In their cells along the long corridor underground on the alien planet, Trip and Malcolm were bored. There wasn't really anything they could do. Both were far too worried about Hoshi to actually try and find something to entertain themselves with.

In the cell next to Trip, T'Pol was still unconscious…. They were now just hoping that she hadn't got a head wound and that she was in a coma.

Malcolm kept glancing over at the form of T'Pol. She had be placed so that her front was facing the back wall of her cell. After each glance he looked back at Trip and shook his head… telling him that T'Pol still hadn't woken up.

By now Malcolm had lost count how long they had been in the cells. He had even tried to fall asleep, but all he could think about was Hoshi… lying in the pod with the bulkhead in her… he couldn't go to sleep with those mental images going round in his head.

"2 hours." Trip suddenly said, finally breaking the cold silence. He was sitting up against one of the side walls, he arms resting on his knees, and he was hardly moving. Malcolm looked at the engineer. He was practically in the same position, just he had one leg on the floor.

"Excuse me Commander?" replied the Armoury officer in a little confusion.

"We've been here for two hours now."

"And how would you know?"

"I've been counting… not much else to do." Trip replied as he sighed deeply. It was not really the sort of thing that he wanted to hear… two hours since they left Hoshi back at the pod. There was no way that she could still be alive now. That thought was going to haunt Malcolm for a long time now. He did everything he could to shake it out of his mind, but no matter how hard he tried, it was staying put… like someone had glued it there with super glue. Malcolm looked down at the floor in front of him, and he was sure that his cut was still bleeding as he felt something wet fall down his cheek. He brushed it away with his hand. As he looked back at his hand he realised that it wasn't blood. It had been a tear.

"I know what you're thinking Malcolm."

Once again Malcolm looked at Trip. He hadn't moved an inch… not since Malcolm had last looked at him.

"And don't think the only thing I'm thinkin' about is how long we've been here… cause it ain't." Finally Trip looked at the Armoury officer.

"I know Commander." Sadness rang on Malcolm's voice. Once again Malcolm was looking at T'Pol.

Still no movement.

Malcolm sighed heavily as another tear slowly began to creep down his cheek. Eventually the droplet reached his chin and finally, due to gravity, it fell on the floor, splashing into smaller droplets.

&&&&&

Shuttlepod 2 managed to land in the field near to shuttlepod 1, without any trouble. Archer, Whyte, and a couple of other security members and Doctor Phlox stepped out.

"I'm not detecting any bio matter, except in the pod." Phlox reported, looking at his scanners. Archer looked at him as he talked and then looked around at the damaged pod. He signalled with his hands to follow him.

Archer moved round to the opposite side of the pod and noticed the hatch open. He moved over, pointing his phase pistol in case there were any intruders…. But there were none… the pod was empty… the only thing visible of bio matter was the large pool blood on the decking near one of the storage bins.

"Phlox!" Archer called. After a few seconds Phlox appeared and began to take scans of the blood. He looked at his results grimly.

"The blood matches Ensign Sato's."

But where were they?

Archer reached into his left arm pocket and pulled out his communicator. He flipped it open and began to speak.

"Archer to Commander Tucker." He waited a few seconds "Archer to Commander Tucker." He waited a few more seconds, but still there was silence.

"Captain!" a call from Whyte alerted him that something had been found. Archer moved over to where the officer stood, pointing at the area of ground. In the taller blades of grass, footsteps were visible, and they were leading off away from the pod, and into the trees. At three sets were clearly visible. "And that's not all. There's some blood just over there." Whyte added pointing a few feet away from him. Both Archer and Phlox moved to where he had indicated and sure enough a few small drops of blood were visible.

"Hoshi's?" Archer looked at Phlox, studying his scan results. All Phlox could do was nod in response. A couple of bleeps from Phlox's scanner alerted him.

"Also I'm detecting a small trace of someone's else's blood."

"Can you tell who?"

"It appears to be Lieutenant Reed's." Phlox stood up and moved into the pod and to the pilot's seat where Malcolm had been sitting. He didn't need his scanner to look for the few drops of blood that were on the console. Archer watched from outside the pod as Phlox looked inside the pod. "Both Lieutenant Reed and Ensign Sato are injured captain."

"Can you tell how bad?"

"Judging by where the blood is on this control panel I would say that Lieutenant Reed only has a cut on his head… As for Ensign Sato. The large amount of blood there suggests she has been seriously injured."

Archer turned to Whyte and the other two security officers. "Spread out for a bit… see if you can find any trace of them."

"Aye sir." The three of them moved of in the direction the blood was going. As they moved further away from the pod they began to fan out, but not too much.

Archer glanced back inside the pod and just stared at the blood lying there. The only thing he cared about now was that his four officers were all ok.