A/N: Thank you, everyone, for all the reviews. The adventures of Hoshi continue in this chapter.

CHAPTER 24

Hoshi dropped into a roll and came up in a crouch. It was something she remembered seeing the Malcolm Reed of her universe do in a similar situation. She opened fire, trying to blanket the upper half of the passageway with deadly phased-energy shots; the lower half of the corridor could be covered by the two soliders who were ahead of her and already engaged in fighting.

"Go!" Mayweather yelled from behind her.

Without turning to see how close Mayweather was, Hoshi ran for the airlock, maintaining a steady rate of fire as she did. Over the noise of the firefight, she could hear heavy footsteps pounding the deck behind her. She steadily closed the distance to the airlock, ducking and weaving to present a smaller, moving target for the Andorians. One blast seared past her head. She reflexively ducked even farther.

She sprinted past the prone soldiers, who held their fire to avoid hitting her. Then she was at the airlock. Mindful of the two men carrying the injured, she didn't run inside the airlock, however. She ran past it, squatted close against the bulkhead, and kept up a stream of fire until she heard Mayweather, then the other burdened soldier stumble inside to safety.

The soldiers lying on the deck resumed their fire, their shots wide enough to miss her. Hoshi started to turn to go back to the airlock when she realized those two men were pinned down. It was something of a miracle that they hadn't been hit yet. She glanced down the corridor toward the Andorians. They kept popping out from an intersecting hallway to shoot and then jumping back into concealment. The soldiers on the deck were an easier target for them than she was because of the angle of fire, and if she left, there was a good chance they'd be killed when they tried to reach the airlock.

"Go!" she yelled at them, and began shooting again.

Her attention on the Andorians, she nevertheless was aware the two soldiers were still firing. Beams of phased energy kept zipping past in her peripheral vision. Why weren't they taking this opportunity to save themselves? Frustrated, she screamed, "Go!" Then she had an inspiration and yelled, "By the captain's order!"

She began inching backward toward the airlock, firing off shots so quickly that she wondered if the pistol in her hand would melt. A few more shots came from the soldiers behind her, then ceased. She heard scurrying sounds. The soldiers must be moving toward the airlock. With a gasp of relief, she scooted back, getting ready to turn her back on the Andorians and expose herself to their deadly fire for the second or two it would take her to make it into the airlock.

Without warning, a hand grabbed her arm, yanking her violently into the airlock. The door ground shut as soon as her feet cleared the threshold. More hands grabbed her where she'd fallen on the floor, pulling her to her feet and pushing her through the airlock and into Enterprise's corridor. There, the hands released her. She took several ragged breaths as she watched the frenetic activity around her.

Reed, a phase rifle clutched in one hand, was activating the door closure mechanism on this side of the airlock. Mayweather had placed Archer on the deck, where Phlox was running a medical scanner over him. Nearby, a medical crewman was waiting with a stretcher. A few of the soldiers were taking their injured comrades away -- to sickbay, Hoshi assumed. The other soldiers, including Colonel Hawthorne who had pulled her to safety, were taking up defensive positions in case the Andorians tried to breach the closed airlock door.

Reed opened a channel to the bridge on the intercom panel next to the airlock. "Disengage the docking clamps," he said.

"Acknowledged," she heard Tucker's voice come over the connection. Before the channel closed, Hoshi heard him order torpedos to be fired as soon as Enterprise was clear of the Andorian ship.

Well, that answered that question, Hoshi thought dazedly, somewhat amazed that she hadn't been hurt in the insane dash to escape the Andorian ship. She'd wondered who the first officer on this ship was. It must be Tucker. Although Archer had left T'Pol in charge, Tucker must have assumed command at some point after the explosion.

Phlox, on his knees next to Archer, was fussing around. Hoshi made her way through the crowd of soldiers to stand next to him. "Will he make it?"

Phlox ignored her, his attention on the medical scanner. He didn't seem to be in any hurry, which angered Hoshi even more than not answering her question. "Doctor Phlox," she said in her best command voice, "Is he going to be all right?"

"Hmmm. Hard to tell," Phlox replied, making an adjustment to the scanner. "I don't believe I've ever seen this type of injury in person. I'll need to get him to sickbay." Instead of getting up, he continued to kneel by Archer.

After all she'd been through to get Archer to safety, she wasn't about to lose him now because Phlox was dilly-dallying. Infuriated by the doctor's apparent lack of concern for Archer's welfare, she clenched her fists and said, "Get him on that stretcher and get him to sickbay." When Phlox looked up at her with faint surprise, she barked in his face, "Now!"

Phlox's eyes went wide. Hoshi didn't know if it was because of her anger, which surprised even her, or because Reed had come up next to her and was scowling at the doctor. Phlox hastily got to his feet and motioned to the crewman to bring the stretcher.

"He better be alive when we're done with the Andorians, Doctor," Reed said, "or someone will pay."

Phlox gulped as he helped the crewman load Archer carefully on the stretcher. As they started off in the direction of sickbay, Hoshi made to follow. But Reed's hand shot out and grabbed her by the upper arm.

"Shran?" he asked intently.

For once, she wasn't frightened of Reed. It must be the adrenaline still coursing through her system. "Dead," she told him. "He wound up killing himself when he tried to kill us with a booby-trapped desk."

"That was the explosion we registered?" he asked.

She nodded as she looked down the corridor in the direction Archer had been taken. She tried to jerk her arm from Reed's grasp, but he tightened his hold.

"One more question," he said. "Then you go keep an eye on the captain. Make sure the doctor behaves."

Something in his tone was different. She looked closely at his face. He was still as intimidating as ever, but his usual mocking attitude was missing. For a moment, she was painfully reminded of the Reed of her universe. She shook off her homesickness. "All right. What's your question?"

His eyes flicked to the airlock and back. "How did you know to do that?" he asked.

"You mean how to shoot?"

"That, and the way you handled yourself coming down that corridor. I was able to see the entire thing."

She almost laughed. So much had happened in such a short time that she was afraid it would turn into hysterical laughter. "I had the best teacher -- you." At his puzzled expression, she added, "Well, the Malcolm Reed that I know in my universe, actually."

Reed's eyebrows shot up. This time when she pulled her arm away, he let go. "Mayweather, go with her," he ordered.

As she walked away, her bodyguard back on duty behind her, she was aware of Reed watching her. She'd just saved his captain, but had he thanked her?

You're welcome, she thought.

When Hoshi entered sickbay, the privacy curtains had been drawn around one of the biobeds. The shadowy shape of Phlox was visible on the other side. The soldiers who had been injured in the explosion were lying on biobeds in the main area, so Archer must be behind the curtain. She looked around, but the med tech who had helped Phlox bring Archer to sickbay was nowhere to be seen.

Hoshi indecisively paced back and forth a few steps. Reed had told her to keep an eye on Phlox. The tactical officer obviously didn't trust the doctor, but then, he probably didn't trust anyone. In this case, she didn't blame him. She wouldn't want Phlox operating on her without someone else around. But because of the curtain, she couldn't see what Phlox was doing in there.

She strode over to cabinets set into the wall and starting flinging open their doors.

"Ma'am?" Mayweather asked.

She found what she was looking for in the third cabinet. She grabbed a medical smock and tossed it at Mayweather, who caught it easily. "Put that on," she told him.

Mayweather hesitated only a second before following her order. He'd finished fastening the smock when she tossed a surgical face mask at him. "That too."

She quickly donned similar garments. Motioning for Mayweather to follow, she led the way to the cordoned-off area and pulled one of the curtains back far enough to allow her to enter. With a jerk of her head, she indicated Mayweather should come in as well. As soon as he stepped in, she pulled the curtain shut.

Phlox looked up from his work on Archer. "You're not allowed in here."

His usual cockiness had returned, Hoshi saw. But the events of the day, while they had shaken her, had also left her with an unyielding attitude of her own. Something like Phlox's fussiness wasn't going to slow her down. "As the captain's woman, I'm allowed wherever I want to go. Besides, you're going to need an assistant when it comes time to take that out," she said, gesturing at the splintered wood still in Archer's side. She moved to the opposite side of the bed from the doctor.

Phlox's eyes, unnaturally blue as they peered at her over the top of his surgical mask, considered her for a moment. "Your point is taken. Put on gloves," he said, indicating a supply box at the foot of the bed. He busied himself with some of the instruments on a bedside tray.

Hoshi looked at Archer as she pulled on the gloves. The makeshift bandage had been removed, and the cut on his forehead had been sutured. The dried blood surrounding the wound hadn't been cleaned away, however. She couldn't fault the doctor; he'd stopped the bleeding so that he could concentrate on the wooden spike in Archer's side. There were sterile wipes next to the box of gloves, so she grabbed several and worked on cleaning Archer's forehead. By the time she was finished, Phlox was ready to begin.

Later, she wouldn't remember much of the actual surgery itself. It was all she could do to follow Phlox's rapidly issued instructions to apply antiseptic, suction blood from the gaping wound, and hold instruments in place when he needed a free hand. Archer looked terribly pale when she snuck a glance at his face as Phlox was closing the wound.

When Phlox was finished, she motioned for Mayweather to stay with the captain before following the doctor into the main area of sickbay.

Phlox stripped off his mask and looked at her. "You'd make a passable nurse."

Hoshi, taking off her own mask, ignored the comment. "Is he going to make it?" She dropped the mask into a waste recycler and began taking off her blood-stained medical smock.

"Impossible to determine," Phlox commented with a shrug. "There's always a chance for infection."

While her Phlox might also answer the same way, he at least would promise to do everything he could to make sure there was a good outcome. This Phlox didn't. It only made her more determined to keep watch over Archer until she was absolutely positive he would recover.

"That's quite a nasty bruise," Phlox said, nodding toward her left arm.

Hoshi looked down at her arm. It was bare, as was her right arm, since she'd stripped off the sleeves of her uniform to bandage Archer's head. Four purplish-blue lines, each the width of a finger, stood out starkly on her skin. Glancing at the underside of her arm, she found a bruise the size of a thumb. That must have happened when Hawthorne had yanked her so unceremoniously into the airlock. She checked her other arm. There was a lighter set of bruises from when Reed had stopped her in the corridor.

She looked at the doctor, who was staring at her with undisguised curiosity. Her bruises were trivial compared to the needs of the patient behind the curtain, or either of the two soldiers still awaiting the doctor's attention, for that matter.

"I'm going to go change, but I'm leaving Mayweather here," she told the doctor. Taking a page from this universe's Reed, she added, "For your sake, the captain better be alive when I get back."