Disclaimer: I own nothing. Well, nothing related to Star Trek anyway. I own
other stuff, after all.
Author's Note: Ok....I KNEW this was going to happen and I went and did it anyway.... completely lost inspiration for this story after I started writing The Shadow Riders. But here's my last-ditch attempt to finish what is turning out to be a fairly mediocre story. Sorry....
*********************
MIND AND BODY
Chapter 7: And Longer Punishments
*********************
They teleported onto the bridge itself, shimmering into existence before the surprisingly complacent eyes of the captain (relegated to the armory station) and crew. Hamisis and Thatmisit and the rest of the away party leapt for the crewmen advancing on them; Hoshi, her own head firmly ensconced in a silver circlet, went straight for Reed, who lunged out of the captain's chair.
She whipped out the weapon the Halparens had given her and fired; it caught Reed in the shoulder, and a smoking hole appeared in the fabric of his uniform, but he did not falter.
"I can shut off the pain receptors in this body," said Jolas scornfully through Reed's lips. "I need not stay in this body, either. You can kill him and all it will do is force me to take over someone else's mind. Go ahead, my dear Hoshi, kill me!"
She fired again and then as he stumbled forward, swung out with one foot and kicked him square in the chest. Reed's body flew backwards, cracking his head on the railing behind the captain's chair. With a lightning speed that Hoshi hadn't thought herself capable of, she leaped at him and swung the silver circlet from her own head onto Reed's short-cropped black. Jolas hissed at her and then fell back again, a look of surprise on his face.
"I don't need to kill you," spat Hoshi in disgust. She leveled the pistol at him and nodded for him to stand up. He did so, slowly, and as he stood, tried to whip his hands up to the circlet around his head.
Hoshi shot him again and he toppled backwards onto the floor, completely unconscious.
"Sorry, Malcolm," she said calmly, and then turned around to face the rest of the bridge crew and the Halparens. Hamisis
"Did you just shoot Malcolm?" asked Archer in an incredulous voice.
No, I shot someone else, duh. "Yes," said Hoshi. "But there are some circumstances that I need to explain, sir."
Archer looked at the Halparens and then back at Reed's unconscious form sprawled on the floor. "Good," he said. "I'd hate to think you just shot him for no reason at all." He stared at them all again. "Does anyone else have a really, really bad headache?" Hoshi rolled her eyes. She put a gentle hand on his shoulder and guided him to the captain's chair, where he sat and watched the ensuing flurry of activity with a very dazed expression.
The Halparens wasted no time. They removed Malcolm from the floor and flung him over Hamisis' broad shoulders. "I would advise that you remain on your ship, Ensign Sato," said Thatmisit. "Your crewmates will need assistance." And with that vague pronouncement, they shimmered into nothingness.
"Okay, then," Hoshi muttered, staring at the bridge crew. "Um... I'll go find the doctor. You all stay here until I get back. Try not to crash the ship."
"Okay," said Travis breezily as she headed for the turbolift. "How do I not crash the ship again?"
Hoshi's exasperated sigh echoed up the turbolift shaft.
******************
"He won't tell you where the thought-saver is?" Hoshi burst out.
"It's got to be somewhere on the ship, Hoshi," said Captain Archer under his breath. Four hours and a few hyposprays later, everyone on the ship had been returned to normal, including Sub-commander T'Pol. The Vulcan had already resumed her customary position on the bridge (albeit with Dr. Phlox hovering around her).
"He merely repeats that it is gone forever," said Hamisis wearily. "I have tried everything I can think of." The golden face crinkled with concern, magnified ten times by the large viewscreen.
"Hit him," spat Hoshi. "Good and hard."
"Ensign, I doubt torture will elicit any response," said T'Pol.
"It is not on your ship," said Hamisis. "We have scanned for it repeatedly. Your ship's emissions are not powerful enough to block our sensors, either. He has hidden it somewhere... or destroyed it."
None of the Enterprise crew responded. Hoshi shuddered and turned away from the viewscreen. "However," Hamisis continued, "if Jolas did destroy it, the pieces would still be emitting a very distinctive signal that we could pick up from all over the sector. I doubt this is the case, since no such signal is being detected."
"Can you find it if you scan our course?" said the captain hopefully.
"Unfortunately, we do not have time to scan your entire course," said Hamisis. "We cannot delay in bringing the criminal to trial. If you manage to locate the thought-saver we will transfer Lieutenant Reed's consciousness back into his body, of course."
"Wait a minute," said Archer. "You are not taking my crewman with you."
"At the moment, Captain, he is no longer your crewman," Hamisis said sadly. "I must report back to my superiors. I am sorry for your loss." He gestured to one of his officers and spoke in Halparen before turning back to the screen. "I am sending you the coordinates of the colony where Jolas will be held and executed, and the parameters of the energy emitted by the thought- saver. You will have three days."
"EXECUTED?" shouted Archer, face red with fury. The comm link shut off, though, and Hoshi could not reestablish it. Her hands shook and a cold chill crept up her spine.
"Three days and two men die," said the captain, hitting the arm of his chair. "Did you get those coordinates and scanning parameters?" he barked at Hoshi. She nodded, not trusting her voice right then.
"Then get started retracing our steps. He's got to be out there somewhere." Archer pounded his fist again and then slumped into his chair, shaking his head.
*********************
The stars whizzed by, eternally revolving around him, dark and silent and far away. Had he possessed eyes or a face any longer, Malcolm would have been ready to let the tears spill in a torrent down his cheeks. Hoshi was claustrophobic, this endless space would have suited her, but all he wanted were the bulkheads of a good strong ship around him once more.
He could not control his motion. He could not make himself stop spinning with the thought-saver, though he knew Jolas had been able to do the same when he had carried the alien down the hallways of Enterprise.
Not that it really matters, Reed screamed at himself. Bloody stars in each direction, nothing but bloody stars in any direction. He wanted to be sick, but the nerves and organs which would allow him to do that were gone. He was a shell, as empty as the space around him.
Hoshi... she had done something that made Jolas angry... she had done something that caused him to have his body stolen and stuck in a little box, unable to move and unable to speak, unable to do anything but look into eternity...
He felt no resentment, though. He was desperately worried about what that alien was doing to his ship... his crew... his friends... Hoshi. His mind screamed and he tried desperately to flail his arms in distress, but he couldn't feel it, even though he saw the holographic arms shining in front of his eyes.
Maybe he would go crazy soon and forget that he, Malcolm, existed. Maybe he would go to sleep and never really wake up. Eternity, Jolas had said. Enjoy eternity.
What was that bastard doing to his ship? How had he let it get this far? How had he let it go?
Hoshi's face in the Mess Hall a few nights ago danced in his memory. Laughing, smiling, happy as they talked far into the night, far later than was proper.
And he screamed so loud, in his own mind, that he felt the bonds of sanity break loose, he felt something rip inside his thoughts; Malcolm Reed screamed into eternity.
The stars whirled around him, silent as always, and watched him with uncaring dignity. They did not hear his cries.
Someone else did.
**********************
She hadn't left her post for almost twenty-four hours.
Archer had tried ordering her off the bridge once. Hoshi had staunchly refused, and instead of having her arrested and court-martialed, the captain gave in and let her stay. Someone had brought a plate of food from the mess hall, and it lay untouched on the edge of the console. She didn't know what it was, and she didn't know who had brought the plate to her.
The captain had been in and out of the bridge since the departure of the Halparens. Half the time he spent standing over T'Pol's shoulder, looking desperately at the scans as if his eyes could see something that hers could not. The other half, he was shouting at the Halparens on the viewscreen, who all resolutely denied his request for Malcolm to be returned.
"We will deliver the body of your crewman back to you," said the last one after Archer had treated her to a ten-minute diatribe on human loyalty and friendship and the despicable justice system of the Halparen outpost holding the trial. "It is far too dangerous to let Jolas loose again, however, and there is no guarantee that you will find your crewman's mental energies again."
"Body! Nothing but the body!" Archer exploded when the viewscreen clicked off, and refused to speak to any more of them. Hamisis sent a message once to say they had arrived at the colony, but he would not look at it, so Hoshi merely saved it in the database and went back to scanning the subspace channels for any sign of Reed.
She was tired now. Her eyes drooped closed, too heavy now to stay open, and she slumped a bit forward in her chair. The ship's engines droned in her ears, a comforting and familiar hum.
Mustn't sleep...
But her body had stayed up long past its endurance already, and almost without her consent her mind drifted off into oblivion.
And then she heard it...
Malcolm.
Malcolm screaming!
Hoshi bolted upright and, in one smooth movement that completely surprised even her, vaulted completely over her station, landing in front of a very startled Travis Mayweather. "Head that way," she cried, nearly pushing him out of his chair to point at the stellar charts displayed on the pilot's station.
"What? Why?" said Travis, his face utterly dumbfounded.
"Just do it!" Hoshi cried. She heard Reed's agonized yells in her mind and dimly heard her own name among the static. It grew louder as Mayweather, with a shrug, put the new heading into the computer. For a few moments the bridge was silent around her, the tapping of Mayweather's hands on the console the only sound in the room.
Sub-commander T'Pol gave a very un-Vulcan-like start of surprise. "Scanners detecting readings along specified parameters," she said with a raised eyebrow. "Thought-saver detected."
"Call Trip and tell him to meet me at the transporter," said Hoshi breathlessly. Somewhere in the back of her mind she heard a voice say insubordination, you idiot, but she didn't care. "Tell the Halparens that we found him and don't kill Jolas yet!"
T'Pol said something in reply but Hoshi was too busy tearing into the turbolift to respond. She got to the transporter nearly five minutes before Trip and was anxiously trying to activate herself when he came running down the corridor.
"Sorry, Hoshi, Captain just kept talking," he said, running a hand through his hair so it stuck on end. "Let's get our boy back in here where he belongs, all right?"
"Stop talking and do it!" Hoshi shrilled, the screaming in her head almost too loud to bear. Tucker grinned.
"Anxious, are we? What's going on between you two?"
Hoshi gave him a dirty look as the transporter buzzed and a little silver box appeared on the pad.
"Where's Malcolm?" she cried, leaning forward and picking it up. She tapped on the top, as Reed had done with Jolas, and a silvery light whooshed out of the side. Malcolm stood there, but he did not speak. His arms waved frantically and the look of relief on his face was enough to tell them exactly what he wanted to say.
"Just hold on, Malcolm, we'll get you back to your body," said Trip softly as he took the silver thought-saver from Hoshi.
Hoshi was way ahead of them both---she was already shouting into the comm unit on the wall. "We got him, Captain! We got him!"
**********************
"You heard me all that way," murmured Malcolm softly, his hand clutching hers. "I don't know how but you did."
Hoshi's head was on his shoulder. "It doesn't matter how," she whispered back.
He smiled and they stayed like that for a few minutes, silent and just relieved that everything was over at last. The hunt for the Xindi would go on, the Expanse would go on, but Jolas was gone.
"Hoshi," said Malcolm, his voice muffled by her hair.
"Mmm?"
"Guess what I learned from all of this."
"What?"
"I'm never touching any skeletons ever again."
Hoshi snorted.
"Malcolm Reed, in anyone else that would be pure common sense!" she retorted, sitting up straight in mock indignation. "Idiot! Hello! Dead bodies...no touching!"
He looked up at her, a mischievous glint in his blue eyes. "I learned something else from this, love," he said softly, softly squeezing her hand.
"What was that?" Hoshi said, blushing a little as he leaned closer to her.
He didn't need to answer in words.
*********************
Well...turned it into a ship. But I couldn't think of another way to end it. Suggestions, criticism, everything except undeserved hatred gratefully accepted. Hope you enjoyed it!
Author's Note: Ok....I KNEW this was going to happen and I went and did it anyway.... completely lost inspiration for this story after I started writing The Shadow Riders. But here's my last-ditch attempt to finish what is turning out to be a fairly mediocre story. Sorry....
*********************
MIND AND BODY
Chapter 7: And Longer Punishments
*********************
They teleported onto the bridge itself, shimmering into existence before the surprisingly complacent eyes of the captain (relegated to the armory station) and crew. Hamisis and Thatmisit and the rest of the away party leapt for the crewmen advancing on them; Hoshi, her own head firmly ensconced in a silver circlet, went straight for Reed, who lunged out of the captain's chair.
She whipped out the weapon the Halparens had given her and fired; it caught Reed in the shoulder, and a smoking hole appeared in the fabric of his uniform, but he did not falter.
"I can shut off the pain receptors in this body," said Jolas scornfully through Reed's lips. "I need not stay in this body, either. You can kill him and all it will do is force me to take over someone else's mind. Go ahead, my dear Hoshi, kill me!"
She fired again and then as he stumbled forward, swung out with one foot and kicked him square in the chest. Reed's body flew backwards, cracking his head on the railing behind the captain's chair. With a lightning speed that Hoshi hadn't thought herself capable of, she leaped at him and swung the silver circlet from her own head onto Reed's short-cropped black. Jolas hissed at her and then fell back again, a look of surprise on his face.
"I don't need to kill you," spat Hoshi in disgust. She leveled the pistol at him and nodded for him to stand up. He did so, slowly, and as he stood, tried to whip his hands up to the circlet around his head.
Hoshi shot him again and he toppled backwards onto the floor, completely unconscious.
"Sorry, Malcolm," she said calmly, and then turned around to face the rest of the bridge crew and the Halparens. Hamisis
"Did you just shoot Malcolm?" asked Archer in an incredulous voice.
No, I shot someone else, duh. "Yes," said Hoshi. "But there are some circumstances that I need to explain, sir."
Archer looked at the Halparens and then back at Reed's unconscious form sprawled on the floor. "Good," he said. "I'd hate to think you just shot him for no reason at all." He stared at them all again. "Does anyone else have a really, really bad headache?" Hoshi rolled her eyes. She put a gentle hand on his shoulder and guided him to the captain's chair, where he sat and watched the ensuing flurry of activity with a very dazed expression.
The Halparens wasted no time. They removed Malcolm from the floor and flung him over Hamisis' broad shoulders. "I would advise that you remain on your ship, Ensign Sato," said Thatmisit. "Your crewmates will need assistance." And with that vague pronouncement, they shimmered into nothingness.
"Okay, then," Hoshi muttered, staring at the bridge crew. "Um... I'll go find the doctor. You all stay here until I get back. Try not to crash the ship."
"Okay," said Travis breezily as she headed for the turbolift. "How do I not crash the ship again?"
Hoshi's exasperated sigh echoed up the turbolift shaft.
******************
"He won't tell you where the thought-saver is?" Hoshi burst out.
"It's got to be somewhere on the ship, Hoshi," said Captain Archer under his breath. Four hours and a few hyposprays later, everyone on the ship had been returned to normal, including Sub-commander T'Pol. The Vulcan had already resumed her customary position on the bridge (albeit with Dr. Phlox hovering around her).
"He merely repeats that it is gone forever," said Hamisis wearily. "I have tried everything I can think of." The golden face crinkled with concern, magnified ten times by the large viewscreen.
"Hit him," spat Hoshi. "Good and hard."
"Ensign, I doubt torture will elicit any response," said T'Pol.
"It is not on your ship," said Hamisis. "We have scanned for it repeatedly. Your ship's emissions are not powerful enough to block our sensors, either. He has hidden it somewhere... or destroyed it."
None of the Enterprise crew responded. Hoshi shuddered and turned away from the viewscreen. "However," Hamisis continued, "if Jolas did destroy it, the pieces would still be emitting a very distinctive signal that we could pick up from all over the sector. I doubt this is the case, since no such signal is being detected."
"Can you find it if you scan our course?" said the captain hopefully.
"Unfortunately, we do not have time to scan your entire course," said Hamisis. "We cannot delay in bringing the criminal to trial. If you manage to locate the thought-saver we will transfer Lieutenant Reed's consciousness back into his body, of course."
"Wait a minute," said Archer. "You are not taking my crewman with you."
"At the moment, Captain, he is no longer your crewman," Hamisis said sadly. "I must report back to my superiors. I am sorry for your loss." He gestured to one of his officers and spoke in Halparen before turning back to the screen. "I am sending you the coordinates of the colony where Jolas will be held and executed, and the parameters of the energy emitted by the thought- saver. You will have three days."
"EXECUTED?" shouted Archer, face red with fury. The comm link shut off, though, and Hoshi could not reestablish it. Her hands shook and a cold chill crept up her spine.
"Three days and two men die," said the captain, hitting the arm of his chair. "Did you get those coordinates and scanning parameters?" he barked at Hoshi. She nodded, not trusting her voice right then.
"Then get started retracing our steps. He's got to be out there somewhere." Archer pounded his fist again and then slumped into his chair, shaking his head.
*********************
The stars whizzed by, eternally revolving around him, dark and silent and far away. Had he possessed eyes or a face any longer, Malcolm would have been ready to let the tears spill in a torrent down his cheeks. Hoshi was claustrophobic, this endless space would have suited her, but all he wanted were the bulkheads of a good strong ship around him once more.
He could not control his motion. He could not make himself stop spinning with the thought-saver, though he knew Jolas had been able to do the same when he had carried the alien down the hallways of Enterprise.
Not that it really matters, Reed screamed at himself. Bloody stars in each direction, nothing but bloody stars in any direction. He wanted to be sick, but the nerves and organs which would allow him to do that were gone. He was a shell, as empty as the space around him.
Hoshi... she had done something that made Jolas angry... she had done something that caused him to have his body stolen and stuck in a little box, unable to move and unable to speak, unable to do anything but look into eternity...
He felt no resentment, though. He was desperately worried about what that alien was doing to his ship... his crew... his friends... Hoshi. His mind screamed and he tried desperately to flail his arms in distress, but he couldn't feel it, even though he saw the holographic arms shining in front of his eyes.
Maybe he would go crazy soon and forget that he, Malcolm, existed. Maybe he would go to sleep and never really wake up. Eternity, Jolas had said. Enjoy eternity.
What was that bastard doing to his ship? How had he let it get this far? How had he let it go?
Hoshi's face in the Mess Hall a few nights ago danced in his memory. Laughing, smiling, happy as they talked far into the night, far later than was proper.
And he screamed so loud, in his own mind, that he felt the bonds of sanity break loose, he felt something rip inside his thoughts; Malcolm Reed screamed into eternity.
The stars whirled around him, silent as always, and watched him with uncaring dignity. They did not hear his cries.
Someone else did.
**********************
She hadn't left her post for almost twenty-four hours.
Archer had tried ordering her off the bridge once. Hoshi had staunchly refused, and instead of having her arrested and court-martialed, the captain gave in and let her stay. Someone had brought a plate of food from the mess hall, and it lay untouched on the edge of the console. She didn't know what it was, and she didn't know who had brought the plate to her.
The captain had been in and out of the bridge since the departure of the Halparens. Half the time he spent standing over T'Pol's shoulder, looking desperately at the scans as if his eyes could see something that hers could not. The other half, he was shouting at the Halparens on the viewscreen, who all resolutely denied his request for Malcolm to be returned.
"We will deliver the body of your crewman back to you," said the last one after Archer had treated her to a ten-minute diatribe on human loyalty and friendship and the despicable justice system of the Halparen outpost holding the trial. "It is far too dangerous to let Jolas loose again, however, and there is no guarantee that you will find your crewman's mental energies again."
"Body! Nothing but the body!" Archer exploded when the viewscreen clicked off, and refused to speak to any more of them. Hamisis sent a message once to say they had arrived at the colony, but he would not look at it, so Hoshi merely saved it in the database and went back to scanning the subspace channels for any sign of Reed.
She was tired now. Her eyes drooped closed, too heavy now to stay open, and she slumped a bit forward in her chair. The ship's engines droned in her ears, a comforting and familiar hum.
Mustn't sleep...
But her body had stayed up long past its endurance already, and almost without her consent her mind drifted off into oblivion.
And then she heard it...
Malcolm.
Malcolm screaming!
Hoshi bolted upright and, in one smooth movement that completely surprised even her, vaulted completely over her station, landing in front of a very startled Travis Mayweather. "Head that way," she cried, nearly pushing him out of his chair to point at the stellar charts displayed on the pilot's station.
"What? Why?" said Travis, his face utterly dumbfounded.
"Just do it!" Hoshi cried. She heard Reed's agonized yells in her mind and dimly heard her own name among the static. It grew louder as Mayweather, with a shrug, put the new heading into the computer. For a few moments the bridge was silent around her, the tapping of Mayweather's hands on the console the only sound in the room.
Sub-commander T'Pol gave a very un-Vulcan-like start of surprise. "Scanners detecting readings along specified parameters," she said with a raised eyebrow. "Thought-saver detected."
"Call Trip and tell him to meet me at the transporter," said Hoshi breathlessly. Somewhere in the back of her mind she heard a voice say insubordination, you idiot, but she didn't care. "Tell the Halparens that we found him and don't kill Jolas yet!"
T'Pol said something in reply but Hoshi was too busy tearing into the turbolift to respond. She got to the transporter nearly five minutes before Trip and was anxiously trying to activate herself when he came running down the corridor.
"Sorry, Hoshi, Captain just kept talking," he said, running a hand through his hair so it stuck on end. "Let's get our boy back in here where he belongs, all right?"
"Stop talking and do it!" Hoshi shrilled, the screaming in her head almost too loud to bear. Tucker grinned.
"Anxious, are we? What's going on between you two?"
Hoshi gave him a dirty look as the transporter buzzed and a little silver box appeared on the pad.
"Where's Malcolm?" she cried, leaning forward and picking it up. She tapped on the top, as Reed had done with Jolas, and a silvery light whooshed out of the side. Malcolm stood there, but he did not speak. His arms waved frantically and the look of relief on his face was enough to tell them exactly what he wanted to say.
"Just hold on, Malcolm, we'll get you back to your body," said Trip softly as he took the silver thought-saver from Hoshi.
Hoshi was way ahead of them both---she was already shouting into the comm unit on the wall. "We got him, Captain! We got him!"
**********************
"You heard me all that way," murmured Malcolm softly, his hand clutching hers. "I don't know how but you did."
Hoshi's head was on his shoulder. "It doesn't matter how," she whispered back.
He smiled and they stayed like that for a few minutes, silent and just relieved that everything was over at last. The hunt for the Xindi would go on, the Expanse would go on, but Jolas was gone.
"Hoshi," said Malcolm, his voice muffled by her hair.
"Mmm?"
"Guess what I learned from all of this."
"What?"
"I'm never touching any skeletons ever again."
Hoshi snorted.
"Malcolm Reed, in anyone else that would be pure common sense!" she retorted, sitting up straight in mock indignation. "Idiot! Hello! Dead bodies...no touching!"
He looked up at her, a mischievous glint in his blue eyes. "I learned something else from this, love," he said softly, softly squeezing her hand.
"What was that?" Hoshi said, blushing a little as he leaned closer to her.
He didn't need to answer in words.
*********************
Well...turned it into a ship. But I couldn't think of another way to end it. Suggestions, criticism, everything except undeserved hatred gratefully accepted. Hope you enjoyed it!
