Chapter Seventeen – Swept Away

--

Trip fired another shot at Hoshi who was luckily beyond range of the weapon. Jon could see her arms moving as though she was swimming.

"What are you doing?" he demanded. This just didn't make sense.

Jon tackled Trip, grabbing his wrist, banging it on the ground, and trying to loosen Trip's grip on the phase pistol.

"She's getting away!" Trip hissed.

Trip struggled and Jon punched him, trying to subdue the man who had helped him search the last three months for Hoshi. He continued to struggle and Jon wrapped his hand around Trip's throat and squeezed, rage ensnaring him.

Didn't Trip realize he could have injured her? She could have drowned. They were both at the edge of reason, frustrated by having spent the past month fruitlessly searching in the nebula. Their government had abandoned the search for Hoshi months ago, but Jon had refused to give up.

Her mother had been devastated, and public opinion, although sympathetic at first, had quickly turned as it became clear how much the search and rescue was costing them. Jon had cashed in his savings, broken off the engagement with Elizabeth and started looking for Hoshi. Trip had approached him, offering his services.

Jon released his hold on his throat once Trip started coughing. It was over. Hoshi was alive and her abductor was apprehended. Adrenaline pumped through him and he stared at the ground.

He ignored Trip as the younger man rolled away from him, clasping his throat and retching. Jon picked up Trip's phase pistol and ran a hand through his hair. "She could have drowned if you had stunned her, Trip. Did you even think about that?"

Trip spit on the ground and gasped for air in response.

Nudging Malcolm's body, Jon resisted the urge to kick the shit out of him.

"Give me the phase pistol," Trip rasped.

Jon looked at the weapon in his hand, Trip's almost desperate plea sending a chill down his spine. The phase pistol wasn't set on stun like his. It was set to kill.

Months of conversation with his "friend" fell into place and a question Trip had frequently asked replayed in his mind. What if she ran when she saw him? Jon had always reassured him that she wouldn't.

Malcolm had disappeared right along with Hoshi. Jon had assumed Malcolm had been responsible.

"Give me the phase pistol, Jon!" Trip demanded, standing and holding his hand out.

Jon backed away. His savings hadn't been much and the ship he had purchased didn't amount to much. It had been deemed not fit for space travel and ready for scrap. He'd been blinded by Trip's innate engineering abilities to refuse Trip's offer. But something had bothered him ever since Trip had shown up – the other man's unexplained absence at the time of Hoshi's disappearance.

Trip had always been on the shifty side but Jon had always accepted that as part of Trip's character. Jon held the proof of Trip's treachery in his hand. He had tried to kill Hoshi. Adjusting the setting of the phase pistol to stun, Jon pointed it at Trip. "Why, Trip?"

"Why what, Jon?" Trip smiled, but the smile never reached his eyes.

"Don't," Jon said, tightening his grip on the weapon.

Trip's smile turned into a sneer and he threw his hands up in the air in mock surrender. "Even now you're trying to save her. How noble. How disgustingly noble. You were her surrogate father for how long? Putting your life on hold for the privileged brat. You wasted over twenty years protecting a symbol. A symbol of a government that needs to rid itself of archaic notions.

"I'm not the only one who feels this way. You're an old man, Jon. You can't spend your entire life trying to save her. You've already sacrificed so much. Elizabeth will never take you back now."

Jon's grip on the phase pistol loosened as he listened to Trip. The mention of his fiancée wounded him.

"There are others who will do worse than me," Trip scoffed.

Behind him, Malcolm groaned, and Jon glanced anxiously over his shoulder.

"I should have killed her when I had the chance," Trip stated, his inflection even yet mercenary. "But Travis wouldn't let me. He wanted to ransom her. He wanted to collect the ransom, then sell her to the Orions.

"The Orions were champing at the bit for the opportunity but I didn't count on yer successor there following us. He caught up with us and spirited her away before I knew what was happening. I can't believe they survived. Their shuttle had taken heavy damage and they had even ejected the warp core. But I couldn't take the chance that they had survived. The search dragged on and the damn Orions pulled their funding because it was eating into their profit margin. Then our government stopped lookin' for her and I heard that you were going after her. I knew if anybody could find her, it would be you. You'd always managed to track her down before."

Malcolm groaned again, beginning to move as he started to come around.

Backing away from Trip, Jon knelt next to Malcolm, the man who had consumed his thoughts with hatred and revenge ever since Hoshi had disappeared.

Ending the standoff, Trip rushed Jon.

Jon didn't hesitate to pull the trigger and Trip fell to the ground unconscious.

--

Malcolm tried to sit up but an unfamiliar voice and a strong hand held him down. His thoughts were muddled as though he had been in a deep, dreamless sleep.

"Just lay still, Malcolm."

He froze, the fog lifting in his mind and memories rushing him to panic. He kept his eyes closed, feigning weakness.

"Hoshi's a good swimmer. She'll be fine," Jon spoke more to himself than he did Malcolm.

He opened his eyes and glared at Jon's back. Making a grab for Jon's phase pistol, Malcolm was easily deflected.

"What the hell are you doing, Reed?" Jon asked with unrestrained disdain as he glared at him and pulled his weapon.

"Where is she?" Malcolm asked, his eyes going from Tucker, bound hand and foot with cuffs, to Archer's hand. "What happened? Did your buddy double-cross you? Why not just kill him?" What hadn't he just killed him for that matter?

Lowering his weapon, Jon sighed. "This isn't what it looks like, Malcolm.

Malcolm cocked his head to one side. "I suppose you're going to tell me you had nothing to do with Hoshi's abduction. How much were you hoping to get for her? How long did you and Mayweather plan it? How –"

"I had nothing to do with this."

Malcolm scoffed. "You changed her schedule at the last minute. You sent us to a port where the grid was weak."

Jon was silent and Malcolm looked around him, trying to ascertain some strategic advantage to overpower Archer. Then something totally unexpected happened. Archer holstered his phase pistol and tossed the extra one at Malcolm's feet. "Believe what you want, Malcolm. She's out there somewhere and I intend to find her and take her home to her mother."

Staring at Jon's retreating back, Malcolm weighed his options. He could go along with the man he had blamed for endangering his lover or go look for Hoshi.

Malcolm stood up, swaying slightly from the lingering effects of being stunned. "What about him?"

Jon stopped, turning slowly to look at Malcolm, whose hand hovered over his phase pistol.

"As much as I want to kill him for what he's done, we'll take him back to Earth where he can have a fair trial," Jon replied, his voice laced with contempt.

Hearing Jon's declaration, Malcolm lowered his hand. "Where is she?"

"After Trip took a couple of shots at her…God! I was such a fool," Jon murmured. "Everything makes sense now. He was so sure she was in this nebula. I didn't even question him. I was desperate to find her."

"Wait a minute!" Malcolm exclaimed. "He shot her?"

His memories of the events leading up to this were fuzzy at best but he remembered seeing Hoshi in the water. He stared at the pool, waiting for her to surface and knowing she wouldn't.

"He tried," Jon continued. "His…the bastard had his damn phase pistol on kill. She was in the current, swimming away from us."

"Bloody hell! There are rapids up ahead!" Malcolm yelled and started to run along the shoreline.

--

Trying to keep her head above water and watch for boulders and debris, Hoshi's mind went blank. All thoughts left as her instincts centered on survival. The current whipped around her, whisking her in one direction, then another.

She was at the mercy of the river. It was deep and she couldn't touch the bottom. Hoshi tried to swim toward the shore, but she kept drifting closer toward the rapids. Up ahead she could see the many boulders that stuck up out of the rushing water. Hopefully she would be able to grab onto one and pull herself out to rest.

The current became violent, almost punishing as if it were enraged at her intrusion. It twisted and turned her at its will and Hoshi was unable to see where she was going. Her foot caught on something and she felt her flesh rip open.

The waves broke over her, unrelenting and demanding. Coming out of nowhere, a cold, solid mass stopped her forward movement, knocking the wind out of her. She clawed at the smooth surface as water forced her against the boulder. As if teasing her, the forceful water held her in place long enough that she thought she might be able to scramble up the slick surface.

A violent barrage of waves overcame her, dragging her down and buffeting her against the boulder, back and forth, as if she were a rag doll.

Finally it lifted and Hoshi broke through the surface of the water, grabbing onto the back of the boulder. Unlike the front, the back of the rock had edges she could grab hold of and climb.

The cold, ghostly fingers of the water relinquished their hold on her and she was able to climb to safety.