Seeing First Contact.
"How long d'ye think it's been since Daniels left us 'ere?" Trip asked while he was using a table as a seat and propped his feet up on a chair.
Archer sighed. He wished Trip wouldn't keep asking that. It seemed as if his friend couldn't go more than a minute without asking that question. The problem was Trip was one of those people who needed to be doing something constructive with his time. Archer didn't care about that. He was much the same, but he had learnt over the last few years to be patient and to accept things didn't happen instantaneously.
It seemed like an hour since Daniels had mysteriously left, but they couldn't be sure. He was about to say as much to the chief engineer, but someone got there before he did.
"We don't know, Trip. Face facts, without Daniels here we have no way of telling how much time has passed," Malcolm pointed out.
Hoshi walked around the holographic club. "I wonder who taught that guy manners. He always seems to appear and disappear when you don't want him to."
Travis glanced at T'Pol. "Do you have any idea how long we've been here?" He asked, knowing Vulcans and the mental disciplines allowed them to count seconds and minutes more effectively than humans. It was annoying, but T'Pol had grown a great deal and she no longer lauded her Vulcan superiority over the crew although even in the earliest days, she had been more modest than the average Vulcan.
"Do you mean since Daniels started this or when he left?" T'Pol wanted to specifically know.
"Since he left."
T'Pol was silent as she considered. "Daniel's left us an hour and 26 minutes, and 47 seconds ago," she answered.
"Least we know for certain," Trip looked down at his hands thoughtfully before he looked up again, "Daniels's seemed to know what was going on when the image froze. What do you think happened there?"
Phlox shrugged. Like Trip, he was sitting on one of the tables, but he wasn't draped over it like the chief engineer. "It seemed somebody else discovered what he had been doing, and they put a stop to it."
"Daniels has alluded to superiors before. He was told to prevent Silik and the Suliban from taking me off of Enterprise after that planetary massacre, but he instead dragged me into a ruined future where Earth was devastated," Archer pointed out, "and, again when he took me off of Degra's ship before we reached Sol to destroy the weapon, he showed me a scene from the future to stop me from boarding the weapon personally. He admitted he was telling me things about the future which would make others angry with him. I don't know what kind of consequences came from it, but I didn't care. When we were in that alternate timeline where Vosk had helped the Nazis I told Daniels to leave us alone for good. The only reason we're dealing with him again is that we travelled back here by accident."
"Mm, that's true," Hoshi agreed. "Personally I was hoping we would never have to deal with this stupid Temporal Cold War again."
"Agreed," T'Pol nodded. "However, I believe Daniel's will be back. He said he would be, and if his superiors are aware of what he is doing they will not leave us here."
Archer knew they were right. From what Daniels and Future Guy had implied on their meetings, his future and that of Earth was too important to meddle in, but it hadn't stopped some from trying - Future Guy and Vosk and the Guardians who manipulated Degra and the other members of the Xindi Council being the best examples - and Daniels was one of the people tasked with protecting history. No, they would not leave them here unless they were unimaginably reckless.
"Your faith in me is appreciated, Commander T'Pol," Daniels voice suddenly came out of nowhere and the Time Agent appeared in the holographic club. Archer was about to demand an explanation, and when he saw how tired and drawn the Time Agent's face was, he just stopped himself lashing out. The Time Agent looked…. Older, more drawn, as if he had suddenly aged a hundred years, but a lot of it was down to weariness. Whatever the Time Agent had been going through, whatever arguments he had gone through, they had been tiresome and draining on Daniels.
"What happened?" Archer asked.
Daniels sighed. "My superiors are not happy by your continual presence in 2063. They don't want you to see any more of the battle on the Enterprise E. It took some doing, but I managed to convince them to let you witness First Contact. It's history for you, and you can see it."
"If that's the case, why would it take some doing?" Phlox asked, looking probingly but curiously at the temporal agent.
Archer had to admit that was a good question and an excellent point, but he didn't say a word while he waited for Daniels to reply to the question.
"You have to understand that the Time War did more damage politically than what you might imagine. You have to bear in mind when time travel was first discovered, the idea of visiting the past and witnessing history unfolding opened a whole new frontier of exploration. With time travel technology, it was possible for scientists to witness events and meet people from the past, and seek a greater understanding of themselves.
"But it didn't take long for everyone to realise and to see the dangers behind time travel; in the 23rd and 24th centuries when people travelled into the past, they would make some minor change to the timeline which had dramatic effects on the future. When people travel back into the past, they create an alternate reality which is the universe's way of bypassing the Chronology protection conjecture, but the idea behind that terrifies people because anything can happen. That's why the Temporal Accords were set up. Right now, the scale of the Time War, the paradoxes and incursions which have created dozens of timelines, is causing a great debate in the government," Daniels explained.
"But what about Vosk, you claimed he was the one responsible for the war?"
"He was one of the reasons. When he travelled back in time, Vosk's time travel technology opened a conduit into the past, but it somehow bled into all of the other pasts, and it had an effect on the multiverse. When you destroyed the conduit he was building, Vosk's damage was undone, but the political ramifications were terrifying. Many people are now considering banning time travel for good."
"Perhaps that's for the best," Tucker shrugged.
That was a mistake.
Daniels sent the chief engineer a glare. "And what would happen if someone tried to change history? What if another time war broke out, and something like the Xindi attack occurred, only they were successful? I might have spoken in riddles, but can you really deny the fact I have helped you?"
Archer and the others couldn't say anything, because Daniels was right. He had helped them in the past, and if it wasn't for the temporal agent then they would never have proven their innocent during that mess with Paragaan 3, they would never have stopped the Xindi Reptilians, who aided by a Sphere Builder, travelled back in Earth's past and tried to create bioweapon to wipe out humanity when the Xindi Weapon endured delay after delay, and if it wasn't for Daniels then they would never have stopped Vosk.
But at the same time, Archer had to acknowledge his endless frustration whenever Daniels interfered or appeared when he was least wanted or expected. One of the most annoying instances had been as he, Malcolm, Hoshi and the more enlightened Xindi who had realised the Sphere Builders did not have their best interests at heart, raced after Dolim and his band of Xindi after they'd taken control of the weapon, and were planning on using it to attack Earth.
Daniels had appeared en-route. He had taken Archer to the future, seven years from the moment where he had been, and Archer saw a hint of his future and the future of Earth. Archer had been angry at the time because he had become so tired of being a pawn of the Temporal Cold War, of Daniels. But one of the reasons he had been angry with the temporal agent, and eventually led to him demanding Daniels and the others left him and his crew alone, was because he had had enough of it all. He had grown tired of the constant Temporal Cold War, the paradoxes, the games and he was tired of how he and his crew always seemed to be involved.
There was no doubt in his mind they weren't all the time involved, but he just wished Daniels had chosen his moments and realised that the Federation was not his priority when Earth was at stake. In Archer's mind, it did not exist yet although he could see the building blocks for its formation thanks to the cooperation between Starfleet, the Vulcans, the Tellarites, and the Andorians. But at the time, he had seen Daniels as a meddler, and he was causing more harm than he realised.
Who was Daniels to say the Federation or a version of it couldn't be formed by someone else? There were dozens of officials and Starfleet Captains who could do the same job, why did it have to be down to him?
But he could see Daniels point right now. While it was attractive the idea of time travel being banned so then the interference headed by Silik's boss didn't happen again, they could all see the drawback.
"No-one's doubting that, Daniels," Archer astonished himself by saying, "and I can see your point about time travel being a necessary evil as well as a necessary good, but you should see it from our point of view. Thanks to the Temporal Cold War, thousands of people are dead, events which were never meant to take place have taken place, even you can't deny it from our point of view."
"I know, Jonathan. Nobody is more than aware than I am about the effects of the Temporal Cold War, and I know you're right about the effects and now many people have died as a result of the Cabal's actions or the Xindi war, but you're forgetting or you haven't paid it any kind of thought at all; I have seen the Temporal Cold War affect dozens of time periods. I have seen whole races who were meant to rise either get wiped out or the event which changed everything for them and made them what they were meant to never happen. I saw it all. I saw how someone ensured the asteroid which crashed into Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs, preventing the rise of humanity. Do you know how that would have changed history? No, of course, you don't.
"I had to watch as someone gave an advantage to the Dominion during their war in the 24th century against the Federation which undid a thousand years of future history. Your time is not the only century, Jonathan."
"Dominion?" Hoshi asked curiously while Reed frowned at the thought of an interstellar war.
Daniels ignored the question. "Shall we get on with it?"
Archer and the others blinked when the scene changed and they appeared in the daylight and they felt the cool mountain air of spring hit them in the face. All of them recognised the scene as the compound in Montana, even without the statue, but the sight of the place in the early morning sun was certainly an eye-opener for the 22nd-century Starfleet officers. While the Borg had only gotten the opportunity to bomb the site from orbit and they hadn't had a lot of time, they'd managed to do quite enough damage. And now they could see it completely. The inhabitants of the compound, the survivors of the last world war were clearly trying to rebuild the place. Some of them were replacing old and damaged sheets of corrugated metal panels which worked as rooftops on the huts and fitting in the new ones.
Zefram Cochrane was walking around the compound, shaking his head in clear disgust as he was being stared at by the personnel from the Enterprise E. One of the future Starfleet officers was walking behind him, holding a copper spiral in his hands. This officer tried opening his mouth to speak, but he was either too tongue-tied to speak or he was overcome with hero-worship to get a word out. Irritably Cochrane waved him away as he walked behind a wall, and after a quick look around, he snuck out a bottle of alcohol.
Trip sighed in disappointment. "You'd think wouldn't yer that if he was gonna fly a warp ship, he'd at least be sober?"
"My dad used to tell me Cochrane regularly drank to shake off stress, Trip, but I see your point of view," Archer tried not to voice his own feelings as he watched Cochrane open the bottle and take a quick swig.
"We must hope that Cochrane knew he was going into the Phoenix since those Starfleet officers would likely force him to go, and they would likely scan him to make sure he was sober," T'Pol observed.
"Would that even occur to them?" Hoshi asked.
"Doctor?" The officer whose first name was Geordi almost made Cochrane choke with shock before anyone could respond to Hoshi's question.
"Yeah?" Cochrane gasped as he hurriedly shoved the bottle away.
"Would you mind taking a look at this?" The Starfleet officer with the strange blue eyes although they were covered by a pair of sunglasses right now, likely to hide them from anyone from the 21st century while he held up a PADD.
"Uh, yeah," Cochrane cleared his throat and walked over to Geordi and took a look at the PADD.
"I tried to reconstruct the intermix chamber from what I remembered in school. Tell me if I got it right."
Cochrane looked between the PADD and Geordi in disbelief, jabbing a finger at the PADD in disbelief. "School? You learned about this in school?"
"Oh yeah. Basic warp designers are a required course at the Academy. The first chapter is called Zefram Cochrane," Geordi smiled at the taller man.
He wasn't wrong.
Starfleet was a blend of the old space agencies which had survived in members and facilities from the Third World War. There had been more than a few survivors and facilities from that time, and after Cochrane sent out the Phoenix and revealed the existence of warp drive, all of the space exploration agencies had banded together when they had realised that together they would explore space more effectively.
In any case, it wasn't as if there were enough people around to do it. As Earth moved on in the 50 years after First Contact and did away with disease, poverty and war, and things like the ECON were cast down and forgotten when people accepted the fact the universe was bigger than their petty ambitions supposed. And once they were gone, they became a footnote. In any case, when they did fall apart, those groups' members had been dying anyway.
Nobody missed them.
When Starfleet's training mandate came out, nobody was surprised when the basics of space exploration were laid out in courses all along the board. Everything from the basics of early and primitive rockets, Gagarin, the first space stations, the earliest interstellar probes like Voyager, the surviving clips of the discoveries and contributions made to science by the International Space Station built in the early 21st century, all the way to the first warp ships like the Valiant who had despatched a wealth of scientific knowledge back to Earth.
All of the Starfleet officers present remembered the long months spent studying the basics of space flight and warp technology and they knew that quite a lot would change over the coming years. Archer had no doubt that his father was part of that pantheon. He knew from his discussions with Starfleet Command, Starfleet R&D were continually experimenting with new warp designs since the Vulcans were now providing them with more advanced technologies thanks to T'Pau's reformation, although truthfully Archer wondered if they needed the Vulcans to help since Starfleet had had time to study Enterprise's mission logs to help them make improvements to future warp designs. There was no doubt in the future, they would have warp six and then warp seven going ships.
"Well, looks like you got it right," Cochrane brought them back to the present - or was it the past? - and walked away from Geordi, only to be joined by the nervous-looking Starfleet officer holding up the copper tubing.
"Commander, uh, this is what we're thinking of using to replace the damaged warp plasma conduit," the officer turned his head to grin at the Cochrane, who turned to watch as Geordi took the copper tubing and slipped off his sunglasses.
"Earth's first warp ship was built from junk?" T'Pol couldn't resist the urge to rub in what she had just seen.
But Trip didn't listen to the slight against Earth's warp technology, and he stepped forward to take a good look when Geordi's cybernetic optical implants seemed to zoom in as he examined the copper.
"Wow!" The engineer rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he tried to think about how this advanced cybernetic implant technology worked; prosthetic technology was quite advanced in the 22nd century, but they had nothing that could come near to this.
Likewise, Phlox was just as intrigued. "Those cybernetic implants are impressive. I've never seen anything that comes close."
"Yeah, Reg," Geordi said slowly as he finished examining the copper. "Yeah, that's good. But you'd better reinforce this copper tubing with a nano polymer."
"A nano polymer?" Trip repeated, nodding thoughtfully. "Those eyes must be capable of zooming in up close like a microscope."
"Do we have anything that can do that?"
"You mean prosthetic wise? No. We have scanners but the technology's different," Trip replied.
Meanwhile, the Starfleet officer called 'Reg' took the tubing excitedly and turned to Cochrane. The Starfleet engineer had been grinning at Cochrane, but now he seemed determined to say something to him.
"Doctor Cochrane, I know this sounds silly, but can I shake your hand?" Reg asked, holding out his hand.
Cochrane looked exasperatedly between the two Starfleet officers. Geordi was looking between the pair of them with amusement. He wasn't going to say or do anything to help. With a sigh of resignation and a smile that was so fake it was a wonder no one from the 24th century saw it, Cochrane held out his hand and Reg grabbed it and shook it like mad.
"He doesn't look happy, does he?" Reed commented although he was positive if he were in that position he wouldn't be happy any more than Cochrane was.
"Cochrane always had a problem with fans. While he admitted the flight of the Phoenix and the first sight of Earth following the first human jump to warp had changed and inspired him, and the meeting with the Vulcans had forced him to adapt as an impromptu ambassador, he was just content to work on his own with his team. He was sometimes overwhelmed by those who crowded around him, but since the Phoenix test hasn't happened for him yet in this timeframe….," Archer shook his head, regarding one of his heroes with pity.
"Yeah, I've heard Cochrane always seemed awkward whenever he met his fans, but I didn't know it was this bad," Trip commented.
"Thank you, Doctor. I can't tell you what an honour it is to work with you on this project," Reg gushed as he shook Cochrane's hand wildly, the scientist looking at Geordi, begging for help and clearly uncomfortable with the attention he was getting.
"Reg-," Geordi tried to stop this when he saw the look of discomfort over Cochrane's face.
But his voice was too low to be heard over Reg's gushing.
"I never imagined I would meet the man who invented warp drive-!"
"REG!" Geordi's voice cracked like a whip, and the second Starfleet engineer turned around and caught the pointed look at last, and he turned and for the first time noticed how uncomfortable his hero was. It was as if someone had pushed a button and a view screen was de-polarised, allowing a bridge crew to see everything in full colour once more.
"I'm sorry, right," Reg said embarrassed, and despite the fact the man was overexcited and nervous, Archer couldn't help but find the man likeable in a way. But at the same time, he felt he should perhaps be more tactful.
"Thanks," Reg grinned once more and turned away. Cochrane watched him leave, the expression on his face one that was well known to Archer.
"Do they have to keep doing this?" Cochrane demanded in frustration over the gushing Starfleet engineer.
Geordi turned around surprised, but Archer wasn't, and he felt sure when he looked around his senior staff they felt the same way. They could see how uncomfortable Cochrane was with the attention he was getting while Geordi and the other 24th century officers were too busy to pay any notice.
"It's just a little hero worship, Doc. To tell you the truth, I can't say I blame them. We all grew up hearing about what you did here. Or what you're about to do," Geordi corrected himself as he remembered he was seeing history unfolding around him, ignoring Cochrane's exasperation when he saw yet another Starfleet officer glance at Cochrane with the same awed look. "You know I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I went to Zefram Cochrane High School!"
Cochrane gazed at Geordi with something like horror on his face, but the clearly starstruck engineer was either deliberately ignoring it or he didn't recognise the expression. "Really?" He asked before throwing up a hand in annoyance. But Phlox, who had been silent up until that point, commented aloud, "I would say Doctor Cochrane is suffering from a condition. He's very nervous, even frightened."
"A condition?" Hoshi replied. "What kind of condition?"
Trip glanced at Cochrane and then at Archer. "Didn't he suffer from a kind of bipolar disorder that he was diagnosed with having when he was a kid? Didn't he need some kind of medicine?"
Archer remembered what Trip was talking about. "A cerebral implant. Yeah, he did. He would need it replaced once every decade for him to remain healthy. The implant he has at this point must be on its last legs."
"I guess that explains the booze," Travis commented. "He's found getting drunk is just as effective."
Trip frowned at the slight at Cochrane, but he knew Travis was merely stating a point.
"His condition is affecting him, isn't it?" Reed asked Phlox.
The doctor nodded. "I would say so."
Geordi was unaware of Cochrane's downward spiral of despair and obvious panic. "You know, I wish I had a picture of this!" He said, looking around like an artist and not the engineer of a starship.
"What?" Cochrane demanded, tensing.
Trip suddenly groaned, guessing what his fellow engineer was about to say and do. "Don't talk about the statue with him in this state, please!" He prayed.
"Well, you see," Geordi beamed as he stepped back over the launch platform hiding the Phoenix herself below, "in the future, this whole area becomes a historical monument. You're standing on almost the exact spot where your statue's gonna be."
"Statue?!" Cochrane yelped.
"Yeah, it's marble. About 20 metres tall, and you're looking up in the sky, and your hand is sorta reaching towards the future!" Geordi had turned around on the spot and mimicked the future statue's posture.
"I gotta take a leak," Cochrane said, and he walked away.
"Leak? I'm not detecting any leak," Geordi said, looking around in confusion.
Cochrane sighed. "Don't you people from the 24th century ever pee?" He clarified.
Geordi suddenly grinned sheepishly before he chuckled. "Oh, leak. I get it. That's pretty funny."
"No, it's not," Reed said, making Travis chortle a little.
"Excuse me," Cochrane chuckled and he headed off while Geordi became occupied when a group of his engineering crew.
Archer looked down, knowing precisely what Cochrane was going to do. It was disheartening, really, to see your own hero run off like that, but he couldn't help but see it from the clearly sick and overwhelmed scientist's point of view. He had been suffering for some time, preparing to launch a warp ship, and now these people were telling him things they shouldn't.
It was no wonder he had run off.
He remembered all of the times he had met Daniels. He remembered all the times' people had come up to him in the streets after the Xindi war, and how they ignored the fact he might want to be left alone. He could see that Cochrane felt the same way.
Until the next time...