Chapter 4
Stepping forward slowly, Jacobs was almost at a door when the lights lit up, indicating power had been restored to the ship. She turned to look at the MACOs, but could only watch in surprise as they were beamed away, leaving her to stand alone along the corridor. This was not good. Whipping out her scanner she checked the surrounding area for anyone nearby, noting that the shields were back up. The Ensign was now stranded on the enemy vessel. Seconds later she could hear footsteps and had to quickly find a hiding spot, locating a loose panel that she could hide behind. It was a tight squeeze, but she managed it. She held her breath to reduce any noise that would certainly echo through the metal crawl space. The air was heavy with the tension as she waited and waited.
"Their shields are back up!"
"Transporter, did you get everyone?"
"Just the MACOs." The voice replied. "I lost Ensign Jacobs' signal."
T'Pol was about to return to her seat when there was a violent an sudden jolt that nearly knocked everyone over and off their seats. Fires were quick to errupt, but the crew were just as quick to react, grabbing the fire extinguishers and putting them out. The bridge crew could only watch on the view screen as the Janen vessel jumped to warp. "Pursuit course."
Travis shook his head. "Engines are down. We're not going anywhere any time soon." The weapon that had been fired at them had damaged various other systems as well. They were dead in the water.
The Vulcan stood up straight turned away then glanced at Williams. "Get me a damage report." And with that she left the bridge, heading down to sickbay. Not the best of rescues. Instead of getting their crewmen back, a forth one had been captured, and she dreaded to think what they were going to do with Jacobs.
She walked into sickbay and over to where the Denobulan Doctor was treating several patients, most with superficial cuts and burns from the last hit, and Woods who lay on a bio bed, Danning standing nearby giving a little bit of assistance to the busy Phlox. "Doctor?"
Phlox looked up for a brief moment then returned his attention to the wounded MACO "We're doing everything we can, but that last shot knocked out the imagining chamber. I can't treat him as well as I usually can." The man explained, injecting something into the side of the unconscious man's neck.
"Where's Ensign Jacobs?" Danning queried, being certain she woud have checked in right away, as Palmer had already been to see his colleague, he knew Evelyn would want to know how he was.
Despite not showing it too much on her face, her voice was certainly grim. "Still on board the Janen vessel."
The crewman stared at her for a moment or two, taking the news a little hard to believe. Jacobs was usually better than that. He sighed a little bit, surely there was a perfectly good reason she wasn't back on Enterprise.
There was a moments pause before the doors to sickbay opened again and Williams walked fowrward, making his way round the crowded room to T'Pol. "Commander, the damage report you asked for. " He held the data pad out for her and she took it with a very slight nod, her eyes scanning what the Ensign had compiled for her. No fatalities, and nothing too severe in the way of how repairs would be carried out. The main thing that caught her eye though was the engine repaires. Estimated time till warp would be restored would be five hours. Five hours for them to have to sit there. Five hours for the kidnappers to get closer to Klingon space.
"Thank you, Ensign." She said as she handed the pad back to him and left without saying another word. The three men glanced at each other with knowing looks. The Vulcan deeply cared for the crew, in particular Jonathan and Trip; that much had been obvious since their voyage into the Delphic Expanse three years ago.
"I'd better get back to the bridge." Williams sighed and left himself, leaving Danning and Phlox to continue treating the injured crew.
Using the scanner to find her way around the vessel, Eveyn Jacobs had made it up to a small area near the top of the ship. If she had to compare it with something on Enterprise, the first thing she would think of would be the catwalk; the maintenance shafts that ran the length of each nacelle. She was pretty certain that no one would find her up here, not until they repaired internal sensors and were alerted to her presence, but for now she had somewhere safe to sit and think on her predicament. She was now alone on an alien vessel heading for Klingon space with three senior officers about to be handed over to them, and no way of knowing where Enterprise was. So, what could she do?
Option one; she could just sit where she was and hope for the best that Enterprise would get to them, she just wasn't a patient person, and that option would alomost certainly end with her gettign caught and being sent to Rura Penthe with the others. The thought of the prison colony sent a shiver down her spine.
Option two; a slightly riskier choice than the first would be to release Archer, Tucker and Reed and try to take control. The odds of that being sucessful were low as she only had two phase pistols and she knew that there were at least twenty six Janen on board, possibly more. They would be severely overwhelmed, not to mention outnumbered in both man power and fire power, and probably wouldn't even make it to a turbolift. She would probably then lose her promotion for recklessly endangering Archer's life, if Enterprise ever rescued them.
Option three; Evelyn could try and disable the ship from the inside, sneak around and sabotage the engines. She wasn't an engineer, but she was pretty certain she would be able to do it. If it went wrong then it would only be herself in danger as the others would still be in their cells an wouldn't have a clue as to what was going on. Again it was still risky, but not as much as her second thought.
She sighed heavily as she sat down, leaning her back against the wall, weighing up her options carefully. "What would you do, Malcolm?" She asked, speaking to herself. "If T'Pol had told you 'by any means necessary', what would you do in my place?" She sighed again, running a hand down her face. Picking up the scanner she began to review the ship's schematics, familiarising herself with the nearby corridors, rooms and crawl spaces. She could also see where various people were, luckily no on seemed at all interested in coming up to where she was.
Evelyn wasn't sure just how long she sat, it could have been minutes, or a couple of hours, but eventually she decided enough was enough. She had to do something, there was every possibility that internal sensors would be back online any minute and then she'd be discovered. She'd be a sitting duck just waiting for something to happen.
Getting up, she checked the scanner for the surroundings and carefully made her way back down to where the cells were.
The coast was clear.
She moved to the first door she came to and, using her eyes to check both ways down the corridor she pressed the buttons and the door slip open with a slight hiss.
"Ensign!" Malcolm exclaimed, rushing to the door when he saw her standing there, a smile coming to his face. "What are doing here?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "Well, the plan was to rescue the three of you, but I'm afraid I've had to try and come up with a plan B." She began to explain, staying at the door so that it wouldn't close and trap her in the cell with Malcolm. "Cause when does plan A ever work? But I'm afraid I'm the only one left. The MACOs got transported back to Enterprise."
The tactical officer glanced at her hips briefly then looked back at her face. "I see you've come armed, ready for a battle."
"One was meant to be for you, but that might not be such a good idea any more."
The man nodded his head in agreement, placing a hand on her shoulder. "So what is the plan now?"
"I'm not entirely sure." She replied, her eyes constantly glancing down to the scanner in her hand and looking along the corridors. Nothing yet. "I've been asking myself what would you do?"
"And what have I come up with?"
She shook her head. "A plan, but it's a little risky." Malcolm laughed a little bit, knowing the Ensign all too well, she was known for her risky thoughts, but then again, so was he.
The brow of Prell furrowed as he glanced to the console in front of him where a red light was blinking on and off. The bridge of the Janen vessel was smaller than that of Enterprise, all consoles faced the centre where Auran had his commander chair, a revolving seat so he could turn to look at whoever spoke with ease. "Commander! Take a look at this."
Auran strode over and peered at the light. "That's the silent alarm for the cells. Get down there, now!"
"Yes sir!" Prell nodded and, pointing to two crewmen, dashed off the bridge, grabbing weapons as they left.
Malcolm sighed slightly and folded his arms over his chest. "Well, whatever you do decide, I'm sure it'll be the right choice."
Evelyn nodded slightly before she noted on her scanner three bio signs moving quickly in her direction. "Uh oh! Gotta go."
"Stay safe!" He called out as she closed the door and darted down the corridor, "And give them hell, Evelyn." He grinned to himself, gaining a little bit of hope. There was no one better to have to cause the kidnappers a whole lot of bother.
The three of the Janen officers arrived at the corridor just seconds after Evelyn hid round the corner. They slowly and cautiously moved down. Each door was still closed, securely locked.
"Check them!" He pointed, but each of them found that their prisoners were still in their cells, just where they should be. Without saying anything to their confused prionsers they left, slightly puzzled by the indication of a wrong code being entered, but one that still allowed the door to be opened. "There must be some sort of malfunction." He reported as he returned to his post."
Auran watched him. "They're still there?"
Prell nodded. "All three of them, exactly where we left them." He replied, pressing buttons. "I've got the computer running diagnostics now." There were a few moments of silence as the ship's computer ran through the diagnostic analysis before beeping loudly at Prell. The man sighed, bemused by the results.
"Well?" Auran queried.
"All systems appear to be normal."
"Run them again. Something caused the alarm to go off."
Once Prell and his friends had gone, Evelyn returned to her hiding spot. Well, at least now if something did go wrong she'd be able to say she had permission from Reed to do anything she wanted, within reason. She spent a few minutes studying the layout of the ship and memorising where things were. It the plan she had come up with wasgoing to work she needed to know every inch, nook and cranny, ins and outs better than the crew.
Four hours since their failed rescue plan and Liieutenant Hess made her way to the ready room, pressed the chime and waited.
"Come in."
Hess entered, a data pad in her hands. "Commander." She addressed the Vulcan. "Repairs update." T'Pol took it without looking at the engineer and began reading through. "And Commander Kelby says the engines will be back online in about five minutes."
For the first time T'Pol actually raised her head to look directly at the Lieutenant. That was good news indeed. "Commander Kelby has done well."
Hess nodded. "He said he isn't happy that they should be pushed to ohard, but he is willing to do so if the needs call for it."
Commander T'Pol passed the pad back to her. "Inform Ensign Mayweather as soon as possible to go to warp five, and ask Ensign Sato to contact Columbia. I have a feeling we will need their help."
"Yes Commander. Right away." Hess took the padd and left the ready room, heading to the bridge to carry out the orders she had been given before returning to engineering and helping with the last few bits of repairs that fell under her expertise.
T'Pol stood sat the window, her arms by her side as she thought on everything. The engines had been through hell before and survived, but of course that was with Trip looking after them, and he wasn't here right now. But she had every confidence in Commander Kelby's abiities. Of course her mind kept wandering to the fates of the four of them if theyfailed to catch up. Captain Archer's was pretty obvious, but what of the other three? They had done nothing to upset the Klingons, so it was hard to say what would happen to them.
Within minutes, just like the engineers had promised, Enterprise jumped to warp, the stars whizzing passed the window. Finally they were getting somewhere again, and at warp five they were very likely to catch up.