I don't own Star Trek: Enterprise or any of the characters involved. I make no money from this story having written it simply for pleasure. Star Trek: Enterprise and all its characters are owned by CBS. (I will only state this for the first chapter, by the way.)
I recently watched the episode "Shockwave: Part 1" for the first time, and found the ending (wherein Daniels and Archer are stranded on a ruined, uninhabited Earth in the 31st century AD) to be an *extremely* lame ending to an otherwise superb episode (not to mention a huge cop-out on the topic of detailing life in Daniels' home time). This is my take on the episode. Feel free to tell me what you think!
Greater San Francisco Area, North America, Earth
November 3rd, 2159
Gray smog clouded the sky over what was once the Starfleet Building. Just ten years ago, the modern, thirty-floor tower at the center of the Starfleet campus was a bustling hive of activity. Antigravity transports docking at all hours of the day and night, people coming and going, swapping stories, exchanging information, working together to build and staff the first starships in Earth's interstellar fleet. Green trees and circular pools of reprocessed water surrounded the tower, creating a beacon of hope and prosperity in one of the cities that suffered the most during the nuclear war that wiped out nearly two-thirds of Earth's population. A sign to all of humanity that the future was bright, and the future was theirs for the taking.
That was ten years ago.
Today much of the Starfleet Building has been demolished for its raw materials. The green trees had long since died, the water in the pools siphoned off. Huge, boxy towers of habitation units had long since eclipsed the old Starfleet campus. On a good day, the sun would peek through the smog and illuminate the lower levels for about two to three minutes during the early afternoon. On a good day. The rest of the time, the only light at street level was provided by neglected, barely-functional lamp units put into place by the Department of Public Works shortly it was defunded by legislative fiat. Since then, no one has bothered to repair them.
One such lamp unit had finally failed, casting Unit #3266-A into darkness. From inside a great cursing was heard. "Damn streetlights! And I was told that this section was supposed to be one of the best-maintained in the area. Now where's my bottle…" The man inside the unit fumbled in the darkness, knocking over piles of refuse and waste until he found what he was looking for. He took a long, deep swig of the Draylaxian whisky inside. When what was left inside ran out, he threw it against the wall and listened to the sound of the bottle shattering.
Clambering over to the mirror, he looked himself over. What he saw was an old, wrinkled man, with a matted tangle of hair and a beard that looked like it hasn't been trimmed in weeks. There was that strange, cold hunger in his eyes, a hunger for more than just another drink. Oh, he had been great once. An explorer. A diplomat. A leader. A role model, whom over a hundred people had looked up to on a daily basis. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Jonathan Archer looked at himself in the mirror, destitute and alone, and he cried.