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"In Good Time"
Rating: PG Returned (Part 1) (2) Travis knelt to adjust the camp stove stand, humming a soft tune while he worked. He heard a clicking noise and looked up, watching the forest beyond the clearing. He kept have a recurring feeling he was being watched by something or someone. “Travis.” Travis turned, looking at Trip when the Commander stopped beside him. Trip fiddled with the tricorder in his hand with a frustrated look. “Yeah, sir?” Travis stood, glancing at the forest before turning his attention to Trip. “The Cap’n just checked in. They’ll be here in a half hour and he said there are seven starving crewmen with ‘im.” Travis smiled. “I’ll make sure it’s hot. What are you doing?” Trip smacked the side of the tricorder with the heel of his hand. “Stupid piece of junk! Someday I’m gonna to invent a tricorder that runs it’s own diagnostics, know that, Travis?” “What’s it doing?” “Oh,” Trip smacked the tricorder again, “It keeps giving some odd readings.” “Odd how?” “Well,” Trip looked at Travis, smiling, “one minute it’s reading some sort of bio sign and the next it’s not. I’m gonna go scout around camp just in case and see what I can see. Have to set up the perimeter alarms before dark anyway.” For a second Travis thought about telling Trip the feeling he had that they were being watched, but instead he shrugged, replying, “Maybe it’s ghosts.” Trip laughed. “The only ghosts around here are up here.” Trip tapped the top of Travis’ head, “Be back soon.” Travis turned back to preparing supper for the crew. # Travis followed along behind T’Pol, watching the ground under his feet. He ran into T’Pol and fell back a step, looking up at her back. She was standing rigid with her head tilted at a slight angle as she listened to something he couldn’t hear. “What—” Travis began. T’Pol held up her hand, drawing her phase pistol. Travis drew his phase pistol, watching and listening to the forest. “There is something to our left,” T’Pol said quietly. Travis looked to his left and saw nothing but forest. He stood silent, waiting for something to happen. Five minutes later, when nothing did, he was starting to feel anxious and it intensified each time his hungry stomach rumbled at him. “Let’s get going. I wanna ge—” “Hush,” T’Pol ordered, slowly turning around to face her right. Travis turned his head in time to see a creature leap out from the brush at them. T’Pol and Travis both shot, but it was T’Pol that hit the mark. Her phaser blast instantly stunned the creature and it fell to the ground half a meter from them. The two slowly approached it, keeping their phase pistols aimed at it. T’Pol crouched down, scanning it with a tricorder. “Is it okay?” Travis asked her. “It has a wound on this side.” “We cause it?” “No. The wound is older, but it is a phase wound. Retrieve the medic kit for me and assist me in turning the creature onto its back.” Travis pulled his backpack off, pulled out the medic kit and handed it to T’Pol. He knelt on the other side of the creature and helped T’Pol gently turn the creature onto it’s back. The creature had long snout with three rows of shark-like teeth and its face was decorated with what looked like blue mud paint. Its hands were flat with two fingers and an opposable thumb. Its arms were twigs compared to its slender but stout body. It wore handmade clothes that were fastened with sinew stitching and bone buttons. Its skin was leathery looking but Travis could see that under the clothes there was soft hair. Its legs didn’t look strong enough to hold it’s body and they ended in feet that sharply reminded him of clown’s shoes with three bulbous toes that had calloused pads. There was a long, slender tail extending through its pants with scaled segments running the length. “What is it?” Travis asked. “I believe this is one of the bio signs we read from Enterprise and have been reading since arriving on the surface.” “Do you think it’s sentient?” “Judging from its appearance, it is possible. Please clean the wound.” T’Pol handed Travis gauze pads and a bottle of iodine. Travis spotted the wound T’Pol was speaking of. The creature’s clothes showed burn marks from a phase pistol energy beam and there was dried blood caked on the clothes and wound. Travis took the items from T’Pol and started cleaning the wound. “Is he going to be out until we finish?” Travis asked. “He?” T’Pol asked. Travis smiled. “I’m assuming he’s a sentient being and a he.” Travis looked up at T’Pol, “Unless you’d rather I presume this creature is from a female dominant race.” “And why would that matter?” “In a male dominant race, a female wouldn’t be out alone like this.” “And who is to say ‘he’ is alone?” “T’Pol, you’re impossible to joke with, know that?” Travis turned back to the wound. “Vulcans do—” “Yeah, yeah. Vulcan’s don’t joke. Don’t have a sense of humor. Don’t laugh.” “We have a sense of humor,” T’Pol argued, “however, we find very little humorous.” “I’ve never seen you laugh.” T’Pol didn’t reply. Travis chuckled, wondering if her silence meant he’d gotten the better of her. Travis’ humor dissipated when the scab on the wound washed off as he poured iodine over it. “T’Pol, this wound is infected.” T’Pol leaned over the creature; looking at the puss Travis was cleaning away. “Continue cleaning it,” T’Pol ordered. Travis obeyed, watching her prepare a hypospray. “What’s that?” he asked. “Penicillin and a mild pain killer.” “You don’t think he’ll have an allergic reaction, do you?” “I cannot say, but better this than to die from gangrene.” “Good point.” T’Pol injected the mixture into the creature’s neck. “We will have to use bandages since we have nothing for sutures.” “Tell me what you want me to do.” T’Pol took out several gauze pads and rolls of bandages and unfastened the creature’s clothes. With a compress placed over the wound they wrapped a length of gauze around the creature to hold the compress in place. T’Pol fastened the creature’s clothes again and began picking up discarded packaging. “Are we just going to leave him?” Travis asked. “I don’t believe he’s alone.” “How can you be sure?” “I just am,” T’Pol handed Travis the medic kit, “but I would like to take a couple archive images.” Travis took the kit, smiling at her. “A souvenir?” T’Pol’s eyebrow lifted. Travis smiled. He dug out a camera and handing it over. T’Pol took four pictures of the creature and handed it back. She stood and waited for Travis to pull his backpack on and the two resumed their journey back to camp. Travis glanced back at the creature before it disappeared from sight and for a second almost suggested they at least wait, out of sight, for it to regain consciousness, but when his hungry stomach rumbled he decided against voicing his suggestion. Travis looked away, trotting to catch up to T’Pol. The forest was silent for a long time after the two left. Slowly seven of the same creatures separated from the forest and surrounded their fallen comrade. They approached the injured creature and started making clicking noises as they inspected the place T’Pol had injected it and the bandages over wound. They picked up the injured creature and disappeared in the opposite direction. # Travis walked along the cliff edge, looking for a good place to set up the repel ropes for the rest of the crew. He finally chose a spot and began setting up. He fastened them to several ancient looking trees and dropped the ropes over the edge. Travis fastened his harness into one and eased himself over the edge, starting a slow descent down the cliff wall. He reached the bottom and waited until he caught his breath before moving anymore. He turned, looking down the slope he was standing on. It was a boulder field with boulders the sizes of hovercrafts down to the size of baseballs. At the bottom of the slope the forest started again and he could see a stream in the dimness catching sunlight and reflecting it. Travis unfastened his rope and started across the boulder field toward the stream. Travis looked back when he heard someone call his name. He smiled, waving to Archer standing at the top. “What?” Travis called up to him. “We’re going to go check out some caves first. Will you be okay?” “Oh yeah.” “We’ll be back in a couple hours. Do you have a communicator and tricorder?” “Yeah.” Travis patted his leg pocket that both were stashed in. “Get some readings of the plants and that stream, okay?” “Will do. See you in a few, sir.” “Be careful. Give me a holler if you see any of those creatures again, all right?” “Will do, sir.” Archer waved and left Travis’ sight. Travis turned around and continued walking. He reached the stream and took a reading of it before kneeling at the edge and plunging his head up to his shoulders in it. He could feel the tug of a strong current and suspected that the placid looking stream was much deeper than it appeared on the surface. Travis sat back, closing his eyes as a breeze blew across his face, causing the water on his face to start cooling him down. Travis sat down on the bank, listening to the forest sounds. He looked across the stream, suddenly getting the feeling that he was being watched again. He stood and started back across the boulder field again. Travis spun around when he heard a twig snap. The rocks under his feet flew out from under him, slamming Travis to the rocks. Travis screamed when he felt his arm snap. Travis lay where he fell, dizzy from the pain. When the sky stopped spinning, he tried to get back on his feet. His foot knocked lose a pile of rocks and started a small landslide. The moving rocks knocked Travis down and tossed him. White light seared up behind Travis’ eyes when his leg was caught under the rocks and the bones snapped in half. The rocks continued rolling across the forest floor toward the stream. Travis tried to stop his slide as he rolled down the bank into the stream. He splashed into the icy cold water and gasped in a mouth full of water. Travis struggled to get out of the water, fighting to get his head above the strong current, thigh high water. He felt something grab his good arm and he was pulled from the water onto the bank. Travis rolled onto his side, coughing out the water he’d breathed in. He tried to get to his knees, but the pain from his broken limbs and nearly drowning had left him shaky. Travis laid down on the grass under him, closing his eyes and passing out. # Travis felt hands on him and then he became aware of clicking noises. Travis slowly opened his eyes, looking up into the faces of the creatures like the one he and T’Pol had helped. There were seventeen of them standing over him, their mouths moving as the clicking noise continued. Travis noticed their long slender tails were stretched out behind them like kangaroo tails and swayed slowly side to side. In their hands they carried spears with crude stone tips. Three had quivers of arrows tied to belts of sinew and a long bows slung over one shoulder. They all had large almond shaped eyes almost centered on their head with a ridge over them and pupils that were slits. Their eyes were colored mostly golden, but he saw a couple had brown or black colored eyes. “Hi,” Travis said. The clicking grew louder and the creatures swarmed closer. Travis tried to press flatter to the ground. “Stop!” Travis cried. The creatures stopped, moving back a couple steps. Travis watched them back away and slowly sat up. He started to get up and fell when pain spiked up his leg under his weight. His face twisted into pain when he hit the ground and pain seared down his broken arm. Travis felt the alien’s hands on him again and tried to push them away but the wave of pain that followed that motion nearly paralyzed him. He felt one touch his broken arm and the pain knocked him unconscious. # Travis opened his eyes, looking into the eyes of one of the creatures. He looked past him and saw the other creatures standing back, watching the two. Travis looked at the creature when it moved. It pulled its shirt up and Travis recognized the dirty bandage as the one he and T’Pol had dressed the creature’s wound with, but now they were dirty and tied on with sinew and vines too keep it from falling off. Travis looked around when something touched his shoulder and found another creature was holding out a medic kit. Travis looked past it and saw they had brought him back to the camp. Travis took the medic kit and opened it. He tried to bandage the wound but his broken arm was useless to him. All of a sudden the creatures started making clicking noises and all of them turned in the same direction. Travis watched them rise up to their full height, which had to be at least two and a half meters high, on their back haunches. Archer, Trip and Ensign Westgard ran into the camp and nearly fell over each other stopping centimeters from a wall of spears aimed at them. One of the creatures drew back his arm to thrust his spear at Archer. “NO!” Travis yelled, struggling to get up, “No. Look, I can’t do this alone. I need one of them to help me here. Don’t kill him.” The creature stopped the thrust at the last second and the spear hit the ground between him and Archer. Archer fell back several steps when the creature leaned down, snarling at him. The creature grabbed his spear and then looked at Travis. “Travis…you okay?” Archer asked. “Not really. I have a broken arm and leg.” “From them?” “No. My natural grace, sir.” “So what are they doing here?” The creatures started clicking, looking at one another. “This doesn’t look so good, Cap’n,” Trip remarked, his hand sliding toward his phase pistol. “You keep that phase pistol in its holster, Trip.” “For how long?” “Until I draw mine.” “Aye, Cap’n.” The one that had thrown his spear pointed at Trip, looking at Travis. “Yeah,” Travis nodded, motioning Trip to come to him. Trip stepped around the creature and walked toward Travis. “What’s he want, Travis?” “This one here,” Travis pointed to the creature that was injured, “is the one T’Pol and I fixed up six days ago and his bandage needs to be redone.” “All this for that?” “I don’t think they’re really trusting, sir. Please, just help him. I really don’t think they’re dangerous, just nervous.” Trip shrugged, looking down at the medic kit Travis had dropped. He picked it up and walked toward the creature. It spun, pointing its spear at Trip. The one that had selected Trip loped over and pushed the spear down, making clicking noises. The creature reluctantly relinquished his spear to the other creature and allowed Trip to approach him. “Which side?” Trip asked it. The wounded creature looked at the second and there was a short exchange. The second creature looked around Trip at Travis. Travis motioned like he was picking up his shirt. “Show him,” Travis urged the creature. The creature looked at Trip. He pulled up his shirt and showed Trip the wound. “That looks painful,” Trip said. He crouched down and motioned the creature to come down. The wounded creature looked at the second one again. The second motioned to the ground with his spear and the wounded creature slowly lowered down, almost sitting on the ground with his tail balancing him. Trip carefully cut away the sinew and vines and then very gently pulled the bandage off. “He really needs stitches, Travis.” “You any good with sutures, sir? Something tells me he’s not about to go for a ride back to Enterprise.” Trip frowned, resuming cleaning the wound and dressing it again. Trip wrapped the bandage as tight as he dared to hold the compress in place and sat back on his ankles, looking up at the creature. “There. All better.” The creature rose, looking at the bandage. He turned to the second, making clicking noise. The creatures turned and disappeared into the forest. “You’re welcome!” Trip called after them. Trip turned to Travis, grinning. “Travis, can’t we leave you alone for one day without you trying to get time off work and making good with the natives?” Trips asked. Travis smiled. “Uh-uh, but I could really use Doctor Phlox or Likos. This really hurts.” “Take him back, Trip. Then get right back. I think it’s time to leave,” Archer ordered. Trip walked over and let Travis slide his arm around his shoulders and the two headed for the shuttle pod. Archer watched them disappeared, and then looked where the creatures had disappeared. |
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