Disclaimer: Enterprise and its characters are copyrighted by Paramount Studios and Viacom. This is a fictional story, no copyright infringement intended. All stories and original characters belong to their respective author.

Warning: This story is rated R. Several chapters of this work will be extremely graphic in nature and may contain violence and adult language and themes. Thanks to Saturn's Orbit for the idea. This is a response to Challenge #7.

Author's Note: I've rewritten parts of this story, so it's better if you start over again at the beginning. Everything inside the lines is flashback.

The Lost

Chapter 1

Out of the Ruins

"Out of the ruins

Out from the wreckage

Can't make the same mistake this time."

- We Don't Need Another Hero by Tina Turner -

"Computer stop. Delete." Archer said, as he paced his room. He had been trying to make this recording in his personal log all day, but he just couldn't seem to get it right. "Computer, restart recording. Captain's personal log, supplemental. It's been three weeks since we lost her. The bridge doesn't seem the same without her there, even though she wasn't really part of our crew. She seemed like belong, but she wasn't one of us. On the positive side, she did manage to make significant contributions during her stay." Archer walked over to the table and took a sip of water as he paused to gather his thoughts. "Trip asked to return to duty today. I told him that as long as he was cleared by the doctor, it was fine with me. Computer, end recording." Archer sat on the corner of his bed. His beagle jumped up beside him, brushing up against his side in support of his master. Jonathan looked down momentarily as he stroked the beagle's ears. "I would never admit this to anyone but you," he said to the quadruped, "but I miss her. I really miss her."

"There wasn't much in this corner of the Universe – no new species to make first contact with, no new planets to explore. Enterprise was on her way home from the Expanse, our mission complete; our mission successful. We can into the Expanse to find a weapon, and left, finding two things we never thought we would find here. What the Enterprise would find shook all of the lives of the crew, mine included."

"It started out as a routine day. We did some long range scans on the bridge while Trip was busy in Main Engineering, refitting the engine manifolds. Malcolm was supposed to be on the bridge, but since it was slow, he asked to go to the armory, to gather some munitions reports. It was only Hoshi, T'Pol, Travis and myself on the bridge when we found her ship."

"Captain, I'm detecting a small vessel off our port bow," T'Pol reported. "Twenty parsecs away."

 "No energy signatures. One life sign aboard. They're just floating," Travis added.

 "They may be in distress. We should contact them and offer our assistance."

 T'Pol turned towards Hoshi and gave her a nasty look. "Captain, that may not be wise. The vessel may not want our assistance. Not all species…"

 "If they were not in trouble, why would they be adrift out here in the middle of nowhere?"

 "All I'm saying is perhaps we should wait, take more scans and monitor the circumstances before we enter situation that may put the ship and her crew in jeopardy."

"Captain…"

"Okay, that's enough you two. Hoshi, can you hale them?"

"No response, sir."

"Ensign Mayweather, set a course, maximum warp. T'pol, start scanning the ship and its surroundings. Hoshi, continue to hale them. If they respond, let me know. I'll be in my ready room."

"I didn't really need anything in my ready room, I just wanted to get away from the bridge for a while. Besides, there was nothing for me to do anyway, besides watch the others work. Because it was such a short distance away, it wasn't long before a com signal beckoned me to return to the bridge."

"Bridge to Captain Archer. We're approaching the unknown vessel."

"Polarize the hull. Senior officers to the bridge. On my way."

Jonathan Archer stepped out of his ready room and onto the bridge just as the turbo lift doors opened, emptying Malcolm and Trip into their places. "Report."

"The ship is adrift, sir."

"Cap'n, it looks as if that ship has no engines," Trip reported.

"There are no weapons signatures in the vicinity, no marks on the hull. They've been removed, not destroyed." Malcolm was puzzled.

"What about life signs?"

"I'm pickin' up one. Can't localize it. Our scanners are still being deflected."

"I wish I had known then what I know now. I would have left her there to die. She would have suffocated, and her pain would have ended quickly. But now, I have condemned her to a life of hell, a life I've forced her to live, a hell I can't rescue her from."

He paused momentarily to collect his thoughts. "I've put too many lives in danger. I just don't know…."

"Two people. Why did I risk the lives of two people for that? It wasn't long after the shuttle pod docked that the derelict ship began to shutter and shake. Pieces of it's hull came flying by the view screen, as if they were props in an ancient three dimensional movie. Enterprise held still as the smaller vessel began to implode, and with it two of my senior officers."

"Trip, rescue plan."

"It's gonna be tricky, Cap'n. We won't be able to transport to or from the ship cause of their deflection technology. We'll have to take a shuttle pod. But that ship out there's fallin' apart. I'd say no more than two people."

"Take Malcolm and get to it."

"Yes, sir."

Malcolm and Trip walked through the dark ship. There were no light, no heat. It was cold and condensation had frozen to all of the control panels. They stumbled through debrid, heading towards the bow of the vessel, hoping to find the control center or the imhabitants, whichever came first.

"Boy," Malcolm joked, "I thought your quarters were a mess." Just then, Malcolm, who was too busy joking to notice where he was stepping, tripped and fell.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," Malcolm replied, dusting himself off."

"You sure," Trip asked, exaimining Malcolm's suit. He shined the light onto  Malcolm's chest. The clean white EV suit had been stained with a  bright red mark. "Malcolm, you've got blood all over you."

"What? I'm not hurt. I'm fine."

Malcolm flashed the light towards the floor. Bodies littered the ship, flown haphazardly around. "There must be thirty dead, at least."

"Come on. Let's find the survivors, and get outta here. This place gives me the creeps." Trip took one more step forward, and was met with weapons fire.

Jonathan watched in anticipation of some communication from his officers as the little vessel shook and shimmied. It let out a groan, as its walls became unstable. "How long?"

"One hour, sixteen minutes," T'Pol answered.

"Archer to shuttlepod one. What's going on down there?"

"Captain, we've come under weapons fire. Seems like the occupant of this ship doesn't really want our help after all."

"Malcolm, you and Trip get back to the shuttle pod. That ship is going to implode."

"Ey, Captain. Let's go,"

Malcolm pulled on Trip's EV suit, motioning him back to the docking doors. But before he could move from its path, a piece of the hull fell on him, damaging is EV suite and pinning him to the dying ship.

"Ahh," Trip screamed in pain, as Malcolm attempted to free him from his prision. "It's no use. You're not going to be able to move it alone, and this ship can't hold another person." Trip panted through the pain. His legs were numb, but his head ached. His side pained him with every breathe. "Go, Malcolm. Go. You've gotta leave me behind."

"I won't leave you, sir."

"If you don't we'll both die." But Malcolm wasn't impressed by Trip's heroics. "Don't make me order you."

Malcolm darted towards the shuttle pod doors, but as he did, he looked back one more time, focusing on the face of the officer he would leave behind. Like a blur, a smaller face flashed in front of him, and Malcolm would have sworn, that it was the face of a child, a human child.

"Computer pause recording." Jonathan Archer sniffled as he walked into his bathroom. He splashed cold water on his face and wiped away the tears. "Computer, enable privacy locks." The computer beeped in compliance. After all, nobody should ever see the captain cry.

He reentered his room, at down by Porthos, and restarted his recording. "So, where was I?" He asked his dog. "Oh, yeah, I had just sent two of my senior officers to get killed, one of which was now trapped on a ship that's about to implode with a hostile alien. Computer begin recording."

"Time was running out. T'Pol estimated that the ship would implode in twenty two minutes. Malcolm returned to the ship, and was immediately transported to sickbay with a severe concussion. Trip was still aboard the alien ship, under fire from a hostile alien, and we had no idea how to save him from certain destruction. Communication were nonexistant, but I was unwilling to give up the life of the best engineer Star Fleet had ever known. We were coming dangerously close to a deadline, without any results.

"There has to be a way to get Trip off that ship."

"The only way to get Commander off the alien ship would be to reboard that ship, risking the lives of more crewmen."

"So, what," Jonathan approached her. "We leave him behind to die. We let his starve, suffocate and freeze to death. That's not an option, Sub-commander, that's a cop out."

"The good of the many…"

"Save you're Vulcan logic, T'Pol." Archer paced the bridge floor, looking for the answer that illuded him. "I'm going to sickbay. Maybe Malcolm can give us some answers."

Sounds of screaming filled the halls of Enterprise's third deck. Archer knew that voice. It was Malcolm, but he couldn't understand what was being said. The doors hissed open, and Archer entered the bright sick bay.

"Doctor, what's the problem?"

"Lieutenant Reed has severe head trauma. He.." Phlox struggled to keep the security officer on his bed. "He seems to be refusing treatment."

Malcolm squired out of the doctor's arms just after the hiss of the hyposray touched his neck. He pushed the caring doctor aside, wobbling and swaying, fighting the alure of the sedative to bid him to sleep.

"Captain, I have to go back. I can get them out."

Arched, puzzled by Reed's misuse of pronouns, rejected the idea immediately. "You're in no condition…"

"I'm sorry, sir, but I'm not asking." Malcolm threw a punch towards his captain, making contact with Archer's jawbone. The captain fell to the ground with a loud thud, as Reed ran out the door, only pausing for a moment to apoligize. "I'm sorry sir, but I have to do this."

"Bidge to Captain Archer," Mayweather reported, "I'm detecting an unauthorized launch." He flicked several buttons on the console in front of him. "It's Malcolm, sir."

"Hale him." It seemed like an eternity until the communicator beeped. "Malcolm, stop what you're doing. It isn't safe. We can find another way." But only static answered back. "Malcolm, you're in no condition to attempt a rescue mission. Return to sickbay. We'll get another team together."

"Should I deploy the grappling hook," Mayweather questioned. Archer nodded his head, as Travis pushed buttons. "First attempt. He eluded us, sir. First attempt failed. Trying again."

"Lieutenant Reed is the head of security for this ship,"T'Pol pointed out.

"So, what's your point," Archer snapped back.

"Only that he would be aware of any and all attempted we would make to retrieve him, as well as methods to thwart those attempts. We will be unsuccessful, unless we think of plan previously unattempted."

A knock on his door disturbed Captain Archer's thoughts. "Computer, pause recording."

"Captain, would you like to take a meal with me?"

"Thanks, T'Pol, but not today. I'm a little busy. Thanks anyway." He closed the door, practically in her face, and returned to the solace of his room.

It was refreshingly quiet in Jonathan's room that night. So quiet, in fact, that he didn't realize what time it had gotten to. He had some peanut butter and bread which he could snack on later if he got hungry, but right now, it was the catharsis of his confession that he longed for.

Jonathan took a scoop of dog food out of the cupboard and placed it in Porthos' bowl, which sent the hungry dog running. After changing Porthos' water, he returned to his testimony. "Computer restart recording."

Malcolm docked with the small alien vessel. It was dirty, and bore the scars of weapons fire along its outside walls. Inside, metal which once wrapped the ship, like a child warm blanket, hung precariously about. The ground beneath Malcolm Reed's feet shook violently, as pieces of metal and pipes fell from above. He mastered the ability of keeping his balance while sailing as a child, but several violent shakes swept his feet out from underneath him, and he fell hard to the floor of the ship.

 "Trip," Malcolm called.

"Over…. Over there," a little voice called. But Malcolm couldn't identify it's source.

"Malcolm, you've got three minutes till that ship implodes," the Captain commanded over the com.

"Trip…. Trip…" Another violent shake.

"Here. He's here." Out of a whole in the sub flooring appeared a young girl. She looked barely fifteen, and her clothes were ragged and torn. She was dirty, and looked emaciated. "He's there. against that panel."

It wan't the exact spot that Malcolm left him, and the metal which once imprisioned him was now gone. Malcolm ran to Trip's side. He had been freed of his jail, but his injuries in extensive. Malcolm brought him to consciousness by patting his face.

"Hey, where did she go?"

Malcolm turned around, but the girl was gone. "I don't know. She seems to have disappeared, which is exactly what we should be doing as well."

"One minute," Archer's voice reminded.

"I'm not leavin' without her."

"Oh yes you are, sir." Malcolm threw Trip across his shoulder, despite his objections.

"Put me down. Put me down, that's an order. I'm not leaving without her. Wait. We can't leave yet."

But all of Trips ranting and ravings fell on deaf ears. Malcolm had but one agenda, to get Trip back to the shuttle pod, and back to Enterprise.

"Enterprise  to Shuttle pod. Come in. They must be hurt. Have Sickbay standing by. Travis, get the grapping hook, and get that shuttle pod." Archer sat back down in his chair heavily.

Malcolm fought the urge to sleep, but his opponant was too strong. He put his head back on the rest of the chair, and closed his eyes, confident that Trip, secured in the seat behind him, was safe. A deep and dark nightmare took hold of Malcolm, dragging into the depts of hell as the grappling hook took hold, like a mother reaching for and cradling her sons.

"They got back to the shuttle pod, and back to Enterprise all right. The ship imploded into a horrible fireball. We were concerned with Trip's health mostly. With our objective met, we didn't even try to help the alien aboard. It wasn't until later that we would find out the extent of the contents of the ship, and the mistakes we had made."

"As soon as the shuttle pod was aboard, I unlatched the hatch and opened the rear bay doors. Trip was in hysterics, screaming something about a girl aboard the ship, and how he had to save her. Dr. Phlox sedated him almost immediately, and took him to sickbay. Malcolm was unconsoius, but Phlox assured me it was only due to the medication he administered previously. Otherwise, the shuttlepod was in good order, undamaged my the heroics of my security officer. It seemed rather empty, but then again, we didn't look very hard." Archer took a deep breath and looked out the window at the stars going by. They were dense and fat and so bright that Jonathan barely needed lights in his quarters. He thought about how beautiful they used to be, as he gazed up at them from the distant Earth. But now, they were constant reminders of the mistakes he made and the lives he ended.

"The floor was littered with metal from fallen bulkheads. Litter was everywhere, but that wasn't the horrible part." Malcolm proped himself up on the biobed.

"What was the horrible part, Malcolm?"

 "Captain, there were two rooms in the ship. One had all of the controls."

I remember Malcolm's voice stuttered involuntarily. He seemed quite bothered by what he was about to tell me. Shifting in his shoes, he couldn't stand still. He told me…. he told me that the other room contained thirty dead, mutilated bodies. He described the smell as putrid, like they had been rotting away for weeks. Their bodies had been…." He wanted to say, to speak the atrocities that had been committed against these poor people. He wanted to talk about how their organs were all over, their blood spilled in large pools about the ship. He wanted to tell Malcolm that it was alright that he vomited at the sight of their dead corpses, but it was too horrible to even say, to even think about. "They had been tortured, but we will never know if their death hadn't been a result of that torture. We will never know who their families were, and their deaths will never be vindicated. Their burial was complete with the destruction of the ship."

That was all that Jonathan Archer could do for now. He couldn't think about it any more. "Computer stop recorded." He fell to his bed, and cried himself to sleep.

To Be Contimued….