Forwarded by the ASC-VSO Posted: 21 May 2004 14:06:40 -0700 In: alt.startrek.creative From: daria@ameritech.net (Daria) Title: Salvage Author: Daria Series: ENT Part: 4/11 Rating: [PG-13] Codes: Tu, R Summary: After the disasterous mission on Dorlog, Trip and Reed try Beta: This was beta'ed by A. who did an amazing job. You have no idea how much she improved this story. Absolutely fabulous beta reader. The mistakes are mine for continuing to mess with it. Spoilers: Notably Minefield, Desert Crossing, Silent Enemy, The Catwalk, Shuttlepod One, and The Communicator, but possibly alludes slightly to other eps from the first two seasons. Disclaimer: All the characters belong to Paramount, not me. This is just for fun, not for profit. Feedback: Always appreciated, especially constructive criticism. *** "How much further to the landing site?" Reed put down the padd he had been reading, and stood up to stretch. "We're pretty close now. In a few minutes I'll take over manual control, and we can decide just where we want to set this baby down. I want to make sure we're far enough away that the energy doesn't affect the shuttle systems." "This is really a very odd piece of equipment, isn't it? I'm rather looking forward to getting a close up peek at it," Malcolm commented. "Hope you still think so after we get there. It's going to be quite a hike." "Well, then, it's a good thing we came prepared, isn't it?" Malcolm replied tartly, but Trip wasn't listening. "Okay. Scans are showing the spot T'Pol picked for us to land. Geez, it's gonna be a tight fit..." "Is there anywhere else you can land?" Malcolm studied the dimensions of the landing spot. "No... this really is the only clear spot we could find, that wasn't practically on top of the complex. I think I can put us down in the spot if..." "Flatten your descent angle and slow your speed a touch," Malcolm suggested. Trip didn't reply but followed the suggestion. The shuttle's descent leveled out, and they were able to visually identify the landing spot, a ten meter by ten meter opening in the green canvas that blanketed the planet. Trip wiped the sweat that was running down his forehead out of his eyes as he maneuvered the shuttle pod into the opening and gently set it down. Taking a deep breath, he began the shut down process. Malcolm pulled out the padd with the shuttlepod's shutdown checklist on it, and working quickly and methodically they shut off the equipment and engines, leaving only the battery powered backup lights to see by. Still perspiring, Trip turned to Malcolm. "Good thing we only brought the one shuttlepod. We wouldn't have been able to find a place to put the other that would be close enough to do any good. Okay, let's run through the plan one more time, make sure there's nothing we're forgetting." "Excellent idea." Malcolm took a deep breath feeling the adrenalin rush. He was anxious to get started, but it wouldn't do to rush things. "We're going to hike the thirty kilometers to the generator. To do that, we're going to have to go through a rather large ravine, and cross a river at the bottom of it. We'll need to rappel down. The other side is a little less steep, so we should be able to just hike out." "Right. We won't need to do any technical climbing on that side," Trip confirmed. "After that, the hiking will be tough because of the vegetation, but no major obstacles. I figure if we leave within the next hour, we can make it before sunset." "Which we want, since we won't be able to approach the complex until dark. Then we'll conduct a reconnaissance, and determine precisely where the weapons are housed. Hopefully we'll be able to disable them before sunrise, and depart. However, if we can't, we'll take shelter in the forest, and wait until tomorrow night, and then we'll proceed." "The most important thing," Trip said, speaking very slowly, almost to himself, "is to make absolutely sure that we remove or destroy any traces of our technology. We'll have to access the computer systems and see if we can find the blueprints or tech specs in there. We'll really have to do a good search." "We'll leave the generator though, right?" Malcolm spoke from behind Trip, so his expression wasn't visible, but Trip thought he sounded anxious. "If possible," Trip said. "If possible." *** It was another hour before they were ready to depart with their heavy packs. They carried food, water, their shelters, scanners, a first aid kit, phasers, and what seemed to Trip to be a ridiculous amount of explosive. He was starting to wish they had brought a security team, if for no other reason than to help carry the load. Malcolm had turned a deaf ear to his complaints. "Are you ready, Commander?" "Yeah, sure, I'm ready," Trip grumbled, snugging up his rappelling harness. "You?" "Yes. I've been thinking. Let's leave the lines in place, to make the return climb easier." "I'm all for that," Trip said. He paused. "Malcolm, why are there three rappel ropes set?" "In case something happens to one of them before our return. Just to be safe." Trip rolled his eyes. "Fine. Well, let's get this show on the road." Checking the security of his pack and his ropes a final time he approached the edge of the ravine. "Here goes nothing." He turned and took a deep breath, trying to still his shaking hands, and stepped off the cliff. He hated the feeling. He enjoyed rappelling, but that first step was always nerve-wracking, requiring a deliberate effort to ignore his mind's instinctive warnings, insisting that stepping backwards over the edge of a cliff was sheer lunacy. But it was only that first step; as he tested his brake hand and found that all was functioning properly the anxiety faded. Ten minutes later he had solid ground under his feet again with Malcolm beside him. They shed their harnesses and Malcolm stowed them in a waterproof bag and then buried the bag under a large rock. "Hopefully those will be there when we return," Malcolm said, gathering up his pack again. "Hopefully." Trip stared up the cliff face they had just descended. It was easily three hundred meters up, and almost perfectly vertical. Without technical climbing equipment they would have no hope of scaling it. Even with the ropes it would be a difficult climb. It was a dramatic reminder that this mission was inherently dangerous. There were so many things could go wrong-- and they wouldn't have to be big things-- to derail the mission. Even if they were successful, returning to the shuttlepod would be a treacherous climb. They would be exhausted, and might be being pursued. Even a minor injury to one of them could make the climb impossible. Trip swallowed hard, feeling the burden of responsibility. He was in command of this mission, and there was so much potential for things to go disastrously wrong. Again. Fleetingly, he wished it wasn't Malcolm accompanying him. This mission *had* to go smoothly. It had to. *** Stowing the ropes and preparing his pack for the hike, Malcom was aware of Trip staring at the cliff, and then at him. Trip's face was tight and unsmiling. Malcolm wondered what the engineer was thinking. The shuttle ride had been tense; they had barely spoken, each reflecting on what they needed to do, and what had brought them to this point. To Malcolm the mission was a God-send, an opportunity to take action, to reverse the damage that could be done by introducing a new and sophisticated technology to this sector. They hadn't been able to repair the damage done when he had lost his communicator on another pre-warp planet, but *this* damage he could undo. It was a chance for redemption. Watching Trip, tense and silent and so different from his normal self, putting on his pack, Malcolm knew that his crewmate wasn't seeing the mission in the same light. *** "The complex is larger than I expected." Malcolm handed the viewer to Trip and looked down at his scanner again, unwilling to believe what his eyes were telling him. "T'Pol's scans didn't indicate anything of this size, did they?" "It must be the size of a football stadium on Earth," Trip replied, not directly answering Malcolm's question. He returned the viewers, and began conducting his own scans. Both men were laying on their stomachs at the edge of the forest they had just emerged from, staying out of sight of the beings who were busily entering and exiting the building a mere one hundred meters away. "Commander, I think I've located where the prototype weapons are... and that there should be the generator. Odd, they're a bit more separated than I would have expected..." Trip looked over Malcolm's shoulder to see the spots the armory officer indicated on the schematics on his padd. Malcolm handed Trip the padd and returned to observing the movements of the aliens. After several moments of silence Malcolm spoke. "I think I've got a fix on the main entrances. I've counted approximately fifty people coming out or going in so far. I haven't seen any of them carrying weapons, and I haven't seen any signs of security, beyond the fence and locks. I can't believe that they won't have some sort of security force after dark though. I wonder if people work here at all times, or if they'll leave for the night." "We're going to have to wait and see. Hopefully most of them will go home. What's your plan?" Trip deferred to the tactical officer for the planning of the reconnaissance. "We'll stay out of sight until dark, and see how many of them leave. We should be able to get a general idea on the number of biosigns inside, even if it's not completely accurate. We'll breach the fence, and go inside. Once in, we'll head straight to the weapons, and see what exactly they have. I'll do that, while you try to gain entry into their computer systems." "I don't like the idea of splitting up, Malcolm." "Neither do I... but I don't see any alternative. We'll see what we can find out, and then we'll rendezvous, pool our information, and figure out the next step." "So until dark, we just wait?" "We just wait." *** -- Forwarded to ASCL by: Stephen Ratliff ASC Stories Only Forwarding In the Pattern Buffer at: http//trekiverse.crosswinds.net/feed/ ASCL is a stories-only list, no discussion. Comments and feedback should be directed to alt.startrek.creative or directly to the author. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASCL/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: ASCL-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ From ???@??? 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