CHAPTER 7

Jonathan dragged Hoshi to the armory entrance. Keeping a firm grip on her wrist, he pushed open the door with his free hand.

"Please, close the door," she said as he pulled her through into the dim corridor. "Someone might find Malcolm and...hurt him more."

Jonathan stopped and looked at her. A smile lit his face, and for a moment he looked so much like the man she'd worked with and admired for so long that her heart skipped a beat.

"No wonder Trip wants you," he said in a reasonable tone of voice that conveyed an off-kilter sensibility. "You care about everybody, even those you shouldn't."

"Please," she repeated earnestly.

"You've always been nice to me, Hoshi. For you, I'll do it."

He let go of her wrist and stood looking her as she rubbed it.

"Thank you," she said softly, not meeting his eyes.

His insanity-tinged smile grew bigger and he turned back to the armory to close the door. When he had it almost completely shut, she took off running down the corridor.

She hadn't gone ten paces before Jonathan caught up to her and his hands clamped painfully on her shoulders, halting her headlong rush.

He spun her around to face him, and she cringed at what she saw. His face was screwed up in fury, his eyes narrowed to slits.

"Trip's wrong about you!" he said, spittle flying from his lips. "You're no different from the others. You think I belong down here!"

He drew back a hand to strike her and she flinched. But before the blow could land, the corridor was lit by a flash from a phase pistol blast that struck Jonathan in the back. He collapsed in a heap at her feet.

Hoshi stumbled backward, her hand shielding her eyes. Temporarily blinded by the bright flash, she hadn't seen who had fired the weapon, but it had come from the direction of the armory.

"Malcolm?" she called out hopefully.

"Sorry to disappoint ya, darlin'."

A shiver ran down Hoshi's spine at the distinctive drawl. She'd always found Trip's accent comforting in its familiarity but now it suddenly seemed sinister. She watched, squinting, as he stepped out from around the bend in the corridor beyond the armory.

"How...?" she started to ask, lowering her hand as her eyes readjusted. "How did you get down here?"

Trip smiled confidently as he walked toward her, a phase pistol in his hand. "Since we stopped usin' the transporter to beam in food for the poor inmates down here, everybody seems to have forgotten about it. That's how I got Jon into the armory, too, before you got there."

"But...but..." Hoshi floundered. "That's dangerous -- transporting inside the ship!"

Trip stopped in front of her. "You're worth it, darlin'. Besides, I couldn't trust Jon alone with you. He's not playin' with a full deck. As you can see, it's a good thing I came to check on ya."

Hoshi took a step back and Trip frowned.

"That's not the reception I was hopin' for," he said ominously, "especially now that Malcolm's gone."

Her heart constricted painfully at his words. She didn't know for certain that Malcolm was dead.

Picking her words with care, trying to keep Trip from going into the armory and finishing off Malcolm if he wasn't dead, Hoshi said, "The captain said a few things about you."

Trip chuckled. "I expect he did. But who's gonna believe him?"

"Why are you doing this?" she asked.

Before he could answer, a noise came from behind Trip. He swung around to face the armory as the door was pushed open bit by bit. There, revealed in the dim lighting, was Malcolm.

Hoshi gasped in both shock and relief. He was alive! But there was blood on one of his cheeks, and the area around the eye on that side was swollen. He was gasping for breath after the exertion of opening the door.

"Get away from her!" the battered armory officer growled through clenched teeth, raising a shaking hand holding a phase pistol.

From slightly to one side of Trip, Hoshi could see the engineer smile derisively. But the smile disappeared when Malcolm squeezed the trigger and a blast from the previously malfunctioning pistol hit the bulkhead next to the engineer.

Seeing Trip's shocked expression, she realized he wasn't surprised that Malcolm had fired at him. What had surprised him was that Malcolm's pistol had worked.

"Hey, buddy!" Trip said, sticking his own phase pistol in his pocket and holding up his hands placatingly. "It's OK. I kept Jon from hurtin' her, that's all."

There was a tense moment as the two men stared at each other. Hoshi could tell Malcolm didn't trust Trip. But, to reinforce Trip's claim, there was the captain's body on the deck between them. She could almost see the wheels turning in Malcolm's head -- someone had to have stunned the captain, and she didn't have a phase pistol. It was back in the armory where she had dropped it.

"She's pretty shook up, Malcolm," Trip said, startling her when he reached over to grasp her arm and pull her forward, placing her like a shield in front of him. "I think she's hysterical."

"Trip!" she cried, trying to shake him off. "Let go of me!"

"See? She'll take off runnin' if I let go," he said to Malcolm as he tightened his grip. "She's not in her right mind. She thinks I wanna hurt her."

Malcolm, leaning against the door frame, studied the two of them. Lifting his free hand, he wiped some of the blood from his face. "Do you know why my pistol wasn't working?" he asked abruptly.

Trip shook his head as if he didn't know what Malcolm was talking about. "Looked like it worked fine when you took that potshot at me!"

"Before that!" Malcolm rasped. "The connection to the power cell was crossed. You gave us phase pistols that wouldn't work."

"He's trying to kill you, Malcolm," Hoshi interrupted urgently, knowing she sounded overwrought when she needed to remain calm. Trip was unbalanced, and Malcolm, who had an unsteady grasp on reality as it was, was facing a situation that could drive him over the edge.

"What!" Trip said, a look of incredulity on his face. "I'm not tryin' to kill ya, Malcolm. And one of your staff checked those pistols. I just handed them to ya."

"Malcolm, you've got to believe me!" Hoshi begged as she wrested her arm away from Trip. "He made a deal with the captain."

"What the hell are you talkin' about, Hoshi?" Trip countered immediately. Addressing Malcolm, he added, "She's talkin' outta her head. We need to get her topside."

"Shut up! Both of you!" Malcolm yelled. "We've all got to get out of here. All this noise has probably attracted the attention of the crew down here."

Keeping Trip covered with his pistol, Malcolm motioned with his other hand for them to come toward him. When they reached him, he handed Hoshi her pistol, which she had dropped in the armory.

Taking the gun, she asked, "What do we do now?"

"Did ya get any of the supplies?" Trip asked as if nothing had happened.

Malcolm stared at him, his eyes glittering brightly despite the dim lighting. "No, and we're not going to until you're out of here and back up where you belong. Why don't you lead the way back to the access hatch?"

"But as long as we're down--"

"Don't argue with me!" Malcolm said, raising his voice to a shout again. "If you get hurt down here, Enterprise's chances of getting unstuck will be practically non-existent. Down here, I'm in charge. I'm the one who knows what to do. And right now, I know you need to get out of here."

Hoshi breathed a sigh of relief. Malcolm was managing to hold on to his sanity.

At least she thought so until she heard him mutter as Trip walked away. It had sounded like he'd said, "Get out before I kill you, Trip."