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"An Ounce of Patience" by A. Rhea King
Rating: PG CHAPTER 4 Archer rubbed his eyes and then looked up at the view screen. He and T’Pol were the only two on the bridge; both unwilling to leave the bridge while Travis and Hoshi were in control of Enterprise. Travis and Hoshi hadn’t moved from their seats nor had they set any destination coordinates. Archer laid his head against the Captain’s chair, staring at the ceiling. His mind wondered over the course of events, trying desperately to ferret out a reason for this. Archer’s brow furrowed when a thought occurred to him. “T’Pol.” “Yes, Captain?” “What have you and Shipper found out about that communication recording?” “Not very much. Again, we do not have the language skills that Ensign Sato has.” Archer sat up, resting his elbows on his knees. He looked over at Hoshi. “Play the communication recording sequence.” “Captain?” “Play it.” T’Pol turned around and started the communication recording. Archer looked over at Hoshi. The communication recording stopped. “Play it on a loop.” “What are you hoping this will accomplish, sir?” “I don’t know. Humor me.” “This will become annoying after a few minutes.” “T’Pol.” She played the communication recording on a loop. Suddenly it stopped. Archer looked at her. “I did not stop it.” T’Pol looked down at her controls. “Ensign Sato did.” Archer walked over to Hoshi, walking around in front of her. She looked like she was still asleep. “Hoshi, I know you can hear us or you wouldn’t have turned off the communication. Where is Travis taking us and why are you protecting the communications station?” Hoshi didn’t respond. “Ensign, respond.” The communication recording started playing. Archer leaned on the railing. “Captain,” T’Pol said. Archer looked at her. Her head was tilted slightly. “What is it?” “This isn’t the communication I recorded. This is different. The tempo is varied slightly.” Archer looked up at Hoshi. “Hoshi?” She didn’t respond. “Hoshi...” Archer looked down, leaning on the railing. He looked up when Enterprise dropped out of warp and glided to a stop. He looked up at Hoshi. Her head had drooped to her chest. He turned and found Travis the same way. “T’Pol, can you tell what’s happening to them?” T’Pol ran a scan. “It appears they are in REM sleep. They apparently needed rest,” T’Pol said. Archer frowned, looking at the two. He sat back down in his chair, waiting to see what was going to happen next. Archer rested his cheek on his fist and his mind began wandering on it’s own, occupying his conscience as he drifted to sleep. # “Captain,” a voice said. Archer looked up from the gift he was wrapping. He was sitting in the middle of a room in a house he’d never seen. Outside one window was bright daylight; outside the window next to it was pitch-black night without a star in sight. Through the next window he could see the strange land of the alien planet bathed in the complete spectrum of colors like heat waves radiating off the desert sand. “Captain, can you hear me?” the voice asked. Archer closed his eyes, turning his head. “Captain Archer.” He felt his balance shift and then it felt like he was falling through a vast expanse. Archer awoke, startled. Trip and Malcolm were back on the bridge and looked up at him. Archer quickly collected himself, looking up at the view screen. They were again traveling at warp and Hoshi and Travis had not moved. “Have--” Archer started but his voice cracked. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Have they set coordinates yet?” “No, Captain,” T’Pol replied. “Have we deviated from the reverse course?” “No, Captain.” Archer sat up in his chair, trying to overcome the drowsiness. “I could man the bridge if you would like to refresh yourself, Captain,” T’Pol offered. “Not while they have control of my ship.” To his surprise, T’Pol didn’t argue. The hours began to pass silently and Archer struggled to stay awake. He had just dozed off again when Enterprise came out of warp. “Oh my God,” Trip said. Archer opened his eyes. Enterprise was slowing to a stop as the alien planet came into view. The ship was brought into geosynchronous orbit and the engines wound down. “Why’d they bring us back here?” Trip asked. Archer rose to his feet, staring at the view screen. The bridge COM came to life with singing. T’Pol lifted her hands away from her controls when the monitors and controls came to life on their own. One word at a time the singing began to translate into language. The repeated phrase finally became clear, and it sounded like hundreds of voices saying the same thing: “Calling occupants of extraterrestrial craft. We seek to communicate and exchange knowledge. We knew no other way to reach you. We wish to send two to reverse the changes made in your two species and awaken them. We seek your word you will not harm us if we do so.” Archer slowly walked around to stand between the helm and the communications station. He didn’t even notice that the bridge was dead silent. “You have my word,” Archer said. Two aliens ‘shimmered’ on board next to Hoshi and Travis. They again struck them with the spikes in their wrists and shimmered away. The two slumped over their controls. Archer walked over to Hoshi, expecting to find the force field. He reached out and laid his hand on her shoulder. She stirred, opening her eyes. She looked up at Archer. “Did I fall asleep at the controls again?” Archer smiled, shaking his head. “Not quite.” “Why are we back here?” Travis asked. Archer looked back at him. “We seek to exchange knowledge. Will you allow us to come back?” the voices asked. Hoshi looked down at her controls. “Are... Is the computer translating their language?” “You may come back,” Archer agreed. “We have a lot of questions for you.” “And we have questions for you.” Five of the aliens shimmered onto the bridge. One held a square that was wrapped just like the one Archer had been wrapping in his dream. It offered it to Archer. Archer took the box from the alien. It held up its hand, flicked its hands at the wrist and dropped its hands to its side. “We do not like to speak with aliens that pass here. You are the first in many generations that have intrigued us. We would like to know more of you and share our knowledge with you,” the alien said. “We present this gift as a token of peace and prosperity between our races.” “Thank you.” There was a silence. “It offends you?” the alien asked. “Normally we wait to open gifts until afterwards.” “We open them when they are given.” Archer decided to obey their custom and unwrapped the present. Inside he found a sculpture made from crystal. It was the first images the aliens must have seen of him and his crew when he and Trip had gone down to retrieve Hoshi and Travis. They were standing in front of the shuttle pod, looking back at the damaged shuttle pod or the tents and Hoshi was pointing. The likeness of the people, despite its size, was amazing. Archer looked back at the aliens. “Thank you.” “We would like to see more of your species and ship. We would like to find a means to give you our knowledge. We would like to sample your food. We would like to learn your customs.” “I want to know what you did to my two crewmen and why you did it.” “We injected them with nanoprobes of an organic nature. We all have them in us and they create the links.” The alien held out its wrist and the spike slid out a little. “They repair our bodies to prolong our lives. We injected some of the nanoprobes into your crewmen so they could communicate, but you left before the nanoprobes could complete the necessary changes to their bodies. Upon removing the nanoprobes, we discovered from them that they had inadvertently caused a condition in your crewmen. For that we apologize. We injected nanoprobes to kill the ones that made the changes, and reverse all changes. They will be unharmed during this process.” “Why did you hide when we came to get these two?” Archer motioned at Hoshi and Travis. “Many aliens that have made it to the surface have been hostile. Very few have come that have been benign. Her kind was one that was benign when it came many generations ago.” They all pointed at T’Pol. “Vulcans have been here?” “They were. They were benign. Their ship was lost when it tried to leave, unable to gain enough escape velocity to leave the surface safely. We mourned for them, but their ship left before we could return the injured to them. The Vulcan’s lived for many years among us before the nanoprobes were unable to prolong their lives. They left these behind.” A box of old PADDs shimmered onto the bridge beside him. T’Pol got up and walked over to the box, kneeling beside it. She pulled out a PADD and turned it on. “What is it?” “Nearly three hundred years of observation of this race,” T’Pol looked up at Archer. “It will take me several years to go through this information, Captain.” “I guess you just developed a hobby, T’Pol.” Archer looked back at the aliens. “I’ll show you around the ship, but you have to understand that your actions make me a little leery of you.” One stepped forward, holding its hands up, palms facing away from archer. “We learned many expressions from the nanoprobes that we took from your crewmen. An ounce of patience. Do you know what this means?” “Be patient.” “We needed but an ounce of patience the first time. We ask only that this time.” Archer smiled. “I’ll give you a pound instead. T’Pol, let’s show our guests the ship.” Archer handed the sculpture off to Trip and the group left the bridge. Trip watched them go and then looked down at Travis and Hoshi. “Why don’t you two take the rest of the day off? You look a bit bewildered.” The two left without argument. Trip looked at the statue in his hand, shaking his head. # Archer stared at the sculpture, turning his head so that the overhead lights of his ready room refracted in the cuts and he could see shards of rainbow inside it. “Come in,” he said when his ready room doorbell beeped. T’Pol walked in and stopped at his desk, pulling her hands behind her back. She looked down at the sculpture. “Quartermaster Benson said that this sculpture was made from a diamond roughly fifty centimeters cubed,” Archer told T’Pol. “She told me. To create a sculpture of such detail in diamond takes extraordinary talent. The fact that they quarried a diamond so large is equally amazing.” “The Gawsumi are an amazing race all around, T’Pol.” “They were extremely interesting. I would have liked to spend more time with the scientists that came aboard the last two days.” “Everyone wanted to spend more time with the Gawsumi that came aboard, even Hoshi and Travis.” Archer smiled up at her. “I’m pleased that you decided to forgive them for their transgression against your crewmen. We would have missed a great opportunity if you had not.” Archer sat back in his chair, looking out at space speeding by at warp three. “An ounce of patience. If I’d listened to Hoshi, T’Pol, and believed her when she said there were aliens on the surface, we would have met them sooner.” Archer looked up at T’Pol. “Regardless of what could have been, Captain, the end result of this turned out well.” “Yes it did, didn’t it?” Archer smiled, looking out at space. “There’s a nebula coming up. It’s about two hundred kilometers wide. I think I’ll send Hoshi with a science team and Travis to one end, and you and Trip with another team to the other end.” Archer looked up at T’Pol. “What do you think?” “I believe those are appropriate arrangements. Should I assign crewmen to teams?” “Tell Hoshi she can pick her team if she wants to.” “Yes, Captain.” T’Pol turned and left. Archer turned back to the statue, again admiring the detail and craftsmanship of the piece. |
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