*
Fire erupted all around him, and Trip decided it was time he stopped waiting for a rescue that clearly was not going to come. Grabbing Treville around the middle - earning an indignant growl for his troubles - the engineer raced towards the door.
"Damn this deathtrap, anyway," he muttered.
After Enterprise's mission came to a close, Travis had insisted on returning to the Horizon and rejoining the crew. "I've had enough Starfleet for a lifetime," he'd said, his eyebrows drawn together in remembered pain, and Trip hadn't really been able to disagree. So they took one of the strange half-beagle, half-alien-whatever pups that Porthos had accidentally sired during one of their away missions and returned to the Mayweather family ship.
The Mayweather family itself hadn't quite known what to make of Trip at first, but once they realized how happy he and Travis were together, they relaxed a little.
But Paul was still captain of the Horizon, and Paul was still stubborn, and any number of repairs and upgrades Trip and Travis had been itching to make since the day they came aboard had gone undone because Paul didn't consider them necessary.
A spurt of flame shot in front of Trip's face, and Treville whimpered in fear. "Unnecessary," Trip muttered darkly, dodging the tongues of fire. "I'll unnecessary you, Paul Mayweather."
The ship was burning up around him. Help might not arrive in time. And he had no idea where Travis was.
END