CHAPTER 3

T'Pol assisted Phlox in carrying out the tests at the same time as she questioned Jon and Hoshi, trying to determine the cause of their predicament. They agreed the catalyst of the body switch had to be connected to the planet they were orbiting.

Five people had gone down to the planet's surface. Jon had piloted the shuttlepod. T'Pol had been included because of her scientific expertise while Hoshi was onboard because of her linguistic abilities. Malcolm had provided the necessary security for the mission. Trip had gone along for the ride, claiming a bad case of cabin fever after having been cooped up on Enterprise for several months.

As was the case with several other planets they had visited in the sector, there were signs of a once-thriving pre-flight civilization. What had happened to the inhabitants -- disease, warfare, natural disaster -- wasn't clear, but they had left behind impressive structures that T'Pol had estimated to be close to a millenium old.

The group had split up after arriving. T'Pol's assignment was to make a geological survey of the area where they landed, and Trip had tagged along with her. Jon and Hoshi had entered one of the structures to look for inscriptions. Malcolm had opted to follow them inside after doing a scan that had turned up nothing but their own bio-signs.

Hoshi had been pleased to find a number of engravings. One in particular had caught her eye. It was etched above a stone archway.

The captain had come over to look as well, and as they stood together under the archway peering up at the alien language, Hoshi had felt a slight tingle. The sensation had lasted only for a moment and she had totally forgotten about it in the excitement of having a new language to decipher.

"It was a really weird feeling," Hoshi said as they discussed the mission. "Almost like I was standing in a charged field of some sort."

"I felt something, too," Jon said. "I remember thinking it was strange that there was a breeze inside the structure."

"A breeze?" T'Pol interjected.

"Well, it felt like when a gentle breeze is blowing and you can feel it touch your skin."

"Perhaps it was a scan of some type," T'Pol said. "There were no signs of any mechanical or electronic devices, however. And if it was the cause of the switch, why didn't the change take place immediately?"

"Maybe the inscriptions on the archway can give us a clue," Hoshi said eagerly.

"We're getting a little ahead of ourselves here," Jon put in. "We need to see if Trip and Malcolm are all right."

"But we're pretty sure it was something to do with the archway," Hoshi said. "Trip never came in the building and Malcolm didn't stand under the arch like we did."

"We should make sure first." Jon sighed as he reached up to push back a strand of long dark hair that had dropped in front of his eyes. "Um, Hoshi, would you mind calling them? If they hear me as I am now ordering them to report to sickbay, they're likely to ask questions over the comm. I'd just as soon not let the rest of the crew know about this yet."

"Perhaps I should summon them," T'Pol said.

Jumping off the biobed, Hoshi said, "No. I'd like to do it. It's not often I get to give my superior officers orders, even if they don't know it's me."

Jon, still seated on the biobed, chuckled and waved Hoshi toward the comm panel.

Both men, in response to Hoshi's best imitation of Jon's command tone of voice, sleepily acknowledged the order to report to sickbay.

Hoshi and Jon were perched next to each other on a biobed when the two officers entered sickbay.

"What's goin' on, Cap'n?" Trip asked, taking in the pair sitting on the bed as well as Phlox and T'Pol huddled over a console across the room.

Much to Hoshi's annoyance, Malcolm was giving Jon a small smile. Of course, Malcolm must think he was smiling at her. There was no reason for her to be irritated, she told herself. Boy, was he in for a shock!

"We have a problem," said the person who looked like their communications officer.

"Hoshi?" Trip said, turning toward her likeness.

"Here we go again," Hoshi muttered, earning a stern glare from Jon and drawing Trip and Malcolm's gazes back to her.

"To make a very long, complicated story short," Jon said, "Hoshi and I have switched bodies."

There was a long moment of silence as Trip and Malcolm looked at the person who looked like Hoshi, then Jon, and finally each other.

A grin crossed Trip's face as he looked at Jon-in-Hoshi's body. "That's funny, Hoshi. I must not be all the way awake yet. I coulda sworn ya said you two switched bodies."

Malcolm didn't comment. He simply crossed his arms and waited, a frown marring his features.

"It's true," Hoshi spoke up. "Something's happened. When I went to bed in my quarters, I was perfectly fine. When I woke up, I was in the captain's cabin."

"But you're the captain," Trip said. "That's where you're supposed to sleep."

"No, I'm Hoshi! I went to bed in my quarters and woke up in the captain's."

Malcolm pinned her with a suspicious glare. "And what exactly did you two do together, sir?"

"Malcolm!" Hoshi yelled, her patience growing thin and not in the mood to deal with a jealous lover. "I didn't do anything with the captain. I woke up as him. I mean, I'm in his body."

"The same thing happened to me," Jon said. "I went to bed in my quarters --the captain's quarters-- alone -- and some time later I woke up in Hoshi's cabin -- alone -- as Hoshi."

"Doc?" Trip called out in concern, Malcolm's face mirroring his friend's bewilderment.

Coming over to join the group by the biobed, Phlox said, "Things are as they claim. Somehow they have switched bodies."

Hoshi gave Malcolm an embarrassed smile.

"But..." Malcolm spluttered, his eyes darting back and forth between the seated pair. "How is that possible?"

"The best we can figure out, the change was initiated on the planet," Jon said. "The actual switch didn't occur until after we returned to Enterprise and were asleep. We were concerned that perhaps you and Trip had been affected as well. That's one of the reasons we asked you to come to sickbay."

Trip's jaw dropped. "You thought Malcolm and I switched bodies?"

Hoshi almost snorted out loud as she saw Malcolm take a step away from Trip. Even if they had switched, it couldn't be near as bad as the gender-swapping she and Jon had been subjected to.

"I'm me!" Trip insisted, although he did give Malcolm a suspicious look.

"I know I'm me," Malcolm said quickly.

"I suggest doing brainwave pattern scans to make certain," T'Pol said.

Phlox nodded and ushered the men away.

After the scans confirmed that Trip and Malcolm were who they were supposed to be, the group turned to solving the mystery of how Jon and Hoshi were switched.

"Did you get anywhere translating any of the inscriptions?" Jon asked Hoshi.

Giving him an incredulous stare, Hoshi jumped off the biobed and burst out, "You've got to be kidding! I haven't had time to even look at the data. If you hadn't insisted on dragging us all over those ruins, maybe I wouldn't have been so tired when we got back and would have been able to start on the translation."

Jon got to his feet and stared up at her. "Calm down, Hoshi."

"Calm down? Calm down!" she yelled in agitation and began to pace. "I'm stuck inside your body and you tell me to calm down? And then you have the audacity to insinuate that I'm not doing my job! When have I had time!"

She abruptly got a grip on her emotions and sat back down on the bed with a thump. She glared at Jon as if daring him to contradict her.

Phlox cleared his throat. "I believe that you are experiencing a rise in the testosterone level in the captain's body, Hoshi. His body is reacting to your emotional reaction to his implication of dereliction of duty."

"What!" she said loudly.

Glancing over at Jon in her body, she was in for another shock. Tears were welling up in what should have been her eyes.

Following her gaze, Phlox clucked. "And it appears the captain is having an equally hard time adjusting to the hormones in your body," the doctor said.

"Better you than me," Hoshi muttered, hitting her fist against the biobed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jon asked tremulously.

Hoshi just shook her head, not wanting to tell him that he was probably experiencing PMS. For once a man was going to know what women went through once a month.

"Oh my gawd!" Trip said from off to one side where he and Malcolm had been watching the exchange. "I don't think I really believed it until now."

Malcolm didn't say anything but had turned unnaturally pale. He stared at Hoshi in Jon's body and Hoshi gazed back at him in mute appeal.

"It's really me, Malcolm," she said as softly as she could with a deep masculine voice.

He turned away, unable to meet her gaze, and Hoshi wondered if it was possible for the heart she possessed right now to break.

"Damn it, Malcolm!" she called out to him. "It's me. I'm just in a different body!"

He spun to face her, his mouth working but no words coming out. Again he averted his gaze.

Hoshi continued to stare at him as the doctor and T'Pol outlined the tests to be done on the pair to see if the switch could be reversed.

"The inscriptions Ensign Sato recorded could provide information about this phenomenon," T'Pol said.

Still angry at Malcolm for not being more receptive to her, Hoshi jumped off the bed. "I'll go get the data padd they're on," she said. "It's in my quarters."

Her announcement was greeted by strained silence and she stalked out of sickbay.