Even though her eyes had not yet opened, Arianne could feel the intense coldness of the ship.
Ignoring the headache that probably came as a result of being hit in the back of the head, she opened her eyes to find herself strapped to a metal surface and looking up at a metal ceiling. Gazing down at her body, Arianne realized that her uniform jacket was off and her shirt was torn just below the breast. Her pants, fortunately, were still in place.
"Commander Archer, it's good to see you awake, we need to talk," a Xindi-Insectoid said, as he came into Arianne's view. "Ever since our weapon was destroyed, the Xindi race has been dying out and I need your help to fix that."
Oh, crap, this Xindi wants to make babies with me, Arianne thought, why does everyone want to do that?
"Look, I'm a happily married woman and I don't have any desire to change that," Arianne snapped, an angry look on her face. "Even if I WAS single, I certainly wouldn't have intercourse with a Xindi!"
Hissing, the Xindi-Insectoid undid Arianne's pants buckle, "Why, my dear, you are strapped to that table with no chance of escape," he said. "You have no choice in the matter and I will help save the Xindi race. Duras is a bloodthirsty Klingon and they will always survive, but the Xindi race cannot survivor forever."
However, before the Xindi-Insectoid could get any further, there was a laser blast and without warning, the alien fell over dead. Behind him, Arianne saw Jonathan and Tuvok rush into the room. After Tuvok destroyed the bindings with his phaser, Jonathan gently pulled his wife into his arms and held her. In turn, she buried his face in her arms.
Not wanting to be on the ship any longer, Tuvok had quickly gotten himself beamed to the NCC-1701 to meditate.
"Archer to the NX-01, beam myself and my wife on board," Jonathan said, as he tapped his commbadge. "I know that most of the crew has been beaming over to Kirk's ship, but we need to get aboard anyway."
As the two Archers held each other, they dematerialized off the ship. They were safe once again.
Down the hall, Duras, who had regained consciousness only to find both the female Captain and the Borg gone, shakily got to his feet and hurried towards the ship's bridge. This was definitely not over.
"Mr. Paris, Seven has been completely purged of her Borg implants," the Doctor, who was re-activated and severely dependent on his mobile emitter, said. "Do you mind telling me how she's still alive?"
Almost immediately after Tom had returned to the ship with Seven, he had found the Doctor's mobile emitter in the Sickbay. Since Phlox was nowhere to be found, Tom had activated it, only to find that the Doctor was now working.
In turn, the Doctor had explained that B'Elanna had managed to fix it during her time on New Vulcan and sensing that there would be a need for it, she had brought it along on this rescue mission, as there was a medic shortage.
"That's a hard one to explain, Doctor," Tom confessed. "Is it possible to try and wake her now?"
"I can handle this, Mr. Paris," the Doctor replied. "Go see if you can find Captain Janeway, as she never did get examined by anyone when she was brought back. If you can't find her, go do something useful."
Not surprised by the Doctor's brisk tone, as he had always seemed to have a soft spot for Seven, Tom quietly left.
Sighing, the Doctor injected Seven with a hypospray. Within seconds, Seven had opened her eyes.
"Doctor, I feel strange," Seven spoke in a quiet tone. "What has happened to me? I do not feel Borg anymore."
The Doctor blinked, "The Xindi extracted all of your Borg implants," he stated, trying to hide any emotion from his voice. "You are now fully human. I will help you cope with this, but for now, just stay here and accept treatment."
Seven, who was overwhelmed with everything that had happened, nodded, "Fully human," she quietly muttered to herself, as she allowed the Doctor to continue running tests and treating her.
Meanwhile, Captain Janeway, who had no desire to be anywhere near Sickbay, silently wandered the corridors, trying to figure out herself. After the whole experience with Duras, she was shaken to the point of potentially losing sanity.
Everyone was safe, but even so, Captain Janeway knew that she felt far from safe.
Even though nothing sexual had actually transpired, nor was she forced into marriage, Janeway, as she moved into a quiet, dimly-lit room, knew that she was far from okay and didn't know if she ever would be.
"Is someone else in here?" a male voice suddenly spoke from the corner of the room.
Shaking, Janeway smacked the nearest light switch. As the lights came on, she saw a man in a hover-chair at a table.
Seeing whom he recognized to be Captain Janeway, President Pike, who had been quietly enjoying a large mug of tea, smiled and motioned to the empty seat across from him. Janeway nodded and moved to join him at the table.
"Well, am I right in assuming that you are Captain Kathryn Janeway of the starship Voyager?" President Pike said, as he took another sip of tea. "I'm Admiral Christopher Pike, second President of the Federation."
"Christopher Pike?" Captain Janeway repeated. "I remember reading something about a Christopher Pike when I was in the Academy. Weren't you held hostage and tortured by that mad Romulan before being rescued?"
President Pike chuckled, "Yeah, that's how I ended up in this hover-chair." he explained, feeling strangely at ease around this woman. "I usually hate talking about it, but I feel comfortable discussing with it with you."
Captain Janeway smiled, feeling strangely attracted to this man. She had a strong feeling that it was a mutual attraction.
Placing his half-empty cup on the table, President Pike moved away from the table, "I know I sound like an Academy cadet, but would you like to go for a ride?" he shyly asked. "Just a simple ride down the corridor."
Nodding, as she wanted to feel good again, Janeway rose from her chair and carefully climbed on to President Pike's lap. President Pike smiled and as Captain Janeway rested her head on his shoulder, he hovered out of the mess hall.
There was no explanation as to what transpired during the ride in the corridors, as there was no need to speak.
The last thing that Captain Janeway and President Pike remembered was disappearing into the President's quarters.
Every other memory or consciousness vanished in the wake of an explosion of passion-filled, mutual safety.
"This is the only way, Arianne," Jonathan said, sadness in his voice. "We knew it would end sometime."
After beaming on to the NX-01, Jonathan and Arianne had quickly determined that in fear that the enemy ship would retaliate against them, all of the crew had beamed over to the NCC-1701. They were completely alone.
The prediction of the enemy ship retaliating wasn't far off, however, as Duras, who had lost his commander friend during the heat of the battle, had taken control of the ship and every few minutes, they were firing on the NX-01, hoping that the ship would either be destroyed, or that Jonathan would surrender to Duras.
Fortunately, despite the steady attacks on the ship, Jonathan and Arianne had gotten to the Bridge. While Arianne worked on maintaining the ship shields, Jonathan had promptly disappeared into his ready room.
It had been several moments before Jonathan had emerged, carrying a small stack of PADDs and a small box.
There was a solemn look on his face as he approached her. Suddenly, Arianne knew what was going to happen.
"Jonathan, NO," Arianne cried, tears beginning to run down her face. "It doesn't have to end this way."
Jonathan smiled, "If I stay on board, I can eject and detonate the warp core, destroying both ships," he explained, handing the PADDs and the box to his wife. "I'll be dead too, but the NCC-1701 will be safe."
As they left the Bridge and moved through the corridors, another explosion rocked the ship, this time slamming Arianne and Jonathan into the wall. Both knew that they were injured, but it was more obvious in Arianne, as her arm looked broken and there was blood on her face. Jonathan helped her up and they continued travelling.
Slowly, but surely, the Enterprise NX-01 was falling apart and would soon meet the end of its existence.
"Be sure to let Sickbay take a look at those injuries," Jonathan gently chided, as they entered the Transporter Room, which was in ruins. "I'll beam you to the Bridge…"
Arianne nodded and knowing that their time together was coming to an end, she wrapped her arms around Jonathan, "I love you so much, Jonathan," she cried. "I will never forget you for as long as I live."
Tears welling in his eyes, Jonathan held his wife for a moment, "Please take care of yourself and the kids, let them all know that their father loves them very much," he instructed, as he gently led his wife on to the transporter pad. "Don't stop living because I'm dead. You gave me a reason to keep going after the Trip's death, as I was seriously considering resigning my command, but you convinced me to live on, and I wanted you there with me, to motivate me every day. I am going to miss you, Imzadi. Please let our children know all about their father."
Arianne nodded, "Farewell, Imzadi," she sadly said.
Jonathan worked the transporter controls and after he pressed the energize button, he turned away.
Knowing that his legacy would live on forever despite his death, Jonathan headed off towards Engineering.
This was the only way to ensure that others could live on. It was up to him to defeat Duras and the Xindi alone.
"Woah, Commander Archer, what HAPPENED?!" Captain Kirk shouted, as he saw the bruised and bleeding Arianne materialize on the Bridge, looking as if her entire world was going to fall apart. "Spock, call medical down here!"
Ignoring Kirk's rants, Arianne looked to Sulu, "Sulu, get us a safe distance from the other ships then full stop and switch on the view screen to frontal view," she ordered, as she tried not to cry. "Do it, or I'll do it for you."
Sensing that it would not be wise to refuse her request, Sulu quickly moved the ship and, halting the ship, he switched on the requested view. Kirk was appalled when he saw the NX-01 jettison and send blasts at its warp core.
As the phaser blasts hit the warp core, Kirk came up beside Arianne, "Where's Admiral Archer?" he asked, realizing that someone had to be controlling the NX-01 manually. "Who's controlling the NX-01?"
Unable to watch the explosion, which had just occurred, any longer, Arianne turned away and moved to the exit door, nearly running into Doctor McCoy, who had been alerted to the need for a doctor on the Bridge. At the sight of Arianne, McCoy swore, but he was unable to stop her from leaving the bridge, her hands full of PADD's.
"Jim, what's going on?" McCoy asked, as he approached the command chair. "What happened to Commander Archer?" he asked, gazing out at the explosion. "WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?!"
Realizing that Admiral Archer had sacrificed his own life to save everyone else, Nyota buried her face into her console, which was noticed by Spock, who immediately took his mourning wife into his strong Vulcan arms.
"Bones, today is the end of an era," Jim spoke, trying to absorb what had just happened. "Admiral Archer just defeated Duras and the last of the violent Xindi in this Quadrant. We have lost a great man on this day."
Swallowing hard, McCoy quickly put the pieces together. No wonder Arianne was so upset, he thought.
"Spock, what's wrong?" Nyota shouted, suddenly noticing that Spock was losing consciousness. "Spock!"
Kirk turned his head just in time to see Spock, who had suddenly lost consciousness, hit the floor. Nyota screamed and Doctor McCoy swore, as he rushed over to the fallen Vulcan. What was going on?
"Chekov, tell Scotty to get whatever remains of the NX-01 he can and then take us out at half-impulse," Jim ordered, as McCoy and Nyota carried Spock from the bridge. "Turn that stupid view screen off, Sulu."
Knowing that the Captain was agitated, Sulu shut the view screen off. As the remaining Bridge crew worked to keep themselves from emotionally crumbling, all was eerily silent.
Unknown to anyone, three of the Klingons had escaped in a shuttle with the Xindi technology, to someday get revenge.
Duras was dead, as was the Xindi race, but that didn't mean that all their work would go to waste.