Chapter Sixteen

Stepping into her newly restored quarters, Hoshi sighed. She was one of the fortunate few who had a working shower, and she could no longer ignore the lure of the simple luxury. The events over the last six hours were quickly forgotten as she started peeling the jumpsuit from her body.

They had survived, at least Enterprise had. If what their "descendants" said were true, then the crew would pair off and have children of their own. It was unnerving to say the least. Like everyone else, she had peeked into her future and had seen she had two children. She stopped, not wanting to know who the father was, but envisioning her son and her daughter with Malcolm's eyes. Yet her brief encounter with Malcolm Reed, time traveler extraodinaire, had shown her that nothing was ever set in stone.

Hoshi kicked off her boots, and stepped out of her uniform and into the shower. Turning the knob, she made no attempt to back away from the cold water. A sound caught her attention, but she dismissed it, her greed to get clean overriding sense of caution.

He wanted to turn away, but the sight of her stirred memories of desire he had tried denying since their conversation in the bar. Stepping into the shadows, Malcolm watched and waited, feeling the immediate curiosity of his present self as he noticed the small energy spike inside Hoshi's quarters. Even though the transporter signal was masked, it wasn't totally undetectable.

Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe he shouldn't have come. He closed his eyes as a vision of his console appeared in his mind. It was like being in two places at one time. The problem was that just as he felt his thoughts and pictures of what he was doing now, his

present self was surely feeling and seeing what he was doing as well.

The water clicked off and he shrank back into the shadow of her cabin.

"Damn," she cursed and padded out of the bathroom, dripping wet without a towel. She opened her closet and pulled two towels out, quickly wrapping her hair in one and the other around her body.

The sight of her glistening, naked form stirred him and he gasped.

Hoshi turned, clutching the towel to her chest.

He stepped out of the shadows, paying close attention to the emotions that played across her face.

Shock turned to apprehension as she approached him thoughtfully as though she was afraid he would disappear in front of him.

"Are you a dream?" she whispered, reaching out to touch him.

Malcolm should have stopped her from touching him, but he was weak and wanted to feel her flesh against his.

Tracing her hand over his face and running her fingertips over the aged lines of his face, Hoshi stared at him. Shock turned to reason, which was quickly turning into anger. He had manipulated and lied to her.

She slapped him not once, but repeatedly, cursing him.

"How could you?" she asked, her hand connecting with his reddened cheek. "Seven million people!"

Malcolm lost count of how many times she slapped him, but she was only getting louder and he was getting worried she would attract unwanted attention. So he grabbed her wrists and pulled her into his arms, placing his hand over her mouth. "Be quiet," he pleaded gently. "We need you."

Hoshi's eyes misted as the illusion of normalcy crashed in around her. It wasn't over, he had inferred. There was something worse out there something she was responsible for. She swallowed the panic in her throat and nodded for him to let her go. As he let her go, she grabbed the towel and held it to her chest. "Why?"

The question hung in the air.

"Why didn't you just let them kill me?"

"I-- I "

"Why didn't you stop the first attack? What's going to happen?"

"Perhaps you should get dressed first," Malcolm suggested, his eyes lingering on her scarcely covered body.

Watching him closely, she dressed in front of him, pulling her underwear on underneath her towel then pulling a baggy T-shirt over her head, and then pulling the towel from under her shirt. Her eyes never left him, afraid he would disappear if she blinked.

Clearing his throat, Malcolm started answering her questions. "Have you ever heard of a grandfather paradox?"

Hoshi shook her head.

Malcolm sighed. "Imagine your grandfather. Now, imagine going back in time and killing him. If you killed him, your father or mother would never have been born. You would not be born either. Essentially, you didn't exist to go back in time to kill your grandfather. So it never happened. Now, imagine somebody else killed your grandfather. They not only killed your grandfather. They killed your father or mother, and you and any children you may have."

Hoshi nodded for him to continue.

"Multiply that by seven million, and "

"But you knew the attack was going to happen!"

His temper flared and he glared at her. "And just what would you have had me do? Take an advertisement out, or run up and down the street like a nutter?"

She was shocked into silence as his harsh words reverberated through the room. The man before her was not the same man she knew. He wasn't the same man whom she had met in the bar. The subtle changes in his demeanor frightened her as she saw the slight maniacal glint in his eye.

"It's too late," he muttered, starting to pace. "The paradoxical wave washed over the future my future. We won't survive another temporal incursion. There would be no chance of recovery. It would wipe humanity clean and --"

"What is it, Malcolm?" she asked delicately.

He stopped pacing, distracted by the muddled thoughts of his present self. Swearing he would never tell her of her role on his thread, he acquiesced. "I need you, Hoshi," he murmured.

She shied away from his touch. "Don't touch me."

Malcolm collapsed on his knees in front of her. "The Reptilians will abduct you and force you to decrypt a disarming code for the weapon. They'll destroy Earth."

Sinking to the floor next to him, Hoshi shook her head, not really comprehending what she had heard.

Awareness fractured through Malcolm and he grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "You've got to focus, Hoshi. Because I can't," he labored to say as he felt his present self dispatching a security team to her quarters.

Hoshi tried pulling away from him, refusing to listen.

"Events are in place. They can't be stopped," his voice rasped and tears formed in his eyes. "We have a plan, but it's risky."

He wasn't making any sense and she tried to get away from him, but she found herself wrestling with him and losing the battle. "Please," she pleaded. "Let me go."

He straddled her hips and pinned her arms above her head. "Promise me that you'll forgive me no matter what happens."

"You're scaring me," she cried.

"You've got to come with me. They're coming"

Hoshi continued to struggle, whimpering.

Flipping the communicator open, Malcolm said, "We're ready. Energize."

She screamed as she felt familiar pull of a transporter beam.