Shuttle One

"It's happening again!"

Hoshi's voice rang through the shuttle, rousing the men from their half-sleep. After hours of unsuccessfully trying to come up with a plan on how to get out of their predicament, they'd each retreated into their own thoughts. Archer had urged them to remain well fed and rested while their minds worked in the background. Trip had snorted in comment, almost added that one wouldn't want to starve the alien.

He swiveled his seat to look out the window, taking in the liquid once again sloshing outside, streaming down the windows and blurring the view. He checked at a glance that there was no sign of seepage from any outside seam. "Still trying to digest us," he drily said.

"So long as they don't succeed," Archer too had looked all around, making sure the inside of the shuttle was staying snug and dry.

Hoshi blew a wayward strand of hair, looking at the rainstorm happening outside. 'Why me?' she thought. How come she was the only one on board with the skivvies about things alien and strange, and things like that always happened to her? Like some cosmic joke at her expense.

She was going to say so for a bit of levity but what came out of her mouth instead was 'Hey!" as she grabbed on her chair tight. The shuttle had lifted with the surrounding liquid, but there was something more intense in the sloshing around, not like the other times. It started slowly spinning on itself.

"Strap yourself in!" Archer shouted, even though they all already were. "Trip! What's going on?!"

Trip shook his head... As if he knew... "Unknown, Captain. We're moving."

"I can tell we're moving!" Archer bellowed back. "Do you have any idea where?!"

The spinning increased in speed, the three of them now grabbing the edge of their seats in spite of the straps. Trip would have shook his head again but he was on the verge of squeamishness from the motion.

"No, sir, I - WOW!" whatever he was going to say was cut short as the shuttle suddenly flipped on its side, reared, then dropped like a stone.

The emergency lights fizzled then went off.

xxx