CHAPTER 12

Malcolm and Hoshi's rush to Engineering was delayed by a quick detour to a storage locker stocked with emergency supplies. At Hoshi's request, they'd gone there to get a couple of flashlights.

After rummaging around in the locker for a minute, she said, "Got them!"

"Let's go," he said, letting her take his hand to guide him along the corridor. He knew the route to Engineering, but it was quicker right now for Hoshi to take the lead while there was still light for her to see.

She halted abruptly when they reached the intersecting corridor that would take them to Engineering.

"Our two minutes must be up," she said. "The lights just went out. I can't see a thing."

From the communicator messages they'd overheard when they were leaving the mess hall, Malcolm knew that Foster ought to be somewhere down this corridor keeping watch on the main entry to Engineering. He called out the man's name.

"Lieutenant Reed? Is that you?" responded Foster from farther down the corridor.

Malcolm realized Foster must be holed up midway down the corridor in the maintenance recess, an indentation in the corridor bulkhead where junction panels were located. "Yes," he called back, wincing as his voice seemed to echo off the bulkheads.

Now it was his turn to lead. Holding Hoshi's hand, he led her quietly through the darkness to where Foster was waiting.

"How did you get here so quickly?" Malcolm asked as he and Hoshi squatted down in the recess with Foster.

"I was on my way back to the armory from lunch," Foster replied.

"How did you get out of the turbolift?" Hoshi interjected.

"I didn't," came the reply. "Welsh and I were using the access ladders, seeing who could get to the armory first. It's sort of a friendly competition we have."

Malcolm grinned briefed at the man's explanation, then turned serious again. "Give him one of the flashlights, but don't turn it on," he instructed Hoshi. The singed smell of burned flesh, along with the cloying scent of blood, wafted by his nostrils. He sniffed, trying to pin down what he was smelling. "Foster, are you hurt?"

"No, sir," Foster said. "That's Welsh. He was shot. He passed out while I was dragging him here after the intruders took over Engineering. He's lost a lot of blood."

Malcolm thought for a moment. The mess hall and the lower level of Engineering weren't the only things on this deck. Sickbay was, too.

"Hoshi, get to sickbay and bring the doctor back here," he said. "Don't use your flashlight. Keep your hand on the bulkhead. When you get to the intersection where we turned, go straight through and pick up the bulkhead again on the other side. That should take you right to sickbay's double doors."

"Right," she answered, and he heard her move off.

"Now what, sir?" Foster asked.

Now what indeed. Malcolm had been so focused on getting to Engineering that he hadn't thought what he'd do once he arrived.

"What can you tell me about the intruders?" he asked Foster.

"Not much, sir," Foster said. "I only caught a glimpse of them before they took over Engineering and shut the hatch. They're armed with hand weapons of some type. They're humanoid -- two arms, two feet, a head. But they have what look like gills in their neck."

"Gills?"

"Yes, sir. Gills. Like fish."

"Any idea how many there are?" Malcolm asked.

"I only saw three," Foster said, "but there could be more. ... Sir, what are we going to do?"

Glad that Foster couldn't see him in the pitch black, Malcolm smiled. Foster seemed to have forgotten that he was operating under a handicap.

"What about our people in there?" Malcolm asked.

Foster huffed. "They were being held in a corner, it looked like."

"The better to keep an eye on them and under control," Malcolm muttered.

Foster remained quiet, and in the silence Malcolm could hear the sounds of someone making their way furitively toward them. A moment later, Hoshi's voice came softly to his ears. "Malcolm?"

"We're still here," he said.

There was some rustling as Hoshi and another person who smelled of antiseptic crowded into the maintenance recess.

"Where's my patient?" asked Phlox.

"Propped up against the back bulkhead near the panels," Foster said.

Malcolm could hear the Denobulan inching carefully in that direction.

"I'll need light to see what I'm doing," Phlox said.

"Just for a few moments," Malcolm said. "Hoshi. Foster. Look away from the light. I don't want you to ruin your night vision." He heard a faint click as Phlox turned on a flashlight. "There may be some Engineering control panels with lights still working. They won't provide much light, but enough that you may be able to see something. If only we knew what's going on in Engineering!"

"I can help with that," Hoshi said. "One of the panels here has internal communications relays. If I can tap into them, we can eavesdrop on Engineering."

"I need to get this man to sickbay immediately," Phlox interrupted them in a no-nonsense tone. "Someone will have to apply pressure to the wound to staunch the bleeding while we move him. I may need assistance in sickbay as well."

Malcolm would much rather Foster remained and Hoshi went with Phlox, but Hoshi had the expertise to deal with the communications relays.

"Foster, go with Doctor Phlox," he said.

"Aye, sir."

As the doctor instructed Foster where to apply pressure, Malcolm told Hoshi to start working on the relays.

"I'm going to need light to do this," she said.

"Damn," he muttered. "All right. It can't be helped. Try to keep it as close to the relays as possible."

Another faint click came to his ears as Hoshi turned on her flashlight. He heard her remove the panel cover and place it on the deck.

"Excuse me, Lieutenant," Phlox said as he brushed by Malcolm.

The sickly sweet smell of blood invaded Malcolm's nostrils again as Phlox and Foster passed by with their burden. After they left, he asked Hoshi, "How's it coming?"

"Give me a minute, would you?" she retorted. "Normally it's my job to keep these things working, not mess them up."

Malcolm grinned at her fiesty reply. He heard a sizzle, then caught a whiff of burnt circuitry.

"Oops," Hoshi murmured. "Somebody's going to have to fix that later."

"Hoshi?" he asked.

"I had to short out a circuit to make this work," she said. "There. We can listen in on Engineering here on the comm panel, or I can set your communicator to pick it up."

"The communicator can do that?" he asked.

"Yes, but the drawback is that it won't be able to do anything else," she said. "You won't be able to pick up anything but what's coming through the comm system from Engineering, and you won't be able to contact any place but Engineering."

"We need to keep the communicator operational," he said. "Let's hear what's going on."

She didn't reply, but he heard her working at the panel. A moment later, the sound of several voices, one particularly strident, came through, and Malcolm moved closer to the panel to better hear.

"How long do ya think you can keep us cooped up like this in the dark?" Trip's voice demanded.

An indistinct voice came over the communicator, so garbled that Malcolm couldn't tell if the person was speaking English or not. But something else came through loud and clear -- the sound of a body being struck by something hard, and the resulting moan of whoever had been hit.

There was something else, too. Malcolm couldn't identify it. None of the equipment in Engineering made that sound. It was a fluttering susurration, rhythmic, with a slight rasp.

"What is that?" Hoshi asked.

Foster had said the intruders had gills. Could it be they were hearing the intruders breathe? The longer he listened, the more he became convinced the sounds were coming from living beings.

"That's going to be the difference in who wins this fight," Malcolm replied tightly.

Malcolm eased open the hatch to Engineering. Hoshi, right behind him and peering into the dark over his shoulder, squeezed his shoulder twice. According to a system she'd improvised that would allow them limited communication without speech, that meant all the lighting was out in Engineering.

Tilting his head to the side, he strained to listen. There were footsteps to his right, the careful tread of someone who couldn't see where they were going. A low murmuring of voices came from farther away, and he could make out an occasional word or phrase. That must be the Engineering crew. Turning his head, he picked up another set of footsteps above them on the walkway.

The strange, raspy whisper of the aliens' breathing overlaid all the sounds.

Although he wasn't certain, there had to be an intruder at the main warp controls. If he was taking over a ship's engineering department, that's where he'd be.

Easing back away from the doorway, he pulled Hoshi with him. With his mouth close to her ear, he whispered his findings. He felt her head dip in an affirmative. Her hearing was the most sensitive of anyone's on board, with the exception of T'Pol. No doubt Hoshi had heard much the same, if not more, that he had.

"What do we do?" she whispered.

"I'm going on the assumption that the intruders can't see in the dark," he whispered back. "We may be able to sneak up on some of them one by one, and I can take them out. I can't use the phase pistol, because its beam would give our location away."

"What do I do?" she asked.

"You're my eyes. If anyone shoots at us, I'm depending on you to pull me to cover."

Scooting back over to the open hatch, he heard the slow tread of feet on the upper level of Engineering. He listened for a minute. Whoever was up there was pacing the length of the walkway back and forth on the starboard side. To one side of the intruder would be the bank of panels built into the bulkhead, to the other would be the railing. If he could time it right...

He moved back away from the hatch again. He put the phase pistol in his pocket and whispered to Hoshi, "Give me the communicator."

A moment later, she tapped him on the arm and put the device in his hand. Speaking as softly as he could, he called the bridge and made a request, and received a quiet acknowledgement. He edged back to the hatchway and listened, his finger resting on a button on the communicator. The alien on the walkway was still carefully trodding back and forth. Malcolm waited until the intruder reached the end of the walkway, envisioning the alien turning to retrace his steps. One hand on Hoshi's arm to warn her something was about to happen, Malcolm pushed the button.

The response was immediate. The starboard side of the ship tilted up steeply as the helm engaged thrusters on that side. As Malcolm and Hoshi slid away from the hatch as the deck canted at a steep angle, surprised cries came from the Engineering crew, along with the thud of something heavy hitting the deck just below where the intruder on the walkway had been.

One down, Malcolm thought grimly. He pressed the communicator button again, and the ship slowly began to right itself.

"We're going in now," he whispered to Hoshi.

As quietly as he could, Malcolm opened the hatch farther to allow them to pass through. Once inside, he drew Hoshi to the side, and they hunkered down and listened. The startled exclamations from the captured crew members had died down, and the aliens' breathing was more noticeable.

He was certain now there was an intruder at the elevated warp controls. Some of the unusual exhalations were coming from that direction.

Malcolm carefully set aside his cane and tugged off his boots. When he finished, he found Hoshi's hand and placed it on one of his feet. He had to bite his lip to keep from laughing when her fingers accidentally tickled him as she grazed his instep. But she got the idea and, by her movements as she brushed against him, he could tell she was removing her own boots.

He wished he could tell Hoshi what he was planning. They'd worked out a limited number of signals based on touch. There was no way, however, that he could specifically relay that he was going to climb up to the elevated warp controls and that he wanted her to stay at the foot of the ladder. He'd have to improvise and hope she understood.

Standing up, he pulled Hoshi to her feet. He led her over to the base of the warp control platform, holding his breath as he counted the three steps that should take him to the platform.

Along with the ominpresent breathing, Malcolm could hear the intruder shifting his feet above them on the platform. He didn't understand why they weren't doing anything. They should be searching for emergency lighting. Or maybe they thought the lights would come back on like other systems had once they'd passed through the subspace wave. The intruders probably weren't aware that the lack of illumination was deliberate, but if it continued much longer, they would become suspicious.

Gliding silently in stocking feet over to the access ladder the farthest away from the intruder, Malcolm put a foot on the bottom rung. He guided Hoshi's hand to the rail, but also patted her shoulder, hoping she'd understand his meaning. But, when he put his other foot on the next rung, he felt Hoshi move to climb the ladder behind him. He turned slightly, finding the top of her head with his hand, and pushed down. A moment later, one of her hands grabbed his and squeezed.

Malcolm caught himself before he exhaled noisily in relief. The one quick squeeze meant she understood. He squeezed her hand back, let go, and stealthily climbed to the top. The breathing coming from the opposite end of the platform was louder now, and he could detect what sounded like grumbling mixed in with it. Taking a few moments to compose himself after stepping onto the platform, Malcolm gauged the distance separating him from the intruder.

Slowly and silently filling his lungs with a deep breath, Malcolm tensed on the balls of his feet, then launched himself head-first. It was a weird sensation, going against his instinct not to throw himself at something when he couldn't see.

His head impacted on a hard yet yielding body, and his arms wrapped around it just long enough to get a grip. The whispery breathing of the intruder changed to a hoarse whistle as it tried to keep its balance. But the attack was unexpected, and Malcolm's momentum pushed the body backward. Malcolm hung on, going over the edge with the intruder and using him to cushion his own fall. They hit the deck with a resounding crash.

After the echoes died away, there was absolute silence, both from around him and from the intruder beneath him. Then a few subdued murmurs came from where Malcolm believed the group of Enterprise crewmen were. Using that as cover, he quickly got up, accidentally brushing against the alien's gills as he did so. They were cold and rubbery. A sticky liquid had oozed onto his fingers when he'd touched them, and he grimaced in revulsion.

He found the ladder by touch and, using his hand to follow the base of the platform, quietly made his way back to where he'd left Hoshi on the other side. Her hand was still on the ladder railing. He grasped it, only to have her slide her hand out from under his and grab him, yanking him under the platform. She pulled him down to a squatting position, then gave his hand two quick squeezes, followed by a longer one. It was one of their recognition signals. It meant the panel lights were on.

He wondered when that had happened. Surely Hoshi wouldn't have remained exposed if the panel lights had come on while he was on the platform. It wouldn't have been as if a spotlight had suddenly shone on her, but there would be enough illumination that her silhouette would be plainly visible to anyone looking in her direction.

She should have taken cover. Or would she? She knew how important it was that she act as his eyes. If she had moved and he couldn't find her, he might have been backlit by the panel lights and been detected. Worse yet, he knew how he would have reacted if she'd left her position and he unknowingly ran into her elsewhere -- chances were she'd wind up like the last intruder he'd tangled with.

He fought the urge to curse in exasperation. What had he been thinking? He was blinder than Phlox's bat. His arrogance in his abilities would most likely wind up getting him killed, and Hoshi as well. Enterprise would still be at the mercy of alien intruders who had taken over Engineering. He was insane to think he could do this without being able to see.

He seriously doubted he would have attempted something like this if he had been able to see. But he'd become so over-confident in his new-found abilities that everything was going to blow up in his face again, just like the cannon upgrade had.

It was too late for second thoughts, however. The sudden tightening of Hoshi's grip on his hand alerted him to approaching danger. A measured tread was coming from around the side of the warp core. The footsteps were accompanied by the fluttering breathing he associated with the aliens. One of them must be coming to check on the commotion Malcolm had caused.

Malcolm took the phase pistol from his pocket and tracked the intruder's movements by his sounds. The pistol would give away their position, but it couldn't be helped. He and Hoshi were in a relatively safe spot under the platform. If he left its cover to attack the intruder, not only would he expose himself, but he'd lose his sense of direction in the ensuing scuffle. Besides, any other aliens in the compartment had to be suspicious about what was going on by now.

The phase pistol was his only recourse in this situation. He kept it aimed in the direction of the oncoming footfalls. When they were directly in front of him, he fired.

He barely heard the body hit the deck over the startled cries coming from the captive crew members.

"There's another one with us!" he heard Trip shout.

Immediately, Hoshi was tugging him out from under the platform. He almost tripped when his foot rammed into the body of the intruder he'd just shot. Hoshi's grasp fell away as he stumbled.

A dull thud of flesh being hit by something hard came from off to one side, followed by a grunt and something tumbling to the deck.

Without thinking, Malcolm turned in that direction and called out, "Hoshi?"

There was no answer.

In the eerie silence that followed, devoid of even the strange alien breathing, Malcolm suddenly realized the one thing he'd feared most had happened. He didn't know which way he was facing. He was totally disoriented.

The element of surprise lost and his position vulnerable, Malcolm crouched and slowly turned in a circle, desperately listening for anything.

(A/N: I know. Another cliffhanger. You'll find out tomorrow what happens to them.)