A/N: Thanks again for the reviews.

CHAPTER 39

Hoshi felt frozen as she tried to think of a way to extricate herself. It was clear that Archer wanted to move their relationship to a more intimate level. She had to do something to stop it. The thought of sexual relations with this man repelled her. He may not be a murderer, and she may have started to like him a little bit, but he could be cruel, he condoned torture, and he had a grand scheme for taking over an empire. He might even decide to dispose of her if she displeased him in some way.

Despite his apparent ardor, she noticed how tired he looked. She seized on that as an excuse, but she'd have to make it sound like she was doing it for his benefit, not hers. All she had to do was pander to his ego.

She carefully disentangled her hand from his. "Much as I would like that," she said as seriously as she could while trying not to gag on the words, "it might set back your recovery. I don't ever want to do anything to hurt you." Before he could protest, she leaned across the table and put a finger on his lips. "You've waited this long. Another day or two won't matter. Please let me get the antibiotic and some painkiller for you."

After a long moment, he nodded, the green fire of his eyes not as blazing as before but still smouldering. He watched, unspeaking, as she got up and went to the shelf with the medical supplies. She smiled at him before opening the med kit and preparing two hyposprays, careful to keep herself between him and what she was doing with the supplies.

She felt badly about what she was about to do, almost as badly as she did about lying to him. But if she was ever to get back home, she had to do this. There was no other way. She realized that her decision not to tell him that she knew there was a way for her to go back had been correct. Between confiding to her of his plans to topple the Terran Empire and his announcement that he planned to make her his consort, she seriously doubted he'd let her go. He might even see her trying to flee as sufficient reason to put her in a work camp at best, or kill her at worst.

She finished loading the hypos and went back to the table. He tilted his head to allow her to put one of the hypos to his neck. She injected the antibiotic.

"You probably ought to check my side," he said, reaching up to grasp her hand and bringing it to his mouth to kiss it.

Hoshi gulped. "All right."

He got to his feet, unbuttoning his shirt as he moved toward the bed. She saw him wince as he shrugged out of his shirt. The white bandage on his side, she saw, was unmarred by any blood stains. He sat on the bed, then lay back and waved her over.

She put the used hypo on the table and, as confidently as she could, she went to take a seat next to him on the edge of the bed, placing the second hypo next to her. She peeled back the bandage. The wound looked better than the last time she'd looked at it. "Much better," she said. "I'm surprised that all the activity you had today didn't do something to it. But you're probably going to hurt tomorrow."

"As you said before, I'm a fast healer."

Hoshi picked up the second hypo. Before she could use it on him, however, Archer reached up and grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her down on top of him. She tried not to struggle as his arms came around her or show any revulsion as he kissed her passionately. She definitely couldn't bring herself to respond. She endured it for as long as she could, then carefully pulled away.

"None of that," she whispered, still lying on his chest. "You need to rest." Under cover of shifting to bring the hypospray to his neck, she purposely put some pressure on his wound with her elbow. The response was immediate.

"Ow!" Archer said and let go of her.

"See?" she said, sitting up. "I could tell you I told you so--"

"All right," Archer said with a small, pained laugh. "You win." He tilted his head away from her so that she had a clear view of his neck to inject the painkiller.

With only a moment's hesitation, Hoshi injected the contents of the hypospray. She felt guilty about tricking him this way, but what she was doing was inconsequential compared to the way life was lived in this universe. The lies, the deceit, the cruelty. Worst of all, she'd had to resort to some of the same trickery.

Did it matter that she was doing it because it was the only way that she could see to go home? And would it matter if she was successful?

Sato had seemed preoccupied this evening, Archer thought as he watched her move around the cabin after giving him the injections. He would have thought she'd be happy that Kelby had been caught, and even more so that he'd decided to make her his consort, once he set his plan in motion to replace the antiquated, over-extended empire with a new regime.

She'd arrived at their quarters with that useless piece of space junk, but he supposed he could understand her reason for wanting it. It would be a visible reminder of how useful her skills were to him. And then she'd come out of her cabin wearing that black shift which he'd admired on her once before. As far as he was concerned, that definitely meant that she'd finally accepted she was going to be with him forever, and that her stand-offish attitude toward him was changing. She could hardly blame his thoughts for turning to something pleasurable when she was wearing the alluring outfit while sitting across the table from him.

But she'd barely touched her food tonight, and she hadn't said much during the meal. Maybe it was her concern about his physical condition that was affecting her. The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that was it. She'd been worried about him being up and moving around all day, and if it had caused him any pain. Didn't she understand that walking the decks of Enterprise had been the best medicine for him?

However, she'd been right. As satisfying as it had been to see Kelby confess and then to get some work done in his ready room, it hadn't been easy. He'd tried to ignore the soreness in his side, which had begun to send sharp throbs of pain outward through his torso during the meal. Even now, the slightest movement as he lie on the bed, like the yawn he covered with a hand, resulted in a corresponding twinge at the site of the wound.

He felt his muscles relax as he watched her feed Dart. His eyelids started to close. He still couldn't believe the dog had taken such a liking to her. That would definitely make things simpler since she was going to be in the adjoining cabin permanently. Well, at least until he was done with Enterprise.

No matter how much he liked the ship, there would come a point when he'd have to leave it to take on his new duties as...as what? He groggily wondered what title he should give himself. Not emperor. And not something that sounded military. He'd have to ask Sato about it. She was good with words. She probably could come up with something suitably impressive.

Maybe he'd keep Enterprise as his personal transport. Once he was in charge, no one would be able to tell him he couldn't. He yawned again, this time not bothering to cover his mouth as he drifted closer to sleep.

Hoshi was running out of things to do in Archer's cabin. She'd picked up the items from rebandaging Archer's wound, had put away the hypos, and had fed the dog. She glanced at the chronometer. It wasn't that late. She hadn't wanted to give Archer the sedative so soon, because she wasn't sure how long it would last. Hopefully, since he'd been tired to begin with, he'd sleep for a good, long time when he succumbed to the sedative and she'd be gone by the time he awoke.

Her guilt over giving him the sedative instead of the painkiller wouldn't go away. She knew he was in pain. But, as when she'd asked T'Pol to use the nerve pinch, she rationalized that if he was alseep, he wouldn't be aware he was hurting.

She heard him yawn several times. At last, the sound of heavy breathing, followed by a snore, indicated he was asleep. Motioning for Dart to stay, she went into her cabin and quietly closed the door.

She looked at the chronometer in her cabin. It was several hours before she should leave. That was plenty of time to break the code on the lock on her cabin's door to the corridor. She'd also have to find and bypass the circuit that alerted the bridge to tampering with door codes.

She flexed her fingers and got to work.

Freeman had been disgusted to see her on the bridge again today. Once again she was checking his work. The things he had to put up with! Then, after being called by Archer into his ready room, she'd returned to her station at the back of the bridge a short time later. She couldn't have been there more than five minutes before she left the bridge. If any of the rest of the crew tried walking off the bridge before the end of their shifts, there'd be hell to pay. But she was the captain's woman, so she probably thought she didn't have to conform to regulations.

Out of curiosity, near the end of his shift he had gone to the station where she'd supposedly been working. He knew there had been next to no communications traffic to process, but he'd seen her working on something. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary on the console, except for a data chip in one of the reader slots. So she wasn't perfect, he thought snidely. She'd forgotten to give him the translations she'd done that day. He snatched the chip out of the slot, took it back to the main communications console, and inserted it in a slot there. A file appeared on the screen, but he couldn't read it. It was in one of those alien languages she was supposed to translate and give back to him. Strange. He didn't remember sending a file of this large size to her station today.

The comm officer for the next shift arrived before Freeman could run it through the UT. Still curious about the chip, he pocketed it to look at it later. As the lead communications officer, he was allowed to have a tie-in to the UT from the computer terminal in his quarters. But first he'd go the mess hall and get something to eat.

Freeman had forgotten about the data chip until some clumsy oaf bumped into him after he'd refilled his cup at the beverage dispenser after he'd eaten. The coffee sloshed over the rim of the cup and onto his pants. Just a few drops, but he'd reflexively swiped at them with his free hand. That's when he felt the chip in his pocket. He'd finish his coffee, go to his quarters, and see what she'd been working on.

It was almost time. Hoshi changed out of the black shift and into the lavender jumpsuit, which would attract less attention if anyone was to see her in the corridors.

She cautiously opened the door between her cabin and Archer's just far enough to see in. The captain was asleep with Dart draped over his feet. She froze when the doberman pinscher, noticing her at the doorway, lifted his head and looked in her direction, but the dog's movement didn't wake Archer. As cautiously as she'd opened the door, she closed it.

She took one last look around at what had been her lodging for the last few weeks. There was nothing of hers here, except her old uniform which was ruined anyway. Other than the cylinder, there wasn't anything she wanted or needed from this cabin. She picked up the metal cylinder, went to the door to the corridor, and, opening it, took the first step of what she hoped was her journey home.