Disclaimer: I still don't own it; I make no money from it. Not written for profit, simply for pleasure.

Thoughts are written in italics.

Sorry it's taken me so long for this bit. Belated Holiday wishes to everyone and more to come for the New Year!

Thanks to Humminbird2, iccle fairy, Alelou, volley, West Dean and Spyromaster64 for reading and reviewing! :)

Chapter 3

Hoshi blinked in the bright light as the familiar figure leaning over her came into better focus. The mouth moved and Hoshi stared, trying to make sense of the distant words washing over her. She frowned and tried to focus.

"Ensign Sato? Can you hear me?"

She finally nodded, and the concerned Denobulan relaxed slightly, sharing a small smile and a glance with someone to his right.

She struggled to sit up, swaying, and suddenly there were hands supporting her. A low whimper caught her attention and she glanced down at the small beagle staring balefully up at her.

"Hoshi? Are you alright?" She looked around to see the Captain and Travis supporting her, Phlox hovering nearby, all staring worriedly at her lack of response. She mentally shook herself. You will not go to pieces. You're past that now.

"I'm fine, Sir."

She looked about them as Phlox continued to discuss her condition with the relieved Captain. Trip and T'Pol were kneeling close together under one of the larger trees, drawing with their fingers in the soft blue dirt.

"Hoshi?" Travis' voice drew her attention back to the conversation. "You remember anything more about what happened?"

Hoshi started to shake her head, stopping quickly when the world spun. "No." She looked around again. "Where's Malcolm? Where are we?"

Trip looked up from where his patch of dirt and shared a brief glance with the Captain over her shoulder. Hoshi looked between the two of them.

"Ok, what did I miss?" She asked with a sigh.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Travis asked.

"Umm… Malcolm. He was hurt?" The blurred memories swirling around her mind and the uncertainty in her voice turned the answer into a question.

Archer nodded. "That's right." He paused, looking thoughtful. "Maybe we should work this through. Quickly." He looked around at them all. "OK people what do we know?"

"We receive hails from a ship of unknown configuration claiming to be in need of urgent medical assistance. We responded to their hails and were communicating with their captain, a Mister Vishtnar, while in orbit of an uninhabited planet. We proceed to offer them our assistance. Enterprise then came under heavy fire and the engine was damaged and failed. Ensign Mayweather then performed admirably and landed the ship on the planet. We awoke to find the only crew member seriously injured was Lieutenant Reed, and attempted to assist him, before we were attacked by energy weapons at close range from an unidentifiable source." T'Pol's factually summary was met with stunned stares from the others.

Travis broke the sudden silence. "'Land' is a bit of a stretch!"

Jon smiled weakly, proud of the young officer despite their situation. "You managed it, Travis."

"Yeah, sideways!" Trip added, sounding impressed.

Travis smiled a little and stared at the ground, embarrassed at the praise before a frown creased his normally smooth face.

"We still don't know where we are though. We were supposed to end up on that planet, but I don't remember it looking like this from the scans."

They all glanced to T'Pol questioningly.

"I can offer no explanation, Captain." She said softly.

"So," Hoshi started. "We don't know where we are. Or where Malcolm is. Or the rest of the crew. Or how to get to them. What happened before I woke up?"

"I woke the Cap'n, and we followed Porthos. He seemed to know where you all were even when we didn't." Trip supplied.

"I wouldn't say we've been unconscious for more than half an hour, judging from the Captain's and Ensign Sato's injuries. Not serious, I assure you." Phlox added, holding up a hand to stay any worries they may have voiced. "We all received a few bumps and bruises and some rather unusual scratches. From what I can gather I would think you two both hit your heads. I could be more accurate if I had my medical scanner, but that's the best I can be without one. The crash must have been recent. "

"So…" Archer prompted.

"So Lieutenant Reed still has a chance, if his was not injured any further. You managed to stem the blood loss, Captain, and that will have increased his chances. But it is imperative that we find him quickly. He will need urgent medical attention."

Hoshi felt Jon's sigh of relief from where he was still supporting her.

"Well we gotta find him then," Trip said, looking as the others as though they were insane for not saying the same thing. "T'Pol and I have been workin' on a map." He gestured them all over to the patch of dirt he was still sitting next to. Travis helped a wobbly Hoshi to her feet and they all shuffled over, Porthos following Jon closely.

They gazed down at the mass of wavy lines and circles, as Trip and T'Pol pointed out various places in a wide oval shape on the soil that indicated where everyone had been found.

"What's in the middle? Do we know?" Jon asked tensely.

Trip shook his head. "No Cap'n. Everyone we found has been away from that spot. It's fairly big though. Do you think…?"

Jon nodded. "Enterprise. Malcolm hasn't got much time and it seems as likely a place as any. We'll stay together. We don't know what's out here and there's no way to call for help if something goes wrong."

He glanced around at them, needing the support of his senior staff now more than ever, and was relieved to see them all nodding back at him in agreement.

Porthos yipped, almost as though he had understood the entire conversation, and sniffed at the ground in the direction they had decided to search, turning to look back at his bemused master.

Five minutes later they were trudging as quickly as possible through the dense forest, dodging the long orange tendrils as they went. The tall blue grass pulled at their feet, hiding the gnarled tree roots that threatened to trip them every few meters.

The harsh white light from above had given no signs of dimming and pounded down on their heads relentlessly as the forest became thicker, and they became more desperate.

Trip's earlier unexpected enthusiasm at finding himself in a new alien environment had quickly waned to be overshadowed by concern for his friend. He scanned the close-set trees and strained his ears for any sounds that might give them a clue of which way to go, although he knew that Hoshi and T'Pol's sensitive hearing would pick up any useful sounds far sooner than he could.

His mind wandered without his consent over his many adventures with Malcolm during their time on Enterprise. Risa, the shuttle pod, the repair station, there were so many. He couldn't abide to think that there might not be any more. No. We'll find him. We'll find him and Phlox will fix him up and he'll be fine. Trip grimaced as he thought about how much Malcolm would complain at being cooped up in sickbay. Even if it was for his own good.

"Can you hear that?" Hoshi suddenly asked, and they all stopped. Trip turned towards her, hoping beyond hope that she had recognised Malcolm's voice.

She looked around at their stares. "No animals. This forest is obviously doing well; there are plants everywhere, but no animals at all. Not even insects."

"Perhaps none inhabit this planet," T'Pol suggested.

"Or something scared them away," Archer added grimly. "Come on, let's keep moving."

As they set off again Trip thought about that. He had taken the lack of insects as a blessing rather than a warning. He stared around himself at the strange world, and wondered once again what was going on. The only thing he was certain of was that they had to find Malcolm. Fast. Unconsciously, he quickened his pace.

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