CHAPTER 6

Hoshi's racing heartbeat finally slowed to something near its normal rate as she approached sickbay. She halted outside to take a few deep, calming breaths, trying to regain her composure.

When Doctor Phlox had comm'd the bridge to report that someone had been injured in the armory, for some reason she'd assumed it had been an attack on Violet and wondered how it had happened so soon with no warning. That was followed by a disconcerting thought: The intruder alert hadn't sounded, so could it have been a member of the crew who'd attacked her?

But that shock was nothing compared to when Phlox had said that Ensign Smith had shot Malcolm.

Hoshi had once again, of course, assumed the worst. In the sudden quiet that had blanketed the bridge after the doctor's announcement, she had forced herself to ask, "Is he...?"

"Oh, he'll be fine," Phlox's voice had reassured her over the comm. "but he'll have a horrendous headache when he wakes up. Most humans who've been stunned usually do, especially those who have been shot at close range."

Taking one last deep breath before entering sickbay, Hoshi decided she was going to give Violet -- star witness in an interstellar trial or not -- the worst scolding she'd ever gotten in her miserable existence, if only for scaring the living daylights out of her.

One look at Violet hovering anxiously at the side of the biobed on which Malcolm lay, however, killed that impulse. The recriminating words on Hoshi's lips died at the expression of abject despair on Violet's face.

"I didn't mean to do it!' Violet sobbed, wringing her hands as Hoshi approached the biobed. "It was an accident."

Hoshi paused. After breakfast she had begun to gather her frayed patience back together, soothed by the routine of bridge work without Violet around. Now her patience was close to snapping again.

But the woman was the picture of apologetic ineptitude, and Hoshi couldn't see how Malcolm's being stunned could have been anything but an accident. That was followed by the wicked realization that if his staff ever found out Violet wasn't proficient with weapons, he was never going to live this down.

"I know you didn't mean to do it," Hoshi said as she went to stand by Violet. Gazing down at the armory officer's face, she saw a purplish bruise forming on one cheek. She looked questioningly at Violet.

Wiping away some tears, Violet said, "He hit his face on the work table when he fell down after I shot him."

Phlox came bustling out from behind the partition and joined the small gathering at the biobed. He checked the readouts above the bed and smiled. "He should make a full recovery," he said cheerfully. Casting a glance sideways at Violet, he added, "It's nothing that hasn't happened to the lieutenant before."

Hoshi couldn't resist getting in a dig. "This is probably the first time that he's been shot by a weapons expert in his own armory," she said dryly.

She immediately regretted her words as Violet let out another sob and covered her face with her hands. In the woman's current state, she might inadvertently give something away. Hoshi put her arm around Violet and drew her away from the biobed, aware that Phlox was looking on with unabashed interest.

"Let me know when he wakes up, would you, Doctor?" Hoshi said over her shoulder as she led Violet toward the door.

"Of course!" he called after them. "Oh! And I need to schedule a physical for Ensign Smith."

Hoshi faltered in mid-step. She'd totally forgotten that it was standard procedure for new crew members to undergo a physical examination after they came on board.

"Come see me at your earliest convenience, Ensign Smith," Phlox continued.

Hoshi kept Violet moving toward the exit. She'd have to come up with some good excuses to keep her charge away from the doctor for two weeks. Next to Travis, the Denobulan was the biggest snoop on Enterprise.

"Not today," Hoshi called back just as the doors closed behind them, cutting off any more remarks from Phlox.

Violet cried the whole way back to their cabin. Hoshi was beginning to wish she'd asked Phlox for a sedative for her, but the crying tapered off to an occasional sniffle and hiccup as they entered the cabin. Violet made straight for her bunk, where she sat down and grabbed her pillow, hugging it and burying her face in it.

Hoshi closed the door and turned to face her roommate. Her relief that Malcolm hadn't been seriously hurt -- or killed -- turned to anger as she listened to Violet sniffle some more.

"Get a grip, Violet!" she said vehemently, the last thread of her patience snapping.

The woman's head shot up from the pillow and she looked at Hoshi in stupification.

"I...I...can't help...it," Violet cried, the stuttering she exhibited under stress intensifying. "I could have killed him."

"Yes, you could have," Hoshi agreed. "But you didn't. It was an accident. Everyone agrees on that. So let's get over it and move on. The important thing is that your cover wasn't blown. The way you were carrying on in sickbay was so...so..."

Hoshi was so angry that she couldn't think of the right words to say. That in itself pulled her up short. Of everyone on Enterprise, she was the one who always knew what words to use. This whole situation with Violet and now Malcolm being shot had rattled her badly.

She finally settled on saying, "...so un-Starfleet-like." It wasn't a real word, but it was the best she could do under the circumstances. "Whatever possessed you to handle a phase pistol?" she asked incredulously.

"Well," Violet began, wiping her eyes, "Lieutenant R...Reed thought it would be a good idea. There were some cr...crewmen in the ar...armory. They could see m...me helping him. So he showed me how to take a pistol apart and put it back together, then had me do it."

Hoshi stared at Violet's tear-streaked, guileless face. The woman had to be telling the truth. Without Malcolm encouraging her to work with a phase pistol, she never would have had the nerve to pick one up in the first place. So, depending how you wanted to look at it, Malcolm had been responsible for his own accidental shooting.

Hoshi realized that this was the best fodder for teasing Malcolm she'd had in a long time. But she'd only be able to tease him about it if they were able to survive guarding Violet. She rubbed her temples, trying to ease the headache she felt coming on.

"What do we do now?" Violet asked in a small voice.

Hoshi let out a long exhalation and plopped down on her bunk. "I'm not sure," she said. "Lieutenant Reed's not going to be in any shape to be in the armory with you the rest of the day, and you can't be on the bridge for what's left of my duty shift. Let me check with the captain."

A short time later, Hoshi wound up taking Violet to the bridge anyway. The captain wanted to see both of them.

Jon, seated in the command chair where he was reading something on a data padd, looked up at the sound of the turbolift door opening.

"In my ready room," he said in a clipped voice, getting to his feet.

Hoshi had a flashback of taking an embarrassed student to the principal's office. Violet fit the bill for being embarrassed, that was for sure. Her eyes were darting around almost as if she expected a firing squad to spring up from behind one of the consoles. At the moment, Hoshi would have loved to have been a member of such a group.

And yet, as soon as they entered the ready room, Hoshi's feelings did an immediate flip-flop. For one thing, the captain had stalked in before them instead of allowing them to go first as he usually did when he displayed his usual courteous disposition toward female crew members. The tightening around his eyes also indicated that he was not in a good mood. They were supposed to be protecting Violet from her former employers, but now Hoshi wondered if she was going to have to protect her from Jon.

He barely waited for the door to slide shut before he turned around and focused a hard stare on Violet. In a deceptively calm voice, he said, "You shot one of my officers."

Violet, standing with her hands clasped and her chin on her chest, flinched.

"You shot one of my officers," Jon repeated, this time with an edge of disbelief coming through. "What were you thinking?"

There was a long silence broken only by the soft sound of the ventilating system as Jon waited for an answer. Hoshi prudently kept her mouth shut. The captain always wanted his news from the source, and if she tried to intervene, he'd only bite her head off as well. She'd step in later, if need be.

"I...um...I..." Violet started. She swallowed and tried again. "I didn't mean to shoot him. It was an accident."

Another long silence filled the ready room.

"An accident," Jon said. "How did this accident happen?"

Violet shifted her weight, looking anywhere but at Jon, and finally settled on the view outside the window. "The pistol slipped out of my hands," she said softly. "When I tried to grab it, I must have hit the trigger."

"Oh?" Jon said sarcastically. "Why were you handling a phase pistol? Don't tell me it was my armory officer's idea?"

Violet very slowly looked away from the stars outside to lock her eyes with his. "Actually, it was."

Jon stared at her for a few moments. Having had some of the wind taken out of his sails by Violet's answer, he shifted his gaze to Hoshi for confirmation.

With a pained smile, Hoshi nodded. "I'm sure Lieutenant Reed will write a report on the incident for you, sir," she said. "After he wakes up, that is."

Jon grunted and moved over to his desk where he sat down. He picked up his coffee cup, glanced into it to find it empty, and slammed it back down on his desk.

"Uh, sir?" Hoshi spoke up. "All things considered, perhaps Violet ought to spend the rest of the day in my quarters."

Jon thought about that for a while. "No," he said at last. "We've still got to play the scenario we set up. Take her back to the armory. You stay with her. But confine yourselves to Malcolm's office. At least that way, we can maintain the illusion that 'Ensign Smith' here is working on a classified project. And it's also the securest place on the ship."

Jon got up and went over to a metal thermos sitting on top of a filing cabinet. Taking the thermos back to his desk, he poured coffee from it into his cup.

An endless day locked in a small room with Violet loomed before Hoshi. "But what about my bridge shift?" she protested. "And what possible reason could I have to spend the rest of the shift in Malcolm's office in the armory?"

"We'll get a relief officer to fill in on the bridge," Jon said smoothly. "And tell anyone who asks that there is some translation involved in what Ensign Smith is working on."

"Aye, sir," Hoshi said, shooting a disgusted glance at the other woman. So much for her day away from Violet.

Thermos in one hand and coffee cup in the other, Jon walked back over to the cabinet. He put the thermos back and then gestured with his free hand toward the door to indicate they should leave.

Hoshi, struggling to contain her dissatisfaction with this turn of events, motioned Violet to go first. Violet was just about to the door when she tripped over her own feet, stumbling into the captain and jostling the cup in his hand.

Jon sucked in his breath and plucked at his uniform front, now drenched with hot coffee.

"Sorry!" Violet said. "It was--"

"I know," Jon cut her off irritably. "An accident."