Chapter Six: Out of the Frying Pan...

Clutching the edge of her seat, Hoshi watched as Malcolm piloted the shuttle. A light blue haze much like that of a clear sky loomed in the cockpit windows.

"The nebula is populated with several Minshara-Class planets. With any luck, we can hide on one of them and wait out our pursuers," Malcolm said.

The ship lurched and Malcolm adjusted course. Alarms sounded and Hoshi did something she hadn't done since her father died – she prayed.

"Warning! Aft stabilizer is offline," an automated voice called out.

Malcolm grimaced as he held piloted the shuttle. "Just a few more seconds," he mumbled, hoping his plan worked.

The shuttle rocked again.

"Warning! Plasma leak in main assembly."

"I know. I know," Malcolm answered, using the manual piloting control to maneuver into the blue haze of the nebula. Once in, he steered the shuttle into a deep nosedive to shake off anybody who had seen where they had entered the cloud.

Sensors were useless here. He was as blind as any potential pursuers were. Like a madman, he weaved the craft through the electromagnetic currents of the luminous vapor, ignoring the computer's warnings.

Hoshi screamed and that finally broke his concentration. He turned to see her limping toward a fire extinguisher. Seeing a black puff of smoke seeping into the compartment, he yelled for her to sit back down.

"Are you crazy?" she shouted. "We're going to die from smoke inhalation."

With a quick flick of his wrist and the pressing of a few buttons, he sealed off the panel that was spewing the smoke. "The fire is contained. Sit back down!"

The smoke that had seeped into the cabin swirled in the air and she felt her eyes sting. But she did as she was told.

"Warning! Warp core breach imminent."

"Bloody hell!" Malcolm muttered as he adjusted the controls.

The shuttle lurched violently and Hoshi was startled. "What was that?" she asked, afraid they had been found.

"That was me ejecting the warp core," Malcolm stated, not taking his eyes off the console.

"You ejected the warp core?" Hoshi shrieked. "Are you crazy?"

Making no attempt to answer her, Malcolm set a course for the nearest habitable planet. Hopefully they would make it there in one piece.

--

Either she had the worst hangover ever or a cargo freighter at warp five had hit her. Warp! Warp core! Ejected! Her thoughts ran rampant. "Reed!" she shouted as she tried to stand up.

There was no sound -- not even the subtle drone of the shuttle impulse engines.

"Reed!" she bellowed louder, finally managing to right herself. The gravity plating must be offline. It felt as though she were walking on the ceiling of the shuttle. Taking a shuddering breath, Hoshi prepared to scream for Malcolm again. She refused to believe the stodgy old bastard was hurt or possibly dead. "Re—"

"If you yell again," his muffled voice called from outside the shuttle, "I'll tape your mouth shut," providing I can find any.

Hoshi limped toward his voice, relief flooding her. Crawling over some debris, she made her way to the hatch and crawled through it. The shuttle was actually half way on its side which made the squeeze through the hatch a little uncomfortable. "Where are we? When will the security detail arrive? What happened? How did you find me so quickly? What have –"

With each question she asked, Malcolm stepped closer to her. His patience worn thin, he finally clasped his hand over her mouth. "I managed to run some scans of the nebula. We're in the nebula. I've turned the locator beacon off. Chances are the bad guys would find us long before the good guys would," especially since the good guys haven't a clue as to where to begin to look for us. But he wasn't about to tell her that.

"As far as what happened…" he said, and removed his hand. "I was hoping you could tell me what happened?"

Nervously biting her lip, Hoshi looked at the ground and then the ship. The last forty-eight hours of her life had been a nightmare and she was still trying to sort things out.

It had seemed like a harmless prank. She just wanted to get away from him. She and Travis had joked about how easy it would be. Feeling the sting of tears threaten, Hoshi swiped her sleeve over her eyes. A torrent of emotions passed through her – embarrassment, anger, relief.

It was too much for her. Her normally docile yet boring world had been turned inside out and it was overwhelming.

"What happened?" he reapeated. "How did your personal security field fail?" He was asking himself more than he was asking her. He already knew the answer. Her former captain what at the top of his list of suspects. Archer had the opportunity. Everybody has the motive. Undoubtedly, he had sabotaged her secure beam-out block.

"I don't know," she replied softly.

He squinted, sensing that she was hiding something. She didn't trust him, but then he hadn't given her much reason to. "Look, Hoshi. I need to know everything that seemed out of place. Did Captain Archer say or do anything strange lately? Did he give you any presents…any jewelry? Did he –?"

"Why are you asking so much about Jon?"

Malcolm stared at her as though seeing her for the first time. Her hair and eyes were wild. Her forehead was bruised, although the bump had receded. The jumpsuit hung on her body like it was an old and wrinkly skin. She had all of her weight on her good foot due to her sprained ankle. She would be fine physically. He had already ascertained that. Nothing was broken.

She looked as though she would fall to pieces. Would she understand his suspicions? Would it break her to know that the man who raised her and protected her most of her life had betrayed her?

"You suspect Jon!"

His worrying stopped abruptly. After all, he wasn't Jon and he had told her from the beginning that he wasn't going to coddle her like Jon had. "Did he ask you to do anything out of the ordinary lately?"

The thought of Jon possibly being in on her abduction made her nauseous and she limped toward the shuttle and leaned against it. Putting her hands over her face, she cried. "W—why do you think Jon had anything to do with this?"

Malcolm sighed, running his hand across his face in frustration. He'd barely heard the muffled question and now she was crying. Could things get much worse? He had little patience or time for a hysterical woman.

"The night before we were scheduled to leave, the captain recommended a last-minute change in our travel plans. He suggested we fly out of LA instead of San Fran. The transporter net at LA is notoriously weak. Anybody can transport in and out of that facility. Your own transponder is tied into the global network. It's what keeps you from being beamed away –"

"I know all about my transponder," Hoshi interrupted. "Jon gave me lesson after lesson on it. Told me never to take the ring off."

Annoyed that she had interrupted him, Malcolm started to pace. "Add that to Archer's relationship with Tucker…" He let the assumption hang in the air like a foul odor, waiting for her to make the connection and hoping she had the strength to work through this all.

She sniffled and wiped the tears away. "Jon has nothing to do with this," she stated softly. "You're making assumptions that have no grounds."

"Oh really?" Malcolm scoffed. "And who do you think is responsible for your abduction?"

"Travis Mayweather," she whispered.

Malcolm blinked. "What does your dope of a lover have to do with this?" he questioned, waving his hand from her to the lopsided shuttle.

Hoshi licked her lips, her throat suddenly dry. "Well…"

Malcolm's gaze narrowed and he sighed. "Please do tell me who you think masterminded this."

"Travis came up with the plan," Hoshi said. "I was supposed to go off by myself…to the restroom. He said I needed to dematerialize in private to buy us some time. I didn't think it would work once we changed our departure site. He gave me a ring and said it would feed off my regular transponder and boost my signal for transport through any anti-transporter nets. When I materialized Captain Tucker was waiting for me. It wasn't until I woke up that I realized what had happened."

Looking at him and waiting for him to react, Hoshi took a step back. He was like a statue. It didn't even look as though he was breathing, and her hand itched as she resisted the urge to reach out and poke him.

"I-I j-just wanted to get away," she stammered, suddenly scared more of his reaction than of any would-be abductors in the nebula.

He stared past her, just over her shoulder, not even listening to her anymore. He had heard enough. They were stranded only God knows where because of her.

Pissed! He was beyond pissed! He wanted to kill her. He wanted to throttle her. He just wanted to get away from her.

Backing away from her before he hit her, he growled. "I quit."

--

TBC