Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr Sam Beckett led an elite group of scientists into the desert to develop a top secret project known as, Quantum Leap.
Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Dr Beckett prematurely stepped into the project accelerator, and vanished. He awoke to find himself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that was not his own.
Fortunately contact with his own time was maintained through brainwave transmissions with Al, the project observer, who appeared in the form of a hologram that only Dr Beckett can see and hear.
Trapped in the past, Dr Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, putting things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the leap home.
Sam: "I'm gonna tell you a story Beth, a story with a happy ending. But only if you believe me."
Beth: "And if I don't?"
Sam: "You will, I swear you will. But instead of starting with, once upon a time, let's start with the happy ending. Al's alive, and he's coming home."
Beth gasped and smiled, she lifted her hand to her mouth, then lowered it again and uttered a laugh, Sam smiled as well, and leaped.
Captain Jonathan Archer was in his cabin getting ready to go and meet Trip and T'Pol for breakfast, when he felt strangely dizzy, It felt as if the ship was spinning on all three axis. He reached out and grabbed the side of the desk and everything around him vanished in a bright blue light. When he opened his eyes again, he was startled to find himself laying on his back on a hard surface. He slowly sat up and almost instantly, regretted it. He raised a hand to his head in a vain attempt to try to stop the intense pounding in his head.
Once it had subsided enough, he looked around the room, and saw nothing, The room was featureless. It contained nothing but the table he lay on.
Archer: "Hello? Is anyone here?"
Getting no reply, and frankly not expecting one, Jon shrugged and hopped down to the floor. He looked down and saw he was no longer even in uniform, instead he was wearing a white body suit, that seemed to fit tighter than the Sub-Commanders uniform. Wait a minute, who was this Sub- Commander?
Meanwhile, while Captain Archer struggled with his fragmented memory, outside the room he was in an argument was taking place. Navy Admiral (ret) Albert Calavicci, was pacing back and forth in front of the central console, it's colored cubes lighting up the stark whiteness of his dress uniform. Al had just returned from a very unpleasant meeting with the Sub-committee that over saw the Project's funding. All he had wanted to do was come back here, check up on whether Sam had leaped or not, and head home to Beth. He hadn't wanted to first words from Gushie's mouth to be that Sam was in the Waiting room.
Al: "What do you mean he's in there? That's impossible."
Gushie: "Look for yourself Admiral, It's Dr. Beckett."
Al strode over to the monitor and looked at the screen. Sure enough the man inside the room could have been Sam's twin. Al Shook his head and lit his cigar, It just wasn't possible. That last time Sam had leaped into himself, there had been no one in the waiting room. Al pointed this out to Gushie.
Gushie: "Perhaps he's really back then?"
Al looked at the blue ball that hung over the center of the room.
Al: "Ziggy, what are the odds of this?"
Ziggy, the hybrid computer that Dr. Beckett had created to run Quantum leap, waited a few moments before answering
Ziggy: "While the person in the waiting room does bare a similar resemblance to Dr. Beckett, it is not him. As you both know, whenever Dr Beckett leaps into someone, he assumes their form, while the other person assumes the form of Dr Beckett. If you would have asked me when you entered the room Admiral, I could have informed you of that."
Al shook his head and once again whished that Sam hadn't seen the need to give the super computer, a super ego.
Al: "Well fine then, if he's not Sam, then who is he, and where's Sam?"
Gushie: "Uhm, we don't know where Dr. Beckett is Admiral. And we have no data on who is in the waiting room."
Al just stared at Gushie in shock. The only other time that something like this had happened, Sam had leaped back to the Civil War.
Al: "Could Sam have leapt into the past again?"
Gushie: " We don't know Admiral. We can't seem to get a lock on him."
Al took a pull on his cigar and thought for a moment. "Gushie, you and Ziggy keep trying to find Sam, I'm gonna have a talk with the guy in there."
Al turned and headed up the ramp to the waiting room. At the top he reached over and hit the control and the door slid up into the ceiling. Stepping into the room, he saw that the person who looked so much like Sam was standing about 10 feet away from the exam table, it looked like Al's entrance had interrupted him.
Archer looked up at the sound of the door opening, he watched as an older man dressed in a uniform entered the room and stop. The man stood and stared for a minute before he smiled and walked up to the table Jon had been lying on. Jon studied the man's uniform, certain he had seen it someplace before, it was military, he was certain of that. He tried to recall where he had seen it, but his mind seemed to be full of holes. He was lucky he remembered his own name.
Al: "Hello, Are you feeling alright?"
Jon: "Hi, I'm feeling ok, could you tell me where I am?"
Al shook his head: "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't do that just yet. I was hoping to ask you a few questions to see.."
Jon: "You're in the military, aren't you?"
Al caught a little off guard by the interruption, answered "Yes, I was, but I'm retired."
Jon's mind filled in another hole. "United States, Navy right?"
Al: "Yes."
Jon's mind struggled to remember his history lessons. Finally he had it. The man was wearing the uniform worn by flag officers of the old U.S. Navy. But that wasn't right. Those uniforms hadn't been standard for more than a hundred years. What was going on here?
Al: "Can I ask what your name is?"
Jon: "Archer, Captain Jonathan Archer."
Al: "Captain huh, well Captain, My name is Admiral Calavicci. I can't tell you much about where you are, but I can tell you that you're safe and we'll try to get you back to where you belong as quick as we can."
Jon: "I see, you wouldn't happen to know anyone by the name Daniels would you?"
Al: "No, can't say as I do. Look I just came in here to make sure you were all right and see if you were ok, now if you'll excuse me, I have other things to attend to."
Jon watched as Al Turned and quickly left. As the door closed behind Al,
Jon quickly went over and tried to find a control box or something. But it was no use, the door became flush with the wall once it closed, and there didn't seem to be anything on this side to open it with.
Al walked back down the ramp and went over to the control console.
Al: "Anything yet?"
Gushie: "Admiral, you were only gone for 10 minutes. Surely you can't expect us to have found anything yet?"
Ziggy: "I did."
Gushie: "Then why didn't you say anything?"
Ziggy answered in that sultry pouty voice she had adopted of late. "You didn't ask."
Al sighed: "What did you find Ziggy?"
Ziggy: "There is a 87.9 percent probability that Dr Beckett is no longer leaping within his own lifetime."
Al: "But that's impossible…isn't it?"
Ziggy: "He has done it on three separate occasions Admiral."
Gushie: "Perhaps Dr. Beckett and the man in the waiting room share some relatives?"
Al: "Well get searching then, we'll need everything from the archives, start searching the past for Sam, we need…"
Ziggy: "That isn't necessary Admiral."
Al: "What do you mean it isn't necessary. Have you got a lock on Sam?"
Ziggy: "No, but Dr. Beckett is not in the past."
Al: "What do you mean."
Ziggy: "I have calculated a 92.3 percent probability, that Dr. Beckett has leapt into the future. And if that is the case, Then I am unable to lock onto him and you are unable to help him."
Al: "Then that would mean, that Sam is on his own."
Sam opened his eyes and looked around the small room he was in. Like most of his other leaps, he was left with a feeling of disorientation. The room he was in was small, hardly any bigger than his dorm room back in university. There was a desk and a double size bed and outside the window was, was, stars. Sam blinked and rubbed his eyes, He walked around the bed and over to the window, yup they were stars.
Sam: "Oh Boy."
Sam turned and looked around the room again, this was most assuredly the strangest leap he'd been on yet. He started to walk back over to the desk, as he passed by a small mirror hanging on the wall, he stopped and looked more fully at himself. The hair was a little shorter, and there were more lines around the eyes and mouth, but Sam would recognize the face that stared back at him if he were to leap forever and only see it a few times. It was his own.
Sam reached up and gently touched his face, even thought it looked like him, he knew that it wasn't. Something inside him just knew. Sam was broken from his thoughts by the barking of a dog, he looked down to see a small beagle pup. It was standing by his feet and vigorously wagging it's tail. Sam bent down and as soon as he was close enough, the dog began to lick his face.
Sam: "Easy there, knock it off, you're probably hungry aren't ya?"
At that, the dog barked again. Sam looked around and stood and opened a few doors, he finally found some food for the dog. After filling the small dish and making sure the animal had water, Sam went over and sat down at the desk.
Leaping around in time has always been hard on me, not knowing who I had leaped into or why I was there. One minute I could be a man or a woman, a small child, or even a monkey. But now, once again I had been thrown a curve ball. I had leaped into myself, or at least someone who looks so much like me, it was scary. Once again I find myself in a strange place, and my only companion so far is a dog. And from the looks of it, I'm in space. I don't think I've ever been in space before. I really wish Al was here. I think this is going to be a hard one to get out of.
Sam was interrupted in his thoughts by a small chime. He looked around, trying to determine where it was coming from, when it sounded again a voice came with it.
"Tucker to the Captain."
Sam saw that voice was coming from a small panel on the wall, taking an educated guess that he was who was being called, he hit what looked like the right button and spoke into the panel.
Sam: "Uh, this is the Captain, go ahead."
Trip: "I was just wonderin' if you were plannin' on joinin' T'Pol n me for breakfast Cap'n?"
Sam: "Uh, breakfast, yeah, sure I'll be right there…..if I can find where there is."
Trip: "What'd you say Cap'n? I missed that last part."
Sam: "Oh nothing, I'll be along soon."
Trip: "Ok I'll make sure Chef keeps the eggs warm for ya."
With a click, the line died and Sam let out a heavy breath. How was he supposed to join these people for breakfast if he didn't even know where it was. Quickly he looked over at the desk, there wasn't much on it besides what looked like some type of monitor. From the depths of his mind came a term, voice activated. Sam realized it must have come from the memories of the person who he'd leaped into.
Sam: "Computer, show me the way to get from the Captains cabin, to the, mess hall?"
Within a moment a small diagram appeared on the screen, Sam studied it and saw that the route was fairly simple. He also took a few extra moments to do some checking, he found out he was onboard a Starship and he was the Captain, Jonathan Archer. And that it was the middle of the 22nd century. Now Sam knew he was in more trouble than he had thought. He stood and went to the door and was stymied to find there was no knob, nor was there anything that looked like it could be used to open the door. He reached out and pushed on it, nothing happened. After a few moments he noticed a small control panel set next to the door. He shook his head and hit a button. Again nothing happened.
Sam tried another button and succeeded in turning the lights out, he quickly hit it again. Sam tried three more buttons before hitting the correct one, noting it's placement on the panel, he hoped the same button opened other doors. As he walked down the hallway, other people wearing the same blue jumpsuit as he did greeted him, Sam guessed that these were the ships crew. He thought for a moment about what he had read on the small screen in his cabin. He was in the mid 2100's. That meant he had leaped well beyond his lifetime. Something had seriously gone a little 'caca' this time. Al better show up soon.
Sam finally came to where the mess hall was, and hit what he hoped was the right button to open the door, to his joy it worked and he entered a fair sized room, it was crowded with people. Many of them looked up as he entered, again they greeted him and smiled. He smiled and said hello to them, he looked around the room and saw a set of double doors that led into another room, from the diagram he knew that this was the captains private dining room. He headed there and once again the doors opened with the same button.
As he walked into the room, he saw that there was a man and woman already seated at the table across from one another. They looked at him as he went over to an empty seat. As he sat, the younger man smiled at him.
Trip: "Bout time you showed up, T'Pol and I thought you had gone and got lost."
T'Pol: "I had no such thoughts Commander. I was merely pointing out the fact that the Captain is rarely late for breakfast."
Sam: "Uh, I'm sorry, I was distracted…by…something.."
Sam stared at the beautiful woman to his right, something was off, her eyebrows tilted up, but that wasn't it, that could just be a fashion thing. Then it hit him, her ears, her ears were actually pointed! And her skin had a decidedly greenish tinge to it, he wondered if she was sick.
T'Pol: "Captain, is there something wrong?"
Sam blushed and looked away: "Huh? Uh no, nothing's wrong. I'm sorry, I seem to have a lot on my mind right now."
Trip: "I'm sure that communiqué ya got from Starfleet didn't help to much huh."
Sam: "Uh no, I guess not."
Trip: "Anything you want to let us in on?"
Sam thought quickly: "No, I'm sorry, Captain's eyes only, you understand."
Trip nodded: "Sure no problem."
Sam was saved having to try to say anything more by the stewards arriving with their breakfast. He saw that the Commander was having the same thing as he was, bacon and scrambled eggs. But the woman who he had called T'Pol was having only slices of fruit and what looked like a clear soup broth.
Sam: "Not in the mood for bacon and eggs?"
As soon as he had said the words, Sam knew he had said the wrong thing. Both T'Pol and the Commander stopped eating and were looking at him.
T'Pol: "You are aware of course Captain, that I do not eat any animal by-products."
Trip: "You know Jon, usually I'm the one trying to goad the Sub-Commander, what's up?"
Sam: "I'm, I'm sorry, that just slipped out, please accept my apology, T'Pol."
T'Pol: "It is unnecessary for you to apologize, no offence was taken."
Trip: "You sure you're feelin alright Cap'n? Maybe you should have Phlox check you out?"
Sam: "Yeah, maybe I should, I have been feeling a bit out of sorts. I'll go see him after breakfast."
T'Pol: "That would be only logical. I will take the Bridge while you visit Sickbay, Perhaps you need a day off?"
Sam: "Maybe."
The rest of their meal was at in silence. Sam couldn't stop himself from glancing over at T'Pol. He admittedly thought she was very beautiful. But the thing that seemed to mesmerize him, were here ears. At one point he found himself wondering what it would be like to run his fingers along them.
Meanwhile back in the early 21st century, Al was trying to get more information out of their visitor.
Al: "So you say you won't tell me anything unless I tell you something in return? A little bit of give and take huh?"
Jon: "That's correct Admiral."
Al: "Ok I guess we can do that. How bout an easy one then huh, what year is it?"
Jon: "You're serious?"
Al nodded
Jon: "2152"
Al whistled
Jon: "Now it's my turn. Where am I?"
Al: "Would you believe me if I told you, you're in New Mexico?"
Jon: "No actually I wouldn't."
Al: "Ok we'll come back to that later. You said you were a Captain, Where are you posted?"
Jon: "I'm commanding the Enterprise."
AL: "The Enterprise huh? Ok look this is gonna take too long why don't you just tell me what you can recall and I'll try to tell you what I can ok?"
Jon: "Alright. As I said, I'm Captain Jonathan Archer, I command the Enterprise, I'm sure you've heard of it. Anyways I was getting ready to go meet my senior staff for breakfast, the next thing I knew, I was here. Now are you going to tell me what's going on?"
Al sighed, he might as well level with the guy, they needed all the help they could get to try and contact Sam.
Al: "Ok, on the level. You said the year was 2152, you probably won't believe me but the year is actually 1999.You're on Earth in New Mexico. You've become caught up in a time travel experiment that went a little caca."
Jon: Time travel again, you're sure you don't know anyone named Daniels?"
Al: "No, let me finish, you see about 5 years ago, a good friend of mine named Sam Beckett began this experiment, and an accident happened. Now he leaps through time trying to help people, to set things right. He leaps in and replaces a certain person. Everyone around him thinks he's still the same person. The person he's leaped into comes here. Now to us, that person looks like Dr Beckett. Although, this time it isn't too much of a problem."
Jon: "Why is that?"
Al: "Well kid, you see it's like this. You two could be twins."
Jon: "You're saying we look the same?"
Al: "You two look so alike you could use each other to shave with. Look I gotta run, I need to tell this information to the other people who work here. I'll be back soon."
Jon watched the Admiral turn and leave, he laid his head back on the table and tried to think of why Starfleet had never had any information on something like this.
Al went back out into the control room, he saw that Gushie had been joined by the other programmer, Tina. Together the two of them were busy going over information on how Sam may have changed places with someone from the future.
Al: "Ziggy, I think I found out what year Sam is in, he's about 153 years ahead of us, the captain in there said he was from 2152."
Ziggy: "I believe I may have a way to enable you to find Dr Beckett Admiral."
Al: "Really? What is it?"
Ziggy: "We simply inject you with some of Captain Archer's genetic material. There is a 97 percent probability this will allow us to establish a lock on where Dr Beckett is."
Al turned to Gushie. "This true?"
Gushie: "Well it looks like it would work."
Ziggy: "Of course it will work, I thought of it."
Al shrugged, what other choice did they have. He gave the go ahead. But first he'd have to go tell this Archer guy they were gonna be poking holes in him.
Sam had not actually gone to see this Dr Phlox, instead he had returned to the relative safety of his cabin. It was a good thing that the photographic recall part of his memory hadn't been swiss cheesed this time around, or he'd still be wandering the halls.
Sam knew this was only a temporary reprieve, eventually he'd have to show up on the Bridge and look like he knew what was going on. Taking a chance, he checked the computer again and with a little luck found the ships log. Apparently the ship had just escaped an encounter with some aliens who had tried to posses the crew, they had been called 'Wisps'. Currently, the ship was holding position while the crew were dealing with some damage to the ship that had occurred at that time.
Sam read as much of the logs as he could, he also located and read up on what seemed to be the command crew of the ship. Good thing he was a fast reader. Finally feeling like he was as ready as he would ever be with out Al's help, Sam decided to go ahead and try to find out why he was here. He left his cabin and headed for Sickbay, he figured he may as well pay it a visit as someone may ask about it. Luckily it wasn't too far away and on the same deck. He approached the doors with the standard medical signs on them and keyed them open.
Phlox looked up from his microscope and smiled as he saw the Captain walk in.
Phlox: "Ah good morning Captain. How can I help you hmmm?"
Sam stopped and stared for a moment. He thought the woman with the pointed ears had been different. Now he saw he had been wrong. Well no time to think about it, Sam mumbled out a reply.
Sam: "Good morning Doctor. I uh, I have a slight headache, and I was wondering if there was anything you could give me for it?"
Phlox: "Certainly, my boy, please have a seat and I'll be just a moment."
Sam sat on the bed indicated, and watched the Doctor wander off. He took a few moments to look around the room in awe. He was pretty sure he had never been in any type of hospital or clinic in any of his leaps, that had been this advanced. Sam was about to hop off the bed and take a look at the big thing that looked like an MRI machine when the Doctor returned.
Phlox: "Here we go Captain, this should have you all better in no time."
Phlox pressed the hypospray against Sam's neck, he was slightly surprised to see him jump as he injected him.
Phlox: "Are you alright Captain?"
Sam: "Huh, oh yes I'm uh fine. Just have, uh a lot on my mind."
Phlox: "I understand, if you feel the headache returning, feel free to come back, my door is always open."
Sam looked in astonishment as the Doctor's face split into a grin that Sam was sure was not possible, it literally stretched ear to ear. Sam hopped down off the bed and made a hasty retreat from Sickbay. With that part over he now had the daunting task of going to the Bridge and trying to act like the ships real captain.
Finally making his way to the Bridge, Sam stepped out of the elevator and looked around. It was arranged in a circular design with manned stations around the perimeter. In a central well the was another station and a single chair, rising out of the chair and looking at him questioningly, was the woman from breakfast. Sam remembered her name was T'Pol. He decided he better say something and fast, now everyone was beginning to stare at him.
Sam: "Uh, report T'Pol."
T'Pol: "All systems are normal, the damage we encountered while fleeing from the Wisps vessel should be repaired shortly, Commander Tucker refuses to give me an exact time, he simply states that he'll be finished when he's finished."
Sam: "Ok, very well."
T'Pol walked past him and sat down at the station nearest the lift, Sam guessed it was where she normally sat. He nodded to the other members on the Bridge and was relieved to see them smile in turn and resume their work. Sam gingerly stepped down into the command area and slowly sat down in the center chair. Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, he quickly turned his head to his left and found T'Pol staring at him, her right eyebrow was raised up. Sam wondered what that meant.
He decided to play it safe and smiled at her. T'Pol merely blinked once, slowly, and turned her chair away from him and looked into some type of small viewer. Sam sighed and looked around once again. Now that he was here, he had absolutely no idea of what to do next.
Al: "Tell them you'll be in your ready room."
Sam jumped, then tried to hide the abrupt movement by moving around in his chair. He then stood and looked around.
Al: "The door on the right."
Sam: "I'll uh be in the ready room if anyone needs me."
Before Sam got two feet, T'Pol spoke up.
T'Pol: "Captain, is there anything wrong? You seem unusually, tense this morning. Can I be of any assistance?"
Al: "Oh you bet you can be. You can.."
Sam: "Al!, I mean I'll be fine, I just had a rough night, thanks for the offer though."
T'Pol merely nodded and watched with a quizzical look as Sam left the Bridge.
Once he was safely in the ready room, Sam turned on Al.
Sam: "It's about time you showed up, what took you so long?"
Al: "I'm sorry Sam, we had a hell of a time trying to find you, thankfully Ziggy came up with the idea of using some of your host's DNA to try to find you and make contact. You won't believe this Sam, but you're in the future."
Sam: "Yeah I kinda figured that out already. What is going on? How can I be here? I do remember that I'm not supposed to be able to leap past my own lifetime."
Al: "Yeah, well I'm not sure if you remember it or not, but once you leapt back to the civil war, due to you sharing some genetic material with the host, it appears the same thing's happened again, you and this Archer fella are related. Ziggy's still working on how."
Sam: "Ok skip the family tree part Al, why am I here?"
Al began punching buttons on the hand link: "Oh yeah, well we're still trying to figure that one out, but Ziggy says there's a 48 purse…purse? Oh percent chance you're here to save one of your crew members from killing himself. You also have a 63.6 percent chance on saving Archer's life, and that there's a 59 percent chance that you're here to hook up two of the crew."
Sam: "Any idea on the crew member I'm supposed to help or why I need, I mean Archer needs saving?"
Al punched a few more buttons, which resulted on a short squeal from the link, Al scowled and hit the hand link, it emitted a sharp screech. "Uh no, nothing yet, but don't worry, we've got this Archer guy helping us out from the waiting room, it shouldn't be too long before we have anything."
Sam: "Ok, how about on who I'm supposed to play matchmaker for?"
Al looked at the link and smiled: "Oh you're gonna like this Sam, you know the babe in the cat suit out there? It looks like you're here to set her up with, oh now this is really good."
Sam sighed: "Will you get to the point."
Al: "Alright already, apparently you may be here to make sure that she and Archer recognize their true feelings for one another."
Sam: "What is it with you and trying to hook me up with someone?"
Al: "Hey, I'm not the one doing the number crunchin' here buddy, this comes right from Ziggy"
Al walks around the ready room, his head passes through the support beams, he continues talking, gesturing with his cigar. "Besides, from the looks of her, and by what she's wearing, you could do a lot worse."
Sam: "Can we just set that aside for now and try to figure out the other two possibilities?"
Al: "But Sam, what if you an her were to.."
Sam: "No"
Al: "Aw c'mon.."
Sam: "AL!"
Al: "Alright, spoilsport, you really need to get out more. We really don't have much on what's been going on, getting information outta Archer has been like trying to get more funding outta the Senate over committee."
Sam: "Have Verbeena talk with him, tell him we're trying to get things back to normal as fast as we can, but we can't do that until we get some help from him."
Al: "Already doing it. Hopefully we'll have you outta here before you have to actually do any Captain stuff."
And with a small wave Al opened the Imaging Chamber door and disappeared. Sam sighed and walked over to the chair behind the desk, intending to sit down and try to learn more about what was going on in this time, unfortunately not being all that familier with the design of the ready room, he walked smack dab into one of the support beams. Sam staggered back and placed his hand against the rapidly forming bump.
Sam: "Ouch! Damnit, who designed this stupid thing anyways, didn't they give any thought that people may actually want to walk around in here?"
T'Pol: "Apparently, Enterprises designers may have come to the conclusion that the person in question would know when to duck."
Sam whirled around to see T'Pol standing in the open doorway.
Sam: "Uh, hi, I mean, what can I do for you?"
T'Pol held out a PADD to Sam, he looked at it for a moment and then reached out and took it, sitting on the end of the desk as he did so.
T'Pol: "I was merely bringing you the duty roster for today." T'Pol looked a bit more intently at Sam "Do you require medical attention?"
Sam was still rubbing the bruise on his forehead. "Huh? Uh no, no thanks I'll be ok, maybe it knocked some sense into me."
T'Pol: "One can only hope."
Sam just stared at her, T'Pol merely stared back, finally unable to match her will power, and the fact that his head was really starting to hurt, Sam looked away.
Sam: "I'll look this over later, was there anything else you needed?"
T'Pol: "No, Captain, But I would like to once again offer any assistance if you may need it."
Sam caught the pause in her sentence when she had called him Captain, he wondered for a moment if she knew he was not the real Captain Archer. Quickly he stood, too quickly it seemed, a wave of dizziness engulfed him, he reached out to try to grab the desk again but felt strong arms grab onto him and keep him from falling over.
T'Pol: "Captain, are you alright?"
Sam: "I'm fine, just a little dizzy, it should pass."
Sam reached up and grasped T'Pol's hand, he held it only for a moment, as he stood straighter. "Perhaps I should go pay another visit to the Doctor, make sure I'm ship shape." With that he released her hand.
T'Pol stood there and nodded absently, when the captain had taken her hand in his, it had been unexpected, she had not the time necessary in order to reinforce her mental shields. His minds briefly brushed against hers, and what her mind perceived, left her bewildered, and very curious.
The man walking out of the ready room, the man who looked like, sounded like, smelled like Jonathan Archer, was not the man she knew. It was as if he had been replaced with someone completely different. Then one word came to T'Pol's minds and escaped her lips in a whisper before she could suppress it.
T'Pol: "Wisps"
T'Pol turned again to find she had been to late, the Captain, or the being posing as the Captain had left the ready room. Quickly she exited the room herself, to find he had also departed from the Bridge. She looked around, noting that everyone else was going about their normal duties as if everything were the same. T'Pol looked over at Hoshi.
T'Pol: "Ensign Sato, please contact Commander Tucker, have him come to the ready room."
Hoshi: "Aye ma'am."
Hoshi watched as T'Pol looked over at the door to the turbo lift as if she were trying to decide on a course of action. Then Hoshi saw T'Pol settle her shoulders back in her normal Vulcan manner and return to the ready room. Hoshi turned back to her board and keyed the COMM for Engineering.
Hoshi: "Bridge to Cmdr. Tucker."
Trip: "Tucker here, what's up Hoshi?"
Hoshi: "The Sub-Commander wants to see you in the ready room ASAP Trip."
Trip: "What's wrong? Where's the Cap'n?"
Hoshi: "He left the Bridge, he said he had to go to sickbay, he had a bruise on his head, I'm betting he walked into one of the support beams in the ready room again."
Trip chuckled: "He ain't done that in over a year. Must have something on his mind, I'll be right up."
True to his word, in less than five minutes, Trip was walking through the second door into the ready room, he looked at T'Pol sitting behind the desk.
Trip: "I hear Jon gave himself a good rap on the noggin."
T'Pol: "Correct, Captain Archer injured his head rather severely when it came into contact with the bracing in this room."
Trip: "And is that why you called me all the way up here? To tell me Jon got himself a boo boo?"
T'Pol: "No commander, I requested your presence here as I have reason to believe the Captain, may have been taken over by a Wisp."
Trip: "Whoa, back up a sec there, we destroyed them remember? What makes you think one of them has the Cap'n?"
T'Pol: "I had come in here to give the Captain the daily crew roster, he had already hit his head by the time I entered the room, we talked for a few moments, then when he attempted to stand, he staggered, so I offered assistance by reaching out to steady him, I am not sure why, but he grasped my hand, I was, unprepared for the contact, and I touched his mind."
Trip: "You what?"
T'Pol sighed: "As you know Commander, I am a touch telepath, although my skills are relatively low, I am still able to touch another beings mind. When the Captain's hand came into contact with mine, our minds touched. It did not feel like the Captain, it felt, different. Before I was able to pick up anything else, the contact was ended."
Trip: "Where's the Cap'n now?"
T'Pol: "He has gone to see Doctor Phlox."
Trip: "Well there ya go, the doc'll check him over, and if anything's wrong, he'll let us know. There's no need to get yerself all in a fuss about it."
T'Pol: "I assure you Commander, I was not in a fuss, as you put it. I was concerned. Concerned for this ship and crew, and the Captain."