"Three!" Reed finishes as Hoshi arrives in Enterprise's transporter room. Trip compliments Malcolm on his hour-long transporting work and turns to Hoshi: "See, I told you -- piece of cake." Hoshi drops her suitcase on the pad and tries to dart away, saying, "Where are they? We've got to stop them!" Trip stops her, asking who she's talking about. "You heard me? You can hear me? Do you see me?" Hoshi demands desperately. Malcolm "I See Myself In Feria" Reed tells her everything's fine. "It's not fine -- they put a bomb on the warp reactor!" Hoshi tells them, running off again. Trip grabs her and asks who she's talking about. "The aliens from the surface," Hoshi says, trying to get past Trip. "There's no one on the surface -- it's uninhabited!" Trip assures her, making her look at him. "What are you talking about? They kidnapped you and Travis -- we've got to stop them!" Hoshi shrieks. Trip grapples with her and looks at Reed for support. Malcolm tells her the transporter was interrupted by the storms, and he had some trouble reintegrating her matter stream. "Trouble?" Hoshi repeats. "You were sort of...trapped in the pattern buffer," Trip explains, "but only for a few seconds." "Eight-point-three seconds, to be precise," Malcolm anal-retents. Malcolm? You've got lipstick on your teeth -- go away and wash it off. "Are you saying I was just on the surface?" Hoshi asks Trip. "You insisted on going second," Trip reminds her, clasping her shoulder. Hoshi thinks a moment and asks, "Do you have a mirror?" "What?!" Reed asks, wondering how she knew about the cheval glass he has hidden behind a bulkhead in the transporter room. "Forget it," Hoshi grins, relieved. "And I was sure I was going to be the next Cyrus Ramsey!" And all together now: "Cyrus who?" Trip asks, as Reed also looks confused. Hoshi looks disconcerted.

Sick Bay. "So you're saying all of that happened in eight seconds?" Hoshi asks Phlox, who tells her it probably happened in the last one or two seconds of transport. "As your matter stream was coalescing. She seems fine," Phlox tells Quantum. Quantum sits on the examining table next to Hoshi and says, "Malcolm's recommending some new transport protocols to Starfleet -- he's suggesting we start compressing the transporter beam." That might be helpful. Hoshi tells him she doesn't think she'll be transporting anywhere for a long time. "But you said you stepped onto the aliens' transporter by choice," Quantum hints. "I was trying to save Enterprise," Hoshi informs him. "Sounds like you overcame your fear," Quantum psychoanalyzes. It was a dream, you freak. I've never heard of overcoming a fear simply by dreaming that you did it. "It's all in my head, remember?" Hoshi says. "Does it matter?" Quantum chuckles. It does to me -- there's a whole hour of my life I'm never getting a refund on! "You were afraid of getting lost, afraid of disappearing, but you still climbed onto that platform -- real or not," Quantum Freuds. "Quantum's just trying to fanspank the whole thing away. He sat there and listened to Hoshi's story, and at the end, he realized how stupid of a story it was, so now he just wants that hour of his life back too," Mathra determines. Hoshi tells him that if it's all the same to him, she'd rather stick to sh'pods. And Dramamine. "Come on," Quantum says, guiding her off the table. "Let's go to the bridge." He puts up his hand to press the door button, but Hoshi stops him: "If you don't mind?" She wants to open the door herself. To prove that she can. Ugh. They walk off together.