A/N: This chapter is a might shorter than the usual ones, but that's because it took me a week to get this far and I didn't want to leave y'ins hanging for much longer. I promise promise promise that this story is fast reaching its conclusion and apologize for the obscene amounts of time that have passed between updates. I appreciate that you guys keep reading!
Reviews make me happy! Please review!
For a moment, everyone stood frozen. Archer could only gape at the Ferengi that stood before him, as though paralyzed.
But he had been in this situation before. He had been outnumbered, outgunned, outclassed, but he had always scraped through by the skin of his teeth. There was no reason to think that this time would be any different. He could do this. He could get through this. He had to. He hadn't come this far to let a few Ferengi beat him.
To his right, Kamea was just as still, most likely doing the same thing that he was – sizing up the situation. She wasn't very informative about her past, but he sensed that she had been in this situation before as well. And she had managed to handle herself earlier, on the bridge. Together, the two of them could do this.
Suddenly, and simultaneously, as if they had planned it to happen this way, Archer and Kamea attacked.
Archer charged the nearest Ferengi, barreling into his stomach and pushing him into the wall, while Kamea leapt into the air and kicked. Another Ferengi came at Archer from behind, but he crouched down and rolled out of the way. While he was on the ground, Kamea used him as a launching pad. It was like she was playing leapfrog – she braced her hands on Archer's back and catapulted herself into the Ferengi, knocking two of them to the ground in one pass. When one tried to sneak up on her, she went into a handstand, kicking him in the head on the way up. She launched herself backwards – an impressive acrobatic display – and landed on her feet several yards away.
"Captain!" she said, ducking just in time, as a Ferengi took a swing at her. She must have heard him coming. "Look out!"
He turned just in time to see more Ferengi coming at him. He punched, he kicked, and he fought his way through the mass of bodies. If he and Kamea could just get to the exit – if they could just get back to Enterprise – then everything would work out. Everything would be okay.
But there were just too many of them. Even when he managed to land a punch, there was another Ferengi to take its place. They divided into two groups in an attempt to separate Archer from Kamea. It worked. He was physically drained and lacked the strength to take on so many at once. In a one on one conflict, perhaps, he could have prevailed, but not when it was three against one. One grabbed his arms and pinned them behind his back, and no matter how hard Archer struggled he couldn't break free.
Kamea appeared out of nowhere, seemingly dropping from the ceiling and bringing everyone down with her when she fell. How she had managed to evade her attackers was a mystery Archer wished he knew the answer to, but even her last-ditch escape attempt didn't do much good. Archer ended up on the bottom of the pile, pinned beneath Kamea and at least two Ferengi, unable to move.
"Enough!" said one of the Ferengi. "Tie them up!"
Kamea was dazed from her fall, but it took four Ferengi to subdue her; she wasn't about to be taken without a fight. And she put up a good one, but in the end, there were just too many of them. She'd said it herself – she couldn't handle seven at once. Archer went only slightly more willingly – after seeing the lengths they were going to incapacitate Kamea, he wasn't exactly all that eager to undergo the same thing. So he allowed himself to be tied up with minimal resistance, resisting the urge to laugh when Kamea spit in her attacker's face.
Just to be safe, they gagged her as well.
Hoshi, Malcolm, and Travis had just finished combing D-deck when the power suddenly and unexpectedly came back on. Everything clicked to life, and Hoshi had never felt happier to hear the low hum of the electric lights above them. She hadn't understood the alternative power source that Trip and T'Pol had created, but was relieved when it had apparently worked. But now it appeared as though the captain and Kamea had managed to locate the source of the dampening field and shut it down. Hoshi nearly squealed with delight when the dark corridor she, Malcolm, and Travis had been exploring was visible again.
"Bloody hell," said Malcolm, looking around in awe as, one by one, the different systems switched on all around them, "they actually did it."
For a moment, they stood speechless, captivated by the seemingly mundane activity that was occurring – but for having very nearly suffocated on their breathing air, life support coming back online was anything but mundane. Then Travis spoke.
"What should we do, sir?" he asked Malcolm.
Malcolm was silent for another minute, obviously trying to come up with an answer to that question. Finally, he glanced up at Travis. "Let's get to the bridge, ensign. See where we stand."
They took the turbo lift, and Hoshi had to suppress the sudden urge to dance. No more climbing through those constrictive access tubes. Hoshi had developed a slight case of claustrophobia after having to crawl through the ceiling when the Suliban had taken control of Enterprise. At least she managed to come through this ordeal with her clothing fully in tact.
Commander Tucker and T'Pol were already on the bridge when the three of them arrived. Both were hunched over T'Pol's console, puzzling over some data – no doubt trying to discover exactly how the Ferengi had managed to dock without being detected. Hoshi went automatically to her station and was surprised by what she found.
She turned to T'Pol, the most senior officer on the bridge in the absence of the captain. "We're being hailed."
T'Pol stood slowly, looking about as uncertain as she would ever allow herself to look, and strode to the middle of the bridge. She nodded at Hoshi. "Onscreen."
It was the Ferengi ship – naturally, as they were the only other ship in the area – and the Ferengi who was presumably the captain sneered at them from the view screen, baring his pointed teeth. Hoshi fought not to shudder.
"Prepare to surrender," the Ferengi said.
Malcolm quickly moved to his station and dropped into his chair. He glanced at T'Pol. "Hull plating's at maximum. Weapons are charged."
"You don't want to do that," the Ferengi said. He stepped aside, revealing the captain and Kamea, both bound and the latter gagged, propped against the wall. The captain was sitting still, hardly moving a muscle, but Kamea struggled against the ropes that bound her. "You see, we have your captain and his slave. Try and escape, and they die."
Kamea suddenly burst free from her restraints, but the Ferengi appeared to have expected this. They quickly scrambled to subdue her once more. Two grabbed her arms as she swung them wildly about. Two more grabbed her legs when she kicked one in the head. She wrenched her arms free long enough to incapacitate another one, and in the melee she managed to removed her gage, but before she could say anything, a Ferengi hit her in the head with a piece of machinery and knocked her unconscious.
Malcolm immediately got to his feet, and Hoshi could tell that he was seething. She got the feeling that it wasn't just because of the brutal way they were treating Kamea, but because they had so viciously attacked a bound opponent. Malcolm was a tactical officer, and he didn't like it when people didn't play by the rules of sophisticated warfare that had been ingrained on him since he was a child.
The Ferengi captain rolled his eyes and shook his head, looking very put out about the situation. "That one's going to be a problem. I can tell."
"You great sodding bastard," Malcolm said, in a vicious snarl.
"Lieutenant," said T'Pol. It was the only word she said to him, but the tone of her voice clearly conveyed that it was spoken as a warning. She turned back to the Ferengi on the screen, and Hoshi had never seen her look so furious. "What do you want?"
"Rule of Acquisition number 42," the Ferengi said. "What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine, too."
Hoshi exchanged a looked with Travis. Rule of Acquisition? What the hell is he talking about? Travis seemed just as confused as she did, so Hoshi glanced back at T'Pol. If T'Pol was confused, she didn't show it. She looked at the Ferengi. "You want our ship."
The Ferengi nodded. "Yes." He used his head to gesture at the bound captives. "But your captain has destroyed the dampening field, which was our only leverage against you. Until now. Come quietly, or we will be forced to kill your captain and his slave."
T'Pol paused only briefly before speaking. "Perhaps we can make a deal with you."
"No deal," said the Ferengi. "We have your captain. We have your ship. There is nothing else you have that we want."
"You do not want this ship," said T'Pol. "It is in need of serious repairs. We have lost the warp drive three times in the past month. It would cost a great deal to return it to a satisfactory condition."
Hoshi resisted the urge to smile. She couldn't believe T'Pol had just lied. But then, it wasn't exactly a lie – Enterprise had been disabled three times over the past few weeks, but only because Commander Tucker and Kamea kept screwing up their experiments.
The Ferengi didn't seem to care. "Repair cost is of no concern to us. We already have a buyer. That's his problem."
Malcolm spoke up. "But surely your buyer won't be too happy when he sees that you've sold him a malfunctioning ship."
The Ferengi shrugged. "By the time he realizes it's broken, we'll be far away, counting our bars of Latinum."
"There is nothing you can offer us that is worth more than your ship," the Ferengi said. "It is pointless to negotiate. You have nothing to negotiate with." The Ferengi captain cackled maniacally, and the view screen went black. He had cut the transmission.
No one on the bridge spoke. Hoshi could only shake her head in disbelief. How the hell are we going to get out of this one? Hoshi turned to look at T'Pol again, but the commander was the picture of serenity. She turned to Commander Tucker. "Mister Tucker," she said, her voice as calm and collected as ever, "get to the transporter room. Mister Mayweather, prepare to go to warp. Mister Reed, charge weapons." She whirled on her heel to face the view screen. "We are getting our people back."