3: JON
The comm from the bridge caught Jon
Archer in the shower.
Since assuming command of Enterprise, he had quickly learned
that the captain was never off-duty, no matter what the duty roster
said. He couldn't count the number of times that he had been
interrupted during a shower, or while napping, or, embarrasingly
enough, while sitting on the toilet. It had become such a regular
occurrence, that he was convinced either the bridge staff was doing it
on purpose or the universe had an amazingly morbid sense of humor.
Without stopping the shower, he leaned toward the nearby comm panel
and depressed the TRNSMT button.
"This is Archer," he said loudly.
"Sir, we're picking up some odd readings on the planet," Lieutenant
Reed declared. Even through the commline, Jon could hear the armoury
officer's discomfort at relaying the information; it nearly caused
Archer to smile since Reed had been the one who urged the captain to
get some rest while Enterprise was out of direct contact with
the downed shuttlepod.
"What kind of readings?" Archer asked.
"We don't know, sir."
"All right," Jon replied. "I'll be there in a couple of minutes.
Archer out."
As he killed the stream of water and reached for a towel, Jon let his
thoughts drift toward the two officers currently stranded planetside.
Unconsciously, he frowned. He had hoped that this little mission would
let his two senior-most officers to deal with whatever it was that was
bothering them. Almost at once, though, he recognized that Trip would
likely cut off his own hand before admitting that there was
something wrong; for someone who was always ready to listen to
someone's problems, Tucker had a frustrating tendency to internalize
his own issues.
Stepping out of the shower, Archer let his mind wander as he toweled
off. It hadn't escaped his notice that Trip had started steering clear
of Subcommander T'Pol, and Jon had a pretty good idea why his old
friend was doing so. Based on a couple of offhand comments that Tucker
had made, it seemed obvious that the engineer thought that there was
something going on between the captain and T'Pol, something above and
beyond their jobs as commanding and first officers. At first, Jon had
been amused at such a ridiculous notion, but he hadn't yet corrected
Trip's misconceptions in the hopes that he could first figure out what
to do. Anyone with eyes could see that Tucker was infatuated with the
subcommander, and, though she was a more difficult person to read,
Archer was pretty sure that the Vulcan was attracted to the engineer.
A relationship between the two almost seemed inevitable, but the
chain-of-command issues that would crop up in such an event made Jon's
head hurt.
He had nearly finished dressing when an obnoxious alarm began
sounding. As he turned toward the comm panel, Lieutenant Reed's voice
echoed from it.
"Action stations!" the armoury officer shouted. The phrase wasn't
immediately familiar to Jon, prompting him to suspect that the
lieutenant was falling back on his Royal Navy training. "All hands to
general quarters," Reed continued, and Archer did recognize that.
"Captain to the bridge at once!"
Jon was out of his quarters and sprinting toward the turbolift even
before the armoury officer had finished speaking. In the year plus
that he had served with Reed, Captain Archer had gotten to know the
man well enough to realize that the lieutenant was nothing if not
professional. An emergency summons like that would actually be an
emergency.
The tension of the bridge was immediately noticeable as Jon stepped
out of the lift. Reed was already at his station, shoulders squared
and a grim expression on his face. Ensign Sato was hunched over her
board, one hand quickly inputting commands while the other pressed
against the earpiece. It was a little odd, seeing someone other than
T'Pol at the Science station.
"Report," Archer demanded as he approached his command chair.
"We're detecting multiple explosions on the planet's surface, sir,"
Lieutenant Reed replied at once. When he looked up, the lieutenant's
face was bleak. "Atomic explosions," he continued. Jon's breath
caught, but he pushed the worry away and focused on being The Captain.
"Any word from Trip or T'Pol?" he asked, sounding much calmer than he
felt.
"No, sir," Hoshi responded. She didn't look up as she continued to
work. "I'm trying all frequencies, but we're getting a lot of
interference."
"The weapons being used might be causing an electromagnetic pulse,"
the ensign manning the science board stated.
"Keep trying," Jon instructed, and Hoshi nodded. "How close was the
shuttlepod to these detonations?" he asked the science officer.
"They weren't on the same continent, sir," Ensign Ling replied, and
Archer exhaled softly in relief as he began to pace, his mind
whirring. More than anything, he wanted to order Travis to put
Enterprise in orbit over the planet so they could beam Trip and
T'Pol out of danger. Doing so could only lead to more trouble though;
Jon could only imagine how the warring factions would react to seeing
an alien starship suddenly appear in their sky.
"All right," he said, once more trying to sound like he knew what he
was doing. "Travis, keep us where we are." The junior officers gave
him an incredulous look, even as Reed began nodding in understanding
and approval. "Hoshi, I want a status report from Lieutenant Hess.
Malcolm, get as much information as you can about the weapons they're
using. Doctor Phlox may need it for the decon procedures when we get
our people back."
"Yes, sir," the armoury officer said in response. Out of the corner of
his eye, Jon saw the ensign manning the science board shift, clearly
awaiting orders. For a long moment, Archer remained silent as he tried
to remember the young woman's first name; he hoped that it looked like
he was coming up with new instructions.
"Keep an eye on things," he told her, deciding to opt for direct eye
contact since he couldn't remember her name. She was new to the crew,
after all, and usually on the Gamma Shift. "Malcolm, you have the
bridge."
The moment that the ready room door closed behind him, Jon let out a
worried breath. He should have expected this sort of thing to happen
with Trip out there. Trouble seemed to follow the engineer like a
stray dog. At least T'Pol was there to keep him out of trouble.
Frowning, Archer tried not to think of how many times she had gotten
herself into trouble; she was nearly as bad as Trip when it came to
these sorts of things.
An hour passed without incident, and Jon found himself staring at the
chronometer on his desk systerm, wishing that the time would pass more
quickly. In another hour and thirty minutes, they would be able to see
the landing zone again. His fingers drummed rapidly along the desk,
and he jumped when the door annunciator chirped.
"Enter," he called out as he stood. Hoshi's appearance was something
of a surprise, and Jon felt his stomach lurch at her forlorn
expression.
"Sir," she began softly as she handed him a PADD, "I've detected
something I thought you would want to see." Archer began scrolling
through the data, unsure of what he should be looking for. It all
looked like gibberish to him.
"What am I looking at?" he asked.
"Intercepts from the two nations at war, sir." Sato's expression grew
even more sad as she appeared to struggle with something. Jon was
about to ask her to explain when he saw it: no longer listen to
your lies about a space vehicle, a vehicle that even now lurks behind
one of our satellites awaiting the proper time to rain down fire and
death upon my people...
"Oh God," Archer whispered as guilt crushed down upon him. He felt his
legs give out and he collapsed into the desk's chair. It was Paraagan
all over, only this time, they were to blame.
They had started this war.
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