Cinn: After a few experiments I've discovered that I have difficulty getting accents right in speech, so you'll have to imagine stronger accents such as Trip's. This is the start of the completely new stuff, it was chapters 1 & 2 that were rewritten. But this is chapter 3, and I hope you like it. Reviews are always appreciated.

Chapter 3.

Trust

"Let's just hope their hours aren't different from ours." Archer commented as he piloted the shuttle towards the coordinates sent to them. He was trying to make a joke, but then realised that on reflection, that that really was something he should have checked rather than assuming that the Quarians used standard hours.

The rest of the short journey was consumed by them rechecking all their essentials, such as comm devices. Malcolm was also trying to think of a weapon that would be safe, for T'Pol's warning about the methane was still ringing in his ears.

They arrived to find no one around the area in which they had been told to land. It was a clearing in amongst all the forest, and there seemed to be a lack of anyone around. All three of them thought that the forest in a desert was a bit odd, for where there were no trees the ground had burnt away to dust, but somehow the trees had survived.

"I'm glad we have this desert gear now." Malcolm commented, wiping his brow on his arm. Being from England hot weather was not something he was necessarily accustomed too. Archer and Hoshi merely smiled, and they all carried on watching around for the people who were supposed to be meeting them, Hoshi tapping buttons on her scanner rather than look out for people like both the men were. About five minutes later they arrived.

Quar El-sia-o arrived with a group of three men, all armed, but their weapons holstered. Hoshi knew from her scans that there were other men around, but remaining in the trees, she guessed there were only to intervene if things turned ugly. But she felt wary of them all the same.

"Quar El-sia-o." Archer greeted, holding his hand out to shake, mostly out of instinct than anything. Quar El-sia-o eyed it suspiciously, whilst returning the verbal greeting. "Sorry, it's an Earth custom." Archer explained, retracting his hand.

"Interesting." Quar El-sia-o commented. "May we see?" He asked, indicating to Archer and Malcolm. Who then proceeded to shake hands as requested. "We greet each other like this." He added, as he walked up to one of his colleagues and whilst they did not shake hands they both clasped the right hand shoulder of the other. "That way you can greet either leisurely or quickly."

"Our quick greeting is simply a wave." Archer explained.

"Interesting that it should be different." Quar El-sia-o commented, and Archer was reminded of a few Vulcan's he'd met, who were curious but very reserved. It was at this point that Quar El-sia-o noticed their weapons. "Are they phase guns?" He asked, it was at that point that Archer noted his worry.

"They are." Archer replied. "And we do apologise for them, we know the extra risk they pose, but we have no other, and whilst we are on a peaceful mission, we have been attacked once too often to go without any kind of weapon." He added, hoping his explanation would alleviate their worry.

Quar El-sia-o looked thoughtful for a moment, and then, spoke softly to one of his colleague's, who promptly disappeared into the trees, and then a few minutes later returned carrying three weapons, looking like the ones that they were carrying. "If you agree to store yours in your vessel you may use these, so that we may both be armed until we have established if the other can be trusted."

Archer nodded, and they collected the weapons as they put their own into the shuttle pod to be left there. Malcolm was next to speak. "May I quickly test that they fire, on the dry sand?" He asked, pointing his at the patch of sand he was referring too. Quar El-sia-o understood, and nodded once, and Archer could tell that he did not like the idea. Malcolm did indeed test his, and then nodded his thanks and holstered it.

"Come, we have arranged a small meeting place where we can eat and talk." Quar El-sia-o said, he was happy he had allowed the test, because the man had kept his word, and it showed that they had not tried to deceive them with faulty weapons.

They went to this place, where there was a table full of food, and the appropriate number of empty plates, after Quar El-sia-o had explained their customs they all started, though Hoshi was the one who had the least problems with the cutlery. As they ate they discussed their separate cultures and customs, and they all introduced themselves, and each talked briefly about their specific lives rather than their culture.

They also talked about names, for Quar turned out to be a title, and El-sia-o a surname, which lengthened with age, after every twenty years another syllable was added, the syllable apparently depended on their job/career at the time. It also seemed to be a personal choice to use your surname or first name as your given name. Like-wise Archer, Malcolm and Hoshi explained about human names and titles.

After the meal was over they decided that it was time that they returned to their ship, and so they headed back to the shuttle pod, and returned the borrowed weapons. Another meeting was arranged for the next day, and then they set off back to the ship, all three of them thinking that it had been slightly too smooth. Normally something would have happened, even if it had just been someone tripping over their seat.

They arrived back at the Enterprise and reported what had happened, and transferred the scans they had taken over to the main computer, and Malcolm immediately took to work on devising a way of modifying the weapons to mimic the Quarian's so that they would not be more dangerous than intended. Hoshi went to update the files on the species with the information they had gathered, and Archer went to go and see what T'Pol had made of her second lot of scans, then headed down to see what Phlox had made of their physiology, and to be the case study of what effect the Quarian atmosphere had had on the human body.

Phlox insisted on scanning everything - as well as finishing feeding his bat - before he made any determination. With a grin he gave Archer his verdict. "Apart from a little over-heating you're fine. I wouldn't recommend staying down there for more than four or five hours at a time. I'll need more time before I can be exactly sure."

"Sure thing, doc." Archer replied, and made his way back to the bridge.

Meanwhile Malcolm had made his way to engineering to ask Commander Tucker whether Malcolm's theories for modifying the phase pistols. "Hey, Malcolm, what're you doing down here?" Trip asked, having just been walking the correct way to notice that Malcolm had just walked into engineering, and leant over the balcony to question him.

"I came to seek advice from your capable engineering skills." Malcolm replied curtly, watching as Trip made his way from the balcony to the ladder and half slide down it to reach Malcolm's level.

"I'm hurt that you think my engineering skills are only capable." Trip replied, continuing the joke, as was obvious from the grin on his face. Malcolm handed him the PADD.

"The atmosphere is unstable to phase pistols, and I need a way to make them less dangerous. I need to know if those modifications are even possible before I check with T'Pol that they're less likely to blow up the atmosphere." He explained, as Trip glanced up from the PADD for a moment.

That sparked off a conversation debating certain points of the phase pistol mechanism, both men were more than capable engineers, but they were working in an area that not everything was known. So they crossed points at times, and more than once they'd flipped the metaphorical coin for which method they'd try first.

Meanwhile T'Pol was scanning the planet trying to determine anything she could that would be helpful to establishing the best relationship possible with this species, half watching the rest of the bridge staff man their stations appropriately. She trusted them all to do their job properly, but she liked to check that this was the case, it wasn't a lack of trust, it was the need to know that she'd checked everything possible that it was working.

The next day they had decided that this time only Malcolm would be armed, but that Archer and this time Travis would store their phase pistols in the shuttle pod, just in case. But Archer had decided that he would trust Quar El-sia-o, or at least partly, hoping that again he would make sure that they were all armed to the same level. Whether that involved them disarming themselves or handing them weapons again.

This time their meeting seemed to go even better than last time, they exchanged information almost freely, and they were shown around the city that Quar El-sia-o assured them was Yengu when they asked. They almost didn't notice that their safety time was up, and when it was Quar El-sia-o insisted that they send down another away team to continue this exchange, however Archer suggested that instead Quar El-sia-o should come and visit the Enterprise. They were not surprised when Quar El-sia-o was hesitant, but he agreed, but asked for a couple of hours to make arrangements, they thought nothing of this and so agreed for him to arrive in three hours time. Quar El-sia-o said his main concern was the difference in atmospheres.

So they returned and spent the three hours doing a combination of their normal duties and preparing for Quar El-sia-o and his men coming to visit.

Once the three hours were almost up the small shuttle craft that had first approached them when they arrived asked for docking permission to deliver Quar El-sia-o and his men Par-y-an and Fa-shi-a. Archer and T'Pol greeted them, and started to give them a tour. Archer had met both Fa-shi-a and Par-y-an before. Fa-shi-a was the youngest and Par-y-an was one of the few female dignitaries. "It seems to be a world in which women have little interest." She had explained at some point during the tour - T'Pol had asked her about it.

It was just as they were leaving Engineering that they heard a comm message for Captain Archer. With a smile he apologised that he had better check it's urgency. "Archer." He replied, pressing the button to open the comm link back to Hoshi.

"Captain, there is an urgent message coming through for Quar El-sia-o." Hoshi replied. "They wouldn't say what it was about."

Archer's face fell into a confused thoughtful look, and he glanced at his guests, Quar El-sia-o did look a bit worried at this. "Ok, we're on our way up." He replied. "I think we might have to finish this a bit later." He said, and politely directed them towards the lift.

They arrived at the bridge and Quar El-sia-o wasted no time in asking Hoshi for the message, and cut through Archer mentioning that he could use his ready room for privacy. They were all taken aback by this forcefulness, so far Quar El-sia-o had been rather gentile towards them, if not very trusting, he had definitely showed no hostile side.

Hoshi looked at Archer who nodded and she pressed the buttons to return Lashna to the screen. They were all surprised - Hoshi included - at the state that her and her ship seemed to be in. "Quar!" Lashna almost shouted when she saw him. "You're still on the human ship." She sounded relieved.

"Yes, where else am I supposed to be?" Quar El-sia-o asked.

"They have stormed your home." Lashna explained. "Not everyone is sure if you were in at the time or if you had left in time."