Chapter Five

There was a bright light in Hoshi's face. At first she thought she was back in the trees and then maybe in an open meadow. Someone touched her and she fought them off, kicking and screaming. She couldn't see properly and felt a bit of pain.

"Liz! They got us!" Hoshi yelled.

"Hoshi!" Trip shouted, touching her bruised face.

The lights dimmed and Hoshi could see much better now. She was in sickbay on a medical bed. Liz was across from her, groaning in pain. Trip was standing over her with a damp cloth, whipping the crusty blood from her face and body. She was no longer in her torn uniform but her tank top and underwear. Hoshi groaned at the thought.

"It's okay, Hosh," Trip said, removing the rest of the blood. "Yer safe. Yer all right, darlin‚. No one here to mess with ya. We got the artifacts from ya and it's gonna be okay. Kay?"

Hoshi nodded, drowning in his accent. She mentally kicked herself. What the hell was she thinking? This is the commander. She then pinched herself, receiving a confused look from Trip.

"Ya sure she's gonna be okay, doc?" Trip asked, turning to face Phlox who had approached Ensign Cutler.

The Denobulan looked up from his other patient and smiled. "Of course. She's just having side-effects from the drugs I gave her for the pain."

Trip nodded and then glanced back at Hoshi, who was now dreamily smiling. The confused look returned to the commander's face.

"Doc?" Trip asked.

Phlox chuckled, "She may act a bit irrational and even her true feelings may shine through. The drugs make you quite easy to get along with."

Trip placed a blanket on the ensign and rubbed her arm reassuringly. He didn't pretend to understand women.

*****

"They're both in sickbay, and here are your artifacts," Archer said, sighing as he handed Shran the cloth bag containing the artifacts.

Shran's face lit up like a little boy in a candy store. He recklessly opened the bag and reached his hand in, pulling out a huge necklace adorned with red, gold, and brown beads. On the necklace hung a gold pendant of a frightening face with its tongue sticking out. The necklace looked ancient.

Shran placed it on the table and pulled out the next item, a mask with the same face on it. There were no holes for the mouth, eyes and nose. Shran carefully placed the heavy gold mask on the table.

He smiled as he pulled the rest of the jewelry out and laid it by the mask and necklace.

"Thank you very much, Captain Archer," Shran replied and stood up to shake his hand.

Archer nodded and then felt a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was too easy. They had retrieved the items way too easily, and there seemed to be something more to these artifacts. Archer wasn't sure what it was, but something didn't seem right.

A relieved-looking Trip entered the room and approached Archer and Shran.

"Sir, they're both doin' okay. Hosh says they were gonna kill 'em today, like an hour ago," Trip explained. "Good thing we got 'em outta there just in time, huh?"

"It's a very good thing," Archer said, distracted.

"Send them my thanks!" Shran yelled out as Trip left the room.

Standing outside the room, Trip decided something was going on. Archer seemed incredibly distracted for just having completed the mission and saving his two crewmembers. Trip brushed the puzzle aside and headed for engineering.