§ 10 §

When he entered the bridge, Malcolm cast a fast look around and saw that neither the Captain nor T'Pol were there yet. No wonder, at five-thirty a.m. the alpha shift people were normally engaged in more relaxing activities. Müller at tactical shot him a quick but bewildered look, and he was suddenly reminded that not everyone had seen his lovely new make-up yet.

Another hit rocked the ship; Malcolm staggered, having to hold on to the Captain's chair, which O'Neill had just vacated for him.

"Take us out of orbit. Evasive manoeuvres," Malcolm ordered Travis's replacement, taking command. Then he glanced at Müller. "Return fire."

Just then Archer burst onto the bridge, with T'Pol right after him. "Rep…"

"Incoming!" Müller shouted, interrupting his Captain, seconds before the ship was rocked again. "Direct hit to one nacelle."

"Two ships, Sir. Not exactly friendly," Malcolm informed his C.O. He started to move towards his console, but was stopped by the collected urgency in T'Pol's voice.

"We're being boarded," she said from the other side of the Bridge. "I'm reading two transports on E deck.

"How many people?" Malcolm asked.

"Four biosigns, unknown."

"Malcolm," Archer said tautly, and Malcolm knew that despite Doctor's orders, and even in sweatpants and T-shirt, he was officially back on duty.

He reached for the comm. link at his station. "Security team to E deck; boarding party with four intruders, secure Engineering." Grabbing a phase pistol from the bridge locker, he hurried towards the turbo lift. As he passed Archer, he met the Captain's eyes and read the usual silent warning to be careful in them. He had so hated that at the beginning of their mission; it had made him feel like he was not trusted to be able to carry out his duty. Now it made him feel just the opposite: valued. Strange how things could change with time. In his hurry to get off the bridge, he almost bumped smack into Hoshi, who was coming out of the turbo lift with Travis.

"The ships' configuration has no match in the Vulcan database," T'Pol announced.

Enterprise shuddered once more under the fire of the enemy vessels. Sparks went off behind Müller, who flinched away from them.

"Return fire!" Archer ordered. "Go to warp, Ensign," he then told Travis, who had rushed to his station. He braced himself against the helm console and looked over Mayweather's shoulder, but the man turned to him in concern.

"The warp drive is offline, Captain. We only have impulse."

"Trip!" Archer said, pressing the comm. link. "Kelby!" he corrected himself, grimacing, "We could use warp drive."

"Acknowledged, Captain." Kelby sounded definitely out of breath. "Stand by; we are working as fast as we can."

Another booming shot rocked the ship.

"Ensign," Archer took a step and grabbed the railing by the tactical station. Müller's green eyes flashed up to him for a second, and they had the same determined look Reed's always showed in such circumstances. A moment later on the view screen two beams crossed the blackness of space, one of them hitting one of the two ships.

"Well done."

"Thank you, Sir, but it's going to be difficult doing any serious damage, if we can't manoeuvre," Müller muttered, shaking his head.

"Do what you can."

"Sir," Travis said in surprise, "They seem to be moving off."

"They probably don't want to endanger their boarding party," T'Pol commented.

Phase pistol first, Malcolm exited the turbo lift and, after a cautious look around, took off at a jog towards Engineering. He had a gut instinct that that was the target of the four intruders. He came to the bend in the corridor before it, and crouched against the bulkhead, peeking out. His two men were outside the hatch.

"Report," he told them, jumping up and breaching the last meters.

"They're inside, Sir," one of them said. "Were already entering as we arrived."

"All right." Malcolm licked his lips, thinking fast. "You're with me," he told a sturdy red-head. "We'll get in from the higher level access." He got to a comm. link. "Reed to McKenzie. Get down to Engineering with another MACO. Quickly." He turned to the other security man. "Let's time ourselves." He looked at his watch and before jogging off added, "Five minutes; and then burst in. We'll be already there by then."

Kelby really thought working on a starship was a swell job – except when they came into contact with aliens. And even less when aliens came into contact with them. That time with the Orion slaves he had behaved in such an embarrassing way that it still made him turn beet read when he thought of it, his only consolation being that he had been in good company: all the male crew, with the exception of Tucker, had gone berserk. Now he was in a corner with the rest of the Engineering crew under threat of a deadly-looking weapon. The guy holding it had appeared out of the blue with three companions, who were currently busy downloading info from as many consoles. These aliens weren't green and weren't shapely, and those tattoos on the side of their noses were definitely not as appealing as the Orion girls'... He'd better cut that train of thought and concentrate on the present.

Sorry, Captain – he sighed inwardly – it's going to be a while before I can give you warp drive. Provided our friends here leave us alive.

It was when he spotted Reed quietly coming onto the higher level in that crouching walk of his, that he felt the first ray of hope; the Lieutenant had a way about him that made him feel protected even in a situation like this.

Reed caught his eye and made a gesture, raising three fingers and pointing to the hatch. The message was clear: things were going to get pretty hot in there. Kelby's relief was replaced by a shot of adrenaline, and he shifted his gaze quickly away from their Security Officer, not wanting to betray his presence. Too late. The alien's eyes narrowed; then the man turned abruptly, shooting as he did so, aiming in the rough direction where Kelby had been looking a moment before and missing Reed by inches.

Kelby reacted without thinking – if he had engaged his brain, he would have realised the red piping on his uniform didn't necessarily put him in the same category as Lieutenant Reed. He grabbed the alien from behind, wrapping an arm around his throat. They struggled for a moment or two; then he felt himself being lifted and catapulted over the man's head, and before landing with a hard thump on the deckplating he had the time to think that when he had first expressed the desire to fly this was not what he had meant.

The laser beam had passed close to his ear; Malcolm had felt its heat. He aimed to fire but the alien was grappling with Kelby. He caught a good sight of their enemy and cursed: bloody Ferendellians.

The element of surprise was gone but the MACOs burst in right on time, and all hell broke lose. Now Malcolm, however, had an ace up his sleeve. He dived for the light controls and plunged Engineering into virtually total darkness; only the instruments' lights were left on. But before they could overpower and apprehend their confused enemies, these had dematerialised in front of their eyes.

"The boarding party has transported out, Captain," T'Pol said.

"The ships are going to warp," Travis echoed.

"Malcolm, report," Archer ordered into the comm. link.

"They took over Engineering, but no one was injured, Sir. Unfortunately they got away," the Lieutenant promptly replied. "Ferendellians, by the way."

Archer heard him spit out the word as if it were something that he didn't want in his mouth.

"Kelby, what about warp drive?" he enquired tautly.

"Kelby is recovering from trying to fly without wings, Sir," Malcolm said darkly. "He's going to be fine, but needs a moment to re-group. Rostov is telling me one nacelle suffered damage, and it's going to be a few hours before we can go to warp."

Archer pursed his lips tightly. After a beat he dared ask, "Did they get what they came for?"

Malcolm's voice held a certain amount of defeat as it floated out of the comm. link.

"I'm not sure they got all they came for, Captain, but they certainly got some."

A muttered something sounding a bit too much like a four-letter word escaped Archer's mouth. He could not remember ever having cursed in front of the Bridge crew, and he bit his lip in regret.

"See if you can figure out how much," he replied hoarsely.

TBC