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Sickbay
"They can't be asking you to risk your life!" Phlox was pacing from one side of Sickbay to the other while T'Pol stood in a relaxed manner, hands behind her back. Reed watched the interplay, waiting for the opportunity to chime in.
"The Eylordenes seem to be particularly sensitive to questions of standing," T'Pol calmly explained. "It is inconceivable for them that the most senior officers would not be present at the induction ceremonies."
That did not calm Phlox down. "This is crazy!" he went on circling around Sickbay, his speed increasing.
Malcolm thought he should intervene, "Is there anything we can do?" he asked, "So she doesn't have to breathe the air down there?"
Phlox turned to him, "Of course, there is!" He went to his desk, banging a drawer shut along the way. "There are all kinds of species that need accommodations in alien environments, nothing we haven't seen before. Except..." he froze, one finger in the air as if he was lecturing or a side thought had grabbed his attention, "... we don't have much information on A'Er'Orl. Oh, I can tell you top-level what we need to filter out and such, but," he looked at T'Pol, "there's been no comparative studies done, this will be completely experimental. Chances are it will work... unless we missed some other component that I don't know about."
"Understood," T'Pol nodded gravely.
Phlox was already engrossed in the medical database, "... I could use a breathing apparatus with hydroxicarbonic acid crystals, but..." he checking a subroutine, "... we only have three canisters on hand, each one will last five hours, that's simply not enough. Unless... I could exponentially demultiply... hmmm..." He looked up at the two of them, "Why don't you leave, I need to check on a few things."
"Very well, Doctor. Let me know when you have a solution, I will be in my quarters." T'Pol replied. "Lieutenant Reed, you are aware the Eylordene's shuttle will be here in two point thirty-eight hours?"
Of course he was aware, how could he not be aware, she was the one who threw him to the wolves. Reed didn't voice his thoughts, saying instead, "I'll be packing right after." T'Pol nodded and left.
Reed watch her walk out, waited until the doors had closed and she was safely out of earshot. He turned to Phlox but the doctor was no longer standing at his side. He found him inside the lab, on another computer, checking some impressively complex chemical formula showing in three dimensions on the screen.
"Ah... Doctor," Reed stopped, waiting for Phlox to pay attention.
It took a few seconds for the doctor to tear his gaze away from the computer. "Uh?" he asked, looking at Reed but not looking at him, his mind obviously still occupied with chemical formulations.
"Would you have anything...," Reed stopped, "...You know, I'm.. I'm going down. I mean to the planet," he looked at the doctor, wishing him to understand without having to say it.
"Yes, yes, I know," Phlox was clearly missing the point.
Reed tried to stop his embarrassment with the most rigid bearing, "The planet that has water...," he insisted on the word.
"And?" Phlox replied, then realization suddenly hitting, "Oh! Oh, yes, I see... hmmm... that would be awkward now, wouldn't it?" Reed nodded with relief. "Here," Phlox rummaged through his drawers, pulling out a small vial, opened it, "hmm, I only have five left, I'll have to put some in production..." He turned to Reed, "Take one every time the... uh, symptoms..., become overbearing," he smiled broadly, "but no more often than every seventeen hours."
"Every seventeen hours?" Reed asked, looking at the five pentagonal pills in the palm of his hand. That wasn't even four days. Granted they weren't supposed to be there for that long. He stopped, looking at the doctor, frowning. How long were they supposed to be there for? The Eylordenes had conveniently neglected to tell them when the prosternate window would end. They knew so little about their culture... The Federation was too hungry for allies, they'd really put the cart before the horses on this one.
"I'll have more ready for you before you go," Phlox reassured him with a smile. The doctor turned and bent back over his computer, obviously done with the conversation.
Reed checked that nobody was in the corridor before he exited Sickbay.
xxx
Reaching out
T'Pol put on her robes before sitting cross legged on her meditation pad.
Were she human, she would have done so because the robes made her feel warm and safe and the comfort provided a better environment for the very difficult task of trying to psionically locate Trip. But T'Pol was a Vulcan and therefore she donned the robes because it was logical and connected to her Vulcan culture, and there was the small, albeit remote, possibility that this might boost her psi abilities.
After all she had to reach a potentially unconscious Trip through the bounds of time and space and water on a planet they did not know much about. The database from the A'Er'Orl had been incomplete, providing no information about any psi abilities in the ... Ia'O. She struggled to remember the strange name. It could be that the Eylordenes had no psychic abilities, but that did not mean the Ia'O were similarly devoid of it.
It took moments to still her mind and enter the higher meditative sphere. Another moment and she was in the white rom, her mind open, reaching out even further. Her heartbeat slowed, the stillness of space became hers as well. The psionic centers of her brain were fully activated. The white space materialised around her.
Minutes passed. The white space remained empty.
It would not be very long before her physiological systems would start pulling her out of the transe, lest her mind lose its way back to the reality of the world. She did not have the powers of the greater healers. Or even the middling ones. Her mind registered the minute feedback from her automous systems, noting the everlasting symbiotic decrease. One ion at a time.
The white space was still empty. One eyelid trembled a little. She would have to leave soon. She mind-started unfolding from her sitting position.
"You're here! Its about time you came!"
She turned around, she was now standing, staring at Trip, arms crossed. His grin illuminated every cell of her being. "You are alive?" She asked, reproaching herself at the same time for the illogical question. She had very little time left, she had critical information to impart, and she used that time to ask a redundant question. If Trip were not alive, first, she would already know, and second, he wouldn't be standing there.
A frown crossed his brow. "Of course I'm alive!" he exclaimed. "The shuttle is stuck in some kind of rock formation, I think we're down in the bottom of the ocean. We were hit with some kind of water tornadoes, several of them-"
"The Ia'O," T'Pol nodded in recognition.
Trip stared at her. Did she saw 'Eeya-O?' He shook his head, he must have not heard right. "What?" he asked.
"They're a life form on A'Er'Orl," T'Pol explained, "They can't digest the shuttle, they will eventually expel it." The walls of the white room were dissipating, she could see they were not as dense anymore.
"What do you mean digest the shuttle?!" Trip was staring at her in puzzlement. A glance around told him the white room was almost gone.
"Whatever you do, do not leave the shuttle!" T'Pol shouted, extending a hand to him. "Danger!... Death... Outside..."
The words trailed her mind as she opened her eyes back on their quarters. She did not know if she'd said the words to him, if there'd been enough time for him to hear them. Based on flight plan, the Eylordene shuttle would dock in one hour and twelve minutes. She wouldn't leave until they heard back from Dr. Phlox.
xxx
Sickbay
"Here," Phlox deftly slipped the breathing line around T'Pol's ear, careful to avoid brushing against the tip. He set the nozzle in, making sure the fit was snug, "Now, so long as you breathe through these filters, you'll be fine. The crystals will be detoxifying the ambient air. They'll also dehumidify it to a level that is acceptable, even if not always comfortable for you." Now, the cartridge," Phlox went on with his monologue, "... will be in your back, we can hide it under the robe," Tabetha handed him the canister harness, and the two of them installed it.
T'Pol straightened her robes. "There!" Phlox stepped back, admiring his handiwork. The apparatus was hardly visible under the heavy Vulcan robe. It had been T'Pol's choice whether to show up in regular Starfleet dress uniform or honor the Eylordenes with Vulcan ceremonial garb. He briefly stepped out beyond the privacy curtain, "You can come in." Lieutenant Reed discreetly entered the area.
"Here," Phlox showed, "The line is here, right above the chest. Let me show you how to change the cartridge."
Reed swallowed. Why did he have to do that? The area Phlox was showing was not the area he would have chosen to enter into skin contact with the Commander. Not at all. No way, jose. Nope. No siree, Bob.
But both aliens seemed to be completely unaware of his embarrassment. "All you have do to," Phlox was commenting as he showed the set-up, "is twist the cannula here, unlatch the cartridge, and install a new one in the back, here. There are alignment lines for the new canula, you just have to get close enough to see them."
'The issue exactly,' Reed said to himself. "Does Commander T'Pol even need my help?" he asked, as nonchalantly as he could. Better that than a snarky comment about second bases and Humans.
"Of course," the doctor replied, overlooking any dimensions other than clinical, "I mean, it's not impossible for T'Pol to do it herself, but she will have to take the entire thing off to clip the cartridge in the back. And it will be awkward to realign the cannula."
'Yeah, awkward's the word', Reed silently thought.
"So, now that I have both your attention," Phlox went on, "I was able to more than quintuple the lifecycle of the hydroxicarbonic acid crystals by filtering them first through a solution of polyhexadrexogenous urythimile powder - it's something I bought on Cynocenes III. I didn't know have a use for it then, but I figured I it would come in handy someday. Well, that day has arrived, hmmm?" the doctor was excited about his finding. "When are you leaving again?" he asked T'Pol.
"The Eylordene shuttle has been waiting for us for two hours thirty-four point five minutes," the Vulcan evenly replied. "I understand that we need to be departing within the next twenty-two minutes."
"Hmm... That's not enough time to produce more crystals," Phlox was frowning. "At least, I was able to process all the ones on hand. I'll keep producing hydroxicarbonic acid crystals, I have enough powder on hand to filter another three... hmmm... That means I should have another three cartridges of compound ready for you in two to three days. That gives us about seven days coverage, that should be enough, right?" he looked at T'Pol.
"Six point four days," T'Pol corrected.
"Perhaps a little more, we won't know until we use them," Phlox nodded his agreement. "And the ceremonies will be over by then?"
"The Eylordenes have still not shared the timing of what they call the joining," T'Pol smoothly answered, "but there is no doubt Lieutenant Reed will have located the missing shuttle by then. The Captain and the other senior officers will be able to relieve us."
'Ouch', Reed thought. 'Talk about having the target painted squarely on his back. That really gave him options, didn't it?' "That's the plan," he somewhat cheerfully added, earning a pointed stare from Phlox and a pointed eyebrow from T'Pol. He was torn between relief and anxiety. Going down to A'Er'Orl was not what he wanted to do, but at least he could keep searching for the shuttle there. If he'd learned something from Section 31, it's that field ops were always more helpful than sitting on a ship, even Enterprise, even with the full power of its computers at his fingertips. If only it didn't have to be a water planet...
"Oh, by the way," Phlox said as if remembering something. He pulled a small canister from his pocket, handing it to the Lieutenant. "Here, that's for you. Just remember, no more often than every seventeen hours."
"Thank you, doctor." Reed could feel T'Pol's eyes bearing a hole through him. He didn't care. The most important thing was that he'd have something to help with his hydrophobia. If she asked, which he knew she wouldn't, too sensitive about privacy, he'd tell her it was a testosterone supplement. That should shut things up. Or down.
T'Pol seemed to have decided that privacy was the better option. She turned to the doctor, "I trust you will support Ensign Mayweather in his captaincy of Enterprise?" she asked.
"Of course," Phlox answered, "though he'll hardly need it."
Reed nodded in approval. Travis may have chosen to remain an ensign on Enterprise instead of being promoted to captaining some other vessel, but after years of roaming the unknown universe, he was one of the most seasoned officers in Starfleet. They all were.
And Travis would get to stay on Enterprise. Safe and dry. He couldn't repress a surge of envy at the thought.
xxx