Chapter 3
And it's all over
For the unknown soldier
The war is over
For the unknown soldier
The Doors; The Unknown Soldier
"I can't believe this," Jonathan Archer wispered. He was looking at a message he had received from Mr and Mrs Reed. No, considering it, he didn't think Mrs Reed had had to say much in this matter. This was only Stuart Reed talking here, and Jon thought he could understand Malcolm's...dislike. Right now the captan felt an outright hate for the man.
______________________________________
To Captain Jonathan Archer [read the message]
Shortly we received a delivery from Starfleet Command containing a post mortem medal for our son. Since we did not approve his joining of Starfleet we refuse to accept that decoration. We sent it to you, you will probably receive it during your next rendenzvous with a Vulcan vessel. For our part we consider the matter as closed and wish not to be bothered by Starfleet again.
Sincerely, Mr and Mrs Stuart Reed
______________________________________
The buzzer at his door went off, startling him.
"Come in" he called, and Commander Tucker entered. Looking at him, the Captain nodded acknowledging and turned back to the computer screen.
"Um...Cap'n?"
Controlling the rage and grief that the message had triggered in him, Archer took a clearing breath and looked at Trip. "What?"
"I just...Jon, is everything alright?" Trip took a step towards the Captain and looked at the screen. "What's that?" he asked, frowning.
"Read it," Jon said and turned the screen so the engineer could see what was displayed on it.
Scanning the short message the frown on Trip's face deepened. When he was finished, he looked at Jon, unbelieving. "What kind of person *is* that guy?" he asked. Archer just shook his head.
"I mean, Malcolm was his son. Even if he didn't approve...'wish not to be bothered'...oh my God." Trip felt hot anger welling up in his stomach and looked at Archer who put a hand on his friend's arm.
"Trip..." he said, "even if his father doesn't care about him...and even if he never did, Malcolm had friends here on the ship. I think I can't be all too wrong if I say that he was happy here. And if that man even now can't forgive his son that he wanted to live his own life...well, I don't think that he's worth any more consideration then, do you?"
"No," Trip said. "It's jus'...everytime I get confronted with Malcolm's parents...Malcolm's father especially...I'm so grateful for my own family. And I think Malcolm deserved better. He is..was...a really nice guy if you got to know him better." He swallowed and lowered his eyes to the floor. Jon stared at the screen, lost in thought, remembering his Armoury Officer. When he had first met Malcolm Reed he had been impressed by his skills and knowledge to say the least, but the man himself he hadn't really liked. Nevertheless he had chosen him for his senior crew and had hoped he would come out of his shell. His hopes hadn't been disappointed, it seemed, even though Reed had still been reserved around his Captain he had made some friends among the crew - Hoshi, and surprisingly Trip. It had seemed he was finding his place, until ten days ago..."
"What're ya goin' to do with the medal?" Trip asked suddenly, interrupting his thoughts.
"What? Oh, the medal. Maybe I'll send it to his sister. Madeline, I think. The two were pretty close as far as I know." Sighing, he pushed a button and the message disappeared from the screen, then Archer turned to look at his friend. "So, why did you come?"
"Oh...well, I jus' wanted to tell ya that Starfleet Command has assigned a new Armoury Officer. It's a Mr Picard. French. He's also Lieutenant and has already served on smaller spaceships and on Jupiter Station. He'll be coming on board when we rendenzvous with the Skon in two days. That's his personal file." He handed Archer a padd that displayed dates and the picture of a man in his early thirties. He had light brown hair, ice-blue eyes and a friendly smile.
"Thanks Trip." Archer said. Tucker nodded and left the ready room, leaving Archer to muse over his new Armoury Officer's file.
Scrolling through the text, not really reding it, he kept thinking about the events that had caused the death of one of the members of his senior crew.
'No, not the death. The disappearance', the optimist in him spoke up, but in this case, it was fighting a lost battle. People usually didn't survive it if the ship they were on exploded. Even if their name was Malcolm Reed. Yes, they hadn't found a human body or body parts in the debris that had been left of the Suliban ship, but as T'Pol had put it 'the human body is very small in comparison to a starship, so the remains could have easily stayed unnoticed by the scanners'. In other words, don't get your irrational human hopes up, there was no way how he could have survived that. And in this case he could only agree with her. Getting your hopes up because there was no body was highly irrational. It could only lead to disapointment and made it even harder to cope with the fact that Malcolm was dead.
'It's not that he died. That would have been bad, tragic, but not as...pointless as this. At least he died in an explosion. He would have liked that.
How do you know what he would have liked,' another part of his mind spoke up. 'You didn't know him. Nobody really knew him, but you knew him even less than the others. He never warmed up around you, and you never really tried to get through to him. You just took the poor excuse that this was how he wanted it and never gave him a thought. And now he died and you sit here and comfort yoursefl by thinking 'That was what he would have liked'. That's disgusting.'
Closing his eyes, Archer shook his head.
"I know." he whispered. "But what else should I do? I have to comfort myself somehow."
'You left him', his mind said, 'and you should never forget that. You screwed up, Captain, and big time. It's your fault that he's dead, and only yours. Even if the others think it was just a mission gone wrong, it wasn't. At least not entirely. Partly, it was bad decision-making on your part. Not something the Captain of a starship can be proud of.'
Covering his face with his hands he let out a deep breath and remembered the incident that had occured ten days ago...
-###-
"Captain, my scanners pick up a ship at two point eight", Reed's voice came from the tactical station. Archer turned.
"A ship? But you said the space around here was deserted."
"That it was, Captain. But now my scanners pick up a ship. It seems like it just...materialized." Reed lifted an eyebrow at his Captain who turned to T'Pol.
"Do your scanners recognize it?"
"No, Captain", T'Pol answered, looking through her scanner, "it is an unknown type. But it displayes similarities to the known Suliban ships."
"Hull plating." Archer ordered. "On screen."
A small ship appeared on the main screen, surrounded by pink and blue streaks from the nebula Enterprise had been cartographing. Just as Archer wanted to tell Mayweather to enlarge it the turbolift doors swished open. Expecting to see Trip Archer turned and opened his mouth to say something, but seeing who the visitor was he stopped in his tracks and stared.
"What are you doing here?" Archer asked when he had found his voice.
"I came because I need your help." the visitor said.
"But...you died. How can that be?"
"I died? Oh yes, right. In this time line I did indeed die, but I - this I - am from a different time line where I survived that mission." Smiling brightly, Crewman Daniels stepped down to where the Captain was standing. Archer took a step backwards.
"What? You say you're from a different time line? That you came back here? What are you, some kind of ghost?"
Daniels kept smiling and took another step towards the still retreating Archer. Reed's back stiffened noticably.
"I'd really like to explain it to you, Captain," Daniels said, "but I'm afraid we don't have the time. The Suliban ship will attack you in about twenty minutes, and you're no match for them. That's a ship from the future, with superior weaponry and technology."
"Lieutenant," the Captain said, not taking his eyes from Daniels, "is that true?"
"I don't know Captain," Reed answered, consulting his consoles. "There's some kind of force field that makes it impossible for our scanners to pick anything up."
"A metaphase force field. Makes it possible to fly deep into the corona of any sun, and of course, withstand any kind of weaponry you decide to use against them. Captain, they can blow you from the sky twice without even having half of their weapon-systems online."
"Why haven't they attacked yet, then?"
"Because their scanners are not working, at least right now they aren't. But they will come back online in about fifteen minutes, and then they *will* attack, if you don't listen to me."
Archer glanced over at T'Pol who had a tricorder in her hand and was scanning the crewman.
"T'Pol, my ready room." he ordered. "Crewman..." Looking at Daniels he motioned towards the door of the situation room.
"Maybe Mr Reed should join us." Daniels said. The Lieutenant looked up from his station.
"Very well. Mr Reed..."
The four disappeared through the door, leaving the bridge crew to watch the small ship on the main screen.
-###-
"What's this all about, Daniels?" Archer asked as soon as the door had swished shut.
"Well, as I already said, I need your help. The metaphase force field of the Suliban ship makes it impossible to jump onto it from another point in time. But you can easily beam through it if you use the right configurations. You do have a transporter, don't you?"
"Yes, but it's still very..."
"Doesn't matter Captain. What I need is that your tranporter officer beams me and a security team onto the Suliban ship so I can fullfill my mission."
"What's your mission and why do you need a security team?"
"My mission is not relevant for you to know, and a security team I need because if I go onto that ship unprotected I won't get far. Your security guards are trained for situations like this and even if I can't guarantee it, I'll try to bring them all back in one piece."
"Very reassuring." Archer said. "Why didn't you bring your own security team? Or some kind of equipment that can protect you? You had all kinds of stuff in your quarters when you lived on this ship."
"Yes, Captain, but then, I had enough time to organize my stay here. This time I was sent on this mission on short notice. This is all very improvised, and if we don't come to a conclusion soon it will be fruitless, anyway."
"What if I say no?"
"Then we can just sit down and wait for the Suliban to blow Enterprise to pieces."
"How do I know they won't attack anyway even if I give you what you want?"
"They will be preoccupied with the presence of an intruder on board, and after we were beamed back you won't have to worry about them anymore."
"And why not?"
"You'll see when the time comes."
Archer let out an exasperated breath and turned to his two officers who had been standing behind him, listening intensly.
"What do you think? Subcommander?"
"You know my opinion about time traveling Captain. Although I have no explanation for Crewman Daniels presence I strongly suggest that you do not trust him without any evidence."
"Very well. Lieutenant?"
Reed looked surprised but simply answered:"I would choose the smaller risk Captain. Although I don't like the thought of three of my men to be beamed into a mission like this, the other possibility would be risking the whole crew. That's to high a risk in any case."
Archer considered. He could completely sypathize with T'Pol's opinion, but Reed was right: the other posibility was putting the whole ship on the line and that he couln't do, hell, mustn't do.
"Mr Reed," he said, "put a security team together. T'Pol, you have the bridge; tell Trip to meet us in the transporter room. Crewman, follow me."
-###-
While Daniels was reconfigurating the transporter Reed shortly briefed his men on the situation.
"Daniels is in charge for this mission. We are just there to protect him from any danger that might occur. We are going to beam into main engineering of the Suliban ship. There Daniels will fullfill whatever he has to do on that ship and we are going to make sure that nobody comes near him. On a signal from Daniels Commander Tucker will beam us back. Understood?"
"Yes sir," the two security guards answered unisono.
Reed, who considered this a suicide mission if there ever was one had assigned himself for it and asked for two more volunteers from his staff. The two men who were standing in front of him were both not married and hadn't much family back on earth. 'Perfect people to die in the line of duty', he thought grimly. He had a very bad feeling about this mission, from the minute Daniels had walked onto the bridge he had known something like this was coming. And, looking at Archer's grim expression, you couldn't blame this bad feeling on his natural pessimism. 'Maybe pessimism in this case isn't pessimism at all but simply rational thinking', he thought, then turned to check on his phaser rifle again.
"Everyone ready?" Archer asked as soon as Daniels signalized he was done with the reconfigurations. The Captain looked at Daniels, Reed and the two security guards who were standing on the transpoter platform, then at Tucker who was standing behind the console, all waiting for his order to beam them onto the Suliban ship. Pressing his lips together sligtly, he looked at his men.
"Good luck" he said. Then, turning his gaze to Tucker he gave the order and the four people on the platform disappeared in a shimmer of light.
-###-
As soon as they'd materialzed fully Reed and his men swarmed out, forming a protective circle around Daniels. They'd arrived in a dark cramped room with a high ceiling and bleeping screens all around the walls. A vertical tube was standing in the centre of the room; in it a light was pulsing, creating a ghostly atmosphere. But the only thing the four people from Enterprise payed attention to were the five Suliban who had turned away from their consoles and stared at the humans in surprise. Before they could react, though, Reed and his two men had pulled their phase pistols and stunned three of them. The Lieutenant got a fourth one by swinging his phase pistol around and firing at the Suliban who had tried to adjust to the background.
"Did anybody get the fifth one?" he asked looking at his two guards who shook their heads.
"No sir, I think he got away."
"Dammit. Well Daniels, where are we going?"
Daniels had turned to the console next to him and ran a scanner over it.
"Nowhere. We're staying right here. I only need to download some data. We can return to Enterprise in approximately five minutes."
Reed nodded curtly and motioned his men to post themselves around the console Daniels was working on; then took his own position. He scanned the interior of the Suliban engine room intently, recalling his first encounter with that species on Rigel when he and the othes had fought the Cabal. He remembered that their ability to adjust to their surroundings had really creeped him out. 'Security's nightmare', had been his thoughts, and now here he was on a ship full of people who could vanish in the blink of an eye. Clenching his jaw, he watched for any sign, any movement that indicated that a bunch of gen-manipulated Suliban were making their way toward them. But the pulsing light of the reactor in the middle of the room made it hard to decide what were just shadows and what was something else.
He turned to ask Daniels how much more time he needed as he saw a movement above the console. Shouting a warning he shoved Daniels out of the way as a Suliban dropped from the ceiling right onto the place where Daniels had been working. Reed was thrown off his feet as the Suliban landed on top of him. Squirming, he tried to free himself but the superior strength of his adversary made it impossible. He felt himself being grabbed and flung across the room. As he hit a nearby console he heard a crack and thought 'Oh my God please let that not be my communicator.' Getting to his feet, he dug it from his sleeve pocket and saw a crack that was running across the back side of the casing. 'Bloody hell,' he thought, dropping the broken gadget and, pulling his phase pistol, turned to see Daniels and the two guards trying to fight off a group of at least eight Suliban. Stunning the one that was advancing on Daniels he called: "Contact Enterprise! Tell them to beam us back." He reached out to grab Daniels' arm when something hit him in the back. He felt himself falling forward, then he knew no more.
-###-
"Get them back!" Archer yelled.
"I'm tryin', Jon, but I can't find Malcolm's signature." said Trip who was frantically pushing buttons at the transporter console.
"What do you mean; scan for him."
"I can't scan for him, the metaphase force field's still online. I can only pick up the communicator signatures 'cause Daniels reconfigurated the scanners. And Malcolm's signature just disappeared!" He pushed some more buttons, a deep frown on his face.
"I got a lock on the other three." he said some seconds later. "Beaming them back...now."
A shimmer appeared on the platform and the three people materialized. Daniels and the two guards, all in a fighting position, looked around in surprise. Archer took a step nearer.
"Where's Malcolm?"
"I don't know sir," one of the guards answered. "We were attacked by the Suliban and the Lieutenant told me to contact Enterprise. Why didn't you bring him back with us?"
"We couldn't find the signature of his communicator. Did you see what happened to..."
"Captain," Daniels interrupted Archer, "I don't know what happened to Lieutenant Reed but I have to go back anyway. I wasn't able to finish my assignment. You..."
A tremour shook the ship. Archer stepped over to the comm. "Archer to bridge, what's happening?"
"The Suliban are attacking us." came T'Pol's voice from the bridge. "No severe damage."
Archer turned and glared at Daniels. "You said we wouldn't have any problems with them!"
"Like I said, I couldn't finish my assignment! Beam me back, and I'll get finished; and I'll try to get Reed back."
"I'm not beaming anybody of my crew onto that ship again!"
"I'm not a part of your crew anymore," Daniels remembered him."But Lieutenant Reed is. Do you just want to leave him there?"
Archer stared at the young man. A young man he was, but he had more experience with the Suliban as anybody in Starfleet. Another hit rocked the ship.
"Beam him back, Trip. I'm on the bridge."
"Aye sir."
-###-
As he arrived on the bridge, T'Pol immediately left the Captain's chair and went to her station.
"Status!" Archer barked.
"The suliban ship has fired three shots, inflicting minor damage. I assume they were supposed to be warnshots." T'Pol reported.
"Retreat as far as possible without leaving transporter range."
"Aye sir." Mayweather answered.
"Is there anything new from the away team, Captain?" T'Pol asked as the Suliban ship was getting smaller on the main screen.
"We just beamed them back, but couldn't get a lock on Lieutenant Reed. Daniels said he has to go back because he hadn't finished his assignment. I hope he can find out about Malcolm."
"And if not?" Hoshi asked from the comm station.
"Then, Ensign, we'll have to think of something else."
Hoshi swallowed and with a grave expression on her face, she turned back to her station.
"Status of the Suliban ship?"
"As far as I can conclude from the limited sensor data, no changes. They ceased firing on us and are unactive." T'Pol stated.
Archer started pacing. One of the things he hated most of all was when somebody of his crew was in trouble and he could neither help nor at least know what was going on. He hated having no control over the events that were decisive for a mission. Which was why he always went on away teams. Which was why he now whished he had accompanied Daniels. Noticing the glares he got from Hoshi and Mayweather he stopped pacing the deck and sat down in his chair.
Suddenly Hoshi spoke up: "Captain, incoming hail from our team on the Suliban ship."
Archer got up. "Put them through."
"Captain, this is Daniels. I fulfilled my mission and this version of me will probably never bother you again. You don't know how much you helped the future of mankind. I am deeply sorry but I couldn't help Lieutenant Reed. Thank you and farewell, Captain. Daniels out."
"Hey!" Archer cried. "Daniels!" When he got no response he turned to the comm station. "Hoshi, hail him!"
"He doesn't acnowledge, Captain."
"Captain," T'Pol spoke up, "the Suliban lower their metaphase deflectors. And they have activated their self destruction."
"What?" Archer whirled around to face the main screen. For a second he still caught a glimpse of the small Suliban ship, then it exploded in a great red fireball.
"Attention, shockwave." T'Pol said. "Brace for impact."
Seconds later the wave rocked the ship. When it staightened up again, the screen was displaying only the nebula - and around the former position of the small ship there were some tiny spots, floating along in space.
Archer stared at the screen, trying to grasp what had just happened. Then he turned to T'Pol.
"What...they set off their self destruction? Why?"
"That I cannot say, Captain. But maybe it were not the Suliban themselves, maybe Crewman Daniels activated it."
"Captain," Mayweather spoke up, "are you sure Lieutenant Reed was still on that ship?"
Archer paused, looking at the helmsman. Then he went to his chair, hitting the intercom button.
"Archer toTucker."
"Yeah, Jon, I'm here."
"You didn't by any chance beam Malcolm on board, did you?"
"No I didn't. Why? What happened?"
Swallowing, Archer lifted his gaze to the screen.
"The Suliban ship...it self-destructed."
And it's all over
For the unknown soldier
The war is over
For the unknown soldier
The Doors; The Unknown Soldier
"I can't believe this," Jonathan Archer wispered. He was looking at a message he had received from Mr and Mrs Reed. No, considering it, he didn't think Mrs Reed had had to say much in this matter. This was only Stuart Reed talking here, and Jon thought he could understand Malcolm's...dislike. Right now the captan felt an outright hate for the man.
______________________________________
To Captain Jonathan Archer [read the message]
Shortly we received a delivery from Starfleet Command containing a post mortem medal for our son. Since we did not approve his joining of Starfleet we refuse to accept that decoration. We sent it to you, you will probably receive it during your next rendenzvous with a Vulcan vessel. For our part we consider the matter as closed and wish not to be bothered by Starfleet again.
Sincerely, Mr and Mrs Stuart Reed
______________________________________
The buzzer at his door went off, startling him.
"Come in" he called, and Commander Tucker entered. Looking at him, the Captain nodded acknowledging and turned back to the computer screen.
"Um...Cap'n?"
Controlling the rage and grief that the message had triggered in him, Archer took a clearing breath and looked at Trip. "What?"
"I just...Jon, is everything alright?" Trip took a step towards the Captain and looked at the screen. "What's that?" he asked, frowning.
"Read it," Jon said and turned the screen so the engineer could see what was displayed on it.
Scanning the short message the frown on Trip's face deepened. When he was finished, he looked at Jon, unbelieving. "What kind of person *is* that guy?" he asked. Archer just shook his head.
"I mean, Malcolm was his son. Even if he didn't approve...'wish not to be bothered'...oh my God." Trip felt hot anger welling up in his stomach and looked at Archer who put a hand on his friend's arm.
"Trip..." he said, "even if his father doesn't care about him...and even if he never did, Malcolm had friends here on the ship. I think I can't be all too wrong if I say that he was happy here. And if that man even now can't forgive his son that he wanted to live his own life...well, I don't think that he's worth any more consideration then, do you?"
"No," Trip said. "It's jus'...everytime I get confronted with Malcolm's parents...Malcolm's father especially...I'm so grateful for my own family. And I think Malcolm deserved better. He is..was...a really nice guy if you got to know him better." He swallowed and lowered his eyes to the floor. Jon stared at the screen, lost in thought, remembering his Armoury Officer. When he had first met Malcolm Reed he had been impressed by his skills and knowledge to say the least, but the man himself he hadn't really liked. Nevertheless he had chosen him for his senior crew and had hoped he would come out of his shell. His hopes hadn't been disappointed, it seemed, even though Reed had still been reserved around his Captain he had made some friends among the crew - Hoshi, and surprisingly Trip. It had seemed he was finding his place, until ten days ago..."
"What're ya goin' to do with the medal?" Trip asked suddenly, interrupting his thoughts.
"What? Oh, the medal. Maybe I'll send it to his sister. Madeline, I think. The two were pretty close as far as I know." Sighing, he pushed a button and the message disappeared from the screen, then Archer turned to look at his friend. "So, why did you come?"
"Oh...well, I jus' wanted to tell ya that Starfleet Command has assigned a new Armoury Officer. It's a Mr Picard. French. He's also Lieutenant and has already served on smaller spaceships and on Jupiter Station. He'll be coming on board when we rendenzvous with the Skon in two days. That's his personal file." He handed Archer a padd that displayed dates and the picture of a man in his early thirties. He had light brown hair, ice-blue eyes and a friendly smile.
"Thanks Trip." Archer said. Tucker nodded and left the ready room, leaving Archer to muse over his new Armoury Officer's file.
Scrolling through the text, not really reding it, he kept thinking about the events that had caused the death of one of the members of his senior crew.
'No, not the death. The disappearance', the optimist in him spoke up, but in this case, it was fighting a lost battle. People usually didn't survive it if the ship they were on exploded. Even if their name was Malcolm Reed. Yes, they hadn't found a human body or body parts in the debris that had been left of the Suliban ship, but as T'Pol had put it 'the human body is very small in comparison to a starship, so the remains could have easily stayed unnoticed by the scanners'. In other words, don't get your irrational human hopes up, there was no way how he could have survived that. And in this case he could only agree with her. Getting your hopes up because there was no body was highly irrational. It could only lead to disapointment and made it even harder to cope with the fact that Malcolm was dead.
'It's not that he died. That would have been bad, tragic, but not as...pointless as this. At least he died in an explosion. He would have liked that.
How do you know what he would have liked,' another part of his mind spoke up. 'You didn't know him. Nobody really knew him, but you knew him even less than the others. He never warmed up around you, and you never really tried to get through to him. You just took the poor excuse that this was how he wanted it and never gave him a thought. And now he died and you sit here and comfort yoursefl by thinking 'That was what he would have liked'. That's disgusting.'
Closing his eyes, Archer shook his head.
"I know." he whispered. "But what else should I do? I have to comfort myself somehow."
'You left him', his mind said, 'and you should never forget that. You screwed up, Captain, and big time. It's your fault that he's dead, and only yours. Even if the others think it was just a mission gone wrong, it wasn't. At least not entirely. Partly, it was bad decision-making on your part. Not something the Captain of a starship can be proud of.'
Covering his face with his hands he let out a deep breath and remembered the incident that had occured ten days ago...
-###-
"Captain, my scanners pick up a ship at two point eight", Reed's voice came from the tactical station. Archer turned.
"A ship? But you said the space around here was deserted."
"That it was, Captain. But now my scanners pick up a ship. It seems like it just...materialized." Reed lifted an eyebrow at his Captain who turned to T'Pol.
"Do your scanners recognize it?"
"No, Captain", T'Pol answered, looking through her scanner, "it is an unknown type. But it displayes similarities to the known Suliban ships."
"Hull plating." Archer ordered. "On screen."
A small ship appeared on the main screen, surrounded by pink and blue streaks from the nebula Enterprise had been cartographing. Just as Archer wanted to tell Mayweather to enlarge it the turbolift doors swished open. Expecting to see Trip Archer turned and opened his mouth to say something, but seeing who the visitor was he stopped in his tracks and stared.
"What are you doing here?" Archer asked when he had found his voice.
"I came because I need your help." the visitor said.
"But...you died. How can that be?"
"I died? Oh yes, right. In this time line I did indeed die, but I - this I - am from a different time line where I survived that mission." Smiling brightly, Crewman Daniels stepped down to where the Captain was standing. Archer took a step backwards.
"What? You say you're from a different time line? That you came back here? What are you, some kind of ghost?"
Daniels kept smiling and took another step towards the still retreating Archer. Reed's back stiffened noticably.
"I'd really like to explain it to you, Captain," Daniels said, "but I'm afraid we don't have the time. The Suliban ship will attack you in about twenty minutes, and you're no match for them. That's a ship from the future, with superior weaponry and technology."
"Lieutenant," the Captain said, not taking his eyes from Daniels, "is that true?"
"I don't know Captain," Reed answered, consulting his consoles. "There's some kind of force field that makes it impossible for our scanners to pick anything up."
"A metaphase force field. Makes it possible to fly deep into the corona of any sun, and of course, withstand any kind of weaponry you decide to use against them. Captain, they can blow you from the sky twice without even having half of their weapon-systems online."
"Why haven't they attacked yet, then?"
"Because their scanners are not working, at least right now they aren't. But they will come back online in about fifteen minutes, and then they *will* attack, if you don't listen to me."
Archer glanced over at T'Pol who had a tricorder in her hand and was scanning the crewman.
"T'Pol, my ready room." he ordered. "Crewman..." Looking at Daniels he motioned towards the door of the situation room.
"Maybe Mr Reed should join us." Daniels said. The Lieutenant looked up from his station.
"Very well. Mr Reed..."
The four disappeared through the door, leaving the bridge crew to watch the small ship on the main screen.
-###-
"What's this all about, Daniels?" Archer asked as soon as the door had swished shut.
"Well, as I already said, I need your help. The metaphase force field of the Suliban ship makes it impossible to jump onto it from another point in time. But you can easily beam through it if you use the right configurations. You do have a transporter, don't you?"
"Yes, but it's still very..."
"Doesn't matter Captain. What I need is that your tranporter officer beams me and a security team onto the Suliban ship so I can fullfill my mission."
"What's your mission and why do you need a security team?"
"My mission is not relevant for you to know, and a security team I need because if I go onto that ship unprotected I won't get far. Your security guards are trained for situations like this and even if I can't guarantee it, I'll try to bring them all back in one piece."
"Very reassuring." Archer said. "Why didn't you bring your own security team? Or some kind of equipment that can protect you? You had all kinds of stuff in your quarters when you lived on this ship."
"Yes, Captain, but then, I had enough time to organize my stay here. This time I was sent on this mission on short notice. This is all very improvised, and if we don't come to a conclusion soon it will be fruitless, anyway."
"What if I say no?"
"Then we can just sit down and wait for the Suliban to blow Enterprise to pieces."
"How do I know they won't attack anyway even if I give you what you want?"
"They will be preoccupied with the presence of an intruder on board, and after we were beamed back you won't have to worry about them anymore."
"And why not?"
"You'll see when the time comes."
Archer let out an exasperated breath and turned to his two officers who had been standing behind him, listening intensly.
"What do you think? Subcommander?"
"You know my opinion about time traveling Captain. Although I have no explanation for Crewman Daniels presence I strongly suggest that you do not trust him without any evidence."
"Very well. Lieutenant?"
Reed looked surprised but simply answered:"I would choose the smaller risk Captain. Although I don't like the thought of three of my men to be beamed into a mission like this, the other possibility would be risking the whole crew. That's to high a risk in any case."
Archer considered. He could completely sypathize with T'Pol's opinion, but Reed was right: the other posibility was putting the whole ship on the line and that he couln't do, hell, mustn't do.
"Mr Reed," he said, "put a security team together. T'Pol, you have the bridge; tell Trip to meet us in the transporter room. Crewman, follow me."
-###-
While Daniels was reconfigurating the transporter Reed shortly briefed his men on the situation.
"Daniels is in charge for this mission. We are just there to protect him from any danger that might occur. We are going to beam into main engineering of the Suliban ship. There Daniels will fullfill whatever he has to do on that ship and we are going to make sure that nobody comes near him. On a signal from Daniels Commander Tucker will beam us back. Understood?"
"Yes sir," the two security guards answered unisono.
Reed, who considered this a suicide mission if there ever was one had assigned himself for it and asked for two more volunteers from his staff. The two men who were standing in front of him were both not married and hadn't much family back on earth. 'Perfect people to die in the line of duty', he thought grimly. He had a very bad feeling about this mission, from the minute Daniels had walked onto the bridge he had known something like this was coming. And, looking at Archer's grim expression, you couldn't blame this bad feeling on his natural pessimism. 'Maybe pessimism in this case isn't pessimism at all but simply rational thinking', he thought, then turned to check on his phaser rifle again.
"Everyone ready?" Archer asked as soon as Daniels signalized he was done with the reconfigurations. The Captain looked at Daniels, Reed and the two security guards who were standing on the transpoter platform, then at Tucker who was standing behind the console, all waiting for his order to beam them onto the Suliban ship. Pressing his lips together sligtly, he looked at his men.
"Good luck" he said. Then, turning his gaze to Tucker he gave the order and the four people on the platform disappeared in a shimmer of light.
-###-
As soon as they'd materialzed fully Reed and his men swarmed out, forming a protective circle around Daniels. They'd arrived in a dark cramped room with a high ceiling and bleeping screens all around the walls. A vertical tube was standing in the centre of the room; in it a light was pulsing, creating a ghostly atmosphere. But the only thing the four people from Enterprise payed attention to were the five Suliban who had turned away from their consoles and stared at the humans in surprise. Before they could react, though, Reed and his two men had pulled their phase pistols and stunned three of them. The Lieutenant got a fourth one by swinging his phase pistol around and firing at the Suliban who had tried to adjust to the background.
"Did anybody get the fifth one?" he asked looking at his two guards who shook their heads.
"No sir, I think he got away."
"Dammit. Well Daniels, where are we going?"
Daniels had turned to the console next to him and ran a scanner over it.
"Nowhere. We're staying right here. I only need to download some data. We can return to Enterprise in approximately five minutes."
Reed nodded curtly and motioned his men to post themselves around the console Daniels was working on; then took his own position. He scanned the interior of the Suliban engine room intently, recalling his first encounter with that species on Rigel when he and the othes had fought the Cabal. He remembered that their ability to adjust to their surroundings had really creeped him out. 'Security's nightmare', had been his thoughts, and now here he was on a ship full of people who could vanish in the blink of an eye. Clenching his jaw, he watched for any sign, any movement that indicated that a bunch of gen-manipulated Suliban were making their way toward them. But the pulsing light of the reactor in the middle of the room made it hard to decide what were just shadows and what was something else.
He turned to ask Daniels how much more time he needed as he saw a movement above the console. Shouting a warning he shoved Daniels out of the way as a Suliban dropped from the ceiling right onto the place where Daniels had been working. Reed was thrown off his feet as the Suliban landed on top of him. Squirming, he tried to free himself but the superior strength of his adversary made it impossible. He felt himself being grabbed and flung across the room. As he hit a nearby console he heard a crack and thought 'Oh my God please let that not be my communicator.' Getting to his feet, he dug it from his sleeve pocket and saw a crack that was running across the back side of the casing. 'Bloody hell,' he thought, dropping the broken gadget and, pulling his phase pistol, turned to see Daniels and the two guards trying to fight off a group of at least eight Suliban. Stunning the one that was advancing on Daniels he called: "Contact Enterprise! Tell them to beam us back." He reached out to grab Daniels' arm when something hit him in the back. He felt himself falling forward, then he knew no more.
-###-
"Get them back!" Archer yelled.
"I'm tryin', Jon, but I can't find Malcolm's signature." said Trip who was frantically pushing buttons at the transporter console.
"What do you mean; scan for him."
"I can't scan for him, the metaphase force field's still online. I can only pick up the communicator signatures 'cause Daniels reconfigurated the scanners. And Malcolm's signature just disappeared!" He pushed some more buttons, a deep frown on his face.
"I got a lock on the other three." he said some seconds later. "Beaming them back...now."
A shimmer appeared on the platform and the three people materialized. Daniels and the two guards, all in a fighting position, looked around in surprise. Archer took a step nearer.
"Where's Malcolm?"
"I don't know sir," one of the guards answered. "We were attacked by the Suliban and the Lieutenant told me to contact Enterprise. Why didn't you bring him back with us?"
"We couldn't find the signature of his communicator. Did you see what happened to..."
"Captain," Daniels interrupted Archer, "I don't know what happened to Lieutenant Reed but I have to go back anyway. I wasn't able to finish my assignment. You..."
A tremour shook the ship. Archer stepped over to the comm. "Archer to bridge, what's happening?"
"The Suliban are attacking us." came T'Pol's voice from the bridge. "No severe damage."
Archer turned and glared at Daniels. "You said we wouldn't have any problems with them!"
"Like I said, I couldn't finish my assignment! Beam me back, and I'll get finished; and I'll try to get Reed back."
"I'm not beaming anybody of my crew onto that ship again!"
"I'm not a part of your crew anymore," Daniels remembered him."But Lieutenant Reed is. Do you just want to leave him there?"
Archer stared at the young man. A young man he was, but he had more experience with the Suliban as anybody in Starfleet. Another hit rocked the ship.
"Beam him back, Trip. I'm on the bridge."
"Aye sir."
-###-
As he arrived on the bridge, T'Pol immediately left the Captain's chair and went to her station.
"Status!" Archer barked.
"The suliban ship has fired three shots, inflicting minor damage. I assume they were supposed to be warnshots." T'Pol reported.
"Retreat as far as possible without leaving transporter range."
"Aye sir." Mayweather answered.
"Is there anything new from the away team, Captain?" T'Pol asked as the Suliban ship was getting smaller on the main screen.
"We just beamed them back, but couldn't get a lock on Lieutenant Reed. Daniels said he has to go back because he hadn't finished his assignment. I hope he can find out about Malcolm."
"And if not?" Hoshi asked from the comm station.
"Then, Ensign, we'll have to think of something else."
Hoshi swallowed and with a grave expression on her face, she turned back to her station.
"Status of the Suliban ship?"
"As far as I can conclude from the limited sensor data, no changes. They ceased firing on us and are unactive." T'Pol stated.
Archer started pacing. One of the things he hated most of all was when somebody of his crew was in trouble and he could neither help nor at least know what was going on. He hated having no control over the events that were decisive for a mission. Which was why he always went on away teams. Which was why he now whished he had accompanied Daniels. Noticing the glares he got from Hoshi and Mayweather he stopped pacing the deck and sat down in his chair.
Suddenly Hoshi spoke up: "Captain, incoming hail from our team on the Suliban ship."
Archer got up. "Put them through."
"Captain, this is Daniels. I fulfilled my mission and this version of me will probably never bother you again. You don't know how much you helped the future of mankind. I am deeply sorry but I couldn't help Lieutenant Reed. Thank you and farewell, Captain. Daniels out."
"Hey!" Archer cried. "Daniels!" When he got no response he turned to the comm station. "Hoshi, hail him!"
"He doesn't acnowledge, Captain."
"Captain," T'Pol spoke up, "the Suliban lower their metaphase deflectors. And they have activated their self destruction."
"What?" Archer whirled around to face the main screen. For a second he still caught a glimpse of the small Suliban ship, then it exploded in a great red fireball.
"Attention, shockwave." T'Pol said. "Brace for impact."
Seconds later the wave rocked the ship. When it staightened up again, the screen was displaying only the nebula - and around the former position of the small ship there were some tiny spots, floating along in space.
Archer stared at the screen, trying to grasp what had just happened. Then he turned to T'Pol.
"What...they set off their self destruction? Why?"
"That I cannot say, Captain. But maybe it were not the Suliban themselves, maybe Crewman Daniels activated it."
"Captain," Mayweather spoke up, "are you sure Lieutenant Reed was still on that ship?"
Archer paused, looking at the helmsman. Then he went to his chair, hitting the intercom button.
"Archer toTucker."
"Yeah, Jon, I'm here."
"You didn't by any chance beam Malcolm on board, did you?"
"No I didn't. Why? What happened?"
Swallowing, Archer lifted his gaze to the screen.
"The Suliban ship...it self-destructed."