Chapter 2
T'Pol crossed her arms in front of her and defiantly lifted her chin while standing eye to eye with Captain Archer. "I believe it is ill advised to leave Enterprise at this critical time Captain."
Jonathan Archer was getting ready to board the shuttlecraft. Truth be told, he just needed to get away for a couple of hours. The Enterprise was escorting a small contingent of future Federation representatives to Earth. They were from the planets of Andor and Tellar and were to be part of the initial group of delegates who were laying down the groundwork for the upcoming conferences. These discussions would hopefully lead to the formation of the Federation of Planets.
So far the trip had been a study in frustration. Archer felt that for the last several days all he had been doing was putting out fires between the two groups. They argued all the time. They argued about the temperature aboard the ship, the food in the replicators and even the scent each other possessed.
Jonathan needed some time in total silence to collect his thoughts and prepare for the upcoming conference. His nerves were shot and he figured a couple of hours by himself in the shuttle, away from everything would help to calm him down.
"T'Pol I know you feel like I shouldn't leave, but I need some quiet time. I need some space. Can you understand that?"
T'Pol the female Vulcan Sub-Commander who was both the Science & First Officer of the Enterprise NX-01, pursed her lips and took a deep breath. "I will respect your wishes Captain." Although she knew that escorting this group to the conference was important, she also knew that Archer was even more stubborn than she and that continuing to argue the point with him would be fruitless.
Archer grabbed the packed lunch from his bed and nodded to T'Pol as he strode out his door. "Take care of my cargo, Commander, " he uttered as he disappeared around the corner.
Archer entered the shuttle bay and proceeded to the nearest shuttle pod. After boarding and settling himself he addressed engineering. "Shuttle pod 2 to engineering, open docking bay for release."
"Trip here Captain. Docking bay doors opening. Stay close and keep in touch."
Archer deftly maneuvered the craft once it was released. The controls felt familiar beneath his fingers, and after laying in a parallel course to the Enterprise, he took a deep sigh and leaned back in his seat preparing for some peace and quiet.
Jonathan closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths and began to relax his body. He opened his eyes and what he saw made him gasp and grab for the controls. The Enterprise was gone and directly in front of him was a male figure standing in what appeared to be a doorway.
Archer gritted his teeth and frantically began altering the course of the pod in an effort to avoid hitting the apparition. With the change in direction, the position of the figure changed also so that he was once again directly in front of the Captain and he was on a direct collision course. Again and again Archer made the necessary modifications in the crafts' trajectory but each and every time the strange figure would present itself suspended in space directly in front of the shuttle pod.
Finally, Archer shutdown the engines and hung in space contemplating the image and trying to formulate a plan.
As Archer stared at the doorway with the figure of the male standing in the threshold, the image began to move closer and closer to the small ship until it appeared mere feet from the hull.
"What the hell?" Archer muttered trying to make some sense of what he was looking at.
As he sat staring, the figure simply walked through the hull of the ship and stood alongside Archer. Mouth agape, Jonathan once again muttered, "What the hell?"
"The hell it isn't". It's your new reality. What do you think?"
"I think I must be dreaming or dead. I can't explain what is happening?" Archer hissed through clenched teeth.
"Well my dear Captain, I can explain. In fact I think it's quite fun. I'm sure once you get into it, you will find it as much fun."
Without warning, Archer found himself sitting in another shuttle pod, but this time the controls were sleek, the pod itself was large and there were computer readouts that Archer couldn't explain. "Where the hell am I?" he asked the empty space of his surroundings while at the same time looking around and still trying to determine what was happening.
"We are still within Federation space.''
"Who's that talking?" Archer asked while looking around the pod and trying desperately to get his bearings?
"You posed a question and I answered you."
"Who are you?"
"The computer."
"Computers talk now?"
"Computers have been answering voice queries for one hundred and thirty six years.''
"One hundred and thirty six years?" Archer's voice was a mere hush. "What year is it now?" he asked fearing what the answer might be?
"Today's Earth date is 2370." The computer succinctly responded.
"2370? That's 216 years from this morning. What's going on? How did I get here?"
"You have occupied this shuttlecraft for approximately 6.25 minutes."
"Where did I come from?" Archer asked, hoping for some kind of explanation.
The computer hesitated, and finally answered, "Planet of origin not known".
"Earth, I'm from Earth. I was born in 2115. Archer. Jonathan Archer."
"Jonathan Archer lived during the early years of the 23rd. century. He died…"
"Stop. Computer stop! I don't want to know. I don't understand how I got here or why."
Archer heard the alarms at the same time the lights in the shuttle flickered on and off indicating a red alert was established.
"Now what the hell's happening?"
"We are approaching a space vortex approximately 50 meters off the starboard bow. Immediate action should be taken to avoid this anomaly."
"Computer, change course to avoid the vortex immediately." Archer grabbed the seat handles as his small craft began to shake."
"Unable to comply," came the unemotional reply.
"Change course now." Archer yelled at the same time as he was trying to use the strange new computer controls.
"Unable to comply," the computer repeated.
The small craft was shaking wildly and Archer was afraid it would break apart. "Computer, get us out of here!"
"Unable to comply. We are 32 meters from entering the vortex."
Archer was trying everything he could think of to change the course and sure destruction of the shuttlecraft. Unfortunately everything he tried that logically should have saved him was simply not working.
Archer made a silent prayer and simply watched as the vortex opened wide and swallowed the craft.
