She had been following the creature through the bowels of the ship for who knew how long. She had scrapes on her knees and calluses on her palms. She had no idea if it even knew where it was going, and she was beyond the point of caring about what its reactions might be. Maggie just stopped crawling.

The creature turned to look at her, cooking its head.

"I'm not going any farther, my knees hurt, my hands hurt, and I'm in serous need of a nap."

It backtracked and knelt before her.

"Do you even have a plan, or are you just winging it?" she knew it wouldn't answer her, but it felt good to say it out loud anyway.



"So explain to me why we can't locate at least Ms. Claims, she has a decidedly unique signature." The Captain was progressing beyond frustrated at this point.

"It appears, captain, that her mere proximity to the creature has caused her signature to be blocked from our scans as well." T'pol answered matter of fact manner.

"We need to just do a deck by deck search, sir." Reed said. The doctor had patched him up in no time and he was more then ready to get back to work again.

"That would seem the most logical course open to us at this time captain." T'pol concurred.

"Very well, Malcolm, Trip, compile search teams and divide the ship. Start from the transporter room out." Archer ran his hand through his hair, this was not going well.



Things seemed to be going fairly well. Maggie had somehow, she didn't even understand, convinced the creature to start following her. After blundering through three decks she had finally managed to locate the mess hall. And not a moment to soon. She was starving, and the last thing she needed was the creature to realize it to needed a bite while they were still secluded in the vents, it they were indeed vents.

She was really out of her element here. She convinced herself that she would feel much better and more adjusted once she got some food in her. She was certain that were all she needed.

It took decidedly more work to get the creature to let her out in the open. She wasn't sure she would let her only link to reality out of her sight easily either, so she didn't blame him.

She really needed to stop calling him the creature though.

Maggie found the food cabinets easily; they were right next to the shelf where she and Hoshi were going to get their food from. From it she pulled two slices of pizza, apparently the chief hadn't forgotten after all.

"Here" she set the plate on a table the creature was standing near. "You eat this, its really good, trust me." She demonstrated by picking up her piece and taking a bite. "Mmmm, really good." She gestured for the creature to do the same. He just cocked his head at her questioningly.

"Suit yourself but I'm hunger." She said with a shrug as she finished off her piece.

The creature bent its knees to bring its beak closer to the plate; it then began to sniff it experimentally. It poking it with it claw as if it might get up and run away.

"It wont bite, honest."

It didn't seem to be working.

Then its third finger on its left hand rotated on a pivoting joint and with a slight pop sound became a long thumb. It used its hand now equipped with an opposable thumb, and picked up the pizza slice, sniffing it a couple more times.

Then with what could only be described as a heaving sigh, it took a bite.



*again sorry its so short, trying not to loose my muse here, (*