"The Fairest One of All" CHAPTER NINE



A week passed since Charlie had given birth, and Tucker spent most of the intervening time recuperating and getting to know his beautiful daughter better, but the others didn't just sit on their rumps for the entire 168 hours. Plans were made, weapons readied and details attended to.

Finally, when Charlie was fit enough for action, the crew gathered together at the transporter dais and began to prepare for their assault. Malcolm, Travis and Archer concealed phase pistols within their simple alt-universe crew robes, but it had been decided that Charlie would pass on carrying a weapon.

Malcolm hadn't had time to check him out on the pistol thoroughly since the armory officer had been too busy teaching the engineer hand to hand combat, which Archer deemed was more important. Three phase pistols, and a healthy supply of Dr. Phlox's patented instant tranquilizer would be armament enough.

Besides, Charlie had his hands full at the moment. The engineer was holding his daughter tight. While he was confident that Archer's plan was going to work, a part of him was deathly afraid that he would never see his little girl again.

Archer felt a pang of guilt, not certain if he really wanted to put a brand new parent through what was to come. "Charlie, are you sure you want to do this?"

"I'm sure." Holding Annabelle like this only strengthened his resolve. "I appreciate all the help you've given me Cap'n, and I appreciate what you're about to do, but you're not goin' in alone. This is my fight too." The confidence in Tucker's voice laid Archer's fears to rest. The engineer was ready.

Tucker may have been prepared for battle, but that didn't mean that Charlie wasn't a little reluctant to hand his brand new baby over to Phlox's charge. "You'll take good care of her, won't you? If anythin' goes wrong, I mean"

"You have my word." The doctor promised.

Charlie gestured to a bag, chock full of baby stuff, that was resting at his feet. "Here's enough formula to last a week, an' you gotta change her diaper every three hours or so. Make sure to use plenty of lotion when you do, I don't want her to get diaper rash."

"I understand, Commander." Phlox calmly let Charlie give the orders, even though the doctor was the one who taught Charlie about the intricacies of baby care only a few short weeks ago. Phlox didn't bring this fact to the commander's attention. He knew how worried the new father was.

"Now remember," Charlie went on, not having actually let go of the child yet. "If she gets frisky she likes to be bounced, not rocked."

"All right."

"But if she gets cranky she likes to be rocked, not bounced."

"Commander!" While sympathetic, the doctor had heard enough. If Phlox let Tucker ramble on they could be here all day. "I've taken care of dozens of babies for dozens of years. Don't worry, Annabelle will do just fine here."

"I know she will." Charlie sighed, and kissed his daughter one more time. "I love you my little girl." He whispered. Then Tucker forced himself to do the hardest thing he had even done up until that point. He let Phlox take his child out of his arms.

Tucker simply watched the doctor hold his baby for a moment, then steeled up his courage and joined his team. The fight to win a home for Annabelle was about to begin.

**********

Trip took his place at the banquet table. It was his first appearance at dinner since the night Archer beat the crap out of him and fortunately the engineer had been able to keep a low profile in the interim. Most people assumed he was overcome with grief at the loss of his baby, and he did nothing to sway that opinion.

It also helped that Enterprise hadn't run across any inhabited worlds to plunder, so Archer hadn't been able to keep his promise to kidnap a baby for Trip to play with. Something for which the engineer was eternally grateful.

The banquet began and Trip had to force himself to ignore the sight of Archer ripping apart another pig. The engineer concentrated on his own "scrumptious" repast of swill, and somehow managed to get through the meal. After dinner Trip sat back and relaxed. He knew that this time he was really gonna enjoy the entertainment.

That night the games started off simply enough. Two crew members wrestled for the right to settle a dispute, then another fought Malcolm and lost as punishment for some sort of infraction, real or imagined. Still, by the time the dancers came in Trip was beginning to get a little worried. It wouldn't be long before Archer chose his companion for the evening. Then the entertainment would be over, and so would their chances.

It seemed to Trip that the performers had just started to dance, but before he knew it they finished up their routine and Archer had come down to make his first inspection. Hoshi stayed well in the back of the group, trying to keep out of the captain's gaze. Smart girl. Archer was so engrossed with checking out the women that he didn't notice when four figures, dressed in hooded robes slipped into the room. He didn't notice, but Trip did. The engineer smiled when he got a good look at one of the faces peering out from behind the hood. That was the confirmation that he needed and Trip got to his feet.

"Wait!"

Archer sighed at the distraction and turned to face the engineer. "What is it with you, Little Mother? Must you interfere with my every romance?"

"Damn straight!" Trip said, walking around the table. "I'm gonna make sure you don't molest any of those girls anymore."

"Oh?" Archer raised his eyebrows at the affront. "And exactly how are you going to do that?"

Trip took a deep breath. This was the moment that he'd been waiting for ever since he set foot on this deck plating and the engineer didn't hesitate. "I'm challengin' you for the right to be cap'n of this ship!"

"What?" Archer and his comrades burst out laughing. This little wimp of a man had the gaul to think that he could actually fight the great Jonathan Archer for leadership of Enterprise and win? Ridiculous!

Archer's buddies may have thought that Trip's challenge was only a small diversion to the regular floor show, but the dancers recognized trouble brewing when they saw it and ran for cover, leaving the two alone in the ring.

"You heard me." Trip made his words very clear so Archer would have no choice but to understand. "I'm invokin' the Cap'n's Challenge, as is my right as a member of this crew! You can't refuse."

"Oh, I have no intention of refusing." Egged on by his crowd, Archer began to swagger around the ring. The captain was sure that he could wipe the deck with this mousy engineer by using only one hand. "You do know this is a fight to the death, don't you?"

Trip nodded. "Who's death remains to be seen."

Archer laughed again. "My, my. You're grief must have snapped your mind, Little Mother. I told you I was going to get another baby for you to play with. You should have been content with that."

Trip ground his teeth, but was glad that he didn't have to restrain his anger anymore. "Only one thin' will make me content, Jonathan Archer and that's seein' your ass kicked all across this floor." Trip put up his dukes. "So, let's do it!"

The sight of his previously meek and quiet engineer suddenly turned into a dynamo was such a shock that Archer still couldn't quite believe it. "You're not actually serious?"

"Oh, I see. You're afraid to take me on." Trip mocked the captain, deliberately trying to get Archer mad. "You think I'll win so you're stallin'."

"That's ridiculous!" Trip's strategy began to work. Archer was being embarrassed in front of his crew, and that was something that the captain couldn't allow to continue. "You're going too far, Little Mother."

"Not far enough!" Trip taunted. "So, why are you just standin' there? Come on, take a swing at me. Or are you a coward?"

That did it. No one, but no one, ever called the captain a coward. Furious, Archer charged forward, intending to crash into the engineer and smash him to the deck. Trip saw him coming and simply stepped out of the way, planting a right hook in the captain's mid-section as he passed.

Archer gasped as the blow impacted his left side. Thrown off balance, the captain lost his footing and crashed to the ground.

Oh, that felt good. Even though Trip's knuckles hurt a little after the punch, it was such a relief to be able to unleash his pent up fury, and Archer looked so pathetic laying there all stretched out on his ass. Finally. Payback.

Archer's buddies didn't think the picture was so inviting. Even though they just saw it they still couldn't believe it. Tucker had knocked the captain to the ground. Archer actually couldn't believe it either. Infuriated, he climbed to his feet and charged the engineer again.

This time Trip deliberately stayed put, allowing the captain to grapple him. The two men struggled for a few minutes, making it look like a real fight to the spectators, but as Trip predicted, Archer had no skill, no finesse and it was easy for Trip to parry most of the punches.

Malcolm had seen enough. He could tell that Archer was losing the fight, for the first time in his life, and the security officer was determined not to let it happen. He started to get off of the dais and hop into the fray when a hooded figure stopped him.

"I wouldn't do that mate." Malcolm froze at the sound of the voice, his voice, coming out from the hood before him. He looked up and saw... himself, smiling at him. Shocked to the very core, all Reed could do was stand there and stare as the apparition began to speak. "You don't really want to interfere with the fight, do you?" The ghost or whatever it was had some sort of alien looking weapon pointed at him, and gestured for Malcolm to sit back down. "I know we both want this to be a fair contest."

Helpless, the security officer turned to Travis for aid, but Mayweather had troubles of his own. Another Travis had appeared from nowhere and held the helmsman immobilized. Who were these strangers, Malcolm wondered, and where the hell was his bodyguard? The armory officer looked around and saw that their guards, the people who were supposed to be protecting them from assaults like these, were apparently asleep.

White fury assailed the armory officer. Ohh, Somebody was going to pay for this, dearly! But before he could get too far along in planning his revenge, the nudge of the strange weapon knocked Reed back into the present. The ghost was gesturing, wanting him to sit down. Helpless, Reed had no choice but to comply. He couldn't help his captain now. This time, Archer was on his own.

Fighting by himself, against a real opponent for the first time in his life, Archer discovered that he wasn't doing so well. The captain had only managed to land a couple of punches on Tucker, while the engineer was able to get by his own defenses and inflict a considerable amount of damage. How, he didn't know. Archer had never seen this kind of fighting before. What he did know was that he was losing, and the thought that this lowly engineer could take his ship sent waves of rage flowing throughout his soul.

Seeing Archer's wrath level rise higher and higher, Trip positioned himself so that, this time when the captain lunged at him, the engineer allowed himself to be propelled to the right. Then Archer pushed him over one of the tables, knocking him clear to the other side. A cheer went up from the captain's buddies and Archer felt a moment of triumph. Maybe he was going to win after all.

Maybe not.

Trip laid still, and it took him a few seconds to gather up his wits enough to notice that he wasn't alone. Someone was crouched down next to him. "Charlie?" His counterpart nodded and quickly took off his robe, revealing that both Tuckers were dressed in the same clothes. "Are you sure you wanna do this?" Trip whispered.

"You bet. This is my fight and I've gotta finish it." Charlie gestured to Trip to stay put and then vaulted back over the table.

The captain, proclaiming victory once again, was receiving the accolades from his friends and cohorts when Charlie hopped back into the ring. The engineer's reappearance may have cut into Archer's claims of conquest, but even so the captain's ego had been restored to it's pre-fight high level. Archer had conveniently forgotten about his difficulties earlier, and he was confident that he would make quick work out of the engineer. "So, you're back for more, Little Mother?"

"I'm back to finish this, once and for all." Charlie vowed, then the engineer leaped on Archer with a ferocity the captain had never seen before. With years of pent up anger as motivation, combined with the fighting techniques that Malcolm had taught him on the other side, Archer was no match for Charlie. Not anymore.

"This is for Danny." Charlie hit the captain. "An' Hoshi." Another punch. "An' the Denobulan's." Again another hit. Tucker continued to list every person that Archer had ever wronged, battering the man again and again. Finally, when the captain was just tottering on his feet, Charlie threw a right hook with everything he had. "An' this for my baby!" The hit connected, hard, and that was it. Archer went down and stayed down.

A gasp echoed throughout the hall and all movement ceased. No one could believe it. The great Jonathan Archer was down. The captain had actually been beaten. The stunned silence hung in the air for what seemed like hours. Then, as if a damn burst, the members of regular crew who had been oppressed for so long began to chant. "Kill him! Kill him!" The request billowed throughout the room as the pent up emotions of good people abused beyond endurance came to a head.

Charlie planted a foot on the ex-captain's neck. The moment he had dreamed of for so long had come and his enemy had been defeated by his own hand. It was time for retribution, still he hesitated. Why? He so wanted to crush this evil Archer, the way he had crushed so many others, yet when Charlie glanced at his friends gathered together at the side of the ring, Tucker knew that they wouldn't approve of his retaliation.

Over the last month Charlie had come to look at the captain and the others as an example of the right way to behave, and even though they had engineered this mutiny, the distaste of violence was clearly etched on their faces. Then he looked down at his former captain and saw something that he never expected to see. Fear. Archer was actually afraid of him.

After a long, slow moment Charlie removed his foot from Archer's neck, then gestured to Reed and Travis to come forward and take hold of the coughing despot.

The taunts turned to yells of displeasure as the crowd realized that Charlie was going to let Archer go. "No! I'm not gonna kill him!" Tucker bellowed louder than the chants, drowning them out. "If I kill Archer now then I'm just as bad as he is!" Everyone could hear the ring of command clearly in Charlie's voice and it began to quiet the crowd. "I'm tired of all of the terror an' all of the killin'. I've learned that there is another way to live. A better way."

The murmurs died down a little, but not completely. Charlie raised his voice again. "We're not gonna live in fear for our lives everyday, and we're not gonna hurt other people either. From this moment on, Enterprise is no longer part of the Terran Empire. We're gonna make our own way an' build a life on this ship where we can have friends, families an' raise our children in a happy, healthy environment." He looked around and made eye contact with every member of his new crew that was in the room. "We're gonna live in peace!"

The muttering died down and the crew looked around uncertainly. They wanted to believe, but were afraid to. Then, after a few long seconds, Charlie saw hope appear, for the first time, on more than a few faces.

The new captain smiled. He knew they still had a long way to go, but it was a start.




To be continued......