A:N: Alright first S.T.E ff. and I've already redone the first chapter already! Twice just because, thanks to Greysummmer, I realized how ecky the grammar was. Thanks. I'm horrid. Basic plot, alien ship is found is in the expanse so have at it with that. - Please review I love reviews and don't forget to take the poll at the end of the chapter. You can help me write this ff. Enjoy.

Chapter One

First Contact, well Sort Of…

Captain Jonathon Archer sat quietly in his quarters, reading through several data streams that Star Fleet had sent him before they had left for the Expanse. It was nothing of real importance. A couple of different medical discovers that Phlox would love to have some engine schematics that he was sure his Chief Engineer would enjoy thoroughly. Why Star Fleet hadn't sent them before they left Earth was beyond his knowledge. Any advancement both medically and mechanically should have brought before they began their venture into the Expanse.

Nevertheless he was grateful for the information.

The Admiral had sent through some thoughts on how he may improve first contact situations as well as how to deal with the Xindi which he found totally ironic. Placing the information side by side was just a little annoying to him.

It was hard for him to comprehend how this could have been allowed to happen. A single weapon murdered more than seven million people. He knew several of the crewmembers had had family and friends that were killed. The most prominent being his chief engineer Commander Tucker.

Trip's sister was killed in the wake of the explosion and now he was hell bent on making whoever had plotted the attack pay for what they had done. Archer was certainly concerned over the mental strain that had to be developing in his officer. He knew very well that he was attempting to hide his emotions. Sooner or later he wasn't going to be able to handle the tension building inside of him.

He was going to have a break down.

Personally, Archer hoped it was soon. He couldn't have one of his senior and commanding officers going through a mental break down in the middle of the Expanse. At the moment he didn't want to push the matter with him. It was far too early to discuss anything involving the death of his sibling or at least for his superior to bring it up first.

It didn't help that he was both friend and captain. The dilemma was not going to take care of itself anytime soon.

Doctor Phlox sat joined by Ensign Sato in the mess hall. Their discussions were varied from the recent incident with the Xindi to the dealings of certain crewmembers, who was with who for instance. For the most part they had been conversing over the Xindi.

Phlox couldn't bring himself to understand who would wish to attack the humans or their planet. He found humans to be quite a compassionate race. This he had noted early on in their mission together. They always seemed to have a need to help others, even when that person is an enemy. He liked to think if they were ever to come across a wounded Xindi that they would treat them with the same likeness they would with any species they came in contact with.

He was surprised by Hoshi's annoyance and sorrow for the events that had taken place. While she hadn't had any personal relation with any of the humans that were so immorally murdered, her care for her fellow crewmembers feelings was causing her to feel such great distress over the entire incident. Then again he had read of a similar occurrence in Earth history.

In the early twenty-first century, an attack was launched on a country called America. The attack, as he had read, shook the entire country to the core. It was three separate attacks in all but the most shocking part of it all was who was attacking them and how they were.

A group of terrorists had hijacked three large aircrafts known as planes and drove each of the planes into three separate locations. One of the planes went hurdling into the grounds of a government building known as the Pentagon. The other two were rammed into two large buildings known as the World Trade Center. The loss was great and everyone in the country seemed to be united from the incident.

It seemed very similar to the situation now and he made the comparison to Hoshi.

"I read about that," She told him with a sigh looking down at her food. "Terrible event, but as I read we also began to discriminate anyone with a similar background as the terrorists."

"Why would you do that?"

"I guess people were just afraid," Hoshi explained. "I'm not saying it was right. In fact I don't like the idea of discriminating on a matter like that. I doubt though that we'll gave that option with the Xindi."

Phlox looked at her rather confused. "Why do you say that?"

"I don't think we're going to be making friends with the Xindi while we're out here," She told him with a slight snarl in her voice.

"Wasn't it the Japanese that attacked Pearl Harbor in World War two?" Phlox questioned and Hoshi nodded not quite understanding. "As I understand by the late twentieth century most of your trade was with the very nation that attacked you so deviously earlier in that century now wasn't it?"

"You're point Doctor?"

"Anything's possible Ensign."

Tucker walked into the mess hall and moved over to retrieve himself a cup of coffee. He was growing more agitated with being in the Expanse. For a little over a week they had been in the actual Expanse without coming across anything about the species that attacked and killed over seven million people.

Not long after he made his way to the coffee machine he saw his friend and fellow officer Malcolm Reed walk in. He was obviously there for the same reason as he was.

Caffeine.

"Hey Malcolm," Tucker began moving out of the way of the coffee machine.

"Good afternoon sir," Malcolm stated before commanding the computer for black coffee. "Having any luck increasing the warp drive?"

"Not at the moment," Tucker admitted a hint of disappointment in his voice. He's mind had been directed towards other things. He wouldn't admit it, not even to Reed at least not at the present time. "Capt'n said he'd be sending some schematics my way in a few hours though, I'm looking forward to reading what advancements in the past week since we've departed," He thought for a moment then remembered Reed telling him about running some kind of weapons test. "What about you?"

"If we could stop for an hour or two we'd be a lot better off," Malcolm admitted sipping on his coffee knowing what his commanding officer was eluding too. "But I have managed to bring targeting up another half percent."

Tucker smiled, it was a great improvement for them but for Reed, he always thought that they could do better. Always striving for achievement but when did excellent he wanted it to be better. His gaze went over to the recently added MACOs that sat at a nearby table. A group of well-trained soldiers sent as muscle for Enterprise. Tucker was all too aware that Reed didn't enjoy having them on board but they were a requirement if they were expected to stay out in the Expanse for an extended amount of time.

"How are you and Major Hayes getting along?"

Reed scoffed as he took a gulp of his coffee. "No altercations as of yet."

Tucker chuckled a bit. "Please try to keep it that way."

T'Pol sat in the captain's chair on the bridge of the ship. She'd been there since the captain went back to his quarters. Everything seemed to be proceeding normally. A quiet night until Ensign Sato began dabbling with the equipment at her station.

"Is something wrong Ensign?"

Hoshi wondered if she was hearing things at first, what she had been discussing with the doctor earlier that day was beginning to take its toll on her but she heard the sound again and realized she wasn't loosing her mind. "I think I'm picking up a transmission."

"Drop us out of warp," T'Pol instructed the helmsmen. Travis obeyed the command and T'Pol's attention was drawn back to Hoshi. "Can you understand what's being said?"

Sato listened hard to whatever she could hear which at the present time wasn't much. "It's very broken up," She shook her head unable to translate or properly hear any part of the message. "We'd have to get closer to where ever the transmission is being sent from."

T'Pol looked to the crewman that maintained her post at the moment for answers as to where the transmission was coming from. "No planets within ten light years," She continued to scan. "Found it. A ship about five light years starboard," The crewman looked down then up at T'Pol who continued to stare at her before returning to looking at the station. "It's not any kind of ship we are aware of sub-commander."

"First contact?" Travis questioned.

T'Pol nodded looking down at Mayweather. "Set in an intercept course," She looked to Hoshi. "When you can detect what kind of signal it is---"

"It's a distress beacon," Hoshi broke T'Pol's sentence with a sigh of disbelief that the slightest change of course made it so much easier for her to understand but her happiness was short lived when she realized she couldn't understand the language being spoken. "What language I couldn't tell you though, I'll run it through the data banks."

T'Pol pressed a button on the chair. "Bridge to Captain Archer."

He'd been examining the information for almost an hour when his science officer, T'Pol, interrupted him. He was actually pretty happy to hear her voice. His mind wasn't focusing on any particular thing so reading the information wasn't doing anything beneficial. It just kept jumping around from thought to thought. Ranging from what would become of his engineer if he didn't come to terms with the death of his sister to what might happen to Porthos if something should happen him.

"Bridge to Captain Archer."

He got up and moved to the comm. button. "Go ahead,"

"We've intercepted a transmission," T'Pol explained in her matter fact way that Vulcans had. "You may want to come to the bridge."

"I'll be right there," He told her moving to grab his shirt. As he moved to leave, Porthos began to whine. Jon raised an eyebrow at the beagle that seemed to be startled by the idea of a transmission. "I'll see if Chef has something special for you later."

The dog gave a satisfied bark.

With that Jon left his quarters and headed for the bridge. The transmission had to have been something important for T'Pol to contact him while he was off duty, then again he did say if anything came up to wake him. He couldn't imagine what it might have been. No that was a lie. He could. A good guess was it was a distress beacon, or perhaps another ship was just passing by and wanted to drop a line.

The last one seemed rather doubtful.

Stepping into the turbo lift he decided to rule out the last possibility completely. He was unaware of any friendly ships out this far. They were not even remotely close to Andorian space or Vulcan. He reached the bridge before his thoughts could get away from him thankfully.

"Report," Jon questioned as he stepped onto the bridge.

T'Pol stood, removing herself from his chair. "We picked up a distress beacon being transmitted from a ship not far from here. Ensign Sato hasn't been able to translate the message as of yet."

"Then how are you so sure," Jon sat in the chair looking over to Hoshi. "That it's a distress signal?"

"The frequency sir," She replied fiddling with several mechanisms at the station as she listened to the message over and over. "The message that is being transmitted is repeated and the voice sounds rather frantic."

Jon nodded as T'Pol spoke out again while Reed made his way onto the bridge. "We are on an intercept course with ship now, sir."

"How long until we reach the ship?" He directed the question towards Travis.

"Less than a minute,"

"Sir," Armory Lieutenant Malcolm Reed interjected as he took over his station and made his own assessment of the situation. "Might I suggest we bring weapons online? If it is a distress beacon then it is likely that salvage ships have picked up the signal. No matter how weak it is."

He nodded remembering their encounters with several species before. "Do it."

Malcolm took a moment before he announced: "Weapons online."

"Does the language resemble anything we've ever encountered before?" He questioned Hoshi once again.

"Nothing in the database."

"Captain," T'Pol began. "We're in visual range."

"On screen," Jon instructed.

The ship came up on the screen; Jon heard several gasps from the present crew from what they saw. It looked to be an ancient Earth fighter ship but it was modified for space travel. No larger than a shuttle pod, it had a wing span much like ancient Earth planes but more developed. A long nose, causing the ship to appear very slender. Must have made it far more aerodynamic in the atmosphere of most planets compared to the Enterprise.

For what appeared a very maneuverable the ship was dead in the water.

It was easy to tell that it had recently been in a fight. Burns and scorch marks covered the outer hall along with several large holes that were large enough to see the inside of the ship. How could any one survive such devastating attack? They would have frozen or suffocated to death before they could have sent the distress beacon.

It was then that Travis noticed something interesting. "Sir, I think that ship has warp drive."

T'Pol raised her head from her station out of what appeared to be curiosity. "That is impossible."

Even Archer was staring at the ship intrigued by what Travis had said. "Are you sure Travis?"

"I can't be certain sir," Mayweather admitted but he still seemed convinced that he was right. "But it certainly looks like it," He raised his arm pointing to the starboard side. "See there, it almost looks like nacelles."

Archer decided to take the idea as a possibility. He'd seen shape shifters, men with tongues longer than their bodies and many other things he never thought possible. Why not this? It certainly didn't look like an escape pod. There was only one other possibility as for why a ship such as this could be out so far without some form of warp drive bringing it there. The second was the ship had been dropped off in the middle of nowhere by a larger ship.

"Any life signs?"

T'Pol reviewed her scans before she answered him. "One, very faint. It appears to be humanoid."

"Someone's still alive in that thing?" Hoshi exclaimed looking at the ship in wonder. "How?"

"Captain, with how much damage the ship has sustained," Malcolm began still staring at the ship's state. "I recommend we use the grappler to bring the ship into the docking bay."

"I agree sir," T'Pol added in. "Transporting to the ship could do more damage to it if we don't know the conditions as could docking with one of the shuttle pods."

Archer looked back to Reed. "Do it."

"Aye sir," Reed replied bringing the grappler online. He understood the fact that being transported over to the ship would never work in the conditions. However even he was still concerned over the haul damage it had sustained. It was the only option they had at the moment though. This was hardly going to be easy. There was always the chance that if he caught either of the wings wrong that he could lose both the ship and the survivor.

He took his time for the limited amount he had. Making certain that each angle was accounted for, that every possible course of action was assessed.

Another moment passed, then, he fired.

Archer watched as his tactical officer sent the grappler hurtling into space towards the ship. He was also fearful of the damage that they couldn't see. If the hooks even took one wrong hit on the ship, it would be a complete lost.

Relief swept over the whole bridge as the device locked onto the ship without inflecting more damage.

"Malcolm," Jon began as he walked towards the lift motioning for Hoshi to follow. "Meet Ensign Sato and I down in the docking bay once you have it on board."

"Yes, sir."

"I suggest you bring one of those rifles you're so fond of," He admitted with a smile to Malcolm knowing he liked to over prepare when it came to situations like this, but at the moment Archer felt it was necessary. They were not in friendly territory and he didn't want to risk the lives of his crew any more than he had too.

The lift doors shut moments after Hoshi and the captain entered and they began to descend towards the docking bay. Jon looked to Hoshi curiously. She looked nervous about translating for the alien, if it could even speak. How could she have not understood the language at all? She was one of the most brilliant linguists he had ever met. Able to translate Klingon even if it took a bit of time but this didn't sound half as complicated as that language.

"You truly didn't understand one word that was on the message?" Skepticism was present in his tone; he was hoping that she had been pulling his leg about the whole matter. However it wasn't in the ensign's nature to tease.

She shook her still disappointed with herself. "It'll take time sir," He could tell she was embarrassed with the circumstances. "As I said it doesn't match anything in the database, or for that matter resemble anything either."

"Neither did her ship," He told her opening his comm. device, knowing all too well that his chief engineer would love to examine the ship as soon as possible. "Archer to Commander Tucker."

"Go ahead Capt'n."

"We have a mystery ship being docked in the docking bay," Archer began to tell him with a smile, knowing that this information was bringing a smile to his face. He was even more certain when he added in his last phrase: "It seems to have warp capability."

"Sir, a ship that size would not have warp," Trip began; his southern drawl was prominent as was his dismay.

"Apparently it is," Archer smirked; the confusion in Tucker's voice was amusing to him. Then again his own confusion was rising with each step he took towards the ship and their guest. "Lieutenant Reed will be meeting us shortly. I'd like you to come down and would you mind bringing Phlox with you. T'Pol is reading a weak life sign onboard and we don't know the condition."

"Be right down Capt'n."

Archer looked to Hoshi as the doors to the lift opened. She returned the look of worry. As they walked towards the docking bay Tucker and Phlox joined up with them, Phlox was simply thrilled with the idea of having a new species to study, or at least something out of the ordinary to take of other. Most of the time he was tending to minor wounds resulting from work or recreational activities that the crew took part in.

"Do you know if it is human or non-humanoid?" Phlox questioned with a large grin spread all over his face. "I do---"

"I think," Tucker began as Malcolm joined them in stride. He was prepared with a rifle already locked and loaded. Trip raised an eyebrow not knowing that Archer had given him the order to bring it with him. "We should just make sure whom ever it might be is alive and well, before we decide to shoot them Malcolm."

"Always is better to be prepared," Malcolm told him while the captain chuckled at their conversation. "You must be thrilled with this discoveru."

"Of course!" Trip smiled, a glow of pure joy surrounded him. "A new ship that isn't Xindi in the Expanse with the possibility of warp drive? I'm having a pretty good day Lieutenant."

Jon raised an eyebrow at his old friend. "I'm glad to have supplied you with a new toy Trip," They stopped outside of the docking bay. Jon looked to his senior staff and the doctor who awaited his orders. "We don't know what to expect so Mr. Reed, Commander Tucker and I will secure the ship. Until we say it is safe I don't want anyone else going near the ship. Understood."

Everyone nodded while Phlox more or less pouted, he wanted to get his hands on what he had been brought down to inspect. He knew however that he had to listen with the captain on this matter. This was a ship like none of them had ever encountered before and they didn't know what the contents were. The only thing that was certain was that the ship was full of oxygen now.

With so many holes in the haul structure there wasn't anything that prevented the oxygen from seeping into the cockpit when it was brought on board.

Archer, Tucker, and Reed walked into the launch bay first, Malcolm held his rifle up, ready to shoot if it was necessary. Hoshi and Phlox stood at the door ready to come in when the others thought it was safe.

The ship was more badly damaged than they had noticed on the view screen. Scorch marks all over the outer haul, large and small holes scattered throughout the ship, they could only imagine what the inside of the ship looked like.

Archer brought out a phase pistol of his own, not liking the look of the ship. He continued circling the ship while Reed walked up next to the ship in search of a way to get in. It looked like the ship had been attacked by several ships then got hundreds of holes from chunks of rock particles traveling through space. It looked to be a beautiful ship when it wasn't so banged up.

Trip was enjoying looking over the nacelles. They had been right about the ship having warp but it was so badly damaged that he wasn't sure if it would be possible to repair them or not. He was having too much fun examining them to notice Archer coming up beside him. He began to inspect the nacelles with him while Reed managed to find a side hatch and he proceeded to open it. The door hissed opened and he peeked into the ship briefly before his gaze went back to his Captain for him for the approval to enter.

He nodded to him while Trip and him looked over the ship again.

Malcolm entered the ship, his rifle raised.

It was just a bad a mess as the outside but it looked like a one-man fighter. He looked over at the chair, hundreds of controls scattered the boards. All that appeared to be offline. All but one. A noise made him jump and he turned, his grip on his rifle tightened. The back area appeared to be a living space but he could really tell. Something else was there in the mess. A chamber, it stood from the floor to the ceiling, frost formed over the glass door.

As he stepped closer it appeared to be a stasis chamber. He began to wipe off the frost when a loud hiss erupted from the floor. All around the seal of the door fog began to leak out. He backed away, his weapon raised high.

The door opened completely and the fog began to clear. He took a step closer allowed him to feel the freezing cold that overflowed the chamber he began to notice something within it. A figure.

Stepping close enough he noticed it was a frozen body, he had yet to notice the lack of clothes but was intrigued by the way it was preserved. Frozen but not in the way he had seen humanoids in stasis chambers like this. This one actually appeared healthy. It was then he realized he was staring at the body of a naked woman.

Even though the body appeared to be healthy it was pale beyond all belief and all that appeared to be damaged was the hair? It seemed strange to him.

He lowered his weapon without knowing it, the cold was beginning to wear off and he stepped closer, trying to see if this was the life sign they had detected. It appeared that she was the only one on board so far as he could notice. Her face and body was decorated with numerous scales, mostly on her shoulders and cheekbones. He could see the faintest sign of breath escaping her nostrils and lips.

At least he knew she was alive now.

"Find anything Mr. Reed?" The captain called from outside and Trip began to crawl in through the hatch.

Trip's eyes went wide at the sight of the woman that Malcolm looked away from briefly. "Whoa."

Gasping, the body launched out of the chamber. Malcolm was lucky that he caught her but he dropped his weapon in the process. He brought himself and the woman to their knees. She was heavier than she looked and shorter. He held her to him as she coughed violently into his chest.

"Captain!" Malcolm screamed while Trip moved out to grab anything to cover her up. The woman gripped tightly to him and he tried frantically to get her warm by rubbing his hands over her back.

She lifted her head to him; her eyes were a startling pure white, no pupils showed at all. Was she blind? Her ears were longer than any humans or Vulcans but they were pointed at the end. She was shivering uncontrollable from being in the stasis chamber.

Jon stepped into the shuttle following after Trip who moved to cover her naked body with a tarp as she spoke in an alien dialect. His eyes wide at the sight of her, frost was all over her pale body. Her long hair was brittle and some of it had broken off and lay like shards of ice on the floor. She looked almost dead, she was so pale.

"Is she alright?" He question staring at her while Malcolm and Trip wrapped her in the tarp.

"I don't know sir," He told him as she continued to speak the dialect to Reed who looked down at her and shook his head. "I don't understand you."

"It looks like she has frost bit!" Trip gasped at the way his hand felt frozen when he touched her bare skin.

She stopped speaking and began to cough fiercely again. She brought herself closer, trying to keep herself warm or at least get her back to a normal temperature. They all were fearful that she was going to die of shock from the sudden change of temperature.

"She came out of the chamber," He began to explain as the Captain knelt beside him. "I thought she was unconscious."

"Get Phlox," Archer told Trip who was already moving to get the doctor.

Malcolm began to move but she refused. Her eyes narrowed, becoming dark black pits. She brought her fist into his gut then her elbow to his nose. Before they could react she jumped back towards the front of the ship the tarp falling away and she crouched down defensively.

Archer brought his weapon up level with the alien and fired it at her. She evaded it easily and Reed brought his rifle up, blood oozing from his nose over his lips and chin. No way was she blind if she could see the phase pistol being shot off.

Her hand moved to the wall gripping a tubular object. Before Jon or Malcolm could blink she launched herself at them, the object snapped into a large pole with blades on each end. Lucky for them it was larger than the width of the ship and she became wedged about three meters from them. She let out a loud growl of annoyance at the sudden halt of her attack.

Both Jon and Reed took the opportunity to fire at her. She collapsed to the floor, but she wasn't unconscious. She began to get up hissing several words in the alien dialect though it sounded like it was drifting into English. Before she even got to her knees Malcolm shot her again.

Now, she was out cold.

Phlox and Trip peeked their heads in when they heard the weapons go off. Phlox was happy to see he had a patient to work with and Trip was looking in between his friend's bloody face and the little thing that had managed to give him it.

"I guess she didn't like you once she got to know you," Trip commented and Reed glared at him the blood dripping down his chin.

Archer looked to Trip who shrugged off his comment. His gaze to his tactical officer's. "Restraints?"

Reed whipped the blood off his nose. "Good idea sir."

A:N: Alright the end of the first chapter and as I said I like doing polls so you the reader can help me write the story. - Our alien friend is obviously going to be staying a while but first impressions are always a must is she naughty or nice? And I don't mean that in a dirty way. Up to you folks. Please tell me what you think and I'll