Author's note
This is my first fan fiction story, so I would appreciate your reviews.
Disclaimer: I don't own Enterprise - sadly. If I did it would definatly not have been cancelled after four seasons, it wouldn't have ended with that awful finale...continues ranting.
Rating PG-13
Set after Demons and Terra Prime.
Summary: A new visitor arrives on Enterprise with a surprising connection to one of the crew. The revelation they bring causes Enterprise to embark on a new mission against an old and dangerous enemy. (Trip/T'Pol)
Chapter 1
Weapons fire erupted around the facility; their target narrowly avoided being hit. He ducked as another array of phaser fire shot towards him, this time missing him by a hairs breath. He knew he had to keep going; otherwise they would capture him again. He had promised himself that was not going to happen, he would die before that!
He gasped as the sudden running had jarred his already painful injury. His gaze travelled downwards, as his hazel eyes locked upon his gaping chest wound, which was now spilling vital liquid. He knew that quite soon dying would really become a reality. Whether it was his pursuers, or his injury that killed him, would be decided within the next few minutes.
He stopped suddenly, and peered around a corner. His gaze only found two guards, and his lips upturned into a slight smile. I can take them out, even in this state! He murmured to himself. Running at them he took them by surprise, and after a few swift actions, they were lying unconscious on the floor. Taking their weapons, he raced down the corridor, the pain in his chest being put to the back of his mind. He had to escape to reveal to everyone what he had found. He needed to protect his family, his people; otherwise the last forty years had been for nothing!
He racked his brain in an attempt to remember where he was, he realised he was getting closer to their shuttle bay, he could make it! That thought spurred him on, giving him the extra strength he needed to keep going. Passing through several passageways, he took note of the guard's absence. His logical mind processed this, and came up with the only rational answer; his earlier distraction had worked.
Reaching his destination, his shoulders dropped in visible relief. He passed through the narrow doors, entering the room. Moving immediately over to the launch bay controls, he activated the outer doors. They began to part; the narrow outline of outside giving him renewed hope. He waited until they had full opened, the mere minutes it took feeling like an eternity. The soft thud that reverberated through the room indicated that they had completely opened, and he fired his weapon at the controls, where they erupted in sparks. Hopefully they would now be damaged enough to prevent anyone from stopping him.
He moved over to one of the smaller crafts in the shuttle bay, it looked like it had been through a war, but it served his purpose. Overwriting the door controls, he gained an entrance to the inside. He crawled over to the crafts main computer, his body weakening with every inch he moved. Submerging himself underneath the main computer system, his dexterous fingers moved over the numerous wires. His brow gleamed with beads of sweat, the effort it was taking clearly visible. Clenching his jaw, his mind swam, and his face became an even paler, pasty completion. His focus didn't waver though, his mind remaining entirely on the job at hand. Within the next agonising minutes the shuttle around him abruptly came to life. He let out the breath he didn't even know he had been holding, and pulled himself upwards, collapsing onto the seat.
His fingers danced across the controls, and the craft began to hover over the ground. Setting a flight plan into the computer memory, he activated the autopilot. His desired destination taking him far away from the facility. The small craft flew through the outer hatch doors, departing from the facility. He said a silent prayer, hoping that he had completely deactivated their weaponry. Thankfully, it seemed luck was on his side today.
Entering the blackness of deep space, he took several laboured breaths, and set a distress signal to activate when a 'friendly' ship entered the vicinity. With his last ounce of strength, he placed himself in a healing trance. He only hoped someone would find him…. Before it was too late.
The golden flame flickered, illuminating the expressionless face of the Vulcan who sat before it. Taking a calming breath T'Pol opened her eyes; her meditation completed for this evening, and extinguished the candle. She rose from the spot on the floor, and walked over to her desk, content to complete her outstanding work in an efficient Vulcan fashion. As she was about to sit her com sounded, pushing the necessary buttons, she activated it, and Captain Archer's voice met her ears.
"Good evening T'Pol, I hope I haven't disturbed you".
"Not at all captain, how can I help you?" she responded in a voice, as monotone as ever.
"Your assistance is needed on the bridge; I'll explain when you get here," the Captain responded.
Acknowledging T'Pol changed into something more suitable. She didn't believe going to the bridge in her meditation clothes was entirely appropriate; however the illogical thought of what Commander Tucker would think crossed her mind. Quelling her thoughts about a certain engineer, she changed, and within minutes she was on the bridge.
As she arrived, she was met by the rest of the senior officers. Commander Tucker looking less than happy at having to get up at this late hour, while trying to suppress a yawn. At least he is sleeping now she considered. It is a shame he does not require neuro-pressure anymore though, a small part of her mused, as she walked over to the group. They were gathered around a station at the back of the bridge, the screen showing Enterprise's position relative to another object. A possible flight plan overlapped the two objects, and other data flowed across the display. She received a nod from Archer, who began.
"Approximately 30 minutes ago we received a distress signal from an unknown vessel, not much smaller than our shuttle pods. As we are the only vessel in the vicinity it is up to us to provide assistance."
"Do we know who they are Cap'n?" asked Trip interested. Enterprise hadn't encountered any other ships, or anything remotely interesting in the past month, and the naturally curious engineer was, along with the rest of the crew, getting bored.
"We have no idea" responded Archer "It appears the ship has been struck by weapons fire, however we scanned and there are no other ships in the vicinity."
"What would anyone be doing this far out, there's nothing much of interest at all in this region, no habitable planets, no notably interesting phenomenon" supplied Mayweather, asking the question that was on everyone's minds.
"Captain if I may suggest, I believe we should go on alert, it does sound rather suspicious and it could be a trap." said Lieutenant Reed, the every pessimistic security officer. He had recently updated the weapons array, and was eagerly awaiting testing it out. His love for blowing things up was common knowledge on the ship, and had led to many jokes at his expense. The majority coming from one Trip Tucker.
"In this case I'm inclined to agree," replied Archer
"T'Pol I want you and Hoshi to work on getting more details, we should be arriving within two hours, and I want as much information as possible."
Nodding everyone moved back to their respective stations, each preparing for their confrontation with the mysterious ship. Hoshi started analysing the distress signal. T'Pol attempted to find where the ship had come from. And Malcolm rechecked the targeting scanners, which controlled the phase cannons, 'well you can't be too careful' he reminded himself.
Within two hours Enterprise had arrived at their destination. During that time, the crew had found no new information about the ship or its passengers, nothing about its design or why it was so far out here. This had put Archer on edge. He couldn't put his finger on it but something just felt…off. He had learnt to trust his instincts over the years, something that had saved the crew on numerous occasions. Ensuring that he wasn't putting Enterprise into any unnecessary danger, he took longer scanning the region of space they were in. Making sure no other ships were around that could creep up on them. Satisfied they were safe Archer instructed Hoshi to open a channel to the other ship.
"Channel open sir."
Nodding his thanks to his communications officer Archer spoke.
"This is captain archer of the Star ship Enterprise. We are responding to you distress signal can we be of assistance?" he asked
Archer waited for a response, Hoshi shook her head.
"I repeat, this is Captain Archer of the Star ship Enterprise. We are responding to you distress signal, can we be of assistance?"
Again, he received no response. Looking to T'Pol, he awaited the Vulcan's scan of the ship.
"There appears to be only one occupant of the pod." she responded. Lifting an eyebrow she continued, "they appear to be Vulcan."
"Vulcan?" questioned Archer
"Apparently so, and their heart rate is extremely slow." replied the science officer.
Her last comment grabbed Archer's attention. For the moment, he didn't care how the ship had got there or why. When a person's life was in danger the captain could be counted on to do everything in his power to save them. Despite the species, or the potential risk they posed. "Could we dock with the craft?"
"My scans show there is too much damage," was her reply.
"Can we get a transporter lock?"
"I believe so," responded T'Pol. That was all Archer needed
"Beam them up and have Phlox prepare for their arrival."
Nodding T'Pol pressed a sequence of keys.
"Why isn't it working?" Archer questioned.
"There is some sort of field around the craft. I hadn't detected it before; it is trying to prevent a lock."
"Can you break past it?"
"I will try." responded T'Pol
After a few short minutes, the science officer had achieved her goal.
"Transporting." informed T'Pol
"Do we have them?"
"Transport successful"
"Good work, I'll be down in sickbay, Malcolm you're with me, T'Pol you have the bridge." said Archer, as he headed towards the lift.
The doors to sickbay opened as Captain Archer strode in. He walked immediately to Phlox, who was scanning their mysterious visitor. The patient lay flat out on one of Sickbays bed, wearing dark tatty clothing, which stuck to his frame, highlighting his slightly muscular physique. There was a wound on his chest, which looked like it had previously healed, and the surrounding fabric appeared charred. His hair was greying, and his distinct Vulcan ears could be seen. Archer also took note of the several long scars swirled around his arm; it was evident that the Vulcan had clearly seen action.
"Doctor Report," said Archer, more intrigued than ever.
"Oh Captain I'm glad you're here" replied Phlox looking up from his scanner.
"It appears this Vulcan male is in a healing trance, nothing out of the ordinary for the species." Archer looked at Phlox with a vacant look in his eyes.
"It allows them to conserve energy, and helps to heal any injuries they sustain." Phlox supplied. "Did you notice the wound on his chest?" Archer nodded.
"For many other species, Denoblian and Human included, that wound would have no doubt been fatal. However, the healing trance allowed this Vulcan to, in essence shut down all other functions, and concentrate on healing. It is quite an effective survival instinct, but only used in extreme cases."
"Is he ok now?" inquired Archer, he briefly remembered what the Doctor had been talking about, thanks to the time he had had Surak's Katra contained within him.
"My scans show that he's more or less recovered, but they also show some anomalies in his bio readings which are most unusual. In addition, I have found numerous scars on his body, many of which have healed but are consistent with torture. Other than that he is suffering quite severe malnutrition and dehydration, which I am trying to remedy"
That peaked Archers interest, "torture? Unusual bio readings?" Archer's mind swam with different possibilities. "Can you wake him up Dr?" he inquired.
"I believe so captain, however I would like to wait a few hours to stabilise his readings, there's no knowing how long he was in that craft, but his body has suffered because of it."
"Very well," Archer replied. "Contact me when the patient awakes," with that the Captain left sickbay. With even more questions; as to who their strange visitor was, and where exactly he had come from.
Reaching the bridge Archer instructed T'Pol, and Commander Tucker to investigate the ship, which by now had been towed into the launch bay.
"You ever seen this technology before T'Pol?" asked Commander 'Trip' Tucker, as he peered into the interior. The ship wasn't very eye catching, or interesting at all. The interior was entirely grey, with the exception of the occasional red or blue button found upon the key systems. The exterior appeared as if it had been through a war. The rear of the pod had weapon marks scattered around it, and several small dents littered the front of the craft.
"It seems partially similar to an obsolete Vulcan model that went out of service decades ago." T'Pol replied
Climbing into the interior, it became obvious to them that it had not been built for that many people. It also looked as if it would fall apart at any time. The two Commanders immediately started investigating, trying in vain to access the computer core, which appeared to have several layers of encryption. Meaning whatever information it contained was kept away from prying eyes.
Trip shifted around trying to get comfortable, and bumped into the young Vulcan in the process.
"How someone could spend more than a day in here beats me. Why would the Vulcan's build something so small anyway?" Trip asked.
"I believe it was built for speed, and manoeuvrability, not comfort." replied T'Pol, reaching over the commander and pressing a series of buttons on a console behind him. The small seat she was leaning on chose that moment to break, and she was sent falling, not so gracefully into the engineer.
"Comfy there T'Pol?" Trip smirked looking down on her.
T'Pol raised an eyebrow, "Extremely." She retorted. Trip's sarcasm and sense of humour had been rubbing off on her, since the incident with the Orions. She was only using it on the odd occasion, and usually just with Trip, but she found it…. interesting.
Trip helped her to sit up and for the next few hours, the commanders worked effortlessly with each other. Occasionally they were engaging in conversation, and making some progress with the decryption of the computer core, but all the while they constantly aware of the other person's closeness.
"I talked to my parent's last night." said Trip "They asked about how you were, since you know".
Trip was referring to the incident that had happened several months ago, when Enterprise had travelled back to Earth. A rebel group of humans, who had stolen their genetic material, had produced a human Vulcan offspring, Elizabeth. Who, unfortunately had later died. Trip still found it hard to think about her, but had been getting better. He had hoped that one day he, and T'Pol could have another child together. But this child would be healthy, and not the product of flawed genetic engineering. After all, it was possible- look at Lorian. The thought of his son brought a smile to Trip's face. Even though he and T'Pol weren't in a relationship, there were feelings there. Ones he had decided that he needed to act on.
"Are they well?" T'Pol's voice brought him out of his musings.
"What?" responded Trip
"Your parents are they well?" asked T'Pol
"Oh, yes," replied Trip "I told them that you and I were both getting better since…"
Trip left the answer hanging, and T'Pol satisfied with his answer nodded, and continued with her work. It had been difficult for her too dealing with Elizabeth, and added to that the recent death of her mother; Trip had helped a great deal. She did not know in all honesty what she would have done without his support.
The interior of the ship lapsed into silence once again. Trip took a deep breath, his heart pounding. He started the conversation that he had been going over in his head for weeks, he had put it off long enough; he needed to get it off his chest. "T'Pol can I talk to you about us?"…..
To be continued...