Shuttle One

"Now we wait," Trip announced.

Hoshi shot him a sideways glance. As if waiting wasn't what they'd been doing for the past few days. Though at least now the tests were complete.

Archer was staring through the windows at the thruster nudged between two chitonous plates, eyeing the distance. "Any chance we could hit it?" he asked. Again.

Trip shook his head, "Without live tests and adjustments, we could be short or long, to the right or to the left..."

"That's not helping much," cut Archer, "How close do we need to get?"

"Five hundred feet, more or less," Trip replied. If he'd been a Vulcan, he'd said four hundred ninety-three point seven feet, but there was an edge of uncertainty when he had no idea if the diagnostic instruments had been affected. So, he stuck with five hundred.

Archer nodded. The response didn't change, he just needed to hear it. "We'll get close enough at the next eating cycle," he concluded.

"I wonder when that'll be," Trip looked out the windows. It had been a while already since the last one. They were ready, except Eeyao was not collaborating. Of all the times for it to stop trying and eat them, it had to be now. Days on end of teeth trying to crush the shuttle's hull, every three to four hours, almost like clockwork, and now nothing.

"Perhaps it's going through a rest cycle," Hoshi said on his right.

Trip nodded. "Yeah, we don't really know anything about Eeyao or his biology..."

Hoshi shot him another sideways glance. If only Trip would keep referring to that thing by name... "Do you really have to name it?" she blurted out.

Trip shrugged, "Why not? The Loch Ness Monster has a name, or the Yeti, or Frankenstein even."

"That's because they're uniquely famous," Hoshi replied, then stopped. She was silent for a few seconds. "Let's hope we're not killing the last of its kind," she said after a while.

Both men turned to her. "What do you mean?!" Archer asked.

"Well, what if there's only one left? We could be exterminating an entire species!"

Trip rolled his eyes. As if she hadn't brought that up already. Of all the times for Hoshi to go Vulcan on them. He narrowed his eyes at her, perhaps she'd been spending too much time with T'Pol...

The Captain had a shorter fuse then he did. "What are you saying?!" Archer cut in, "You want to sacrifice ourselves to save their species, is that it?!" he raised his voice.

"No, of course not," Hoshi replied, sounding like she lacked conviction, "But what if it's the only one? Like the Loch Ness Monster. Something with cultural meaning. Or what if the Eylordenes attach a special spiritual meaning to the...," she looked at Trip, "...Eeyao?"

Archer turned to Trip, "Did T'Pol say anything about that?!"

The engineer shook his head, "No..." He creased his brow, "I think she would have if there had been anything special about them. But she didn't."

"She would have told you if they were sentient...," Archer added, though the statement sounded like a question.

Trip could only nod. He couldn't remember very well what T'Pol said, it was all impressions, fleeting memories. But one thing for sure, she would have told him if Eeyao was sentient. That would have been the first thing out of her mouth, actually. "No," he replied, "nothing of the sort."

Hoshi was undaunted. "But what if it's the only one?" she insisted, "Won't the explosion kill it?"

Trip rolled his shoulders looking out the window, "Hard to say. It will definitely knock out a few teeth... If Eeyao is a mollusk, then yes, it'll probably slice clean through it... Most probably kill it."

Silence fell. Archer was still looking outside, at the unknown alien. It reminded him of the Loque'eque, an entire species wiped out, what he'd told Phlox about the test tube with that damned virus, the need to preserve the last specimen of a civilization.

But in the end he had a crew to think about, and his first responsibility was to his people. He needed to get them out of danger. There was no higher exigency. Perhaps there would be enough left to preserve in a test tube, if it turned out Eeyao was the last of its kind.

"We don't have a choice," he finally said. "It's him or us, we cant be philosophical about it. Trip, get ready to shoot as soon as we're in range."

He turned around so he wouldnt have to see the expressions on Trip and Hoshi's face. Theirs were not the tough decisions to make.

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