The BLTS Archive - Arguments in the Shuttlebay
by Thessaly BrightBear (brighthillsbear@gmail.com)

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Spoilers : For 1st Season, "Desert Crossing".

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Malcolm fought to keep his irritation down. His self-control was
slipping and he was sure that Sub-Commander T'Pol could see it. Both
the Captain and Trip were missing in a desert battle-zone and the man
responsible for their predicament, Zobral, seemed cheerfully
unconcerned for their safety. At T'Pol's insistence, Zobral finally
explained why  it was that he had invited Enterprise to his planet.
The explanation was not what Malcolm wanted to hear.

"Eighty-nine," snapped Malcolm. "There were only eight-nine Sulliban
prisoners, not thousands."

T'Pol ignored his loss of temper, but Zobral seemed to regard it with
interested confusion.

"And the army you defeated," pressed Zobral, leaning towards Malcolm
like a fond uncle.

"One would hardly call it an army," said Malcolm resentfully, looking
away from Zobral in order to keep his anger in check. "It was a few
dozen prison guards and, to be perfectly honest, they didn't put up 
much of a fight."

Zobral was frowning as if he wasn"t sure whether or not to believe
Malcolm. T'Pol stepped forward, implacable as ever. The stubborn set
to her jaw forced Zobral to notice her.

"Jonathon Archer is an excellent starship Captain but he's hardly the
invincible warrior described to you," said T'Pol firmly.

Zobral accepted this unhappily, but couldn"t quite give up altogether.
"What about his legendary desert tactics?" he asked.

"I'm the tactical officer on this ship," said Malcolm. "And I don't 
have any experience with desert warfare. I'm afraid you"ve come to 
the  wrong people for help."

At this, Zobral seemed to slump and finally acknowledge defeat. He
turned away and rested his hands on the railings of the shuttle-bay
walkway. "All this for nothing," he sighed.

Malcolm wondered if Zobral was once again trying to fish for sympathy
or whether he was just enjoying being the centre of attention. T'Pol 
exchanged a look with Malcolm that verged on irritation, but was 
probably just to assess Malcolm's state of mind. He tried to look 
ready and supportive of any action she might order.

"What about our people?" asked T'Pol quietly.

Zobral waved a hand dismissively, "You have far better sensors than 
we do. I'm sure you"ll find them in no time."

Malcolm thought about the couple of days that Zobral had spent on
Enterprise and promised himself that he'd do a full inventory of the
armoury at the earliest opportunity. He doubted Zobral would have any
scruples about stealing from his hosts. He certainly seemed to have no
scruples about endangering their lives.

"Our sensors are being disrupted," she told Zobral, advancing a few
steps along the walkway. "And the Terothans have threatened to fire 
on us if we launch a shuttlepod."

Zobral looked faintly disturbed.

"How did you get here without them seeing you?" asked Malcolm  flatly,
determined to get an answer.

"There is a narrow gap in their orbital detection grid," said Zobral,
grinning at his own cleverness. "It occurs once every forty-six 
minutes, but it is only open for less than one minute."

"I'll need all the pertinent data," said Malcolm, crossing his arms.

Zobral nearly laughed aloud. "You'll need more than that."

He looked down his nose at Malcolm as if he'd only just noticed who
Malcolm was. Zobral obviously hadn't believed that Malcolm was the
ship's Armoury Officer and doubted his abilities.

"The manoeuvres are extremely difficult. It took us years to perfect
it," said Zobral grandly.

"I'm a quick study," said Malcolm.

"You will be shut down before you reach the atmosphere."

Zobral waved dismissively again and Malcolm wondered if he was trying
to impersonate royalty. The show was certainly not fooling Malcolm.
"With you at the helm," put in T'Pol. "Our chances would be greatly
improved."

Zobral waved aside her reasonableness. "I don"t have time. My men are
waiting for me."

Malcolm was sick of the waving. "Well, they'll have to wait a little
longer. You're the one who got our people stranded down there."

Zobral finally seemed to see Malcolm as a threat and squared off
against him. The cheerful demeanour dropped and he towered over
Malcolm by several inches and by more than a dozen kilograms.

"They are not my responsibility," shouted Zobral, as if sheer volume
could prove his words.

Malcolm looked away, cursing himself for not having carried a weapon.
He'd be no good to the two missing men if he got himself killed in 
their absence. Seeing Malcolm's capitulation, Zobral backed down. He
swept  the end of his robes over his arm ostentatiously and took a
step towards  his waiting ship.

"You're mistaken," said T'Pol.

At the command in her tone, both Malcolm and Zobral looked to her
against their will. Malcolm buried his irritation and allowed T'Pol to
pass him. Zobral took a step backward and watched her advance with
deserved caution.

"The Terothans believe we've joined your cause," said T'Pol. "If 
Captain Archer and Commander Tucker are apprehended, they will be
undoubtedly  be treated as members of your clan."

Zobral looked uncomfortable and Malcolm wondered how exactly members
of his clan were usually dealt with. He had a feeling that neither the
Captain's determined negotiation or Trip's easy manner would save 
them from a grisly fate. He'd heard a rumour that Trip had been
reluctant  to visit the desert planet and the Captain had nearly
invited Malcolm instead. Malcolm wished he had gone; the Enterprise
could suffer the loss of her Armoury Officer easier than the loss of
her Chief Engineer. The Captain often insisted on personally attending
to away missions and Malcolm had already uneasily accepted that his
Captain was frequently placed in danger. It made Malcolm's job to
protect him harder but it wasn't his place to judge the Captain"s
decisions.

Sensing the weakness in Zobral"s determination not to care, T'Pol
pressed on.

"They"ll become victims of the same oppression you've been fighting 
all these years," said T'Pol. "You should feel as responsible for
those  two men as you do your own."

One thing could always be said for Vulcans; they always sounded too
reasonable to disagree with.


---

Despite Malcolm"s objection that more armed men would have bettered
their chances, there were only three of them in the shuttlepod that
left to rescue the missing officers and one of them was Zobral. Zobral
piloted the shuttlecraft through the gap in the detection grid but
Malcolm reclaimed the helm as soon as possible. Only T'Pol"s
intervention prevented any further disagreements between them.

"Take another pass over the Eastern Basin," said Zobral.

Malcolm bristled at the presumption of the order but T'Pol responded 
first.

"Our sensors would have detected them," she said firmly.

"No," insisted Zobral. "There are magnetic deposits beneath that 
basin. They could be masking their bio-signs."

"If we increased our altitude, this would go a lot faster," said 
Malcolm.

Zobral wrinkled his nose, "We would also risk being detected."

Malcolm released his irritation by tapping the console a little harder
than was necessary. There was silence in the shuttlepod for a moment
but silence seemed offensive to Zobral.

"If this is your tactical officer, it's a wonder Enterprise has 
stayed intact for this long," said Zobral flippantly.

Malcolm turned around to glare at Zobral for as long as he dared take
his attention away from the task of piloting.

"Lieutenant Reed is a competent officer," replied T'Pol.

Malcolm knew that was as close to a compliment as he was ever likely 
to get from the Vulcan Sub-Commander. It was vaguely comforting.

"Is he always this jealous"" asked Zobral.

There was a pause before T'Pol answered, "That is an interesting
interpretation of the situation."

At being defended by his superior officer, Malcolm felt justified in
aggressively focusing his attention on the console in front of him. He
tried not to think about how T'Pol had not denied Zobral"s accusation.
Malcolm was overprotective of the Captain and Chief Engineer, but that
was his job as Armoury Officer. Malcolm might be irritated and
frustrated, but jealousy was not a factor in it. In order for him to 
be jealous, he"d have to be attracted to one of the missing officers;
unless Zobral meant he was jealous of T'Pol.

A light lit up on the console and Malcolm forced distracting thoughts
from his mind.

"I'm picking up weaponsfire on the surface," he reported calmly.
"Nineteen kilometres, due south."

Zobral leaned over Malcolm"s shoulder. "A Terothan mortar."

"Would they be targeting one of your settlements?" T'Pol asked 
Zobral.

"We don"t have any near there," shrugged Zobral.

"Set a course and prepare to fire," ordered T'Pol.

Malcolm turned to look at her, to confirm he hadn"t misheard.

"I believe they've located the Captain and Commander Tucker," she 
said.

That was good enough for Malcolm and he swung the shuttlepod 
southwards.

Long after the mortar position had been pinpointed by sensors, Malcolm
watched as a visible burst of light arced across the night sky. The
targeted building was flattened and Malcolm refused to believe that
the Enterprise's officers had been inside at the time. It would be too 
cruel a reality to contemplate after all the effort Malcolm had put
into getting to know the two men.

"I've got a lock," he said eagerly.

T'Pol ignored his enthusiasm. "Fire."

Malcolm activated the shuttlepod"s weapons and watched in satisfaction
as the mortar position was obliterated. He took great exception to
anybody shooting at his people.

"I see them," said T'Pol suddenly, taping a secondary console. "Two
humans. Bearing 115, mark 3."

Malcolm brought the shuttlepod in low over the sand dunes until two
stumbling figures were highlighted in the searchlights. One of the
figures was desperately dragging the other across the night landscape
and Malcolm's heart leapt into his mouth. He knew that it would be 
Trip who was injured. While Trip matched the Captain for bravery, he 
seemed to have a certain vulnerability.

He landed the shuttle, but kept his seat as T'Pol reached out through 
the hatch to drag in an exhausted Trip. Trip collapsed in the back of 
the shuttle while T'Pol offered him a waterbag. Malcolm was briefly
irritated that his view of Trip was blocked as Zobral dragged the
Captain in through the hatch. The next moment, Malcolm was ashamed of
his irritation; the Captain deserved his sympathy just as much as
Trip. Perhaps Zobral was right and Malcolm was jealous. He enjoyed
Trip's company, in life-threatening situations, in arguments or simply
while watching movies together. The cocky engineer had become such a
good friend that Malcolm had" fallen in love. At that thought, he
looked around the Captain to see Trip without caring how obvious it
was to T'Pol or Zobral.

Trip looked drained, his eyes drooping but he looked up long enough to
respond to Malcolm's gaze. The engineer smiled fleetingly at Malcolm 
and Malcolm felt his pulse quicken in response. Trip's eyes shut and 
T'Pol offered him water again. Malcolm turned back to the console and 
took off. Malcolm felt uncomfortable now that he realised he had 
fallen for Trip. However, he was indescribably grateful that he still 
had the opportunity to make his feelings known. He had no idea how 
Trip would react, but Malcolm refused to risk never telling him. He 
would, of course, wait until Trip had recovered from his latest 
escapade. The thought made him shiver in anticipation.

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The End