The last thing Ensign Green remembered was one of the two fireflies darting straight for the back of her right hand.  The movement had been too swift for her to react and there was a sharp stab, like a needle had penetrated her skin at the point of contact.  The Jefferies tube she was in, dissolved away before her eyes; revealing in its place a white almost featureless room, with walls and ceiling that curved into one.

At first she thought she was alone, but a noise like hissing and wooden blocks being hit against each other, made the women roll over on to her back; as she was in roughly the same position she had been in the Jefferies tube.

The two creatures her eyes feel upon; were almost two metres in height.  Their head and body where one bulbous mass of grey bumpy flesh, which made up half their height, the other half consisted of four tentacle like legs.  Four other similar appendages seemed to be working as the creatures arms. There was no indication of a mouth, nose or ears, just the creatures eyes; six of them, arranged in a pair of downward pointing triangles.  There was one red, green and blue eye in each set.

Then came the noise again, emanating from one of the unknown creatures.  The bumps rippled with colour, as it made the sounds; mainly greens and purple, with the odd brief flash of yellow and red.  The look of them made Hayley think of an octopus.

“Who are you?” She shouted. “And what do you want with me?”

There was more hisses and clicks in way of response, this time the red colouration being the more prominent.

“I haven’t got the faintest clue what you just said.” Ensign Green remarked, making a move to stand.  The creatures backed off slightly, this time letting out a hideous shriek as they did so.

“They want you to fix their ship.”  A very human voice spoke as a door that had been undetectable to her eyes, opened in one of the walls.

“Cooper!” Green exclaimed. “Everyone thinks you’re dead.”

“I thought that myself for a moment.” The man said, holding out an object, like a cycle helmet; which matched one he himself was wearing. “This is their method of communicating.  It’s not as good as our translators, but at least you’ll understand them.”

Hayley placed the helmet on her head, adjusting it to fit as comfortably as possible.  There seemed a lot of weight in the device, and she didn’t fancy the idea of wearing this thing for any length of time.

‘Ship not move, fix now.’ The sound was in her head, but like someone was talking into a bucket.

“Friendly bunch aren’t they.” She said to her fellow engineer.

“Try not to upset them.”  Cooper replied.  “They like jabbing you with something like a stun-stick, and it hurts!”

As if on que one of the creatures waved a long stick like object in her general direction.  It was three quarters of a metre in length; the part closest to the creature and gripped between one of its tentacle arms, looked to be made of a black rubber like substance, were as the rest was just bare metal, ending in two prongs, forming a ‘V’.

Crewman Cooper escorted Ensign Green down a short corridor to another room, though there had been no indication of a door, until it had started opening.  The creatures, maintained their distance.  ‘In fix, ship move.’

It was clear from the look of the room that the engineer had been busy since his apparent death aboard the USS da Vinci.  The ship they were now on was very different from any Federation vessel they’d ever seen.

“I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing.” He announced after the door closed, the two creatures remaining on the other side. “If they ever figure that out, I’m not sure if they’ll bother keeping me alive.”

“Well the you has become an us.” Hayley informed him. “So let’s see how long we can keep ourselves alive.”

“If there is a body that looks like me, back on our ship; no one’s coming to look for us, are they?” Cooper enquired.

“Well if that’s the case, we’ve either got to fix this thing or figure out a means of escape.” Green answered him. “It’s not our fault they don’t understand we’re not the right engineers for the job!”

The pair of them began work; though with little idea what form of energy or propulsion the ship was using, and no understanding of their written language; that seemed to consist of dots, squiggles and spirals, either in red, green or blue.

**********

Commander Anacostia-Bolling arriving at Sickbay, not long after receiving the devastating news, that a second member of her engineering team had died under almost identical circumstances as the first, and in the same location.

“Doctor, is there anything you can tell me?” She asked hoping the man had some sort of answer.

“Ensign Green was killed by a massive electrical discharge.” Doctor Sunny confirmed, passing the Padd he was holding, to the Captain.  “It happened in exactly the same way as crewman Cooper.”

“When you say exactly, how exactly?”

“In the kind of way that makes a doctor like me, suspicious.”

“You suspect foul play, a deliberate act on someone’s part?”

Doctor Sunny nodded.  “Everybody is unique; in the way they act, move or respond to outside influences.  So having two people with carbon copy injuries; starts to stretch the bounds of probability, when it comes to an accident.”

“Is there any way to prove that this was no accident?”

“I’m running the most detailed scans I can.  It’s going to take five to six hours.  But if there is even a single molecule of Ensign Greens body, which is missing or out of place, I’ll know about it.”

“The second you find anything, I want to know.”

“You have my word.”

**********

There was no real indication of the passing of time; the room had no windows or anything to give a sense of who long they’d been working.  Neither of the engineers knew if what they were doing, was the right thing or not.  The aliens had evidently figured out that the two of them were responsible for fixing thing; it was just that their rolls, didn’t involve the engines.

The door opened and in stepped the two aliens, one carried two trays, though what the green gelatinase blob which sat in the middle of them, the engineers couldn’t be sure.

‘Replenish, extend life length.’ The voice through the translator informed them, as the creature, placed the trays on the floor, just beyond their reach, and backed away hurriedly

“I guess this is the lunch break.” Cooper commented.

“Haven’t they given you anything to eat since you got here?”  Green asked him.

“Oh yeah, don’t ask me how long ago that was.” Cooper smiled, as he reached for one of the trays. “I was far from impressed though.”

“In what way?”

“I’ll tell you after you’ve tasted this one.”

“You know I could pull rank.” Green said light heartedly, as she tentatively brought some of the mixture up to her lips and stuck her tongue out, gingerly.  She screwed up her face in disgust.  “Ensign Wy’k’Neria, I will never criticise your culinary achievements ever again!”