777

Trip entered the mess hall and scanned the occupied tables. He targeted one in the far right-hand corner and set a course for it.

"Son-of-a-bitch, you did it!" he exclaimed as soon as he was in hearing range. Seeing a few heads turn his way he lowered his voice to a more decent volume and asked, sliding into a chair, "How the hell did you do it, Hoshi? Damn, we all failed!"

"I've been trying to get her to spill the beans for the past fifteen minutes," Travis complained. "But all she says is that her breathing exercises worked just fine."

Hoshi's face had a mischievous smile plastered on it. She played with her food, arranging it in artistic patterns on her plate.

"Well, guys," she finally said, raising twinkling eyes on Trip and Travis. "I'm just too good at what I do, I guess," she teased them.

"Then what's that bump on your forehead?" Trip asked suspiciously.

"Pardon me, is this chair taken?"

The three of them turned as one to the source of the voice that had spoken the words.

Trip broke into one of his sunny smiles. "Hey Malcolm," he said. "Sit down. Must feel good to be running smooth again, uh?"

"You can bloody well say that, it's wonderful," Malcolm said, shaking his head as he took a seat between Trip and Travis and put down his tray. "This morning I was so desperate that I was ready to let Phlox sedate me."

"And so," Travis asked, narrowing his eyes. "What happened? How did your hiccups go away?"

Malcolm froze. He looked unblinkingly into Travis's eyes for a moment; then lowered his gaze and made a show of busying himself with his food. "I did a couple of… breathing exercises," he said noncommittally.

Trip looked at Hoshi. She seemed absorbed in her meal too. Then he studied Malcolm. Then he met Travis's puzzled gaze. "Breathin' exercises, uh?" he repeated thoughtfully. "Maybe later you can show me, just in case I get a bad case of hiccups one day," he suggested.

Malcolm's mouth turned slightly upwards. "If you insist, Commander. But I warn you, these exercises leave you rather… winded, so to speak. And I doubt you'd want me to teach them to you."

Hoshi suddenly snorted and coughed, and Travis hastened to pat her back. "Easy, Hoshi, don't choke on us. We might still need you."

"Oh, I didn't realise it was so late," Hoshi said in a high-pitched voice, bringing a hand to her chest and jumping to her feet. "I promised Crewman Gregory I'd help him with his Klingon. See you later guys." She rushed out of the hall.

"Hey Malcolm," Trip said, shooting a funny glance at him. "Wouldn't your tactical mind say that she beat a strategic retreat?"

Malcolm ignored the probing question. "Let me thank you," he said instead, tilting his head and shifting his gaze between Trip and Travis. "You all really went out of your way to try and help me."

Travis and Trip exchanged a glance. "What do you mean, help you?" Trip asked.

"Oh, come on," Malcolm replied with a snort. "You were quite obvious. Although I must admit that I became suspicious only after Chef's special treat," he added. "The database has a lot of information under the entry for 'hiccup'; and, lo and behold, all the remedies you tried on me are listed there." He regarded them with a smug expression, which quickly disappeared when he noticed the disappointment on his friends' faces. "But I did appreciate your efforts and concern," he hastened to reassert.

"Uh, well… we tried our best," Travis stuttered.

"Indeed, you had me quite perplexed, with your perplexing questions," Malcolm chuckled.

"So… what did Hoshi do?" Trip asked. "Seems to me that the least you can do to thank us is let us in on the secret of her success," he said with a level look at Malcolm.

Malcolm squirmed in his chair. "Well, you see," he said eventually. "You only tried one remedy at a time on me, while she put a few together."

"She cheated!" Trip exclaimed in outrage. "She was supposed to try only breathin' exercises with you!"

"And that still doesn't explain anything," Travis butted in.

Malcolm sighed and leaned conspiratorially forward on the table, imitated by Trip and Travis. "I'm afraid it's classified information," he murmured, looking straight into the others' eyes.

"We won't say a word, scout's honour," Trip promised.

"You were never a scout," Malcolm countered suspiciously.

"Hey, guys!" Travis interrupted them. "Come on, Lieutenant, are you gonna tell us or not?" he pleaded.

Malcolm leaned back again and let the silence stretch. Suddenly he rose to leave, grinning inwardly at the sight of Trip and Travis grimacing in disappointment.

"Well," Trip told Travis. "We'll just have to ask Hoshi to show us those exercises. After all, I can order her," he added resolutely.

Malcolm looked at him with narrowed eyes, as if gauging how serious the engineer was. He decided it was better not to risk it. "All right," he finally yielded. "But only because you are my friends."

Bending down he said in a low voice, "She startled me, took my breath away and rendered me comatose all at the same time."

Trip and Travis looked at him blankly for a moment. Malcolm waggled his eyebrows and turned to go.

"Women!" he heard Trip exclaim as he walked away.

THE END

Leave a last little review…