Disclaimer: All Star Trek things belong to CBS/Paramount

Notes: Alternate Universe / Timeline. ENT/TNG crossover. What would have happened if Jonathan Archer had been charged after the "airlock incident" of 3x02 "Anomaly"? Much T'Pol; some JLP cause of the crossover, but no Archer heroism and no TnT. But something else.

This storyline uses a double timeframe; because one is is located in the distant TNG future I will let Captain Picard tell most of my version of the Xindi-Tale and the aftereffects. In this Universe, "Precious Cargo" hasn't happened for reasons which will hopefully become clear, otherwise it is based on ENT canon until the "airlock incident" of 3x02 "Anomaly".

Btw. Don't be afraid of Jean-Luc Picard and T'Pol match-made; that won't happen. Not Jean-Luc. And "Dishar Kiaphet'sor", who will become important later, is yet unknown; but you might have heard about Kiaphet Amman'sor from Degra. They are related. :-)

Have fun!

xxx

March 21st 2377; Briar Patch

Jean-Luc Picard sighed slightly with relief, when Worf, who had volunteered at the helm, launched the yacht "Costeau" from Enterprise. Finally their three-month vacation to Ba'ku had begun.

The last days had passed as expected; no senior member of his crew had missed the chance to provide him with good advice of how to pursue his romance with Anij; even Commander Data had tried to assist.

xxx

He had just been trying to hide from ship´s gossip in the solitude of his ready room when Data had stepped in, carrying a PADD. "Captain Picard, here is the detailed report of the sensor readings we have taken from the stellar nursery we just passed..." Data had stopped noticing the not-overly-friendly look on his superior´s face.

"Very well, Commander. I take it the black hole which will result from the UV-peak giant in...let´s have a look..." Picard knew that Data could very well note the anger in his voice "oh, ...'just' 47 Million years from now will require our immediate attention or am I mistaken, Commander?".

Data decided against providing the size of the event horizon he had already approximated and started again "Captain, I have a personal question."

Jean-Luc sighed mentally. 'I have a personal question' had become the ultimate trick over the past few days to engage him in conversation regarding his immediate vacation and its romantic aspects.

Normally his quarters would have been a better sort of hideaway than his ready-room but lately he had been feeling strangely irritated when being there. Somehow his place had seemed strange like someone had violated its privacy without his knowledge and had let a sort of trace. Picard had even checked security logs for reassurance but had found no evidence for an intrusion.

So his best resort was his ready-room where he would only have to deal with occasional visitors who came for 'important ship-business'. He resigned. "Very well, Mr. Data. Please sit down and ask me what you want to 'know'"!"

"Captain, I have tried to deduct the reason for the emotional state of agitation humans enter in anticipation of pleasant events like romantic encounters."

"Mr. Data, you can be sure that even stoic Vulcans acknowledge certain nervousness ahead of reunification with their mates." He noticed his phrase. Why had he disclosed his reflections about his current emotional state that way?

"'Friends' I meant." he corrected himself hastily. "Besides that, I'm not at all nervous!"

"But Captain, you just said that even Vulcans would..."

"If there´s nothing else, Commander, I'm sure the equations for the upcoming singularity need your full attention!"

"Fortunately I already have been able to compute a sufficient approximation. But I would like to ask if this nervousness could not be counter-productive in terms of chances for reproduction..."

Picard got up and straightened his uniform."Mr. Data, be assured that my reproductive capabilities are sufficient!"

"I apologize Sir. I just wanted to know..."

"Mr. Data?"

"Sir?"

"Get out! Now."

"Yes, Sir!"

Jean-Luc watched the door closing after his third in command had left. Thinking about reproduction was ridiculous. As was thinking of any physical encounter from the current state of his relationship with Anij.
He was sure about that.

And he was sure he would enter the gym right away.

xxx

Picard looked at his helmsman. Worf wore the ornate robe of a Klingon Ambassador, which added to his already broad frame. The helm was virtually covered by his massive body. The casual observer would only see a huge warrior radiating strength and a fierce determination. That was the expected attitude of all Klingon warriors as Jean-Luc knew very well. But somehow Worf had changed over the last few years; sometimes Jean-Luc wondered if Worf was old beyond his years; Worf had gotten only 37 terrestrial years recently but sometimes there was a melancholy in his looks when he watched the other members of the crew or discussed current Federal politics with him.

Jean-Luc recalled what he had heard or witnessed of his former tactical officer´s biography. 'The best I've ever ever known' he added mentally. Word had once accepted disgrace to save the Klingon Empire. Fortunately Picard had been able to correct this political lie when he helped now-Chancellor Gawron defeat the Duras family and restore order within the Empire. Gawron and the Empire owed Worf a lot. 'A lot too much for my personal taste' Jean-Luc noted mentally.

Worf´s private life was a chain of drama. Worf´s father Mogh got killed in a Romulan assault so he had been raised by humans. To Picards knowledge Worf had had three romantic encounters Jadzia Dax, Deanna Troi and the unforgotten K'Ehleyr, mother of Worf´s son Alexander, former Federal Ambassador to Qo'nos. Another victim of "secret politics" and conspiracy.

Picard knew that Worf still celebrated Klingon rituals for her in the mystical darkness of his quarters. Although Worf would never admit that, Picard knew that he was grieving. No one, no Human, Klingon or Vulcan would remain unchanged after having experienced such a large share of tragedy.
Worf was feeling exhausted and lonesome, Picard concluded.

Worf turned his chair around and addressed Captain Picard, thus interrupting his musings "Sir, I think I've detected a suitable asteroid.".

"There´s no need to call me ´sir' any longer, 'Excellency'" Picard gave back with a faint smile. Technically Worf outranked him since he was granted ambassadorship.

"It is Klingon customs to address heroes of the Empire using a phrase of honor" Worf replied with the low he always used when he wanted to sound matter-of-factly. "Sir" he added pointedly.

Picard was laughing "Although I have never heard about these customs I understand it would be unwise to dispute that, or am I mistaken?"

"Very unwise, indeed. Things like this can easily inflict severe diplomatic complications," Worf added with a sheepish grin which once had become a trademark of him but was rarely seen lately.

"That kind of complications which usually requires large quantities of blood-wine to become settled?" Picard was guessing.

"Precisely. You see, it is a benefit of ambassadorial immunity that personal luggage is off-limits for security checks." Worf added. "That includes certain sorts of liquor which are usually banned. Sir!"

"I'll be all up for some of that contraband after we'll have managed to hide our own" Picard said while moving to the sensor station to have a look at the asteroid Worf had found. "Looks perfect" he noted. Their 'contraband' consisted of several ray weapons and the collection of Klingon blades Worf was used to carry with him.

Anij had requested that they would not bring weapons with them and Jean-Luc intended to honor that request, but Worf had not been amused about this restriction, to say the least. So Picard and Worf had to find a compromise which included that they would 'bury' their weapons on a nearby asteroid instead of taking them to the surface. Knowing they were within the range of the powerful transporter of the Costeau would help Worf feeling less 'naked' how he had put it himself. Worf was very touchy when it came to leaving his precious bat'leth behind.

"I have located a cavern just beneath the surface which is large enough" Worf stated, but decided to try a final attempt to shift their compromise a little. He engaged the auto-pilot, got up and went over to his companion.

"Captain Picard. I must repeat expressing my concerns about landing on an non-federal planet without taking appropriate security measures. I'm not completely comfortable with our compromise."

Captain Picard straightened himself and nodded slightly but with a grim expression "It is the nature of a compromise not to feel completely comfortable, Mr. Worf!" He had intentionally avoided to call him Ambassador this time, he intended no offense. Yet.

"The last time we were on this planet we were at the center of a kind of a civil war and a giant conspiracy. Some precaution would be advisable. Sir." Worf felt that Picard was beginning to become angry by this debate.

"That´s true, but I don't intend to pickup habits of warmongering captains of ancient times who were used to do pursue 'exploration' ferro ignique." Picard was definitely getting angry.

Worf hesitated "I'm sorry, Captain. I don't know that phrase. My knowledge of ancient Terran dialects is still limited."

"It means..." suddenly the comm emitted an unusual sound "...with iron and fire. What´s that sound? I've never heard that alarm." Word manned the comm station where Picard joined him.

xxx

Worf reviewed the display quickly "It´s an 'Open Arrest Warrant' warning. The communicator used for the transmission belongs to..." Word hesitated "...just a moment, I might have to compensate..." Worf rapidly. "That is strange..." he finally stated.

Captain Picard got impatient "What is it, Mr. Worf? Report!"

"The communicator used was registered in 2151 for 'Captain Jonathan Archer'"

Picard frowned "If that´s a 'Happy romance, Captain!' joke someone will dearly pay for it. Put it on audio"

Fragments of a message spoken by a firm but soft female voice that sounded somewhat faintly familiar broke the silence "...Vulcan Cruiser Shi´Kar...out of fuel...no casualties...require taxi...come in.." The rest was white noise.

"Sir, that sounds much like a trap. It is hard to believe that a Vulcan vessel would run out of fuel. And 'require taxi' is code for 'vessel destroyed'. It is unlikely that this happened without casualties."

Picard nodded. "It is even more unlikely that the Vulcans would name a combat vessel like their Capital City. And its most uncommon to name the ship class in a distress call." Picard´s thoughts were racing.

"Mr. Worf, please visualize the carrier wave!"

"Sir?"

"You´ve heard me." Captain Picard had a theory he wanted to check.

The sinus-like wave form was modulated by both amplitude and frequency.

"Time and Space..." Picard whispered more to himself than to Worf.

"Sir?"

"Later. Run a pattern-detection algorithm on the carrier. Match with the complete DB"

"That might take several minutes, Sir. We have lesser number-crunching capabilities than Enterprise"

"I know. Do it!" Picard had to smile due to the fact that the mentioned 'number-crunching' capabilities for the better part were incorporated by Mr. Data.

xxx

After Worf had typed in a number of commands he leaned back and said "I assume you have a theory, Sir?"

Picard sat down and started "Mr. Worf, what do you recall about the disappearance of Captain Jonathan Archer during the Xindi-Crisis of 2153-2154?"

Worf tried to recall the events "He was relieved of duty by his first officer after he tortured a prisoner and threatening to kill him..."

"...by depressurizing an airlock," Picard concluded. He seemed disgusted as he continued. "Even in the 22nd century this was considered a severe crime, so the XO had no other option than to enforce Starfleet regulations. Do you recall what happened next?"

"He was taken from Enterprise by a carrier vessel which disappeared from screens afterwards," Worf recalled. He was considered a fugitive and an arrest warrant was issued."

Picard got up and braced himself "That part of the story was always open to the public; what was restricted to senior personnel are the insights Captain T'Pol, former Archer´s XO, had regarding his disappearance. Your security clearance has been upgraded recently so I can tell you the classified part." Picard paused and tried to compose himself. He had a strong dislike of the practice of covering unpopular incidents with military confidentiality.

"It´s partially just a theory, but given the originator this is one which should not easily be disposed of." Ambassador T'Pol had been instrumental for the success of the early Alliance and later the Federation of Planets, as both men knew very well. "T'Pol had the theory that Archer had become kind of paranoid after having been relieved of duty and that he suspected T'Pol being under the influence of a yet unknown fraction of the 'Temporal Cold War'."

Worf spoke up. "That was absurd. She is known to have lived and died with honor."

Picard knew that Worf was referring to the fact that a portrait of hers, along with the portraits of few - very few indeed - other off-worlders had been placed in a niche of the Great Hall of Qo'nos, commonly known as the "Stranger´s Shrine".

"Precisely" Picard continued. "T'Pol had the theory that on the contrary Archer and a time agent who called himself 'Daniels' were manipulated systematically. She stated that furthermore Archer had begun missing the purpose of their current mission and his own purpose of honoring his farther´s achievements of constructing the vessels warp drive."

"I have read that Henry Archer had run into obstacles when his drive was to be scheduled for the test cycles." Worf threw in.

Picard nodded."This, in addition to the fact that his early death had prevented Henry Archer from pursuing the deployment his of own invention, made Jonathan Archer trying to 'worship' his father on each and every occasion. And at every cost, even human morality, lately."

He took a deep breath and paused, inwardly shaken by a memory suddenly creeping up inside him; a memory of another Captain of another Enterprise running into a kind of 'holy war' with the Borg. "Once upon but not ago, Ahab," he reminded himself.

"A psychic explanation for Captain Archer´s dishonorable behavior." Worf interrupted Picard´s musings. "But do you know why this assessment was classified, Sir?"

"At a first look, it was held back simply because Vulcans are not generally famous for their understanding of human´s psychic balance and thus this was considered too hypothetical." Worf wanted to speak up, but Picard signaled to let him finish "But that´s just the issue at a first look, Mr. Worf. Thinking about it a little more one might come to the conclusion that certain former supporters of Jonathan Archer simply didn't want to hear about the oddities of humans shortly after humanity had just been solved from the threat of extermination; most of all not if they had come to considering Jonathan Archer a hero, a savior maybe."

He smiled bitterly. "And most certainly not by a Vulcan, an 'alien', regardless of her having completed the mission that had saved Earth."

"Sir, do you suspect there was a political intrigue behind this?" Worf asked, frowning.

"Well, sort of, Mr. Worf. There was even more; there also was something T'Pol said in a hearing what should have been considered. She reported that when she accompanied Jonathan Archer on his way to the carrier vessel he repeated his theory about a giant conspiracy against him and that he considered himself being 'chosen' to accomplish the mission in the Expanse." Picard looked Worf straight into the eyes. "She told the commission that Jonathan Archer said he would accomplish the historical tasks he was chosen for; against all odds if necessary." Picard paused shortly before finishing, got up and straightened his jacket.
"And he told her he would be back from the abyss sooner than she or anyone else expected."

Jean-Luc gave Worf a moment to process the information he had just disclosed to him, then continued. "All this wouldn't be of much interest, except for historians, if there hadn't been temporal phenomena on from the very start of the NX-01 mission. So in my opinion guessing that Jonathan Archer´s disappearance was not a simple escape but was arranged by a hostile species with both temporal and manipulative talents, is far from being delusional."

Worf drew the conclusion "So I understand this was T'Pol´s theory and that she recommended further investigations which were never pursued, Sir?"

Picard affirmed this. "That is still a black hole in Starfleet history; carefully preserved through the ages. Think about what would have happened if someone had found out about a former Starfleet captain being manipulated by a hostile species and maybe preserved for a final blow by temporal trickery. The career of many politicians would have been at stake who saw a chance for themselves in a rapidly growing intergalactic community."

After having finished Jean-Luc sat down again and sighed mentally. His long and interesting life had had many enlightening and great moments but he had also gotten insight into the darkest sides of the consciousness of humans and other species. 'Maybe more than I wanted and most likely more than I share with others,' he had to confess to himself when he noticed the sad look of his companions face.

But Worf was able to compose himself amazingly fast, given the fact that he had just been informed that the Federation he served for was not as bright and innocent as he had once been told. "Sir, has Ambassador T'Pol never tried to solve this riddle on her own? She and the officers she served with are well known for their - well 'challenging' - course of action."

Picard was laughing. "Mr. Worf, why don't you simply say 'disobedient' if you imply it?"

Worf shifted on his seat, obviously slightly uncomfortable with the situation. "I have read that a distant relative of yours was very much involved in the events of those days."

Picard gave in. "To say the least, yes, and I'm very proud of that since someone who must know best told me about him."

Worf did not get this "Sir?"

"Mr. Worf, this is something very few people know. I honor my ancestor´s record, of course, but try not to refer to whose hand I've shaken because of it." Jean-Luc hesitated, but given the circumstances of their conversation he decided to give in. "I met Ambassador T'Pol once in 2318 and she talked with me for a while. She was 230 terrestrial years old - and I was 13 and had no real idea who exactly she was."

Picard could not resist laughing about this memory and even Worf showed a faint smile.

"My father was very skeptical about my interest for space and exploration and had yet told me little about my ancestors. But it happened to me that one evening a Vulcan woman unknown to me, who had visited my family for a reason I did not know, found me hiding in the garden with a star-chart and..."

xxx

They were interrupted by a short beep by the computer, indicating it had found a match.

Worf reviewed the result "There were two security distress codes encoded. Both Level 4; Level 4 Sigma," he continued. Sigma meant two senior officers had to authenticate for decoding. He began the standard procedure.

"Sir, we've two Level 4 Sigma messages. Permission to authenticate?"

"Permission granted"

"Computer" a short jingle indicated readiness "Authenticating Worf, Lieutenant Commander off duty, current assignment Federal Embassy Qo'nos, SP 947-869"

"Acknowledged. Please enter your private key now." the mechanic voice said. Worf put in his description sequence.

"Computer," a short jingle indicated readiness, "authenticating Picard, Jean-Luc, Captain, current assignment NCC-1701E Enterprise, SP 937-215."

Jean-Luc grimaced due the bureaucracy of the procedure but put in his part of the description sequence.

Despite having expected something close to this, both men were slightly shocked when they saw the results.

Picard spoke up first "Mr. Worf, either someone is simply trying to mess around with the two of us or there are two of the most famous diplomats of Starfleet history down on that planet and someone is trying to mess around with the four of us." Jean-Luc´s mood worsened significantly. "So either someone is simply smart and has a bad sense of humor or he has additional temporal talents."

Worf drew the conclusion "I think we have met someone who matches the latter profile amazingly accurate."

Jean-Luc suddenly knew why his quarters had recently seemed strange - he did not own the hard-copy of "Proceedings", written by T'Pol and Dishar Kiaphet´sor, that had stood in the topmost shelf of his small private library! His own issue had been vaporized along with the debris of the NCC1701-D somewhere on the surface of Veridian III six years ago.

"At least I don't have to worry about becoming mental about my recent feeling of being haunted in my quarters," he thought and smiled wryly. Human subconsciousness was an amazing phenomenon. But on the other hand there was just one man, or better one 'entity', who could and would secretly place a book in locked quarters and could and would deal with all that fuss to cover this, including faking ship´s perimeter log, just to make his 'joke' working.

And this certain 'man' was the last one Jean-Luc was looking forward to meeting on his vacation.

TBC