A/N: And I'm back! Sadly, didn't get it finished like I hoped I would, because I was also working on my "Without a Trace" fic (also was reading my way through like half a dozen books). But here, for your reading pleasure, is chapter 7. Chapter 8 - tentatively titled "Being a Guy" - will be posted tomorrow, to give me time to finish tweaking chapter 9, which I will hopefully have finished and posted by Monday at the latest.

Many thanks to the internet, assisting me in translating English into Hawaiian. Oh, and forgive me for Kamea's speech later in the chapter, but remember, she is fairly young by Vulcan standards, and she was raised on Earth. Also, I tend to write how I talk, forgetting that the characters aren't always like me. Like, totally.

"Enterprise" season 1 on DVD! Yay! I've already got mine, and if it weren't for my blasted sister and her stupid boyfriend watching their way through ourseason 1 of Buffy,I'd already have it finished. (Not that I don't like Buffy, but come on! Let me have the DVD player for once.)

No one tell me anything about the finale! My inferior cable system doesn't carry UPN, so my FOX affiliate replays Friday's episode on Sunday nights at 11, and therefore I won't get to see the last episode until May 22.

I heart you guys and your continued reviews! I hope these few chapters, while maybe not worth the wait (blame the government, guys, and not me), are entertaining, to say the least.

Kamea had the keen eyesight, so she led the way. Even though it was nearly pitch black in the corridors – the emergency lights did little to light the ship – she managed to find the ladder to the bridge. She slid the last few inches across the floor, ending up directly underneath the ladder. She jumped and caught the bottom bar, but when she began to haul herself up, Malcolm grabbed her ankle.

"What exactly do you hope to accomplish?" he asked, completely confused. And judging from the look on Trip's face, Malcolm wasn't the only one who had no idea what was going on.

Kamea kicked at him, but he held tight. "Look, I can't explain it, but something is happening on the bridge, and we need to get there."

"What makes you think something's happening on the bridge?" Trip asked. He sounded worried, but that was understandable. T'Pol was on the bridge, and though both of them outright denied it, everyone on Enterprise knew that there was something going on between them – despite T'Pol's marriage.

"I told you I couldn't explain it," said Kamea. "Let's just say I can sense danger. I think the Ferengi aren't trying to loot the ship. I think they're trying to steal the ship. And to do that, they need to take control of the bridge."

She started to climb again, and this time, Malcolm – his wrist still clamped firmly around her ankle – went with her. He'd forgotten how much stronger she was. He looked pleadingly at Trip, and the commander wrapped his arms around Malcolm's legs, providing an anchor.

"You're not going first," Malcolm said, tugging on Kamea's foot, trying to pull her off the ladder. He couldn't stand the fact that Kamea was doing everything that he should have been doing, as head of security, but if he let Kamea go first and something happened to her, he would never forgive himself. "I should go first."

"Why?" she asked, trying to wrench her foot free of his grasp. "I'm perfectly capable of doing this."

Malcolm gave one last pull, and Kamea's grip on the ladder rung finally slackened. She fell on top of him. They lay like that, with her on top of him, for what seemed like an eternity before Malcolm was rescued from certain humiliation by Trip. He had grabbed Kamea under each arm and hauled to her feet. Malcolm silently thanked Trip's impeccable timing and propped himself up on his elbows.

"Come on, you two," Trip said, setting Kamea down beside him. "Stop it. We've got a serious problem and you two are bickering like an old married couple." Malcolm chose not to comment, but Trip saying that was the pot calling the kettle black. Trip looked at Malcolm. "You got a plan?"

Malcolm nodded and got to his feet. In truth, he really didn't have much of a plan because he had no idea what he was facing. He'd never dealt with the Ferengi before, but he was in charge of Enterprise's security and he'd be damned before he'd let two engineers take control. "We get on the bridge."

Trip and Kamea exchanged a look, which Malcolm interpreted immediately as a "what an idiot" look, and then both of them turned their gazes on him. "That's your plan?" Trip asked. "That's not a plan. That's a statement."

Kamea snorted. "How, oh mighty armory officer, do you propose we get on the bridge? There are three of us against who knows how many Ferengi, we have no idea what condition the bridge officers are in, and you don't have any weapons."

Malcolm raised his eyebrows. "You said it yourself – we don't need any weapons. Just our hands, our feet, and our heads." He couldn't help but get excited – this was the kind of stuff he lived for. There'd been an unsatisfying lack of combat since their re-launch, and his late-night spars with Kamea weren't enough to get the itch out of his system.

She shrugged. "That's all well and good for you and me, but I've seen the commander fight, and it's not pretty."

"Hey," Trip said, sounding genuinely hurt, "what have I ever done to you?" Kamea opened her mouth to respond, but Trip spoke before she could get the chance. "On second though, don't answer that."

"I'll climb up and see what's going on," Kamea said, reaching for the bar once more. "Once I've determined the status of the bridge crew, I'll come back down and we can start banging out a plan."

Malcolm grabbed her shoulder. "As head of security, I really think – "

Kamea looked at him incredulously. "Are you pulling rank on me?"

Malcolm looked to Trip for assistance, but Trip held up his hands and shook his head. The meaning was clear – he wasn't about to get in the middle of their argument. Malcolm turned back to Kamea. "It is my job to protect this ship's crew."

"I'm not crew," said Kamea. Her eyes narrowed to angry slits. "You've never dealt with the Ferengi before. I have. You can't see in this light. I can." She shook her head and made a noise in the back of her throat. "This back-and-forth is pointless. I'm going."

She leapt up, caught the bar, and had disappeared into the chute before Malcolm could stop her. Malcolm went to the bottom of the ladder and stared up the tube after her, but he couldn't see a thing. He knew, of course, that sending Kamea was the logical decision, but he didn't want to admit it. He didn't want to admit that he was in a situation for which he was completely unprepared, and he hadn't wanted to send Kamea alone. She was excellent in a one-on-one spar with him, but he had no idea how she would fare against a number of assailants. And if the bridge crew had been incapacitated in any way – which they most likely had – then she would be facing an indeterminate number of enemies. The thought made him physically ill.

He turned his head at an angle, trying to listen. He could faintly hear the sounds of Kamea shuffling her way up the ladder, but after a few minutes, the sounds disappeared. He couldn't be certain whether that was because she was out of earshot or because she had stopped, and though he wanted to call out to her, he didn't. It could alert the Ferengi to what they were doing.

"Do you hear that?" Trip asked, after a moment or two.

Malcolm stretched on his toes, trying to get closer to the bottom of the shaft. At first, he didn't hear anything. But then he heard a clinking, as though something metal was bouncing off the rungs of the ladder.

Then Kamea's voice echoed down the chute. "Nānā pono!"

Malcolm had absolutely no idea what the hell that meant. He glanced at Trip, who shrugged. But a second later, they both found out, as Kamea fell from the ceiling, once again landing on top of Malcolm. This time there was no awkwardness as they waited for the other to move – Kamea scrambled to her feet almost immediately, pulling Malcolm up after her. She pushed Malcolm and Trip out of the way seconds before something small and black fell from the chute.

Kamea had just enough time to turn around and throw up her hands when the small, black whatever exploded. Malcolm instinctively reached to pull Kamea away from the blast, but Trip held him back. And then Malcolm saw why.

Somehow, Kamea had put up a force field. Instead of emanating throughout the corridor, the blast was contained within a small area, in what seemed like an invisible orb. Malcolm had never seen a nuclear explosion up close, but he imagined that the effects were similar. It was as though a huge ball of smoke was just floating in midair directly in front of Kamea.

When the last of the smoke had dissipated, Kamea whirled to face them. "I totally almost got blown up!" she said. "That is so not cool!"

Malcolm walked over to the blast site and crouched down to examine the fragments of the object. He knew better than to touch them – they were probably still hot from the blast – but he used his foot to sweep what he could find into a pile.

"How the hell did they get weapons that work?" Trip asked. "Our weapons don't work."

"It looks like a grenade," Malcolm said. He pulled the cuff of his sleeve over his hand and shifted through the rubble.

"Grenade?" Kamea asked, squatting nearby. "That's old school."

"How did they get a grenade?" asked Trip.

Kamea shrugged. She picked up one of the pieces. "Probably traded for it. That's what they do." She dropped her head back, so that she was staring up the chute. "And it's a good bet that anyone on the bridge has been subdued." She looked at Malcolm. "I couldn't get a clear reading, but there's at least half a dozen of them up there."

"They took an awful chance, didn't they?" Trip asked. "Trying to take over a ship with a crew complement of eighty with half a dozen people?"

Malcolm pursed his lips in thought. "Well, without our weapons, in the dark, it would be remarkably easy to subdue us. That's probably what they were counting on." He stood up. "We should gather reinforcements. This is going to be more difficult than I thought." He glanced at Kamea. "What did you say to me?"

She furrowed her brow. "What?"

"When you fell. What did you say?"

She cocked an eyebrow. "I said 'look out'."

He shook his head. "I've really got to learn Hawaiian."