Children of Enterprise

Estellio

Rating: Pg-13 (T)

Summary: When Archer is kidnapped by unknown aliens and the Enterprise is dead in the water, it seems like there is no hope for rescue but there's more to this than meets the eye and it could have something to do with the child in T'pol's arms.

A/N: Traduit was complaining that I've put all my other friends except her in a fic so, even though you don't like Enterprise, here you go. Teehee.

IOIOIO

Reclining back in his chair, Archer looked out over the green and blue roiling expanse of the Traduit nebula. Flashes of white and yellow lit it up like a magnificent display and for a while, Archer's attention was on nothing else.

"Damn, this universe never ceases to surprise me." Trip said behind him and he half turned to face his Engineer smiling.

"I know how you feel, hard to imagine there could be anything that beautiful in the universe. T'pol, what do you think?" His first officer looked up from her console, raising an eyebrow.

"If you are asking what I think of its beauty, I do, indeed, find it aesthetically pleasing."

"Aesthetically pleasing?" Trip snorted. "Come on T'pol, say it. It's pretty." She returned to her console without a word.

"Kinda reminds me of the Auctarian mists." Travis said, sitting back in his chair slightly.

"The what?" Trip asked, leaning against the railing, preparing to stay for the long haul.

"On Auctarian Prime, they only have one really big ocean because it's so hot there. Not hot like Vulcan but humid, like the rain forest or something. Me and my dad took a boat out on the ocean to see the mists. At night, after a really hot day, the water mists over and you get this green and blue fog roiling just over the surface. When you shine a lantern down, little shadow play across it and look like little nymphs playing in the mists. It's gorgeous. We should go there some time. I'm sure the commander would find it aesthetically pleasing." Trip sniggered and looked back out of the view screen.

"T'pol, can you take a pic of that thing? I'd love to send one home to mom, she loves things like that." T'pol looked up from her console, her brow furrowed.

"This is a science station, not a camera. The sensors are taking in telemetry."

"Yeah, but can you take a picture?" With a roll of her eyes she returned to work at her console.

"A still of the Nebula has been forwarded to your Comm. System. Feel free to retrieve it and print it in your own leisure." Trip winked at T'pol.

"Thanks T'pol. You're a star."

"I am Vulcan." Although her face was serious and devoid of emotion, it didn't take a genius to figure out she was cracking a joke and it wasn't lost on the bridge crew who broke into a fit of laughter

"Sir…I'm picking up three ships, closing in on our position." Reed said, his concerned voice lacing through the laughter. "Unknown configuration."

"Hail th…" Archer started but phaser fire, rocking the ship cut him off. "Polarise the hull! I want weapons!" Archer shouted as the ship was thrown about again.

"I can't. Systems are locked out!" Malcolm exclaimed, his console squawking protest at every command he entered.

"SIR! Helm's locked out!" Travis reported as he fought with the controls but it was of no use.

"We're going to warp!" Trip said incredulously. "Warp one…two…three, we're accelerating so fast! Five…Six! SEVEN! My god, EIGHT!" Trip was getting excited. "Holding steady at Warp 8.5…We've left the system! …dropping out of warp. Sir? Sir!" He looked to see an empty Command chair. "Where's the Cap'n?" T'pol pulled herself up from where she had been knocked to the floor and Travis turned. Archer was no where on the bridge.

"Malcolm, run an internal scan of the ship, find out if Archer's on board." Trip said urgently, running to the Brit's console. Malcolm shook his head.

"He's not on board but I am picking up an intruder in his quarters. One life sign, humanoid…I'm not sure if it's human or not. It…could be." Trip jogged down the steps and hit the arm on Archer's chair, the bottom of it swung open and released a phase pistol.

"A little modification I put in." he explained at T'pol's raised eyebrow. "Mal, you're with me." The two men entered the turbolift, ordering it to take them to C Deck where the quarters were situated. Trip bounced on the balls of his feet until it opened and he ran out, stopping just in front of Archers quarters. He keyed in the code he had seen John use a thousand times and stepped inside, phaser outstretched.

The room was empty.

He motioned to Malcolm to search the bathroom as he checked the storage closet by the door. The bathroom was too small to hide anyone and it, too, was empty.

"Did you hear that, Sir?" Malcolm asked, tilting his head to one side. "It sounds like someone's…crying?" Trip listened.

"You're right, Mal. It's coming from…over there…" He motioned to the far side of the room where Archers bed and closet were. Trip aimed his phaser as he approached the door and hit the button. It slid open and immediately a high pitched wail of pure terror filled the room and the tiny little girl in the closet threw her arms over her head.

"NO! NO! AWAY!" She screamed, curling into an even tighter ball amidst the uniforms. Porthos, who had been watching the two men from his basket, immediately began to bark and leapt into the closet with her, growling at Trip.

"Hey, woah. Down boy." Trip said, taking a step back. "Don't worry darlin' I ain't gonna hurt ya." The girl didn't stop crying and Porthos snapped at Trip threateningly. Trip took another step back and Porthos, it seemed, judged this to be a respectable distance and turned to face the girl, licking her face and pawing her shoulder. She threw her arms around the dog and cried into the dark fur of his back.

"Hey there, pet, what's your name?" Malcolm asked quietly, putting his phase pistol to one side and crouching down. She looked up, her tear stained face familiar somehow.

"Mal-mal?" She said questioningly and began to wail anew, this time stretching her hands out from him to pick her up. "MAL!" She screamed, reaching for him. "UP! Wan' Daddy! Bring daddy!" She screamed and Malcolm reached in to pick her up. Porthos growled but didn't snap or bite as he picked up the little girl, cradling her close. "Maly!" She sobbed. "Want daddy." She sobbed. "Bring daddy." Malcolm swept back her hair, hoisting her up higher in his arms to look into her face.

"Who's your daddy, pumpkin?" He asked, tucking the girls sable hair behind her ears. "…Trip. I think you should see this." He said, his face hardening and turning from sensitive to serious in a heartbeat.

"What?" Trip stepped forward and shot a warning glance at Porthos who was lying at Malcolm's feet. Now that the girl had quietened down and was wrapped around Malcolm's neck, fastidiously sucking her thumb, he seemed to have quietened.

"Are those what I think they are?"

IOIOIO

Archer groaned, opening his eyes to a dimly lit room and the stench of rotting meat. It took him several moments to adjust to the light, or lack thereof, and when he had, he really wished he hadn't opened his eyes. He was chained up in a small room and looking at the corpse beside him, he figured it wasn't a room easily escaped from.

He tugged at his bonds lightly and winced as small pins on the inside dug into his wrists.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Came a female voice from the dark corner of the room. "The more you pull, the deeper they're going to go and it wouldn't do if you bled to death. Jimmy boy beside you isn't much a conversationalist." Archer squinted, he could barely make out the figure lying against the wall. A pair of eyes shined out of the darkness almost like a cats and there was a rustling of cloth as whoever it was sat up.

"Who are you?"

"My name is T'rialta." She said, enigmatically and Archer could almost feel her studying him. It was a very disconcerting feeling.

"They call me Archer…" He vaguely noted that his Universal Translator was off and yet he could understand her perfectly. "You're speaking English."

"I am? It sounds to me like you are speaking my language. Perhaps there is a translator in the room." One booted foot slid into the small ring of light coming from the door. Unless he was very much mistaken those were the exact same kinda of boots he was wearing. Standard Starfleet issue.

"Perhaps." He looked around the dismal room with smooth grey walls and cuffs attached halfway down to allow whoever was in them to sit. There was a small grate in the steel door that looked like an old fashioned swinging one. "Where are we?"

"You're on a Cardassian vessel. Not a nice place to be for very long. They've never encountered your specie before so they'll probably interrogate you brutally then give you over to their doctor for a bunch of experiments before they cut you open. If you're lucky, you'll be dead by then." Archer paled.

"Well I'm hoping it's not going to come to that."

"It will."

"You sound so sure."

"I've been here a long time, they don't listen to reason. If they did then they wouldn't have snatched you in the first place. Where are you from?" Archer sighed, slumping back against the wall and relaxing his aching arms.

"Earth." There was a snort of laughter.

"You're a long way from Earth. How did you get here?"

"On my ship, the Enterprise." There was a small grunt of approval.

"I've heard of it…you said your ship, that mean you the Captain?" Archer nodded, leaning his head against the wall and staring at the arched roof above him. "Then maybe we can be of use to each other. How about a deal. I can get you out of here but I can not get home. If I get you out of here, you can get us to your ship, right?"

"I can try."

"Well…If I get you out of here, then you get us to Enterprise and allow me to stay for awhile while I make…arrangements."

"I thought you said there was no getting out of here."

"I also said I've been here a while. They don't even cuff me anymore." She rolled away from the wall to lay in front of Archer, supported on the balls of her feet and her hands but still just out of the light. "I can get us a shuttle but I can't fly it."

"Why not?"

"I've been in this dimly lit room for two years. I can't see anymore, not properly but I know my way around the ship. What do you say?" She extended a slim hand and Archer raised an amused eyebrow, tilting his head to one side.

"I'm a little tied up at the moment." The girl reached up and snapped the chains with her bare hands, taking his wrists gently, she pulled them onto her lap and examined the cuffs.

"This'll only take a moment." She said, her slender fingers slipping beneath the cuffs and Archer heard a loud click before they popped open. Immediately Archer wrenched them out and began to massage the damaged appendages.

"Alright, but how do I know I can trust you?" She lent even further forward into the light so that Archer could see her. She looked young, eighteen, perhaps nineteen. Her hair hung long and lanky with grease in front of her face, and her eyes were white with blindness but there was no denying the slanted eyebrows and pointed ears.

"Vulcan's don't lie."

IOIOIO

A/N: I know this is short but this is just the prologue. Before you berate me that she didn't seem too Vulcan or that humans didn't encountered Cardassians until such a date then I'd ask you not to because as I said in the summary, there is a little more to this than meets the eye and all will be explained…eventually. The reason why T'pol didn't say anything to Trip for taking Command even though she's know the ranking officer is because…well…I didn't feel like making her say anything. Didn't see the point. Don't forget to review, they are the life blood of authors and it wouldn't do any good if I died now, would it? Also, this is A/Tp but it is T/T friendly. (I bet you're wondering how I pulled that one off, eh?) Well read on to find out and tell me what you think by that blue little button. Now, this A/N is nearly as long as the fic so I'm going to end it.