Marlaya watched as a woman placed her hands over a man's body. Very soon a pale lilac glow began to show. The man lay on a bed and the room was small. The woman was wearing a beautiful gold head-dress and a rich red coloured dress, obviously she was a very important woman. The pale glow died down and the man sat up, smiling.

"Thank you Seejeah." He said, placing his hands ontop of hers and slightly bowing before her. Seejeah stood up and moved over to Marlaya, but she was younger, she looked more like ten years old, not nineteen.

"In time Marlaya when it is time for you to take your rightful place, you will have to do what I have done. You will learn one day." she said. her voice was calm and gentle, and it indicated she had a lot of knowledge and wisdom.

"Mother, there are so many things I still need to learn from you." Seejeah placed her hands on the young girl's head.

"In time Marlaya. In time" Very slowly the woman began to disappear, the man, the room, all her surroundings began to disappear.

"Mother! Come back! Please! Don't leave me!" she kept calling until everything was black and she was just standing in a void of blackness. She fell onto her knees and cried.

8 crewmen quickly brought the two of them into sickbay on two stretchers. Marlaya was placed on the sliding bed and went into the imaging chamber to find out just how bad her injuries were. After a few minutes John and Malcolm came in to see how doctor Phlox's patients were doing. Phlox was standing by a bio bed taking scans of Marlaya

"How are they both?" upon hearing the captain's voice Phlox turned round to him.

"Commander Tucker is going to be fine. There are no injuries that can kill him." He said putting the scanner away.

"But we heard Marlaya screaming, we were sure the fight was over." Malcolm pointed out.

"What about Marlaya?"

"Her injuries are bad. A cracked rib, broken arm and her synaptic brain patters are a bit alarming. If she had been brought to me any later I'm most certain she would've died from it."

"So, how do you explain Trip's condition?"

"I don't know. Marlaya was the last person to be with him awake, you'll really have to ask her."

"When?"

"In a few hours hopefully." He moved over to his medicine cabinet and began to fill a hypospray with a clear liquid. He moved back over and injected it into Marlaya's neck. Coughing was soon heard from behind some curtains, the three men moved over to them to find Trip had begun to wake up.

"Cap'n?" He said as he opened his eyes to stare into the face of the Captain.

"How are you feeling Trip?"

"Like I should be dead." He put his hand up to his chest where the sword had gone in but found nothing. "How long have I been here?"

"A few minutes."

"But, the sword. It went right into me. I was sure I died!" Trip said stunned, shocked and completely confused. "Where's Marlaya?"

"She's resting. She's been unconscious since we beamed her onboard." Malcolm explained to his good friend.

"I suggest that if you're going to go straight back to work you take things slowly."

"Sure." He sat up and realised that his wrist was no longer hurting. He looked at it and realised no slash mark. John saw the odd expression Trip was showing on his face as he looked at his wrist.

"Something wrong Trip?" John looked at Trip with a puzzled look on his face.

"Triaan had managed to cut my wrist with his sword, that's what gave him the opportunity to thrust the weapon into me." Trip looked up at his friend. No one had an explanation to anything Trip was saying. Maybe Trip had hallucinated the whole thing. Maybe he had caught a virus or something or he had been captured by aliens who had some advanced technology which could probe into the mind of the victim producing circumstances and that fight had all been in his head, but it was highly unlikely cause the pain from the sword had felt so real.

"I think you should have the day off Trip." John said as he placed a hand on his companion's shoulder.

"Thanks Cap'n. I think I will" John and Malcolm turned and left. Trip stood up and moved over to where Marlaya was lying on a bed. Several hours later and John came back to sickbay. He saw that Marlaya was sitting up on the bio bed, Trip was no where to be seen.

"Captain." Marlaya said with a slight nod as he approached her.

"How are you?"

"I'm all right thank you sir." But the way she said it forced him to realise that she was lying to him. The fact that Trip wasn't with her had proved that as soon as he had come though the door.

"Where's Commander Tucker?" Marlaya looked away from him.

"I think he's in his quarters." Seeing the look on Marlaya's face told Archer that they had had an argument or something like that.

"What's happened?"

"I was explaining to him how his wounds have healed so fast."

"And?" He said as he sat down on the biobed next to Marlaya.

"Some Tarnisians are born with the natural ability to be able to heal people. But only very few people could do it. I think the odds were something like every 5 in 60 million could. The way to know if someone has the ability is just to look at their eyes and see if they're a pale lilac colour, like mine are. People like me were called Peasos."

"Can Peasos heal themselves?"

"Yes, but only in certain circumstances."

"Like…?" Archer slightly cocked his head to one side and waited for her reply.

"Like if they were life threatening such as cracked ribs."

"So why didn't you?" sensing confusion in Archer's voice, Marlaya tried her best to explain things, even though she wasn't quite sure of the answer herself.

"I can't. I've never understood why, but I've never been able to with injuries like that on myself. I always believed I was too young be able to have the concentration and the energy, experience and confidence to do it, but I knew someone who was 5 years younger than I was and could still do it. My family never understood the reasoning either. And Trip certainly hasn't. He only know up to the part that it's 5 in 60 million who have the ability."

"So, what made him leave after that?"

"I don't know. I think maybe he's just shocked by the whole experience, cause he was dead, for a few minutes while I was healing him."

"I'm sure that after he's had a good rest he'll feel better. Are you hungry?"

"No thank you sir." Maralaya shoock her head, her hair waved as her head moved. John nodded his head, turned and began to leave. "Captain!" Marlaya quickly called after him. he turned back round to look at her. "What's going to happen with me? I mean where am I going to go? I don't have a home or a family any more." John had no reply to her question and he was struggling to think of things to say.

"Get some rest." He finally said. "We'll talk about it later." Marlaya just nodded her head knowing that a decision had not yet been made. She didn't want to leave Enterprise. She liked it, she liked the crew, she like the captain, but most of all she liked Trip. Archer smiled at her and left.