000 Disclaimer is that I don't own anything, not even Denny or Charlie as they are the results of characters who are owned by someone :P Ok, Jay Richards is a random character who appears in a couple of my other stories just so ya know. Anyway, sorry for the severe lack of updating, school has reared its ugly head and piled on coursework by the bucket load and unfortunately sheer force of will can't make 3 pieces of English coursework, 1 maths project, three music performances and coursework, and a French speaking test disappear. So sorry! Enough of my self pitying whine, on with the story! 000

Silence fell between them, Denny hated it, she hated silence between two people and this was not one of those comfortable silences. So she did the only thing she could think of, she pulled the pad from her pocket and started to read it.

"Anything useful?"

"I can read fast but not that fast," Denny commented shooting him a quick grin. "He waffles on for a bit about the importance of our mission then has handily enough included a list of possible places where an explosive device could be place on board that is near sensitive areas of the ship………………this could be helpful."

"What?"

"Something about the people we're dealing with," Denny replied, she slid off the bed and showed him the pad. "Looks like they're fans of projectile weapons."

"Projectile weapons? But surely our phasers are more advanced than that?" Charlie asked quickly scanning down the text. "Maybe not, these things aren't your average gun."

"I know," said Denny frowning. "They were designed to kill and to cause severe pain on contact, a stun from a phaser will hurt but projectiles will keep on hurting till they're pulled out." She paused thoughtfully. "Unless it rips straight through you."

"These are barbaric," Charlie muttered. "Daniels people haven't even determined what material the bullets are made from but apparently it ain't pretty if you get hit. See he even underlined it-twice-and wrote it in bold: DO NOT GET HIT."

Denny rolled her eyes and stared over his shoulder at the pad.

"It's just not strategically sound," she muttered. "It'd take time to reload the things, sure it'd hurt the enemy but the time they must waste just on reloading. For such an advanced race it just seems so unlikely they'd make a mistake like that."

"Maybe they aren't making a mistake," Charlie suggested. "Maybe they're just sadists."

Denny opened her mouth to say something then stopped.

"What?"

She remained silent for a few seconds before answering. "Well when we first arrived Enterprise's internal sensors picked us up. So if there's a saboteur here then shouldn't the sensors have picked something up?"

Charlie frowned. "Are you saying there is no saboteur?"

"No. What I'm saying is the saboteur has help. We might not be looking for an alien but a member of the crew."

0000

Denny walked slowly, the ship was fairly deserted and there was no one around asking awkward questions. It was nearly midnight however, so she'd determined that most normal people would be asleep unless they were working the night shift. Charlie was asleep, he'd started snoring his head off about an hour ago, but Denny couldn't sleep.

She couldn't stop thinking about how the saboteur had gotten in. Surely internal sensors would've picked them up? Her father would have kittens if he heard that someone had foxed the sensors.

She paused and a thought came to her. What if the saboteur wasn't someone from the future but someone actually on the ship? That would account for them not being picked up on sensors, but it made no sense.

"Why would someone destroy a ship they're on?" she mumbled to herself.

"You know talking to yourself is the first sign of madness."

Denny whipped round and came face to face with one of the crew.

"Jay Richards," she said surprised.

Jay smiled. "Seems you have me at a disadvantage."

"Lieutenant Philips," said Denny curtly. "You're up late Richards."

"I'm a regular night owl," Jay replied grinning. "So you're from the future then, the person that's got the ships grapevine singing."

Denny sighed. "I have a mission to complete-without interruptions from the rest of the crew."

Jay laughed. "You sound so optimistic."

Denny frowned.

"No one will get in your way," said Jay. "But you can't guarantee that people won't talk, and talk is dangerous."

Jay gave her a friendly smile.

"Night Lieutenant."

Denny nodded to her and leant back against the wall, watching as Jay stepped into the turbo-lift and disappeared.

"Denny?"

Denny nearly leapt out her skin and looked around wildly for a moment before realising it was her communicator.

"What's up Charlie?"

"Just wonderin' where ya got to. I thought I'd test these out."

"I just went for a wander. I thought you were asleep."

"I was. Now I'm awake, aren't you tired yet?"

"Yeah, I'll be back in a while, you might as well go back to sleep."

"Alright."

Denny tapped her comm. again to switch it off and carried on walking. Not to any particular destination, she just felt the need to keep walking. Walking and thinking.

"What am I doing?" she wondered aloud.

With that she turned and went straight back to her quarters.

0000

Denny awoke suddenly, the room was dark and she could hear Charlie's rhythmical breathing. She cursed softly, wondering what had woken her. She had always been a light sleeper, waking at the slightest sound; she blamed it on genetics having inherited her mother's excellent sense of hearing.

Denny heard Charlie sigh loudly and shift in his sleep. She too rolled over and squinted into the darkness. Nothing was moving. Everything seemed to be in its place.

Denny yawned and relaxed slightly. Charlie had probably knocked the wall or something in his sleep. He was breathing heavily and from what she remembered nothing short of a nuclear explosion would wake him till the alarm went off.

Just as Denny was about to drift off there came the unmistakable sound of the door quickly opening and closing. Denny sat up cautiously and glanced around listening intently. All she could hear was Charlie breathing and the gentle hum of the engines. Silently she slipped off the bed and landed on the floor with a soft thud.

It was then she noticed a strange odour.

"CHARLIE WAKE UP!" she yelled.

000 Please review, for reviews help and motivate me! 000