Hoshi woke up again. It was strange shifting. It wasn't like the transporter, which sent a tingle through her spine. It felt like fainting. Hoshi reluctantly opened her eyes wider to adjust to the dim surroundings.
"Hoshi?" she heard Malcolm ask. His voice was urgent, but near.
"Malcolm?" she asked back, hoping that his voice would lead her to him.
He shushed her softly, and brought his hand to hers. She could barely make out his face in the darkness.
"Don't be afraid. It appears that we are in a cave system," he said in an attempted jovial voice. She involuntarily winced at the realisation that they weren't on the Enterprise. She felt Malcolm's hand tighten, followed by sounds in the cavern. They both recognised the sound of Klingon.
"Come here."
Malcolm led them further into the recess of their cavern and further from the sounds.
"Malcolm?" Hoshi asked. She looked up at the outline of his face. Com'on Malcolm Reed. You always have a plan.
"It's not that simple," Malcolm started. "I wish that we could just get the blommin' hell out of here."
Hoshi hugged him tight as they both heard the drunk Klingons' approach. They both knew that they didn't have a chance. But Malcolm readied himself to fight.
Then, it all went black again.
…
Malcolm woke up with a smile on his face. He was dead. That was the only explanation. There was no way that Hoshi and he could have survived the Klingons. His only regret was that he couldn't protect Hoshi.
She lay sleeping in his arms. The gentle sun wisped over her face, her arms, her legs… It was like a fantasy, and Hoshi was the sleeping beauty. Malcolm resisted the urge to kiss her awake.
He was happy that he was in heaven. Even after all the chaos he had created, he was in heaven. Thank you, Lord, he thought, despite his atheist beliefs. He didn't bother looking for a logical explanation. He was dead. There is no logic in the afterlife. Unless God is actually a Vulcan… he mused.
He would miss the Enterprise. The Captain. Trip. But they were behind him. He could not return. Neither could Hoshi. Poor Hoshi, she never had a chance to make amends with Trip. She would be plagued by it forever. Malcolm would gladly cross the great divide if it would bring Hoshi peace.
Existence faded once more.
…
Malcolm woke with a cold shock. He was causing the shifts! It was the only explanation. Every time he wanted to leave, they left. It must have been the machine, he realised. The possibilities were endless now. If he could control this power, he could save lives. He could explore time. He could find out if his latest nightmare was true, if he would die alone.
He looked around. They were grassy bank next to a large stream. The sun was shining modestly overhead.
Hoshi woke to his movement towards the stream. The water beckoned him with refreshment. His felt his strength give way and he collapsed, tumbling into the water.
"Malcolm!" Hoshi cried out. Scrambling down the side of the bank, she jumped into the water, which reached her waist. She tried to run towards Malcolm, but the water slowed down her pace. She resorted to swimming. Flinging herself towards Malcolm, she hurriedly turned over his body and began to swim back.
She spotted a large python snake along the bank and had to convince herself to continue.
"Malcolm, you so owe me for this."
She could feel his body grow colder from the water. The panic settling in caused her to summon the strength to pull his body up the bank, to a sunny clearing. She screamed at him, but he didn't answer. Remembering her resuscitation training, she started checking his airway. She then tilted his head back. No breathing. She gave him two breaths before checking his pulse. It was weak, but it was there.
"Malcolm, don't do this. Wake up!" she screamed against her sobs. She continued to give him air. To let him die was unacceptable. Then she would be alone here. Maybe forever. She screamed at him again, but still no response.
She placed her head to his chest, intent of savouring the sound of his heartbeat. He started coughing out water.
"Malcolm!" she said, helping him onto his side.
"Where's the attack?" was his first response. "Where's Hoshi?"
Hoshi wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry. Instead she hugged him and insisted, "I'm here Malcolm. I'm here."
He tried to get up, but collapsed again. Hoshi checked his breathing and heart, and when she was assured that he was fine, she put him into the recovery position. Then, she simply lay next to him watching him breathe.
…
Hoshi felt a bit cold as the breeze nipped her skin. But it would be colder in her suit. She automatically checked Malcolm, and found him still sleeping. She rose from the indentation in the grass, and went over to check on their drying uniforms.
She had remembered her survival training. To stay warm. So she had taken off their clothes, although leaving his underwear modestly on. And she had tried to make a fire. But sleep overcame her. And although she struggled to stay awake, she couldn't. And so she had simply resigned to lying close to him, so that they could share body heat.
The sun would soon be setting. She returned to the small pile of sticks and tried again to make fire. The sticks stubbornly refused to cooperate. So she reluctantly left Malcolm to find materials to build a shelter with.
When she returned, a fire was going and Malcolm was sitting next to it.
"The trick is to use very dry materials, and rub the sticks together as fast as possible," he said.
"How are you?" she asked and placed her hand on his forehead. He didn't have a fever.
"A bit cold," he admitted as she noticed his goose bumps.
She rose and got his dry uniform, and her own. They dressed silently.
"I've found some shelter," she said, her eyes fixated on the fire.
"Good," was all he said.
After basking by the fire for a while, Malcolm grabbed several large sticks, set them on fire, and let Hoshi lead the way to her shelter.
…
"Thank you," Malcolm modesty said as they sat by their new fire and home.
"For what?"
"For saving my life."
"You would have done the same for me," Hoshi answered. Malcolm smiled: he would have done the same for her. He would have died for her.
"I know why we shift," he admitted several minutes later.
Hoshi looked at him with shock.
Malcolm returned her look with a placid expression.
"I make us shift."
"You what?" Hoshi asked, shocked at the man she had just saved.
"I don't know how. But I want us to shift, we seem to do it."
"Then why don't you just take us home?" Hoshi asked. It seemed like an obvious question.
"I can't. I've tried, but it simply will not work. I just feel too tired. Maybe one of us could make it back, but not…"
Thoughts were racing though Hoshi's head.
"This must be what happened to everyone else. Everyone else shifted, and simply couldn't find their way back. They must have become lost in the drift of the multiverse. And they brought people with them. That's it Malcolm! If we could only tell the Captain…"
Hoshi realised the futility of her words. They themselves were stuck. Or at least one of them was. But they couldn't abandon the other.
Malcolm had merely been nodding as she spoke. Now that she had finished, he said his words.
"If we are stuck here for the rest of our lives, there is something you must know. I love you Hoshi. Not merely as a friend, you've been a forgiving friend, but as I love you as a woman. I don't think that I could imagine being on the Enterprise without you. And although I know that things are not as good between us as they could be, I want you to know that I don't feel any different. You are my guiding star. But if you want to go back, I'll do everything in my power to make it happen."
Hoshi stared into Malcolm's sincere eyes. And felt a spark alight in herself. This was a man who would cherish her above all else. This was a man who had left her alone to find happiness with another man. This was the man she loved.
"I love you too," she answered. "And there is no place I'd rather be than here with you."
…
They awoke the next morning, realising that this was their first morning of their lives alone, on this planet. They looked at the sun rise between the trees and felt happy at the freedom.
A kiss.
And then everything went black again for Hoshi.
…
Hoshi woke up in the bushes behind Trip and Lucia. She lay curled up in the damp leaves and grass. Her delicate sleep was interrupted by sound.
"Hoshi! Malcolm!" she could hear them call out.
"We're here!" she croaked, her eyes still closed. Her hand moved around trying to find Malcolm's body. It wasn't there. She started to call out his name, only drawing the attention of Trip and Lucia.
"Hoshi! Oh my God, here you are! I thought you were dead," Trip said as he held her close, rocking her.
"Malcolm?" Hoshi asked, receiving no answer. It dawned on her; he had caused her to come home. Didn't he realise that she would be happier with him?
She fainted, still in Trip's arms.
…
When the villagers had first discovered him, they had thought he was a god. He wasn't like them. He spoke in a strange tongue which the priests tried to interpret. His skin was pale and smooth, lacking their scales. He only had two eyes, instead of three. But he had un-webbed fingers.
They decided that he was a new god. Malcolm, as he called himself, the god of the hermit warrior.
He could kill anything and anyone. He had saved their village by teaching them how to fight off the raiders. But he only fought when he had to. And fighting obviously caused him great sorrow. He spent most of his time alone, in the mountains, whispering "Hoshi". In fact, he seemed to say Hoshi only in times of great joy or sorrow. Hoshi was obviously the balance in life, and was added as another god.
It became said that if you lost your Hoshi in life, you became lost. Many wondered if the god Malcolm had lost his Hoshi in life.
With the fewer and fewer visits from him, they would never know.
