CHAPTER 11

Now that the moment was here, Hoshi was overcome by a tremendous reluctance to move under the archway. Malcolm was right. They didn't understand this. Trying to get whatever had happened before to do it again might wind up killing her and Jon.

She looked back at Malcolm. Fear for her shone brightly in his eyes, halting her steps.

Then she looked down at Jon next to her. He stared unblinkingly back at her, fierce determination evidenced by the clenched jaw. If they were ever to be back where they belonged, this might be the only way. Her wavering resolution steadied by the sight of the proud way Jon held himself in her body, she approached the stone arch.

"We're in this together," Jon said softly.

She managed a small smile. That was one of the first things he'd said to her after the switch had occurred. And they had been in it together. Well, except for that time he had been alone with Shran. Her smile grew as she acknowledged to herself that, if this didn't work, she'd have to teach him about handling men when you were a woman.

"Come on," she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him under the archway with her. "What are we waiting for?"

They stood there for a few moments but nothing happened.

"T'Pol? Trip?" Jon asked. "Are you picking up anything?"

T'Pol, eyes locked on the scanner in her hand, shook her head, and Trip said, "Nothing."

Malcolm, standing off to one side, shifted uneasily on his feet.

"Maybe nothing's going to happen," Jon said.

Hoshi wasn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. "That would be a letdown," she said.

"Captain!" T'Pol called out. "Picking up something now!"

Jon looked inquiringly at his first officer. When the she volunteered no more information, he asked, "What is it?"

It was the last thing Hoshi heard.

She blinked rapidly, trying to see in the faint light. She'd been standing under the archway with Jon when T'Pol reported activity picked up by the scanner, but now she was somewhere else.

As her eyes adjusted, she saw that she was in a small, bare room with stone walls similar to those of the archway. There weren't any windows but there was an open doorway. The floor she was lying on was dusty, as if no one had been there for a long time.

Glancing down at herself, she was disappointed to see she was still in possession of Jon's body.

Where was she? And where was the captain?

Getting to her feet, she staggered over to the opening, the stone cold under her hands when she touched the wall. Her legs felt leaden. How long had she been out?

She stepped out into a hallway. The corridor led off in both directions and she thought she could see intersecting corridors a little distance away. Other than the doorway she had just exited, however, there were no other openings for rooms that she could see.

"Captain?" she called out, hoping he might be somewhere near.

When there was no response, she called again, louder, but the result was the same. Her scalp prickled. Could Jon be hurt? Was that why he wasn't answering?

Much as she would have liked to stay where she was, the overriding need to find out if Jon was OK made her start moving down the corridor.

"What's wrong with them?" Malcolm asked anxiously as T'Pol scanned the bodies on the floor under the archway.

Trip thrust out an arm to keep Malcolm from rushing toward their commanding officer and Hoshi after their sudden collapse.

T'Pol shook her head. "I don't know. It's too big a risk to move them or to allow anyone else under the archway. We don't know what effect that would have on a person who enters the archway, or on Captain Archer and Ensign Sato, for that matter."

"What should we do?" Trip asked, keeping a grip on Malcolm's arm. "We can't just leave 'em lying there like that."

T'Pol reached for her communicator and flipped it open. "T'Pol to Enterprise. We need Doctor Phlox down here. If he is willing, send him down via the transporter. Otherwise, send the other shuttlepod."

As T'Pol snapped the communicator shut, Malcolm asked, "What do we do in the meantime?"

"We wait, Lieutenant."

Hoshi wandered aimlessly for a time. Sometimes she would follow a bend in a corridor only to come to a dead end. Periodically she'd call Jon's name, hoping for a response, but so far there'd been none.

Her confusion was mounting as she came to a doorway, the first she had seen in her meandering search. Peering in, she realized with dismay that it was the same room where she had woken up. The dust on the floor was disturbed. Somehow she must have gotten turned around and wound up where she had started.

On closer inspection, she noticed there was only one set of footprints in the dust on the floor and they led to the doorway. She deduced that she hadn't walked into the room or been carried there while unconscious, otherwise there would have been corresponding tracks. She must have been transported into the room somehow.

She needed to act in an organized way to search this place and find Jon. There was too great a chance of becoming totally lost. Not that she wasn't having a problem with that as it was, she admitted.

What if Jon wasn't here? No, that was too disquieting to think about. She'd just make sure she paid more attention from now on to where she was going and where she had been.

Stepping back out into the corridor, she patted the pockets of Jon's uniform she was wearing. Ah, there it was! One of the two makeup items she'd put in her pockets this morning was going to serve a purpose other than making Jon presentable. The lipstick, a mellow pink, would be perfect for marking her route as she went along.

She set off down the corridor again and when she reached the first intersecting hallway, she marked a small arrow on the wall at eye level to indicate the direction she was going.

Phlox bustled up to the officers gathered in front of the archway, none of his usual ebullient good will apparent when Trip stopped him from getting too close to the unconscious pair. He quickly opened a medical scanner and held it out before him.

"How long have they been like this?" Phlox asked.

"Since just before I contacted Enterprise," T'Pol replied.

"What's wrong with them, Doc?" Trip asked worriedly.

Phlox shook his head. "I don't know, but there is increased brainwave activity for both of them. They may be unconscious but they are definitely experiencing something."

Now that she was keeping track of where she was going, Hoshi made better time. She steadily checked more and more blank corridors, none having doorways. Only once did she get turned around but, coming upon a lipstick arrow, she quickly got back to searching.

She couldn't help but think she was in a maze, being tested in some manner. Maybe the captain wasn't in here with her. Maybe she had to find her way out on her own. That disquieting possibility spurred her to yell louder.

Her voice, projected farther than she'd ever been able to do in her own body, came echoing back to her. Mixed in with the distortion she thought she heard something else farther down the hallway.

Hurrying forward, she called again. "Captain?"

"Hoshi? Is that you?"

"Keep talking! I don't know where you are!" she called out, quickening her pace even more.

She turned a corner in the corridor and came upon a doorway in the wall a few meters ahead.

"Be careful!" she heard him yell in her voice. "I fell through a hole."

His voice was coming from inside the room and she cautiously entered. It was a good thing she'd been careful, for there was a square hole, a meter across, set back a short distance from the doorway.

"Are you down there, Captain?"

"Yes, and I can't get out."

Hoshi crept to the edge of the opening and knelt down. She could see what should have been her own face staring back up at her.

"How did you get down there?" she asked.

"When I came to, I was on my back. I rolled to one side and didn't know the hole was there. I fell in before I could stop myself."

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

"No, but there's no door down here, just a square room," he said. "The only way out that I can see is the way I came in, and I can't jump high enough to reach the edge. You're going to have to find something to lower down to me that I can either stand on or climb up."

Hoshi thought quickly. She hadn't seen anything but walls, floor and ceilings since they'd been brought to this place. She was willing to bet she could keep searching for a long time and still not find anything. Even if she did find something like a rope, there was nothing -- no doorknobs, no protruding ledges, no convenient pipes -- to tie a rope to.

She relayed this information to Jon.

"Well, then," he called up to her, "you're just going to have to get me out of here yourself."

"What? How can I do that?"

"You're in a bigger body now than you're used to, remember?" he said. "I bet you could lay on the floor up there and reach down far enough that I could jump up and grab your hand."

"And pull you up?" Hoshi said uncertainly. "I don't know if I--"

"Yes, you can," Jon asserted. "It might be difficult, but as long as you keep your grip on me, I'm sure we can do it."

Hoshi moved back from the opening slightly before prostrating herself on the floor.

"What if you pull me in?" she asked, peering down into the darkness below.

"Then I can stand on your shoulders and climb out."

"And I'll be stuck in the hole because there's no way you -- in my body -- can pull me in your body out of there."

"Well," Jon said, and she could her the amusement in his voice, "we'll just have to make sure this works the first time."

Hoshi braced herself as best she could and stuck her arm as far as possible down into the dark hole.