DISCLAIMER: It's Paramount's galaxy.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: A/TP. When Star Fleet personnel experience alternative timelines, what do they remember? Musings by Archer after episode "E2" with reference to "Twilight," "Azati Prime," and "Shockwave"
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MEMORIES
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A post-apocalyptic thirty-first century.
The remnants of humanity living on Ceti Alpha Five.
The final battle with the Sphere Builders aboard the Enterprise-J at Procyon.
A generational ship of their distant descendants.
Memories of alternative timelines, both from within and without. Artifacts of the Temporal Cold War.
Jonathan Archer and T'Pol were in the Captain's Ready Room just off the rear of the bridge. It had been five hours since they exited the nearby subspace corridor. In a sense, they were still both recovering from their latest encounter in the Expanse and brush with an alternative timeline. Degra had warned them of the hostile aliens within the nebula when he suggested traversing the corridor as a shortcut to their rendezvous, but little did they know it would also involve a causal predestination paradox as they met an alternative Enterprise presumably thrown one hundred and seventeen years into the past and now manned by their descendants. They had joined forces with the other Enterprise to make it through the nebula, but lost contact with them when finally entering the corridor. The last they had seen, the other Enterprise was locked in a ferocious battle with four Kovaalan vessels. Repairs to their Enterprise's impulse drive were underway and hopefully they would soon rendezvous with Degra and meet with the Xindi Council.
But the events of the last few days were still on their minds. A generational ship of their distant descendants. It was odd thinking of Lorian as T'Pol's son, although technically he was the son of a different T'Pol in that alternative timeline. A timeline where Enterprise's impulse wake destabilized the corridor causing a shift in time. Hell, he had met his great granddaughter on that ship, supposedly marrying an Ikaaran named Esilia in that alternative. But they hadn't been thrown back into the past. They were here ahead of schedule waiting for Degra to arrive. Many of the things the other Enterprise crew said happened in their timeline did not happen here. Could not happen here. The future, by necessity, would unfold differently from this point forward.
"One ship against four," Archer finally mused, his thoughts returning to other Enterprise they left behind. He was pacing about the room as T'Pol sat quietly.
"It's unlikely they survived," T'Pol observed with a frown.
She was thinking of their odds in the battle with the Kovaalans. "Lorian has years of command experience," Archer countered. "Something tells me we shouldn't write him off yet." His mind returned to his previous thoughts. T'Pol's comment could be taken in a different way. "I suppose there's another possibility. Since we weren't thrown into the past, maybe history somehow corrected itself."
T'Pol seemed both intrigued and troubled at the prospect. "Are you suggesting that the other Enterprise never existed? If you're right, then why would we remember them?"
Despite having travelled back to twenty-first century Detroit, she wasn't as entangled in time travel as Archer had been. In his experience, anything was possible. He knew for a fact that he did retain the memories of events that occurred within alternative timelines, even when those timelines ceased to exist. It was certainly true for his visit with Daniels to the ruins of Earth in the thirty-first century. It was likely events within the proper timeline, if there was such a thing, could also be influenced by these alternatives even after the alternative was terminated or hadn't yet happened. Consider the Xindi initiation medal he had returned with from the Battle of Procyon Five, where the Federation engaged and defeated, or rather will engage and defeat the Sphere Builders.
Another incident came quickly to mind. Just a few months before, in a different alternative timeline, he had been infected with several clusters of parasites in his hippocampus when an anomaly passed through the ship and knocked him unconscious. Although apparently these parasites prevented him from forming new long term memories, he did recall that last day, supposedly years in the future, quite clearly. Living with T'Pol on Ceti Alpha Five, her story of their mission and Earth's destruction, Phlox's arrival and procedure to remove the parasites, and the final hope of restoring the timeline by initiating a subspace implosion using Enterprise's warp engines. Of all that happened that last day, however, what he remembered most was T'Pol. Her poise, and devotion, and kindness… Why he had never spoken to her about it, he didn't quite know. These phantom memories, remembered almost as a dream. As he looked at her now, those memories and feelings, albeit from an alternative timeline, came quickly to the surface. In fact, after only the day, he had been ready to…
"Bridge to Captain Archer." The call from his communications officer interrupted his thoughts. T'Pol seemed equally startled, perhaps lost in her own thoughts as well.
"Go ahead."
"Could you come out here, sir?"
Back to reality. All of that would have to wait for another time. He and T'Pol rushed onto the bridge.
"A ship's dropping out of warp," Ensign Mayweather said.
"It's Degra," Ensign Sato added. "He's hailing us."
"Put him up."
The image of the primate-Xindi came up on the viewscreen. "Captain, you're early."
Archer was genuinely pleased and relieved to see him. Who would have thought that his strongest ally within the Xindi would be the designer of the prototype that had killed seven million people and also the nearly finished weapon that the Xindi still planned to use to destroy Earth.
In the present, those memories from the alternative timeline would remain buried and forgotten. Besides, she and Trip appeared to be developing a relationship on their own, so it was moot anyway. T'Pol would continue to act as his conscience, and as a friend help ease his guilt as he skirted on the fringes of morality, and he would support her as she battled the effects of trellium poisoning, both from the Seleya and self-inflicted, as she had just recently revealed to him. The two of them worked well together, and that was all he could allow for now. The weight and responsibility of their current mission was otherwise all consuming.
They were the only Star Fleet vessel in the Expanse. They were here to save humanity. Week by week, they had struggled to this point and were now on the verge of success. With Degra's help, they would hopefully convince the Xindi council to cancel the weapon's deployment and also address the common threat from the Sphere Builders. When Earth was safe, then he could start sorting through those memories and feelings again. Get his life back.
For now, it was all about the mission.
To save humanity.
To save them all.
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THE END
Author's Note: So I rewatched the third season of Star Trek Enterprise. First off, I think the whole premise of the Xindi tipping their hand by sending the original probe to Earth is ridiculous. Additionally, the connection to the Temporal Cold War and all that time travel is problematic. And finally, the constant reminders of the "intimacy" of Vulcan neuropressure and in T'Pol revealing her age to Trip is like the writers beating us over the head about the T'Pol/Trip pairing. Thus, much of season three is sometimes hard to swallow.
There is, however, my favorite Enterprise episode ("Twilight") and other very good ones ("Proving Ground", "Carpenter Street", and "Stratagem"), and if you don't think about it too much, the last set of episodes were great ("The Council," "Countdown," and "Zero Hour"). (For instance, did you ever wonder with the destruction of the spheres, is there still going to be the Battle of Procyon Five four hundred years from the events of season three to defeat the Sphere Builders or were the Sphere Builders defeated now in "Zero Hour"?)
That said, after Archer and T'Pol's comments at the end of the episode "E2", I began wondering about memories of alternative timelines. Archer remembers all the various alternatives from the Temporal Cold War (e.g. "Shockwave" and in season four's "Storm Front"), Seven and Janeway apparently remember the events of "Relativity" at the end of that Voyager episode. On the other hand, there are counter examples - it doesn't appear anyone on Voyager remembers the events of "Year of Hell" (although, Kes kind of does from that excellent episode "Before and After", but then she leaves the ship and that never happens…).
Anyway, I thought it important to clarify what was remembered by Archer in "Twilight". It was never revealed in canon, although perhaps implied that he didn't remember. I think, however, he does remember, but with having to save humanity, he had other things on his mind and didn't reveal this to T'Pol (at least not until after the end of season for, perhaps…).
Hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review and let me know what you think.