"So..." Emily said, laying on her cot and playing with the pendant of the necklace that she had pulled out from under her dress not long after Archer entered her cell, "Soong figured it out.
He's smarter then I gave him credit for."

"He should know." Archer said, refusing the chair that had been offered him. Though he knew he shouldn't be inside the cell, somehow he found himself there. Emily didn't seem dangerous,
not really. "He says you're not one of his though."

"No, I'm not." Emily sat up, drawing her knees to her chest. Gone now was her Vulcan like demeanor. Rather there seemed to be something she longed to say. "You're not going to believe me though. Not really."

"Why not?"

"Because everyone thinks that the Botany Bay is a myth."

Silence. Just for half a minute dead silence hung between them. Then Emily spoke again.

"I wish it was a myth, then I wouldn't exist. I was born on it. And don't call me an Augment, I prefer the term Eugenic. It reminds me of what I should never allow myself to become. Power hungry - evil." With a sudden bound of nervous energy she was up and began pacing. "I know what you're thinking. If I'm a Eugenic why am I fat? There's something no one seems to know.
When two of our kind - breed - it's, it's like two first cousins breeding. Even if they come from totally different gene pools, for some reason when there's two of us it results in all sorts of various deformities. To keep it quiet they tend to kill off the deformed and keep only the ones that are healthy. Even two first cousins can have one or two that are normal. My deformity is I retain weight. I can starve - I've been starved - and still be fat. For this my biological parents were cruel, abusive. Our leader, Khan Noonian Singh, did his best to stop them. Finally, as we were passing through Vulcan space, he put me into an escape pod. I like to think he was doing it to save me, but sometimes I wonder if he only hoped to distract Vulcans nearby who were scanning the system. Because by this time Vulcans and humans were getting along. They decided after seeing me, seeing what had been done to me, hearing my story from my own lips that they would not turn me over to humans. So I was raised Vulcan. I grew up on Vulcan. Until I went to stop Soong from being taken by the Romulans I've never seen earth. I was even married to a Vulcan."

During this, Archer finally sat down, hoping that by pretending to be calm he could somehow calm down Emily who had grown increasingly more agitated. There was something she was trying to tell him and he knew that if she was to do it, he'd have to not interrupt her monologue.
However he had to ask once question. "I thought that the crew of the Botany Bay went into stasis."

"We'd switch off, at least the adults did. The only time they'd be in complete stasis is when near ships so life signs would be unreadable." Now she took off the necklace, opening the pendant. It was a locket. Inside was two pictures. One of an older male Vulcan. The other of a younger one.
He had his father's hair and pointed ears, but his mother's intense grey eyes.

"My husband, K'ell, and our son - K'Lhan. The Romulans killed K'ell three years ago. They kidnaped K'Lhan one month ago." Now the truth was coming out. "Mother - my real one, the one who adopted me, told me that sometimes to be a good parent means throwing logic out the window. However, I realized a few minutes after I took off with Soong this wasn't one of those times. See, I was going to trade Soong for my son - but I know with him being half - half whatever I am the Romulans will want to use him. Perhaps dissect him." A sob caught in her throat. "So I asked Soong whom he trusted. He told me you."

"Wonderful." Archer couldn't help keeping the sarcasm out of his voice. It wasn't that he didn't feel for Emily. It was that he knew he couldn't not help her. He thought his mission was all nicely wrapped up because Soong and his kidnaper had walked right into his hands. Instead,
Archer now had to do a rescue mission.

Because Soong trusted him.

Damn Soong anyway, the son of a bitch.

Running a hand through his brown hair, betraying the stress he suddenly felt, Archer sighed.
"Alright. We'll go save K'Lhan. In the meantime - I'll have you moved to some regular quarters.
We can't have your boy see you in a cell. However, you can't wander willy nilly about the ship."

"I won't Captain. If you wanted me to travel outside the ship the entire time, I'd gladly do it for my boy."

Archer nodded, though not a father, he could understand the sentiment. Honestly, wouldn't he do anything to save Porthos? His dog? Though one might argue a dog and a child were not the same, to a pet owner they were.

"Have you ever had earth food?"

"No," Emily said. "I've read about it in earth books though."

"Reading's not the same as experiencing." Archer said with a wry smile. "I make it a point to have dinner at least once with everyone on my ship. Consider this your official invite."

Emily smiled and put her necklace back on. "I'd be honored, Captain."