Shuttle One
"Did you line it up?"
Trip almost looked away from the ballistics screen to scowl at Archer. Almost. But if he did, he would lose the alignment, and it had taken long enough to get a good shot. He just wished Archer would shut up sometimes.
"Get ready," he said out loud instead. "Ready...," he repeated as he braced against the movements of the shuttle, trying to maintain a line to the target. "I don'think -" he started. Whatever Trip was going to say next was drowned in a violent coughing fit. He staggered away from the station, doubled over and wheezing great gulps of air.
"What the -!" Archer exclaimed. He and Hoshi took a step towards the enginner, then stopped, unsure what was happening.
Eventually Trip stopped, red in the face, tears streaming down his face. He took one more gulping breath and wiped his sleeve over his face.
"You're okay, Trip? What's going on?!" Archer asked. Hoshi was staring at Trip, her eyes huge.
"I'm," the engineer took a shaky breath, coughed a few times, "I'm fine. I don't - I don't know what happened." He was already rushing back to the ballistics screen. "Shit!" he exclaimed. He'd lost the fix. Actually, he'd lost the whole damn narrative. "Do you see it?" he asked, squinting through the front windows, trying to locate the thruster.
Archer and Hoshi stepped up, each trying to pierce the darkness ahead. "What the hell happened?" Arher asked as he craned his neck to get closer to the windshield.
"We lost the thruster, is what happened", Trip replied, knowing full well that's not what the Captain was asking.
Archer shot him a look. What he really wanted to know was whether Trip was coming down with something. "We really can't have you come down with a bug," he added as if this would be a minor inconvenience, not the disaster it would be for their group. The last thing any of them needed.
"No to worry, Captain," Trip grinned in reply. He stopped suddenly, a frown coming over his face. But no, he must be imagining things. T'Pol was safe and dry and warm aboard Enterprise, there was no way... He shook his head, taking a cautious lungful. Everything seemed to hold. "If there was a bug, looks like I swallowed it," he quipped.
"I found it!" Hoshi shouted. That brought their attention back to the window and what was outside.
"Where?!" Archer demanded, trying to look where Hoshi was staring.
"There, it's in the shadows, you see the dip right before the largest tooth? Look straight down from the top," she instructed.
Both men did, wanting to check that Hoshi had not mistaken some natural reflection for the gleam of the thruster.
"I see it!" Trip exclaimed first.
Archer scowled harder, scanning ahead even more intently. "Got it!" he finally said with relief. The thruster was there indeed, a shadow among shadows. Hoshi had good eyes. "Can you line it up?" he asked Trip.
Trip was already at the ballistics screen, feeding information into the software. "Actually, the thruster moved a little...," he commented as he checked the data stream, "...better for us... doesn't have to be pinpoint accuracy... just have to get to it..." He stopped talking, adjusted the visor.
Archer and Hoshi stared at him, the tension building.
"Get ready," Trip finally said out loud.
"Ready," he repeated as he braced against the front panel, checking the line to the target.
"Fire!" he shouted out loud as he pressed the release mechanism.
He had meant to check that his aim was true.
He had meant to strap himself to his seat.
He had meant to brace against the recoil, even though this was all done through computer screens and there was no recoil.
He had meant…
The thoughts echoed in his head as the shock wave hit the shuttle, sending its occupants flying right and left.
Those thoughts were blown away by the pain of his shoulder slamming against some obstacle.
Other thoughts rose, cutting through the pain.
The lightning-speed thought that they had obviously miscalculated.
The hope that the shuttle would hold.
And then the world disappeared.
xxx