CHAPTER 16

No one was in the corridors. It was late, and most of the crew were in their quarters sleeping or passing the time quietly until the Blaniats arrived.

Hoshi made one stop on her way to engineering and, once outside the door to the department, she paused to adjust her clothing. She undid the top button of her already low-cut red blouse and pulled the fabric back slightly to enhance the view of her cleavage. Taking a deep breath, she ran her hands over her hips, sliding them over the silky material.

She was surprised to find she wasn't nervous. Rather, she was experiencing a state of near-euphoria. It must be an indication that she was doing the right thing, she thought with no small amount of satisfaction.

In a way, she'd regret not having Trip around -- as a friend, of course. But his friendship had been outweighed by his blatant interest in her. She had Malcolm and didn't need Trip that way. She could have lived with the aggravation of Trip's pestering her but for one thing -- he kept trying to kill Malcolm so that he could have her.

There should have been remorse for what she was about to do, but she felt nothing of the sort. Her solution would kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, taking care of both her problem with Trip as well as the threat to Malcolm.

No longer would she have to worry about Malcolm's safety. No longer would she have to constantly look over her shoulder to see if Trip was up to something. No longer would she be distracted from taking care of Malcolm.

With the Blaniats' help, Enterprise would soon be out of this area of space and they'd be going home. She was lucky things had worked out this way.

To put it simply, they didn't need Trip any more.

She opened the door to engineering and was greeted by an eerie quiet. She looked around. There was no one to be seen.

Taking a few steps into engineering, she looked behind the warp engine. No one there either, but from her vantage point she could see a light shining from Trip's office. As she stood there contemplating her next move, she heard a muffled curse and the sound of a desk drawer being slammed.

A satisfied sneer crossed her face. She had him cornered. There was nowhere for him to run. Her plan called for luring him out of his office but if she had to, she could shoot him there. The only problem would be that she'd have to move his body afterward.

But she could do it. She could do anything necessary to keep Malcolm safe.

Slowly, seductively, she walked to the office door. Trip was seated in his chair, his elbows on the desk and his head in his hands, mumbling something about differentials and mechanical power boosters.

Delicately, like the music of hanging chimes being swayed by the gentlest of breezes, she cleared her throat.

Trip's head shot up. He took in her seductive pose in the doorway, and a smile slowly lit his face.

"Finally got tired of him, did ya?" he asked as his gaze swept appreciatively over her.

Hoshi didn't answer. If he came to certain conclusions on his own and she didn't have to tell a lie out loud, all the better. Lying was wrong, and she didn't like to lie.

She gazed back, letting her eyes rake him in return. One hand she kept hidden in the folds of her loose trousers, her fingers caressing the phase pistol tucked in a bulky pocket. Her other hand played with the neckline of her blouse.

Trip stood up and came around the desk toward her. "You couldn't have picked a better time, darlin'," he said, his voice husky. "I could use some distraction right now."

Hoshi let a small smile curve one corner of her mouth. "Is that all I am? A distraction?" she asked coyly.

"You're more than a distraction," he said, reaching out to take her in his arms. "More like a total obsession."

She felt his hands roam across her back, and she stilled the impulse to shudder. She had to play this through. She forced herself to rest her head against his chest, and she could hear his heart pounding.

When he raised her chin with his fingers so that he could look down into her eyes, it took all her willpower not to spit in his face. This was the man who had tried to take Malcolm away from her. For Malcolm's sake, she had to do this.

His lips came down and crushed hers in a breath-stealing kiss. His arms tightened around her, and she felt one hand slide down toward her buttocks, pulling her closer.

With a gasp, she broke away, careful to keep the revulsion she felt from her face. Trip's suspicious expression gave way to understanding when she whispered, "Not here."

"Where did you have in mind?" he asked, smiling at her lasciviously.

Hoshi made a show of pretending to think about his question. "Not my cabin," she said after a moment. "Malcolm's there asleep."

She looked at him, her eyebrows raised.

"My cabin's out, too," he said in response to her unvoiced question. "T'Pol could come by at any time."

"I know the perfect place," she said as if she had suddenly thought of something. Taking his hand, she led him out of the office, careful to keep him on the opposite side of the pocket where she had hidden the pistol so he wouldn't bump up against it and want to know what it was. She didn't really expect to have to use it, but having it handy was good, just in case.

Trip went with her willingly. At the door to engineering, she stopped to give him a smouldering kiss full of promise. As she broke the kiss, she sighed heavily with apparent restrained passion, and turned to lead him out the doorway.

Every so often as they walked down the corridor, she would stop to run her hand over his arm or chest, her tongue darting suggestively over her lips. Soon Trip was stopping her, more interested in the touching and petting during the intervals than in getting to their destination.

As his eyes lost their focus and filled with desire, she knew her plan was working. Once again she broke away from him and led him a few more steps, turning a corner. Her goal was just a little farther along.

When he stopped her the next time, she was right where she wanted to be. His hands began their insistent roaming of her upper body and she leaned back so that she was braced by the bulkhead.

When he came up for air after a kiss, she gave him a smile.

"I have a surprise for you," she said softly.

"You're full of surprises tonight," he said, leaning down to kiss her again.

She gently pushed his hands away and gave him a coquettish smile. "I'm sorry it came to this, Trip, but you really gave me no choice."

A frown marred Trip's features. "What are you talkin' about, Hoshi?" he asked curiously.

"This," she said, and pushed against him with all her strength, causing him to stumble backward several steps.

Right into the open airlock behind him.

Before he could recover, she slapped her palm against the control to close the door, and it slid shut with a hiss. She made sure she hit the override to prevent him from opening the airlock from his side.

Trip rushed up to the door, pounding on it. She could see his mouth moving, but she couldn't hear what he was shouting. Earlier, when she'd stopped by on her way to engineering, she'd opened the door to the airlock and had also taken the precaution of fixing the intercom. He could hear her but she wouldn't have to listen to him.

"I'm sorry," she apologized again. "I'd rather not do this. But Malcolm means too much to me. You scared me that last time. I thought you'd killed him for sure. But it also gave me the idea for this."

She laughed at that, and her eyes were unnaturally bright as she studied the controls.

"Hmmmm. Someone else always did this whenever I used the airlock. And it's been so long since it was used that I hope it still works. Then again, you're an excellent engineer, so you've probably kept everything in top condition."

She flashed a smile at Trip, who was screaming soundlessly at her through the viewport, as she began pushing buttons on the control panel.

"I thought it would be fitting to asphyxiate you since that's what you tried to do to Malcolm," she said, her brow furrowing as she remembered the soul-wrenching despair when she had seen Malcolm lying on the floor in their cabin.

"I'm going to make the airlock decompress as slowly as possible," she explained as she pushed a button. Watching the indicators, she continued, "That way you'll know what Malcolm felt like. Not that he realized he was being suffocated, but he probably got a headache at the very least before things started getting blurry. Maybe he realized in the last moments before he lost consciousness that something was wrong. That's probably why he was on the floor the way he was, like he was trying to get to the door."

Her voice became harsh as she kept talking. "But I got there in time. I saved him. Enterprise needs Malcolm, more than it needs you. It's up to me to keep him safe because I love him."

She sighed and shifted her attention from the indicators to Trip. He was standing mere centimeters away, separated from her only by the door's glass panel, so close that she could see the terror in his eyes, but she was unmoved by it.

"Why did you have to try to spoil everything?" she asked crabbily as she tapped a finger impatiently on the indicator for the air level. "You're insane, just like the rest of them, you know. Otherwise you wouldn't have tried to kill one of your best friends. And if it weren't for the fact that T'Pol needed you, you'd be down below with the others right now. So I guess, in a way, since you're such a gifted engineer, not to mention a good Vulcan bed-warmer, it's your fault I have to kill you."

She watched in satisfied fascination as Trip's features ran through a range of emotions as she talked -- panic and fear, disbelief, outrage, and back to fear again.

"This is taking too long," she said, tapping her finger on the indicator again. "I'm going to speed this up."

As she fiddled with the controls, she added, "In case you're curious, after you're dead, I'm going to refill the airlock with air, open the outer door, and let you be sucked out into space. I'll make a notation in your log that you were going to check the airlock to make sure it was working properly before the Blaniats arrived."

Hoshi found the control to adjust the rate of the air being removed and changed the setting. She could hear the increase in air being sucked out of the small room. Trip began to gasp, his legs buckled, and he slid from view below the window.

Looking at the now empty window, she said, "Everyone will think it such a shame that the chief engineer died in an accident just hours before help arrived."