Malcolm sat staring into space, well not space, but the screen in front of him. Which happened to be raining red and pink hearts. He was supposed to be setting up the test perameters for the phase cannons. The virus had had them off-line for a few hours, and the captain had authorised a test the next chance they got, and Malcolm had wanted to be ready. Had wanted. Now all thoughts of the cannons had left his mind. Infact all thoughts full stop had left his mind. Except one. He was just sitting with his chin in his hands staring at the screen, not really seeing anything.

"Sir?" Crewman Smith was standing next to him with a rather concerned look on her face. Malcolm blinked rapidly, and then faced her.

"Sorry crewman, did you want something?"

"Commander Tucker is sending up an engineer to help handle some of the malfunctions, we need you to check over this list of things that have gone wrong."

"Sure." Malcolm took the padd from her hand and began scanning through it. "Crewman? Did you put the door mechanism on here?"

"Oh no sir, I forgot."

"That's all right I'll tell them. Who is he sending down?" Malcolm asked without looking up.

"Ensign James." She said.

Oh crap. Not good, she was the reason he'd been distracted in the first place, and now he had to work with her, in close proximity. Oh crap.

Strolling down the corridor with a tool kit in tow, Jennifer hummed tunelessly. Someone may wonder why she was happy, after all she'd had more repairs in the past few days than the past year. The reason she was happy was that she got to spend the whole day, and probably more considering how well the virus was progressing, with Malcolm. She hadn't spoken to him since they'd told him about the virus, they'd all been really busy. Or maybe Malcolm had been avoiding her?

As she approached her apprehension grew. She pressed the button to open the armoury door and stepped in, well a little, and stood in the doorway. She heard a swishing noise and turned to see the door closing on her.

Suddenly she felt two strong hands grab her waist and pull her away. She held on to her saviour for dear life, even though they were now standing perfectly still clear from the murderous door. Her hair blocked her vision, she shook her head to let it settle and found her face millimetres away from Malcolm's.

"You gotta watch that door." He said softly.

"Yeah I noticed." S =he replied dryly. He smiled, a smile that lit up his often cold grey eyes, and she noticed they were more blue when seen from this distance. She smiled back.

Glancing down she realised they were still holding onto each other. She looked up and saw a blush creep from his neck into his face. He removed his hands abruptly, she followed his lead and removed her own hands, a little more reluctantly.

"Thanks Malcolm." She said.

"No problem." He cleared his throat and took a step backwards. "I suppose we better get to work then."

"Right, of course, where do you want to start?"

"The door?"

"Good idea."

"Bridge to Lieutenant Reed." Malcolm leaned awkwardly over Jennifer to the comm on the side of the jeffrey's tube.

"Reed here."

"Could you report to the bridge please Malcolm."

"On my way, Reed out." He turned to face Jennifer who had shifted to the other side of the jeffrey's tube. "Sorry Jen you can manage here on your own can't you?"

"Sure, but it won't be as much fun." She smiled.

"I'm afraid I can't do anything about that for now." He said feeling his face begin to burn slightly.

"You better get going then Lieutenant." She said.

"I would but you're sitting in my way." He replied dryly.

"Sorry." she said, moving slowly out of his way, brushing up against him in the process (after all those crawl spaces are very small). "See you later Lieutenant." She called after him as he made his way out.

Malcolm walked onto the bridge to find all the senior staff at their posts. He made his way over to his station quickly and sat down.

"It's not here." Archer said.

"I'm sorry sir? What's not here?" Malcolm asked.

"The ship, the distress call."

"Oh of course sir, have you scanned the area?"

T'Pol responded this time. "Yes, we found a warp trail, leading to a nearby system. However Commander Tucker and the Captain are of the opinion that it doesn't belong to the ship which sent the distress call."

"The trail is of a highly sophisticated engine, warp 6 capable at least. The ship that sent the distress call was no where near that, from the scans we have of it, it could do warp 2 at the most." The Captain told him.

"So, this warp 6 ship picked up the other ship and took it to the nearby system?"

"That's what it looks like. I've decided to follow them."

"Are you sure that's a good idea sir?" Malcolm asked.

"I don't see why not, if they don't want company we can leave, if they aren't there we have a whole new planet to explore." Malcolm nodded dejectedly.

"Travis set a course."

"Yes sir."

Did I say action? My apologies, it wasn't really was it? Oh well, different sought of action in the next chapter. You know what to do, REVIEW!