Author Notes: * mean thoughts. { mean when a person is talking on a communicator. This story doesn't follow the series to its entirety. This is the second chapter of my Hoshi/Reed epic. As always I love feedback. Please tell me what you think of my stories, give me suggestions, let me know if I made a mistake, tell me anything you want be it positive or negative.

Disclaimer: Enterprise and all the related characters belong to Paramount. This fan fiction piece belongs to me. Just to let you all know I'm not making any profit off this story ~Ziyal~

Rating: PG-13

The Red Planet X

'The Shuttle Pod'

By Tora Ziyal

Hoshi, Reed, and Doctor Graves all walked down the long winding corridors to the shuttle bay, where they soon would be departing for a strange planet that seemed to pop out of no where. Hoshi swallowed the lump in her throat that was forming ever since Captain Archer told her that she would be accompanying the tactical officer and the young doctor to the planet's surface where three life forms seemed to be stranded.

*Remind me why I'm going again? * Hoshi asked herself as the group entered the shuttle bay. Captain Archer and T'Pol stood there waiting for them to come in and get situated. Hoshi shivered slightly as she thought about being cramped in a shuttle pod for an hour or so, and then to be walking around some foreign planet looking for humans. That was another question Hoshi asked herself, how on earth did humans get all the way out here? Enterprise had been the first vessel carrying humans to come all the way out in deep space. So many questions and sadly enough no one here knew any of the answers. She shivered again, this time Lieutenant Reed noticed.

He looked at her and smiled slightly. He then turned back to Captain Archer and T'Pol. "We're all set, Sir."

Archer nodded. "Good." He looked at Hoshi and then to Doctor Graves. "We don't know exactly what is down there. Be cautious at all times." He said as he handed each crewmember a phase pistol. "Set these to maximum stun."

Hoshi looked at the pistol and shuddered. The last time she had to use one of these was at the academy during a training procedure. "Do you think these are really necessary?" She asked almost without thinking.

Archer nodded. "We don't know what's down there, Hoshi. I know we got a distress call but we need to be on our guard." He looked at the Vulcan woman next to him. "T'Pol did some more scans of the surface."

T'Pol stepped forward a bit and handed a data padd to Reed. "This is a layout of the planet's surface." She pointed to a small area on the padd. "This is the location of the humans and the alien. It appears to be a cavern or a small structure. The shuttle pod will be landing approximately two miles away from it."

Reed nodded in acknowledgment. "So we're just basically going in and getting the injured and coming back?" He asked.

"Yes. Maybe after we figure out who these people are and what happened to them we'll send a team down there again to do some exploring." Archer said and then turned to the doctor. "Do you have everything you need Dr. Graves?"

The young doctor smiled. "All set Captain." He patted the side of his medical case and climbed in the shuttle pod.

"Malcolm you'll be piloting and Hoshi you'll be co-piloting." Archer said to them. "Good luck and make it back safely." He smiled at the team and backed away from the shuttle. T'Pol gave a slight nod and then took a step back next to the captain.

Malcolm put his phase pistol in its holster and then climbed into the shuttle. Hoshi began to follow him in but stopped when she got half way in and climbed back out. She looked Captain Archer with a slight bit of fear in her eyes.

Archer smiled ever so slightly. He did not speak to her but his eyes told her that she would be fine and that she would do an excellent job.

Hoshi smiled back at him and then climbed all the way inside the shuttle and shut the hatch.

Captain Archer and T'Pol stepped inside the 'safe room' and the warning lights and the alarm began to signal that a shuttle was about to depart from the Enterprise. Hoshi gripped the side of her seat tightly as she felt the drop hatch in the Enterprise open and the shuttle pod began to sink lower until it was completely outside of the ship. Hoshi glanced back at Doctor Graves; he sat content going through his medical equipment. *He's probably so eager to get to the planet. * She thought as she looked at Lieutenant Reed who kept his eyes fixed on the console in front of him. She studied his face noticing that he had little smile lines around his mouth. She noticed that his hair was a little unruly even though it was apparent he tried to keep it maintained with some hair products. She watched as he calmly took the controls and sucked in a couple deep breaths. Hoshi smiled to herself and then looked down at her console.

Doctor Graves made his way up to the cockpit area. "About how long before we get to the planet?" He asked resting his hands on the back of Hoshi's seat.

Malcolm took a break from his console and looked up at Graves. "Approximately forty-five minutes...give or take a few." He said, taking a quick glance over at Hoshi. "Ensign do you think you'll be able to communicate with the alien?" He spoke softly.

Hoshi nodded. "I think I got enough of the language to get by." She said to Malcolm, making minimum eye contact with him as possible. *Way to go Hoshi! The guy asks you a simple question and you get....embarrassed.* She scolded herself and then forced herself to look at Reed. It was to late though; Malcolm had already turned back to the console and concentrated on the mission ahead of them.

Doctor Graves climbed back into his seat and rested his head on the window, looking out at the stars. Hoshi leaned back in her chair a little and turned her head to the small porthole on the side of the shuttle. Secretly she wished that Captain Archer's voice would come over the comm. line and call them back. She sighed silently as she realized that he wasn't going to call them back so she shut her eyes and tried to rest her tense body.

Malcolm Reed's mind was a mass of mixed emotions; he was excited to be selected for this mission but he also was wary of the danger that could possibly come with it. He as also a little concerned about Hoshi. He had seen her shiver a few times as they walked to the shuttle pod. He also noticed how scared she was to get in the shuttle. He wanted to comfort her and tell her that there was nothing to worry about but he wasn't sure how to go about it. He had always had shyness around women, even in his Starfleet Academy days. While all the other guys were out having fun, Malcolm sat alone in his dorm studying warp factors and artillery. He once had a girlfriend but she broke up with him to go out with a cadet that was at the top of the list for getting his own ship. Malcolm decided that he'd just give up on the whole subject. There wasn't anytime for that kind of stuff in Starfleet anyway. He shot a glance over at Hoshi and gazed upon her delicate features, her porcelain skin and jet black, soft hair that was done in her typical manner. *Nothing wrong with looking as long as she doesn't catch me doing it.* He assured himself. Hoshi started to turn her head back towards the main view screen and Malcolm stopped looking at her and focused back on the console. "Eleven minutes and counting." He said to the others as he checked the controls. "We're going to have to slow down to half impulse now." He said as the shuttle slowed down and began to creep along the stars.

Hoshi put her earpiece. "I'm going to contact the Enterprise." She said.

Malcolm nodded. "All right. Doctor you got everything together?" He asked turning his head back to the doctor.

"Yes Sir. Everything seems to be in check." Doctor Graves said as he closed up the med kit and stretched his arms over his head.

"Shuttle pod two to Enterprise," Hoshi began. "We'll be entering the atmosphere in less than six minutes. Any further instructions?"

{Shuttle pod two. This is Archer. We have no further instructions for you except to be careful. We'll be in contact with you at all times so keep you communicators close. Archer out.}

Hoshi smiled at the Captain's words as they made her feel a little safer. "How long Mal-," She stopped mid-sentence and corrected herself. "Lieutenant?"

Reed couldn't help but to smirk ever so slightly. "About four minutes, Ensign."

The doctor climbed back up to the cockpit and gazed out the view screen. "Well would you look at that?" He said as he looked at the red static lighting that seemed to be cracking though the skyline.

Hoshi leaned a bit forward to the screen. "Are we going to have to go through that?" She said with a bit of fear in her voice. "I mean is that safe?"

"I think we should be able to get through it okay. It doesn't seem to be too bad of a storm." Reed told her trying to ease her fear as best as he knew how. *I'm not very good at this tension easing, am I?* He asked himself as he took a firm grip on the controls and began to lower the shuttle slowly into the atmosphere. Suddenly the shuttle dropped several feet very quickly causing everyone to bounce out of their seats. "Don't worry it's just the atmospheric change."

Hoshi's stomach was clear in her in throat. "I don't ever remember that happening before." She looked back at the doctor. "Are you okay Doctor Graves?" She asked.

Graves rubbed the side of his head. "Just bumped my head, but thanks for asking."

Hoshi nodded and turned back to the console. The shuttle jolted again and began to descend faster to the surface. Malcolm frantically tried to regain the controls but the shuttle seemed to be acting on its own accord. Hoshi looked at Malcolm as she gripped the side of her console to stabilize herself. "What's going on!" She shouted over the whistling noise in the shuttle.

Reed clung onto his console. "Everything seems to be working fine!" He shouted. The craft took another plummet, Hoshi lost her grip and began to fall. Reed reached over just in time and grabbed her before she hit the floor. "You okay?" He asked her.

Hoshi nodded and gripped the console harder this time. "If everything is working fine then why is this happening?" She said as she hit the emergency distress button. Hopefully the Enterprise would pick up on it and give them some assistance.

Malcolm looked at the arrival time counter. "This isn't good! At the rate we're going we're about to hit in less than a minute! It's like this shuttle is being sucked into the planet!" He shouted.

The shuttle jerked harder than before and Reed lost his grip and landed hard on the floor. Hoshi was almost thrown too but she kept her grip strong. She wanted to help Reed up but at the moment he looked to be safer on the floor. The doctor was thrown into one of the main power generators in the back, the generator sparked and burst into flame. The doctor slumped lifelessly to the ground. "Doctor Graves!!" Hoshi shouted as the shuttle filled with smoke. *Oh God please let us get through this. Please let Malcolm be fine. * She held her breath as best she could as she looked on the console, which read that they were about to hit the surface. Hoshi closed her eyes and hoped for the best as the shuttle hit the surface of the planet and skidded into the side of a rocky cliff.

to be continued.