A Thousand Years

By Drogna

Despite appearances, Trip was not stupid. He knew that he was too ill to be pushing his body and he was beginning to feel it again. Phlox's shots were keeping him upright but they wouldn't keep him going forever. It was only his stubborn streak, that had been showings its head more often these last six months, that kept him going. He couldn't remember a time since the incident that he hadn't been in some degree of pain or at least discomfort. If Phlox had his way then he'd have been permanently drugged up to the eyeballs, but Trip didn't like to be out of control of his own body. Strong painkillers slowed his reactions and dulled his mind so he would only allow Phlox to give him the weaker ones that didn't work so well.

"We're ready," said Trip to Reed, as he limped onto the bridge.

"Trip, you look terrible. For god's sake, sit down," said Reed vacating the Captain's chair for Trip. He grabbed Trip by the arm and helped him over to the chair. Trip didn't complain, which worried Reed even more. His breathing didn't sound good and the persistent cough was back. "I'm calling Phlox."

Trip closed his eyes. "Call Tyrfing first and let them know that we're ready."

Reed ignored Trip and commed Phlox before he hailed Tyrfing. Phlox arrived a few moments later, scanned Trip and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Captain, but I'm going to have to take you to sickbay," said Phlox.

Trip's eyes snapped open. "No. I need to monitor the field extension."

Reed crouched down beside the Captain's chair. "Trip, you've done all you can. Let Lieutenant Flintoff take care of the field extension."

"She's never seen it done before. It's my job, Malcolm."

"Commander, I have Captain T'Pol on Tyrfing hailing us," said the Ensign at the com station.

"Great," said Trip. He had purposely been shutting out T'Pol because he knew what she'd say.

"On screen," said Reed. A scene of Tyrfing's bridge appeared on the screen.

"Tyrfing is prepared to extend its warp field," said T'Pol, who surprisingly, ignored her t'hy'la. She was sat at the Engineering Station on board Tyrfing, which was not her usual post.

Trip pushed himself out of the Captain's chair and shakily wound his way to the engineering station. He checked the readouts in front of him. "We're ready to get underway."

Phlox followed Trip and once more prepared a hypospray. "This will make you feel better, but you need to go to sickbay in the next couple of hours or I won't be held responsible for the consequences."

"Understood, Doc, just give me the shot and I'll deal with the consequences once we're underway," said Trip. Phlox didn't look happy but he injected Trip with the hypospray anyway.

"I'll be in sickbay if you need me. I already have a number of sick engineers to care for," said Phlox before he entered the turbo lift.

Trip didn't miss the dig. Phlox didn't need another sick engineer to look after, but it wasn't as if Trip wanted to be sick. He had to keep going, the crew of Excalibur were depending on him. He was one of the few people who had ever seen this done before. Admittedly the last time this had been done, he'd set up things on Columbia before taking a space walk across to Enterprise, so he hadn't exactly been present for the moment they merged fields, but he'd certainly been around when Enterprise shut down her warp core and had to do a cold restart in less than two minutes. In a few years time they'd probably think nothing of extending a warp field around another ship, in fact they'd probably have it as a built in program, but at the moment this was still new territory.

"Take us to impulse, Ensign," said Reed, who had taken the Captain's chair again. As the highest ranking officer currently on duty it was his right to sit there and Trip noted that it suited him pretty well.

"Aye, sir," replied the helmsman.

T'Pol suddenly spoke again, this time to her own bridge crew. "Captain Austin, I am picking up some approaching sensor contacts."

"Are you using the enhanced sensor array?" asked Trip.

"They are the only sensors that are currently working, given the Romulan jamming," replied T'Pol.

"You should be able to resolve contacts into individual signals by correcting for frequency drift," said Trip.

"I am already doing so, Captain," replied T'Pol. Trip felt T'Pol's annoyance at him and realised he was patronising her by telling her things she already knew, so decided to keep quiet. "There are three approaching Romulan war birds."

Admiral Archer joined T'Pol at the Engineering console. "ETA?" he asked.

"To our current position, approximately thirty minutes," replied T'Pol.

"At the speed we're going to be travelling at it should take them at least five hours to catch us," said Trip, quickly doing some mental calculations.

"By which time we won't even be a quarter of a light year away from here," said Reed.

"Then let's get moving as quickly as possible," said Archer.

"We've matched speeds with Excalibur and we're ready to deploy the grappling hook," said Austin. "Co-ordinates have been verified and we'll hit Excalibur on the nose."

"Let's get this over with then," said Reed.

"Whenever you're ready, Lieutenant Pietersen," said Austin to her Armoury Officer.

"Yes, Ma'am. Firing grappling hook."

Trip felt a small shudder pass through Excalibur when the grappling hook hit and the magnets came on.

"Grappling hook is secure. Tyrfing is now towing Excalibur," said T'Pol, checking the tension on the cable and the hull of both ships. Trip was doing the same at his end too.

"Looking good from here. Not too much strain on the cable or the hull plating," said Trip. "We're ready for stage two."

"Extending warp field," said T'Pol.

"Okay," said Trip. "Now comes the hard part, we need to accelerate up to warp. Easy does it."

"Increasing to warp zero point two five," said T'Pol.

"So far so good, take her up to point five."

"Increasing to warp zero point five."

"Trip, we're not going to get away from the Romulans if we don't speed things up a bit," said Archer.

"If we don't do this slowly, we'll tear both ships apart," said Trip.

"If we don't get nearer to the edge of the Neutral Zone before those Romulans appear, there won't be a ship to worry about," replied Archer.

Trip didn't look exactly happy but he checked his readings again. "T'Pol, let's try this in half factor jumps. I think the structure can take it but let's keep an eye on things all the same."

"Increasing to warp one," said T'Pol. "Structural integrity is holding. Warp one point five. Warp two."

"Hold it," said Trip, suddenly. A shudder ran through Excalibur unexpectedly. A small red light flickered urgently at him. "Malcolm, you said there was a breech in cargo bay three."

"More like cargo bay three was completely destroyed. Is that important?" asked Reed.

"Every part of the hull contributes to structural integrity, if you take a piece of it away you weaken the whole thing. It could mean that we can't get above warp two. Damn."

"Can we do anything?" asked Reed.

"We could brace the area around the hull breech. Depends how much of the superstructure was destroyed. Lieutenant Flintoff should have a better idea since Tyrfing and Excalibur are the same basic design. Get her down there to take a look and start setting up the braces, if she thinks it will work," said Trip.

The orders were passed on to the Lieutenant and the two ships waited for the Engineering team to report back. Another judder ran through the floor plating of Excalibur.

"Are the inertial dampers functioning at optimum levels?" asked T'Pol.

"First thing I checked," replied Trip. "They're called dampers for a reason, they don't cut inertia completely."

"Flintoff to Tucker, you were right, sir. We're missing a load bearing bulkhead, but I think we can brace it. Give us a few minutes to set it up."

"Okay, Lieutenant, as quick as you can," replied Trip. "Did you guys on Tyrfing get that?"

"Yes, Trip. Can we maintain warp two while the repairs are carried out?" asked Archer.

"We can try, but until we get those braces in place we're on borrowed time," said Trip.

"How far away are the Romulans, T'Pol?"

"They are approximately ten minutes away from the abandoned civilian transport," replied T'Pol.

"How long before they catch up with us?"

"At our current speed, approximately one hour. There is something else that you should be aware of," added T'Pol.

"What is it?" asked Archer.

"Due to the increased proximity of the ships pursuing us, I have been able to detectan indentification marking. One of the ships following us is the IRW Virideth, Admiral Valdore's ship."

"The commander of the Romulan fleet at the battle of Cheron," said Archer.

"He's not exactly one of your biggest fans, Admiral," put in Trip.

"After the crushing defeat they suffered at Cheron that isn't exactly a surprise," said Captain Austin.

"This is personal," said Archer. "It goes back to the Romulan drone incident, which Valdore masterminded, but there's been a lot more since then. He's a bitter man and he knows how to hold a grudge."

"Of all the Romulans that we could have run into, he's the least likely to listen to reason," said Reed.

"No Romulan listens to reason," said Captain Austin.

Archer was aware of Austin's past run-ins with Romulans. She'd been First Officer on NX03 Challenger when it had become a casualty of the war and had barely escaped with her life. Her Captain hadn't been quite so lucky, which in itself was enough to hate the Romulans, but they'd also lost thirty-seven crewmen in the attack, which was nearly half of Challenger's crew. The remaining members of the crew abandoned ship and were picked up by Enterprise, which had been on its way to answer Challenger's distress call. They barely got out of the area before Challenger's warp core went critical and destroyed the ship. Of course Enterprise had lost people during the war as well, as had most of the frontline ships, but Challenger's loss had been early in the conflict and therefore was felt particularly deeply.

Archer was brought out of his thoughts by Lieutenant Flintoff on Excalibur letting them know that the bracing was complete and she was ready to try increasing speed again. Trip gave the go ahead and T'Pol began her gradual speed increases again.

"Increasing to warp two point five," said T'Pol.

"Take her to warp three," said Trip, after checking that the extra warp factor wasn't placing undue strain on the bracing.

"Warp three," signalled T'Pol. "Warp three point five."

"This is looking good. I think we can risk the jump to warp four," replied Trip.

Archer could tell that Trip and T'Pol were communicating on another level and their spoken comments were very much for the benefit of the bridge crew on the two ships. There were several systems that needed to be monitored and they weren't reeling off telemetry readings to each other, that information was passing silently between them. T'Pol gave a small nod which wasn't in answer to anything.

"Increasing to warp four," said T'Pol. "I am detecting some strain on Tyrfing's engine but it is still within expected boundaries. I'm transferring all available power to the warp field."

"Excalibur has transferred all available power to hull integrity so we should be fine to go to warp five," replied Trip.

"Increasing to warp five," said T'Pol. "Warp five is steady and holding."

"Excalibur isn't showing any undue stress, at least not more than we expected," added Trip.

"Good work, Trip," said Archer.

"All we have to do now is wait for the Romulans to catch us," said Austin, bitterly.

"Hopefully by that point we'll be close enough to Athena and Durandal that they'll think twice about attacking," replied Archer.

"You know, I'm not feeling so good," said Trip. "I think I'll go lie down." Trip took two steps away from his station and nearly fell flat on his face. It was only because Reed had leapt out of his chair and grabbed Trip by the elbow that he hadn't hit the deck.

On Tyrfing, T'Pol was already half out of her seat, before she remembered that there was nothing she could do from where she was.

"Sickbay, now," said Reed.

"Good idea, Malcolm," said Trip and promptly passed out.

Sickbay on Excalibur was crowded. In fact it was so crowded that the corridors had been turned into a makeshift ward for all the patients that needed beds and treatment. The majority of the injured were victims of radiation poisoning. Members of the medical staff tended to the crewmembers, moving quietly about while caring for the injured. Reed hated this corridor, it was an ongoing reminder of people that he had failed to protect. This was the burden of command and the people on the beds in the corridor were his responsibility. That included one stubborn Engineer.

Trip was lying on a makeshift bed. Portable bio-monitors had been attached to the walls next to each bed along the corridor to keep the medical staff alerted to their patients' condition. The patient Reed had come to see seemed to be asleep and he had no idea how to read the monitor above the bed to confirm that. Phlox had hung bags of fluids on a stand by the bed that dripped down a long, thin tube into Trip's vein. Reed assumed that they were drugs to kill the virus that was causing the pneumonia and eventually make Trip better. Oxygen was being provided through a nasal cannula once more and no doubt other aerosol medication. It reminded Reed of the last time he'd seen Trip in hospital, when his friend had still had substantial recovery time ahead of him.

"Oh Trip," said Reed with a sigh as he squatted down beside the bed. "The Admiral should never have let you come."

Trip stirred. "And if he hadn't you'd still be dead in the water, Commander," he murmured.

"I didn't think you were awake," said Reed.

"Corridors aren't exactly the best of places to try to get some shut-eye," replied Trip and broke into a coughing fit.

"Do you want me to get Phlox?" asked Reed.

Trip waved negatively at him as the coughing subsided. "A little cough is the least of my problems. How's the warp field holding up?"

Reed refrained from telling Trip that his cough was anything but little. "No problems so far. Your Lieutenant Flintoff seems to know her stuff."

"She's not my Lieutenant Flintoff. If anything she's Kelby's."

"Kelby? As in pain in the arse, briefly Chief Engineer of Enterprise Kelby?"

"The same. He's Tyrfing's Chief Engineer these days."

"What was it you said about him? Technically competent but no empathy with the engine?"

"Something like that."

"And he's the one in charge of Tyrfing's engine," said Reed, dismally.

"Technically competent is all that's required. I did all the hard work for him before I came over here."

"Which is why you're now lying here in the care of our good doctor," said Reed.

"Yeah, I know, I'm a stupid son of a bitch. You should hear what T'Pol's got to say on the subject. I wouldn't have believed Vulcans even knew words like that. Anyway, Phlox won't let me out again and he's threatened me with disciplinary proceedings if I don't stay put this time."

"It's about time someone knocked some sense into you," replied Reed.

"T'Pol's been trying for months and it hasn't worked so far," said Trip with a smile.

Suddenly a jolt ran through the deck, knocking Reed off balance.

"Problem with the warp field?" asked Trip, suddenly concerned.

"Weapons fire," said Reed with complete certainty as he clambered to his feet. "I think the Romulans just caught up with us."