WHAT NOW?

                                                BY  DAVID  ANAKIN  

DISCLIAMER:   This show belongs to Paramount.  Takes place right after "Shockwave".

   Captain Jonathan Archer looked out of the broken window at the broken city.  The man who brought Archer here, Daniels, had told him it was alive and beautiful this morning.  But this city had obviously been in ruin for centuries.  He recognized some of the buildings, others were new to him.  Well, as new as burnt out husks can look.  Archer just couldn't wrap his brain around it.  Earth destroyed because he didn't go aboard the Suliban ship. 

   'I couldn't have been THAT important to history.'  He thought.  Time is like an avalanche.  It starts with one pebble, and then before you know it, WHAM!  Everything in the way gets flattened. 

   "Is the whole planet like this?"  He asked without turning around. 

   "I think so."  Daniels answered, "If anyone was left they would have tried to rebuild by now I would think." 

    It was a lame answer, Archer thought.  Daniels must have thought the same, because he didn't say anything else.  It just didn't make sense!  There was nothing down there.   Not even animals.  Even if every human on the surface was killed, why didn't the human's who were already in space come back?  Maybe they did, and were murdered for there trouble.  But then, what stopped the race that did this from claiming it themselves?  Or some other race?  Could the attackers have used some kind of weapon to contaminate the atmosphere?  Archer sniffed the air, it seemed okay to him.  If something was in the air, it was too late to worry about it now.  Maybe there was some medical equipment left to run some test?  It was possible whatever was used had cleared, and someone was on their way here to start a colony.  Or maybe this happened so long ago, that there's no one left who even remembers the Earth.  Daniels couldn't answer his questions.  As far as Daniel was concerned, this wasn't any more his Earth than it was Archer's.    They were strangers in a strange land.  If this was one of Malcolm's movies, this is when the Molemen would come out of hiding and attack.  But it wasn't a movie, and Malcolm was dead.  So were Trip, Hoshi, T'pol, Porthos, and everyone else he knew.   It was up to him and Daniels, but they couldn't fix this alone.  They would need help.  But where to find it?  The Vulcans?  It was the first and only answer to come to him.  Did they just sit back on their logical asses and let this happen?  Do the Vulcans of this time point to Earth and say, "SEE!? That is what happens to planets who do not take our advice."  Or were they busy defending their own world? 'Well, it time to find out a few things.'  Archer thought turning suddenly toward Daniels.

    Daniels actually took a step back!  'What does he think I'm going to do? Hit him?' Archer thought, 'It would be easy to blame the time-traveling chief for this mess, and it may make me feel better to slug him one.  But no, it wouldn't do any good beyond that.  Daniels was only following orders.  Orders given to him by someone who no longer excited.'  Archer was giving himself a headache thinking about all this.  In fact he was aching all over now, he needed to sit down for a while.  Archer made himself smile to put Daniels at ease.  It seemed to work, if only a little.

   "So.  Do you remember how I liked my eggs?"  He asked.   

              TO BE CONTINUED NEXT SEASON…….