Chapter Eleven
After piloting the shuttle back to Enterprise, Captain Archer stepped out, and walked over to the comm. "Archer to the Bridge."
"Bridge here, Capt'n." Trip replied a little nervously.
"I'm sending you the coordinate of our new destination; have Travis plot a direct course and get us away from here."
"Sure thing, Capt'n. Anything else?" Trip asked, trying to gauge an answer as to what they found over there on the Daladian ship.
"Meet me, T'Pol, Reed, and Phlox in the Command Centre. We need to discuss the recent developments before we can decide upon our next course of action."
----------------------------------------------------------
Five minutes later, Trip walked into the Command Centre to a group of quiet and solemn looking faces gathered around the table.
"I take it things weren't pretty over there?"
"You can say that again," Malcolm quietly muttered back as Trip took a seat. "It was a right mess. Who ever did this knew just where to hit them to take out critical systems, and to make the most damage."
"So you're saying it was no accident?" Trip asked.
"Yes," Malcolm answered, "that was no random blast damage. The hits were too precise and accurate. I'd say it was done by someone familiar with their ships and species."
"Could it be those who they were afraid of?"
"We don't know, Trip. Any answer would be speculation on our parts," Archer replied. He wasn't happy with this situation at all; it felt like they were being used as pawns in someone's sick little game -- a game where now an innocent baby and his best friend were in great danger.
"Did ya find out anything from Trevella and Allion?"
"They were dead, Commander," Phlox answered. Then he added quietly: "They were killed in a rather vicious and crude manner." This remark caused Trip to turn rather pale and to clutch at his side, where his growing child was just beginning to show.
Concerned, Archer stood up and walked behind his friend, clutching his shoulders as a sign of support. "T'Pol managed to download some data into her scanner; it might give us an idea of who did this and why."
"So what do we know?" Trip asked in a quiet voice, deeply concerned by the events.
"The logical course of action would be to head towards the coordinates given during the meld, and to try to contact these Guardians."
"Meld? Guardians?" asked Reed, a little confused.
Looking over at Trip, Captain Archer replied, "I'll bring you up-to-date with events later, Lieutenant."
Malcolm glanced at Trip and smiled. "I'm not quite as behind as you may think, Sir, but thank you, it would be appreciated."
Captain Archer nodded to indicate that he understood. He was glad that Trip had confided to one of his friends at least, allowing Malcolm to help him through this.
"T'Pol how long will it take us to reach those coordinates?"
"Ten weeks," T'Pol replied, as she went over the calculations on her scanner. "It would usually take about half that time at Warp 5, but the area of space contains a lot of disruptions and anomalies, so we will only be able to reach Warp 3."
"Keep an eye on sensors at all time; let's hope we can get there without any trouble," replied Captain Archer as they all got ready to leave. "Trip, we're going to need to upgrade communications in order to send a message to the Guardians. I'd like you to get started on that as soon as you can."
"Once we've finished here, I'd like to take Commander Tucker to Sickbay for his daily check-up," Phlox said trying to block the engineer's path out of the room. Looking at Commander Tucker's whole demeanour, he was extremely worried about his health.
"I'm fine." Trip shouted, trying to calm his racing heartbeat. "I need to help T'Pol retrieve the data, then I have to get on with the communications systems."
"Trip … you know about doctor's orders. You can help T'Pol after Phlox is finished checking you over."
"Capt'n …."
"That's an order, Commander," said Archer, sternly. He didn't want to come down hard on Trip, but he also was quite concerned.
Since nearly everyone involved was ganging up on him, Trip reluctantly agreed and followed Phlox back to Sickbay.
-------------------------------------------------
Forty minutes later, Trip walked into the Science Lab to help T'Pol retrieve the data from the Daladian ship.
"How are you?" she asked.
"I'm fine." Trip replied, giving the usual brush off that he used whenever he was asked this question. When she gave him the 'you don't fool me' look though, he shrugged and answered truthfully, "It's the same as usual. Phlox thinks I should rest, put my feet up, and relax since my blood pressure is high again."
"That's good advice."
"Hardly. How can I relax after what happened to Trevella and Allion's ship?" Trip replied, getting worked up again. "I've got a lot on my plate with keeping the engines in good condition so they can make it to those coordinates, and I have to revamp our communication system so we can make contact."
T'Pol walked up beside him, and placed her hands on either side of his shoulders. "You have excellent support staff, Commander. You should rely on them more. I know you see yourself as more as a hands-on Chief Engineer, but at the moment you have more important matters to think about," T'Pol said, looking at where the child was just beginning to show through his uniform. "Protecting her also involves keeping yourself in good condition, not just the ship."
"Why do I get the feeling you're gonna be constantly on my case about that," smirked Trip.
"One of my duties as First Officer is looking out for the crew. I am just performing my duty," she replied, as she stared into his eyes while softly caressing his face.
"I love it when you take your job so literally," said Trip softly, reaching down to gentle caress her lips with his own. Wanting more, T'Pol pulled him closer for a more thorough in-depth exploration of her mouth.
After a few minutes, Trip broke away, "T'Pol, what are we doing?" he questioned.
"I believe you Humans call it making out."
"That's not quite what I meant," chuckled Trip.
Thinking back to one of those old movies that Trip loved to watch when they were together, T'Pol look at him and replied, "I believe we should take it one step at a time."
"So which step is this?" Trip asked before leaning in for another kiss.
"Relaxing the Chief Engineer so he can perform his duties in a more efficient manner," T'Pol teased back, raising her eyebrow and tilting her head with a slight smile.
Much to T'Pol's delight, Trip to burst out laughing.
She had hoped to cheer him up. They looked at each other for a moment, and they concentrated on retrieving the data again.
2 hours later, Trip frowned with frustration. "Well that didn't tell us much."
"Indeed, although we now have a clear picture of what happened on their home world, and why they took up this mission."
"Yeah, but that doesn't help us much, does it?" Trip replied, while pacing the room and running his fingers through his hair. "I … I just feel so damn helpless! They might be out there watching us right now, just waiting to attack--
"Trip," interrupted T'Pol, grabbing hold of his shoulder and stopping him in his tracks. "Stressing over what may or may not happen is not helping you or the child. First of all, this event occurred several days ago, so whoever attacked their ship is long gone by now. Secondly, if the people who did this are the ones Trevella and Allion were running from, then they won't know about Enterprise. The Daladians went through a great deal of effort to delete any trace of our involvement from their ship's database."
"All the attackers would have to do is to scan their ship, then they would discover our modified spare parts in their systems."
"Yes, but it will take time to trace them back to us." T'Pol argued back.
"I can't let them kill her." Trip whispered, feeling a little downhearted. After all the grief and turmoil with Elizabeth, he couldn't deal with losing another child; even if she technically wasn't his.
"I won't let them kill her." answered T'Pol, as she cupped her hands around his face and drew it down beside hers. "We won't let them kill her."
----------------------------------------------------