Chapter Five --

Sitting up in bed, Malcolm took the water from Hoshi and sipped it steadily, shielding his eyes from the morning sun. "There are some things I won't be able to tell you…some things I don't know the answers to."

Hoshi remained silent, crossing her arms over her chest. "As I see it, you're in no condition to keep me here, so I would be as generous with the details as you can."

He could hardly contain the smirk that crossed his lips. This was the spitfire he had come to know and love. "I don't know where to start."

"How about the beginning," she stated simply. "Why are you here?"

Sighing, Malcolm sat up in bed. "Originally?"

Hoshi nodded.

"I'm here to prevent you from becoming communications officer on Enterprise."

Realizing this was going to be the equivalent of pulling teeth, Hoshi asked, "And?"

"Place the UT someplace viable so first contact missions go off without a hitch."

"Why do you need to stop me from joining Enterprise? If I'm not on Enterprise, how do I make the necessary upgrades to the UT?"

Malcolm grimaced at her question. He hated temporal mechanics and trying to explain them. "In my time…my string of reality…you're there, making the upgrades and contributing to the development of the UT. It's kind of an alternate reality."

Hoshi looked at him with a look of disbelief and little understanding.

"Look," he said, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Close your eyes and relax."

"Relax? You've got to be kidding me, right?" she retorted nervously.

"You're going to have to trust me sooner or later."

She scoffed. "Normally, I'm a very trusting person, but you have done nothing to inspire me to trust you. First, you accost me. Then you shoot me with your ray gun. Then you tackle me. Then – "

"All of which could have been avoided if you had just listened to me in the first place."

They glared at one another as silence surrounded them.

"You want the truth?" Malcolm asked finally. "I was sent to prevent you from joining Enterprise…to try to convince you to resign from Starfleet. But –"

"You already said that," Hoshi replied impatiently.

Malcolm closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to continue.

"For all I know you're some stalker –"

"The meeting in the bar was unintentional," Malcolm growled, losing control of his temper. He pulled her onto his lap and covered her mouth. "If you would just be quiet long enough so that I could tell you what you want to know…"

Her scream was muffled under his hand, and she tried to twist away from him.

"Trip was right about you," Malcolm chuffed, struggling to keep her under control. "Outside Starfleet regulations, it is impossible to shut you up."

Hoshi stilled, realizing she wasn't going to get away from him, and he started to relax his hold.

"I didn't know how I was going to approach you," he started to explain again. "I was running scenarios when the computer alerted me about the attempt on you life. You can't go back to the university. They'll find you."

"Who?"

He barley heard the muffled question and removed his hand. How was he going to explain the Suliban?

Crawling away from him across the bed, she straightened. "Why do they want to kill me?"

"I don't know, Hoshi. I can only hypothesize as to their motives," he lied.

"Why now?" she asked softly, feeling tears of frustration threaten.

He shook his head.

Grabbing the UT, she shoved it toward him. "What about this?"

Seeing the frustration in her eyes, Malcolm took the UT and placed it on the bed. He took her hands in his. "Close your eyes and relax."

He smoothed his palms over hers and she laughed nervously.

"You're not going to read my palms now, are you?"

Malcolm laughed. "No. I know time travel is confusing. I'm trying to give you a mental picture."

Hoshi squirmed uncomfortably and closed her eyes. Instead of a mental picture of time travel, a vision of him asleep in the bed passed through her mind.

"Close your eyes and picture a rope, suspended in murky water."

She opened her eyes and looked at him like he was crazy.

"It's either this or a tech manual," he said.

Sighing, Hoshi closed her eyes.

Convinced she was relaxed enough to "think outside the box," Malcolm continued. "Look closely at the rope, as though you're looking at it through a microscope. The fibrous networks of material weave together and fray. Each twine is a possibility, an alternate reality. The frayed ends represent endings. There are limitless possibilities."

Opening her eyes, Hoshi stared into his. She could see the representation, but had no point of origin she could comprehend. "It's so confusing. How do you make sense of any of it?"

"I don't," Malcolm stated emphatically. "Time travel has driven several people crazy. You just have to make your own sense of it."

"So your rope is…"

"The way I look at the possibilities," he said, unconsciously rubbing her hands in his.

--

Hoshi's line of questioning had lasted through the morning and well into the afternoon. By early evening, Hoshi finally fell asleep and Malcolm took advantage of the opportunity to shower. Physically, he was better. Mentally, he was shaken.

His bout of temporal displacement disorder had subsided for now, but had left an unwanted side effect. While he had slept, he had dreamt -- but the nightmares he was so accustomed to had never arrived. Instead, his dreams were filled with Hoshi. Whether the dreams were alternates or just wishful thinking, he would never know.

In one dream, she had come on board Enterprise dressed in the blue tank top and khaki shorts she wore now. In another, she was asking him what his favorite food was and flirting with him like she had been flirting with him in the bar.

And in another dream, he overheard her talking to herself, saying how it hurt being around him and not being able to do anything about the attraction she had for him.

But the most memorable dream of all was how she looked after she returned from Risa. She never did look him in the eye and he could have sworn he saw a slow blush creep up her neck when he asked how her trip was.

Some of the dreams seemed so real, like they had been actual parts of his life. Others seemed bizarre, like her rescue from the Xindi probe. Shaking the thoughts from his head, Malcolm stepped out of the shower.

His main focus now was to keep her alive – but for how long? Were the Suliban going to stop looking for her once the event horizon passed? Would she ever be truly safe – safe to live the happy life he'd always envisioned for her? He knew her pursuers were still here – the computer had not informed him of another shift.

Drying off, Malcolm pulled his shorts on. Either way, he wasn't going back until they were gone.

He walked out of the bathroom and stopped in his tracks. Hoshi was sitting on the edge of the bed with the UT in her hand.

"I've resigned myself that I won't get any big answers from you, so how about little ones?" Hoshi asked, running her hands over the UT as though it were alive.

"I thought you were asleep."

"There's just something about being kidnapped by somebody claiming to be from the future that's a bit unsettling on the nerves. Wouldn't you agree?" she asked softly, her eyes dropping to his chest.

"There's a sleep aid in the supplies," Malcolm replied. "Maybe you should try some."

She shrugged and got off the bed. "I've been looking at the UT and wanted to ask you some questions."

"Why? I won't answer them," he replied, holding his hands up in surrender. "My knowledge of how the UT actually works is very limited, so I probably won't be able to answer your questions."

"Why do I not find that surprising," Hoshi sighed. "You obviously aren't one to sweat the details."

His roar of laughter probably could have been heard a mile away. He should be insulted, but he wasn't. She didn't know him very well yet.

Tossing the UT aside, she watched the play of muscle on his back as he pulled a shirt over his head. "So…um…do I have any children in the future?"

Malcolm stilled. "Yes and no," he replied, referring to their time with the other Enterprise and feeling a spark of jealousy as he thought of the father of her children.

Hoshi threw her hands in the air in exasperation, and she decided to ask him a more direct approach. After all, what did she have to lose? "Do we become lovers?"

"No," he called over his shoulder as he beat a hasty retreat to the kitchen.

Following him, Hoshi stated, "Pity."

Malcolm laughed again, knowing she was flirting with him again. "I'm your superior officer, Ensign. It's against regulations." Opening a cupboard, he took two ration packs out and tossed one to her. "Are you hungry?"

Hoshi set hers down, walked toward him, and smiled. "Since we aren't going to be serving together –"

"Don't, Hoshi," he whispered harshly, looking at her in a way that quieted her. The playful mood was gone for him, replaced with the familiar ache of loving her all these years.

TBC --

A/N -- This is my shameless plug for feedback. Insert puppy dog eyes here.