A shiver racked through her body, but she wasn't cold. She was worrying, fretting. Everything in her mind concerned Meval.

"You're worrying."

When Gina looked up, she realised that her breathing was haggard, and she saw that Markeil's blue gaze was focused firmly on her. She cleared her throat, paced about in the small cell. "Of course I'm worrying," she snapped. "No, I'm sorry, Markeil, I didn't mean to take it out on you."

He only smiled. "Nevermind." A pause. "How do you think he's doing? Meval, I mean."

"Oh, I wish there was some way of knowing," she murmured. "If only we could hack into the security systems feed, we could check the closed-circuit television."

"Ah, but we'd need to be free from this cell, first."

She suddenly had an idea. "Do you hear that? Or, rather, do you not hear that?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Hear what?"

"That," she said again, rather unhelpfully. She came to the edge of the cell, only one step away from the forcefield. "Usually, there's this sort of buzzing. Or humming. I'm not sure how to describe it."

"Wait a second... I think you might be on to something."

"But it's not there any more. The only time it's not there is when..." She faded off as her words deserted her.

"When the forcefield's down!" he exclaimed.

She squealed, threw herself into his arms and they kissed. Then, gingerly, she stuck her foot out of the cell perimeter. She didn't get an electric shock. Slowly, gently, she stepped out of the cell, and Markeil followed suit.

"He's done it! The nanites, they've been stopped! And the tectonic disturbances, too!" she suddenly declared. "Meval, he's connected our EM transmitter to the complex's main computer. The system must have gone haywire, and everything that it controls – the forcefields, the defences, the communications network – have all been short-circuited."

"Gina." Markeil's voice was grave, his eyes were unblinking and his jaw was firm. "This is too obvious. Pakel would know. Which means... it's only a matter of time before Meval is found out."

She had already left him, and Markeil was forced to jog in order to catch up with her; they left through the room's broken door. They found themselves once again in the cavernous hallway; it was like a rabbit's warren or a fox's den, full of hidey-holes and secret places. There was no telling where one path ended and another began. It was also very, very dark. Spiders and worms crawled and slithered about underfoot and overhead, and the walls seemed to crumble at the slightest of touches.

"This is hopeless," Markeil muttered after a time. "These caves could go on for miles, and we've no idea where he is."

"We can't leave him, Markeil," she retorted. "He's risked his life for your planet and my ship."

"I know, but it will be pointless us getting ourselves killed. We'd be better off just trying to get to some place with less radiation, somewhere closer to the surface, where the Enterprise will be able o get a better lock on our positions," he continued.

She sighed, shook her head, blew air through her lips.

He reached out for her hand. "Gina, listen to me. Meval knew what he was doing when he offered to help us. Look, I think that tunnel looks familiar. Let's head down there. I'm fairly certain that we went down there when we first got here. "It's uphill, so that's a good start. Come on." He let go of her hand and started to head off in that direction.

"Wait," Gina hissed, and he knew that he had to stop. "I think I can see a light down there." She pointed to the tunnel opposite the one which Markeil had been talking about.

"Gina, that's the wrong direction," he whispered.

"But, light, Markeil," she carried on. "Maybe it's daylight. We might as well."

He sighed and acquiesed. They trudged down the tunnel, feeling the gritty ground shift about with every step, feeling the air get hotter and stickier. And then their faces fell when they realised that it wasn't daylight. It wasn't even moonlight.

The section of tunnel which they found themselves in was not purely made out of cave wall. Slabs of rock and mounds of earth were interspersed with computer terminals and relay devices. Gina narrowed her eyes and saw something that she recognised – the tricorder. It was hooked up to the largest computer in the room. She also saw someone that she recognised, and she was about to call out his name, when another figure appeared out of nowhere.

"Meval, run!" she shouted, as the young Hypnite stood up and stepped away from the tricorder. He had evidently been checking up on its progress. In mere seconds, his expression went from one of pride to one of pain, anguish, distress, as he lowered his gaze. His dark eyes found the source of his torment, a gaping hole in his chest.

Markeil charged forward and swiped the smoking phaser from Pakel's firm hand. And then Gina did all that she could do, falling down beside Meval, attempting to hold his head. He was coughing up blood and spluttering out words.

"Shh..." she whispered, smoothing his bloodied hair against his forehead as a mother would a child. She was watching his chest rise and fall, steadily, and then not so steadily.

"Tell-"

"Don't speak now," she said softly. "I hope you know what you've done. You've stopped the nanites, you've stopped Pakel. You've saved your people, Meval."

The ghost of a smile broke out on his pale lips.

"You need to stay with me, Meval," she said, suddenly urgent. "No, no, no, don't close your eyes. Please."

"Tell Jural that I..."

She listened out for the rest of that sentence, that request, but she eventually realised that she would never know what it was. She held her breath, brought her shaking hand to her forehead and held it there for a moment. Then she reached out and closed Meval's eyes.

Rage threatened to overwhelm her. She wanted to denounce Pakel, to snatch the phaser from Markeil and aim it at the man's head. She wanted to pull the trigger and watch as he got vapourised. She wanted that, surely? No. She shook her head. She didn't.

"You have a communicator? A portable one, yes?" Her tone of voice was quick and sharp, and her eyes were daggers as they focused on Pakel.

Markeil adjusted his grip on the man and kicked him when he refused to answer Gina's question.

"I... Yes."

"Where is it?"

"On that counter, there." He half-heartedly pointed.

She picked it up and keyed in the Enterprise's frequency.

There was static. A lot of static. And it was all that they could hear for minutes.

"This is-" The voice was distant and distorted but so very familiar. The brusqueness of it, the firmness of it. Gina knew who it was.

"This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation starship USS Enterprise."

He had barely finished the sentence when Gina butted in. "Captain! Oh, am I glad to hear you! It's Lieutenant Monroe. Senator Markeil and I, we're both fine, and the beacon – well, a different one – has been set off. The nanites are dormant."

She could not see it, but a small smile appeared on Picard's face. "Well done, Lieutenant. I presume you'll be wanting to return to my ship?"

"Oh, yes, Captain, more than anything!"

"Then standby. The Chief will have you beamed up in the next few minutes. Enterprise out."

She had been so wrapped up in her conversation with Picard that she had failed to notice what was happening in front of her. Pakel had managed to wriggle out of Markeil's grip, and was making a beeline for her. Pakel's swift hands took the communicator from her before she could even register what was going on, and he shouted something into it.

A minute later, a soldier came hurtling down the hallway. Gina stared at him. It was Jural. He had barely had the time to register the body on the floor, the pool of blood, before the room started shimmering and sparkling, and then he no longer was where he thought he was.