She checked the atmosphere on the bridge area, concerned for her friends.



Mark groaned. He started to sit up, which made his head swim. He opened his eyes slowly and waited for them to focus. He found himself staring up at a bunch of tangled wires. He attempted to sit up again, and pain lanced through his skull. Groaning again, he gave up the attempt entirely for the moment. He looked around him, trying to see through the dull throbbing behind his eyes. He appeared to be lying under a console.

Mark spent a futile minute trying to remember how he had got there.

Somewhere near him came an urgent, worried voice. "Mark, are you alright?"

Mark nodded, flinching, then realized that Moriah probably couldn't see the gesture. "Yeh, i'm fine," he said, pushing himself up on his elbow. He hoped the room would stop spinning soon.

"Where are we?" he heard Zan ask blurrily. He looked over at her, wondering how she had fared. She had a cut on her forehead which was bleeding, but not badly. She looked better off than Mark. She seemed to have been thrown up against the wall and held there by centrifugal force. Mark had apparently been thrown across the bridge to smash into the control console at the front.

Mark handed Zan a handkerchief he always carried. He supposed it would work as a bandage.

Zan smiled, taking the handkerchief. She folded it into a square and pressed it against her forehead.

"To answer your question, Zan, I'll have to start at the beginning," Moriah spoke up, bringing their minds back to the subject. "But you'll probably want to know up front that we are not on Earth, or even anywhere near it. I don't think."

Mark cast a sidelong glance at Zan. She shrugged.

"However," Moriah continued, "I'm fairly certain those creatures can't follow us.

"Well then, by all means, explain," Mark said, leaning up against the console. He closed his eyes and pressed his fingers to his forehead, trying to ease his headache.

"Yeah, and use small words. My brain hurts," Zan said, hauling herself into a sitting position.

She took Mark's handkerchief from her head and gingerly touched the wound. She winced, but her hand came away dry. Well, at least she wasn't going to bleed to death.

"Ok, the moment the doors closed," Moriah began. "I reactivated myself. When i did, the connctions we had made kicked in and i found myself able to controle the ship's functions. I set about trying to find out where they'd taken you from the ship's computer core. No such luck, so i started exploring other avenues. I found i could tap into the processes of the larger ship, to an extent anyway, and i found the location of the holding cells from there. I also repowered this ship, draining the juice from the other one.

There was very little i could do in the way of actual damage to the alien vessel, so i inserted a virus into their computer that caused all their alert systems to kick in at once. Then i jammed as many internal systems as i could. Some of the alerts were real, but most of them were just for effect." Moriah paused as Mark crawled over and collapsed heavily on the floor next to Zan.

"Now," she continued after she was sure he wasn't going anywhere else, "Before i go any farther, i need to explain the interdimentional device to you. The one on this ship is.... unpredictable at the best of times, so it was only used in emergencies. However, with skill, it could be made to work properly. Unfortunatly, i lack skill," she added sheepishly.

"The device creates a void between two points in space and sends the ship in question through it from one point to the other. Theoretically, it could be used for a distance of less than a few meters, but that's unsafe. And pointless, since it would take less time just to use the engines."

"This ship was, um, taken prisoner, i suppose, by the aliens. I'll tell you about it's history later. From what i gather, the aliens installed the drive in it as standard procedure, but the ship's computer didn't like being messed with. So it ate the program that told the engines how to interact with the new system. They were in the process of dismantling the ship for spare parts when we stole it. They had alreay removed the main computer, which is how i could take over so easily. All there is left is a little backup model. I activated the device to get us out of the holding bay. i guess the engineers messed with the programs even more while they were dismantling it, because the machine went haywire as soon as i activated it. It's completely useless now, and i can't get any information out of it. I have no idea where we are, or how far from Earth we may be. Or how to get home." Moriah sounded apologetic and somewhat unhappy as she delivered this last.

Zan was silent for a long moment, assimilating this new information. "Can we repair it?" She asked finally.

"No, i don't know anything about the drive itself. All i had time to do was download the instructions from the other vessel.

Zan sighed. She should probably be sad, she thought, but she just couldn't summon the appropriate reaction. She knew she'd probably never see earth again. She turned to Mark and began to smile.

Slowly, Mark smiled back, and raised an eyebrow. He crossed hs arms and thought for a moment. "We should explore the ship," he said finally, "Since we're likely to be here for a while."

"Right," Zan replied, still grinning. "Moriah, can you get us some kind of a map?" She asked.

"Yes, but before you go anywhere, you're going to sickbay so i can be sure you're ok. Now," she began, increasing her audio output levels to be heard over their protests, there are two decks. The first level is where you came in, more or less at ground level."

"Could we maybe make it a little closer to the ground?" Zan asked, recalling the climb up to get into the ship. She reached over and snagged the papers trailing out of a slot in the console behind her.

"No. This is a rough map of the ship. It's not very specific, but it'll tell you where all the main bits are. You'll have to figure out the rest on your own.

"This deck is mostly the Bridge and Engineering. There's some extra space i haven't accounted for, but i don't have the specifics in my memory, so i have no idea what's occupying it at the moment.

"I've set the lift to respond to voice controls, just tell it where you want to be, and it'll take you there. Right now it only goes to the places on the map; i'll add more as we find them. There are access ladders if the lift stops working, but i'm not sure where all of those are, either. That's about all i can tell you, the rest is up to you." She finished. "But Sickbay first!"

Zan offered Mark her hand, and he sighed as he allowed her to drag him to his feet. "Can you find out how much damage we took?" Zan asked, wandering slowly towards the lift.

"Yes. Sickbay." Was the only thing Moriah said.

The lift doors banged shut in front of them, then opened again, slowly.

"Sorry. Haven't quite got the hang of that yet," Moriah appologized.

"That's ok," Zan replied, edging warily toward the now open lift doors. She stepped in quickly, followed closely by Mark.The lift doors whooshed shut quietly behind her.

They rode the lift to the bottom and stepped out into a corridor much like those on the larger, alien ship.

"Culd you give us a little more light?" Mark asked tentatively, not sure if Moriah could hear him. The lights came up to earth normal, and the temperature and humidity dropped to a comfortable level.

"Sorry, didn't think of it," Moriah said via a box on the wall near the lift.

"Thanks," Zan said absently, taking a good look at her surroundings, already thinking up ways to liven it up a bit. She bagan walking down the hall to her left, glancing again at the map in her hand.

She looked up at the end of the corridor. "Three doors," she said dubiously. She looked again at the map.

"The map shows one on either side. Let's just assume it's the one on the left, since that's where it is here." Mark suggested.

"Um. You can't just walk out into vacuum or something can you?" She asked apprehensively.

"No." Moriah said from the air.

Zan still looked a bit jaded, but stepped close to the door at her left. It swooshed open. She peeked inside the room and saw... a lot of equipment she didn't know anything about. "Um..." She repeated.

"Just step into the little box and put all your respective limbs in the appropriate slots. The compudoc should do the rest," Moriah instucted.

Zan obidently climbed into a people sized opening and stretched herself to fit into an area obviously designed for someone (or thing) taller than herself.

Mark listened nervously as the machine whirred and clicked for a minute, then displayed a diagnosis on a screen at the front.

Zan climbed back out, looking irritated. "Well, we've established that i'm the shortest sentient being in the universe," she said testily. She glanced at the diagnostic. "And that this machine is useless, since i can't read whatever language this is in."

"Well, i uploaded all the info i have on humans, and i can download the response. You're fine," Moriah said soothingly. "Your turn Mark."

Mark obligingly repeated the process, emerging from the machine with a little flattened bottle.

"It spit this at me," he said dubiously.

Moriah paused. "They're for your head," she said after a moment. "Apparently you have a mild concussion. Um, it says take one as needed for pain. As nearly as i can translate."

Mark looked at the little bottle for a moment, then pulled the top off. He took a pill and put the bottle in his pocket. "Well," he said, looking over at Zan. "Shall we go explore out new home?"

Zan lead the way out the door in response.

Out in the hallway again, Mark walked into the first room on the right. "This other one looks to be a storage room or something. There're beds in here..." His voice was muffled, and Zan followed him in to investigate.

"What's this?" Mark asked, holding up a small piece of machinery.

"It's a toaster," Zan replied without even looking at it.

"Really?" Mark asked, startled.

"No. How should i know what it is?" She asked, laughing at his frown. "Come on, we can look at all the toys later. Let's see what this other room is, then go back to the main junction and take another corridor." She led the way out this time, sticking her head into the other room. "Lots of tables and chairs, must be some kind of mess hall or something," She said, uninterested, "Let's go."

Mark followed like an obedient labrador.

She traced their path back to the main junction, then stopped. "Let's take a look at the engine room before we do this," She suggested.

Mark shrugged and boarded the lift again. Zan followed and they rode it to the top again. They disembarked, stepping out onto a short corridor with three doors.

She picked a door at random and stuck her head into it.

"What is it?" Mark asked from behind her.

"Must be the Engine room. That's the other door labeled, anyway. Doesn't look like your typical starfleet warp drive, does it?" She asked, indicating the mass of wires and and consoles.

" It looks a bit.... disorganised," Mark suggested tentatively.

"It's not really as bad as it probably looks," Moriah remarked. "They had removed all the panel covers, so the engine's guts are spilled all over the room, but most of the damage is superficial. Actually, most of the damage is my fault, anyway," she added sheepishly. "I'll have to instruct you in how to use all the consoles and equipment, in case my systems get knocked out or something. Although you're going to have to do quite a bit of jumping about with just the two of you. I need to fix the language program on the compudoc, too," she added thoughtfully.

Mark waited, but there was no more forthcoming, so he turned back into the corridor.


It took only a few days to explore all the doors in the ship. Finding the access hatches and sorting through all the stuff in most of the rooms would take a bit longer. They had discovered what looked to be a weapons control center, the crew quarters, and a small recreation area. They had also discovered a horrendous substance which Moriah kept insisting was food. That needed to be remidied, and quickly.

"Moriah," Zan asked suddenly, "Where do we go if we have to evacuate the ship for some reason?" She asked.

"Are you sure you explored all the corridors? There has to be a life pod or something someplace..."

"Very reasurring," Mark replied dryly. "If there are more corridors, i don't know where to find them," he added seriously. That space under the ship below the deck...?"

That has to be landing gear," Zan disagreed. "This ship is atmosphere capable," she added. "It can't just land on its belly."

Mark frowned again. "W've been through every room and corridor we've come across several times," he said.

"Did we ever look into the mess hall again?" Zan asked suddenly. "I didn't notice any doors, but maybe we're missing something."

Mark shrgged. "We can go look."


Zan stood inside a small, sphereical ship. She looked over at Mark, wedged into a space between a food slot and the wall. "Well, it's not very comfortable, and it's certainly in an out of the way place, but i guess it's better than being spaced."

Mark agreed. "Now can we leave before this position does me permanant damage?" He asked plaintively.

Zan grinned, backing out of the escape pod and into the engine room. It had taken them a while, but after several exhausting hours of diligent searching, they had discovered a small hatch covered by a dismantled console. Through it were several escape pods.

"The only problem is, if we need to evacuate, we have to get Moriah off the bridge, come all the way back here, jump in, and activate the pod before we're killed." She said dryly.

"Actually," Moriah remarked, "I'm perfectly safe. Even if the ship exploded entirely i'd be fine. My back-up comp tells me this panel you put me in was the alien's equivalent of that little black box they put on airplanes. It's supposed to be indestructable. Of course, i would be reduced to my origial memory capacity, but that would happen if you took me out of it anyway."

"Well, at least that removes one obstacle," Mark said cheerfully.

"Of course, that won't help me rescue you, since i won't be able to access the data that lets me run ship's systems. For that matter, i won't be able to access ship's systems." Moriah added.

"Oh."