If there must be trouble let it be in my day, so that my child may have peace.

-Thomas Paine

Chapter One

January 26th, 2159

Captain Jonathon Archer awoke with a start and gazed around his dimly lit quarters with a feeling of fear tugging at his throat and stomach. He gazed from one shadow to another then back into the darkness. He felt his heart finally begin to slow its rapid pace and he felt the cold wetness across his chest and down his arms for the first time since he awoke. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with his right wrist and immediately regretted it. Jon hated the feeling of sweat on his bare skin, it had been something that drove him nuts for years.

He sat up slowly and looked over at his digital clock, the numbers read out 0219 hours. Jon rolled his eyes and he quickly laid back down in his bunk and pulled the damp sheets back up around his face. He tried to ignore the feeling and get back to sleep but he just couldn't forget the wet coldness that was being pressed up against his face.

Jon tried to clear his mind and not think about anything; it wasn't working very well. The sound of the warp engines hummed through the grav-plating and he felt himself becoming more wide-awake. His adrenaline had pumped too much during that nightmare; he could still feel the spot where his heart was thundering against his rib cage.

"T'pol to Captain Archer," chirped his internal COM next to his bed.

Archer felt himself fully awake at the voice of his first officer; he rolled over and tapped the ON button to the light next to his bed. He then pressed the COM and it beeped at his touch, "Archer," he stated.

"Captain, were intercepting a distress call from a nearby system. The signal's carrier wave is the same kind commonly used by human freighters. Should we alter course to investigate?"

Archer felt himself frown at the thought of another freighter in trouble, to many freighters had been destroyed in the past three years, ever since the beginning of the Earth-Romulan war. Archer continued frowning as he asked more questions of T'pol, "did the distress call have any information about what might be the problem?"

T'pols voice replied almost instantly in the matter of fact tone that she usually used, "Negative. It was automated."

Archer looked towards his window as he considered what to do. Stars flickered past the window and gave long streaks of light out from behind them as Enterprise traveled past the stars at warp three. He considered the responsibility of the mission they were on, then considered the weight of leaving a crew of a freighter to die in the cold vacuum of space. He had a mission and it could help Earth with this war greatly. But the crew of the freighter are humans, and human civilians at that. Innocent people were what this war was all about, to defend the innocent people of Earth and its colonies.

Archer looked away from his window and back at the COM on his nightstand, "plot a course. Maximum warp."


Lieutenant Malcolm Reed reached up and rubbed his eyes again as he rode upward in the lift. His eyes felt heavy and like they wanted to close. He had been woken up ten minutes ago by commander T'pol saying that they might be heading for some action soon. He had gotten dressed and tried to make himself look officer worthy, but it hadn't worked very well. His hair still looked tossed and crushed from his sleeping despite his attempts with a comb to make it look decent. Malcolm still had a terrible case of bed head and he felt more then a little annoyed with his hair. It wasn't right to be seen like this and Malcolm knew it. An officer was supposed to be respected, not laughed at cause his hair was messy.

He shook his head slightly but smiled at the thought of possibly encountering Romulan ships in the next bit. It had been almost two weeks since they had last seen some action. To be honest, Malcolm was relieved to have a bit of rest from the constant fighting and killing of this war.

Now the night watch had received a distress call from a civilian freighter in a nearby system they were passing. Most times any human ship gave a distress call these days, it was because a Romulan ship was nearby or attacking them. Civilian freighters couldn't fight the warships so they usually tried to outrun them, most freighters would get run down and destroyed in less then twenty minutes.

Starfleet ships on the other hand, could usually hold there own in a fight against the Romulans. The fight would usually be slightly tilted towards the Romulans because they were ahead of Starfleet by several decades. Most Romulan technology was more advanced then anything humans had designed and build yet.

The lift doors opened interrupting Malcolm's thoughts and revealing the night watch as they manned their stations and carried out their duties. The only bridge officer that wasn't usually part of the night watch was the executive officer who sat in Captain Archer's chair.

Her slim form made the chair look much to big for her, her small body was almost dwarfed by the large black chair. T'pols hair was cut short and precise like all the Vulcan's that Malcolm had met over the years. She wore her usual casual uniform that still had a professional look to it. It was colored blue and made up of two pieces, a top that covered her entire upper body and arms. The second was pants that were baggy yet still professional looking.

She turned in the chair towards him as he walked onto the bridge; he gave her a nod and walked over to his station. He relieved the young female ensign manning the tactical station and he began to check the long-range sensors. They were still too far from the system to get any sensor scans of it yet.

Malcolm quickly began to recalibrate the targeting sensors of the forward phase cannons. If they came out of warp and were attacked, then the phase cannons would need to be ready to fire. The sensors briefly deactivated while the ship's computer quickly fixed and aligned the complex combat sensors. The sensors lit back up and displayed what they detected outside of the ship, nothing scrolled across the monitor.

Reed quickly repeated the process for the rear phase cannons, then for the forward and aft torpedo launchers. Then he ran several scans on the hull plating and was convinced that the ships hull plating could be polarized in less then five seconds of pressing the activation button. He smiled at how well the ship was working despite the constant running and gunning they had been doing for months now. Trip had done his job well; Enterprise could probably go up and fight against three Romulan warships in the good state that she was in.

The lift door slid open and Captain Archer stepped off the turbo lift, he also looked as if he had been woken up while he was asleep. His eyes looked heavy and his hair looked like it had been quickly washed with water. His uniform looked wrinkled in several spots, like it had just gotten back from the ship's quartermaster and hadn't been folded for very long. Archer walked down from the lift and around the railing towards his chair, "report," he said while T'pol got up and headed for her own station.

She took her seat at the science station before speaking, "were just entering long range sensor range now. We should be arriving at the coordinates shortly," she said while pressing several controls on her console. She eyed the information it displayed curiously then continued to press the buttons.

Reed looked from his Captain then to the view screen, which showed the space in front of the Enterprise as it sped towards the aid of the human freighter. Reed looked down at his console and made sure the tactical alert button was available to be pressed.

Archer looked over at his Vulcan science officer and asked, "how long till we arrive at the coordinates?"

She looked from then down at her console, then back up at him. "At our current speed, we will arrive in twenty two minutes and ten seconds."

Archer shook his head at hearing this, "we need to get there faster," he said to no one in particular as he pressed the COM on his chair. "Archer to Tucker."


"Archer to Tucker," rang out the Captains voice through the engine room COM four decks below the bridge. Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III looked around the room confused for a second; the voice had been slightly distorted by the loud thumping of the warp reactor. He quickly moved to the COM on the wall and tapped the button.

"Tucker here Cap'n," he said in his southern drawl.

"I need you to push those engines a little bit harder," said Archer to his friend in an apologetic tone.

Trip frowned at hearing the order, "the reactor's already running at one hundred and ten percent. I don't know how much more I can get out of it."

"Do what you can, we need to get there as soon as possible."

"I'll do my best, Tucker out," he said before pressing the activation button on the COM again. The COM squeaked slightly as he turned it off. Trip turned and walked over to the reactor behind him, he quickly climbed the ladder that led to the reactors control panel and looked at the monitors that were displayed across it.

He watched the formulas and numbers that displayed across it then frowned at the idea of pushing it any harder. Trip side stepped over to the right and looked down the length of the reactor and yelled down to one of the young lieutenants manning several stations at the far end of the engine room. "Watch the coolant mix ratios and keep an eye on the warp field, we don't need that coming apart."

One of the lieutenants nodded and Trip sidestepped back over to the monitors. He tapped several buttons then moved to the three large controls in the center of the console. He took one and pushed it forward slightly, then he moved to the next and pushed it forward too. He took the third and pushed it forward as well, the reactor began to hum and thump as it converted matter into antimatter then distributed it back towards the two nacelles at the rear of the vessel creating the warp field around the vessel.

Trip looked at the monitor and watched the reactor get pushed up to warp five point two one. The monitors displayed several warnings and flashed red, several screens showed countdowns till the reactor would overload. Trip sighed at seeing all the warnings and countdowns. He tapped a COM on the reactors control panel and spoke, "Tucker to the bridge."

The COM was silent for a moment and Tucker continued to watch the monitors as he waited for a reply. "Go ahead Trip," said Archers voice.

"I got you up to warp five point two one, but we can't hold this speed for very long. The reactor is already showing me warning lights."

"Alright, notify us if any of those warnings become a problem. We should be arriving in less then ten minutes, so keep those engines going until then," ordered Archer over the COM.

"We'll do captain."