CHAPTER 14

Hoshi was waiting for them in the docking bay. With several of her crew scattered around performing various tasks, she played the part of the impatient captain, pacing and muttering curses.

When the doors slid open and Reed, Tucker, and Kleth walked in, she shouted, "Where have you been? There is work to be done!"

The other Klingons were watching interestedly, waiting for what would happen. Kleth sidled over to Reed and whispered something to him. Reed shot Kleth a questioning glance and Kleth nodded vigorously.

Taking a deep breath, Reed took his time approaching Hoshi, stopping just far enough away to be out of range if she decided to take a swing at him. "We were busy," he said loudly with a sneer.

Hoshi's lips twitched as she realized Kleth had been coaching him. Reed's impression of a Klingon would have been perfect except for the British accent, and the fact that he was keeping his distance tickled her.

Taking a step toward him, she punched him hard in the arm and laughed. "I like you. You have spirit," she said, adding softly as he frowned, "Act like you mean what you're saying."

Drawing himself up to attention, he asked loudly enough for the nearest Klingons to hear him, "What are your orders?"

"Fix this miserable excuse of a ship. It must be able to fly by the time we reach Shidak."

She turned and climbed into the scout ship. Tucker had been watching the exchange warily, and Reed grabbed him by the arm to pull him into the ship. When all three were inside, Reed shut the hatch.

"We should be able to talk now," Hoshi said calmly in a normal Human tone of voice.

Tucker was eyeing her uncertainly where she was seated at the console, having spun the pilot's chair around to face in toward the rest of the ship's cabin.

"Go ahead and get something to eat," she told him. "From personal experience, I know you've got to be hungry."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, keeping his eye on her as he backed toward the food storage bin.

Hoshi looked at Reed with a frown furrowing her brow.

"He doesn't trust either of us," Reed said, and Hoshi raised her eyebrows in understanding.

"Well, would you in my position?" Tucker spoke up. "I've been cooped up for two days in that box they call a brig -- no bed, no chair, no toilet. Reed gets pulled out a couple of times to be wined and dined and..." His voice faltered, but he didn't stop. "Well, I know what you two have been up to."

"You do?" Hoshi asked, curious as to how he had found out.

Tucker looked away, a slight blush staining his face. "These Klingons kinda like to gossip, even with a prisoner. They were takin' bets about how long it would be before..."

When his voice trailed off, she asked coolly, "Before what, Mr. Tucker?"

"Well, they wanted my advice on how long it would be before...you know...before you two...got together. Since it was Humans involved and all."

Tucker refused to look her in the eye, and he busied himself rummaging through the storage bins. Finding a packaged meal to his liking, he took it out and ripped the end tab off. He stepped over to the bunk, sat down and began to eat.

Hoshi took a moment to look around the interior of the vessel. She'd never been aboard anything so small that was spaceworthy. Even from where she was sitting, the amount of equipment she could see amazed her.

Reed, leaning against the closed door to what she assumed was the bathroom, had his hand over his mouth and his eyes squeezed shut. When he opened one eye a crack and peeked at her, she realized he was trying not to laugh.

"Stop it," she told him.

"I can't help it," Reed replied. "I think he's more afraid of you than he is of me."

"Hey," Tucker said around a mouthful of food. "I'm not afraid of either of you. It's just that my momma didn't raise me to gossip about other people's...ya know..."

Hoshi shook her head. They were going to have to get the engineer to cooperate. She been counting on him deferring to Reed, but she wasn't so sure now. They were both Starfleet officers, and she'd assumed he was under Reed's command. He'd have to follow any orders Reed gave, but if he thought Reed was aiding the enemy, it would be his duty to refuse.

Tucker was looking back and forth between the two of them as he ate. It didn't help that Reed had that sardonic, superior look on his face. She was going to have to put a stop to this.

"Mr. Tucker," she began. "We're aboard a Klingon ship, but we're Human. We should try to work with each other."

Tucker swallowed a bite of food before answering. "You may look Human, but from what I've seen, you're Klingon inside."

She was so used to allowing her temper free rein to act the part of a Klingon captain that she felt it flare up at his words, and she made an effort to control it. A show of anger wouldn't work on this man.

"I'm not going to explain to you why I behave like I do. That really is none of your business," she said levelly with just enough venom to let him know that he'd ticked her off. "But all of us -- you, me, Reed -- want the same thing. So do these Klingons. We want to bring down the leader of the pirates' organization. We may have different reasons, but in the end, we all want the same thing."

"Huh," Tucker mumbled. "But for some reason, you want this ship to fly again. You need my help to do that."

"That's right," Hoshi conceded.

"Well, it's Starfleet property. I can't allow that information to be passed on to the Klingons. They aren't exactly our sworn enemies, but they sure as hell aren't our friends."

"This crew is as close to friends as you'll ever find among Klingons, Mr. Tucker," she said harshly.

"Why do you need this ship in the first place?" he asked in genuine puzzlement. "You've already got a warbird. This is just a little one-man scout ship."

"Let's quit beating around the bush, Mr. Tucker," she said. "I know about the engine."

"You told her!" Tucker sprang off the bunk, tossing down the meal packet, to face Reed in indignation.

"I didn't tell her anything," Reed said calmly. "Her crew figured it out on their own."

"Damn it! If this engine falls into the wrong hands--"

"It won't," Hoshi said. "We'll use it as a lure, nothing more. I have no intention of letting someone else get their hands on this ship."

Hoshi left, saying she had to attend to other matters, but Reed thought perhaps she didn't want to be seen spending too much time alone with the only other Humans on board. No need to let the others, especially Kleth, know that they had come to an uneasy alliance amongst themselves.

He reclined on the bunk in the scout ship, watching Tucker work. There wasn't enough room for both him and Tucker to be digging around in the engine relays, trying to get at the injector. Tucker was the one with all the knowledge in that area, in any case.

"She really thinks she's gonna get away with this, doesn't she?" Tucker said from where he was working under the engine panel.

"Yes, she does," Reed replied.

"Is she?" Tucker asked. "Gonna get away with it, I mean."

Reed didn't answer. He'd been wondering the same thing. It was pure happenstance that the pirate ship he managed to infiltrate was Hoshi's, and that he and Hoshi both wanted to bring down the pirate leader. Being treated as an ally instead of a prisoner would make his job much easier, that was for sure.

Hoshi's ultimate goal, however, was to kill Shidak. Reed, as a Starfleet officer, was supposed to apprehend him, but there was always the possibility that Shidak could be killed in the process. Not that he wouldn't try to prevent Hoshi from carrying out that part of her plan. She was already in enough trouble without adding murder to the charges against her, even if it was some low-life pirate scum who happened to be an organizational genius.

Once all this was over, what did she have to look forward to? She'd told him she would leave the Falcon, but where could she go? Those convicted on piracy charges were harshly punished, so she couldn't go back to Earth. He couldn't picture her living on some backward, out-of-the-way planet for the rest of her life, either.

"She must have really loved her husband a lot."

Tucker's statement broke him out of his contemplation. "How did you know about that?" Reed asked.

"I told you these Klingons like to gossip." Tucker grinned as he pulled his head out from under the panel. As he looked around for another tool, he added, "He must have been some man to inspire her to do this."

"You're probably right," Reed said, his thoughts taking a new direction now that Tucker had brought up Matthew Hayes.

After last night, Reed knew without a doubt that Hoshi wanted him. But, wanting and loving were two entirely different things.

He could be callous enough to keep taking what Hoshi was offering, knowing there was no love on her part. Hoshi had made it quite clear how much she had loved Hayes. But Reed was selfish enough to want more. He wanted to see love shining in her eyes for him, just as it had when she had talked about her husband.

How had he come to be jealous of a dead man, Reed wondered.

Seeing Reed's closed expression, Tucker grabbed the tool he needed and scooted back under the panel.

Archer sat in his chair on the bridge. The quiet hum of the ship surrounded him, and the bridge crew went about their tasks efficiently and calmly.

He hated waiting, but there wasn't anything else for him to do.

They hadn't heard from Reed since a brief compressed communications burst before he and Tucker began trailing the Klingon pirate ship a few days ago.

They could still be following the pirates, or they could have gotten into trouble. For all he knew, both Reed and Tucker could be dead by now. But he'd given his word not to interfere until Reed called for Enterprise as backup or until a week had passed. Neither of those two conditions had come to pass yet.

Sighing, he got up and went to his ready room. At least his pacing in there wouldn't disturb the bridge crew.