Shuttle One

"Okay, Trip, what can we do to get out of this?" Archer asked again.

That was the umpteenth time he asked as far as Trip was concerned. The engineer rubbed the itch of his growing beard, squinted out the window. They could no longer see the cliff-teeth, that's how he thought of them, not with the lights on in the shuttle. They could hardly see the gleam of the thruster, stuck between two of the cliffs.

He chuckled out loud, "Do you think Eeyao ever flosses?" He'd taken to naming it Eeyao. If they were going to be eaten, might as well by by something with which they were on a first name basis...

Archer couldn't help but look to where Trip was staring, though the frown on his face was ample indication he'd rather Trip stick to the subject at end. "Now that it stopped moving we have some time to improvise," he pointed out. He gazed outside again, "though I don't know how much time."

"Based on the current pattern of activity, the digestive process iccurs every three to four hours," Hoshi replied. "I think this thing," she refused to be eaten by anything on a first-name basis, "has two stomachs. The second one, the one we're in, the gizzard," she added with a pronounced glare at Trip, "serves to grind whatever the first one couldn't dissolve."

Trip eyed her silently, a little bit slack-jawed. Did she know how much like T'Pol she sounded right now? He turned away to stare out the window. It hurt to be reminded of T'Pol, perhaps he would never see her again, she hadn't contacted him again. Perhaps because she was too busy looking for the shuttle. Or they were too deep under the ocean. It wasn't that Enterprise left them, left him. He couldn't imagine that. Come on, Trip, get a grip. There had been other times when they were out of touch. Enterprise was trying to find them, she would find him, and everything would be all right.

Now all he had to do was reassure everyone else. "What if there's a third stomach?" he asked. Great, Trip, just the question to ask. That'll reassure them alright!

"And a fourth, and a fifth," Archer replied, "We can't think like that. We've got to get that thing to reject us!"

"You mean puke us out?" Trip asked.

"Whatever you want to call it, whichever end we come out," Archer growled. "There's got to be a way!"

"What about electricity?" Hoshi asked, "Perhaps we can -" " - fry it?" Archer cut off, "Yes, I certainly wouldn't mind. Trip?"

But the engineer was shaking his head. "Based on the size of Eeyao, all we'd do is make it twitch. If it felt it at all." He looked at Hoshi, "It's a good idea, mind you. I'm thinking we'd need along the lines of ten thousand volts or so... if we were on Enterprise, no issue, but we just don't have that kind of power here... all I could get is a couple thousand, at most..."

"So that's the end of that," Archer commented, "but there's got o be another way..." Silence fell as they all considered the situation.

Finally, Trip cleared his throat. "...Huh... when I was asking if it flossed...," Archer shot him a look of annoyance, thinking he was in a joking mood again. "I wasn't kidding," Trip added.

"What d'you got?" Archer asked, suspiciously. Hoshi was looking at him suspiciously too.

Trip leaned back in his seat, his nose wrinkling as he caught a whiff of his own body odor. A shower. Walking outside. Good food. What else got screwed up? Ah well... He looked at his teammates, "You see, the thing with the thrusters is that they have their own reservoir of plasma. Helps with the burn rate to give us a nice smooth ride." Archer nodded impatiently, every pilot knew that. But Trip was going on, "there's an O-ring that prevents any leak-backs or a lot of our shuttles would end up partially melted. A lot."

"Yes, and?" Archer retorted. He didn't see where Trip was headed with this.

"And there's plasma in the thruster that's currently caught between Eeyao's teeth." Trip replied.

"You mean...," Hoshi asked, "The plasma in there is still hot?"

"Hot enough to burn us to a crisp," Trip chuckled, "it'll be days before it's cool enough to handle. .. And we have cannons." He leaned back in his seat, waiting for them to figure it out.

Archer was already out of his seat, squinting to see the thruster. "The cannons are still operational?!"

Trip sighed. Aye, there was the rub. "They should be. They're well protected inside the hull envelope so I don't think they were chewed up too much. The only question is the liquid. How corrosive it is. We'll have to try and check." He looked at Archer.

"And it will be enough for it to notice?" Hoshi asked.

"Oh it'll notice all right," Trip said, "The way I think, it'll spit us out so fast our head will spin. Or else it'll have the kind of belly ache that... ahem... liquifies its insides."

"Perhaps burn clean to the outside..." Archer added.

"Honestly, I don't know," Trip replied. "I've no idea how the tissues will react to the plasma."

"It could vaporize it," Hoshi added, "You know, like salt on a slug."

"It's not a slug." Trip was looking at her askance. Did she call Eeyao a slug? He thought if it as a giant abalone, perhaps a starfish. But a slug...

She scoffed in return, "It could still kill it!"

"Yeah, and...?" Trip narrowed his eyes at her. "Are you actually feeling sorry for it? It's going to eat us... Doesn't that count for something?"

"We need to get ready!" Archer cut through the budding argument. They had a plan, they had tools and weapons, now they had a chance. "Hoshi, check our weapon positioning compared to the thruster! I want a clean shot, and hopefully a single shot! Trip, let's figure a way we can check the weapons without having to use them!"

"Aye, Captain!" "Yes, Sir!"

The Captain noted with relief that the energy in the shuttle had finally turned positive.

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