Star Trek: Enterprise

Alien Us

By Philippe de la Matraque

Chapter Thirty

Hoshi was torn. She was excited to get the wires off today and to see Malcolm again. They'd talked most of the week, of course, but she had been reluctant to return to Sickbay and its lab-like environment. And that's where she had to go to get the wires out. Her palms were sweaty at the thought; her knees were bouncing as she sat waiting.

A med-tech had come several times a day to check on her, but Hoshi had chosen to remain in her quarters the whole week. Travis came to visit a couple times but she preferred being alone with herself or alone with Malcolm. She watched the door now for a med-tech or someone to help her to Sickbay.

"You know if I could," Malcolm's voice said, "I'd run out of this place and come to you."

I know, she replied, silently. And I want to see you, see how you're healing. But I never want to see the inside of a lab again. Unless it's a computer lab or engineering lab.

"Just nothing to do with biology."

Exactly.

"Just think how nice it will be to yawn properly."

The door chimed and her pulse began to race. Or eat ice cream?

"Definitely."

"Come in," she said through her clenched teeth.

She didn't remember this one's name, but she stood. She took the tech's outstretched arm and walked the few steps to the hatchway. "Step with your good leg first, Ensign." She did as instructed, and the tech helped her pull her more reluctant left leg over. My grandfather broke his hip once, she told Malcolm. I used to complain that he walked too slow after. I wish I could apologize now.

"I'm sure he forgave you long ago."

Each time she put weight on her left foot, her hip hurt. But it hurt less than yesterday and that was something. Just as Malcolm had said breathing was getting a little easier every day. Besides, they were both alive and free. That was worth a lot of pain and inconvenience.

The walk seemed to take an hour but the door opened and she could see his face. He looked so much better. He was no longer gaunt and the red color of the sunburn was fading to a light tan.

He smiled when he saw her and she felt a tingle fill her chest. She wanted to run to him.

"You're beautiful," Malcolm thought to her.

Then the sounds of Sickbay came to her, the beeps of consoles and skitterings of animals. The tingle stopped. The pounding came back. The tech helped her to a bed, not the one beside Malcolm. Phlox met her there and blocked her view of Malcolm.

"Hoshi," he asked, "would you like to be anesthetized for this?"

She was breathing hard and fast. No! she thought. It took a minute for her to find her voice. "No."

"I'm going to numb your face," the doctor said. He pressed a hypospray to one cheek and then the other. Then he touched her face. "You tell me if you feel any pain."

She began to relax. "I don't feel anything." Then she remembered the lab in Buftanis and the things they'd do to her when she couldn't feel anything.

"You're going to be fine," Malcolm encouraged. "We're free, we're safe. We're home."

Tell me a story, she told him, as Phlox laid her back on the bed and began to work.

Malcolm had hid from her how he really felt. The sounds Phlox made when he pulled a wire out, or at least the sounds Malcolm imagined brought back a panic he'd managed to hold at bay most of the day. But she didn't need to know that right then. She was the one who needed a story. And hadn't that been the way they'd supported each other through the last year? They'd held each other up when the other needed it.

Then Phlox stood back and Hoshi had flexed her jaw and smiled at him. And he forgot his panic and just let himself drink in her beauty and the wonderful idea that she loved him.

She used the beds to help herself as she came to him. "I'd kiss you," she thought to him "but I can't feel my face. I'd probably slobber all over you."

Malcolm almost laughed. He'd forgotten what it felt like to laugh. Just to be able to see you, to touch you, is more than I dreamed I'd ever get. I can wait for that kiss. Just not too long.

The door opened and Trip waved as he went over to talk to Phlox.

"How are you, really?" Hoshi asked, silently. She held his hand. Her skin felt so soft, even though he could feel her calluses.

Better, he told her. And worse. I'm starting to feel my ankles again. Nerves healing, Phlox says. They hurt, and then I remember and they hurt more.

"I wish they'd come for you a few days earlier."

How would they have gotten you away from all those females and guards?

"It was Turn," she argued. "Most everyone forgot about me. I just wish they hadn't done all that to you."

I wish none of it had happened to either of us. We could have hid in the trees and survived on nuts or whatever without the natives ever knowing until Enterprise was finally in range. We'd still have been together, still lost but not lab rats or slaves.

Trip and Phlox broke their thoughts. "Hey, Malcolm," Trip said, "How would you like to take a break from Sickbay?"

Malcolm's pulse went up a few beats. "How?" he asked. "I can barely walk three meters." That was the distance from his bed to the head. He'd been looking forward to the day when he could relieve himself without assistance to and from the bed. Then maybe he'd just walk right out of Sickbay and never come back.

Trip grinned. "I've got a surprise for you, and Phlox says you should be fine, for an hour or two."

"Though there will be a medic nearby at all times," Phlox added. "Just in case."

Trip turned and headed for the door. He stepped into the corridor and retrieved what looked very much like an old-fashioned wheelchair.

Malcolm didn't like the idea of being so weak he had to be pushed around in a wheelchair. But he was that weak. He'd become weak deliberately over the last year to slow his healing and hopefully delay further operations. Besides, Hoshi was smiling and the prospect of leaving Sickbay for even just an hour was too enticing. "I'll need some real clothes," he said.

"We can stop by your quarters first," Trip offered. "Then if we hurry, we can catch the tail end of breakfast. No crowd in the Galley but a few waffles and a tall glass of milk. What do you say?"

Malcolm looked to Phlox. "Can I get unhooked?"

"I'll compromise," Phlox said, "I'll disconnect the monitor, but I'll give you a mobile unit."

Malcolm nodded. He had a sinking feeling that he was worse off than he hoped. Was he still so close to dying that he couldn't leave the beeping monitor for an hour? Phlox got busy. Hoshi motioned for the med-tech.

"I feel like having breakfast, myself," she said, lisping the words from her numbed lips.

Malcolm smiled at her. "Are you sure you won't dribble your milk?" he asked and she smiled back.

"The feeling is coming back," she replied.

"The numbness should wear off within the next fifteen minutes. Go enjoy breakfast."

Hoshi squeezed his hand and then hobbled off with the tech.

Once Phlox had him loose, he and Trip helped Malcolm stand and then sit in the chair. Phlox attached a few contacts to Malcolm's chest and then connected them to a small box which tucked into a pouch on the back of the chair. "If you feel anything is wrong," Phlox said, "if you get dizzy, if your chest hurts or it gets hard to breathe, come right back."

Trip put a hand on Malcolm's shoulder. "We'll take good care of him, Doc."

The doctor smiled, though not all the way. And then they were moving toward the double doors that led to the corridor, away from Sickbay. Malcolm closed his eyes as Trip pushed him through and the doors hissed closed behind him. Silence. The only sounds were Trip's footfalls. No more beeps and twitters. It was wonderful. He was finally free. Nothing about this reminded him of the last year. He could just be.

The wheels stopped and Malcolm opened his eyes. Trip stepped around in front of him and opened the door. He picked up the small monitor box and handed it to Malcolm. "Hold this," he said. "Might as well leave the chair here as try to get it through the hatch. Fortunately, nothing's really three meters away inside."

Malcolm put his feet on the floor and Trip steadied him as he stood. He stepped one leg through the hatch and Trip went in sideways, helping Malcolm stay upright as he stepped his other foot through. Then Trip helped him to the bed.

Trip started opening cabinets until he found a T-shirt and some pants. "Will these do?"

Malcolm looked at the wires leading from the monitor to his chest. "Button-down might be better."

"Right!" Trip opened a few more cabinets and found one. He found Malcolm staring a lot like Hoshi had. “You’re getting that surreal feeling, huh?”

Malcolm nodded.

Trip figured that was going to be hard to shake. Gone for a year but gone only for a week or so. Hoshi was doing better with it now. Malcolm would, too, eventually. He just had to keep getting better. “You think you can manage?”

Malcolm smirked. “If I could use my opposable thumbs.”

Trip nodded. “Well, you want me or the nurse waiting outside to help with that?”

Malcolm just nodded. Trip tried not to think of it as helping another man to dress. It was just helping a friend, a friend he had almost lost. A friend who had very nearly died in his arms. Malcolm managed a lot of it anyway. He couldn’t button or unbutton and he couldn’t stand steady to get the pants up around his waist. Trip helped when he had to and tried to let Malcolm do whatever he could for himself.

Malcolm was quite used to the loss of dignity by now, he supposed. Trip did make it easier, acting like nothing was out of the ordinary. As he was pushed down the corridor to the turbolift, he realized his resent of Trip from the betrayal in the dream was actually fading, slipping under the care and friendship Trip in reality had shown since before he’d woken from his coma.

A few crewmen were leaving the galley as they entered. They nodded to Malcolm and went on their way. No gawking. Trip stopped at the counter and picked up a tray. He handed it to Malcolm and then pushed him toward a table by the window. The plate was still warm. It held what looked like two waffles, pre-cut into bite-size pieces. Each was lightly peanut-buttered and covered in syrup. Trip helped him set the tray on the table. “Ah,” he said, looking over his shoulder, “Your date has arrived.”

Malcolm looked to the door and saw Hoshi, in a lovely flowered dress, escorted by a med-tech. She still had a very noticeable limp, but she was smiling brightly as the tech brought her to his table.

Trip helped to push in her chair. “And what would you like for breakfast, milady?” he asked.

She looked at Malcolm and took a deep breath. Her smile widened. “A large bowl of vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce and whipped cream.”

“Oh-kay,” Trip replied, with a puzzled look. “You’ve been waiting for that, huh?” He turned back to Malcolm. “Milk?”

Malcolm looked to Hoshi. “Go for it,” she thought to him.

“Hot chocolate, actually,” he told Trip. “With marshmallows.”

Trip raised his eyebrows, but bowed and said, “Coming right up, sir.”

And then they were alone. Together. On a date.

“It’s a dream come true,” she thought.

An impossible dream made possible, he agreed. He held her hand with the two fingers that actually worked and just lost himself in the beauty of her eyes. I’ve just been through hell and back but I figure I’m the luckiest man in the universe.

Trip returned with a large bowl of ice cream and a steaming mug of hot chocolate. “I have to go to work, and that guy,” he thumbed over his shoulder to where the med-tech sat reading a PADD, “is going to mind his own business for exactly one hour.” He handed Malcolm a straw. “Enjoy it.” Then he bowed to Hoshi, “Milady.”

Hoshi looked at his plate. “They remembered the peanut butter?” she asked aloud.

Malcolm nodded as he worked the fork into his hand. “And graciously cut it for me. I can manage a fork. Not a knife and fork.”

“Can I try it?”

He raised an eye brow. “You’re sure?”

She took a deep breath and tried to look very serious. “I think I’m ready for peanut butter on waffles.”

“Alright then.” He smiled. “You do know this may be life-changing?”

She smiled back. “Life has changed a lot lately. I think I can take it.”

He stabbed a piece of waffle and held it out to her. She took the bite off his fork. It took a moment or two to chew and swallow. Then she licked her teeth. “It’s a bit stickier,” she said. “But I like it. Consider my life changed!”

Then her voice came in his head again as she took a bit of big ice cream, dripping in caramel, “One of the major advantages of your new abilities is that we can talk with our mouths full.”

That we can, he agreed and lifted a bit of warm, peanut-buttery waffle to his mouth. It was even better than he remembered.

“I missed this so much,” she thought to him.

Hoshi maneuvered her chair closer to him once the ice cream and waffles were gone. They looked out at the stars through the window. Millions of points of light in a sea of blackness stretching light years away. She had seen the night sky from Buftanis, of course. But it was different to be here, in the stars, free and once again holding the man she had fallen in love with through her mind and his. The man she had lived for.

And they dared to dream together. They had a future again, one full of endless possibilities. She would introduce him to her family. They would love him, of course. She would go shopping with his sister, Madeline. They would have a house to come home to one day, children to raise. A life together.

He squeezed her hand with his two good fingers and she squeezed back with all five of hers. She’d just lived through hell, but she was the luckiest woman in the universe. I love you, Malcolm Reed.

*It's not ironic. Read the Author's Note at the top of the page.

P.S. I've started a sequel after all. It's called Finding Home.