Seeing First Contact.
As he watched the coalescing images of what was or what had happened - the problem with time travel was, well one of the problems was you had no idea of how to best to describe the right terms since time had little meaning unlike when you were living a linear existence - Trip was becoming more and more interested in what else was happening during the events of First Contact.
While they could understand Daniel's mysterious superior's reasons for keeping their knowledge of what was going to happen to a minimum, Trip was still curious.
What was happening with the Borg?
Why was the captain of the Enterprise E so determined to stop them to the point of obsession? Trip knew he didn't have the right to criticise anyone for being obsessive. None of his friends did; the things they were forced to do in the Expanse still haunted him, and he knew some of the things Jon had been forced to do would haunt his friend to the grave. Trip had heard of how the ends justified the means, and in many ways they had, but he knew that Jonathan had never meant to hurt or harm anyone; by far one of the worst things to happen had been when they had committed that act of piracy, something they had prayed they would never do to others, even after the very first few weeks had worried some of the crew when the Ossarians had attacked the ship and stole many of their supplies.
But after the mess with Azati Prime and the Xindi attack, when the Reptilians and the Insectoids had attacked the ship in force, they had no choice.
"Hey, Daniels," Trip called.
The temporal agent turned to the chief engineering questioningly. "What is it, Commander Tucker?"
"I was wonderin' if it were possible to see what's going on on the Enterprise E?"
Daniels sighed. "Commander, you know I can't show you anything-."
"I'm not askin' you to show us everything, Daniels, I know better than that. I just wanna know what's happening, from a limited perspective. I'm not askin' to know all of the Enterprise-E's secrets. I just wanna know about a few things."
"What do you want to know?" Daniels asked suspiciously.
Trip sighed under his breath, hoping he got this right otherwise the time traveller would just refuse outright. "What is that captain's beef with the Borg? Do they save their ship? What? While this is fascinating stuff," Trip waved at the vista of the compound as the final work on repairing the Phoenix and the control systems at the launch platform, "it would be good to see just a limited view of what's going on."
"I agree," T'Pol added when she realised what Trip was doing, and she felt the same way. There were several curious things going on onboard the Enterprise E with the Borg at the very centre. "Tell your superiors we only wish to view a certain point of view to observe what is going on board the Enterprise E, without seeing too much to compromise the timelines, and that's it."
It was a logical compromise and even Daniels had to admit it was a good argument, but everyone knew T'Pol had realised the best way to persuade the time agent was to appeal to his 'duty' to protect the timelines. All of the senior staff were not surprised when Daniels was there one moment, and the next he was gone.
"I wasn't expecting him to take that so well," Hoshi commented.
"I know, I was expecting him to argue," Travis said looking at T'Pol, "You certainly persuaded him."
"Thank you, but it wasn't hard. I realised the best way to persuade him to let us see what was going on onboard the Enterprise E was to logically point out we didn't have to see anything that was a risk to the future," T'Pol explained.
"Yes, but if we had seen the corridors of the Enterprise E, saw their crew, would we have risked the future?" Phlox asked as he pointed out the flaw in the argument.
"What, seeing the design of corridors? That could be dangerous to history?" Hoshi asked in shock.
"Hardly, Hoshi; when Starfleet came up with the design for the NX-class, it was mostly as a prototype, a springboard for later designs. The NX-class was the first design for high warp speeds, but everything we use is for the use as a base for future starships," Trip told her.
Malcolm was looking around with interest. "How long do you think it will take for Daniels to come back?"
"I don't know. But when he came back before, he looked tired and I wondered if he had spent days instead of hours with his superiors," Archer commented.
"So it wasn't just me who noticed he looked exhausted; I thought it was just an effect," Malcolm exclaimed.
"No, he was definitely tired. I noticed it as well," Hoshi put in.
"But do you think he'll be persuasive enough, Daniels made quite a few mistakes when he was 'helping' us?" Travis pointed out.
"There's only one way to find out Travis," Archer replied, knowing Travis was right.
They had to wait.
It was dull, tedious and they had little to do, but there wasn't anything they could do.
He remembered only too well the scale of the disaster caused when Daniels made the mistake of dragging him out of the timeline when the Cabal was chasing Enterprise after they'd stolen the data which proved one of their ships was responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people, the latest casualties in the Temporal Cold War and all because somebody wanted to change history drastically.
Yes, Daniels might have claimed to have a good reason for it, to keep him safe, but in hindsight, Archer wondered if the Time Agent had been a bit too overzealous. Something told him that the Cabal would not kill him, but Daniels had endangered Enterprise and her crew.
Yes, Archer had to admit Daniels had helped them in the past; the Cabal, that mess in Detroit in the early 21st century, giving them the means to get through to the Xindi by talking sense to Degra even if it had taken the Xindi-Primate scientist and his associates and friends a while to accept it. But Daniels had nearly caused a disaster that Archer still did not want to imagine or picture - after seeing the scale of Daniels' mistake when they visited that alternate ruined Earth which had been caused shortly after the Time Agent tore him out of the timeline, the last thing Archer had wanted when Daniels took him off of Degras' ship after their attempt to stop the Xindi weapon from leaving the Expanse had failed and shown him something from the future, of him (Archer) mingling with other delegates as they prepared to sign a character, seven years ahead from that point in time.
Archer had been impatient, furious with the Time Agent's interference; yes, he knew that it was a risk preparing to sacrifice himself if he needed to, but it would be worth it if it meant saving Earth and the human race. If Daniels had really wanted to help him, to save the precious Federation, then he would have given Enterprise the means of destroying the weapon long ago but he had hadn't. Instead, the Time Agent had talked on and on about a future that could change regardless, but it did not matter to Archer at the time, he had been more interested in the security of Earth.
The big problem with being here was because the vista of the control room and the cockpit of the Phoenix was on repeat and soon they lost count of how many times the cycle repeated itself without Daniels around to control the flow. After what seemed like hours, the senior staff crew were sitting on the ground and chatting just to idly pass the time before Daniels came back.
"Has anyone heard about the NX-03?" Travis was asking before Daniels appeared.
"Not really," Hoshi admitted, wondering why Travis was bringing it up now.
"It's just I've been hearing rumours about its construction stopping and starting, and I wanted to know if anyone had heard anything when I looked around and saw a 3 on that panel," Travis replied, pointing out a panel covered with numerals and instructions.
"Yeah, they're gonna launch her in another couple of months; Starfleet accelerated the building work on the NX class ships during the Xindi incident," Trip said.
"Y'know I've never really understood that approach; why there are so few NX class ships and why it takes so long to build them, and why there weren't any other ships during the whole mess with the Xindi?" Hoshi asked.
And she was right to be curious.
Hoshi had always been concerned about the lack of a fleet, and she knew she was not the only one to feel the same way. She knew of several friends assigned to space stations or in Headquarters who had often commented on it. Until the Xindi attack, Enterprise was the only operational NX-class starship in service for Starfleet. Columbia was under construction and it took a whole year to build the ship, a whole year spent watching and waiting for any more signs of the Xindi coming back, with everyone terrified when the story of the Xindi building a weapon designed to destroy the whole Earth in a single blast reached the population. And yet there was only one starship sent to fight the war. Anything could have happened to Enterprise, and after their experiences with time travel and alternate realities thanks to the encounters with Vosk and their future descendants it was extremely easy for them to imagine or picture Enterprise being destroyed.
Travis had grown up on board a cargo freighter, and he had rarely encountered anyone out of the tight little circle of families which crewed the Horizon, but he had seen a few cargo ships in his time. In contrast, there were very few space exploration organisations like the cargo service his parents were a part of (while his father had died, his mother was still serving on the Horizon, so she counted in his book). He knew it was hardly an excuse - but it was true, and Starfleet was just rushing to catch up, but in his time serving with someone like Commander T'Pol, Travis had gained an appreciation and even an awareness of logic. He had often asked himself why Starfleet had simply not constructed three or even four NX-class ships and prepared the next batch, but at the time of Enterprise's launch he hadn't paid it much attention but now he was curious and even worried about it, and he knew others like Hoshi were worried about it and they had a right to be.
What if there was another attack on Earth, one only more devastating than the Xindi attack? What if the Borg discovered Earth, and they tried to attack the planet once again? The scariest thought in his mind was not on the Klingons or even the Suliban, but they had stopped being a threat a while ago. But the Klingon Empire was still out there but their threat was diminished somehow with the knowledge of the Borg, who would make short work of Earth and Starfleet.
So why didn't Starfleet put many of its resources forward to construct new ships?
"Believe me, that's a question I've been asking myself for a while," Archer replied with a sigh, rubbing his forehead. "When Starfleet was first inaugurated, there were only a few ships, and Starfleet's original plan wasn't to launch Enterprise as soon as she left the dock for her trial runs. It was hoped that originally Enterprise would be kept in the solar system for a few months, checked and then allowed to go out of it, perhaps to Alpha Centauri and slightly beyond for further testings before making her way back. During those trials, we'd send Starfleet data about any upgrades we were forced to do before the keels were laid down for the next NX class ships, but it didn't go that way as you remember."
Hoshi remembered the events of the last three years. "Klaang and the Xindi."
"Yeah, but there were already plans for Columbia's keel to be laid by the time Enterprise was barely out of the dock," Trip said, "it was all ready and within a few months of Enterprise's second year, the Columbia was largely finished. But y're right, Hoshi. We are going too slowly, and Terra Prime hasn't helped," Trip finished off with a grimace as he remembered just how low Terra Prime had gone.
Hoshi sent a quick glance towards T'Pol to see how the reminder of the xenophobic organisation's sick plan affected her. T'Pol's expression worried Hoshi; she had noted over the last two years, especially in the Expanse during their original mission the Vulcan woman had become more emotional; sometimes Hoshi was reminded of a tiger on a hunt, how it crouched down low with its muscular body waiting for the opportunity to pounce on an unsuspecting animal, whenever she saw T'Pol losing her temper.
As a result, Hoshi had the horrible feeling that right now T'Pol was on the verge of losing her temper although she had damn good reason to since the Terra Prime bastard's had made a shoddy job with little Elizabeth's DNA… But no, the Vulcan looked unaffected, and there was absolutely no emotion on her face, and by contrast, Commander Tucker looked like he wanted to puke as he remembered what happened.
The tension in the 'air' was quite thick. Looking between his human colleagues Phlox sighed. He had hoped there would be some kind of romance between T'Pol and Commander Tucker, but it seemed that after the whole disaster with Terra Prime, it looked like that hope was as Commander Tucker said "dead in the water," or was that just Mr Reed's mockery of Commander Tucker's accent?
It was mostly his own fault for playing matchmaker in the first place, but Phlox had done it with the best of intentions. Commander Tucker was in the worst place imaginable thanks to the Xindi's attack on Florida which culminated in the death of the commander's youngest sibling, and he was having trouble sleeping. Yes, there were less…intimate ways of making him sleep compared to having T'Pol teaching the commander Vulcan neuropressure, but at the same time, Phlox knew it would do the two good.
Now it looked like those hopes were gone for good.
"I have asked my superiors to allow us to see a moment onboard the Enterprise E," Daniels said as he appeared out of thin air, "but only the one; you will only see this moment."
Archer nodded, inwardly wondering to himself how much persuasion it had taken on Daniel's part, how many favours. Daniels' people hadn't seemed to have cared when the time agent had meddled in their affairs, but how far had it gone? "Okay, we understand. When are we seeing it?"
"Now."
The image changed from the Montana compound with the Phoenix to an enclosed room which could only have been the bridge of the Enterprise E. Archer looked around to see the differences, but when you've been on one starship bridge you've seen them all. In every way, you could tell this ship had been built and designed by humans. Dominating the room was the main viewer, but it looked slightly odd and right in front of them was the captain's chair with two other chairs flanking it on both sides. The three chair arrangement piqued his curiosity, but Archer noted the Starfleet officers who were on the bridge. All of them looked haggard, tired and worn down. There was a cluster of them but Archer and his crew could barely make them out. All of them had either rolled up their sleeves, unzipped their uniforms while their bodies dripped with sweat, and for the first time, Archer could feel the heat itself.
"It's quite hot," he commented out loud, glancing at Daniels in the hopes the Temporal Agent would fill in some of the details.
Daniels didn't see the point in hiding this little bit of information. "That's the Borg for you; the moment the crew of the Enterprise E realised they were on the ship, the Borg accessed the environmental systems and affected the temperature."
"Oh, to what?"
"31.9 degrees celsius."
Trip whistled when he heard the number. "What the hell are they trying to do, create a swamp?"
Daniel's shrugged. "Don't ask me, Commander. While the Borg were well understood in my time, nobody understands why they would feel the need to tamper with environments like that. There are theories but little in the way of proof."
"They're on the move again," a tall Starfleet officer who looked just as haggard as the rest of the bridge crew officers said as he crawled out of a service crawlway with its own hatch on the bridge, a rifle slung over his back while he got the attention of the others including the captain of the ship, Jean-Luc something, "The Borg just overrun three of our defence checkpoints. They've taken over decks five and six. They've adapted to every modulation on our weapons. It's like we're shooting blanks." It was obvious that the news only darkened Jean-Luc's mood, but what he said terrified Archer and the others and questioned his sanity.
"We'll have to work on finding another way to modify our weapons so they'll be more effective. In the meantime, tell your men to stand their ground."
"Sir?" The officer who'd brought the news stared back at Jean-Luc as if he had never seen the man before, never mind believed how insane the orders were.
But Jean-Luc was clearly too far gone to change his mind and Archer listened in shock and he wondered if his crew had felt this way during their time together; he had known he had gone off the deep end a few times in the past but had he himself been this obsessive? "Fight hand-to-hand If they have to."
"What?" Archer hissed, sending a look towards Phlox, who was just as horrified, but all of the NX-01 crew knew of how Phlox had very nearly been assimilated by the Borg by getting too close, and so had Malcolm onboard the assimilated transport ship. Those hand-to-hand orders were suicide, and everyone knew it.
"Aye sir," the aghast officer replied, exchanging a look with another officer who shared his disbelief, but this officer was -.
"A Klingon?" Malcolm said in disbelief as he took in the tall, muscular form of the Klingon wearing a Starfleet officer's uniform. The others barring Daniels was just as surprised; their experiences with the Klingon Empire had shown while the Klingons were devoted to honour above all else, they had never shown an interest in making peace with humans.
Clearly, that had changed in the future. The Klingon officer was just as surprised and even horrified by the orders which would spell certain death for the Enterprise-E's crew. Some of the NX-01 crew were surprised the Klingon was horrified, but they guessed even that race had its limits. The Klingons might be warriors, but they knew when a situation was hopeless. And this was. This Klingon knew the Borg well. And he didn't have any trouble making that plain to the captain. "Wait! Captain, our weapons are useless. We must activate the autodestruct sequence and use the escape pods to evacuate the ship."
"Best idea they've got; that ship must be crawling with Borg!" Hoshi commented, and she was right and the rest of the crew knew it. Jean-Luc, who'd had his back to the Klingon officer, swung around. "No!"
A female officer with strawberry blonde hair took up the argument. "Jean-Luc, if we destroy the ship we destroy the Borg," she pointed out to make it sound like the best option, and it was. Jean-Luc glared at her. "We're going to stay and fight," he said plainly as if this was the best option they had. The Klingon officer pressed his argument. "Sir, we have lost the Enterprise. We should not sacrifice…"
"We have not lost the Enterprise, Mister Worf. We are not going to lose the Enterprise. Not to the Borg. Not while I'm in command. You have your orders," Jean-Luc snapped, his voice rising as he visibly began to lose control of his temper as his arguments were being questioned. But as he watched the scene unfolding with horror at the death wish Jean-Luc seemed to have, Archer could not help but sympathise with him. Archer remembered the time when the Triannon zealots had seized control of his ship. They had used bio explosives as a threat, and they had killed one of the crew in order to prove to the whole ship that they meant business. Archer was locked away in his own quarters, seething with rage over the seizure of his ship and the danger his crew were placed under, all because of his reckless compassion.
There had been moments during that mess when he asked himself if he had the strength to sentence every one of them to death for what they had done, but Archer remembered being forced to face his demons when those bastards had taken his ship and deleted all the data of the Spheres built by the Sphere Builders and were forced to face facts, that the takeover was his own fault and he had come dangerously close to issuing the self-destruct order but he knew if he did that then Earth would be doomed in turn. So he did know where this Jean-Luc was coming from, but to willingly and knowingly endanger the lives of his own crew, or what was left of it…
Archer knew he was far from a saint. He had been forced to do things over the course of his career which had come to haunt him, but he had learnt from his mistakes, and he had learnt to see the bigger picture behind his actions. He had not given a damn about driving the crew during that mess where that weird unknown ship had attacked so close to Malcolm's birthday. He had kept his mouth shut during that mess where the communicator was left behind. He had been so driven to reach the Expanse he had been willing to let Enterprise be damaged as a result, because while the ship was his father's dream, it was the warp five engine that was vital. He hadn't cared about Duras who had allowed vengeance and anger poison his reality and he hadn't cared one iota about the Ossarian pirate whom he tortured using an airlock.
But would he do something like this if the situation was hopeless?
Maybe. He had not batted an eye about taking the ship into battle with the Xindi weapon and the ship was crippled, almost to the point of no return, but Archer liked to think he would not risk his crew and ship like this. But only time would tell if that was a sincere belief or not. The Klingon, Worf, stepped closer, his fierce face warring with some other emotion that Archer and the others couldn't immediately identify. "I must object to this course of action."
"Your objection is noted," Jean-Luc said dismissively, clearly not caring either way about what his crew said or did so long as his orders were being followed.
"With all due respect, sir," Worf was really troubled as he walked closer to Jean-Luc, and they could see it in the Klingon's eyes, this was painful for the large man, "...I believe you are allowing your personal experience with the Borg to influence your judgement."
Jean-Luc stiffened. That had struck a nerve, but it also made the NX-01 crew curious.
"What did the Borg do to him?" Travis asked.
Nobody could answer that question.
Jean-Luc had stepped quietly up to Worf. "You're afraid," he spat in contempt, and Worf reared back as if he had been smacked in the face. The NX-01 crew knew enough about Klingon psychology to know the accusation of cowardice was the worst thing you could ever say. Archer was staring at Jean-Luc in horror, unable to believe what he was seeing from another Starfleet captain. "You want to destroy the ship and run away. You coward."
"Jean-Luc…," the female officer who'd spoken up before protested, but she was ignored while Worf seemed to physically grow more gigantic and more intimidating at the accusation of cowardice. The Klingon looked more than ready to rip and tear the captain to shreds for what he had just said, but he was managing to hold himself off with enormous restraint.
"If you were any other man I would kill you where you stand," Worf growled.
Hoshi had been listening to the exchange and she realised the two men were usually the best of friends, with a lot of respect backing them up. For Worf, saying that showed just how much respect the Klingon showed.
So what the hell had happened to make Jean-Luc so furious and obsessive to the point of near madness? What was going on? What had the Borg done? Had they assimilated someone close to him? Had he lost his crew? What?
"Get off my bridge!" Clearly whatever respect Jean-Luc had for Worf didn't exist right now. When the Klingon left, Jean-Luc walked off of the bridge through a pair of sliding doors into another room off of the bridge. Lily Sloane, who had been an unwilling and horrified observer had been listening to this entire argument with worry and she turned to the blonde officer. "So what do we do now?"
"Carry out his orders. Dyson. Kaplan. Start working on a way to modify the weapons systems-!" The blonde officer was stopped in her tracks when Lily interrupted her.
"Wait a minute! This is stupid. If we can get off this ship and blow it up, let's do it."
The crew of the NX-01 could well understand the officer's decision to work on the weapons; with their captain refusing to consider other options, what else could they do? But they also understood full well Lily's issues. She was not a Starfleet officer, she didn't understand the command structure of a starship and she didn't understand the protocols that went with the ship's command decisions but at the same time she had a unique perspective and she was in a better position than the Enterprise-E's crew to stop this, but whether or not it worked they didn't know.
They didn't know if the Enterprise E returned to the 24th century or not now they knew about this dimension over the whole mess. They didn't know if the crew had survived or if some of them had seen fighting the Borg as a pointless waste of time had found a way to destroy their own ship and get off it or not. But they would have to see. Lily was speared by a stern look from the blonde female officer but it was clear she agreed with what Lily and Worf had said but she had no way of dealing with the problem. "Once the Captain has made up his mind the discussion is over." Lily snorted and held up her hand dismissively and she followed Jean-Luc through the double doors. " Lily!…"
"Okay, does that woman really think Lily, who isn't a Starfleet officer, is just gonna take that 'you have your orders' thing, and accept it?" Trip asked.
Archer was a little askance by the question because it sounded like Trip didn't agree with Starfleet regulations, but he had to admit his friend had a point. "Ah, she might have been holding out hope Sloane wouldn't have done anything," he said as they followed the two into a long room dominated by a glass display case full of golden model ships, but there were other items in there that looked like souvenirs, medals that Starfleet hadn't issued yet, or alien medals of designs they had never seen before.
Archer pointed out the models, especially the one which looked like the Enterprise E. "All those Enterprises….," he whispered.
"All of them exploring the galaxy," Travis whispered, just as reverent.
"So the old girl's name and legacy will live on," Archer said, misty-eyed at the thought.
"Hold on, why isn't ours there?" Reed asked when he took a brief look at the display case, and he turned to the Time Agent. "Daniels?" He asked, his expression making it clear he wanted an answer.
The Time Agent looked shifty, uncertain and he nodded with a sigh. "I haven't told you the truth, any of you…"
"Oh, what a surprise!" Archer snapped, no longer caring about appearing rude as he gave into his frustrations. He felt like this every time he met Daniels. Every time there was some new half-truth, some lie, some manipulation and he was so sick of this man just appearing whenever he felt like it, never once thinking that Archer or his crew had better things to do with their time. He always usually felt used, manipulated. He knew it was wrong but he was sick and tired of this guy appearing whenever he felt like it, telling him things about his future that he didn't feel ready for. "What now?"
Daniels sent him a dark look and he looked down. "Time travel involves travelling into alternate timelines, but there are ways of fixing one point in time to another. There are dozens of examples. When the Borg travelled back in time with the Enterprise E following, they created a new timeline."
"When were you going to tell us this?" Travis demanded.
"You weren't ever going to tell us, were you?" Hoshi accused before Daniels could even muster up an excuse or an answer.
Daniels sighed. "No," he replied. There was no point in denying the truth, not since they had physical actual proof of the timeline being changed. "It's not our policy to inform those who live in altered divergent timelines what's happened."
"How convenient for you," Reed glared at the Time Agent.
"If our timeline has diverged from another, why do you care so much about the events which occur within it?" T'Pol asked the best question on their minds.
Daniels sighed while Archer looked down with a grin. Trust a Vulcan to point out the logical flaw in a course of action, but in this case, it made sense. This was not Daniel's reality, so why care about it? The Time Agent didn't look happy, not that Archer cared. He looked like a man who was on the verge of losing his temper with a bunch of ingrates. He didn't like where this was going, and he cursed himself for giving into Archer's suggestion and request to see what was going on onboard the Enterprise E. "When the Borg sphere which opened the conduit leading from the 24th century to this era, we studied and mapped it out. When we did that, we saw there would be events which would mirror our own, but some time travellers wanted to change those events, so we stepped in to make sure the desired timeline came to pass."
"But why would that be important, Daniels?" Phlox asked.
"It's complicated, Doctor. But we are sworn to protect all histories that we discover. This one is no different," Daniels switched on the viewer matrix, but everyone could tell he wasn't answering all of their questions and he wasn't going to.
"You son of a bitch," Lily snapped the moment she walked into the observation lounge.
Jean-Luc looked up from his work, his expression tight. "This really isn't the time."
"Okay. I don't know jack about the twenty-fourth century but everybody out there thinks that staying here and fighting the Borg is suicide. They're just afraid to come in here and say it."
"The crew is accustomed to following my orders."
As he heard that, Archer wondered if Starfleet officers were afraid of their superior officers and commander's decisions. The thought hurt, especially if it led to situations like this. It opened memories of one of his former COs who felt the crew and the captain should be separate entities, but Archer had always felt the crew and the captain should know each other before they would need to look out for each other, especially on long assignments.
But was this shadow always there and he hadn't seen it? Back in the Observation lounge, Lily tried to make the 24th-century Starfleet captain see his ideas and plans were terrible. She wasn't having much luck. "They're probably accustomed to your orders making sense." For the first time since Lily walked in, real rage appeared in Jean-Luc's face as he snapped.
"None of them understand the Borg as I do! ...No one does. No one can," he whispered, his voice so low no one could tell what he was thinking.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Lily asked, shaken by the anger there and it was enough to knock her senseless, and the NX-01 were wondering the same thing.
"Y'know, I've been wondering about that. This Captain seems to have suffered because of the Borg; I thought he had lost someone important, but now I don't know," Hoshi shook her head.
"It's worse than that," Daniels said, activating the matrix again. Jean-Luc looked up at her before he got to work with his tools over the advanced rifle.
"Six years ago, they assimilated me into their collective. I had their cybernetic devices implanted throughout my body. I was linked to the hive mind, every trace of individuality erased. I was one of them. So you can imagine, my dear, I have a somewhat unique perspective on the Borg and I know how to fight them. Now if you will excuse me I have work to do."
"My god, he became one of them?" Reed whispered in horror, glancing at Archer. "I thought they were unreachable when they reached that state?"
Archer was looking just as horrified as he recalled the nightmarish mission over to the Borg transport when he had knelt next to that woman whose body was covered with cybernetic plating. "I thought so too-."
"Don't go there, Jonathan. There is a finite period of time where someone assimilated by the Borg can be brought back. When you went after that transport ship those people had exceeded that limit. Destroying it was a mercy, and believe me; they were likely thanking you for putting them out of their misery," Daniels interrupted. "And Jean-Luc Picard's crew refused to let him go."
"Jean-Luc Picard? That's his name?" Archer wondered why the Time Agent, who had been very against telling them anything about the future was being so open, but he figured that because they knew so much already it made little difference what knew now.
"Yes. Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Captain of two Enterprises in the 24th century, with thirty years to back up his experience. The Borg assimilated him because of his knowledge of Starfleet, and of Earth. His assimilation led to the deaths and the losses of hundreds of people, so his hatred for the Borg is quite understandable."
"What?" Archer hissed, while Reed shook his head.
"The Borg soak up knowledge through assimilation. When they assimilated Picard, they took his knowledge of Starfleet operations. Starfleet Command had been organising a counterattack at Wolf 359. That was a terrible mistake."
"How bad was it?" Hoshi asked, although her expression made it clear she was only asking out of curiosity and was only just resisting the urge not to run away.
Daniels looked down. "I can't say how many actually died, but nearly 50 ships were destroyed, costing the lives of 10,000 people."
"My God," Travis whispered, gazing at Picard with sympathy in his eyes. He wasn't the only one. The others were as well, but Archer's own sympathy was mixed with the hideous realisation that if he had failed to destroy the Xindi weapon, that if he had failed to persuade the majority of the Council humanity was not their enemy…he would be feeling nothing but self-loathing for the rest of his life.
He had experienced some kind of alternate timeline where his brain was eaten by parasites, and Earth was destroyed. Humanity was being hunted down and pursued like animals by the Xindi, and it had finally ended with the last of the human race exterminated. That experience had only strengthened his resolve. It was the reason he had fought so hard, crossed so many lines he had never even known existed, all to save his people and his world.
Picard had never gone over those lines, but he had come away from his experiences a tortured man. Was it any wonder he was lashing out now? Dr Sloane seemed to realise it as well, but unlike Archer, she was in a position to intervene. She walked over to where Picard was sitting at the table.
"I am such an idiot. ...It's so simple. The Borg hurt you, and now you're going to hurt them back."
"Ooh, that's going to be bad!" Trip winced, and the other agreed.
Picard's head shot up from his work, levelling a glare at Lily. "In my century we don't succumb to revenge. We have a more evolved sensibility."
"Bullshit! I saw the look on your face when you shot those Borg on the holodeck. You were almost enjoying it!" Lily accused him. Picard hadn't been looking at Lily throughout the rant, letting it go over his head but the last accusation stung. He stood up and he loomed over her, which was a feat as he wasn't that large, but his rage matched that of Worf from earlier.
"How dare you!" Out of the NX-01 crew, only Archer, Travis, and Trip were the only ones who knew Sloane well enough to know the woman was tough. She had to be if she had come out of the holocaust mess that was World War 3. If she was intimidated by Picard, she wasn't showing it, but it didn't stop them from worrying about her wellbeing.
"Oh, come on, Captain. You're not the first man to get a thrill from murdering someone. I see it all the time."
"Get out!" Clearly, she had struck a nerve.
"Or what? You'll kill me like you killed Ensign Lynch!" Lily shouted at him, her eyes burning.
"There was no way to save him," Picard backtracked, his voice dropping, the shame and self-loathing he felt for the knowledge he had killed one of his own crew was mixing with the hate he felt for the Borg.
"You didn't even try," Lily countered. "Where was your evolved sensibility then?" Picard tried to turn away from her - whether it was because Lily was forcing him to look at himself and found he didn't like what he could see, or if he just wanted to avoid the argument, no one knew.
"I don't have time for this." He tried to return to working on the rifle, but his hands fumbled over the tools. Lily threw out her arms as she walked past Picard, taking advantage of the freedom she had just to say this to him.
"Oh! Hey! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your little quest. Captain Ahab has to go hunt his whale."
"Who's Captain Ahab?" Phlox asked curiously.
"He's a character in a novel by Herman Melville. He was a whaler, a hunter of whales, large marine mammals. During one of his expeditions, a large white whale-."
"An Albino?" Phlox said.
"Yes, one of those Doctor. Anyway, after that he was crippled, and he had a peg leg made out of whalebone put in place, but he wanted revenge against the white whale. He spent the rest of his life hunting the whale down-," Hoshi said before Daniel's surprisingly interrupted.
"Ensign, he'll find out for himself what happened in the book in a moment and why Dr Sloane referenced him," the Time Agent interrupted.
"What do you mean?"
"Just watch."
Picard was clearly shaken by the comparison and he looked up from his work again, but this time he was far more quieter. "What?" He whispered, clearly he had not expected to be compared to such a character.
"You do have books in the twenty-fourth century?"
"This novel, I really must read it," Phlox commented.
"It's hard going," Malcolm warned.
"Oh, you've read it?"
"I've read all of the seafaring novels I could get my hands on; Horatio Hornblower, 20,000 leagues under the Sea, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, but Moby Dick was one novel I could have done without bothering to open."
"How come?" Travis turned to him.
"Too depressing. I also couldn't stand the religious subtext underneath it. It was all too melodramatic for my liking. I prefer novels and stories to be straight, to the point."
Hoshi smirked. "Like you in general, right sir?"
"This is not about revenge," Picard fumbled around with the tools on the table, but it was painfully obvious to everyone Lily's arguments and comparison to Ahab had gotten to him.
"Liar!"
"This is about saving the future of humanity," Picard's voice was louder, despite the clear way he was trying to convince himself of what he was saying, but it was also clear it wasn't working which was why he sounded so angry about it. Finally Lily clearly decided she'd had enough trying to convince Picard to see that what he was after was revenge, plain and simple, so she moved on to the other portion of her argument. "Jean-Luc, blow up the damn ship!" She shrieked, hoping the loudness of her yell would finally get through.
It did, but not in the way any of them expected. Picard smashed a fist on the table. "No!" He bellowed, the strength of his own roar drowning out Lily's as his rage suddenly exploded. "No!" Picard swung around…and everyone realised he'd been holding onto the rifle the entire time; he swung it around and it smashed into the display case, shattering the glass or whatever substance was used to shield it, breaking the model ships and scattering the souvenirs picked up by the various Enterprises over the years. Picard was left gaping at the physical proof of what his rage had done, in shock.
"My God," Hoshi whispered. "I knew he was furious, but I didn't expect him to be like this…"
T'Pol turned to her in surprise. "I thought when we were on that holodeck, we had a sign of this?"
"Maybe we did, but still we didn't expect him to ignore the dangers to his own crew," Archer pointed out.
"Yeah. I'd hate to leave Enterprise - our Enterprise - to the Borg, but if we had no choice then I'd be all for it," Trip said, shaking his head, "but we were never in that situation when we encountered them a couple of years ago, but when the ship was taken in the Expanse by the Triannons I wouldn't have hesitated to blow the ship up if we had no choice."
"Yes, but bear in mind we didn't actually see enough of what was happening onboard the Enterprise E," Archer did not want to think of his mistakes during the Triannon take over of his ship. "We didn't know it was going to lead to this."
Picard slowly turned to Lily, his voice quiet. "I will not sacrifice the Enterprise. We've made too many compromises already. Too many retreats. They invade our space and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds, and we fall back. Not again!" Picard's voice rose into an angry hissing growl. "The line must be drawn here, ...this far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done."
With that all out into the open, Picard fell silent and he walked over to the observation lounge view windows, his face lost in thought leaving Lily to quietly head over to the remains of the display case.
Deftly she picked up the remains of one of the Enterprises. Lily turned to Picard, "You broke your little ships."
Picard half-turned, the uncertainty, the shame clear on his face, but he said nothing and Lily sighed in disappointment when she realised he wasn't going to say anything. She threw down the twisted golden remains of the Enterprise model and turned to leave. "See you around, Ahab."
Picard suddenly spoke, his voice quiet and unsullied by anger. "'And he piled upon the whale's white hump, a sum of all the rage and hate felt by his own race."
Lily, overhearing him, turned slowly and listened.
"What's the quote from? Shakespeare?" Hoshi asked, looking around.
"I don't think so, it sounds familiar though," Malcolm said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
Picard carried on with his quotation. "'If his chest had been a cannon, he would have shot his heart upon it.'"
"What?" Lily asked in confusion. Picard turned away from the window. "'Moby Dick.'"
"Actually, I never read it," Lily said sheepishly. Picard smiled genially. Suddenly, now the anger seemed to be gone, he had transformed. "Ahab spent years hunting the white whale that crippled him. A quest for vengeance, ...but in the end, it destroyed him and his ship."
"So that's what happened to Captain Ahab?" Phlox looked between his shipmates.
"Yes," Malcolm sighed. "He drove his crew for years to hunt down the whale, promising them rewards and profits for when they killed him and cut him up."
"I have heard of whale hunting," T'Pol pointed out, "it's not only barbaric but it's also unethical."
"We know," Archer sighed, not even bothering to excuse the hideous things that their people had done because she was right. "I am not proud of what we did, but luckily the great whales have survived-."
"Only through time travel," Daniels interrupted.
"What do you mean?" Archer asked.
"A probe attacked Earth in one of the primary timelines. It was trying to regain communication with humpback whales. When it found none, it began causing great atmospheric disturbance. In a few timelines, it destroyed Earth or ruined it so badly the planet was weakened enough for Klingon or Romulan invasion. A few time travellers in those timelines went back into the past and make sure the various whale species survived through one method or another. They did not want that to happen ever again," Daniels said.
The NX-01 crew didn't know what to say. "I guess he didn't know when to quit," Lily Sloane's voice brought them back to the relative here and now.
Picard silently put the rifle into the shattered display case and walked out of the Observation lounge back onto the bridge. As he walked towards the officers who were trying - unsuccessfully - to restore power to the bridge and shake off the hold the Borg had over the ship, Picard came to a stop when everyone looked up at him. Hoshi looked on in regret when she realised how the tension on the bridge seemed to increase. Clearly Picard realised it as well because he looked ashamed of the way he had treated his crew.
"Prepare to evacuate the Enterprise."
Archer and the others barely had a moment to blink when the Temporal Bubble changed yet again, this time somehow squeezing the internal dimensions of the Phoenix cockpit. It was obvious that the first warp drive ship launched from Earth was nearly ready to be launched. Cochrane, Riker and Geordi were going over the Phoenix's systems in preparation for launch. Hands flew over the primitive control systems made up from whatever scraps scavenged over the years while they checked readouts and power gauges.
Cochrane was clearly in his element and he was using the tasks of checking the systems to focus although it could be said the physicist was sober. "ATR settings?" He asked. "Active," Geordi reported, his voice trembling slightly with excitement just by being there. Several of the NX-01 crew knew precisely how the Starfleet officer felt, and they could not blame him for being excited; they had grown up hearing about what Cochrane had done with the Phoenix, and while a few of them had tested warp ships and they had been onboard the first deep-space cruiser and tested the warp 5 engine, you could not beat the original. Cochrane twisted his head as far as he could to Riker. "Main bus?
"Ready."
Cochrane finished his own preparations and checked the readouts which he finished quickly. "Initiate pre-ignition sequence."
The Temporal Bubble changed yet again to show the virtually empty bridge of the Enterprise E. Only three officers were standing by the centre seats - Picard, Worf, and the blonde female officer.
"Begin autodestruct sequence, authorisation Picard, four seven alpha tango," Picard said, his voice grim but now fully accepting the reality the Enterprise was doomed. The blonde officer took her turn in starting up the autodestruct sequence command. "Computer. Commander Beverly Crusher, confirm autodestruct sequence authorisation Crusher, two two beta charlie."
"Different from ours, isn't it?" Archer whispered to Trip, who nodded with the same grim solemnity.
Their Enterprise had a self destruct system as well. It had been dreamt up as a security measure when the Commander in Chief of Starfleet, an experienced astronaut who'd spent a good thirty years of his life on cargo ships much like Travis as well as an ace pilot recalled his experience with Nausicaan and Orion pirates over the years. While their technology wasn't advanced on par with Vulcan technology, they had encountered cultures who didn't have access to warp technology and there was the chance their first warp 5 ship would be captured by an enemy who simply wanted their science, or an alien race would want to find a way of attacking Earth. If that was to happen then they would initiate the program.
Archer had never liked the idea of having it; the NX-class ship was powered by his father's engine, but he had always relegated the self destruct system to the back of his mind, believing the C-in-C was too paranoid. He had not yet encountered Nausicaans. He had never been possessed by a web-like organism that communicated via mathematical language and connected its hosts together. He hadn't encountered the Klingons. He had never even fought in a war.
But now he knew he was rather glad that he had access to it; the self destruct meant if he and his crew were facing an undefeatable enemy, they would never get their hands on his ship. He wouldn't like it, but he would have access to it.
Better to have it than to not have it, after all.
Worf was leaning on a station next to the three central seats on the bridge while he gave his turn. "Computer. Lieutenant Commander Worf, confirm autodestruct sequence authorisation, Worf three seven gamma echo."
Archer didn't bother overthinking about the new input system for the self destruct; the NX-01 used data cards held in a special draw in his ready room and access codes were inputted with them by the authorised senior staff members. Trip was one of them, as was T'Pol. But he didn't care which ship had the best method. A female synthetic voice boomed throughout the bridge.
"Command authorisation accepted. Awaiting final code to begin autodestruct sequence." Picard spoke quickly as if he was afraid that if he didn't get it out now he would change his mind. Archer couldn't blame him. "This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard, destruct sequence alpha one. Fifteen minutes silent countdown. …Enable," he added with only a moment's hesitation. The synthetic female voice of the computer spoke again, this time with the confirmation of the command input. "Self-destruct in fifteen minutes. There will be no further audio warning." The female blonde officer - Crusher - sighed.
"So much for the Enterprise-E."
"We barely knew her," Picard wistfully looked around the bridge while Crusher stood up from the seat she was sitting down in and walked over to the still open emergency hatch which would likely get her to one of the escape pods. "Think they'll build another one?" Picard smiled, "Plenty of letters left in the alphabet."
Worf was about to follow Crusher off of the bridge when he was called back. "Mister Worf."
Worf paused and turned back, his expression dark but set. He moved gracefully like a cat to stand in front of Picard, who looked into his fierce eyes with genuine sorrow.
"I regret some of the things I said to you earlier." "Some?" Picard nodded slowly. "As a matter of fact, I think you're the bravest man I have ever known."
That simple apology told Archer everything that he needed to know about Captain Picard. When he had first seen the captain of this futuristic version of Enterprise, Archer had known this was the kind of man he would like to know but his sympathy for the man had warred with his disbelief and disgust Picard had given away to revenge and anger but what Archer had really not liked was the mirror between them since he had been there, he had been furious with the Xindi and was driven to prevent Degra and the Council from destroying Earth based on a lie. But after hearing this version of Picard, who'd had all of his rage burst out of him like the hot gases in a hot air balloon, Archer knew this man was definitely somebody whom he would like to know. The fierce fires in Worf's eyes died down.
"Thank you, sir," the Klingon replied quietly before the two men shook hands.
"See you on Gravett Island," Picard said. The Temporal Bubble reshifted, once more showing them the interior of the Phoenix cockpit. As the NX-01 senior staff reorientated, going from the roomy bridge of the Enterprise E to the cramped cockpit of Cochrane's ship, they heard Deanna's voice came over the intercom on the Phoenix. "Control to Phoenix. The final launch sequence checks are complete. Good luck."
"Everybody ready to make some history?" Riker asked; Archer wondered how many other checks were made before this moment. He knew thanks to his experience with the NX testing the warp test ships and the control systems at the ground station checked their systems and contingencies separately. Had Cochrane and these two bothered to restart their tests, or had they been waiting this whole time? Archer couldn't say. In his experience, the more tests you did, the safer you were so long as you didn't exhaust your ship.
"Always am," Geordi replied, the chief engineer was checking something out.
Cochrane was less content. "I think I forgot something."
"What?"
"Yes, what could he have forgotten?" Hoshi asked, but nobody knew. "I don't know. It's probably nothing," The physicist had been silent for a good few moments trying to think of what it was he'd forgotten, but he clearly decided it as indeed nothing.
"Begin ignition sequence," Deanna's voice came over the intercom and they heard and felt the shaking as the Phoenix's primitive rockets started up.
As the shaking grew in intensity, Deanna continued counting down, "Twenty…" Cochrane gasped in horror.
"Oh, God!"
"Nineteen…"
"Now I remember," Cochrane started patting himself down frantically as he tried to search himself for something.
"Eighteen…"
Cochrane's worry was contagious and it had Geordi lookup. "What?"
"Seventeen…"
"Where is it?" Cochrane ignored the question in the frantic search.
"What?" Geordi demanded, his tone more demanding than before.
"Sixteen…"
"We can't lift off without it."
"Could he be searching for some component?" T'Pol asked, believing that was the most logical conclusion for what Cochrane was looking for, but at the same time, it didn't make any sense to her. She would have felt the Phoenix was already prepared and nobody was going to steal the warp prototype rocket from the compound; half of the people living in the area would not likely know the first thing about how to steer the Phoenix, never mind activate the warp drive safely.
Trip shrugged his shoulders, his own expression showing his confusion as he tried to mentally count down the kinds of things that were onboard the Phoenix, but nothing was springing to mind. "I dunno," he replied.
"Fifteen…"
"Geordi, we've gotta abort!" Riker said, his hands going to the control panels nearest to his seat, the disappointment clear on his expression that the Phoenix wouldn't be launched in time to generate the warp signature needed to alert the Vulcans humanity had achieved faster than light. But he knew if something was important, then history would need to be altered.
"Fourteen…"
"No," Cochrane called back in relief and glee, "no wait I've found it!"
The scientist had pulled a clear if battered yellow plastic disc out of his pocket. He shoved it into a player nearby. "Thirteen, twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, Seven…"
"Let's rock 'n' roll!" Cochrane grinned.
"Oh no," Trip groaned.
"Six…" Cochrane jabbed a stud on the player and loud music boomed out. Trip grunted in annoyance as he clapped his hands to his ears. "God, I hate this music!" He cursed. "I tried to get into it when I was a kid, but I never could; it also made Elizabeth cry her eyes out, and it gave my folks a headache."
Reed wasn't even hiding his disgust. "I stand by what I said to you in the Shuttlepod when we thought the ship was destroyed."
"I'm not gonna comment, Malcolm," Trip replied.
"Did your parents ban you from playing that? Mine did; my dad might have been friends with Cochrane, but Henry drew the line when it came to the man's so-called tastes. It took a long time, but I came to see his point of view," Archer commented.
"My dad actually loved this song, although my mother would always kick him out of their cabin whenever he played it. He did it to wind her up whenever she was getting on his nerves," Travis said.
T'Pol was grimacing and she didn't say a word. Vulcan hearing was more sensitive than that of humans, and her people had long since made their thoughts on Cochrane's tasteless preferences in music more than clear over the decades.
Hoshi shook her head even as the music playing mixed with the sound of the Phoenix's rocket engines as they finally ignited and the warp ship launched from Earth. She mentally thanked god Earth had moved beyond rockets and into something that was smoother, more efficient, and practical. But that didn't mean Starfleet officers weren't pushed into training involving g-force, some of it similar to primitive space travel. They had several courses at the academy and Hoshi remembered feeling like she had just been squeezed into a hydraulic press after each session.
"Can you turn that down a little?" Riker asked Cochrane was switching off the player without any comment when Geordi spotted something that worried him.
"Hey! We've got a red light on the second intake valve."
"Is that dangerous?" Phlox asked curiously.
"No, it just means the rocket engines are starting to burn out; you need to bear in mind the Phoenix was built largely out of scrap and Cochrane and his team needed to make do because they couldn't get what they needed," Trip explained.
"So the Phoenix will be okay?"
"Yeah. If that red light came on the ground, then Cochrane would have been worried. That sensor is linked to the fuel intakes to the main rockets. But by the time the Phoenix was nearly out of the atmosphere, so the fuel intake warning is worthless." Trip might have been nonchalant, but Cochrane still reached up and flicked the button a couple of times before he slapped it. In the end, his sentiment matched Trip's. "Ignore it. We'll be fine," Cochrane said, unaware of the uncertain looks in Riker and Geordie's face, "Prepare for first stage shutdown and separation on my mark. Three, two, one, mark."
"What exactly is the first stage shutdown?" Phlox asked.
"The bulk of an old-fashioned rocket is taken up with the fuel tanks and the rocket engine itself. The rockets move the ship into space, but when it's reached space, the engines are burnt down and the fuel has run down, but they don't stick around lookin' for gas, so they jettison the rocket engine and the tanks into orbit," Trip explained.
"That's space junk, isn't it? I heard how Earth's upper atmosphere contained shattered bits of satellite, space station, rockets…" Travis said.
"Yeah, it also took about a year for the Vulcans to help us clean it out as well, but that was only after they helped us get back on our feet," Trip shook his head as he remembered the historical report he had read about the space junk."It's actually fitting, now I think about it, that the Phoenix would be the last piece of space junk."
"Didn't they recover it and put it in a museum?" Archer asked.
Trip shrugged. "I think so," he replied, but he clearly couldn't be sure.
"Okay, let's bring the warp core online," Riker instructed and they got to work getting the warp drive ready.
"Why didn't they have the warp core online?" Hoshi asked.
"A warp core consisting of matter and antimatter in a rocket full of flammable fuel that could explode if something went wrong?" T'Pol countered.
"Ah," Hoshi nodded sheepishly as she realised what could have happened, the whole of Montana could have become point zero of a blast which would make the last war look like a lit firework had been thrown into a vat of petrol. Cochrane looked up as he worked, and his eyes widened in awe as he took in the view of Earth. "Oh, wow," he gasped.
His gasp didn't go unnoticed.
Riker and Geordi heard it clearly in the cockpit and they both looked up and saw where the scientist's attention was aimed at. For a moment Archer suspected Riker clearly recalled Cochrane's rant about how he hated flying and how he took trains, and how he had been dreading the warp flight ever since he had learnt of how big an impact it would have.
But it was clear that version of Zefram Cochrane was now gone.
In front of them, all was the Cochrane of legend, the man who broke the warp barrier. The man who had fallen in love the moment he looked down on the still beautiful Earth, which proved that man had not succeeded in destroying it in that mess of a World War. Archer remembered Cochrane talk about the joy of looking out over Earth from the cockpit, and while he could now understand why the scientist was vague about the events in Montana, the man hadn't been vague about how you would need to experience going into the atmosphere yourself to go through the same experience you had. "You ain't seen nothing yet," Geordi smiled as he focused on his work, while Cochrane just continued to stare open-mouthed at the vista in the cockpit.
Hoshi grinned at her friends, "He really hasn't, has he?"
Archer shook his head. "No."
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