Chapter Four

"Status?" Hoshi asked while drumming her fingers on the command chair's armrest.

At first, the only response was a few beeps as the crewman tried to put all the pieces of the puzzle that lay in front of her together.

"I've located a spill several miles away from the first away team landing. I've never seen chemicals like this before," Shannon O'Shay said with a slight frown. "The chemicals are foreign to what we have in our database but I'm pretty sure that this is what caused much of the crew to become ill."

Hoshi could understand the crewman's concern. She was replacing someone who had suddenly become very ill.

Hoshi was thankful she had stayed away from any and all physical contact. She thought about the spill and what to do.

"Can we get a sample of the chemical and have Phlox scan it?"

"We could try. Maybe we could lock onto some with the transporters and beam it into a canister?" the crewman said, impatiently pushing her long red hair out of her face so she could squint at he console again.

"Get on it," Hoshi said, drumming her fingers once again. "I want Phlox to have a large enough sample that he can figure this out."

"Aye, ma'am," Crewman O¹Shay said and began contacting engineering.

Crewman Rossi and the rest of the bone-tired skeleton crew in engineering worked somberly on. There was too much to do, especially with three doing the work of 10.

Rossi flashed a weary smile of thanks as he was handed a steaming cup of coffee. He was doing what everyone else was, simply carrying on.

The call to beam up the toxic, foreign substance from the planet below only made matters worse. Two officers were needed to handle the beaming-up process to make sure no potentially deadly mistakes were made.

Rossi rerouted the transporter to beam the substance directly into a container. One false move and the entire staff, and possibly the rest of the ship, would be contaminated. Diligence paid off. He had the cause of Enterprise¹s sickness before him.

Rossi took the container to sickbay and an eagerly waiting Phlox.

"We'll figure this out," he mumbled quietly. "We have to."

"Why didn't you tell us there was an accident on your world caused by terrorists?" Hoshi raised her voice in frustration and anger "You could have help us out and none of us would have been infected."

"We don't have a cure, that's why," Nak replied, scratching his leathery face.

"You could have at least told us where the chemical was dumped," Hoshi sighed. "It's going to take us at least twelve more hours to figure this thing out."

She was so angry with Governor Nak. Damn man was trying to save face and all she wanted to do was save the crew.

"I am sorry, Ensign Sato. How is your captain doing?"

How like Nak to change the subject away from his culpability.

"He's in sickbay," she said curtly, not wanting him to know that Dr. Phlox had ordered Archer there to make sure he was resting and not working.

Nak nodded.

"We're trying to find out who is exactly responsible for this act of terrorism. When we do they will be imprisoned for their crimes. There is nothing more we can do."

Hoshi mimicked Nak's nod before abruptly ending the transmission. She had nothing more to discuss with him.

Captain Archer sat in the decon chamber with Sub-Commander T'Pol as they waited to be checked out by Phlox.

Archer had his head in his hands, while T'Pol shivered despite the blanket that was wrapped around her slim form. The captain, on the verge of falling asleep, started suddenly when T'Pol began sneezing.

Looking over at her, Archer noted that the Vulcan's face was totally drained and tired looking. Archer scooted near her and carefully put his arms around her, trying to warm her. He laughed to himself. He was too warm and she had the chills, how like Vulcans and humans to be at opposite ends.

"Captain, that would not be wise," T'Pol replied, gesturing to his arms around her.

"We're both sick, T'Pol. It's not like one of us will become sicker. You heard Phlox, he's close to finding a cure for this thing," Archer said. He knew his sub-commander was cold, even if she had a fever. He wasn't going to let her stay cold.

T'Pol did not object any further. When the chills subsided, she fells asleep with her head resting on his shoulder. Archer didn¹t complain; he just held her closer and let himself relax.