Down in the cells the three prisoners had finally been brought a meal. It was the only movement they had seen from the inhabitants of the planet since they were locked up.

The meal consisted of what looked like chicken, a couple of slices of bread and a glass of water. T'Pol looked at the food on her tray and was feeling a little queasy at the sight of the meat. However she still drank the water, and the pieces of bread that hadn't touched the meat.

Trip and Malcolm however were too upset about the loss of Hoshi to actually eat anything.

"When the captain finds us I highly doubt he'll want to have three of his officers dead." She stated as she pushed the tray away from her so she was close to the forcefield to talk to Malcolm. He glanced over at her. It was more likely that Malcolm hadn't even realised that the food had been brought to him.

Seeing that T'Pol was right Trip began to eat… even if it was only a few bites of the bread. "She's right Malcolm."

"I'm not hungry." He replied as he looked away from his friends and sat staring at the opposite wall.

Trip couldn't believe what he was hearing from him. He knew that Malcolm did have feelings for Hoshi, but he didn't realise they were this strong. "Do you really think that Hoshi would want to see you like this?"

Malcolm looked at Trip, but immediately went back to looking at the wall again. But Trip wasn't going to give up on him that easily. he tried a different approach

"If you don't eat something, as soon as we get out of this I'm gonna bust your ass from here to Pluto!"

Both T'Pol and Malcolm were surprised at the tone of voice he had taken to, and resorting to violence. But that still didn't seem to make him touch his food.

Trip sighed. He knew he had to try another approach.

"I know Hoshi would not want you to be like this Malcolm. And if you really loved her, you would know that too."

Malcolm had never told anyone how he felt about Hoshi… he hadn't even told Hoshi… But that was never going to be now. The three of them knew that she was dead. Without any immediate medical attention she… Malcolm just didn't want to think about it any more.

He looked at the engineer again and instantly T'Pol and Trip could see the tears running down his cheek.

All Trip wanted to do was go over to him to give him comfort. He was getting annoyed about being in the cell… separated by the forcefields. He looked around his cell, noticing that Malcolm still wasn't eating anything. He then noticed a small panel, under his bed, about 3 inches ². He scrambled over to it, crawled under the bed and removed the panel. Behind it were lots of wires.

Malcolm had once again looked over at Trip and noticed what he was doing. He wiped away his tears and looked under his bed and sure enough there was a panel. He removed it and found the same number of wires. T'Pol however just watched Malcolm, intrigued by his actions.

Trip looked at the wires and then at Malcolm.

"How many wires have you found Malcolm?"

Malcolm counted each wire carefully. "I count about 17."

"That's what I've got."

"Are you suggesting that one of the wires might power down the forcefields?" T'Pol called.

"That's what I'm hoping."

"But also one of these wires could trigger off an alarm." Added Malcolm.

"That's what I'm afraid of." Replied Trip as he continued to look at the wires. He rubbed his forehead as he tried to think about the next move. It was pretty much like a chess game… move the wrong piece and it could be check mate for him.

It didn't really help the situation much that the 17 wires were only four different colours… Red, Blue, Yellow and Green, and Brown.

"What do you think Malcolm?" Trip called from under his bed as he looked at the Armoury officer, already he looked a little happier than he had a few minutes ago.

"You're the engineer." His reply was cold.

"Then why did you also get up and look at the panel?"

Malcolm stayed silent. He didn't have a response.

Trip looked back at the panel and the wires. He bit the inside of his mouth while he studied each one closely. "What do you say to pullin' 'em all out?"

"What ever you say Commander."

Trip sat up angrily, however he had forgotten that there was a metal bed frame directly above him, and he hit his head with such a force that the bed jumped up from the floor and crashed back down again hitting Trip's head for a second time. He pulled back down to the floor and rubbed a hand on the area he had hit. He looked at Malcolm, and Malcolm could tell he was clearly cross.

"You'd better clean up your attitude or I'm not gonna help you get outta here!"

Malcolm closed his eyes and swallowed hard. He didn't like making his friends angry, but he had done it now. "I'm sorry Commander."

Trip slowly nodded his head. That time it had worked. Malcolm had moved away from under his bed and had moved over to his tray of food, and he was eating it. He seemed to be the only one brave enough to eat the meat.

Trip looked back into the small area where the wires were. He knew that if he was going to try anything he had to do it soon. He looked at the wires, placed his fingers round one of them and pulled…