They had been sent to a remote sector of space to do some exploration. Something other then coddle fractious Klingons or moody Andorians. He was thrilled to be back at what he was good at. Coming upon another sentient species so soon was just the icing on the proverbial cake. First contact with them had gone well although he had to admit they were the strangest life forms he had met thus far, even including the aquatic Xindi. They called themselves the Binare and Starfleet was anxious to form an alliance with them. They were walking computers in people suits.

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Hoshi had been over the Binare's customs and laws. She had advised Captain Archer that sending only pairs of people down would be prudent. The Binares were linked to each other in pairs and any other arrangement would be difficult for them to mentally process. They didn't want to upset them needlessly when Starfleet had hopes of gaining so much from them. Their technology was so advanced and they were so willing to share. All the Binares wanted from Starfleet was muscle. After advancing so much as a society and a species there was nothing left in them to protect themselves with.

Captain Archer had chosen himself paired with Hoshi and Commander Tucker paired with Sub Commander T'Pol. Hoshi could help him translate and interpret their society and T'Pol could help Trip with the engineering and science end. Enterprise would get a complete retrofit from the Binares with Trip and T'Pol overseeing while he would be busy negotiating a protection agreement.

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They were all tired at the end of the first day. Both Trip and T'Pol had had difficulties keeping up mentally with what the Binares had proposed for the retrofit. Captain Archer and Hoshi had been dealing with a very alien culture all day. Nothing was simple about them. Not even their language of only zeros and ones. They were paired off at birth and connected mentally to each other via computer parts shortly thereafter. They used the few years between birth and three to add all the artificial parts needed to connect not only the pair to each other but to the society as a whole. They were one big collective. It was kind of creepy and Archer and Hoshi were having a hard time keeping their reactions to themselves.

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Hoshi and a Binare pair Trip had dubbed "Squeaky" had set up the UTs to translate from binary code to English. The UT had produced a high-set falsetto voice for this pair. Fortunately the pair that was doing the negotiations had been given a much lower pitched voice. "Vader" was an older pair and seemed much less excitable then Squeaky was. Vader was busy leading them off into the depths of their main government complex showing them where they could take their "down time". Apparently, the Binares didn't sleep so much as shut down periodically so that their organic parts could rest and rejuvenate. Once again, they were sort of creepy.

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"Here are your chambers. There are two rest chambers sharing a central… what is your word… elimination? Refreshment? No, Refresher chamber… for your convenience. You have only to call for organic sustenance upon the end of your down time cycle and it will be brought to you here. Then we will resume our work." Without another word the small binare pair wheeled around in perfect step together and left. "Well, let's see where we're sleeping" said Captain Archer as he led them in through the open door.

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The arrangements only added to the strangeness of an already strange species. Two rest chambers were outfitted with one slightly padded slab for a bed. Something that resembled a super long pillow and one blanket were obviously added later as an afterthought for their more "organic" bodies. Hoshi remarked that the Binares really thought of themselves as walking computers. They had almost no thoughts of their organic shells. "The pairs even sleep together. This should prove to be amusing." He heard Hoshi mutter to herself.

Coming to a decision in his mind Archer walked over to Trip and T'Pol who were in the refresher examining the facilities. He knew that they still carried on a rather discreet relationship and he was glad for them that they had worked through the death of Elizabeth in addition to all their other problems. Convincing them to take this opportunity for some much-needed privacy away from the rest of the crew wasn't as hard as he had expected. Trip was flat out grateful and T'Pol had put up a token argument but her logic wasn't overly sound so he overruled her anyways. He didn't think Hoshi would mind sharing a room since she too was aware of Trip and T'Pol's relationship. She wouldn't begrudge them this time away from prying eyes. Besides, they had known each other since she was 16. He was more like an older brother to her then a captain.

"I've given them the other room," he said as he came back into the rest chamber. Hoshi looked up with mild surprise. She had been examining the sparse room. Smiling, she said, "I understand, I'll take the floor, sir." And with that she pulled her jacket off the hook it was on and grabbed her duffle bag for a pillow. Taking the jacket and duffle from her he replied, "No, it's my call, I'll take the floor." Adding in a teasing tone "You're too delicate to sleep on the floor" Grinning at her annoyed expression "Besides, my father would've smacked me in the head if he found out I wasn't a gentleman." Hearing a soft 'whatever' as Hoshi turned and grabbed the pillow "Here, at least take the pillow" he suppressed a chuckle but couldn't quite get the smirk off of his face. It was Hoshi that started to laugh as she threw the pillow and hit him in the face with it. Picking it up off the floor he chuckled as she went into the refresher to change.

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Several hours later he was still awake as he lay there on the floor. The floor was just as hard as it looked and he wasn't getting any younger. Hoshi lay quietly on the "bed" after tossing and turning for a while. Apparently, the beds weren't overly comfortable either. And it was cold. The Binares favored a cold environment and once he had stopped moving, his body had cooled down considerably. Quite frankly, he was miserable! A small sigh escaped him.

"You know, you could just come up here and share the bed. You really should get a better night's sleep then what you're getting on the floor."

He sat up looking at Hoshi. "Are you sure, because I can tough it out down here."

"Yes, I'm sure. I wouldn't have offered otherwise. Besides, you need to sleep. You're the one doing all the negotiating. I can always fall back on the UT for help. I wouldn't want you to fall apart at the seams, old man!"

"Old Man! Thanks Hoshi, you really know how to hurt a guy." He replied ruefully as he grabbed the pillow and tossed it to the bed. Getting up he groaned softly causing Hoshi to softly laugh all the more. Climbing into bed he settled down on his side with his back to her. Hoshi had finally stopped giggling, had rolled to her side, and was starting to breath deeply as she murmured a faint "goodnight".

She awoke slowly, her body aching from the hard bed. It wasn't quite dawn yet, she still had time to fall back asleep. At least she was warm. The end of her nose was cold but she had the blanket pulled up snug under her chin. It was only then that she realized that all the warmth wasn't due to the blanket. It was coming from Jon lying against her back, spooning her with his arm thrown over her. She stopped breathing momentarily, afraid to move. While on the one hand it was strange to be lying in bed with her captain, she had known Jon for more years then she cared to remember. But then again he was her captain and he had never shown her anything other then friendship. However, it was cold and he did unconsciously what everybody does in sleep, look for warmth. And it wasn't unpleasant being held. In fact, it had been a very long time since anyone had held her like this and she rather liked it. Deciding her best course of action was just to go back to sleep that is exactly what she did, with a small content smile on her face.