[Planet
surface]
(Hoshi and Tucker are making a photographic record
of paintings, carvings and pictograms on old stone ruins/)
HOSHI: These are at least three hundred years older than the ones in
the last chamber.
TUCKER: You sure you can't read any of this?
HOSHI: No. How about you?
TUCKER: Well, I think this says tall guys are popular.
HOSHI: You're a budding linguist. Let's get a shot of that one. (A
relief carving of a face.) HOSHI: I wonder what happened to them.
TUCKER: It is kind of weird. Not a single biosign on the entire planet.
(comm. beep) Tucker.
ARCHER [OC}: You about finished down there, Trip?
TUCKER: You can't believe these ruins, sir. We've been through two
dozen chambers. No telling
[Bridge]
TUCKER [OC]: How many more there are.
ARCHER: I'm afraid you're not going to find out today. That storm we
told you about hasn't changed course.
[Planet surface]
ARCHER [OC]: You and Hoshi are going to need to
get back to Enterprise.
TUCKER: We'll just finish up with Mister Tall and Popular. We should
back to the shuttlepod in five, six minutes.
[Bridge]
ARCHER: Don't take any longer than that. Archer
out. (T'Pol is at the situation room console.)
T'POL: Captain? We have another storm.
ARCHER: Another one? [Situation room]
(He joins her.)
T'POL: The discharges are more intense.
ARCHER: It's a good deal bigger.
T'POL: And stronger. It's pushing the first storm through these
mountains at twice the speed it was moving a few minutes ago.
REED: They're diamagnetic storms, Captain, saturated with polaric
energy.
ARCHER: This is the shuttle?
T'POL: Less than ten kilometres from the first storm.
{Planet surface]
(A driving
wind, and thick black storm clouds and twisters coming over the
mountains.)
ARCHER [OC]: You may not be able to see yet, but it'll be coming
through the mountain pass to the north.
TUCKER: We can see it just fine, Captain.
[Situation room]
ARCHER: The storms are throwing up too much
interference into the atmosphere. The shuttle's out of the question.
[Planet surface]
HOSHI: Captain, these ruins have very thick walls.
I'm sure we'll be safe inside.
[Situation room]
ARCHER: I'm afraid we're not talking about
thunderclouds, Hoshi. A polaric burst that could short-circuit a
shuttlepod could do a lot worse to your nervous system.
HOSHI [OC]: But sir, these buildings are
[Planet surface]
HOSHI: Over four thousand years old. I'm sure
they've survived hundreds of these storms.
[Situation room]
ARCHER: I've sent Malcolm down to the transporter.
We're going to need to bring you up
[Planet surface]
ARCHER [OC]: One at a time.
HOSHI: Couldn't we wait it out inside the shuttle? Polarise the hull
plating.
[Situation room]
T'POL: That would most likely attract the polaric
discharge.
ARCHER: You have to do this, Hoshi.
[Planet surface]
ARCHER [OC]: There's no choice. I'll need you
clear of the structure
[Situation room]
ARCHER: One at a time.
[Planet surface]
TUCKER: Understood, Captain. Ladies first.
HOSHI: Have you ever done this?
TUCKER: No, but the Captain has, and Malcolm did it twice. They said
there's nothing to it.
HOSHI: Your molecules get pulled apart.
TUCKER: Then they get put back together again.
HOSHI: Do you know how many molecules you're made up of?
TUCKER: Lots.
HOSHI: All right, how many?
TUCKER: A few trillion.
HOSHI: That's a pretty big jigsaw puzzle. What if some other pieces get
put in the wrong place? You know, I bet a lot of them look real
similar.
TUCKER: Starfleet said it's safe. That's good enough for me.
HOSHI: Okay, okay, but you go first and if you get to Enterprise in one
piece I'll be right behind you.
TUCKER: Fair enough. Tucker to Enterprise.
REED [OC]: I read you, Commander.
TUCKER: Ready to go. (He's beamed away.)
HOSHI: (into communicator) Commander?
TUCKER [OC]: Safe and sound.
HOSHI: I'm on my way, sir. (She picks up a case and dashes into the open.)
HOSHI: Ensign Sato ready for transport.
[Transporter alcove]
REED: Welcome to the club.
TUCKER: How do those molecules feel? All in the right place?
HOSHI: I'll let you know.
[Hoshi's quarters]
(She's washing her face and examining very closely
when the door bell chimes.)
HOSHI: Come in. (Archer stays on the threshold.)
ARCHER: No worse for the wear, Ensign?
HOSHI: I guess you could say that, sir. I'll be at my post in a few
minutes. I just want to clean up and change.
ARCHER: I think you've had enough excitement for one afternoon. The
morning'll be fine.
HOSHI: Thank you.
ARCHER: I assume you and Trip will want to finish your survey tomorrow,
weather permitting.
HOSHI: Sir?
ARCHER: You left a shuttlepod down there, remember? Somebody's got to
go back and get it.
HOSHI: I'm sure Commander Tucker can find someone else to hold the
second flash unit.
ARCHER: You wouldn't be using the transporter, Hoshi. You'd be taking
the other pod.
HOSHI: I don't want to get lost.
ARCHER: Lost?
HOSHI: Too much excitement for one day. I could really use some rest,
sir.
ARCHER: See you in the morning.
(He closes the door, and she returns to examining every pore on her
face.)
[Mess hall]
REED: So he tells her it was merely a warp
imbalance.
TUCKER: That's a lie, Malcolm.
REED: We all heard it, Commander. There's no use pretending.
TUCKER: Come on, Travis.
HOSHI: Anyone sitting here?
TUCKER: Don't you think a Vulcan would see right through this one?
TRAVIS: But that's what you said, though.
HOSHI: Is anyone sitting here?
TUCKER: No, please. (she puts her tray down and sits)
TRAVIS: So, what was it like?
REED: Travis, let her eat her supper.
HOSHI: It was very unsettling. Didn't you find it unsettling?
TUCKER: For a minute or two, but once I counted my fingers and toes.
HOSHI: I don't know. I just don't feel right.
TUCKER: It was probably that storm. You don't forget things like that
too quickly.
HOSHI: Not the storms, it's the transporter. I don't feel like myself
since I went through it. I need to check the medical database and find
out what happened to people they used when they were testing that
thing.
REED: You mean other than Cyrus Ramsey?
HOSHI: Cyrus Ramsey?
TUCKER: Don't tell me you don't know about poor Cyrus.
HOSHI: Am I supposed to?
TRAVIS: You can't go on a survival overnight without hearing a story
about someone seeing Ramsey's molecules rematerialising on a foggy
night.
HOSHI: What happened to him?
TUCKER: Next thing you'll tell us you never heard of the Easter bunny.
HOSHI: What happened to him?
TUCKER: Madison, Wisconsin, May, I think, 2146. He was a test subject
for the first long-range transport. Just one hundred metres. Something
went wrong with the pattern buffer. He never rematerialised.
REED: Come on, Hoshi, everybody's heard of Cyrus Ramsey.
HOSHI: I must have fallen asleep before the ghost stories.
TUCKER: Where'd you do your survival training?
TRAVIS: Death Valley, California. Middle of July, naturally. You?
TUCKER: Captain and I were in the same group. Alice Springs, Australia.
Never saw so many flies in my life. Biting kind. (comm., chirps)
Tucker.
ARCHER [OC]: The storms are breaking up. I don't think we'll have any
trouble getting you back down in the morning.
TUCKER: Travis was just telling me he'd like to see the ruins.
ARCHER [OC]: Well, I don't think Hoshi will be joining you.
TUCKER: I'll need a pilot to bring the other pod back.
ARCHER [OC]: Travis it is. I'll see you both in the morning. Archer
out.
TUCKER: Never say I don't take you anywhere.
TRAVIS: You don't take me anywhere.
(All the men get up and leave.)
HOSHI: See you later.
[Sickbay]
HOSHI: Doctor? Doctor Phlox.
Hello? (Suddenly he's behind her.)
PHLOX: Ensign. Something I can do for you?
HOSHI: I just looked in there. Were you in there? Did you hear me come
in?
PHLOX: I was feeding my leeches. Are you all right?
HOSHI: You didn't hear me?
PHLOX: I'm right here, Ensign. Are you not feeling well?
HOSHI: No, I'm not feeling well. I dematerialised, and then I
rematerialised and, no, I'm not feeling well.
PHLOX: I heard about your ordeal on the surface. Those storms sounded
terrifying.
HOSHI: Doctor, I'm not talking about the storms. I'm talking about my
molecules.
PHLOX: Come sit down. Let's take a look. (He begins scanning her.) PHLOX: It'll
take me a while to account for every molecule, but you appear to be in
one piece. I don't think you're in danger of becoming the next Cyrus
Ramsey.
HOSHI: Don't tell me they talk about him on Denobula.
PHLOX: I spent nearly nine months on Earth, remember?
HOSHI: I just don't feel right. Ever since the transport, I've been
shaky, not myself.
PHLOX: Not a single bio-molecular anomaly.
HOSHI: No? How about this? (She indicates a mark by her nose.)
PHLOX: A subcutaneous pigmentation.
HOSHI: It's not where it used to be. It was a good centimetre lower.
PHLOX: Well, it looks lovely where it is now.
HOSHI: It's not a joke, Doctor. If that machine could move a birthmark,
who knows what else it could do. I'm telling you, I don't feel right.
PHLOX: I have a lot of animals to feed before bedtime. If I were you,
I'd get a good night's sleep, hmm?
[Hoshi's quarters]
(She's wakened by a comm. chirp.)
HOSHI: Hello?
T'POL [OC]: You're needed on the Bridge, Ensign.
HOSHI: What time is it?
T'POL [OC]: Eleven hundred hours. There's been an emergency.
HOSHI: Eleven hundred hours, that's impossible. My shift starts at oh
eight hundred.
T'POL [OC]: Now, Ensign.
[Bridge]
HOSHI: I'm sorry, Captain, I don't know what
happened.
ARCHER: Tucker and Mayweather have been taken hostage. Trip got a short
message but we haven't heard anything in the last hour.
HOSHI: Taken hostage by who?
ARCHER: The people down there didn't like you disturbing their ruins.
HOSHI: People? There wasn't a biosign on the planet.
T'POL: The chambers you and Mister Tucker photographed contained sacred
relics.
HOSHI: How could you possibly know that?
ARCHER: Have you found their biosigns?
REED: They're still in the complex. I'm trying to isolate the specific
chamber.
HOSHI: (comm. beep) It's Mayweather's communicator.
ARCHER: Go ahead, Travis.
ALIEN [OC]: (something)
ARCHER: Ensign?
HOSHI: I need more.
ARCHER: This is Captain Archer of the Starship Enterprise. We apologise
if we've trespassed. My crewmen didn't mean any harm.
ALIEN [OC]: (something)
HOSHI: I'm sorry, sir, it's not working. I'm going to need more.
ARCHER: Can I speak to one of my officers?
ALIEN [OC]: (something increasingly belligerent)
ARCHER: It's not going to get much better than that.
T'POL: What's the problem?
REED: Maybe you should forget about the UT. Just try and talk to them.
HOSHI: Ajas sukas.
ALIEN [OC]: (something)
HOSHI: Tag zra uras turana.
ALIEN [OC]: (something)
HOSHI: If I went back to the universal translator, maybe I could
ARCHER: You already tried that. Talk to them.
HOSHI: I can't.
T'POL: Lives are at stake, Ensign.
HOSHI: I know. I don't understand what he's saying. I'm, I'm sorry. I'm
sorry.
ARCHER: No need to apologise. Why don't you go back to your quarters
and get some rest.
HOSHI: Captain, I realise I overslept. I don't know how it happened,
but please, I don't want to go back to my quarters.
ARCHER: (to Baird) Take the comm.
BAIRD: Aye, Captain.
ARCHER: Malcolm.
(Archer and Reed leave the Bridge. Then Hoshi walks out too. In her bathroom, she starts to run a shower and
looks in the mirror. For a moment she thinks her reflection has
vanished. In the shower itself, she sees the water running straight
through her hands)
[Mess hall]
HOSHI: Anyone sitting here? Sub-commander? (T'Pol finally looks up from her book.)
T'POL: Ensign. Would you like to
join me?
HOSHI: Thank you. I would've thought you'd be on the Bridge.
T'POL: Why is that?
HOSHI: Commander Tucker. Travis.
T'POL: The hostage situation was resolved. They're back on board.
HOSHI: It's only been an hour since I left the Bridge. What happened?
T'POL: Crewman Baird deciphered their language. A simple bimodal
syntax.
HOSHI: I don't understand. How?
T'POL: With the universal translator.
HOSHI: That's impossible. I ran every linguistic algorithm.
T'POL: When the Captain agreed to return the soil and rock samples, and
destroy the photographs that were taken, the hostages were released.
HOSHI: If we've decrypted their language, I should get back to the
Bridge. It sounds like the Captain might want to speak with them again.
T'POL: Captain Archer has asked that you remain off duty for the time
being. Crewman Baird has been placed in charge of communications.
[Corridor]
ALISON: (to crewman) After lunch, you should take
a look at the secondary couplings. They're going to need to be aligned.
HOSHI: Alison. (She gets totally blanked.)
ALISON: Start on C deck, then work your way down.
CREWMAN: Yes ma'am.
(Hoshi comes to the turbolift as another woman steps out. She enters
and tries to shut the doors, but they don't respond. Then she hears
voices.) REED [OC]: The stream's too unstable.
TUCKER [OC]: Come on, Hoshi.
HOSHI: What?
REED [OC]: You can do it, Ensign. It's as easy as one, two,
(A crewman steps into the turbolift and activates it.)
[Sickbay]
HOSHI: Can you see me?
PHLOX: Ensign?
HOSHI: Can you see me?
PHLOX: Is there something in particular you'd like me to look at?
HOSHI: Something's wrong, Doctor. Something's very wrong. Ever since I
used that transporter nothing has been the way that it's supposed to
be. I couldn't translate a simple, bi-modal syntax, but Crewman Baird
could. Crewman Baird doesn't know the first thing about our linguistic
database. And Captain Archer told me to stay in my quarters, but my
mirror doesn't want to give me a solid reflection and my shower can't
decide whether to bounce off me or go through me. Nobody wants to talk
to me. Sometimes I think they don't even see that I'm there. The
turbolift control won't even respond to me.
PHLOX: Well, I see you, Ensign, and the Sickbay doors responded when
you came in. Transporter technology is very new. (scans her) I'm sure
humans were equally frightened when the automobile was introduced, or
the airplane. New forms of transport take a while to get used to. I'm
not at all surprised at your reaction. You wouldn't catch me using that
apparatus. But I can promise you one thing. You're in perfect health.
You're neither transparent nor porous.
HOSHI: You won't put this on my medical record, will you?
PHLOX: As far as I'm concerned I didn't even see you come in here.
HOSHI: Not funny, Doctor.
PHLOX: I would like to give you a mild sedative. It'll help you get a
good night's sleep.
HOSHI: If it's all the same to you the last thing I need right now is
to be medicated.
PHLOX: As you wish, but stop by in the morning, all right?
HOSHI: First thing. Thank you, Doctor.
(the door control responds to her touch, and she smiles)
[Gymnasium]
(Trip is using the 360 degree ball contraption,
presumably something to do with weightless training.)
TUCKER: You're upside down, Ensign.
HOSHI: I was taught never to contradict a superior officer. The Captain
told me what happened. Did they treat you all right?
TUCKER: Didn't even tie us up. As soon as the Captain promised to give
them their stuff back they walked us to the shuttlepods and away we
went.
HOSHI: I'm sorry I wasn't more helpful trying to translate. I don't
know what happened.
TUCKER: Well, we're safe and sound. That's all that matters. Have you
tried this thing?
HOSHI: I get motion sickness, remember? Have you felt okay since we
were transported yesterday?
TUCKER: Considering that I've been back down to the surface, kidnapped
and released, I've probably had better days. Why, are you not feeling
well? (Hoshi is working her arms and shoulders with a resistance apparatus.)
HOSHI: I
didn't think I was, but the doctor seems to feel my symptoms are
psychological.
TUCKER: What kind of symptoms?
HOSHI: I just haven't been myself. Everything's a little off ,even the
laws of physics.
TUCKER: Well, in that case, you're right. You shouldn't get on this
thing. The laws of physics don't apply in here, either. Sorry. Just
trying to cheer you up.
HOSHI: It's okay. Phlox promises me I'll be fine. (Tucker gets out of the ball thing.)
TUCKER: It's going to be a while before
any of us gets used to being taken apart and put back together again.
It seems perfectly natural to be anxious about it. (Hoshi works her biceps.)
HOSHI: I hope it's just a question of being
anxious.
TUCKER: What else could it be?
HOSHI: I saw my reflection become transparent. I saw water pass right
through my hand. I'm not convinced that the transporter put me back the
way it was supposed to.
TUCKER: All the king's horses and all the king's men. I can see why you
might imagine the universe unraveling. If you're afraid you haven't
been put back together right, why assume anything else makes sense? If
I were you, I'd ask the Doc for a sedative. Nothing like crawling into
bed.
HOSHI: You men are all alike.
TUCKER: Wait and see. A night's sleep will do you a world of good.
(He leaves, and Hoshi finds she can't affect the resistance controls
anymore, or lift a dumbbell because her hand goes straight through it.
She runs to leave but the doors won't open for her. Then, as she stares
into the wall mirror, her reflection disappears. Later, Hoshi has been sleeping on the gym floor when T'Pol and Trip
walk in.)
HOSHI: Thank God you're here. I've been stuck in here for hours. The
door control is
TUCKER: She was here last night, right over there.
HOSHI: Commander.
T'POL: T'Pol to Captain Archer.
ARCHER [OC]: Go ahead.
T'POL: Have the security details reported back?
ARCHER [OC]: No sign of her yet.
T'POL: We've covered the forward section of C deck. She's not here.
HOSHI: Yes, she is.
TUCKER: Have you tried the biosensors again, Captain?
ARCHER [OC]: Still nothing.
TUCKER: I'll go take a look at them.
ARCHER [OC]: I'm going to maintain our present orbit until Hoshi turns
up. T'Pol, meet me in Sickbay right away.
T'POL: Yes, sir.
(Hoshi runs out through the open door after them.)
[Sickbay]
PHLOX: She came to Sickbay after the incident with
the storm, then a second time early last night.
ARCHER: She wasn't feeling well?
PHLOX: She said she felt shaky. You're aware that was the first time
she'd ever transported?
T'POL: Quite aware.
PHLOX: I believed that was the source of her anxiety. She was convinced
her molecules hadn't been reassembled properly. I should've taken her
more seriously. These are the biomolecular scans I took during each of
her two visits. (We see Hoshi is sitting on a desk, listening.) PHLOX: They
seemed perfectly normal at the time. When I heard she was missing
something made me take a closer look. You see these protein filaments?
Now look at this.
ARCHER: I'm going to need some help here, Phlox.
PHLOX: Look how much her subcellular membranes have degraded. These
scans were taken less than twenty four hours apart. It's virtually
impossible.
ARCHER: What's impossible?
T'POL: Ensign Sato wasn't imagining it. Her molecules are coming apart.
[Transporter alcove]
(Tucker is staring at a diagnostic screen.) TUCKER: It's the
secondary phase coils.
ARCHER: What about them?
TUCKER: They're not aligning. They're not perfectly synchronised.
Must've happened right after it came up from the surface.
PHLOX: If they're not perfectly synchronised?
T'POL: The resequencing would start to dissipate. Within hours, she'll
lose molecular cohesion.
TUCKER: She didn't want to go first. I told her I wouldn't leave her
alone with that storm coming but she insisted on going second. She
wanted to be sure it was working, that it was safe. I'm the one who
should be missing. I told her to go first. She should've listened to
me.
HOSHI: It wasn't your fault.
ARCHER: Take the transporter offline and figure out what went wrong.
Starfleet promised me this sort of thing wouldn't happen.
TUCKER: Aye, sir.
PHLOX: Captain, if there was a loss of molecular cohesion I'm afraid we
shouldn't be looking for Hoshi, per se.
ARCHER: What should we be looking for?
PHLOX: Subcellular residue. There wouldn't be anything left by now
except for subcellular residue.
HOSHI: You're wrong, Doctor. I'm still in one piece. You just can't see
me.
ARCHER: (to T'Pol) Have the Doctor help you recalibrate the sensors.
Then start scanning for this residue. Archer to Mayweather.
TRAVIS [OC]: Go ahead, sir.
ARCHER: Prepare to break orbit and resume previous course.
TRAVIS: [OC]: Aye, Captain.
ARCHER: I'll be in, my ready room. (He walks through Hoshi as he leaves,
slowly and sadly.)
[Jefferies tube]
(Phlox scans the area.) PHLOX: There's no way to be
certain this is her.
TUCKER: Is it Hoshi's DNA or isn't it?
PHLOX: It's difficult to tell. The amino acids have broken down.
HOSHI: Don't waste your time. It's not me.
TUCKER: The internal scan said access shaft B7. She's got to be here
somewhere.
HOSHI: If you spent a little more time trying to figure out what
happened to (She hears another voice and goes to investigate.)
ALIEN [OC]: (something)
TUCKER [OC]: What's the problem?
REED [OC]: The stream's too unstable.
HOSHI: Lieutenant?
REED [OC]: You can do it, Ensign. It's as easy as one, two
TUCKER: Here, Doc, over here. What do you think?
PHLOX: Try isolating the dipeptides. Now run a comparison with her
genetic profile. (The scanner shows a match.)
TUCKER: Why would she have come down here?
PHLOX: I doubt we'll ever know, Commander. Captain Archer will want
Hoshi's parents to have this. (He scrapes a bit of gloop up off the floor
into a small envelope.) PHLOX: They're both alive, aren't they?
TUCKER: Yeah, both alive. You go ahead, Doc. I'm going to stick around
for a minute.
PHLOX: I understand. (Phlox leaves.)
TUCKER: Hoshi.
HOSHI: You can see me?
TUCKER: I should've made you go first. What could I have been thinking
leaving you down there? I was the ranking officer, and I had no
business leaving a subordinate in the path of those storms. Why didn't
you listen to me? I told you we'd be safe. And now look what you've
done. (Tucker leaves.)
ALIEN [OC]: (something)
(Hoshi goes to investigate again, and sees a pale scaled alien fixing
devices to the bulkheads and talking to a companion who is doing the
same.)
[Ready room]
(Archer is pacing when Hoshi walks through the
closed door.)
HOSHI: Captain, I need you to listen to me. There are aliens on board
from the surface. They're planting bombs on D deck. You've got to hear
me. The ship is in danger.
(The comm. chimes)
ARCHER: Go ahead.
BAIRD [OC]: We've located her father, sir. The mother isn't home.
ARCHER: What time is it there?
BAIRD [OC]: Oh nine hundred.
ARCHER: Put him through. (He sits down in front of his desk monitor.) ARCHER: Good
morning, sir.
SATO [on monitor]: Captain Archer. Is everything all right?
ARCHER: No sir, everything is not all right. We've had an accident with
our transporting device.
SATO [on monitor]: Transporting device? What is that?
HOSHI: You don't have time for this.
ARCHER: A matter stream converter. It was approved for transporting
bio-matter before we left Earth.
HOSHI: I'll find something that'll get your attention. (She starts going
around the room, putting her hand into the bulkheads at various places.)
ARCHER: We've used it a number of times to
SATO [on monitor]: Bio-matter? What are you referring to, produce or
people?
ARCHER: I'm just trying to explain to you that Star Fleet told us it
was safe.
SATO [on monitor]: So, Hoshi is safe.
ARCHER: No, sir. There was an accident. She began to, her molecules
began to destabilise.
SATO [on monitor]: Her molecules? What are you talking about, Captain?
ARCHER: This isn't easy, sir. I fought to get Hoshi to come on this
mission. I'm responsible for her being out here. She's, become a member
of our family.
SATO [on monitor]: Family? We're her family, not you. Why are you
calling me? To say that she has become a member of your family? I'm
sorry, Captain. You are not making any sense.
(Hoshi finds a conduit that makes a noise when she 'touches' it.)
ARCHER: We lost Hoshi today, Mister Sato. I wish I didn't have to tell
you that.
SATO [on monitor]: You are saying Hoshi is dead?
HOSHI: We're all going to be dead if I don't get him to notice this.
SATO [on monitor]: Maybe, you could call us back later. This afternoon?
HOSHI: How about Morse code? You know Morse Code, don't you?
SATO [on monitor]: I must have time to speak to Hoshi's mother.
HOSHI: Come on, listen.
ARCHER: This afternoon.
HOSHI: Can you hear it?
ARCHER: I'm so sorry.
SATO [on monitor]: So am I. (Transmission ends.)
HOSHI: Come on. (Archer turns his head towards the tiny noises.) HOSIHI: That's
right. It's not supposed to be making that noise, is it? Listen, you
can hear it. SOS. SOS. It's a call for help. I need you to hear it.
(Archer sees the indicator light on the ceiling beam flashing in time
to Hoshi's signal.)
ARCHER: Archer to T'Pol.
T'POL [OC]: Yes, Captain?
ARCHER: Could you come in here for a minute?
T'POL [OC]: Right away.
HOSHI: That's right, show it to her. One of you will figure it out.
(T'Pol enters.)
ARCHER: Look at this. I've never heard it make that noise before.
T'POL: The plasma circuit's being interrupted. I'll ask Commander
Tucker to take a look at it.
ARCHER: Listen to the pattern. Three dots, three dashes, three dots.
SOS.
T'POL: Dots?
ARCHER: Dots and dashes. Morse code. Its been used on Earth for
centuries. It's a distress call.
HOSHI: Let's see how good your memory is. H, O,
T'POL: It's changed.
HOSHI: S, H,
ARCHER: It still sounds like Morse code.
HOSHI: I. Come on.
T'POL: This plasma circuit is self-contained. No one outside of this
room could be using it to send a message.
HOSHI: I'm not outside this room, I'm right here.
T'POL: It's been a very difficult day. Perhaps you should try to get
some rest.
ARCHER: You're right. I'll have Trip look at it tomorrow.
HOSHI: Tomorrow's too late. They're going to blow up the ship. Captain! (The aliens have finished planting their devices in the Jefferies,
and are now arming them. Hoshi follows them as they go to Engineering, where she watches through a ventilation grill as
they put devices on the warp core right under the eyes of the unseeing
engineering staff.)
[Jefferies tube]
(While an alien's back is turned, Hoshi puts her
hand into one of the bombs and switches it off. All the devices disarm.
The second alien comes in and replaces the damaged unit, and Hoshi
cannot turn this one off. The aliens cannot see her either. Then the
aliens make a bigger device materialise. It's a transporter platform,
and one uses it to leave while the other gets the bombs rearmed.)
HOSHI: No, wait!
(The remaining alien beams away.)
TUCKER [OC]: What's the problem?
HOSHI: What?
REED [OC]: The stream's too unstable.
TUCKER [OC]: Come on, Hoshi, come on.
REED [OC]: You can do it, Ensign. (she jumps onto the alien transporter
pad) It's as easy as one, two (she dematerialises)
[Transporter alcove]
REED: Three.
(Hoshi materialises, dressed in her uniform and looking windswept and
holding an equipment case)
TUCKER: Nice work, Malcolm. See, I told you. Piece of cake. (Hoshi puts down her case and rushes off the platform.)
HOSHI: Where are they?
We've got to stop them.
TUCKER: Who?
HOSHI: You heard me? You can hear me? Do you see me?
REED: Everything's fine, Hoshi.
HOSHI: (storming off) It's not fine. They put a bomb on the warp
reactor. (Tucker grabs her arm.)
TUCKER: Who?
HOSHI: The aliens from the surface.
TUCKER: There's no one on the surface. It's uninhabited.
HOSHI: What are you talking about? They kidnapped you and Travis. We've
got to stop them.
REED: Hoshi, the transporter was affected by the storms. I had some
trouble reintegrating your matter stream.
HOSHI: Trouble?
TUCKER: You were sort of, trapped in the pattern buffer. But only for a
few seconds.
REED: Eight point three seconds, to be precise.
HOSHI: Are you saying that I was just on the surface?
TUCKER: You insisted on going second.
HOSHI: Do you have a mirror?
REED: What?
HOSHI: Forget it. And I was sure I was going to be the next Cyrus
Ramsey.
TUCKER: Cyrus who?
[Sickbay]
(Hoshi is being examined by Phlox.) HOSHI: So you're saying
all of that happened in eight seconds?
PHLOX: Actually, it probably happened in the last one or two seconds as
your matter stream was coalescing. She seems fine.
ARCHER: Malcolm is recommending some new transport protocols to Star
Fleet. He's suggesting we start compressing the transport beam.
HOSHI: Well, I hope you don't plan on beaming me anywhere for a long
time.
ARCHER: But you said you stepped on to the aliens' transporter by
choice.
HOSHI: I was trying to save Enterprise.
ARCHER: Sounds like you overcame your fear.
HOSHI: It's all in my head, remember?
ARCHER: Does it matter? You were afraid of getting lost, afraid of
disappearing, but you still climbed on to that platform, real or not.
HOSHI: If it's all the same to you, sir, I'd like to stick to
shuttlepods for the time being.
ARCHER: Come on. Let's go to the Bridge. (As Archer reaches for the door control.)
HOSHI: Captain, if you don't mind.
(He steps back and lets her open the door for herself.)
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