They had been in the cell, underground, separated from the Enterprise and from civilisation, for what felt like months. It had been three days. Gina was sure that Captain Picard and the crew would've been worrying about she and Markeil. After all, the mission was only supposed to have taken half an hour. But Picard was a cautious man, and a patient man, and Gina knew that he would rather wait an issue out rather than charge in with all guns blazing.

"I've been thinking," she began, casting her gaze over at Markeil, who was picking his teeth with a piece of cutlery; Pakel had been good enough to provide them with forks to eat their stale bread. "Perhaps we shouldn't be trying to contact the Enterprise."

He stared at her, wide-eyed. "What the hell are you talking about?"

She sighed, raised a hand. "I know, I know, it sounds stupid. But wouldn't we be putting Captain Picard in an impossible position? By holding us hostage, Pakel has declared war on the Federation, and that's a war that Pakel definitely can't win. That doesn't mean that my ship, my friends, will ge out unscathed, you know as well as I that Pakel won't entertain a diplomatic solution."

He ran a hand through his greasy hair. "What exactly are you suggesting?"

"I think we should try and rig up some sort of rudimentary electromagnetic transmitter."

His mouth curved in a bitter smile. "Oh, Gina, we can't do that."

"Why not?" She continued talking when she saw that he was about to interrupt. "I've got the technical skills, and you know this planet inside out, don't you? That's not even to mention the help that Meval can give us."

He shook his head, raised a damning hand. "But we have to tell the Enterprise about what Pakel's got planned where Nilal's concerned."

"We don't know what Pakel's going to do about Nilal."

"He's my friend, Gina. My closest friend."

"I know, but-"

"When you were... living with me, and you were separated from your friend Data, you left my bed to go and see if he was faring well," he said briskly. "This is exactly the same."

She knew it was, and she also knew that she shouldn't argue. But she did. "Look, say we did manage to form a communication link with Captain Picard, what would we say? That we've been taken captive? He's probably gathered that by now. There would be no point in explaining that there's a possible threat against Nilal's life, because that's exactly what it is. Possible. And Nilal's a smart guy; he knows all sorts of people. I'm sure he's already on high alert."

At last, a sigh from Markeil. He took her face in his hands, surveyed her beauty, and kissed her on the forehead. "You're right. I never did think I'd get that commbadge working anyway."

With that, she drew him over to her and kissed him fully on the lips. His mouth was on her lips, her cheek, her neck, her collarbone; he loved her and he wanted her.

"Markeil," she hissed, trying to push him away. "There's someone at the door."

He slunk off her and found himself looking at the young face and determined eyes of Meval.

"I-" he stuttered, his cheeks flushing pale pink, He came closer, lowered the forcefield ever so slightly, and handed Gina something in a brown case.

She opened it and smiled, wanting to throw her arms around Meval. She cursed the forcefield.

"I've brought you the tricorder," he continued. "What do you need to do with it?" His voice was hushed.

Gina hunkered down and examined the tricorder. She turned it on and the little screens and diodes lit up; at least it was still working. The two men hovered over her, and she waved them away. She switched the device onto 'science' mode.

"It looks like it's practically on full power," she observed. "If I can get into its energy matrix, I should be able to set it to overload."

Meval raised an eyebrow. "Overload? Why would you want it to do that?"

"Well, an electromagnetic pulse will be one of the byproducts when an electronic device suffers a power meltdown," she said.

"But how will that help you contact your ship?" From the look on his face, it seemed as though Meval knew the answer to his question already. "You're not trying to speak to your captain, are you? You lied, and I was foolish enough to trust you. I thought you were going to warn Nilal."

Gina tried to shush him, to calm him down. "No, no, no," she said quickly, setting the tricorder to one side. "That was the original plan, honestly. But by telling my captain about the situation, we would only have been burdening him with a problem that he couldn't fix."

"He's a captain, a soldier. You are his responsibility," Meval retorted.

Gina wondered if he would reach for his gun.

"But I'm not," Markeil replied, and Gina was thankful for his intervention. "Look, Meval, I'm Nilal's friend, too. I care for him, of course I do. But we've got more of a chance of saving him, and our world, if we get this EM pulse out there and knock out those nanites."

Gina's hands had wandered to the tricorder and she was putting the finishing touches on her plan. Then her eyes rested on Meval's phaser. To her surprise, he unhooked it from his utility belt and handed it to her.

"You'll need this," he said simply. "That tricorder wouldn't be strong enough."

She gave him a grateful smile, a smile which was soon replaced by a frown. She opened up the barrel of the phaser and found the battery pack, which she managed to disconnect and rewire into the back of the tricorder. "But it's still not going to create a big enough shockwave."

"Oh, so it's all hopeless, then?" Markeil muttered.

"No," she said quickly, without thinking. "What we need is a bigger power source. One that would be able to distribute the field almost instantly. One that's wired into this complex."

"Like the central computer?" Markeil offered.

"Exactly like that."

Markeil got to his feet and looked at her. "Have you entered the correct frequency of the wave?"

She nodded, gingerly handed him the tricorder.

"Meval, I need you to let me out of here and direct me to the central computer."

But he felt Gina's hand on his arm, her slender fingers curling around his wrist. "Markeil, no."

"They're my people, Gina," he said, without looking back. "And I'm going to do this."

"No, you're not." It wasn't Gina speaking that time. Markeil glowered at Meval. "Let us out."

Meval shook his head. "I can't do that. For too long I've stood by while that madman Pakel commits genocide." And with that, he reached through the safe part of the forcefield and took the device from Markeil.

Gina despaired. "Meval, you can't. You'll be noticed. You're putting yourself in so much danger."

"I can't be in any more danger than the rest of my people will be if I don't do anything."

"I'll do it," she said. "Give the tricorder to me."

"No. This is my fight and my world."

Geordi La Forge furrowed his brow. The USS Enterprise's powerful impulse drive was humming contently and the warp core was stable. He was staring at the main console in Engineering, and he wondered if his VISOR needed fixing.

"Data, can you come and take a look at this?"

He had barely finished asking the question when the android officer appeared beside him. "Of course, Geordi. For one point three minutes, your facial expression and body language have been indicating that you are perplexed, confused, perturbed."

"Just take a look at this," Geordi continued. "It looks like some sort of energy surge. I would've thought it was just another volcanic eruption or earthquake, but it's coming from the Silver Wastelands."

"No seismic rifts have been detected there so far," Data said. He regarded the readouts more closely.

"But that's one strange energy signature, Data. If only there wasn't so much radiation. It's distorting all of our scanners." He sighed, rubbed his temple. "I think it's an electromagnetic pulse. But not the one that our transmitter would have sent out."

"Lieutenant Monroe and Senator Markeil must have built a rudimentary electromagnetic device," Data surmised.

"The nanites... they must've stopped. They're out, dormant."

"Geordi, our research indicates that they will, in fact, only be dormant for a week."

"Oh, Data!" he huffed, shaking his head, a smile already broadening on his lips. "I knew they were still alive!"

"It certainly is surprising, but nonetheless welcome, news," Data finished.