A/N: This chapter is almost entirely dialog and almost entirely taken directly from the episode 'Shuttlepod One'. As the episode itself was almost entirely dialog there wasn't much other choice for me.

"It's going to be fine T'Pol, nothing's going to go wrong," Trip said as he came out of the shower and headed for the closet. He and Malcolm were scheduled to take a five day trip in Shuttlepod One to test the new targeting scanners. They needed to be at least 20,000 kilometers away from Enterprise during the tests, thus the long trip away from the ship and more importantly right now, his bondmate.

T'Pol glared at his back from her position on the floor where she had been trying to meditate. "I am aware that this mission is one you refer to as a 'milk run'. I am not concerned about your ability to complete the mission."

"Then what has you so upset?" he asked, pulling on his uniform. He caught her glare this time and amended, "I mean what has you so concerned? I do realize that upset is an emotion." One of these days she was going to realize that he just wasn't going to stop referring to things from an emotional perspective.

"I do not," she paused to consider her choice of words and realized that she could not say that she did not have any concerns. "Being parted from you for any length of time is difficult during this time of our bonding. That is why bondmates are not parted on Vulcan during their first year of marriage."

Trip smiled gently. "I'm going to miss you too. I'll be back soon." He brushed his fingers across her lips in a Vulcan kiss before settled down in front of her on the other side of the meditation candle. Focusing on getting their breathing in synch, they began to meditate together before heading off for their duty shifts. They both had their duties and both would fulfill them to the best of their ability, even if they didn't want to.

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SHUTTLEPOD 1

On board Shuttlepod One Malcolm Reed was sitting at the pilot's station while Trip Tucker was examining some damaged circuitry with a laser. "The Captain said they'd be mapping this asteroid field, but I can't see head nor tails of them."

"Maybe it's another asteroid field," Tucker said unconcerned.

"No, this is the one. Two primaries, seventeen planetesimals," Malcolm said.

"Well, they weren't expecting us back for three days. Maybe they finished and went off to do something else."

"Well, with our sensor array down, we won't know when they get back until we see them. Any luck with the comm?" Malcolm asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Dead as a doornail. I don't understand it." Trip complained.

"Well, no doubt you'll have your boys take this pod apart piece by piece once it's back in the launch bay." Malcolm was sure that with the proper tools and support Trip would have it fixed in no time.

"I'd feel a lot more comfortable having everything in working order by the time Enterprise gets back. T'Pol's been as worried as she gets about this mission. The last thing I want is for her to be able to say 'I told you so' when we get back."

"Well, tinker all you like. I've got a copy of Ulysses here. I doubt I'll even be halfway through it by the time the ship gets back." Malcolm picked up his PADD with the novel.

"I'd rather realign every micro-circuit on this shuttle than try to wade through that baby." Trip shuddered theatrically.

"British schools have a core curriculum. It serves to provide a well-rounded education. Sometimes I think you North Americans read nothing but comic books and those ridiculous science fiction novels."

"I'll have you know that Superman was laced with metaphor. Subtext layered on subtext," Trip said with a laugh.

"I'm not sure I want to know what sort of subtext you're referring to Commander!" Malcolm said with a smirk.

"Hey! Get your mind out of the gutter! I'm referring to the great battles between good and evil and..."

Malcolm looked out window during Trip's rebuttal and interrupted, "Commander."

"the potential in every person for both," Trip continued.

"Commander, I think you'd better come and take a look at this." Reed once more reverted to the professional naval officer he was. Outside the window a large asteroid could be seen. On its surface was a large crash site.

"Bring us in closer." Trip leaned over Reed's shoulder for a better view.

"Is it a ship?" Reed asked, hoping that it wasn't. He prayed that it wasn't the ship that he knew it probably was.

"If the damned sensors were only working, we could," Trip paused as he saw something. "Bring us around again. There. Slow down." On the surface they could see a large piece of metal with the numbers 01 on it. They both froze for a moment in grief.

READY ROOM

Captain Archer sat at his desk in his ready room and answered the door chime. "Come in. How are the Tesnians doing?" he asked Hoshi as she walked in.

"Dr. Phlox can only keep twelve of them in the Decon chamber at a time," she said, sitting down in front of him.

"What about the other, what it is it, 22?" he asked concerned.

"He's rotating them. They seem to be doing fine on our atmosphere but they need at least 6 hours of boron gas a day. He says we've got enough to get them home," Hoshi assured him.

"Have you learned their language?" Archer asked both teasing and serious.

"Yes sir," she answered primly.

"What do they have to say?"

Hoshi sighed, "They're pretty rattled. Most of them have been on that ship for years. It's a lot to digest, they lost everything."

Archer agreed but, "They're alive. Does the Captain have any idea what happened?"

"No, and he feels terrible about the damage to Enterprise. He has no idea what went wrong. When they approached our docking port they lost control of their sensor array and then a few seconds later their navigations system went out," she gestured hopelessly.

"Thank God their escape pods were working." Archer didn't want to think about what might have happened.

Hoshi agreed, "I saw the wreckage on the asteroid. There wasn't much left."

Archer reached over and activated the comm. "Archer to Mayweather. What's our ETA?"

"We should reach Tesnia in about 20 hrs, sir."

Archer nodded even if Travis couldn't see him. "Good work. That should get us back to our rendezvous co-ordinates well before Trip and Malcolm get there. Let's drop out of warp for a few minutes. I want to inspect the damage to the launch doors."

"Aye, sir."

INSPECTION POD

Archer was piloting the inspection pod while T'Pol was manning the pod's scanners. He peered up at the Enterprise's hull. "Who's in charge of Engineering while Trip's away?"

T'Pol answered him without looking up from her scanners, "Lt. Hess."

"Tell her to get a team working on a new starboard door for launch bay two." Archer shuddered at the sight of the gaping hole and twisted metal where the launch door used to be. "Everything else check out all right?"

"Astrometrics detected what could be micro-singularities in the vicinity of the asteroid field." Archer had noticed that the longer Trip was gone the shorter and more succinct T'Pol's answers were getting.

"Aw crap! Those are nasty buggers. Has Enterprise sustained any damage that could be caused by one?" Archer asked worried.

"No, but our hull plating was polarized."

"Keep an eye out. I don't want to end up like the last ship we rescued after running into one." 'Even if it did have a positive effect in the end running into the other Enterprise like we did,' he thought.

SHUTTLEPOD

Tucker asked, "How about the lifeboats? They could have launched the lifeboats before the crash."

Reed didn't want to give Trip any false hope. "They'd be here. They only travel 300 kph away from their launch site. They'd be right here waiting for us to return." Malcolm knew that they were all dead, killed in the crash.

Trip refused to believe that everyone was dead. His bond with T'Pol would have let him know the moment she died. "Our sensors are out and we don't know when this happened. They could be right around the corner and we'd never know it!"

Reed said softly, "Commander, there are no survivors. We have to figure out what we're going to do."

"T'Pol's not dead! I'd know if she was! We can't just leave. If we can find the black boxes we might be able to figure out where the lifeboats are." Trip wasn't going to give up without a fight.

"With what? We have no radio. Nothing to pick up the beacons and I'm sorry Commander, you're just going to have to accept that we're all that's left." Reed really was sorry. He knew just how much Trip loved his wife.

Trip ignored Reed's insistence on the crew's deaths and asked, "What's the range in our distress beacon?

"It's offline." Reed reminded.

"I'm talking about the portable one, the one in the away kit." Trip explained.

"10 million kilometers, maybe 20, but I highly doubt there'd be a ship anywhere close to that." Reed knew how bleak their chances were.

"The lifeboats have stasis berths. They can wait until someone finds them," Trip said. "We have to make sure that happens. We've only got 10 days worth of breathable air. How far to Echo 3?"

"At impulse? A lot more than 10 days."

"Well, if we could get close enough for it to pick up our distress beacon it'd relay the signal back to Starfleet."

Reed hated to let his friend down but he had to. "I'm afraid the math doesn't work out, Commander. It's going to take weeks, maybe months for our signal to reach Echo 3. By the time Starfleet got a ship out here we'd be; we'd be long dead."

"But at least they'd find us and they'd go looking for the lifeboats."

"Sir," Reed had to make Tucker see reality.

"Which way?" Trip demanded.

"Which way to what?" Reed asked.

"Echo 3. Which way to Echo 3?"

Reed sighed, "I told you, it's too far."

Tucker gritted his teeth. "Do you know which direction it is or don't you?"

"Navigation is down."

"That's not what I asked you." Tucker growled.

"You want me to guess?" Reed asked waving his hands at the stars that could be seen.

"You come from a long line of Navy men and you got a real good memory. Look hard at those stars, find something that looks familiar and tell me which way to go." Tucker said pointing out the window.

"Sir."

"That's an order!" Trip almost shouted.

Reed gave in. "I don't suppose you have a sextant handy."

Tucker smirked, "I left it with my slide rule." He watched as Reed sat down in the pilot's seat. "Well?"

Reed waved a hand at the window. "That blue giant, we may have gone by it. I'm not sure."

"That's good enough for me. Take one more low pass over the wreckage and then set a course." As they swooped down over the 01 sign, Tucker said, "I'll make sure someone finds you, all of you."