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By Root 276 0

so certain that his own death was imminent since nearly two years earlier, when he and Commander Tucker had nearly been frozen and asphyxiated aboard the very same shuttlepod that had ferried him and his current teammates to Kaletoo. But his growing certainty of his coming demise was accompanied this time by a surprising sense of tranquillity that he hadn’t experienced on that previous occasion, possibly because this time he had far less time to fret over his many missed opportunities, alienated family members, neglected personal affairs, and lost loves. As he vainly worked the alien console alongside Archer, continuing to seek a means of breaking Trahve’s ship loose from its confinement, he regarded his final moments with the wry, detached amusement of a condemned prisoner who had already been granted more stays of execution than he could count.

“Is there any sign we’ve gotten the Xindi’s attention yet?” asked Archer, who paused in his labors over the pilot’s console to stare resolutely out the forward window at the Xindi weapons platform.

Reed quickly consulted the alien characters that scrolled frenetically across the instruments on his side of the console. Though he still couldn’t read the text, it wasn’t hard to intuit the meanings of most of the graphics, which denoted various systems gauges and indicators.

“No, sir,” Reed said, shaking his head with a resigned sigh. Then his back stiffened as he noticed a sudden change on his board. “Wait—I’m detecting a large falloff in the energy output of their tractor beam generator.”

At that moment, the shuttlepod trembled and rattled slightly, as though it had been struck amidships simultaneously by small objects on its port and starboard sides. A heartbeat or two later, the sounds and vibrations repeated themselves.

Archer turned toward Reed and grinned. “They’ve just released all four of the docking arms. They must have figured out what we’re up to.”

“And they’re inviting us to kindly blow ourselves up someplace else,” Reed said, answering the captain’s grin with one of his own.

“Fine, good, great!” Trahve babbled behind them, clearly agitated almost to the point of coming unhinged. “We might still have enough time to bleed off our excess power and stop the engine overload you’ve started!”

Working the pilot’s console before him, Archer addressed Trahve without turning around. “We might, but only if we shut down the whole propulsion grid right now.”

“So do it!”

“And let the Xindi just grab us again with their tractor beam? I already told you, I’m not going to allow the Xindi to capture any of us. And the best way to ensure that they can’t do that is by keeping them worried.”

“You don’t think they’re sufficiently worried?” Trahve said, his voice raised almost to a shriek. “They’re trying to turn you loose!”

“Control yourself, Trahve,” Archer said with exaggerated calmness. “Or your head will explode before your ship does.”

“That’s precisely the fate I’d like to avoid, Captain. For all of us.” Though his hands were still shackled before him, Trahve struggled to get to his feet, only to be pushed back down by Sergeant Kemper, who was standing closer to the alien courier than was either Major Hayes or Private Money.

“Please don’t bother the driver,” Kemper said.

Hayes moved up into the cockpit area, a concerned look crossing his otherwise taciturn features as he leaned forward between the pilot’s and copilot’s chairs. “Have you received any response to that signal you sent to the shuttlepod, Captain?”

Archer shook his head. “I ordered Lieutenant O’Neill to maintain com silence, so she wouldn’t risk announcing her presence to the Xindi.”

“So she either heard us and headed straight for us, or she didn’t,” Kemper said with admirable calm. Reed glanced back in the major’s direction, and noted that Kemper and Money both looked quietly terrified behind him.

“Then I suppose a nick-of-time cavalry rescue is probably a little too much to hope for,” Hayes said with a small smile.

“Not necessarily,” Reed said, looking up and sideways at the MACO leader.

Hayes seemed surprised.