Captain Archer was sitting in his ready room, going over some PADDs when the companel buzzed. He pushed the button to activate it. "Go ahead."

Hoshi's voice came through "Sir, a unidentified ship is on an intercept course."

The captain frowned. "I'll be right there." He stood up, but left the PADDs on his desk. He could come back to them later. He strode across his ready room and pressed the door button. He stepped out onto the bridge. He walked up behind Lieutenant Reed. "What kind of ship is it?"

Reed looked down at his sensor screen. "Some sort of cargo vessel, Sir, not from Earth."

Captain Archer turned to T'Pol. "Do you recognize it?"

T'Pol looked at the approaching ship through her scope. She frowned. "It appears to be an Klingon vessel from several centuries ago, though it has been modified extensively with technology from many different species."

Archer nodded. Then asked "Speed?"

"Warp 2.7," Hoshi answered.

"Sir," Malcolm interjected, "I don't think they've picked us up yet"

The captain took in this information and asked "Time to intercept?"

"At least four hours Sir," Ensign Mayweather replied.

"Well keep an eye on it" said the captain "and tell me if it changes speed or course" and with that he headed back into his ready room.

Meanwhile, aboard the approaching vessel, Jaya was pouring over some charts that were laid out on the course table, which was on the bridge. He looked up and called out to Worev, who was at the helm, "We'll be coming to an asteroid field in about an hour. Have the sensors picked it up yet?"

Worev looked down at he screen "I don't think so. Do you think we should steer though or go around?"

Jaya turned to the center of the bridge "Captain?"

The captain ran his hand along the ridges of his forehead thoughtfully. He looked at Jaya. "Which way is quicker?"

Jaya frowned. "I don't know Sir."

The captain, in a dangerously calm voice, said, "Then find out which way is quicker and go that way."

Jaya grabbed his communicator from the table. He spoke into it, "K'Los, get up here, I need your help."

Down in the workroom, K'Los heard the message. He sighed and grabbed his pen and pad. He called to Nova "Come on, let's go," and headed toward the ladder. Nova followed him obediently like a dog. As his assistant, that was her job. K'Los swept along at a dizzying pace and climbed the ladder quickly and easily. The climbing didn't come so naturally to Nova and her braid swung wildly between her horns as she scrambled franticly after him.

When they got to the bridge, Jaya was franticly tracing routes on his map. He looked up as they approached the course table "Oh, you're here Good. K'Los, I need your help with this."

K'Los nodded. "I know as much. What seems to be the problem."

Jaya jabbed his fingers at a point on the map. "This asteroid belt is directly in our path."

K'Los bent over. "The logical course of action would be to go around it."

Jaya nodded "But not necessarily the fastest."

The captain interjected. "You need to find whether going though the asteroid field at full impulse or going around it at warp 2.8 would be faster."

K'Los leaned down and began his calculations. Occasionally he would murmur some simple addition to Nova and she would figure out the sum and murmur it back to him. In this way they quickly completed the calculations.

"Even if we were to continue at warp 2.8 and burn out the engines after going around, very illogical, we still wouldn't be in time to make the rendezvous. If we went though at full impulse, accounting for not going strait due to the asteroids and the time it would take to fix our course we could still make our rendezvous if we travel at warp 2.8 for the last 10,000 km of the trip, but if we go though we expose our selves to more danger from…"

"Enough," barked the captain, "We go though."

K'Los nodded respectfully, despite the fact that he knew it was more dangerous, and therefore illogical. He had learned it was even more illogical to argue with the captain.

Captain Archer was back in his ready room again, looking over the PADDS of some senor readings they had taken earlier, when the companel beeped. He pressed the button and Hoshi's voice came through. "The alien ship has dropped to impulse."

"I'll be right there." He left the PADDs on his desk and headed onto the bridge. When he got there, T'Pol was looking through her scope. He asked her "Any idea why?"

T'Pol didn't look up from the scope as she answered, "They appear to have entered an asteroid field."

Hoshi interjected, "We're in visual range"

Archer replied, "Put it up." A visual of the space ahead filled the screen. In the distance they could just barely make out a distant asteroid field. "Magnify" said the captain, careful to keep his voice in check. The screen jumped and zoomed in on just the asteroid field. They could now make out a small ship darting between the asteroids. "Speed?" Captain Archer asked to the bridge in general.

It was Ensign Mayweather who answered "They're going about 2 million kph," he paused for an moment before continuing "That's about 2/3 impulse Sir."

The captain replied almost snappishly, "I know that Ensign."

Hoshi interjected "They're going to destroy their ship."

Travis chuckled "Not if they have a good pilot."

Lieutenant Reed squinted at the ship on the monitor and cocked his head in his usual suspicious fashion, "Good pilot or not," he said, "they're certainly in a hurry to get somewhere."

"They may not have detected us yet," said T'Pol calmly.

"Then why are they still heading toward us so quickly?" countered Lieutenant Reed, trying to beat T'Pol at her own game by using logic.

"The shortest distance between two points…" The captain murmured quietly. The rest of the bridge crew looked at him curiously. "Is a strait line" he finished quickly, out loud this time.

"I see" said Travis slowly, "So they might be rushing off somewhere else"

Hoshi's face lit up, "Somewhere that just happens to be on the same line as Enterprise."

"If that's the case," said Malcolm thoughtfully, "We have no idea how they'll react when they do detect us."

The captain nodded, "we'll just have to wait and see."

Hoshi interjected, "we could hail them Sir," she said

Captain Archer bit his lip pensively. "Go ahead," he finally concluded.

They were nearing the end of the asteroid field and Iris was monitoring communications, a fairly boring and routine job since hardly anyone out here contacted them, but sine their sensors couldn't detect ships until they were well into comm. range, the captain insisted someone was always listening. As they neared the end of the field Iris breathed a sigh of relief, then caught herself and tapped the panel lightly three times.

It must have worked because Worev was able to guild the ship out of the asteroid field without incident. Once they were out the captain called a dead stop. Jaya was furiously bent over, checking his instruments and the chart. After about three minutes, Jaya straitened up slowly. He took a deep breath and said, "The new heading is 248 mark 3.16," careful to phrase this as a fact and not an order, since the captain was in a bad mood because of the asteroid field.

"Set the heading," said the captain, and Worev obeyed. "Speed warp 2.72" Worev was surprised at the speed increase, but knew better than to argue with the Captain. He was just about to engage the new course when Iris interjected.

" A ship is signaling us."

The captain barked "On screen." The small screen that had been added to the bridge crackled to life as Captain Archer's face appeared. Iris started. She had not seen another human for many years.

"I'm Captain Archer of the starship Enterprise. Can we be of any assistance?"

The Captain beckoned Iris over. The ship was not fitted with a universal translator so all he could hear was English, which he did not understand.

"What did he say?" He asked her roughly.

She thought for a moment. Her English was a little rusty, but she understood "He's asking if we need help."

The captain frowned. "Can you refuse without offending him?"

"I believe so." She replied.

He nodded and gestured toward the screen. She gingerly stepped in front of the captain and looked Captain archer in the eyes. She took a deep breath then began "Thank you for your generous offer. It is greatly appreciated, however we do not need any assistance at this time." She tried to look slightly puzzled to make her performance more convincing.

Archer seemed to buy it. He replied "Of course," and cut communication. Iris let out a relived sigh and went back to her station.

T'Pol, who had been watching the communication closely, stood up as soon as the connection was severed. "They are harboring a dangerous fugitive."

Captain Archer frowned. "How do you know that?"

"I saw him on their bridge," she replied. "He is wanted for treason by the high command."

The captain was speechless for several seconds. "Are you sure?"

T'Pol raised one eyebrow. "Quite."

The captain gulped, but managed to compose himself enough to say "Briefing in 10 minutes," before storming off the bridge.

Hoshi, Malcolm and Travis exchanged concerned glances while T'Pol showed her usual Vulcan restraint and began gathering information on K'Los from the Vulcan Database. Nobody spoke.

Ten minutes later Ensigns Sato and Maywheather, Lieutenant Reed and Commander Tucker were gathered around the conference table with the captain.

Before the briefing could begin in earnest the companel buzzed. The captain pushed the button and said, "Go ahead."

A young Ensign's voice crackled over the speaker, "The alien ship has gone to warp sir," she said nervously.

"Thank you Ensign" replied the captain tersely before turning off the companel. T'Pol had shown them all available data on K'Los. The captain then asked the already implied question of his senior officers "what do we do about him?"

Trip was the first to speak up " I think we should just let him go and do notin'. He's not our criminal, and it's not our place to infear."

T'Pol countered that. "If Starfleet and the High Command are truly allies, would we not be obligated to capture him?"

Hoshi interjected, "We are within comm. range of Vulcan. We could ask the High Command."

The captain dismissed the idea at once with his usual qualms about asking for help. "We can't just call up the Vulcans and ask them what to do every time we have a problem."

Travis had remained silent throughout the conversation but now he spoke up, "There's more than one issue at stake here. That Klingon captain looked pretty fierce. I doubt he'd just hand K'Loss over to us and we don't want to make an enemy of the empire."

"I doubt the ship is an imperial cruiser," said T'Pol calmly "it is extremely old and the empire is not in the habit of employing Vulcan, or human officers."

"It may not be a war bird," replied Travis slowly, "but if a Klingon ship attacked an ECS vessel, Starfleet would send ships to back them up."

"Even a Klingon cargo ship would most likely not have a human crew member." T'Pol replied coolly "This ship is likely a smuggling vessel."

Hoshi cleared her throat. Everyone turned to look at her. She was holding a PADD tightly in her left hand. "About that human crew member," she said, "I ran her face through our facial recognition data base, as you instructed," she hesitated.

"Go on." The captain encouraged, trying in vain to keep a tinge of impatience out of his voice.

Hoshi swallowed before continuing, "I got a match, but it doesn't make any sense." She held up the PADD so they could all see it. "According to the computer, the woman aboard the ship is Iris Johnson. Escaped 21st century prisoner."