C-28
Chapter 12
See Chapter 1 for disclaimer, etc.
Trip blinked rapidly. Something had startled him awake, but he couldn't figure out exactly what. He glanced around, finding nothing out of the ordinary. He didn't recall having had another nightmare, and it didn't feel like that was the reason for his sudden return to wakefulness anyway. Trip waited for a moment, willing his heart to stop racing and closed his eyes to go back to sleep when he heard an odd sound coming from beyond the curtain surrounding his bed. He opened his eyes again and the sound grew closer. It was a soft swishing, accompanied by footsteps that didn't sound like Phlox. Trip felt his pulse quicken again, and even though he told himself that the anxiety was irrational and could be accounted for by his condition, it didn't abate.
Both the swishing and the footsteps stalled then and Trip shook his head, thinking he had imagined the entire thing. Suddenly a shadow moved right outside the curtain, rustling the material. Trip's breath caught in his throat, and without realizing it, he scooted backwards a couple of inches and kicked the blankets to the side with his good leg. He looked around for something to defend himself with, but came up with nothing, so just pushed himself into a sitting position, and watched as a green, scaly hand pushed aside the curtain.
Doing his best not to let his fear show, Trip fixed his face into his best glare. "What the hell are you doin' here?" Keeping an eye on the Xindi, Trip quickly undid the tape on his arm that held the IV tube in place and slid the line out. He had little chance of getting the upper hand in a fight against the Xindi in his current condition, but certainly not if he was held in place by a bunch of wires.
"My job." The Xindi let the scalpel slide from his sleeve into his hand, and before Trip could say a word, the Xindi's arm was tight around his throat, and he could feel the edge of the scalpel biting into his skin. "Pity you didn't just bleed to death the first time."
"Why's…that?" Trip rasped around the reptilian's arm.
"Because now I have to go to the trouble of bringing you in alive."
"Oh…I don't know…"
"About what?"
"Any…of it." Trip gasped. He was beginning to see spots at the edges of his vision from the lack of oxygen and he knew he had to act fast. Careful not to move his neck due to the blade's close proximity, Trip grabbed his discarded blanket and in one smooth motion flung it backwards over both their heads.
The Xindi growled something angrily that Trip didn't recognize, but assumed from the tone it was a curse. No matter, his action had the desired effect. In an attempt to remove the blanket from himself, the Xindi dropped the scalpel. Squirming blindly, Trip managed to turn so he was roughly facing the Xindi and landed as hard a blow as he could manage to the reptilian's sternum.
"Nice try," the bounty hunter sneered, finally managing to untangle himself from the blanket.
To avoid the impending blow that was bound to follow, Trip launched himself at the bounty hunter before he had considered the consequences, and before the Xindi had a chance to react. Therefore, Trip was mildly surprised when he felt his knees buckle and he plunged limply into his attacker, knocking them both to the floor. Trip was dimly aware of the searing pain in his leg as he struggled against the Xindi for what seemed like eternity. Suddenly, he felt the reptilian's fist connect with the left side of his face and he lay there dazed, wondering why more blows didn't follow. He raised his head off the floor in time to see the Xindi moving off in the direction of the main lab. A frown came to Trip's face as he watched his attacker's retreating form. There was something rather…unnatural about the Xindi's strides, but they were purposeful. The bounty hunter was going after Phlox. It was the only conclusion that made any sense to the engineer so he made the decision to operate on that assumption.
Trip exerted a great effort to push himself up onto his hands and good knee, silently thanking the miracle of modern painkillers that were keeping him from feeling the pain that he should be experiencing and also the adrenaline that was keeping him moving at all. Summoning whatever strength that was still available to him, Trip half-crawled, half-dragged himself after the Xindi. He let out a quiet curse at how long it was taking. He didn't have the luxury of time in this situation, as the bounty hunter was obviously the shoot-first-ask-questions-later type. Passing the transparent doors that led to Phlox's office, Trip had an idea. He turned toward the doors which opened to grant him access to the office. Crawling over to the desk, Trip used it for extra leverage and pulled himself into the chair that was situated behind it.
Out of breath, the engineer wanted to take about an hour's break before continuing, but knew he couldn't. Using his good leg, he began to push the rolling chair away from the desk, when he noticed the hypospray laying there. Almost as an afterthought he picked it up and shoved a random ampule into it from the small selection within reach. Then he quickly pulled himself around the desk and out the door, where he swiveled the chair around and proceeded to move backward because it was faster.
Trip slowed as he neared the lab where he'd last seen the Xindi. He turned in the chair so he was again facing forward and pulled himself along into the room. He paused for a half-second, taking stock of the situation. Phlox was alternatively looking into a microscope and making notes at one of the benches, apparently completely oblivious to the Xindi who was standing rather stiffly off to the left of him, scalpel-wielding hand outstretched, just out of the Denobulan's line of sight. As far as Trip could tell, neither had noticed his presence. Not waiting around for such an event to occur, Trip pulled his way across the room, glad that whoever had designed Phlox's desk chair had used ultra-quiet wheel bearings and rubber-composite wheels that made virtually no sound as they traversed the deck plating.
Stopping about two feet behind and to the right of the Xindi, Trip again contemplated how he should proceed. As the seconds ticked by, his wondering ceased. Whatever doubts and/or daydreams the Xindi had been suffering from that stayed his attack on the doctor had passed, and when Trip saw the reptilian move his arm outward in a sweeping motion, instinct took over and he pushed himself up from the chair, lunging upward with everything he had to get his arms over the tall Xindi's shoulders.
The next moments were somewhat hazy for Trip, as he threw his arms around the Xindi's neck, then felt a hot surge of pain as his injured leg tried unsuccessfully to support him. Gravity took over soon after and he found himself limply hanging from the Xindi's back as they both crumpled to the floor, despite the bounty hunter's struggle to quite literally shake off his attacker. Whether it was instinct or presence of mind Trip could not be certain, but when he felt the weight of the Xindi crash down on top of him, he tightened his arm around the reptilian's neck, and managed to press the hypospray in his other hand against the man's skin before the Xindi writhed free of his grasp and began to turn over, most likely with intentions to do bad things to whoever he found beneath him.
It occurred to Trip then that not every drug was for the purpose of quickly putting the recipient into a deep sleep. He fervently hoped he had not just injected the Xindi with a dose of cold medicine. The Xindi made it to a sitting position, and Trip looked on blearily, intending to roll out of the way immediately if not sooner should the Xindi get any closer. Just then an odd look passed over the reptilian's features and he fell flat on his face with a thud, his arm impacting with Trip's ribs on the way down.
As he wriggled out from beneath the unconscious Xindi, rubbing at his side a bit, Trip's eyes grew wide with the irrational suspicion that perhaps all of Phlox's medications were sedatives. He would have to speak to the captain about that whenever…
"Commander!" Phlox's voice startled Trip from his thoughts.
"'s about time you noticed there was a brawl goin' on right behind ya, Doc," Trip said, smiling faintly.
"What in the world are you doing?" Phlox asked, then fully took in the scene before him, that included one unconscious Xindi, still clutching a scalpel loosely in his hand. "Never mind. Are you all right?"
"Ah think so, all things considered." Trip began to push himself up off the floor.
"Stay still, Mr. Tucker," Phlox warned, bending down to take a look at Trip's leg.
Trip complied, but continued speaking. "You're lucky you've got so many sedatives around here, Doc. I don't think I coulda taken him down by myself."
"You shouldn't have had to take him down at all. I can't imagine how he was up and about in the first place, and I was hoping you'd never even have to know he was here. I apologize for this, Commander. Your condition has endangered you enough already. I should have followed Mr. Reed's advice and placed a guard even though he was unconscious." Phlox looked at Trip with dismay.
"Don't worry about it Doc. You said yourself there was no way ya could've known he'd get up. I don't even think the Xindi knew what he was doin' for sure. His moved kinda like a zombie, more instinctual than anything really. And it was almost as if he had lapses where he couldn't move at all."
"Well, we'll worry about the specifics later. He should be unconscious for at least another hour or so with what you injected him with." Phlox and Trip just looked at each other for a moment, then Phlox stood and went to the comm. "Phlox to security."
Go ahead, Doctor.
"I've reconsidered the security measures for our guest. Please send up a team as soon as possible."
Right away, Doctor. Reed out.
"Are ya sure he's unconscious or is he just playin' dead?" Trip asked, still eyeing the Xindi warily.
"Your guess is as good as mine on the certainty of that, Mr. Tucker. His brain activity shows that he's in a deep sleep, but I'm not taking any more chances." When Phlox didn't receive any acknowledgement, he looked at Trip closely. "Commander?"
"Sorry, Doc. Guess I'm still a little dazed from wrestlin' with that Xindi. He did pop me one pretty good," Trip said, touching his bruised cheekbone gingerly.
"Considering your condition, I would be surprised if you weren't feeling the effects of this encounter. Let's get you back to bed, hmm?"
Trip nodded. "Once ah get back in your chair there, it'll be smooth sailin'. I'm gonna send a letter of commendation t' whoever designed it."
Phlox chuckled, helping Trip maneuver his way back into the desk chair. The journey back to the other room went much more smoothly with the Denobulan steering, and Trip was grateful for the reduced jarring of his leg, which seemed to be growing more painful with each passing moment. He supposed he'd moved it in a way that was inadvisable for its current state of disrepair and he was now suffering the consequences. Phlox must have noticed his discomfort because Trip felt the all too familiar feeling of a hypospray against his neck.
"Commander, do you think you can stand up without putting your weight on that leg?"
"Uh, yeah I think so," Trip replied, once again trying without much success to shake the clouds from his mind.
"All right, just take it slow."
The engineer did as instructed, and made it to a mostly upright position, though he relied heavily on Phlox's support. The doctor was explaining how he should accomplish the task of moving the short distance that remained between him and the bed, but Trip found himself unable to pay much attention. He marveled for a few moments at the feeling of his head floating several feet above his body before succumbing to the gray haze that seemed intent on engulfing him.
TBC…
