Raven sat on her bed in her petit English home reading a book. She was deeply into literature and fiction, not to mention non-fiction. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck was one of her favourites introduced to her by her former English teacher three years before. She found it very interesting and was great insight on people's lives in the past and present.
She reached across her bed to an adjacent shelf near the wall and lifted her coffee from the silver frame. She had decorated her room herself and gave it an Enterprise themed look to it. She was a big star trek fan and had gone to many conventions and met the celebrities of all Sci-Fi programmes. She was particularly glad to have met her favourite actor of all time. Her view was that no one could supersede Dominic Keating in her top favourite actors' list.
She drank deeply from the silver mug whilst her eyes were still fixated on the book she was head deep in. The book in question had been read five or more time already and was a written version of the Star Trek: Enterprise episode Shockwave. She felt she grew more attached to the characters every time she read it.
Her father entered the room and Raven glared venomously at him. He hadn't knocked and, in Raven's rules, was a distinct violation of her domain. Her glare told her father all he needed to know; he backed out and knocked this time round before re-entering the uniformed room, which looked highly sparse as Raven had had a major clean out.
'Lights out Raven, it's past eleven thirty' Her father told her. Raven just coyly smiled and tabbed her book so she could return to it later. She finished her coffee and replaced it on the shelf before hiding under her silver covers and turning out the bed light. The father smiled and exited the room without another word. Raven hoped for an eventful day as it was drawing near to Christmas and Raven loved wintertime.
Little did she know that tomorrow would be a very eventful day indeed.
--
Raven woke to a soft hum that repeated itself over and over again. 'That's odd' she murmured under her breath as she rose and her head connected with a very hard surface. She brought a hand to her head and massaged the affected area.
She then looked at what her head had bashed into. A wall or ceiling and she looked sideways, first her left and then her right. A tunnel running for quite a distance and at both ends, so she decided to explore and find out where the hell she was. If this is another one of Frank's lame jokes, I will be hitting him severely she thought murderously as she made her way through the small tunnel.
Jesus! Who made these tunnels so bloody cramped! Raven grumbled more and more as she squeezed her slender body through the maze of tunnels. She eventually reached an access port and she carefully looked through the grill. Two sets of blue legs strolled past and their owners were quietly talking. Raven drew her head back as they passed not wanting to be found yet. She drew up her options. Continue squeezing herself through the small tunnels to find a more appropriate get out point or get out here what evidently seemed to be crawling with people.
She chose the first option and continued her route through the tunnels deep within wherever she was. She then knew she needed to ascertain where the hell she was so she hurried faster through the channels. Just bloody great! Here I am stuck on somewhere I don't know and I'm being forced to find my own way around! God, where the hell am I? Her rants continued for most of the journey until she reached a far more suitable drop off point.
Carefully, she prized open the grill and squeezed out of the cramped space. She replaced the grill without so much a thought and turned to look at her surroundings. I know this place currently swam through her mind but she couldn't place where. An upturned, well, to Raven, it looked like a fluorescing log standing full tilt to attention.
Raven sighed slightly and looked down. She was in her jeans, her trainers, white tank top and her denim jacket. What the hell…? Raven didn't get a chance to ponder anymore on how she had managed to be in different clothing as she was soon facing rather annoyed looking people, a few of them were holding what looked like weapons at her.
She blinked in surprise and slowly raised her hands, a signal she meant no harm.
'Who are you? What are doing in Engineering?' A tall man with brown short hair and distinct features to his face asked her brusquely. She recognised the voice almost immediately and struggled to form words into proper sentences. 'I say again, who are you? Why are you in engineering?'
Again, it took a while to form words. Here she was standing right in front of a legend. Raven coughed to clear her throat, closed her eyes and opened them again feeling her head clear.
'Uh…Raven Cross. Um, I don't quite know myself, actually…it's rather puzzling to be honest with you' she fully understood where she was now. She was on Enterprise but how she got here and who brought her here was another matter. 'Um…you don't have to point those pistol at me…I'm very harmless.' They stayed exactly where they were not heeding her suggestion.
'Where are you from?' Archer asked, his eyes fixing on her. She shifted nervously; she hated being under such scrutiny.
'Um…what would you say if I said two thousand and five, England?' She replied, meeting his.
'From the past?'
'Yeah…kinda looks like that way.' Raven replied, eyeing Reed and silently wishing they would lower their pistols. 'I hope you don't think it illogical as the Vulcan's do?' Raven added, much as an afterthought and it was out of her mouth before she could stop herself.
'How do you know about the Vulcan's if you are from the past?' Archer shot back, accusingly.
'Ah…yes…the Vulcan's…um, well, back in my time you see, there was a television programme and the like. Well, Star Trek: Enterprise was one of them. One of my favourite programmes and so far, everything here' Raven gestured randomly around the room 'was there. Engineering looks exactly the same and I am willing to bet everything else does, this includes its people. I know all the senior staff, plenty of race names and a few crewmen.'
Archer's face took on a look of consideration before he spoke a little softer this time round.
'Prove it'
'Okay. You are Captain Jonathan Archer of the NX-01 Enterprise. Then there is Sub Commander T'Pol, a Vulcan science officer of Enterprise, Commander Charles Tucker the third is your Chief Engineer and is informally known Trip. Lieutenant Malcolm Reed is your chief weapons and security officer. Then there is Ensign Hoshi Sato, your communications officer. She was in Brazil when you asked her to join your crew. Space Boomer Ensign Travis Mayweather is your helmsman and Doctor Phlox is your physician. Anything else you would like to know?'
'Okay, so you know who and what we are…what about other races?' Archer asked rather curiously. This girl was a bundle of information.
'Sure…but could you ask him to lower their phase pistols first? I hate being at the wrong end, you know what I mean?'
Archer smiled slightly and nodded to Reed who only gave a short look before complying, as did the others.
'Thank you, other races I know of…hang on…who have you been fighting recently?' Raven asked, scratching her collarbone slightly.
'Just answer the question' Archer replied shortly.
'I need the answer from you to answer the question about what I know, y'know?' Raven retorted just as quickly.
'Xindi and this other race' Archer conceded.
'That helps considerably Captain. Right. Vulcans, Andorians, Paraagans, Suliban, Xindi…in depth…Reptilian, Insectiod, Aquatic, Aboreal? They looked like monkeys, primates. Tandarans, Orions…um…that's all I can remember right now…there is a large amount of races.'
'You certainly know a lot about our time. You are human right?' Archer surmised.
Raven laughed and smiled. 'I wouldn't want to be anything else'
'Sickbay' Archer gestured for Raven to follow him and Lieutenant Reed while the rest of the security attachment went elsewhere back to whatever they were doing. The walk to sickbay was certainly interesting for Raven as she took in the faces she met along the way.
She couldn't believe she was walking beside a legend of his time and in front of the most paranoid but damned sexy Armoury officer…it was all too much and she smiled slightly.
They eventually reached Sickbay where Doctor Phlox was tending to his bat quite merrily Raven noted.
'Doctor…we need you to run a medical check on Ms. Cross here' Archer told the Denobulan. Phlox nodded and looked at Raven who smiled warmly back at him.
'On the bed please' Raven nodded and hoisted herself on the bed. She placed her hands by her side and waited for the bed to move into the chamber before her.
Phlox pressed a button on a computer screen and ran tests. He turned and smiled.
'Well Doctor?' Archer insisted. His eyes glanced at Raven's feet. His mind raced on how she had appeared on his ship, just that suddenly. Why would anyone want to take someone from the past and dump them in the future was beyond him but he intended on finding out. For the time being though, he wanted to find out everything he could about her.
'Her DNA structure is that of a human Captain, there's no doubt about it' Phlox told the Captain whilst pointing to a picture of Raven's DNA sequence
Archer nodded and looked at Reed who caught Archer's glance and looked at him.
'Malcolm…what do you think? Do you think she came from the past?' Archer often asked T'Pol or Malcolm these questions because of their skilled minds. Being chief of security and the chief armoury officer,Malcolm would have a tactical and very smart mind.
'I'm inclined to believe her Sir however strange it may appear. She's in Earth clothing, she has no idea on how she got here, and her explanation for knowing mostly everything of our time with watching a television programme is feasible. What we can do is to check the Missing Persons records. Someone must have reported her missing Sir' Malcolm finished; looking back at Raven who has come out of the chamber she was in previously.
'Lieutenant, that's your job…see if you can find her on the records. I intend to find out everything about her' Archer said, he wet his lips a little. Malcolm nodded and left. Raven wandered back over to Archer, thrusting her thumbs into her jean pockets.
'So, what now?' Her blue eyes stood out strongly against her black hair. Archer could see it wasn't her natural hair colour as he could just about see brown roots surfacing her scalp.
'You join me for dinner' Archer replied.
A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review...they are very much appreciated!
