Mal jumped down from the cockpit. "Hurry up, Captain."

"I'm going as fast as I can. That wasn't exactly a smooth landing." She dropped to the ground with a groan. "Something in my back is not happy."

"Well we need to get the hell away from this ship before the Alliance shows up. The cloak is shot, if the Alliance shows up they'll go right for the ship."

"That's a problem."

"No kidding, so let's get moving," he told her.

"That isn't what I meant," Lee replied.

"Okay, explain then."

She waved a hand at the 306. "If the Alliance gets their hands on it that's a problem. We can't cloak it, if they take it then they get all the technology."

"And Dr. McKay would be very upset about that. So what do we do with it?"

"Self destruct?"

"He'd be even more upset about that," Mal said with a chuckle. "Let's do it."

She laughed. "You really want to tell McKay we blew up his ship, don't you?"

"Yup, serves him right."

She shook her head. "Give me a minute and let's see if I can get the cloak to work before we settle on blowing it up." She climbed back up into the cockpit.

"I thought the cloak was broken?"

"Yes, it is. But maybe I can hotwire it." She began poking around and yanking wires.

"You're going to hotwire the cloaking device? Are you nuts, Captain?" He climbed up to watch her. "Captain?"

"Hey, trust me I know what I'm doing. Maybe if I'd hotwired the hyperdrive we wouldn't be in this situation," she muttered. "Ah ha, here we go." She yanked several wires and touched two together. "Are we invisible?"

"How should I know? Give me a minute." He jumped down and walked away from the 306. "Uh, sort of."

She popped up to look at him. "Sort of?"

He waved a hand in the air. "It's kinda wavy."

"Um, okay give me another minute." She disappeared again and began muttering as she yanked more wires free.

Mal watched the ship shimmer and vanish. "That's it."

"Great, let's hope it stays gone." She stepped out from the cloaked ship. "Okay, I guess we need to get moving."

"How's your back?" he asked as they began walking.

"I'll live. Probably just pulled a muscle." She grimaced as they made their way down a steep incline. "Or maybe wrenched something out of place."

"Let's try and find someplace to hunker down and stay hidden."

She nodded and they continued their trek away from the ship. "And let's hope they don't find us or the ship."

"Yes, let's." He stopped and turned to look back the way they'd come. "Okay, we need to move faster, looks like we have company."

She turned to look and saw the Alliance ship in the sky. "Perfect, uninvited guests. Why does no one call anymore before they pop in?"

"Let's move." He hurried her ahead of him. "I think we should head for that hill over there, maybe there's a cave we can hide in."

"I think we should head away from the very obvious hiding place."

He stopped. "We need shelter."

"Yeah and the Alliance isn't stupid, they'll realize that and if there is a cave there that's right where they'll come looking for us." She waved her arms in the air.

"Fine, then where should we go, Captain?"

"I don't know, but in the opposite direction from an obvious hiding place!"

"Great, lead the way, Captain." He gestured around.

"Fine." She turned and stomped away.

Mal grumbled and trailed after her. He knew she was right but he wasn't ready to admit it. They needed to get somewhere and do it quickly. The Alliance ship was close to landing and once it hit the ground it wouldn't take them long to begin searching for them. He watched her as she walked, there was a stiffness to her movements and he knew her back was probably bothering her more than she would ever admit. He hoped the Atlas got here before the Alliance was able to find them. The last thing they'd done before shutting down the ship was send a message to the Atlas to let them know where they'd landed. He could only hope they arrived before the Alliance found them.

"Hey, Colonel over here," Lee called back to him.

He hurried over to where she stood. "Whoa." He stared down into the valley below them. "Well this certainly explains why the Alliance is hanging around the area. This does not improve our situation any." Below them in the small valley were several of the smaller Alliance ships along with an encampment that included several structures. "Those structures aren't permanent; they can be easily disassembled and packed up. This isn't a permanent camp," he commented after studying the camp.

"So what are they doing here?"

"Right now, I don't care. We need to keep our asses hidden from them. We aren't simply evading one ship of soldiers, they have backup. A lot of it. We're screwed until Atlas can get here."

"Okay, so where do we hide? With that much manpower they could search this place quickly. They'll find us," Lee told him.

"Can they detect the 306 if it's powered down?" he asked.

"If we power it down then the cloak won't function," she replied. "If there's power they'll find it eventually. The cloak simply makes it harder to pinpoint. They'll find it at some point and I'd rather not be anywhere near it when they do. They'll do one of two things, blow it up or take it so they can cannibalize it for the tech." She shook her head. "No, we need someplace they aren't going to think to look and it needs to be far from that ship."

"Great, only we can't trek far or the Atlas won't be able to find us and your back is hurting more than you are letting on."

She sighed. "My back is fine, sir. Atlas will have no trouble locating us. They'll use the signal from the transmitters. It doesn't matter where we hide." She waved a hand at the camp below. "But it needs to be far from these idiots."

"Fine, let's move then." He turned and started away from the valley. "This entire day sucks."

She chuckled. "Do I need to remind you to kill McKay when we get back?"

"Trust me no reminder is needed." He took a turn and shoved his way through the trees deeper into the forest. "I vote we find a secluded area in the forest and hide best we can."

"Works for me. Let's hope they don't have any heat detecting technology."

He turned a scowl on her. "Wow, Captain, thanks for that." He rubbed a hand over his face.

"Hey, what about that?" Lee pointed through the trees.

He squinted through the trees. "That could work." He shoved through the trees to get to the area Lee had been pointing to. He squatted down and smiled. "Not an obvious cave but the rock will help shield us if they can track body heat." He stood. "Stay here."

"Stay here? Come on, I'm not crippled, sir."

"Stay, Captain, that's an order." He waited until she sat down. "I'll be right back."

"Fine, I'm sitting and not moving."

He nodded, turned and left her. It took him roughly twenty minutes to find enough branches to help hide them then he returned to where he'd left Lee. "What are you doing?"

She looked up from where she was kneeling on the ground beside the small pile of rocks. "I'm clearing out some of the leaves and stuff so there's more room."

He dropped the branches. "Right, good idea." He dropped down to help her. "More room under here than I thought there would be."

"Hey, as long as we're hidden and they don't find us it works for me."

He grinned. "Agreed. I need to live so I can murder McKay."

She laughed. "Yes, you do."

They finished clearing out the area beneath the overhanging rocks and Mal gathered the branches close to the opening. "All right, in you go."

"Why do I have to go first? If anyone comes for us I'm a better shot than you are."

"Fine, whatever." He dropped down to his belly and crawled beneath the little overhang of rocks. "When you get in, pull the branches over to cover the entrance so we're hidden."

"Right, got it." She waited until he was settled, then she crawled in beside him. "Ow, dammit."

"You okay?"

"Yeah but my back isn't." She reached out and pulled the branches over and settled them around the opening to cover them. "Okay, now we settle in and wait, not much else to do. This is going to be boring."

He chuckled. "Yeah, soooo ..."

She laughed. "You're acting like a guy out on a blind date who doesn't know what to say."

"I am not!" he insisted. "I—"

"Shhhh, someone's coming," she whispered. She rolled to her stomach and positioned her her sidearm so she could fire if anyone approached their hiding spot. "I see three. Alliance uniforms," she said quietly.

The three men beat at bushes and kicked at any place they thought would make a good hiding spot. Lee kept her finger near the trigger as she tracked the three men. They moved past them, so close she could see the creases in their uniform pants. The men continued moving until they were out of sight. She waited several minutes before she relaxed.

"They moved off. We're good for now."

"Unless they decide to double back and do a second check."

"That's possible, hell they could have men doing overlapping search grids."

"That's comforting," he muttered.

"Not really but it's all I've got."

He sighed. This was not how he thought he'd be spending his day. The Atlas better get here soon because there was no way they were going to be able to fight off half the Alliance military force. If it came down to it, they would either die or be captured. Just another fun day at work for them.