Chapter 2

For three hours the Janen crew wined and dined with those of the Enterprise crew, moving into the Captain's Mess when it was time to get the dinners out. As Auran finished his third glass of wine and put his drinking vessel down on the oval table, he could hear a feint beeping sound coming from his left chest pocket in his robes. "Excuse me for a moment, Captain."

Archer nodded his head. "Of course."

Auran reached into his pocket and pulled out the little bronze coloured device. It was round and palmed sized, domed in the middle. A bright blue light lit up in the middle as he pressed a button on the side and began to speak. "This is Auran." He turned away from the rest of the group so as to give himself a little bit of privacy in the conversation.

"Sorry to interrupt you, Captain." A male voice sounded over the comm link. "But Governor Chaneth is on a subspace frequency for you."

The Janen Captain sighed a little bit. "Did he say what it was about?"

"Not directly, but he did mention something about the last data transmission, that there seems to be a slight problem with it."

Auran gave a slightly heavier sigh this time. He was having such a good time with the Human crew, he didn't want to have to speak with anyone else. "Very well, I shall return shortly."

"Yes sir, I'll let the Governor know."

The little blue light went out and he put the device back where it came from before turning to look at the others. "I'm sorry, Captain Archer, but I'm afraid I must return to my ship."

Being in such a small room meant that everyone had heard the conversation and knew what was going on. Archer set his half full glass down on the table, slightly disappointed that their time with the Janens was being cut short. "Maybe you'll come back later on? There's still lots more to know about this magnificent blue giant." He said, pointing out the window slightly.

Auran nodded with a small smile. "Maybe you would visit our ship next time? It's not as impressive as Enterprise, but she certainly does have her qualities. And seeing as how you have given us such hospitality, it would be wrong not to return the offer."

A smile returned to Jonathan's face. "That sounds like a wonderful plan." He turned to his Vulcan science officer. "T'Pol, would you please check in on the bridge?"

"Certainly." She turned to the Janens. "Gentlemen, Ma'am." And with that she left the room, her hands clasped behind her back as she waited for the doors to open, then disappeared out to the main mess hall, the doors swooshing closed behind her.

Captain Archer returned his attention to the others. "Shall we?" He gestured to the door and very soon they were walking back along the corridor the short distance to the docking port.

Trip stepped forward and began pressing the buttons to release the door. There was a 'hiss' as the air pressure was equalised and the light turned green, allowing Commander Tucker to open the door.

"We shall speak later, Captain." He held out a hand to the Human and shook Archer's hand firmly. He sure did have a good grip. They waited for the rest of the Janens to step through the doorway before releasing the hand shake.

"I look forward to it."

Captain Auran smiled warmly, and after just a few seconds the smile disappeared and he suddenly grabbed Jonathan's uniform, pulling him harshly forward and through the door to his waiting crew who grabbed him roughly.

"Cap'n!" Trip cried out and together both engineer and tactical officer raced through after them, just as the air lock door closed. A fist fight quickly ensued as they tried to get to their Captain, but the three Starfleet officers were seriously outnumbered.

"I wouldn't try that, Captain!" Auran warned as he pulled out a weapon from his clothes, Prell and Forissa did the same, pointing theirs at Trip and Malcolm.

The three of them stopped fighting upon seeing the weapons and stood still, turning their attention to Auran. "What the hell is this all about!?" Archer was more than angry, he was furious. The Janens stepped forward and grabbed the Lieutenant and Commander, pushing them onto their ship, roughly. Forissa remained, keeping her weapon trained on the human Captain.

Auran shrugged his shoulders slightly, as if this was nothing special, as if this was what he usually did: kidnapping others. "You have a score to settle with some old friends."

"Release Tucker and Reed!" He demanded, raising his voice at their captors.

Auran shook his head. "Sorry, Captain, but we are on a tight schedule." He moved to the control panel and once Forissa and Archer were on board he ensured the door was securely locked before returning to his ship.

Their communicators and other devices were removed from their pockets and stored away somewhere else before they were escorted to the cell. Looks of worry on their faces went between them as the ship shuddered slightly, indicating to them that the Janen's ship had undocked and would be soon jumping into warp. Sure enough, the ship shuddered some more and the sound of engines firing up could be heard.

Trip turned to look at Jonathan, his arms outstretched. "What the hell is goin' on, cap'n?"

Jonathan walked passed him, pacing back and forth across the cell in a frustrated manner. "I can't be certain, but I think they're looking to collect some sort of reward for my capture."

"Bounty hunters?"

The captain nodded his head still pacing. "That's my guess."

Reed crossed his arms over his chest, a favoured stance of his. "There's two species that we know of that's after you. The Klingons and the Orions."

Trip's eyes watched the Captain. "Could easily be either of them."

Archer was not a happy captain. He walked to one end of the cell, turned and then walked to the other end. Auran had deceived them all. All that talk of friendship and good relations, it had all been one huge lie.

"En'erprise will know something is wrong soon enough. They'll follow, if they're not already chasing down this ship."

A nod was all Trip got from the Captain, he didn't want to speak for fear at snapping at the two of them when none of it had been their fault. Well, he supposed he could blame Malcolm for not bringing any weapons along with him, but the Janens had seemed so nice, there didn't seem to be any need for the phase pistols. The whole situation made his mind wander back to Skalaar… maybe… no, there were many more on this ship, he didn't think he'd be able to turn of them like he had the Tellerite.

"Commander, the Janen vessel has suddenly jumped to warp." Travis Mayweather reported, sitting at his helm, beeps sounded as his instruments told him what was going on.

T'Pol sat forward on Jonathan's chair slightly then manoeuvred to one side and pressed the comm button on the left arm of the furniture. "T'Pol to Captain Archer. Our guests have just left, is everything all right?" Silence. Hoshi and Travis glanced at each other with worried looks. It wasn't like the Captain to not respond. "T'Pol to Captain Archer, please respond." Still silence. Her head looked at the tactical station where Ensign Evelyn Jacobs sat.

"I haven't detected any weapons fire." The security officer replied, shaking her head after checking the sensor logs for the last minute or so. Very little to report at all. The only female Briton on board, with shoulder length brown wavy hair, a fringe and blue eyes, had finally gotten the promotion she wanted, but it had been a long a difficult road to get there.

"Where are they?"

Evelyn stood up and moved round to the science station, bot bothered to sit as she worked on the console in front of her. He face became a picture of worry. "Uh oh."

"What do you mean 'uh oh'?" Hoshi queried, watching the Ensign carefully.

"According to these readings, he's no longer on board. Neither are Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Reed!"

The Vulcan rose to her feet immediately. "Ensign Mayweather, are the Janen's still on long range sensors?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Pursuit course, maximum warp." Her head turned as she gave an order to Jacobs. "Go to Tactical Alert!" Evelyn gave one nod and returned to her usual station. Pressing a red button, the lights dimmed slightly on the bridge and red lights lit up. The weapons were now ready and fully charged. "Time to intercept?"

"If they stay at their present speed?" Travis pressed a few buttons and waited for his console to make the necessary calculations. "Eight minutes."

Jacobs raised her eyes to watch as T'Pol returned to the command chair. The Vulcan's eyes scanned the bridge and noticed that Jacobs was looking at her. "Is there a problem, Ensign?"

"Yes, Commander." She nodded. "Why would the Janens kidnap them? We didn't do anything to offend them, did we?"

T'Pol shook her head. "Not to my knowledge." She stood up and started to slowly pace around the bridge. "Hopefully their intentions will be made clear when we catch up with them." She stopped for a moment, Ensign Mayweather, can you determine where they are headed?"

Travis could only nod slowly, a grim feature on his face. "Yeah, but you're not gonna like it. Their trajectory indicates that they're heading right into Klingon space."

As her mind began to formulate a rescue plan, the Vulcan lowered herself back into the command chair, slowly. This was not good news at all surely what Archer had done for the Klingons with helping to get the cure for the mutagenic virus was enough to stop them hunting the Captain down, unless there was a small rogue faction that were part of Duras' lot and still seeking revenge for Duras' demotion and death. That seemed pretty logical, a possibility a member of the Duras family seeking to regain honour to the family name.

The same sinking feeling was now running though the veins of everyone on the bridge. Captain Archer's life was in jeopardy, but what about Reed and Tucker? What would they do to them?

"Ensign Jacobs. How prepared are they security teams?"

"They're always prepared, Commander. As are the MACOs."

"Will they follow your orders?"

"Just as if they were Lieutenant Reed's, Ma'am." Jacobs nodded, confirming the Vulcan's first though. This fact also solidified the Captain's decision of a promotion, but she had had to work extremely hard for it after the Romulan asteroid outpost. The little stunt she had pulled there had been a bit of a step back, but it had finally worked. No more arguments, no more fighting with Lieutenant Reed, the two of them seemed to get along a lot better now.

"Get together a boarding team."

"Yes ma'am." Evelyn nodded and headed into the turbo lift to head for the armoury. A male Ensign quickly took her place at the tactical station.

T'Pol sat back down in the commander chair, her brown eyes fixated on the view screen in front of her. Just like any other Starfleet officer, she was determined to retrieve Archer, Tucker and Reed.

Ensign Jacobs strode into the armoury and directly over to one of the MACOs. "Corporal MacKenzie!" She addressed the female MACOs commander "I need you to get together a boarding party. Four should do it."

MacKenzie watched the features of the Ensign as she gave out instructions. "Has something gone wrong"

Jacobs nodded her head "I'll say. The Janens have kidnapped the Captain, Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Reed, we're going to get them back."

"I'll send my four best personnel."

"That'd be your whole team, Corporal!" Evelyn smiled as she headed for a weapon's locker, joking a little bit with the other woman, knowing that MacKenzie would find humour in her comment "Have them meet me by the transporter in five minutes." Grabbing a couple of holsters and two phase pistols she left the room, attacking the equipment to her waist as she left. She knew Malcolm would be glad of a weapon during the rescue mission. Various tactics began running through her mind as all her training was going to be put to the test. This would be her first big rescue command, and so she needed to be prepared for anything the Janens would throw at them.

Sure the crew had simulated rescue missions as part of her testing for a promotion, and as simple training ready for the probability that something like this would happen, but they weren't the same. No one was ever in any real danger, the power cells were removed from the pistols and little reed laser lights were placed on them instead to indicated when someone was 'shot', but no one was ever really shot.

She reached the transporter before any of the MACOs but she knew they would be along any minute. Another crewman from the security department soon arrived, someone whom Jacobs could rely on, along with a science officer, ready to activate the transporter controls.

"Bridge to Ensign Jacobs." T'Pol's voice sounded over the comm system.

Adjusting the holster slightly so it sat comfortably on her waist, Jacobs moved to the panel and answered. "Jacobs here."

"We will be within weapons range in just under two minutes. As soon as their engines are down beam over and retrieve our crew by any means necessary."

Evelyn turned her head as she heard footsteps approaching and was glad to see all four MACOs with their combat vests on and carrying their rifles. She noted who MacKenzie had sent; Woods, Cole, Ramirez and Palmer. "Understood, Commander. We're ready down here."

It was clear on everyone's faces that they were thinking and feeling the same things; rescue their fellow crewmates, alive, stay alive and then get back to exploring and hope no one else tries to do the same thing for a while.