DISPLACED
Summary: While investigating a Suliban military base, an accident throws Reed into the future, where he meets a very interesting archaeologist who is not what he seems.
* * *
"It still seems a bit suspicious to me, sir," said Lieutenant Reed as they
stepped out of the turbolift. "A Suliban military base, out here in the middle
of nowhere, completely abandoned? I think it poses somewhat of a security
risk. What if it's a trap?"
Archer shrugged. "Who knows why it was abandoned?" he answered,
clapping the lieutenant on the shoulder. "All I know is that we've run into the
Suliban a few times too many for my liking, and if there's something down
there that will give us the advantage, I'm all for it."
Reed nodded, although the tight set of his jaw suggested that he was not entirely reassured. Tucker grinned and tapped the padd in his hand as the three men went into the shuttlepod. Ensign Sato sat ready, reading her own padd, her forehead wrinkled with concentration. "I hope you can translate those Suliban consoles," said Trip teasingly, "because I aim to learn all I can about their engineering specs, and the UT's been actin' kind of funny of late."
"Trust me, Commander," said Hoshi dryly, "I can translate anything you can throw at me." Trip laughed and checked through his tools once more. Reed sighed, preparing the shuttle for launch.
"Okay, Hoshi, when I yell duck, you start translatin'," said the engineer. Sato rolled her eyes and shuffled her own tools around impatiently. Archer glanced back and forth from Reed, tersely piloting the shuttle out of the launch bay, and Sato, wringing her fingers together, and wondered what was making them so jumpy. He could understand Reed's reticence, he supposed; it had been the Suliban, after all, who were responsible for the lieutenant's stay in sickbay a few months ago. Hoshi was probably just nervous, he reasoned.
"Are you all right, Hoshi?" he asked quietly as the blackness of space
surrounded them. Enterprise, high above, looked like a fragile toy against the
curtain of stars. The shuttle spun around under Reed's direction, and the
yellow-green planet commandeered the view as Enterprise's comforting
shape disappeared.
"I'm fine, sir," she said. "Just a little queasy, that's all. These things
always do make me a little sick." Archer nodded and glanced at Malcolm once
more. The lieutenant's brow was furrowed, and he looked pale and stern even
for him. The captain sighed and closed his eyes. Come to think of it, he was a
little uneasy himself about walking into an abandoned military base of their
worst enemy.
*************
Reed picked his way through a hallway filled with debris. Old, dusty wires
hung from the walls; the place looked as if someone had already tried to strip
it bare of anything useful.
*Just find the weapons locker, find anything useful, and get out,* he told
himself. *There's nothing here, you idiot, no Suliban, no nothing.* He gripped
the phase pistol a little tighter and checked the map of the compound that
T'Pol had printed out for them. Right ahead there was a large warehouse, and
since it was in the middle of the compound, Malcolm was betting that they
would have had something valuable (weapons or not) where it was hardest for
any intruder to get to.
The door slid open with a groan as he approached, and Reed silently thanked it for staying in operation. He'd had to pry open five of those damned doors already. The lights flickered on as he entered, wiping sweat from his forehead.
Though the room was positively cavernous, there was absolutely nothing in it except more piles of waste and junk. Reed sighed and pulled off his jacket, tossing in onto a handy pile of burnt wire, and walked slowly around the edge of the room, hoping to find something to justify opening those bloody doors. All around the sides of the room, metal compartments which reminded him of his high school lockers hung open, and Reed shone his flashlight into each one. Nothing in those either, Reed saw, and was about to give up on the room when a strange glint caught his eye. He bent down in front of the very last locker and pulled out a flat, slightly rounded device from the rusty bottom.
To his surprise, he knew what it was; Ensign Daniels, their itinerant crewman from the future, had left one just like it in his cabin. *Damned if I know what the bloody thing does, though,* thought Reed in annoyance. He slid the dials around, and the object lit up, flashing and beeping softly. Maybe this device contained within it the same information as in Daniels' device; he'd seen specs for Klingon ships that weren't even in the Vulcan database. He'd been forbidden to retrieve that data, but the Captain wasn't here right now... Cautiously, he slid his fingers over the controls, expecting to see the holographic display pop up before his eyes.
The sudden flash of light that followed caught him unprepared. He dropped his phase pistol to the floor and staggered backwards, blinded, as the room began to explode around him. Something sharp hit his arm and his back, and he clutched the strange device to his chest, scrabbling frantically to find the pistol. A sudden shattering pain blew through his skull, and he collapsed to the ground, still holding tight to the device as it began to hum. In a split second, he thought, *Oh, bloody hell,* before the device flared once more and the room faded into obscurity.