-1
Malcolm and Trip checked over their phase pistols as T'Lin
inspected the tricorder and phaser that she had hidden in her bag
prior to coming on board.
"I still can't believe you got
those past me," Reed commented as he
practically drooled
over the advanced weaponry.
"Only 800 years to go," she said dryly, holstering the phaser and tucking the tricorder into her pocket. The three stepped silently on the transporter platform before T'Lin got down to business.
"We have approximately 2 minutes before the ships sensors configure themselves to get past the dampening field emanating from my tricorder," she said, lightly tapping the precious piece of equipment. "As long as we stay out of sight, we should be able to retrieve Hallee and be on our way back to the beam-out point before they come looking for us.
"Ensign Mayweather, be ready to jump to warp as soon as we are back aboard," T'Lin finished smoothly.
"Aye-aye, Ma'am," Travis acknowledged over the comm unit.
"May you be successful," T'Pol told them.
"We will," she replied, a hint of that Archer smile graced her lips.
"Energize," she called to the transporter tech and the three dematerialized onto the Suliban ship.
T'Lin motioned the two men to follow her as they silently skulked through the corridors of the ship.
"You sure you know where you're goin?" Trip whispered as he looked around.
"Pretty sure, yes," she told him as she hesitated at a juncture for a moment before taking the left.
"Well, aren't I just filled with confidence," he muttered under his breath.
"Look," she said. "Your future and my present are at stake here. I may not be the most experienced officer in the fleet, but I know what I'm doing. This is as close to destiny as any of us is ever going to see. Don't make me second-guess myself or I may wake up tomorrow and be completely human or I may never wake up tomorrow because I won't exist. And you might not either if they succeed."
"Sorry," Tucker muttered again. "Gotta remember I'm surrounded by women with supernatural hearing." Reed flashed a quick smile before his face resumed its almost-feral look.
They turned down a few more corridors before coming upon a sealed door guarded by two men.
"This it?" Reed whispered this time. T'Lin nodded and signaled for them to fire on three. Reed and Tucker fired and she rushed forward, peaking through the small window to make sure Hallee was there before starting to work on opening the door.
Trip and Malcolm kept watch outside for the brief time it took T'Lin to get in and bundle Hallee up.
"Goddamnit!" she cried as the alarms went off. "Go!"
The three took off in a run, pausing only to hand Hallee off to Trip so T'Lin could guide the way.
"Enterprise, do you have a lock?" Malcolm asked.
"Negative," Archer's voice answered him. "You need to make it to the beam-in point. "
"I don't know if we're going to make it, sir," Malcolm called as he fired at the Suliban gaining on them from behind.
"Keep moving Malcolm, we're working on it," Archer answered as the connection broke up for a few seconds. The Enterprise officers watched helplessly as T'Lin was shot down by a Suliban seemingly appearing out of nowhere in front of them. They stopped and started to fire, securing the junction for a few seconds as Malcolm threw the unconscious woman over his shoulder and the two looked at her discarded tricorder.
"This way!" Malcolm called. Then men hurried down the corridors. "Enterprise! Now!" Malcolm yelled as more Suliban closed in on their position.
The four stared to fade out just as a clear shot was taken at Trip's head.
Trip and Malcolm wasted no time after they materialized on the platform. The two rushed toward the med bay, shouting orders over their shoulders to the hapless ensign manning the transporter station.
"Get the Captain down to the med bay!" Malcolm called, moving T'Lin from his shoulders to his arms, hoping to get a glance at her wound.
"That didn't go so great, did it?" she asked weakly.
"Went great," Trip said with a smile. "Just like we planned. Make sure Phlox knows we're comin'!" He hesitated for a moment. "And Hoshi," he added before stepping into the lift.
Malcolm glanced at Trip after the last comment. It was unusual to hear any hesitation about contacting Hoshi since Hallee had arrived.
"Long story then?" Malcolm asked.
"Maybe I'll tell it to ya some time," Trip muttered, not really wanting to deal with it right at that moment.
"The young lieutenant here please, Lt. Reed," Phlox said, pointing to one bed. "And Hallee over here, commander."
The two men stepped back for a moment as Phlox rushed around. Tucker swallowed hard as he watched Phlox shake his head while scanning Hallee.
"What? What's wrong?" he asked.
"I have no idea," Phlox said as he adjusted the settings on the bio reader. "I've never seen anything like this before.
"We'll just have to hope she lasts until T'Lin is well enough to explain," he said gravely as he moved on to the young Vulcan, calling out orders to prepare for surgery.
Malcolm stood off to the side for a moment as a pang of guilt flew through him. If he hadn't been so busy thinking about T'Lin's weapons and had been more focused on what was going on around him, she probably wouldn't have been shot.
He
knew that no one would fault him, but he couldn't shake the feeling.
He opened his mouth to tell Trip he was leaving but hesitated when he
saw the commander gather Hallee up in his arms and try to quiet her
down. He turned and left quickly, narrowly avoiding Hoshi who
was all but running down the
hall. Archer let out a
frustrated sigh when the news reached the bridge. He jumped up and
headed for the lift with Hoshi on his heels. The ride was a quiet one
as he watched Hoshi fidget.
"They're all going to be fine, Ensign," he said after a moment. She stopped bouncing on her toes and glanced up at him.
"Of course," she replied, and Jonathon Archer was a little surprised to see the doubt in her eyes. She turned away from him quickly and was out the door like a flash when they opened. By the time he got in the room, Hoshi was already at Trip's side. He saw no reason to interrupt.
Archer headed toward the surgical bay and stood quietly,
watching Phlox work.
He had done this before, but the last time
he had felt this anxious about it was when Porthos was the one on the
operation table.
He turned his head slightly as he took T'Lin in and found himself picking out features he recognized. She really did look like T'Pol as far as he was concerned. She was shorter, the curve and point to her ears wasn't as pronounced and the cheeks weren't so sharp, but it was still there.
The captain smiled and shook his head a little, wondering why he hadn't put two-and-two together when he had first seen her. The two Vulcans shared the same determined look, the same 'you annoy me, but I'm not going to admit it' stare.
He also began to think back to the conversation they'd had in his ready room. While she had been vague on the details, he did know that something was going to happen with T'Pol at some point in the mission, something that neither of them could control.
There'd be a lot of tension between them, a fight for his commission with Starfleet and she would eventually resign from her rank to stay on the ship after an unexpected consequence crept up on them.
So he stood there, watching his how ever many great-granddaughter being put back together, a small bit of pride flaring up at the fact that he wasn't the last Archer to end up wasting their lives chasing comets and aliens around the galaxy. Hoshi rummaged around the med bay for a moment after looking in on Hallee and finally came up with a cloth. She wet it and went back over to the bed, climbing up next to Trip to wipe Hallee's face before moving on to her hands. The little girl stirred slightly before dropping back off.
"Needs a bath," Trip commented.
"So does she," Hoshi commented. Trip chuckled.
"Tryin' to tell me something?" he asked. Hoshi paused for a moment.
"I didn't mean. . . "
"I know," he said. The two fell silent as Hoshi twisted the cloth in her hands. "You, uh, you regret. . "
"No," she said slowly. "Not completely.
I kind of regret it being for
being spur of the moment pity sex,"
she said as she glanced up at him.
"Me too," he said with a nod. "Maybe we could, uh, try and go about it the right way next time?"
The two looked at each other for a moment before she nodded slowly.
"Yeah. More fun, less drama." He nodded in agreement and she looked anxiously towards where Phlox was operating.
"It's gonna be okay Hosh,"
Trip said, pulling her close. "Phlox is gonna fix T'Lin up, then
she's gonna help him fix Hallee up. Next thing ya know, we're gonna
be sendin' her back home where she belongs," he told her.
"Things are gonna work out just fine for everyone."
"That's all I can do for now," Phlox told
Archer as he came out of the
operating area.
"How is she?" the captain asked as he watched Liz make a few notes.
"As well as can be expected," Phlox replied while removing his surgical garb. "She will need to be sedated for several hours to give the wounds a chance to start to heal. If she's anything like the Sub-commander, she'll need that time."
Jon sighed and rubbed his forehead. The last 24-hours had not been the most fun he had ever had and it just kept getting better.
"She will survive though, right?"
"Of course," Phlox said as he headed over to some of his animal cages. Archer followed on his heels. "The question, Captain, is will Hallee last long enough."
Jon focused on the doctor for a moment. He had forgotten about the little girl's medical plight in his worry over the Vulcan.
"I've been monitoring her while I was in surgery," he explained. "Whatever is happening to her is starting to happen faster now."
Hoshi dozed on the bed, leaning against Trip who still had Hallee in his arms.
She had offered to take her, but he had refused after watching her reaction to leaving his arms the first time.
He had given her to Hoshi so he could go and find some coffee, only to find that Hallee had become agitated and restless. When she was returned to Trip, she calmed down immediately and dropped off into unconsciousness again. They agreed not to disturb her unless it was absolutely necessary.
"You know, I never thought I'd want this," he commented after a while.
"Want what?" she asked as she cracked an eye open.
"A kid
in my arms," he admitted. "I was gonna leave the provision
of
grandchildren to my sister while I roamed the stars."
A silence fell over the two as Hoshi sat up, rubbed her eyes and stretched a little.
"I don't want to lose her, Hosh,"
he whispered. She glanced at him,
furrowing her brow slightly.
"You're not going to lose her. Everything's going to be fine, she's going to get better and we're going to make sure she gets home okay."
"That's just it. I don't want her to go home."
"She's not your baby, Trip," Hoshi told him as she found the cloth to wipe Hallee again. "She's somebody else's baby."
He watched as she mothered the little girl in his arms.
"I wish she was mine," he admitted. "A week or two ago, sure, I woulda had no problem givin' her back, but now . . ."
"She's grown on you and replaced your engines as the most important thing in your life." He smiled and gave a little chuckle.
"Wonder if they're gonna get all jealous on me now."
"Oh probably," she said casually. "Don't they always?"
Silik was livid as the reports came pouring in. Enterprise had managed to find them, get the girl, kill two of his officers and escape with their lives.
He took a moment to violently rearrange the furniture in his office before storming off to violently rearrange some of his officers who had failed him. As he made his way toward the scene of the breakout, he was summoned to the communications room. He swore as he turned on his heels and headed off to take the call.
"Things are not going well," the voice said calmly.
"Of course they're not!" Silik bellowed as he paced the room. "You fill my ship with the youngest, most incompetent members of the species and you expect me to make something like this work? I told you they would fail!"
"The success of this mission rested not on the ability of the crew, but on the ability of the commander to prepare them," was the calm response he got. Silik nearly felt his heart explode at that statement.
"You will not lay the blame for this solely upon my shoulders!" he yelled. "I trained them to the best of my ability, taught them everything I know and they still failed! I was their own incompetence and inability to perform the simple duties they were given that caused this mission to fail!"
"Who is to say the mission has failed?" the voice asked in the same calm monotone. Silik paused mid-stride as he paced the room. "There is still time. Enterprise is still nearby, and with their guests both incapacitated at the moment, they have no way of tracking you," he explained patiently.
Silik took a moment to consider what he was being told.
"I will need time to formulate a plan of attack," he said. "This ship may be advanced, but it is not invincible and Enterprise is a powerful ship."
"You must make your move within the hour, or all will be lost, including your life," he was told gravely as the shadow left the communications platform.
Silik stood rooted to his spot on
the floor for a long moment, his heart
still beating furiously.
The incompetence of his men did reflect badly upon him as a leader.
He didn't like that.
He didn't like to lose, either, and he wasn't going to do that again. Silik headed off to the bridge with a new plan already brewing in the back of his mind. Archer sat anxiously by T'Lin's bedside, waiting for her to wake up. He played with the padd in his hand.
He had intended to read the report Malcolm gave him, but every time he looked away, he was certain he saw her move or twitch or something else looking like a sign that she was coming around.
The Captain turned around when he heard the doors open and was slightly surprised to see T'Pol standing in the doorway.
"You are doing little to help
the situation," she said calmly as she
approached him. He
chuckled and she quirked an eyebrow.
"I know," he told her. "I've read the first line of Malcolm's report half a dozen times and nothing more."
"I didn't mean that. I meant that you should be formulating a plan to keep us ahead of the Suliban. I doubt that they will give up on the child so easily."
"Hallee," he said.
"Excuse me?"
"Her name is Hallee. She's 4 years old and has one older brother. Her favorite colour is yellow and she likes to ride her bike up hills because it's harder than riding down."
"That is irrelevant information to our situation," T'Pol pointed out, not understanding why Archer felt it was pertinent for her to know this.
"It is relevant to our situation. It's relevant
that she's not just some
child on our ship that we need to
protect. It's relevant that somewhere long the line we apparently
enter a situation where we reproduce together and it's relevant that
eventually these two events will become intertwined and dependant on
each other. Everything is relevant to our situation and I think you
know more than you're letting on," he said as he stood and
turned to her.
T'Pol leaned back, slightly shocked by his reaction and reference to their eventual copulation. They two had yet to vocalize the fact that they were, inevitably, going to end up together.
"Your reaction is highly illogical."
"I'm not feeling very logical right now, T'Pol. None of this is very logical and I don't feel like being logical when nothing else is. I want answers and I think you have them."
"Why would you assume that I know information you do not?"
"Because you're both Vulcans. You people share things with each other that you won't share with others. I'll make it an order if I have too." T'Pol looked at him in confusion.
"Will knowing that she has a beagle named Alex aid our situation?" she asked calmly.
"There must be more than personal details that were shared. She spent nearly three hours in your quarters the other night."
T'Pol's eyebrow hit the ceiling again when she found out he knew that.
"You've been keeping track of our movements?" she asked.
"Just her's. It's not everyday someone claiming to be your descendant appears on your ship."
"She told me nothing useful to our situation. She did not tell me about any of the instruments she suddenly has. With time I assume Hoshi and I could get the instruments functioning to our advantage, but I doubt they would help us."
Archer sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he sat back down at T'Lin's bedside. He cast a glance over at Hoshi and Tucker who seemed to be trying to work something out between them.
"I doubt Hoshi would be of much use right now."
"She is a trained officer. She would do her duty."
"I won't order her to tinker with a bunch of instruments at a time like this. Maybe you don't understand because you're a Vulcan, but I imagine that part of Hoshi is dying with Hallee right now and I won't make her try and concentrate on something else right now."
The last bit of his statement stung slightly, which T'Pol found a rather interesting sensation. She did understand, to a point. As he had said, it wasn't every day that you met your own progeny and are left wondering if they would survive the night.
"I'll ask Lt. Reed for assistance then," she said curtly as she turned on her heels and left the room.
Archer sighed and threw his padd across the room before dropping his head into his hands.
T'Lin slowly became aware of her surroundings. She was warm, which was always a good sign, and dry, an even better sign because it meant she wasn't outside. She was also very sore, which was a bad thing.
She flinched a little when she heard a voice call out for Phlox as memories of the last few hours flooded her mind. She cracked an eye open and turned her head slightly to glance at whoever was making all the noise.
"Welcome back," Archer said with a smile. She blinked at him blankly for a moment, not saying anything as Phlox came over to scan her.
"Everything is healing nicely," he reported as he adjusted a few more settings on the bed. "I would like you to stay put for a few more hours. The wounds aren't healing quite as fast as I'd like them too."
"We still need your help," Archer jumped in and T'Lin turned back to him as quickly as she could. She couldn't shake the drug-induced fog that surrounded her brain as fast as she'd like.
"With?" she asked quietly.
"Hallee," he started. "We don't know what's wrong. She's . . ."
"Dying," she finished for him. "It's radiation," she said, pausing to try and remember the specific name.
"What kind?"
"I can't remember,"
she said slowly. "It's from the barrier she fell
through.
It's been replicating, using her own body against her. If they had
found out what kind it was, it would have been over for her,"
she finished as she started to drift again. Archer glanced around
frantically for a moment until he caught sight of Phlox, who simply
shrugged.
"T'Lin, you have to tell me," he said as he leaned in closer. He gave her a little shake to wake her and she stared at him for a moment.
"Stasis," she replied simply. "Contact Tucker and Daniels," she finished as she dropped off again. Archer sighed and sat back for a second before turning to Phlox.
"I'll have a chamber ready in a few moments," he replied as he went over to inform Trip and Hoshi of the situation.
"How did I know there was going to be another Tucker involved in this?" Archer asked himself as he stalked off to find T'Pol and Malcolm. "It's the only solution we have at the moment," Phlox explained as Hoshi followed him around the room as he got the stasis chamber ready.
"But you know that it's radiation now. There has got to be something . . ."
"Ensign, I have never encountered this form of radiation before. I have no idea what it does or how it will react to standard treatments. I wouldn't trust any specific information we get from T'Lin at this moment even if she told me the sun rises in the east." Hoshi sighed in defeat before wandering back over to Trip, shaking her head.
"It'll be fer the best anyways. Would you really want Phlox to take advice from her right now anyways? She can't even keep her eyes open," he said, glancing over at the still-sleeping Vulcan.
"I'm just so tired of feeling helpless," she assured him. "I want to do something. We're so close, and now we're just going to put her in suspended animation."
"It's for the best," he repeated as he slid off the bed and headed over to Phlox. "Everything is gonna be just fine," he muttered as he laid her on the bed and watched Phlox seal Hallee in. "How's it going?" Archer asked T'Pol and Malcolm when he found them in the armoury.
"Slowly," the Brit answered as he tinkered with the panel. Archer watched them for a few moments before he took the device from his armoury officer and threw it across the room. Reed stood and watched the panel hit the wall and flickered to life.
"That was highly illogical," T'Pol informed him. "And risky. You could have damaged it beyond repair."
"If that method works for T'Lin, it works for me," he replied as he watched Malcolm retrieve the panel.
"She said to contact Tucker and Daniels."
"Tucker and Daniels?" Malcolm asked. Archer nodded.
"Open a
channel, Mr. Reed," he said, clearing his throat a little. "I'm
Captain Jonathon Archer of the Starship Enterprise. I'm looking
to speak with Tucker and Daniels," he said.
"The Admiral and Captain are busy at the moment," the voice replied.
"It's in regards of one Lt. T'Lin Archer," he threw in. The three listened as some scrambling on the other end after his announcement.
"You're not supposed to have that," Tucker informed Archer as he came onto the screen.
"Things change, Admiral," he said. "Your lieutenant is currently in my medical bay recovering for a phaser wound. Our other guest is being placed in a stasis chamber as we speak." Archer watched as a very familiar sigh was issued.
"T'Lin will recover?"
"Phlox says she'll be fine." The other man nodded and cut the audio as he had a brief discussion with Daniels.
"Permission to come aboard?" Tucker asked.
"Certainly," Archer replied.
"We'll meet you in your med bay in 20 minutes," Tucker said as he cut the communication.
"Of course you can come aboard," Archer muttered to himself as he left the armoury with T'Pol on his heels. "I've already had two strange people just appear out of nowhere. How could I refuse some one who actually asked?"
"We must bring them to us," Silik told the crew as he glanced around the bridge. "We must make certain that they come to us when they discover that this is the only planet in the sector with what they need to cure the child. We must also make certain that they do not detect us until they have an away team on the planet."
He stared at some of the officers around him. His senior staff understood what was at stake here and the younger ones were still feeling shame that they allowed a team of humans and a Vulcan to steal their prize.
"There is no option but to succeed," he finished, and they all understood what that meant, thought it meant different things to different people. To the experienced, it meant their lives were going to come to an abrupt and unscheduled end if they failed. To the inexperienced, it meant that they were going to lose the war. Both were right. "I had forgotten what tin cans these early ships were," Admiral Tucker muttered to Daniels as they appeared on Enterprise. Daniels chuckled a little as they watched Archer, T'Pol and Reed round the corner to meet them.
"Daniels, Admiral. My first officer T'Pol and my weapons officer Lt. Reed," Archer said quickly as they made their way to the med bay. The five briefly discussed the situation as they walked and Tucker filled in a few holes for Archer.
"She was never supposed to see the inside of this ship," Tucker told him. "You were supposed to come across a single human life sign on a planet and she was supposed to only see Lt Reed, Ensign Sato, Commander Tucker and yourself. The Suliban were to come, there was to be a brief battle and eventually, with a few rocky spots, she ended up back home safe and sound, unaware that any of the events had taken place at all."
"So what happened?" Reed asked.
"The Suliban happened," Daniels explained. "Originally, they never stole the temporal algorithms that they did, they just stumbled upon your ship with your people on the surface. But because they did steal the algorithms and attempt their own temporal incursion, they altered the timeline and here we all are."
"And why is Hallee so important to them? What makes this radiation so important?" Archer asked as they entered the med bay.
"We're not sure why, but when she passed through the barrier the chroniton radiation mutated somehow. This form has taken on an organic element and the Suliban have a way to manipulate it to turn the tide of the temporal war in their favour. If they manage to get their hands on her, all will be lost. Speaking of which . . . ." Daniels said as he glanced around the med bay.
"Gentlemen," Phlox said as he came over to them. "She's in number two."
"T'Lin?" Admiral Tucker asked.
"Hallee. T'Lin is over there and quiet oblivious to everything."
If this had been any other situation, Tucker probably would have made a comment about that statement. Phlox made his way over and opened the chamber. Daniels and Tucker quickly began scanning and whispering to each other while the Enterprise crew could only stand back and watch.
"Where are Trip and Hoshi?" Archer asked.
"Commander Tucker dragged the Ensign off to get something to eat." Archer nodded as he watched the two time travelers still whispering over the little girl.
"There should be a planet nearby that has a plant that can cure her," Daniels motioned to Hallee.
He came over and handed Archer a padd with co-ordinates on it. Archer passed it on to T'Pol, who headed to the bridge with it.
"The only problem is that the away team will be on their own on the planet. The magnetic field is unusual and communicators, as well as phase pistols and transporters, won't work,"
Archer fought the urge to call out 'of course!' and throw his hands in the air.
"Choose your away team carefully Captain, I wouldn't be surprised if there were some old friends waiting for you there." Daniels pushed Hallee back into the chamber and closed the door before stepping back.
"You're not going to give us any specifics, are you?"
"The temporal prime directive forbids it."
"You said the original timeline had already been disrupted. What will it matter?"
"There isn't simply one timeline, Captain. Time is many threads that are all intertwined. If you pull one, others will unravel while others grow tighter. Telling you anymore will unravel more strings than it will tighten."
