Malcolm took another bite of his toast and stared out of the window at the stars. All he had left to do now was sleep.

"Bridge to Lieutenant Reed." Travis' voice came over the comm. Dropping his toast Malcolm made his way over to the comm.

"Reed."

"We're receiving a transmission sir." Travis said.

"Who from?"

"The Vulcans."

"On my way." Malcolm said, leaving the mess hall, toast forgotten.

When he entered the bridge he walked up behind Robertson, who was at communications, and leant over her shoulder.

"Hey, I hear we've got a message." He said glancing at Travis who nodded.

"Yeah, hang on." she said and tapped a few buttons. "Were you-?"

"Eating."

"Good." She said. "Here we go." She said and a typically calm Vulcan voice filled the room.

"Lieutenant Reed of the Enterprise, we received your distress call. A Vulcan starship will be at your co-ordinates within two days to provide any assistance you may need."

"Is that it?" Malcolm asked, she nodded. "so we'll have to fend of the Larackian marauders until then."

"We did it once." Travis said.

"They won't come alone next time." Robertson said.

"It's likely they'll bring backup if they have it." Malcolm agreed. "Keep the phase pistols on you at all times, and we'll leave the phase canons hooked up to the impulse drive. They nodded in acknowledgement. He started to walk to his station when Robertson spoke.

"Where are you going?" she asked, arms folded. He ground his teeth angrily. "Bed Malcolm Reed. Now." She said sternly, her eyes betraying her amusement. He rolled his eyes but stepped into the turbolift anyway.

"So are you coming?" he smirked.

"Not yet Malcolm sweety." She said sweetly. He saw Travis' eyes widen and had to hold in his laughter.

"Looking forward to it." He said airily as the door closed.

The bridge was empty. Malcolm found it eerie rather than peaceful as he usually would. It was probably because practically the entire ship was the same way. What he wouldn't give for a bit of noise right about now.

The comm. beeped and Malcolm got up to look. Larackian. Maybe a bit of noise wasn't what he should have wished for.

Analysing the data however, he found the hail was coming from a ship on course for them from Larackia. He quickly opened the channel and an image of a Larackian bridge appeared on the view-screen.

The Larackian captain, presumably, sat on a chair in the centre, wearing the typical plain black coverall worn by the Larackian military, with a rank insignia on the left sleeve. Captain Archer and Sub-Commander T'Pol stood on his right.

"Malcolm!" Archer exclaimed in relief.

"Captain, Sub-Commander." Malcolm acknowledge, standing up and gravitating to the centre of the bridge; standing straight backed with his hands clasped behind him to compensate for his casual attire. "It's good to see you sir." he said.

"And you Malcolm, we were rather worried for a while back there." the captain said, smiling.

"We still are rather worried sir." Malcolm said dryly. They looked at him enquiringly. "We are still in danger from an imminent attack." He clarified.

"I'm truly sorry you've fallen victim to these criminals Lieutenant." The Larackian captain spoke for the first time. "I'm afraid, however, that we are still two days away from your position."

"Thank you. The Vulcan's," Malcolm addressed Archer, "are sending a ship."

"You called the Vulcan's?" the captain asked dubiously.

"Yes sir. At the time it seemed necessary to ensure Enterprise didn't fall into enemy hands. It still is." He added.

"I understand Malcolm." He said, his expression then turned serious. "Where are the rest of the crew? Are they okay?" he asked.

"Fine sir." Malcolm assured. "I just relieved Travis and Rostov. Kelly is manning engineering. Robertson however, she's still sleeping, I relieved her from duty." Malcolm explained at the captain's raised eyebrow, "After she sustained a minor head injury."

"If she has a concussion Lieutenant-" T'Pol began.

"Don't worry, I'm checking on her every half hour." He said.

"Very well."

"I think it's time to catch us up on what's been happening." The captain said.

"With all due respect sir, I'm one of only two officers on duty at the moment, I think I should be concentrating on working." He said.

"Understood. Contact us if you need to, if not we'll hail you again in an hour to make sure everything's okay."

"Yes sir." Malcolm said, and the picture disappeared from the screen. "Two says it is then." He murmured as he got back to work.

Oooops, haven't updated in a while, I apologise profusely! Thanks for reviews of chapter four. Okay so now I've updated so please review and berate me for my tardiness! x