Trip and Trix entered the galley after having raided the mess hall finding no food there. Trip began to search through all the cupboards while Trix sat herself down at table. She watched as the engineer went through all the cupboards, saying "Ooh… didn't no chef had that here." as he found something new and interesting. "What the hell is that?" he said as he picked up a food bag from one of the shelves. "Cuisses de grenouilles?" he said reading off the label.
"Cuisses de grenouilles." Trix repeated in a perfect French accent, correcting the commander's pronunciation errors. "That's French for frogs legs." Trix called over. Trip looked at her and then at the packet with a disgusted look on his face. He then placed the packet back into its space and left it alone.
"What do you like to eat?" Trip called from a far corner… it then hit him that Trix had never actually eaten anything before as she had only been around for short time. "Sorry. I'm not thinking."
"I like what ever you like… after all … I am you." Trix replied with a sweet little smile. Trip smiled back at her. He opened another cupboard and found what he was looking for. He straightened up and turned to face Trix. In each hand he had a plate, with a fork carefully balanced at one edge. He placed one plate down in front of Trix and then sat down opposite her. She smiled upon seeing the food.
"I should've known… Pecan Pie."
Trip nodded. He was never going to get used to her knowing exactly what was going on. Together the two of them got stuck into their meal… not paying any attention to the Armoury officer who was standing in the door way looking in bewilderment at the young girl.
After a minute or two Trix looked up. "Good morning Lieutenant."
Trip turned on his chair and saw Lieutenant Malcolm Reed staring at them open mouthed. "Don't ask how she got here… cause I'm still not too clear on it myself."
"In that case I won't." Malcolm replied as he moved over to them.
"In that case may I?"
Trip nodded… hoping her explanation might clear up a couple of his confused brain cells. As Trix began to speak Malcolm he grew even more surprised as he listened to her accent… exactly like Trip's.
"Right… let me see… oh yeah… Trip as you know was doing an experiment with the warp drive… something went wrong… I think some space dust got into the intake manifolds and went through the system clogging up the plasma injector relays… That then caused an anti-matter injector failure, which led to the power failure in engineering. The electromagnetic field generated by the bussard collectors brought the hydrogen gas into the room. That then got mixed up with some of Trip's DNA, plasma radiation caused by the power failure… and that created me."
Both men were stunned.
"How do you know that? Even my team don't know that." Trip stated. He had completely ignored his pie whilst Trix had been speaking.
"I don't know. I just do." She replied. She shrugged and took another bite of the pie. Very soon Trix finished her slice. "Can I have that if you're not hungry."
Trip just nodded. He really didn't know what to say about her.
Trix leant over the table and pulled the second plate towards her. Picking up her fork she dug it into the sweet tasting dessert.
"Do you have a name?"
"Trix." She replied and devoured what was left of Trip's pie in record time.
After a couple of hours Trix, Trip and Malcolm had been called to the command centre. Archer had been speaking with Admiral Forrest about their new friend. As the three of them entered Archer was already waiting for them, pacing back and forth across the room the other side of the table… Three pairs of eyes watched him as they waited for him to say something… but Archer stayed silent. They could easily tell that there was not good news. Malcolm had his arms folded across his chest. Trix and Trip were standing in exactly the same position… with their arms by their sides.
"What's the bad news Cap'n?" Trip finally asked after a few seconds.
"Starfleet want Trix for examination."
At the mention of that Malcolm unfolded his arms.
"What?" Anger was easily detectable on Trip's voice, and also in his blue eyes. "What the hell do they wanna do that for?"
"I don't know Trip. All I've been ordered to do is to get Trix down to the Starfleet science labs by tomorrow afternoon."
The two men and Trix starred blankly. Trix had only just been created and now she was going to be taken away from them.
"So I'm just gonna be a lab rat?" She asked. Archer nodded his head.
"I can't go against their orders. If there was anything I could do to keep you here then I would do my best to do that… but there isn't anything I can do."
Trix sadly looked down at the floor.
Without any warning all the lights suddenly went off in the command centre and they were thrown into complete darkness. After a few seconds the lights came back up, showing the three men frantically looking round them for any indication of what had just happened. Malcolm stared at the space where Trix had stood moments before.
"Trix!"
Archer, Trip and Malcolm all knew what had happened…
The Suliban.
