A.N.: Once agan, thanks to everyone who left a review. You know who you are!

CHAPTER FIVE

The damaged hull panels, including those that were bent and impeded the flow of the plasma exhaust, had been removed from the Wayfarer's Rest. Trip had assigned some of his engineering staff to fabricate new panels. While he was waiting for the panels to be made, he decided to take a closer look at the engine. He was squatting next to the engine, Malcolm beside him, as they opened an access panel covering some of the inner workings. The panel gave way and almost sent both men tumbling backwards. When they'd regained their balance, Trip relinquished the panel to Malcolm, who set it aside.

The portable work lights they'd set up helped to alleviate the gloom in the engine compartment, but portions of the interior were either highlighted in washed-out brilliance or in deep shadow. Both men had to rely on flashlights to see inside the engine.

"I don't understand why you aren't using Enterprise's power to run some of the secondary systems," Malcolm complained. "At least that way we'd be able to see decently."

"I will, Malcolm, I will," Trip said, his attention focused on the engine components. "I just wanted to see this first."

Malcolm chuffed and leaned closer to the opening to look inside at the mass of wires, relays and switches. "Rather cluttered, isn't it?"

"Not for its day," Trip answered. "If I remember right, this model made a fortune for its designer. ... Nothing appears to be wrong with it. We'll get some equipment in here, run a few diagnostics, and see what we come up with."

"We aren't going to be able to charge the batteries unless we engage the engine," Malcolm said. "Instead of waiting until the engine is operational, why don't we feed some of Enterprise's power into the batteries?"

Trip tore his gaze from the engine to look at Malcolm with a tolerant smile. "What's the rush, Malcolm? It's not like we've got anything else to do. We might as well take our time and enjoy it. Besides, I'm planning to hook up some of the secondary systems to our power supply after I look at this."

Malcolm was nodding in response to this last remark when a shout from out in the launch bay heralded the return of Travis. The helmsman had volunteered to go to Engineering to get some components. The two men went to the hatch and stepped out to find not only Travis, who was loaded down with parts and pieces, but Hoshi as well.

"I thought you were going to spend your shift on the bridge," Trip said by way of greeting to Hoshi as he relieved Travis of some of the items.

"I was," Hoshi said, "but I want to talk to Malcolm about something."

Trip and Travis moved off around the other side of the ship, leaving Malcolm alone with Hoshi. When she didn't speak, just stared at the Wayfarer's Rest, he asked, "Is something wrong?"

"It's probably nothing," Hoshi prevaricated. "I'm probably just being silly, but..."

Malcolm waited patiently as Hoshi shuffled her feet. She had made the effort to come all the way to the launch bay from the bridge, and that meant whatever was bothering her wasn't trivial. And that she wanted to speak to him indicated it might be something concerning the security of the ship. When she met his eyes, Malcolm could see the uncertainty in them. Something definitely was worrying her, but she wasn't sure it was something she should bother him about. "Hoshi?" he asked.

She took a deep breath and said in a rush, "Late last night I saw someone I didn't recognize in a corridor on C deck. At the time, I assumed he was one of the new crew members. I checked the pictures in the personnel roster a while ago, but he's not one of them."

A prickle of alarm made Malcolm tense. "Did you talk to this person?"

"No, he was walking away from me at the far end of the corridor, and I was only going as far as the turbolift," Hoshi explained. "But for a moment, when he looked over his shoulder at me, I saw his face."

"You're sure he wasn't a crew member?" Malcolm pressed.

"I'm sure," Hoshi said. She bit her lip.

"I suppose it's possible that we might have an intruder or a stowaway," Malcolm remarked, his thoughts turning to the logistics of what it would take to track down a person who had snuck on the ship. While it was highly unlikely that an unauthorized person had come aboard, it wasn't impossible. He'd run an interior biosign scan, and if that failed to turn up anyone who shouldn't be on board, he'd have to institute a deck-by-deck search. "You did the right thing telling me about this, Hoshi."

"I'm not sure he's an intruder," Hoshi said. She added almost flippantly, "Now that I think about it, I guess he could be considered a stowaway, in a manner of speaking. But the point is -- I think I know who it is -- or rather, was."

Her last few words were drowned out by a shout from Trip. "Hey, Malcolm!" came the engineer's voice from the other side of the Wayfarer's Rest. "We could use your help here."

"Just a minute!" Malcolm called back. Turning back to Hoshi, he said, "You know who he is, but you said he wasn't one of the crew."

"He's not a member of this crew. I'm sure of that," she said. She shifted her gaze to look at the small ship. "The man I saw last night was Robert Watson."

Malcolm laughed. Had Travis put her up to this? Now that things had finally calmed down and there were no immediate crises to deal with, he had no trouble believing that the pair of ensigns had decided to try a practical joke on someone. Well, it wasn't going to work on him. He shook his head and smiled. "It couldn't have been, Hoshi. He's been dead for about sixty years."

"I know what I saw," Hoshi said stubbornly. "This morning, T'Pol gave me the logs from his ship to enter into our records. I saw Robert Watson on the screen, and he looked exactly like the man I saw last night."

Malcolm stared at her. She certainly sounded like she believed what she was saying. "Are you sure you didn't dream the whole thing?" Malcolm asked in an effort to be reasonable. "You saw Watson's likeness in the logs and maybe--"

Hoshi cut him off. "Last night, when I saw that man, I had no idea what Robert Watson looked like. I didn't know what he looked like until this morning -- after I'd seen him in the corridor." She crossed her arms over her chest. "And I may have been sleepy, but I wasn't asleep when I saw him. I wasn't dreaming."

As Malcolm pondered exactly what the proper response should be to Hoshi's obviously out-of-control imagination -- a response that would reassure her yet not anger her because he didn't really believe she'd seen a ghost -- another shout came from the other side of the ship. "Malcolm?"

Pitching his voice to carry to Trip, he answered, "Something's come up."

Trip's head popped up over the top of the Wayfarer's Rest. The engineer apparently was up on the ladder taking a look at the damaged hull again. "I thought you didn't have anything to do," Trip said.

Malcolm frowned. He really didn't think anything would come of checking out Hoshi's story of an unknown person on board, and nothing could possibly come from her assertion that she'd seen what had amounted to a ghost. She must have seen one of the crew and been mistaken. The low lighting of gamma shift could play tricks on a person, and she had admitted to not being fully awake at the time.

Then he remembered that she'd seen and heard things none of the rest of the crew had. The incident with Tarquin when they'd been in the Expanse came to mind. The telepathic alien's contact with her had been so strong that she had been able to talk to him when he'd been light years away. He also remembered that when she'd first told him about hearing Tarquin's voice, he hadn't believed her then, either. If there was the slightest chance that something beyond the range of his detection -- but not Hoshi's -- was on board, it was his duty to check into it.

"I have to go," he told Trip, who waved in acknowledgment and dropped back down out of sight behind the hull of the Wayfarer's Rest.

Hoshi flashed him a grateful smile. No doubt she hadn't wanted to bring this to the captain's attention, at least until she had some type of evidence to back up her wild claim. Chances were she had imagined the whole thing, but the least he could do was check into it -- just to make sure it wasn't an intruder of some sort.

"Let's get up to the bridge," Malcolm told her. "The first thing we need to do is run an interior scan to make sure there isn't an extra person on board. If that doesn't turn up anything, then we'll figure out what to do next."

Trip slid down the ladder and landed on the deck with a thump. Travis grinned as Trip affectionately slapped his palm against the side of the Wayfarer's Rest.

"All right, Travis," said Trip. "Let's see if some of those components you rounded up will let us adapt our power supply for this little beauty."

The two men made their way back into the engine compartment. Travis' gaze roamed over the fittings. "A lot of this looks familiar," he remarked.

Trip chuckled as he checked the connection for one of the power lines. "I expect some of this equipment is still in use on Boomer ships."

"You've got that right, but it's all so small!" Travis said as he spun in a slow circle to look at everything. "The engine on the Horizon is eight to ten times the size of this one."

"Your family has more and bigger cargo to carry, seeing as how it's a freighter," Trip said. "This ship just had poor old Robert Watson."

"Yeah," Travis said and fell silent.

Trip made some adjustments to the adapter, then handed it to Travis. "Let's see if this will work now."

Travis stepped over to one of the power cables strung through the hatch, put the adapter on the end, and held it up for Trip to see. "It fits like a glove," Travis said.

"Good. Now--"

The portable lights went out, leaving the two men in darkness except for what light that shone in through the hatch from the launch bay.

"I didn't do that," Travis said immediately.

"I know, Travis," Trip said. "There's no power in that cable yet. I haven't plugged any of the cables in to the EPS junction except for the one to the portable lights. Maybe somebody disconnected it. I'll be right back."

Travis waited in the dark compartment, twirling the end of the power cable he was holding, after Trip left to check the connection in the launch bay proper. There wasn't much he could do in the dark, and his thoughts turned to the last person to operate this ship. When the lights came back on, he blinked in the sudden brightness. Trip reentered the compartment a few moments later.

"What'd you do?" the engineer asked curiously.

"What do you mean -- what did I do?" Travis countered.

"The connection outside was good," Trip explained. He gestured toward one of the portable lights. "How'd you get the lights to come back on?"

"I didn't do anything," Travis said.

"Must be a short in that line," Trip said, and stepped farther into the compartment.

"Could be," Travis said, "or it could be the ghost of Robert Watson. Maybe he doesn't like us messing with his ship."

"Travis," Trip chided him. "I like a good ghost story as much as the next person. Probably more, come to think of it." He took another adapter out of its packaging. "But it's a short in the line. Call over to Engineering, would you? Have somebody bring us another power cable."

The lights flickered. Both men looked at the lights, then at each other.

As the lights steadied, Trip said, "And have 'em take a look at the cable that's acting up."

Travis nodded, but his gaze was darting about the area. "It's probably a short," he said.

Trip glanced around the compartment, an unaccustomed chill running up his spine for no reason. "I hope so. I know how to deal with shorts." Giving Travis a lopsided grin, he added, "Ghosts...I'm not so sure."

Hoshi was seated at the communications station, Malcolm standing hunched over next to her with one hand resting on the desktop of the console, when Jon came out of his ready room onto the bridge. Spying the two officers engrossed in something on the communications console, he made his way over to them.

"Hoshi, Malcolm," he said. He suppressed a smile as Malcolm abruptly straightened. He knew he hadn't startled Malcolm; rather, it was the officer's strict adherence to protocol that had made him assume a more military posture. "What's going on?"

"Hoshi wanted me to check something for her," Malcolm said.

"Oh?"

"It's nothing, sir," Hoshi said. "Nothing important, that is."

Jon looked from Hoshi, who appeared embarrassed, to Malcolm, who seemed to be hiding a smile. Whatever they were up to, they didn't want him to know about it.

Malcolm caught Jon's gaze over the top of Hoshi's head and said, "If it does turn out to be something important, of course I'll inform you immediately, sir."

Jon quirked an eyebrow at that. He waited a moment, hoping one of them would volunteer more information, but neither of his officers spoke. With a nod, he said, "Carry on."

As Jon walked away, he thought that perhaps his officers had too much time on their hands. After taking the derelict ship into the launch bay, Enterprise had resumed it charting mission, but they wouldn't be finished with it soon enough to suit him. The crew's restlessness was beginning to make some of them act in rather peculiar ways.