, which was no longer in place.
The momentum from the Xindi's hit sent Archer sliding across the floor, and in his dazed state, he wasn't really sure whether he'd actually seen Trip. Trying to make sense of things, he called out to his friend.
The Xindi realized quickly what Archer had just said, and shoved Reed away. Coming out of his roll, Trip saw the Xindi headed his way, and scrambled to his feet, urging his legs to go faster, even as his head throbbed more intensely. Reaching the exit, he slammed the door in the Xindi's face, gaining him a few seconds. He knew he had to get outside the building before the Xindi got too close. It wouldn't do to play a game of cat and mouse and end up trapped in a storage closet that looked like an exit from the outside.
Glancing over his shoulder, Trip noticed that the Xindi was a good distance behind him, but possibly with unknown weapons tucked away. Ducking around the corner, the engineer sprinted down the hallway back the way he'd come and wondered how well the Xindi knew the layout of the building. A little second-guessing might buy him a little more time though even if the Xindi was familiar with the building though, he thought. He yanked open several closed doors before disappearing through the control room door.
Moments later he heard one of them slam, and noticed on a monitor that the Xindi was hardly glancing into each of the opened doors. So much for the option of him not knowing the building's layout. Trip crossed the room and shoved open the door that led back out into the door. Since there was really no object he could use to block the door from the outside, he shoved some snow back around the bottom of the door, and then took off again just as he heard movement within the room.
Trip ran through the deep snow as fast as he possibly could, back up the hill toward the trees. By retracing the previous tracks he'd made, things went more smoothly, but he still nearly fell twice. Another glance backward from the top of the incline showed the Xindi shove his way out of the building and do a quick visual sweep of the darkening landscape.
"Dammit!" Trip cursed as he saw the Xindi spot him. It wasn't dark enough yet to hide in plain sight, and Trip didn't know how long his body was going to allow him to keep up this pace. He darted further into the trees, hoping they'd offer at least partial camouflage. He began skirting the depression toward the rear of the building. If he could make it that far, perhaps he would have enough distance between himself and the Xindi ship to stop and contact the captain. Maybe they'd even talk Solead into completing the sale of giving them a discount for their troubles. Yeah, fat chance of that happening, he thought. So much for C-28 unless they could somehow generically replicate more from the sample they possessed...Trip's thoughts abruptly shifted as an energy beam sizzled through the air bare inches from his face, close enough to feel the heat.
Instinctively he ducked behind a tree and saw the Xindi about twenty yards back, closing fast. Trip got to his feet and pushed himself into a run once again. Recalling Malcolm's ground evasion training, he zigzagged through the trees, ducking and straightening up periodically to make himself as difficult a target as possible. Malcolm's training had also included diving to the ground and rolling, but Trip omitted that part, as he doubted his shoulder could take it.
None of his efforts stopped the Xindi from firing on him, though. If he'd had any doubts left about the Draden's information about the Xindi, they were gone now. This Xindi wanted him. It wasn't about getting Enterprise crew, it was about getting Enterprise's engineer. Otherwise, the Xindi surely wouldn't have left an entire room full of them to come after him. He just hoped the captain would be joining the chase without too much delay.
By not slowing his pace much and continuing to move in a circuitous route, despite his zigging and zagging, Trip soon reached the back 'corner' of the dome. Still running, he surveyed the back of the building as it came into view. An expanse of snow covered the ground to who-knew-what depth, and there was a small shed at the far end, near the building but not attached to it. Other than that, snow drifts, the darkness, and any fire he could lay down while running were his only protection. Not great odds, but he'd seen worse.
Another glance backward showed a few yards' extra space in between them, but an accurate shot from the Xindi could potentially still make contact. He had to make a decision about whether he wanted to draw the Xindi's fire in the open or remain in the trees. There were advantages to both, but the disadvantages seemed to outweigh them in either case. Going into the open looked better, though, simply because complete darkness was mere minutes away and there were less things to fall over outside of the wooded area.
Trip made his decision and turned sharply to the left, another shot from the Xindi lighting up the space he'd just vacated. He wasn't sure whether the Xindi had seen him change direction, but either way, it wouldn't be long before the reptilian picked up the trail again, and Trip had to be behind the cover of the nearest snowdrift before his pursuer emerged from the trees if he was to have a chance at surviving.
He started down the incline at the place where there looked to be the least snow, only a couple of inches blanketed the ground. This good fortune only lasted the first five or six steps, however. The snow was becoming steadily deeper as he went, and Trip had to pick up his feet with each step to get over the snow, rather than dragging through it. He'd gotten into a pretty good rhythm considering the circumstances, and the terrain leveled out just ahead. On his next step, though, the ground was suddenly not where it should have been and he was pitched headfirst into the snow. Fro the depth it was, the snow was not at all packed, but rather was loose and powdery. This caused Trip's momentum to send him rolling down the incline, displacing the snow as he went.
What the engineer was able to see was white, and that was only when he didn't have snow in his eyes. He couldn't tell for sure which way was up as he careened down the slope. Just then his momentum slammed him into hard ground. Pain shot through his bad shoulder, and then there was only darkness.

A/N: Okay, I'll try not to knock Trip out in the next chapter... ;)

TBC...