Hi guys. Thanks for the reviews. They were very helpful. Firstly:

Jazri: The question you asked about Alex? You'll just have to read on to find out. He he he. (I know. I'm evil)

Deaf Scout: Thanks for pointing out my mistake in the date. It was a typo. This is set in 2154 not 2151.

Drakcir and Dennisud: Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate the help as I love writing.

Ok, on with the story.

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Alex rubbed her eyes wearily. She checked the chronometer on the console in front of her and sighed. She had been in engineering for eight hours straight and was exhausted, but then, that was the way she preferred it. If she wasn't exhausted going to bed, she dreamed. They weren't nightmares, just memories and images of her life....

Moving into her new house with her parents, and some complete stranger coming up to her saying "I think you dropped this" in that adorable accent of his and handing her a necklace which had broken and fallen off her......

Remembering that it was love at first sight on her part, and even though she was only sixteen, knowing that she would love him until the day she died.....

Him sweeping her up in the air when they found out that they both got accepted to Starfleet...

Dancing at her wedding....

Her new sister-in-law coming up to her and telling Alex to "Take care of my big brother!"

Alex knew the most of the people on Hope dreamed of home, and found comfort in the memories. They caused Alex great pain as they reminded her of what she had lost. She always awoke exhausted, emotional and irritable after these dreams, so she felt the need to exhaust herself completely before going to bed.

Her stomach rumbled and she decided enough was enough. She'd get some food, have a shower and hit the sack. She was just turning away from the console when a voice said from the doorway

"Knock, knock"

Alex jumped in fright, and spun around.

"Easy, easy" James said, glancing at her hands. Alex looked down and realized that she has unconsciously stepped into a fighting stance. With difficulty, she relaxed. Seeing this, James detached himself from the bulkhead he was leaning against and sauntered forward brandishing two glasses and a bottle of wine.

"Since you missed the party, I thought I'd bring it to you"

Alex resisted the urge to move away from him. She hadn't told Lisa the complete truth about James. There was something in him that made Alex's skin crawl. She didn't trust him. His eyes were cold and calculating. There was no feeling or emotion in them. She instinctively knew he was dangerous.

James walked slowly across the room, looking Alex over from head to toe. "Damn, she's fine" he thought as he took in the sight of her. "And tonight is the night, James my boy."

"Why weren't you at the party"" he asked as he drew closer.

"There was work to do here. We had a systems malfunction." This was a blatant lie, but James wouldn't know this. He didn't know an EPS manifold from his elbow. He had no training n engineering, and he wasn't Starfleet. He had told everyone on board that he was in business. "Yeah, the business of fleecing people" thought Alex the first time she heard this.

A beeping from the console behind her brought Alex back down to earth, so to speak. She turned and noticed that the computer was reading brief surges of power in the engine.

"That's not good" she murmured. "That's not good at all"

James had sidled up to her at this point.

"C'mon Alex, relax. You deserve a break. Drink this wine with me. It will soothe you." While saying this, he ran his for finger down Alex's arm. She backed away, appalled.

"I don't need to be 'soothed', as you so charmingly put it. I need to monitor this problem before it gets out of hand."

James perfect smile faded a little, and his eyes narrowed slightly.

"Don't be silly. Work can wait, and you need to relax. I know. Why don't we have a drink, then I'll replicate you some food... in my quarters and we can..."

"Enough!!" Alex stormed. "I've told you before James, I'm married. And I will not cheat!"

James pride had taken a battering by Alex over the past few months, and that was the last straw. Thumping the wine and glasses down on the nearest available console, he stalked towards Alex and pushed her up against the bulkhead, pinning her there.

Alex was at first too shocked to react. All traces of phony charm and perfection were gone from James features. His face was shuttered and his eyes grew cruel. Her first reaction was "I knew it!!" But, James was talking.

"Wake up Alex. Face reality for one second here. When we get back to Earth, what are you going to do? Walk up to him and say "Hi. Remember me? I'm the wife that disappeared God knows how many years ago. I was abducted by aliens, but I'm back now, ready to disrupt your life!?! Face it Alex, he is one of three things: One- he is alive and well, and waiting for you. Two –he is dead. Or Three- he is married again with five kids. It is over Alex."

"Even if I didn't get him back" Alex shouted, enraged and hurt, "I would still NEVER SLEEP WITH YOU!!!"

James' fragile control snapped. Where as before, he had been merely restraining her against the bulkhead, now he used real force. Alex found herself crushed, and had no choice but to listen as James spat out "I was prepared to be nice. It would have been fun, for both of us. Oh well. This way is still fun."

James lowered his head and kissed Alex. It wasn't soft and gentle like the ones Alex remembered. It was punishing and it hurt. Shock froze Alex for a split second, then the anger kicked in, and her fighting skills classes during the academy came flooding back.

She grasped his wrist, and found the pressure point near his thumb. James yelped in pain as she squeezed, and he dropped back. Alex's fist connected with his stomach with a gratifying thud and he dropped away even more. Pivoting on one foot, Alex delivered a swift back kick to his chest. James crashed against the bulkhead, and slid to the floor.

"If you ever touch me again, I will kill you." She told him as he sat up in a daze.

James sneered back, "You'll regret this. You've just made one huge mistake."

A sudden rapid, loud beeping from the console to Alex's left distracted her, and James took the opportunity to run. Alex dashed over to the console and read the display in horror. While she and James had been fighting, the 'little' problem of power surges had grown.

She slapped the nearest comm. button. "Engineering to Jenson. Nick, get you ass down here now" she yelled into it.

She frantically tried to trace the source of the power surges, but to no avail. Five minutes later, Commander Nicholas Jenson raced into engineering. In his mid-thirties, he was the highest ranking member of Starfleet on board the Hope. Everyone looked to him for help and guidance. Though he wasn't a fully trained engineer, he had experience on ships, and with system malfunctions, which was more than anyone else on the ship had.

"What's going on" Nick shouted over the growing noise of warning beeps and the rising crescendo of the engine malfunctioning.

"I noticed power surges in the engine" Alex shouted back over the din. "They kept growing. I can't trace them and I can't stop them. We'll have to shut of the engine, and I need two people to do it."

"We can't shut down! It will take four days to restart it, if we had the equipment... which we don't!!"

"If we don't do it now, the ship will be ripped apart and the engine will explode. Now do exactly as I tell you, and we may have time to stop this"

Together, they managed to shut down the engine. As the loud roar diminished to a whine, and eventually was quiet. Alex hung her head in despair. Nick had been right. They didn't have all the parts to fix this.

They were royally screwed.

Nick seemed to come out of a trance as he stared at the engine. "What they hell happened!!??!!"

"James came down about an hour ago..."

"You let yourself get distracted by that conceited ass Hawk? I thought you had more sense...."

Alex cut him off angrily. "Yes I was distracted. Being attacked tends to do that to one!!"

Nick stared at her in shocked silence.

"He attacked you?"

"Yes"

"Why?"

"Why do you think? I bruised his itty-bitty ego when I refused to sleep with him. You have to do something."

"Alex" Nick answered sadly. "I'm afraid I can't do anything"

"WHAT??!!! You're the highest ranking officer on the ship!"

"But this isn't a Starfleet vessel and I'm not the captain. True, the nine Starfleet members of this crew do handle the running of this ship. But, it's because we have to. The rest don't know how to handle a ship this size. But, that doesn't make it a Starfleet ship. I have no authority to throw him in the brig, or beat him to a pulp, no matter how much I am tempted."

"That is seriously fubar. If I hadn't knocked him on his ass, he would have gotten a lot further, I know. And what if he goes for someone else, someone who isn't capable of fighting him off, then what? Oh God!"

Alex had started pacing at this point. Nick studied her for a while, and finally spoke.

"If word of this gets around, there will be mass panic on the ship. We can't confine him to quarters or anything like that. Right, for the time being, wherever James Hawk goes, he will be followed by a Starfleet crewman."

"But we are going to be out here for years. We can't follow him around the whole time."

"I know. This is just a stop-gap measure. We'll figure something out soon. Right now, we have a more pressing problem. Can we fix this thing?" he asked, gesturing to the ancient engine.

"First, I have to find the source of the power surge. That could take days. Then, once I locate the source, I have to fix it, which I can't do with this equipment." Alex sighed. "I need help."

"Ok, first thing's first. I'll wake up Woods and Harte. You've been training them in as engineers, and they're not bad, for civilians. Then, I'm sending a distress signal to any ship within range. Hopefully, someone will answer and help us."

"But the distress beacon is so old. I'm not even sure if it works." "We have to do something. I'll go work out a game plan; you get started on those repairs."

"Aye, aye sir"

Alex sighed as Nick left engineering to go wake up the crew. But, by the time she'd eventually get to bed, she'd be too tired to dream.

"See Lexie, every cloud has a silver lining" she heard her husband tease her in her mind. Feeling close to tears, she turned and began to survey the damage to the engine.

Typical. Just Typical.

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Trip waited impatiently for the turbo-lift to open. He was needed on the bridge – something about a distress call. The lift opened, and he stepped inside. Malcolm was already there.

"Bridge?" he asked in his clipped accent.

"Yep. Do you have any clue as to what this is about?"

"Not a one. I was hoping you did. I was in the Armoury when Captain Archer asked me to the bridge."

"Same here. Ah was talking to Ensign Hearne about upgrading the plasma manifolds when ah got the summons."

The lift stopped and opened to the bridge. As they walked to their stations, Archer asked T'Pol

"How far now?"

"They are at a distance of .5 light years form our current location."

"Any luck with that distress call, Hoshi?

"Yes sir. The closer we get to the source, the stronger the signal is. Though, it is still very degraded. It seems the beacon they used is malfunctioning, or else very old."

"Run it through the translator, see what you can come up with."

"Sir" Travis spoke up from the helm. "We have a visual on the ship in question"

"On screen."

Travis tapped a few controls, and the screen was suddenly filled with an image of a ship. It was rounded, with a flat bottom, 'beetle shaped' Archer thought as he examined the ship closely. It was made from a bright purple material that showed signs of age.

"Sir, I have some of the distress call. But sir, it's in English."

The crew exchanged glances of surprise. English? How was that possible?

"Play message" Archer ordered.

"...... Jenson.... Hope..... Critical systems..... Engine...... assistance..."

"That's all I could get sir"

"Keep trying. Try to clear it up. Are we within hailing distance?"

"Not yet sir."

T'Pol spoke from her station.

"Sir, scanning for life-signs.... Wait... That's not possible."

"What's not possible?" demanded Archer.

T'Pol seemed confused.

"Running scans again sir."

"T'Pol..." Archer warned.

"Sir." T'Pol answered at length. "I'm detecting 48 life signs on that ship."

"And?..."

"They're all human sir."

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[Fubar – Fucked up beyond all recognition.]

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