Reversal {Star Trek Enterprise Mirror Universe fan fiction}

The Real Patient

Jenny couldn't sleep. She got up and saw the flashing PADD. A message. Okay. But it was still early.

'Captain Archer,

I know she's alive and in a hospital. She's got something wrong, it's like brain damage. I don't really know. She said there were children in the hospital. I think they may have been visiting her. And I am a little, no, a lot concerned that the connection may be fading a bit. I think we need to work more quickly.

– DJH'

"What are you doing up, Doug?" she asked the empty room. "It's not time to get up yet."

There was a chime at the door. She threw a sweatshirt on over her sleeping clothes. "Uh, come on in."

"Oh, uh, Ensign. Sorry 'bout this." It was Tripp Tucker. "And I know it's the middle of the night and all, but I, I was thinking. Something isn't adding up here. Um, I can come back in the morning."

She yawned. "No, that's okay. Inspiration strikes when you least expect it. So, uh, what brings you here?"

"Well I was thinking. The connection always seems to happen when she's asleep. And when Hayes is asleep, too. So I'm thinking, there's possibly some place in this system where we are whenever the connection opens."

"Did you find it? And, uh, why are you here?" Jenny asked.

"I'm getting to that, sorry. Anyway, I found, we seem to hook around the second-largest planet right around bedtime for anyone on regular shift. 'Course people get into bed at different times, and they fall asleep whenever their bodies let them. But it seemed like too big of a coincidence to just dismiss it."

"And?"

"And the other place is right here. It's her bed. She doesn't, um, sleep walk, does she? 'Cause if she does, my theory's shot to hell."

"No. Talking, not walking."

"Oh? Huh, interesting. Sautéing instructions at night?"

Jenny smiled. "A bit, um, earthier than that usually."

"Oh, yes. Er, shouldn't have asked that." Tripp said, “Moving right along. As you can see, what I have here is a sensor and a recorder. We'll stick 'em under and see what happens."

"Uh, that's all well and good, but he seems to think the connection is breaking." she showed him the PADD.

"Huh, well that's no good. We'll go Old School then, and just poke around." Tripp got down on all fours and looked around the bed.

Jenny followed suit, on the other side. "What are we looking for?"

"Anything, I dunno, weird."

"Well, the mattress is kinda hard." she pointed out.

"Hmm." he straightened up and sat down tentatively. "Harder side is the left. Huh." He grabbed at the sheets. "Help me with these."

They took the sheets off the bed and then lifted the mattress. "Well, will you look at that." Tripp said.

"What am I looking at?"

"Right there. There was a small hole. And it was filled and stitched up."

"Somebody came in here and did this? The Calafans?" Jenny asked.

"Probably not, but it's possible. Here, touch that." he indicated the filled hole.

"It's not fabric. It's, it's like metal."

"Yeah. It's like someone was too lazy or cheap to cut out a piece of an unused mattress so they just soldered something together, stuck it in, sewed over it and hoped no one would ever notice it."