This is based after the alternate timeline in e2, but this fic is set in an alternate timeline set out in that episode.
Rating: pg-13 for now
Chapter 1
Stranded over a century in the past, the thought shocked Malcolm Reed, even now, two years after it had happened. At first he had been sad at the thought of never seeing the people he knew and loved ever again, but he had; like the rest of the crew come to terms with the fact. He glanced up at the sound of soft footsteps, his Ikaaran wife Melee had just gotten out of bed and was coming towards him. In an instant he was glad for the good things he had in his life because of what happened.
"Feeling better, love?" He asked her, he pulled her into his lap and kissed the side of her face. She ran one hand through her long brown hair, and the other hand on her swollen belly as a smile lit up her face.
"Much. I just wish the baby would give up on doing somersaults all day long. I think that he'd make a good security officer once he grows up," she snaked the other arm around his shoulders and touched her forehead against his nose, a sign of affection and love amongst her people.
"Phlox told u we were having a boy?" He asked. She laughed easily and shook her head.
"No, I just know that it is," she replied.
"Bridge to Ensign Melee," the voice of Captain Jonathan Archer cut through their intimate moment. With a sigh Melee reached out to the communications panel on the wall.
"Melee here," she said.
"Report to the shuttlebay. Hoshi's on her way there already and will fill you in once you get there," Archer said.
"I'll be there shortly," she said and deactivated the com.
"Duty calls," she stood up, trailing one fingernail up her husbands arm, before going into the bathroom. She returned a few moments later in her uniform, he pulled her close, his mouth locked with hers.
"Ok, enough, Malmal, I'll be back soon enough," she grinned, swatting his arm lightly as she left their quarters. He sighed as he headed for the bridge to start his shift early.
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Melee launched the shuttlepod with the ease of years of experience as a pilot. She glanced at Hoshi.
"How come this couldn't be done over the comms?" She asked the other woman. Lieutenant Hoshi Sato looked up from the padd in her hand.
"They're comms don't seem to match ours and the captain thinks that doing it this way would make it more personal and more likely that they'd trade the items we'd need," she replied. The two security personal seated in the back of the shuttlepod paid little attention to Hoshi or Melee.
"Makes sense I guess," Melee said. She turned back to what she was doing; piloting was something she loved to do, even in a shuttlepod.
"According to our scans they look human, so this shouldn't be too hard," Hoshi said. Melee let a small smile flit across her face as she looked at the other woman out of the corner of her eye.
"For you maybe, for those of us who aren't human it might be a little more difficult," she said jokingly. Her joking turned serious when she felt a slight jerking of the steering column; she glanced towards the scans on her right.
"You didn't say anything about the atmosphere storms," she said accusingly.
"Our scans were incomplete, something about them bouncing off the upper atmosphere. We only managed to get small amounts of information," Hoshi said. Melee scowled slightly as the jerking of the column got worse, in fact now the whole shuttlepod was rocking.
"I'm not sure this is such a good idea," she said. She waited for Hoshi; as the ranking officer to give the order.
"Take us back to Enterprise," Hoshi said finally. Melee nodded, starting to turn the shuttlepod when they were jerked violently. Melees knuckles whitened as she gripped the steering column in both hands, she ignored the wailing of the alarms going off around her.
"We were hit on the port side by something," Hoshi said, her eyes flicking over the console in front of her.
"Lieutenant Sato to Enterprise,"
"Enterprise, go ahead, Hoshi," the voice of Jonathan Archer came back through the speaker.
"We've been hit hard by something," Hoshi said.
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"Can you return to us?" Archer asked.
"Whatever hit us did a good job; I've barely engines going at all here. It's going to be hard, but I'll try," Melee said.
"Can you move us in closer to them, Travis?" Archer asked the helmsman.
"That's not a good idea, Captain. The atmosphere storms are just getting worse, Enterprise could be pulled in to," Hoshi's voice crackled slightly. Archer glanced at T'pol, who nodded her agreement with Hoshi's assessment.
"Understood, Lieuutenant, keep the comms open," he ordered.
"Aye, sir," Hoshi said. A few moments later a voice muttered an Ikaaran curse.
"Captain, we're not able to pull free. Are we clear enough for us to be transported out?"
"Not yet, Hoshi. Keep comin' up more if ya can," said Charles 'Trip' Tucker.
"I can't," Melee told him. Despite the calmness of her voice Malcolm Reed felt a ripple of fear for the safety of his wife.
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"Hoshi transfer as much of the power to the thrusters as you can. We're going down, let's try and make it as easy as possible," Melee said. Hoshi didn't bother to reply, just set about doing what Melee told her to. Good thing I paid attention when Trip was showing me this stuff, she thought to herself. When she looked up she could see even from this distance that they'd crash a few miles south of a small town.
"It's not going to be enough," Melee said through gritted teeth. Even with the thrusters at full power they were moving far to fast and she knew it. They smacked into the ground with bone jarring force.
Hoshi coughed a few times, groaning as she sat back up. She glanced over at Melee and saw her slumped over the steering column. She quickly unbuckled herself to check on the other woman. When she got closer to her Hoshi realised that the column had been driven right through her right side, but that Melee was still conscious.
"Check the others," the pilot said. Hoshi stepped over the debris strewn on the floor, reaching to check the pulse on both security guards.
"They're dead," she returned to Melee, looking over her injuries more closely. The column had pierced her right through just below the chest and the pilots chair had pinned one of her legs to the console.
"Doesn't look to bad,"
"You're a terrible liar, Hoshi," Melee said.
"Enterprise will figure a way to get us out of here," Hoshi reassured her.
"Not without risking more people and not in time," Melee looked at the communications officer.
"The babies also decided that now would be a good time to make its appearance," one hand moved to her belly. Hoshi silently cursed, of all the timing for this to happen, now was the worst.
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"T'Pol?" Archer strode towards the Vulcan woman.
"It will take time for me to look over the information that Lieutenant Sato sent us," T'Pol informed him calmly.
"They don't have time; they could be injured, even…" Malcolm Reed burst out, before he got control of himself.
"We'll get them back, Malcolm. I'm not leaving here without them," Archer assured the armoury officer.
"We will be able to analyze the scans we received from Lieutenant Sato and discover a way to retrieve them," T'Pol added. She glanced in the direction of Trip as she stood up, the two going down to engineering to work on the problem together.
"Malcolm, why don't you take a break for a while?" Archer suggested to the tactical officer.
"I'd rather be here, Captain, in case anything more comes in," Reed responded. Archer nodded understandingly.
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It had been almost a day since they crashed, but neither Melee or Hoshi were thinking of that now.
"I can see its head," Hoshi informed Melee. The Ikaaran woman gave a grunt and Hoshi barely had time to catch the tiny baby, gently she wrapped it in a blanket and moved to stand in front of Melee.
"It's a girl, Melee, look," she held the infant out towards her mother. Melee looked at her daughter. Then her eyes turned upwards to Hoshi's face, tears in her eyes.
"Tell Malcolm to love her enough for both of us. Tell him…tell him I'm sorry," she said.
"Don't talk like that," Hoshi scolded.
"No...I can feel it Hoshi, I'm so tired," Melee smiled a sad little smile, as she brushed one finger against her daughters cheek. She was having trouble breathing and she just felt so tired. Maybe if she just rested for a moment then she'd feel better.
"You're going to watch her grow up and see her talking her first steps and…" Hoshi trailed off as she realised that Melee was not listening anymore. She wasn't breathing and the way she had slumped even further down on the steering column Hoshi could tell that she was gone.