Disclaimer: I don't own any thing Star Trek or Tomb Raider. I'm not making any money off of this. Rights go to CBS/Paramount, Core Design, and Eidos Interactive. No copyright infringement is meant. This is all just for fun.

A/N: A Star Trek: Enterprise/Tomb Raider crossover has been in my head for over a year now. I finally got brave enough and determined enough to do something with it. It took some time and effort to make the crossover plausible, you know, help the audience 'suspend their disbelief', but I think that I finally found a way to do that. I hope people like and enjoy it. I do have much of it planned out, but I would love feedback to know if I should continue, so please read and review. Thanks!!

Again, a big expression of appreciation goes to LadyRainbow for beta reading for me. She does a great job!!

Chapter 1

He felt his fingers slip again. He was going to fall; he knew he couldn't hang on any longer. Below him, the chasm seemed deep and wide, like the mouth of some foul demon from hell trying to swallow him whole. He desperately grabbed at the cliff face, trying to cling to its rough surface. It was so dark below; the abyss appeared to go on and on. Once he lost his grip, he would be lost in its terrible embrace and then he would be dead. The jagged sides and the sharp points somewhere at the bottom would surely end his life.

This was not how he picture he would die; not in some hole in the middle of the jungle. Maybe it would be in battle against a hostile alien species, maybe a transporter accident, a shuttle pod crash, or simply slipping away in his sleep, but not here, not in the past. He had so many more things he wanted to do; explore distance worlds, continue to meet new species, add to the new coalition Earth was building with other space-faring cultures, to marry and have children, to make it to the rank of Admiral, and so much more. None of that would come to pass now. In a few moments, he would meet his Maker.

White, hot fear raced through him, snaking down around his spine to encompass his rapidly beating heart. His breath was ragged, his muscles straining with all their might to keep him in place. He heard his pulse in his ears, ringing loudly. Sweat glisten on his skin, soaked his clothing, dampened his hair, and stung his eyes. He normally wasn't claustrophobic, but he felt like everything was closing in around him, squeezing him too tightly. He could taste the bile from his stomach in his mouth. Panic was about all he had left in him.

Please don't let it end like this, please! his mind screamed. He had only been trying to do the right thing; to help protect the past and the future. How he had ended up in this mess, he had no idea. He seemed to always walk right into trouble; he wished he would've learned his lesson before now. But who else was there to do it? They had come to him for help. They couldn't do it on their own. They had needed him; why he didn't know, but he couldn't turn his back on them and do nothing. Even though they had gotten him into trouble before, he couldn't refuse to help; it was who he was.

Suddenly, his hands lost their grip completely; he couldn't hold on any longer. He raked the rough rock with his nails, trying to gain purchase. The coarse surface broke his nails and bit at his finger tips, causing them to tear and bleed. Time seemed to stop for a heartbeat as full on fear and adrenaline surged through his body. Then he was falling into the horribly grinning mouth of the hell far beneath him.

Strong, yet soft fingers found one of his wrists and snagged him. They tightened painfully around it and held on. Pain lanced through his entire arm as if someone had snapped it completely off his body, but he stopped falling. His shoulder had exploded in pure agony and was probably dislocated, but he wasn't dead, not yet anyway. Another hand found his arm and helped the first one hold him in place. A feminine face appeared over the cliff face above him.

"There you are, Jon," the face's owner half shouted, voice heavy and labored with breath. "We thought we'd lost you." A smile appeared through the strained looked the face was giving him. It was her. She had seen him go over and had found a way to grab him.

"Me too," he managed to wheeze out, his body trembling from hanging down the side of the cliff by one arm. He was beyond grateful.

"Give me your other hand and I'll work on pulling you up," she told him, her voice calm with reassurance.

Somehow he found the will and strength to stretch his other hand up closer to where she could grab it. She briefly released one hand that was holding his left wrist and latched onto his right hand as he reached for her. She adjusted her grip and then threw her body backward to help pull him back up the side of the cliff. He tried to help by using his feet to push up the side of the rock face. Finally, after a lot of grunting, groaning, and effort, she got him up onto safer ground.

He collapsed on top of her as she had gone completely to the ground on her back to pull him up. They were both breathing hard from their exertions. She was sweating as badly as he was and she was covered in dirt and mud. Her black tank top and black, tight spandex-like pants, and calf high military grade boots were caked in it. Her utility belt and thigh holsters, with their 9mm Heckler and Koch UPS MATCH, semi-automatic pistols in them, dug into his ribs. Her small and compact backpack was squished underneath her back.

Their eyes met and he felt a different, more pleasant sensation rush through him. She was a very attractive woman, even covered in filth and armed to the teeth. He reached down and moved a stray piece of brown hair that had come loose from her long braid out of her eyes, using his uninjured arm. She smiled at him and actually laughed at his kind gesture; it was a rich and sweet sound.

"You sure know how to show a lady a good time, Captain Archer," she quipped, her high class British accent now more apparent than before. "Are you all right?"

Archer smiled back at her, liking her laugh as it washed over him; he knew she didn't laugh that often. "I am now, Lady Croft. Thanks for the lift up." His left arm was a throbbing torture, but he ignored it for the moment.

"It was my pleasure," she replied a little huskily; it faded quickly, however. "I think I dislocated your shoulder. I can tell by the way you're holding it. I can help you with that too, but it might hurt like a bloody bugger."

He grimaced at her suggestion, but knew that the shoulder had to be put back into place. There was no Sickbay go to and no Dr. Phlox to fix it for him here. "It already hurts like 'a bloody bugger'", he quoted her with a faint smile at her terminology; it was so British. "Go ahead and pop it back in," he told her resignedly.

In one swift motion, she slid out from under him, grabbing his upper arm and neck as she came up into a sitting position. She applied the right amount of pressure and torque to wrench his shoulder back into its socket as she pulled up and pushed in his arm roughly from behind. Archer cried out and swore he saw spots before his eyes. The pain was excruciating, but his shoulder was fixed. Tears spilled down his cheeks.

"Sorry, Jon," she said with sincerity. "The pain will lessen in a minute, just breathe deeply and let it pass."

He let himself fall into her again as he recovered from the blinding anguish. To his surprise, Croft allowed him to rest in her arms for a moment, his head on her shoulder, her hands rubbing small, soothing circles on his back. Then she returned to business. "We'd better find the others and go after West. He can't have gotten far."

"You mean, Silik?" he asked turning serious. "Yeah, he's got the first half of the triangle and that isn't a good thing."

"Oh, I'm going to get it back," she informed him boldly. "Have no doubt about that."

Two Days Earlier

Ensign Hoshi Sato had just finished her nightly exercise routine in the gym and was heading back to her quarters to shower and go to bed. It had been a long day. First Contact with the Bellaxians was going smoothly, but it was still a strain on the Enterprise's Communications Officer and brilliant linguist. They were a noble race, and for once it was nice to not have someone shooting at them. Their species reminded Hoshi of what a fish would be like if it grew arms and legs and could talk. The Bellaxians even had gill slits in their throats and could breathe under the water when they so desired; otherwise, they used the two sets of lungs they had to breathe the oxygen in their planet's atmosphere. They had been very curious about the Human explorers that had come seeking peaceful contact. Their world was eighty percent water with beautiful green islands dotting all over the planet's surface.

She stepped into the turbolift to go from C deck down to E deck. As she stood, humming a cheery tune, she enjoyed the quiet noise of the lift. When the lift stopped, she went to step out of it and into the corridor of E deck. Instead, she stepped out into an outdoor classroom or amphitheater. It was night time and very humid. The seats were all lined up nice and straight. The night was still and silent. She thought she smelled the heady perfume of triple pikake and laelias flowers. Hoshi realized she was back in Brazil, where she had taught languages before she got assigned aboard Enterprise. How had she gone from the ship to Brazil like that? For a moment she thought she would panic, thinking she was having another episode where she was vanishing from the sight of her crewmates.

Then a voice drew her attention. "Good evening, Ensign Sato. It's nice to see you again."

Hoshi scanned the room with her eyes for the source of the voice. She saw a man sitting on a bench not far from her. He had on a weird, ribbed, black leather suit. Hoshi finally recognized him. "Daniels?" she questioned.

"I'm pleased you remembered me, Hoshi," Daniels said kindly. "How have you been?" he then asked.

"Fine," she started to answer and then she stopped. "Hey, wait a minute, where am I and what do you want now?" she demanded a little angry; anger was better than fear. "I thought Captain Archer told you to never bother us again."

Daniels winced at her words. "He did, Hoshi, but we need his help again," he said wearily and a little forlornly. "And to answer your other question, we're in Brazil, the night before Jonathan comes to talk you into joining the crew of the Enterprise."

"Oh," Hoshi said, not really knowing what to say. Then she found her voice again, "Why are you talking to me then? Why give me a heart attack, huh?"

Daniels cleared his throat uncomfortably and got up off the long bench. "Because I'm hoping you can convince Jonathan to speak with me again," he said walking up to her. "I thought that maybe you could soften the blow and talk him into at least hearing me out."

Hoshi stared at Daniels like he had two heads. "You want me to approach Captain Archer for you?" she queried incredulously. "Why would I do that for you? You and your time traveling friends have caused us nothing but grief. Why should we help you again?" She crossed her arms over her chest as she spoke.

"Because if you don't the Suliban's benefactor with get his hands on an object that will allow him to control all of time. He will be free to make any changes to history he wants to, and we won't be able to stop him. It will give him total power over the timeline. We can't let him get this object into his possession. He could change everything. None of us may exist if he succeeds," Daniels said in a rush.

"Why can't you or some other temporal agent do it?" Hoshi demanded. "Why do you need our help? You're the experts on time travel, not us."

Daniels sighed. "He has all our people so busy chasing his agents throughout almost every time era imaginable, causing little changes here and there. He apparently has numerous species working for him in all different time eras, like the Suliban work for him here in the twenty-second century. His reach through time has grown considerably. We have to keep sending our agents to stop his people before the little changes become big changes. He's making us expend all of our people and resources to distract us and prevent us from stopping his main incursion into the timeline; the one that will change everything if we don't stop it. I'm using up valuable resources as we speak by appearing to you."

Again Hoshi, the master communicator, was at a loss for words. Daniels went on when she just gaped at him. "Your captain and crew have gone back in the past several times, successfully without causing any problems and fixing the timeline where needed. We trust him and have confidence that your captain can stop the Suliban's benefactor from dominating time itself. If he's stopped this time, it should be for good."

"And you want me to persuade Captain Archer to let you recruit him, and possibly his crew, as temporal agents?" she asked for clarification.

"Just for one mission. Please, Hoshi, he'll listen to you," Daniels pleaded with her, taking one of her hands in his. "You are the one person he wouldn't refuse. You'd know just what to say and even keep him from becoming angry with me. Please, Hoshi Sato, do this for me." He kissed her hand tenderly.

Daniels' eyes were so sincere and his need for help so raw that she couldn't say no to him. His words and his demeanor squarely hit her sympathy buttons. Besides, if Future Guy was making a big play to dominate all of time, then they had to do something. "Okay, Daniels, I'll try to get the Captain to talk to you and give your proposal serious consideration, but I can't promise anything."

"I have faith in your communication skills and your friendship with Jonathan," Daniels told her, hope back in his voice. "You'll convince him."

She hated going to the Captain's quarters this late at night. He was probably asleep and if anyone saw her it wouldn't look good, but she had to talk to him and now. Daniels was anxious for her to speak with her CO and get him to talk to the temporal agent. Hoshi knew the Captain would hit the roof about Daniels' request, but she had to at least try. All of time across the entire universe depended upon it, or so Daniels had said.

Hoshi quickly buzzed Archer's door. There was a pause and some shuffling, then she heard him say, "Come in!"

The young Japanese woman hit the door release and it slid open. Her captain was sitting at his desk in navy blue sweat pants and a matching T-shirt looking over something on his personal viewing screen. Porthos, Archer's faithful beagle, was lying in the middle of the Captain's bed, and his tail instantly started wagging at her entrance.

"Sorry to bother you this late, sir, but I needed to talk to you," she blurted out right away, stepping into the room and letting the door slide shut behind her.

"It's no bother, Hoshi," he replied kindly, turning in his chair to face her. "I'm still up and ready to be done with this Captain's log anyway. What's on you're mind?"

From his posture and body language, Hoshi could tell Archer's mood was positive, but he was really tired. She really didn't want to dump Daniels on him right now, but she knew she had to. "Will you hear me out completely before you react to what I have to say?" she asked him after a long pause. She was going to be strong about this and not back down.

This question seemed to surprise the Captain and he appeared very curious. "Sure. Go ahead."

"I just received a visit from our friend, Crewman Daniels," Hoshi said not beating around the bush.

Archer's jaw dropped and then clenched. Hoshi watched his muscles tighten and his eyes narrow. "He was told to never bother us again. What in the hell did he want? Why'd he come to you?"

"I thought you were going to hear me out before you reacted, sir," Hoshi quietly reminded him.

His posture relaxed again. "I'm sorry. I did agree to listen to you. Please continue," the Captain said with resignation in his voice trying to do as he had told Hoshi he would.

Hoshi quickly rehearsed everything Daniels had told her. She tried to use calming tones and patterns in her speech to help smooth over what and who she was talking about. Finally, she went for an appeal to the Captain's compassionate side. "I've never seen Daniels so desperate, Captain, so worn out looking. At least he's asking this time and not just throwing us to the wolves. Could you please just let him talk to you about it? You don't have to agree to anything, but you should really speak with him. He's coming to us for help. For some reason he trusts you and thinks you can fix his problem. Future Guy really could be a major threat this time."

The communications officer watched as almost every emotion a human being could display came across Archer's face. She knew he was warring internally with himself. Should or shouldn't he agree to meet with Daniels? What would happen if he did? Should he be willing to help the meddling temporal agent or brush him off? Hoshi could tell when her captain had made a decision.

"You really believe he's sincere about the Suliban's benefactor's plans and he's not trying to put one over on us, Hoshi?" he reluctantly asked.

Knowing that Archer trusted her instincts, she answered him honestly. "Yes, I do believe he's sincere. I think he's in real trouble and see us as his only way to counter this potentially disastrous event."

"All right, when he contacts you again, tell him….," Archer started to say, but didn't get to finish.

"See, Hoshi, that was a piece of cake for you," Daniels said suddenly appearing in the room, and then the room changed to that of the Brazilian outdoor classroom once again.

Both Hoshi and Archer started at Daniels' unexpected appearance and their change in location. It was evening again in Brazil and a light breeze caressed their skin and ruffled their hair. The air was heavy with moisture and so the breeze felt good.

"Daniels!" the Captain exclaimed with ire. "What in the hell's going on? I thought we were done with all this Temporal Cold War crap. You told me when Vosk was defeated that things would be just fine."

"Sorry, Captain, but time is short and privacy is a must," Daniels quickly explained. "The Suliban's benefactor has already made his incursion into Earth's early twenty-first century, and I don't want any of his agents to track me to you. For some reason he's still bent on controlling time travel and the past. Stopping Vosk didn't seem to have changed him or his nature any. This time he's searching for an ancient talisman known as 'Trestria Lux Lucis' in Latin, or more commonly known as the 'Triangle of Light'."

"And this talisman is the object that Hoshi was telling me about?" Archer asked interrupting, "The item that will allow Future Guy to dominate all of time?" The Captain's voice was full of doubt and disbelief. "How can one little artifact do that, and how is it that it's located on Earth in the past?"

Daniels made a visual effort to remain calm and patient; closing his eyes and taking a couple of deep breaths. "I know how it sounds, Jonathan," the temporal agent said switching to the more personal use of Archer's first name. "I was one of the last ones convinced of its actual existence and abilities. Until just recently, for me," he clarified, "a majority of our most revered historians thought that it was only a myth, a fancy fairy-tale. But we've learned that it does in fact exist or at least it did on Earth in the past, and 'Future Guy', as you so casually call him, has found it and wants it very badly. He has launched an almost fool-proof strategy to get it too."

"Why?" Archer found himself asking, despite his anger.

"It literally punches holes in the time-space continuum and allows its possessor to manipulate and mold time itself into whatever they see fit. Some believe the material comes from some kind of meteor that fell to Earth thousands of years ago. One story tells of an ancient society that destroyed itself because of this talisman. They were the ones who originally found the material and forged it into the Triangle of Light. Without being able to run up-close-and-personal scans on it, we don't know exactly what kind of material it's made of, or if it's even material from our reality, but it can warp time," Daniels tried to explain.

Hoshi now had a question. "So what convinced you that it was real, that it wasn't a fantasy?"

"There has been a family of historians that has refused to let go of the notion that the Triangle really existed," Daniels told them. "They have researched every possible avenue to prove their theories right. They have dogged and dogged my superiors to look into the truth of its existence as well. Finally, an old journal that has survived for over a thousand years surfaced and it came from a credible source, descendants of its original owner. It was a journal from the legendary Lady Lara Croft."

Hoshi's eyes went wide and she gasped audibly. This made Archer look at her. The name sounded vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place it. "Sir, you do know who Daniels is talking about don't you? Malcolm would flip out if he was having this discussion with us. Lara Croft is one of his heroes, probably because she was British like him and liked explosives."

The Captain racked his brain to try and put the name in context. It was right there, waiting for recognition. "Help me out here, Hoshi," he requested.

"Oh, Captain, come on. You know who she is, just think about it for a moment," Hoshi replied trying to be encouraging. She knew it would hit him if he gave it enough thought.

Lara Croft, Lara Croft; Archer let the name roll around in his mind. Of course! She was considered the greatest adventurer of the twenty-first century. An archeologist who always seemed to be larger than life, hunting for precious pieces of Earth's past. She was thought to be a tomb raider by some, a grave robber, but others held her up as a hero, someone who had to act like the bad guys to keep the priceless treasures she went after out of the hands of those who really were the bad guys. Lieutenant Malcolm Reed had, on a few rare occasions, shared some of her tales with the senior staff. He was a huge fan. It was the one topic the Captain could get the ever private Lieutenant Reed to open up and talk about.

Croft's exploits had reached the status of myths and legends themselves. How much of what she did and accomplished was fact and how much was fiction Archer didn't know. She tended to be romanticized and her stories embellished over the years. Some might think she was another Hercules or Beowulf. She had lived in the time era right before the Eugenics Wars and the Third World War. Records of that time period had become spotty, fragmented, and a lot of information and data lost because of those wars. What the truth really was wasn't certain, so to find an actual journal would have been exciting to anyone in Archer's time period, let alone almost one thousand years later in Daniels'.

"And you're certain of the journal's origin and authenticity?" Hoshi was asking while the Captain had his epiphany.

"One hundred percent," Daniels assured her. "We're lucky to have it. We think the Suliban's benefactor may have at one time had it and that's how he found out about the Triangle. He tried to keep it hidden from us, but it was found despite his efforts. The journal details very bit of Croft's involvement the first time around in the artifact's unearthing."

"The first time around?" Archer questioned.

"Well, in the original history, before Future Guy decided to get involved and interfere," Daniels expounded. "Croft went after it, beat the bad guys she was up against at their own game, and she made the choice to destroy the Triangle. She knew that it would be too much for any one person to control, even a person of good intentions. It would be too dangerous to let anyone have, herself included, so for the greater good she destroyed it; blew it into a million pieces as I recall."

Lieutenant Reed would really have appreciated Croft's solution. "But now, that might not happen," Archer reasoned out. "Future Guy's agents may find a way to get the Triangle before she does, or let her go through all the work of finding it and then take it from her before she can destroy it. She'd never expect an attack from people from the future; it would be a complete ambush. The Suliban just can't go to Earth and try and find it first because that would draw too much attention from your people and any others monitoring the timeline. They're going to have to play along until she finds it and then take it, or play along with her enemies and help them acquire it."

Daniels was relieved that the Captain was now taking him seriously and working out the situation for himself. That was why he had come to Jonathan Archer. He was the one person Daniels knew he could count on when the chips were down.

"That's where you come in, Jonathan. I've been tasked with sending you back to the year 2001 to help Lady Croft recover and destroy the Triangle of Light, so the Suliban's benefactor can't have it. You can blend in with the humans of that time era and find a way to get yourself included in Lady Croft's expedition," Daniels informed them.

Archer had something else in mind, however. "You can't seriously expect me to do this by myself, all alone, do you? If I agree to do this at all, and that is a big if, I'm going to need some of my crew's help. I have no expertise in archeology, although I do have a passion for history."

"Jonathan, the more people that know about this mission, the higher the risk of detection of it there is by Future Guy's agents," Daniels objected. "Plus, the more people from the future that go back in time, the higher the risk of timeline contamination."

The Captain was about to argue, when Hoshi spoke up, coming to stand by her captain. "He's right, sir, but so are you. How about a compromise of sorts? Take Malcolm and myself with you. He's familiar with all things dealing with Lady Croft and her treasure hunting activities. I know the languages and cultures of Earth really well. Together, we could help this mission succeed. We'd be there to watch each other's backs too."

"That might work," Daniels conceded after a little thought. "Both Lieutenant Reed and Ensign Sato would be a great asset to you, Captain. And although sending the three of you back in time is risky, the number is low enough to still be acceptable."

Archer was dumbstruck for a moment. Hoshi was volunteering for an away mission, a time-traveling away mission? The Captain was very proud of how far Hoshi had come in the last four or five years. She wasn't the timid little language teacher anymore, afraid of every warp vibration. She had grown in confidence and courage with each experience she had with exploring the unknown. They taught her, schooled her, and made her stronger. He would happily take Hoshi along with him. Her skills would be invaluable to him. Hoshi's seeing the need to insert herself in the mission was proving to him how important and necessary this time-travel mission was.

"This is all if we agree," Archer said meaningfully. "We haven't even asked Malcolm about doing this yet. And I won't go and risk my life and the lives of my crew unless we can concoct a very believable cover story for ourselves. I'm not going back in time to help Lady Croft if she won't believe we're there to help her."

"All excellent points, Jonathan," Daniels agreed. "Go talk to Lieutenant Reed and see what he says. Then I will help you come up with a plausible back story and identities for you. We can't have anyone from the early twenty-first century know who you really are, not even Lady Croft."

"Oh, I think Malcolm will jump at the chance to meet his long time idol," Hoshi commented wiggling her eyebrows. "Well, at least on the inside he would be jumping, but I'd doubt we'd see that kind of reaction on the outside," she added.

"He might even be able to devise a good, sound, strategical plan of action for you," Daniels threw in trying to win Archer over.

Signing with defeat and foreboding, Archer gave in. "All right, Hoshi, let's go get Malcolm. We can't allow Future Guy to dominate time. He might just get Enterprise's mission scrapped and have the Klingons in the middle of a civil war, or worse. I, for one, don't like any of those scenarios."

TBC

What's the verdict? Does anybody like it? Should I go on? Please let me know!!