Chapter 3

Absolute silence ran over the bridge. All that could be heard was the humming from the ship and the breathing of the command crew. Archer himself looked at each person on the bridge with a look of fear on his face. The silence continued for a few moments before Acher turned toward Maywhether.

"Travis I want that viewscreen online," he ordered. Travis immediately went to work trying to bypass damaged circuits and divert power so that the screen would start to work. A minute later a slightly static filled picture of the stars showed on the screen. With some more tinkering the screen cleared up and to the casual observer, there was nothing wrong. Travis Maywhether, on the other hand, knew something was wrong and he stated it.

"Sir, the stars. They aren't where they are supposed to be." Archer glanced toward T'pol before moving toward the helm. Travis continued. "There are also stars that shouldn't be there."

"T'pol could we have gone back in time? And don't give me that crap about time travel being impossible just give me an answer." T'pol went to work with what little sensors she had before returning her gaze to Archer.

"The stars do correspond with star charts of that period however there are stars that shouldn't exist in this time period," she explained. Then a voice that everyone on the bridge of the Enterprise had momentarily forgotten spoke up.

"You believe you travelled through time?" Captain Schumer asked through the audio communication. Archer was quiet before answering.

"It wouldn't be the first time we have done so. We have had several different encounters with time travel," he replied.

"There is actually someone here in the fleet that has some experience as well. Give me a moment to contact him," Schumer stated before the line went dead. A new voice spoke up that sounded a bit more battle hardened than Captain Schumer.

"This is General John Sheppard of Pegasus Command. I hear you've had some temporal mishap?" The slight hint of hilarity could be heard in John's voice that Archer quickly picked up on. He thought he would be annoyed yet he was somewhat relaxed at the fact that this man wasn't as uptight seeming as Schumer.

"Hello General. My name is Captain Johnathan Archer of the starship Enterprise. We were told you have had some experience with temporal anomalies and that you could help us out."

"I have run into one that sent me 10,000 years into the future after a solar flare interfered with the Stargate wormhole." Archer and his crew all raised eyebrows as the same question buzzed through their heads.

"If I may ask, what exactly is a Stargate?" The silence had returned for another moment before Sheppard broke it.

"Wow, Schumer was right. You are strange. You haven't heard of us, the Tau'ri, which, while rare, is still slightly believable but the fact that you haven't heard of the Stargate makes it almost impossible to believe. What planet are you from exactly?"

"Most of my crew are humans from the planet Earth while I have one Vulcan and one Denobulan on board. Where are you from?" Travis turned the ship with what little power he had so that they would be facing the Prometheus. The ship was an odd design as it didn't share the aerodynamic figure of other starships that Maywhether had seen before. He could also see some other similarly designed vessels slowing down as they approached the battered and beaten Starfleet vessel.

"I believe you are mistaken as to where you are from. The only vessel named Enterprise that I know of is the carrier that is currently in orbit of Earth as part of the defense fleet. There is also no record of an alien species called Vulcan or Denobulan anywhere in the Milky Way."

"How can you possibly know that?" Archer asked slightly frustrated.

"I looked in our database Captain. No planet within Tau'ri borders is called by those names and no other planets that aren't under our control share those names either. Neither the Asgard nor the race we call the Ancients ever had a planet named Vulcan or Denobula," Sheppard explained calmly hoping to ease the growing tension.

"Is it possibly that you haven't run across either planet yet?"

"That's highly unlikely. While the Tau'ri only control about twenty-five percent of the Milky Way, the rest is controlled by the other powers and we all share star charts, for the most part. Ours are a bit more complete, however, as we gained maps from the Asgard and Ancient races. Both races had completely charted the Milky Way so finding a planet here that isn't on our charts is almost impossible." Archer's head was spinning. He figured there was a chance that General Sheppard was lying entirely yet Archer could tell he wasn't by how strongly his words were spoken. He was trying to figure out what was happening when T'pol raised her voice

"Captain, if I may, I believe I have a theory. It is entirely possible, due to current evidence, that we are in what humanity calls a parallel universe. A universe that took a much more drastic turn than our own and evolved in its own way. I believe we are talking with humans from this universe's Earth," she explained. Archer's eyebrows rose. He has seen time travel before with Crewman Daniels but an entirely different universe where humanity has already settled in the stars almost a century before his deep space exploration mission. He returned his gaze to the view screen to see the Tau'ri starships sitting idle right in front of his ship as he heard General Sheppard speak.

"I also have experience with universe hopping if that helps, but I suggest we place all of this on hold. According to our readings your ship is heavily damaged and we are not that far away from the Valhalla Dockyard. Give me a moment to speak with General Carter at Earth to explain the situation and send a message to Pegasus explaining my delay." The line cut out with a small click and it gave everyone the opportunity to process this new information. They were in the past in a different universe. There was no training for the situation they were in and they were already pretty unprepared when it came to their mission to find the Xindi and that was made obvious by the state of the Enterprise.

Archer himself actually needed to sit down in his chair to ponder about this new information. He was wondering about what opportunities this could present, but then a worrying thought came up. One that chilled him down to the bone.

How would they get home?

Author's NoteI apologize for how late this chapter is. I meant to finish this sooner but the end of the school year has been frantic. Thank you for your patience. I stated last chapter that I would be using ship designs from another story. Please note this is NOT a sequel or spin-off of that story and I will have my own twists as with the Daedalus II class starships. Thank you for reading and have a good day.