Promise Me

by
Starsearcher

Rating: PG-13 for violence/language
Category: Romance, Angst, Action
Codes: Tu/S, R/S, A/S.

Summary: 30 years after a tragic moment, a time portal gives Hoshi Sato a chance to go back, to make things right, and to change the fate of the people she loves most.
Disclaimer: Paramount owns all. I own nothing, not even the clothes on my back. Don't sue me! (unless you want my lint collection, which is rather extensive by the way, and quite the find really...I'd be willing to trade for, oh say, 10 bars of gold? No? All right, I'll be generous, 5? But really...I digress...on with the fanfic!)
Betaed by: CJ.

Author's note: I didn't know the date for Hoshi's birthday, so I put my own instead. Please keep in mind that this fic is written with lots of flashback scenes, as well as action in the present. So if you're not sure of the times, check the dates I've put on the top of each section. I think they're all right. I had to resurrect this fic and repost it, and after a few months of leaving it in the dust, I'm glad to say it's been updated a lot. I'll post the updates for you a few days at a time. Thanks for reading!

CHAPTER ONE:

Earth: May 20, 2186

Hoshi Sato lay in a crumpled heap upon the cold, hard floor, her arms wrapped around the body of the man she loved, her shoulders shaking with every sob.

This is not supposed to happen...it's all my fault...why?

Why?

A terrible cough wracked her slim figure with pain, and as she brought a hand forward to cover her mouth, she tasted the bitterness of her own blood.

She had aged gracefully through the years, her skin just as soft as it had been in her twenties, but now there were small signs that age had finally caught up with her. Age and her illness.

Another cough shook her body, so much that she fought to remain steady as she held onto his body.

Slowly, her eyes rose to stare in desperate grief at the man standing before her, phase pistol in hand. He was shaking, the hard lines of his aged face softened by the deep sorrow in his eyes. Those eyes had once made her knees weak, but now, with the coldness of his piercing glare, she felt only fear.

"I-I'm so sorry, Hoshi. It was for you, you know that, right? Always for you."

Hoshi bit back her angry cry, glaring at him with a fierce intensity.

"I never asked you to do this! Do you have any idea of what you're doing? You're destroying history! Malcolm...God, what have you done? You killed them both, and for what? For me?"

She gave a bitter laugh, still shaking from her earlier coughs.

"I'm not worth it, Malcolm. I'm not-"

"No!" He cried out, the pistol trembling in his grasp.

Hoshi stared at him stubbornly, not caring that his shaking hand still held the pistol at her.

"I'm not worth the destruction of the world, Malcolm. I'm not worth their lives!"

Malcolm Reed shook his head sadly, his eyes sparkling with tears. He had never loved another more dearly, never cared more. He stared almost in disbelief at his own hand, which still held the gun, and he shuddered at his own cruelty.

But it had to be done...for her.

"You don't understand, Hoshi. Trip and I worked our whole lives to do what we did; even Daniels couldn't foresee this! Neither of us could live without you, so we worked, we worked to bring you back, forsaking everything else, while that...that BASTARD went on with his life as though nothing that had happened mattered. He got his honors, went on with his life. WHILE WE SUFFERED."

He sobbed aloud, his pain as unbearable as his guilt. His sorrowful gaze turned to the man in Hoshi's arms, his chest covered in blood. He was still breathing, but he was quickly fading away. Malcolm closed his eyes to shut out the sight.

"He shouldn't have tried to stop me." Malcolm whispered softly. "I'm so sorry, Trip. I only hope you can forgive me."

Hoshi turned away from Malcolm, holding onto the man in her arms, whispering his name as she rocked him back and forth. "Come back to me, baby. Come on...no, no don't close your eyes. Stay with me...stay with me! Dammit! Stay with me!"

Charlie's eyes lingered on hers for a moment, his dry lips moving ever so slightly as he whispered to her.

She bent down her head, tears rolling from her cheeks onto his. He looked at her again, the corners of his mouth turning into a weak smile.

Malcolm turned to the portal.

Charles Tucker III stirred with the last of his strength, reaching for the pistol behind him. With one deft move, he fired at Malcolm, his best friend, and then dropped the gun, his sky blue gaze fixed on the dark pools of Malcolm's eyes. An unspoken friendship, hatred, and sorrow lingered between them as Malcolm dropped to the floor, staring in disbelief, his pistol slipping from his hands.

"Hoshi?" Malcolm uttered, his body shaking as the initial numbness wore away. "I could have changed everything, darling. Everything..."

Hoshi looked at him in so much pain, her tears stinging the cuts on her face.

"No, Malcolm. I couldn't live knowing so many died because of me..."

Malcolm shook his head, the movement making his face contort in anguish.

"No, love. Because of me. And I'd do it again."

He gave her a smile and fell back, his hand clutching the wound on his heart.

Hoshi sobbed as she buried her face in Charlie's arms. He stroked her hair with what strength he had left, whispered again to her.

"Darlin', you gotta change this. Go on, it's still working. I...I didn't shut off the energy flow." Guiltily, he turned his eyes away from Hoshi's shocked expression.

"You didn't destroy it? That means...you were going to go along with it all along. I thought...he thought..." She tilted his head to make him look her in the eye. Weakly, he nodded, unable to look away from her watery gaze.

"Yeah...well, in the end, he and I had the same reasons for doing what we did...I'm sorry, darlin'. I guess we both just couldn't face life without you. But what we did...I'm so sorry. But you can still change it. And you have to."

Hoshi's breaths came out in ragged sobs. Before she knew what was happening, she was in his embrace, locked in a fierce and passionate kiss, one everlasting kiss that seared his memory to her heart. She felt their tears mingle, their faces molded into one. And then, she felt him slip away from her, felt her world slip away from her grasp.

"Charlie..." she whispered, moving away from him.

His hands were cold, but the smile was still on his bruised lips.

Hoshi Sato stood from her lover's body, her face distorted with grief.

She ran towards the gateway, leaping into the portal.

Her last thought was of the three men who had given up everything for her, forsaking love, careers, wars, and even the fate of the universe.

All for her.

She was determined to save them all.

Enterprise: May 19, 2154

Hoshi Sato sat sullenly at her console, oddly unaware of the daily bustle around her. She sighed for the eleventh time in five minutes, her fingers rubbing her temples in an effort to soothe her growing headache. She was so focused on relieving her headache that she didn't even notice Captain Archer walking over to her.

"Hoshi? Are you feeling all right?" he said softly, concern clearly written on his face.

Wow, I must really look like hell, Hoshi thought bemusedly, lifting her head to smile at him.

"I'm fine, sir."

Jonathan Archer gave her a knowing look, tilting his head expectantly. Hoshi sighed. It was no use lying to the man; he had known her for too long to be deceived by her innocent looks.

Occasionally though, she thought to herself, I can still fool him. But today, she was too tired to bother. Strong Hoshi will be back tomorrow. Right now, tired Hoshi doesn't really care.

"Okay, so I'm slightly stressed."

"What's the problem?"

"The Eshian language."

Archer glanced at the screen at her console, not sure of what he was looking at.

"What's wrong with it?"

Hoshi sighed in frustration, leaning forward to prop her arms up, her hands covering her face.

"That's just the problem. There's no 'it.' The Eshians have over two hundred dialects, each with a different syntax and structure. The slightest variance in pronunciation and spelling can utterly change the meaning of the word. I can't seem to isolate them; they just keep blending together. It's probably the most complex language I've seen in a while...or maybe I'm just losing my touch."

Archer sighed.

The Enterprise had been orbiting the M-Class planet Eshe in the Feyikemi system for two days, taking scans of the planet and recording local speeches in order for the UT, and Hoshi, to get a fix on the language. Eshe was a pre-warp planet rich in mining ores, and as such, most of the planet was covered with mines and factories. Deep scans revealed a wealth of materials beneath the surface, along with underground caverns of crystal rock and deep wells going miles down. The Vulcan Database had no record of the system.

Archer had been delighted to come across the planet, but he had managed to refrain from going down, allowing Hoshi more time to study the language. However, after two days, even he was beginning to lose his patience.

"Well, have you gotten anything yet?"

Hoshi nodded, though her expression was still frustrated.

"I've managed to translate a few lines from one of the villages, but with all the variations, I can't be sure I'm piecing the information together correctly."

Archer nodded in reply.

"Okay, what have you got so far?"

Hoshi glanced at her console and played a piece of the conversation she had recorded earlier.

"-E taiinw dtid dtai Haic'adevil ec'a juerj du bai-

"What does it mean?" Archer asked.

"Something about a tri-solar eclipse. Apparently, every 50 or so years, the three moons of the system line up perfectly and cover the sun, right about here," she pointed to a map on her screen.

"The Eshians still follow an ancient tradition of celebrating the nine-day period of darkness, which is called Dtai Kaic'adevil uh dtai C'adinnc'a Fnumenc'a-ai, or roughly translated, The Festival of the Lover's Promise". It involves some sort of ritual to summon a "prophet" in order to learn the wisdom of love."

Archer raised an eyebrow, almost perfectly imitating T'Pol.

"So...what else did the locals say?"

Hoshi turned back to her console.

"Something about the date of the festival. And I'm not sure, but I think the words mle-aidt and laijairw mean something like "myth" or "legend". Apparently, there's a story behind the eclipse."

"If I am not mistaken, Captain, it is very similar to the Earth story of Romeo and Juliet."

All eyes turned to T'Pol, who had spoken up from her seat.

"T'Pol? You know of the story?"

Archer glanced at Hoshi, his eyebrow raised even more.

"I believe so. In my earlier travels I encountered a similar planet by the name of Zygaron. Their peoples had a festival resembling that of the Eshians, celebrating a day of darkness they called "The Day of the Everlasting Promise"."

"Why would you say that they're related?" Archer asked.

"They might not be, Captain." T'Pol replied calmly. "However, I recall that while Zygaron only has one moon, their myth and festival involved the rare appearance of a tri-solar eclipse."

"And that's unusual?" Travis piped up.

T'Pol nodded.

"It is extremely rare for orbiting moons to arrange in a perfect line, and in this instance, three moons is almost unheard of."

"You say you encountered the Zygaronian festival?" Archer asked. "What was it about?"

"Yeah, how does the story go?" Travis added, interested.

"I do not know much, except that it revolves around a doomed love. A man and a woman in love were torn apart by the impending destruction of the world, and the man sacrifices himself to save the woman and the world."

"Sounds like a good ol' sappy romance film to me."

Commander Charles Tucker III's cheery voice rang throughout the bridge. Hoshi smiled warmly at him, her eyes sparkling at his presence.

T'Pol stared at the commander impassively, tilting her head in recognition.

"Perhaps," she said.

"Commander, what brings you to the bridge?" Archer asked, moving away from Hoshi's console.

Trip grinned broadly at Archer, winking.

"I, uh, have those engineering schematics you were asking me for."

"Oh." Archer grinned back. "Okay, thanks, Trip. Bring it to my ready room. All senior staff, please follow me. Ensign Rayes, please take over for Ensign Mayweather."

Curious, Hoshi stood from her console and stepped in line with Malcolm and Travis. As she entered the room, she saw Dr. Phlox already standing in the back. He smiled brightly at her, then turned his attention to the Captain, who began speaking.

"As most of you know, we've been out on this mission for almost two years now. Lots of disasters and triumphs have occurred along the way."

"Not to mention a lot of bumps and bruises," Malcolm added.

"It's your own fault, you know," Trip replied, grinning. "No one told you to go get shot on every away mission."

Archer laughed with the rest of the crew but raised a hand to silence them.

"Yes, I suppose that's true. But as I was saying, I think that we've learned to work together not only as a team, but as a family. Each one of us is vitally important to this mission, to this family, but I'd like to propose a toast to one special individual whom we could not do without. No matter how much we could try, we just wouldn't be able to live without her. And as fitting, we celebrate her birthday today."

Hoshi gazed around the room, confused.

Birthday?

Her eyes widened as she realized everyone was smiling at her, and she felt her cheeks grow pink as Archer placed his hand on her shoulder.

She had completely forgotten her own birthday.

"Happy Birthday, Hoshi!" They all screamed in unison, even T'Pol, though she looked fairly confused. Trip, ever smiling, brought forth a giant cake laced with chocolate and strawberry icing, on which was written, "Happy 27th Birthday, Hoshi!".

Tears filled Hoshi's eyes as she accepted hugs and kisses from her fellow crewmen, her friends. Archer enveloped her in a tight embrace, whispering, "You're the best, Hosh. Don't worry about the Eshians for now."

Trip lifted her up and spun her around the room, kissing her cheek and saying, "We all love ya, darlin'."

Finally, Malcolm gave her kiss on the forehead and whispered, "Happy Birthday, Hoshi."

Hoshi could not have been happier.