Prologue

"We've found her."

Jonathon Archer had been waiting 5 years to hear those words; he'd almost given up hope.

"Where is she?"

"I think you should come down to St. Francis Memorial Hospital, Sir."

Archer's heart leapt into his mouth, his throat went dry and he croaked, "I'll be right there."

Hurrying, he ended the communication link and left his office.

STAR TREK STAR TREK STAR TREK STAR TREK STAR TREK STAR TREK STAR TREK

Steven, accompanied by his wife, Felicity, was there to meet him at the hospital.

"Dad."

"Where is she? Do you know what happened to her?"

Steven gestured for his father to take a seat; Jonathon hesitated for a second, torn between wanting to see his daughter and wanting to hear what had happened. Steven noticed his father's hesitation, "They're still working on her, and they won't let you see her yet." He indicated to a door at the far end of the corridor.

Jonathon conceded and sat down.

"She's spent the past six months as a slave on Orion; she pissed a lot of people off."

"A slave?"

"Yeah. Well it's better than the Klingons; they've been after her for as long as the federation have, if they'd have got to her first, well I don't think she'd be here now."

Archer nodded; the ship Jessica had been a crew member of had wreaked havoc across the universe; pirates, they had pillaged, robbed and generally caused mischief. When one of their raids had gone wrong, a Klingon warrior had died, since then the Klingons had had a vendetta.

"She's not in a good way, Dad. I don't know the full story yet, but she's sick."

Archer put his head in his hands. "I want Phlox here; I don't want anyone looking after her but Phlox."

"He's here; he's in with her now. I guess they anticipated you'd say that....."

"When can I see her?" Archer said standing up and heading for the side ward.

"Wait! There's something you should know; she's not alone."

"What?" Archer stopped in his tracks.

Steven took a deep breath and ran a hand through his curly brown hair, "She has a child, dad; a son."

Archer took a deep breath in and blow it out through pursed lips, "I have to see her." He stated.

At that moment Phlox left the little side ward and made his way down the corridor towards a very anxious Jonathon Archer. Archer took the Denobulan by the shoulders, "How is she? Can I see her?"

"She's sleeping. Jonathon, I feel I should tell you, it doesn't look good."

Archer pinched the bridge of his nose. The Denobulan continued, "She's in multi-organ failure, I fear there is too much systemic damage to fix. We're doing all we can but we'll have to wait and see. If it were just one or two organ systems we might be able to do something."

"I... I don't understand." Archer said lamely, the gravity of the news sinking in, he'd never felt more useless, redundant and sad in his whole life. "I just want to see my little girl." He finished lamely.

"I have to warn you, Jessica has lost her sight, you will have to tell her you're there."

"She's blind? How, why?"

Phlox shook his head, "She's very sick, Jonathon, she's in a lot of pain. You can see her though, if you like?"

Jonathon Archer nodded his head keenly, his face lined with concern.

"I'd like to come too." Steven said.

"Please, one at a time, I don't want to overwhelm her. Being captured and arrested has been distressing enough for her; I don't think she could handle it."

"Arrested!" Archer exclaimed, looking at his son sharply. Steven fidgeted under his father's glare.

"I had to! She's a wanted criminal!"

"She's your sister!"

"You don't think I know that? You think I enjoyed arresting her, restraining her? Hell she couldn't even see me; she didn't stand a chance! Do you think that felt good? I did what I had to do! It's my job! You of all people should understand that."

Both men had raised their voices; looking each other right in the eyes.

"Gentlemen, now is not the time."

Archer backed down first and followed the doctor to the ward to see his daughter, glancing back only once to glare at his son.

He entered to ward quietly; the first thing he noticed was how small and fragile his daughter looked; she was 23 years old but she looked to him as young as she had the day they met. It had been nine years ago; but to Jonathon Archer it felt like a lifetime.

9 years previously.............. 2157