A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Y'ins guys rock!

Kuamuamu - damn

Going off my diagram of Enterprise that I got in my 2005 calendar, that's how I got the emergency hatch in the captain's ready room, although I really can't tell where it is, that's what it looks like.

Jonathan Archer had no idea what the hell was going on with his ship. The first time the ship had lurched, he thought they were under attack, but his tactical officer informed him that hull plating was holding, and there were no other ships on the sensors. When it happened again, Archer expressed concern that they had hit something. He distinctly heard Malcolm grumble something about "bloody minefields", but Mr. Mayweather had announced that space was clear – no obstacles whatsoever. As the ship continued to shake, Archer tried to contact engineering to see if it was an internal problem – again – but as he went to the com panel, the power suddenly went out.

"Do you think Commander Tucker had another accident?" Travis asked. Archer heard his voice, but could only make out his outline in the dim light.

Archer scrubbed his face with both hands and groped blindly for his chair. "I don't know, Travis. Let's hope not."

He tried the com panel, even though he knew it wouldn't work. He wanted to talk to someone in engineering so that he could find out what was going on – he would have preferred to talk to Trip, but he would have even settled for Kamea. According to Trip, it was only due to Kamea's…gifts…that the ship had not yet exploded, but Archer was still reluctant to trust her. But he needed to speak to someone – anyone. He didn't like not knowing what was going on with his ship.

"So are we just supposed to sit here?" Malcolm asked, and Archer could tell by the tone of his voice that he was irritated.

Archer sighed and cautiously dropped into his chair. "I don't think there's anything else we can do, Malcolm."

"Bollocks," Malcolm said. Archer heard him get to his feet and feel his way across the bridge to the turbo lift. Then, apparently, Malcolm punched the call button several times. When nothing happened, Malcolm kicked the door and uttered a few muffled curse words. Then he stumbled his back to his station and said, "Sir, the turbo lift isn't working."

Archer didn't like feeling helpless, but that's exactly what he was. Enterprise had arrived at a dead stop, and he had no idea why. He, Malcolm, Travis, and Hoshi had already determined that they hadn't been attacked, nor had they hit any stray objects in space. But with the power still out, he was unable to contact engineering to learn whether or not Trip and his team had run into more…complications…with their experiments.

He allowed Trip to continue with his tests because Archer also wanted to increase Enterprise's speed, but the ship had been practically crippled three times in as many weeks, and Archer was beginning to dread each new trial. He was ready to tell Trip to cut it out – even though he knew how much Trip would protest. But they were defenseless, drifting in space without power – no electricity, no sensors, no communications, no life support. In another few hours, they would all be dead.

Meanwhile, Malcolm and Travis had taken apart the helm station in an attempt to hotwire it, but Archer sensed they both knew it was useless. They, most likely, just needed to feel as if they were contributing, rather than just sitting on their asses – as Archer was doing.

"No," Malcolm's voice cut through the darkness, "if you touch those two wires together, you'll be electrocuted."

"Lieutenant," Travis said, "there's no electricity running through the wires."

"You don't want to take any chances, Ensign."

"We have to do something, sir. We're going to asphyxiate if we don't fix life support soon."

"Don't you think I know that?"

Archer was about to tell them to shut up when Hoshi suddenly spoke. "Do you hear that?"

She was sitting cross-legged on the floor near the captain's chair, but she stood up and looked around, obviously searching for the source of the phantom noise.

"You're hearing things, Hoshi," said Travis.

"Yes," Malcolm said. "We're all just a bit paranoid at the moment."

But Archer had known Hoshi a long time, and her hearing was supersonic – almost as acute as T'Pol's. if she thought she heard something, then she heard something. "Hoshi?"

"It sounded like knocking," she said. She moved around the bridge, following the sound only she could hear. "Coming from inside the wall."

"Jolly good," said Malcolm. "It's whoever knocked out our power, coming to kill us." Archer heard movement in front of him, and guessed that Malcolm was shifting his position on the floor. "They always knock, you know. Right before they slice you up with a chainsaw."

"Shut up," Hoshi said. There was a pause, and then she said, "Sir."

Archer saw a shadow move in front of him as Hoshi crossed to the starboard side of the bridge. Then he heard her walk back towards his ready room. "Captain," she said, "I think it's coming from your ready room."

Before she could reach the entrance, something exploded. The force of the blast knocked Hoshi backwards, but she didn't seem to be hurt. Malcolm, Travis, and Archer scrambled towards her, but in the darkness, Archer could find his footing and tripped. He reached out to stop himself from falling but only succeeded in dragging Travis down with him.

"Kuamuamu!" Kamea's voice came from the floor of his ready room.

Malcolm, the only one still on his feet, reached the ready room first. "Kamea?"

"Didn't you hear me knocking?" she asked. "I had to blow the panel out from the wall to get out."

Then Archer remembered the emergency hatch. It went all the way to G deck and passed right through main engineering, which was where Kamea must have been when the power went out. "Kamea," Archer said, "what happened?"

"How the hell should I know?" Kamea asked. "Trip sent me up here to find out the same thing." There was a pause, and Archer heard muffled shuffling, which he assumed was Kamea getting to her feet. "He and T'Pol are trying to get the backup systems to kick on, and I'm supposed to try and get the com working."

"You think you can fix it?" Travis asked, as Kamea confidently strode across the darkened bridge to the captain's chair.

She crouched on the floor and removed the panel. "Probably not. But it's better than listening to Trip and T'Pol arguing about what caused this."

"Do they have any theories?" Archer asked, wishing that he could talk to them. It felt as though he were without his right arm, with Trip and T'Pol down in engineering.

He could just make out what Kamea was doing, which didn't appear to be much. She obviously knew that any attempts to fix things were futile. "All we know for certain is that it was something on the outside. There's nothing wrong with the engines – they just aren't running."

Archer resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "It has to be an internal problem. There was nothing on the sensors."

Kamea glanced up at him. He could tell, because he could see her eyes gleaming in the darkness. "Captain, with all due respect, just because you can't see something doesn't mean it isn't there."

"You think it was cloaked?" Travis asked.

"I suppose that's always a possibility," said Malcolm. "A cloaked ship wouldn't show up on our sensors. But there wasn't any damage to Enterprise, other than the power relays."

"I'm telling you," Kamea said, "the relays are fine. They're in perfect working order. They just aren't working."

"Okay then," Archer said, and he had to bite his tongue to stop himself from calling her a name, "what do you think it was?"

"Well," said Kamea, "if I had to venture a guess, I'd say we just ran smack into a dampening field."

"A dampening field," Malcolm said. "Of course. That would explain why everything suddenly stopped working." There was a pause. "But dampening fields have to have a base – a planet. I've never heard of a mid-space dampening field before."

Kamea shrugged. "You asked me what I thought, and that's what I think. And if it is what I think it is, then we'd better come up with a plan fast, because we're never going to get our systems online if they're being jammed, and I'm not ready to die."