Lt. Reed sat in the Captain's chair, observing the crewman, supervising when necessary, and mostly catching up on old paper work. He contained a heavy sigh with serious effort, why did they even bother? Starfleet wasn't around to send the paperwork to. And it wasn't like their resident engineer turned Captain, had even looked at a single duty roster he had submitted, or report for that matter. Normally, Malcom Reed would be the last person to complain about regulations, he practically worshipped them, even followed them in his personal life. But right now he almost wanted one of those ships to try something drastic, it might even keep his mind occupied.

Ensign Travis Mayweather was an easy man to read, his expressions were basically youthful enthusiasm, and that was it. You could tell something was wrong a split second before he told you if you just looked closely.

And the British Lieutenant could tell, which was why his shoulders tensed, giving his normally military stance an even more rigid pose.

"What is it Ensign?" his voice was, as always, hard, completely one hundred percent professional.

"Sir?" the helmsman twisted in his seat, confusion written clearly on his face as to how his commanding officer had known. Taking a second, he recovered swiftly enough. "Well Sir, it-," he frowned down at his display again. "It looks like the Kumari is having power fluctuations."

Malcom's attention was on it immediately, "Is there any chance of a warp core breach?"

"Oh, no Sir, this seems more like-"

A whirring noise emitted from the tactical station. "The Andorian ship is powering up shields!"

"Red alert, get our shields up. Ensign Sato, call the Captain to the bridge."

"I wouldn't bother if I were you."

Everyone froze, except Hoshi. "Lieutenant they've hacked our signal, audio only."

"Who am I speaking to." Reed demanded.

"You are speaking to the people who have your Captain, locked up in our brig." The voice garbled slightly.

"Put Captain Shran on the line now."

There was small pause before the comm system gargled to life. "Watch your tongue, pinkskin, there is nothing to stop us from turning your Captain into a vegetable, I believe the term is."

Reed was taking a risk, but then, who wasn't these days. "Well, at that point, Mr. Tucker will no longer be able to fulfill his duties as Captain, thereby leaving me in command of the Enterprise." He paused himself, letting the moment hang. "And for your acts of aggression, I will be obligated to commence fire on your vessel, however, I am not closed to negotiation."

He was planning on the fact that the Andorians here knew nothing about humans. But Malcom Reed knew some things, and one, was that if there was any way to make an Andorian understand, it was a threat…