"Nuggets" by A. Rhea King Rating: PG Disclaimer: Don't own the, CBS/Paramount does. Summary: Long ago, on a planet somewhere else, Trip adopted a pet chicken and named her Nuggets. The fowl has caused ship wide havoc, befriended Porthos, and saved the ship from certain doom ... And in the end, she gets the last word. AUTHOR'S NOTE: These are the Nugget stories missing from the Tweens Chapter 1 : Before Nuggets Archer entered the shuttle bay as he reached the side hatch as Malcolm shoved it open. He wore an expression that closely resembled anger as he tried to rush past Archer. Archer grabbed his arm and he whirled around to face Archer. Archer half expected a fist to follow, but Malcolm simply stared at him with that angry expression. “Trip sounded upset. What happ--” Archer started. Malcolm cut Archer off. “You handpicked him, sir. You,” A small laugh escaped. “You handpicked Commander Tucker and now you can figure out what to do with it! Because short of a nice Sunday dinner, I don’t know what he’s going to do with the...the...” Malcolm started laughing. He fell back against the wall, clutching his stomach, as his laughter grew louder. “The chicken! Your Chief Engineer rescued a chicken!” Archer heard clucking and turned. Hoshi and Ensign Cutler stood behind Trip, who held a crude wire cage with a large white Leghorn hen in it. The women were tearing from the laughter they were trying to hold in. Trip was slightly red – was he embarrassed or angry? “Commander Tucker rescued the...” Hoshi paused when a laugh escaped. “The chicken, sir, from uncertain death. It was the only living thing in the village and he saved it.” Trip protested, “It was going to starve to death!” Trip’s accent was very thick and distinct, an indication he was tired, frustrated, and very angry. Experience had taught Archer that when Trip was at this emotion place, it didn’t take much to make him explode. So, Archer cleared his throat, and decided he’d try to defuse the situation before Trip blew up at one or all of them. Archer brought his hand up, tapping a finger to his lips as he thought of a comment while trying to repress his laughter. After all, Trip was trying to do the decent thing. “Trip...” Archer looked from Trip to the white-feathered bird and back. “You know... We set out to explore space, see the unknown, experience new cultures... What is, uhm... It’s just that... We’ve all seen a chicken before.” Archer clenched his teeth together to keep from laughing. “Nuggets would have starved to death if I’d left her in her cage. Whoever lived on that planet, left in a big hurry and this poor, starving chicken was all that was left. I didn’t want to leave it there to starve to death. That’d be cruel!” “And you’ve named it too, I see.” “Yes! Couldn’t keep calling her chicken, could I?” Archer clenched his teeth together until he was sure he had control of his laughter. “Uhm, I thought you grew up in the city, Trip.” “I did. What does that have to do with anything?” “Do you know anything about chickens? How to care for and raise them?” “We have all that in the database. It can’t be any different than a cat or dog!” “So you’re going to keep the chicken as a pet, I presume? Since you’ve named it.” “If not, I could go for a fresh, roasted chicken dinner, myself,” Malcolm said before bursting into another frenzy of howling laughter. Cutler and Hoshi chimed in this time. Trip’s jaw twitched, which only made it harder for Archer to maintain his calm. He started tearing from holding the laughter in. “You wanted me to leave the poor thing to starve to death, Cap’n?” Trip retorted. “You could have just let it loose!” Archer hooted. “She’s a domesticated animal! She would have died or been killed!” “Uhm, Commander Tucker,” Hoshi began, “as Elizabeth and I have pointed out numerous times already, it was probably going to have been killed anyway by whoever owned it.” Trip’s face flushed a darker red. Archer knew he would go off at any moment, but he couldn’t stop laughing. “I wasn’t going to leave Nuggets to starve to death or be killed by the wildlife,” he said in too-calm-of-a-voice. The other three started laughing harder. Archer’s sides began hurting from how hard he was laughing. Trip’s jaw set. He walked up to Archer and shoved the cage in his arms. “I saved Nuggets from starving to death and I’ve had about enough of being laughed at!” Trip looked at Malcolm, Ensign Cutler and Hoshi. “And if you three ever tell anyone I saved a chicken I’ll...I’ll...I’ll do something!” Trip stormed out of the shuttle bay. Archer looked at the chicken, laughing in howls. He sat the cage down before his legs gave out from laughing so hard. Back to the Prologue Continue to Chapter 2

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