It was a pleasant day on the starship Enterprise. Captain Jonathan Archer out walking around with his beagle, Porthos. He soon entered Engineering, ready to get a report from that section of the ship. He saw his best friend Command Charles 'Trip' Tucker working at a hatch over to one side of the warp reactor. He walked over to him, with Porthos follwoing behind.
"How are those plasma conduits coming Trip?" He called. Trip turned his head and wiped an arm acorss his forehead.
"They're fine Cap'n. It's only the EPS conduit that I'm havin' trouble getting' into. I can't understand why it won't open." Trip replied as he looked at the Captain.
"I'm sure you'll get them open soon. You always do." The two men laughed slightly.
"Here, Cap'n. Why don't you give it a try?"
"Ok Trip, you're on." Archer replied at he stretched his arm muscles and slightly rolled up his sleeves. He moved over the panel, but a suddenly shudder on the ship cause him to stop dead in his tracks. "What the hell was that?"
"I dunno. But it weren't me engine" Trip replied. Archer quickly moved over to a COMM panel. He pushed the white button and began to speak.
"Archer to the Bridge. What the hell is going on up there?"
"We are under attack by Nausicaans." T'Pol replied.
"I'm on my way." Archer replied, letting go of the button and quickly leaving engineering. As quickly as he had left engineering he entered the bridge. By now the firing had stopped. As soon as he was out of the turbolift T'Pol got out of his chair. Porthos knew where he had to go and so he moved off the bridge and waited outside the ready room."What the hell do want with us?"
"They say they have a human child on board and will return her only if we give them what they want." She replied as she took her seat at the science station.
"What is it that they want?"
"They didn't specify. They cut communications before I had the chance to enquire."
"Charming of them." Archer said as he looked around the bridge at the expression on his officer's faces. He then turned back to T'Pol. "Is it true what they're saying? That they have a human onboard?"
T'Pol checked her scanners. "Yes. But the signal is fairly weak. I would guess that that the person is not well and possibly injured."
"Hail them." Archer said turning to Hoshi. She nodded and worked at her station. After a few seconds the face of a Nausicaan appeared on the screen on the bridge.
"Hello Human. I am Captain Rewdon."
"What is it you want so badly?"
"We need medical supplies."
"Then why did you attack my ship? And why may I ask?" Archer asked a little annoyed at the Nausicaansway of trying to get things.
"No, you can't. Just get us the supplies and we may not kill the human or destroy your ship." Rewdon replied through clenched teeth.
"I'll see what I can do for you. But at least show the child so we know they're ok."
"Get us the supplies now human!" And the screen went blank and then showed the stars, and the Nausicaan ship that was in front of them. Archer moved over to his chair and pushed the COMM button.
"Archer to sickbay."
"Phlox here captain." Came the familiar voice of the Denobulan doctor. "What can I do for?"
"How much of medical equipment can we spare?"
"About a quarter of what we have. May I ask why?" Phlox asked.
"Nausicaans want them. Get them ready and get them down to the transporter." He let go of the button and moved over to Hoshi. "Hail them again." Hoshi nodded her head in acknowledgement and soon Rewdon appeared on the screen again.
"You have what we want?" He asked.
"Yes but first I want you to show the child!"
"Transport the supplies to our ship and we will give you our prisoner."
"They'll be with you in a few minutes." Archer replied angrily. Once again the Nausicaans cut communications and the screen returned to what it was before. Archer nodded at Hoshi and she left the bridge.He thenmoved over to the ready room to let Porthos in.
On the Nausicaan ship two officers moved along a corridor and opened the door to a cell. Huddled in one corner was a young girl, her hands cruelly tied up. Her skin was pale her and her dark hair covered up most of her face, hiding her fear. The two Nausicaans moved over to her and grabbed her arms.
"Please, leave me alone." She said, but they didn't listen to her and they just dragged her out. They took her along corridors and soon they came to the transporter. They pushed her onto it and soon she dematerialised. A few seconds later and the medical supplies appeared.
As soon as the young girl appeared on the transporter pad on Enterprise, she collapsed on the floor, but was still conscious. Hoshi and Phlox quickly moved over to her. Phlox took out a scanner and began to scan her while Hoshi untied the ropes around the girl's wrists.
"She's fairly malnutritioned and she's very weak. We need to get her to sickbay." Phlox said looking at the results on his medical scanner. He then put his scanner away and moved an arm closer to the girl's arm ready so he could help her up, but he didn't want to touch her just yet, not until she allowed them to help her.
"It's all right. We're not going to hurt you." Hoshi said noticing the fear on the girl's face. The young girl looked at Hoshi and with a slight nod of her head she allowed both Hoshi and Phlox to help her stand and they led her off to sickbay where he was able to do scans and she how she was.
They sat her on a bio bed where she stayed silent, holding her hands in her laps. It was slightly noticeable that she was shivering, mainly from fear. They had no idea how long she had been prisoner on the Nausicaan ship, however, in consideration that the shivering may also be due to the fact she was cold, Hoshi got a blanket out from a drawer near the bed and gently placed it around the girl's shoulders. She didn't even seem to notice what the COMM officer was doing.
A couple of minutes later and Archer entered sickbay. He moved over to the table where Phlox was standing, hardly taking his eyes off the young girl on his ship.
"How is she Doc?" He asked. Phlox turned his head upon hearing the Captain's voice. Hoshi did the same and decided to move over to him.
"She's very malnutritioned. I would guess the food they gave her, if any, wasn't suitable to her digestive track."
"How bad is it?"
"I would say she hasn't eaten for … 5 days at least. But I would guess that she has had water… the Nausicaans haven't seemed that hard on her."
"Do you know anything about her?"
"I'm afraid not only that she's human… about 18 years old. She just won't talk. I expect the experience she had has affected her pretty badly." Phlox replied as he looked at the young girl. She seemed to have finally realised that a blanket was around her and she was holding it tightly around her neck to keep her warm. Hoshi could see sadness in the Captain's eyes as he looked at her. Her face bruised and cut.
"When she was beamed on board her hands were pretty cruelly tied up." Hoshi added. Captain Archer took a little sigh a moved over to the young girl. Her eyes were firmly fixed on the floor. Archer bent down so that the girl could at least have a bit of vision of the person who was speaking to her.
"Hello." He said. Her eyes didn't move. He looked at her hands and saw that slowly her wrists were being massaged, to allow the blood flow back through from the tight binds of the rope. The impression of the rope was still visible on the reddened skin. "I'm Jonathan Archer." Her eyes then slowly moved up to meet his. "What's yours?" But he got no reply. She just sat there looking at him. Archer stood up and moved away. He then moved over to a COMM panel. Hoshi and Phlox followed curious about the captain's movements and motives. "Archer to Commander Tucker."
"Go ahead Cap'n." Came the chief engineer's voice after a couple of seconds.
Seeing her chance the young girl slid the blanket off her shoulders and very quietly she left sickbay without any of the three people in sickbay noticing that she had left.
"I need you down in sickbay. I want you to try and communicate with a passenger we have here."
"I'm on my way."
The three of them turned back round to the biobed where the girl had been, but all they found was a blanket.
"This is not good." Hoshi said as she looked around seeing if she had crawled into a corner and was hidden. But there was no sign of her.