His heavy swollen eyes opened slowly, the bright light from an illumination unit on the wall blinding him and adding more fuel to the throbs inside his head. The blurred image of Captain Archer suddenly loomed over him. He could tell by Archer's expression that he wasn't too happy… and in his current condition, he was seeing the Captain's face in four different places!

"Unnnnhhhh…" he muttered, cradling his head in his hands.

"You better have something more to tell me than that," growled Archer, making no move to help his engineer get up.

Tucker slowly ran his hands up the wall behind him, easing his stiff body up along its cold surface. Actually, the cold felt good; he really wanted to lay his face against it, too, but decided that any unnecessary motion would further stir up the waves of nausea beginning to roll in his stomach. Somewhere… a few fuzzy facts were trying to make sense in his muddled mind. "Yeah; I guess there is. Gimme a couple minutes, Cap'n."

Archer dragged a couple of chairs over, the noise echoing like a jackhammer in Trip's head. He handed the younger man a glass of water. "Here; something tells me you need this."

Tuck's hand shook as he took the cup, as he noticed the tacky dryness of his mouth, confirming Archer's observation. He cautiously swirled a mouthful before trusting the liquid to enter into his undulating stomach. The first sip settled; he risked a second and eased himself into the chair.

"How's T'Pol?" he ventured, not remembering much of what had happened shortly after they started their celebration down on Terra Nova. "She okay?"

Archer tried to keep his face serious. "She's fine. Well, almost fine. Seems that that fermented wall fruit drink didn't affect her quite the way it did you." He stopped, waiting to see just how much Tucker did remember.

Tucker rubbed his eyes, making them redder than they already were. "She… she's still talkin' to me?"

"Any reason why she shouldn't be?"

"Well, I don't rightly know." Tucker didn't know how much of what he remembered was real… and what all was hallucinatory from his consumption of the 'spirit juice' he and T'Pol had been given by the Novans at their celebration. "Sorry, Cap'n; that drink really did me in. Hell, I haven't felt this bad since that binge I went on after Roseanne and me broke up…" He took another sip of water and chanced a couple of deep breaths.

Archer leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms and glaring paternally at Tucker. "Was I wrong in sending you and T'Pol down to Terra Nova together to help the Novans get situated into their new surroundings?"

Tucker groaned as ripples of queasiness rolled through him. "Guess the Novans are used to their own concoction with that damned drink," he groaned. "They kept everyone's glasses filled every time you took a sip."

"So why did you keep sipping?"

"Damned if I know. It… just tasted… good," Tuck continued. "And besides… they said that it helped them find tunnels in the Underside - sort of helped them 'see' where the tunnels were. Since we were there to help them get a new home established, I figured 'what the hell; anything to help us along'. Guess T'Pol didn't need any 'enhancement' capabilities." He looked up at his commanding officer. "Why are those damned Vulcans so friggin' perfect, Cap'n?"

Archer shook his head with silent agreement.

"Well, anyway," Tucker continued, "the next thing I know is that Jamin and his darlin' little mama are leading us on a merry hunt for new tunnels. They had a couple of trained diggers that they'd brought with them, and those little devils took after looking for more passages faster 'n a hound dog on the trail of a lost chain gang member. Folks was a scurrying' all over the place, whoopin' and a-hollerin' and having a grand ole time. Each time someone found a new tunnel, we'd have to celebrate with a little more of that kickapoo joy juice.

"Soon it became as much of a game as a need to find all those tangled passages. The Novans decided to 'up the ante' and have us look for interesting things that each tunnel might contain. Some of the "necessities" they'd brought with them from their former home site were these little shuttles, sorta like an old-time work cart that was used by train folks on Earth when they needed to make repairs on the train tracks. They showed us how to maneuver on these and soon several of us were taking off and exploring. Several of the Novans found tunnels lined with edible plants; one was loaded with a new type of digger; a couple had fluorescing stones that they could use.

"Each time someone came back, we'd all gather for yet another round. I know, I know; I should've realized what was happening, but you know how it goes - your brain sorta splits and one side tells you to stop… that you know better; but the other one says 'aw, this time it'll be different; go ahead'. Well, you know which voice won out inside my ole noggin.

"T'Pol didn't always come back when the rest of us did, but we were always able to get in touch with each one another via our comms. I think I even remember her saying something to me about the fact that I'd better lay off the juice… or whatever 'logical' words she used. She indicated to me that she was following up on something very interesting and would be returning in a little while.

"So I kept going back out and looking for something 'good', too. But I kept ending up with zilch… nada. And I guess I was startin' to lose my steering abilities, too, 'cause I kept running into walls and crunchin' into rocks - my little ole train car was takin' a real beating. By the time T'Pol came back with her discovery, it was obvious that my li'l vehicle needed some major repairs.

"Everyone gathered around T'Pol when she arrived. Real slow, like she knew that she was going to cause a ruckus, she opened up a storage pouch. It was filled with huge, glittering hunks of gold… pure, twenty-four caret stuff… nothing like I'd ever seen before! Now, I know we ain't 'sposed to be into this kind of stuff anymore, but let me tell you - them Novans were whoopin' and a-hollerin' all over the place! Not only did they have a nice safe and healthy place to live, but now they had a means of being able to trade and improve their lifestyle after all those years! They were celebratin', dancing all around her and everything. They just scowled at me and my empty cart. I guess I started to pass out just as things really started getting' good… all the while holding on to a broken cylindrical piece from my shuttle car.

"And that's the truth, Cap'n… I swear it! By the time T'Pol and I finished our explorations, she'd found a tunnel of pure metallic ore and all I had was the remains of my broken down little train car - she got the goldmine and I got the shaft!"

~ The End ~

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