Chapter 3

The next two hours seemed to pass by slowly. There wasn't anything we could do to get there any quicker, and we'd heard nothing else over the COMM. Had the ships been destroyed by whatever it was they were talking about tearing them apart? What was going on?

Malcolm had weapons on standby. He never could enter an unknown situation with them powered down, they always had to be ready for a fight. He always had to be ready for a fight.

At long last we finally approached the co-ordinates of the transport ships. There was no magnetic interference, there were no other ships in the area, in fact scans seemed to indicate that they were in perfect health. No evident damage on their hulls, no damage at all. Everyone looked uneasily at another. Had we just walked into a trap? What was going on? Perhaps Malcolm's persistant activation of the weapons was a good idea.

"Travis?"

"These are the co-ordinates sir." The young helmsman replied, inserting more worry into everyone's minds. What were the Nausicaans playing at? Sending out a distress call when they weren't in distress... something was clearly wrong.

Captain Archer was just about to give Malcolm an order when at the back of the bridge, four Nausicaan soldiers beamed in, their weapons ready and raised.

"Captain!" Malcolm cried out as the Nausicaans shot the Captain and he fell to the floor unconscious by his chair. Malcolm and I leapt out of our chairs to engage the intruders in combat but we were quickly shot down, as were Hoshi and Travis. As I lost consciousness I could just about see the soldiers beginning to move around the bridge, and I remember wondering what was it they had come for? After that everything went black. I had made it only a few feet from the console before begin shot. They had taken us by surprise and we had been unprepared for their attack, and indeed we had walked right into a trap. A horrible a devious trap that would eventually spell disaster.

I wasn't sure how long the stun lasted, it could have been minutes, or it could have been hours. It was very difficult to tell. The next thing I knew, Travis was leaning over me, checking me over. I carefully sat up with his help, noting that everyone else was already awake. It was then that I noticed one person was missing. I stood up, staring at the empty seat, just like everyone else was doing. They were all staring at that empty seat where Lieutenant Reed normally sat. Why would they take him? What did they want him for? Surely Captain Archer was a much more valuable hostage.

For just a moment or two nobody seemed to know what to do, even Captain Archer was stunned by the disappearance of his friend.