Epilogue –

Several years later –

Running a hand along the line of her uniform, Inari Stewart paused before she pressed the door chime. It hadn't been easy – getting this posting. She had said goodbye to all her family and friends. Saying goodbye to her mother had been especially difficult.

Inari sighed, thinking of her mother. Mothers know things. It was instinctive, and there was no way that Inari could hide the truth from Hoshi.

--

The wind blew across the glen, caressing her mother's graying hair as she weeded the small garden. As though sensing someone watching her, Hoshi turned in greeting. Her smiled quickly fell as she saw her daughter standing there.

"I wish your father were alive," Hoshi stated over the breeze. "He'd be able to talk some sense into you."

"Mother…" Inari's voice trailed off, not wanting to make the last time she saw her mother an unpleasant encounter. This would be the last time she saw her.

Hoshi hissed, "If you expect me to give you my blessings, I can't. Time travel is unnatural and wrong."

Inari closed her eyes, stemming the flow of tears. "It's necessary. In order to protect the timelines, we need to ensure there are no more temporal incursions."

"So, you're going backward or forward in time to muck around in peoples lives."

"To observe, Mother. To protect. To make sure the temporal accords stay intact."

Inari saw the disappointed expression of her mother's face and knew her mother would say no more. So she walked away.

--

She took a calming breath and pressed the button to the ready room of her new commanding officer.

"Enter!" came the terse reply.

The door opened and Inari stepped over the threshold, walked up to the desk, and set a PADD down in front of Commodore Archer. "Sir, Lt. Cmdr. Inari Stewart reporting for duty, sir."

Jon scowled at the woman in front of him. If her introduction was any indication, he was back to square one. She was worse than Malcolm, and it had taken him two years to get through his temporarily absent armory officer's stiff veneer. Picking up the PADD, he motioned for the petite brunette to have a seat and pretended to peruse the PADD.

He knew all about her already. Malcolm had hand-picked her to fill in for him while he went home to visit his wife and new daughter. That's why she was here.

She was over one and a half meters tall, her dark brown hair piled on top of her head. Her high cheekbones and dark eyes where the only hint of her Asian ancestry. She was thirty-six, single, and…

Jon shook his head. This wasn't a dating game. She was his new armory officer.

God he needed to get laid! He was definitely feeling all of his fifty-one years thanks to Trip and the forest fire on his cake a week ago. Jon cleared his throat. "Inari… Commander Reed and Lieutenant Sato named their daughter Inari."

"Yes, sir. It's a common name among people with Japanese ancestry," she answered quickly, holding her breath. Her tenuous journey into the past hinged on one person – her father.

He had been waiting for her. It had been unnerving being found out by him, but she should have known she couldn't hide from him. He'd always had a way of manipulating her.

Her cover was blown before she even set foot in Starfleet Headquarters.

Enterprise was in space dock for retrofit and her mother was in her third trimester with her. Hoshi was leaving Enterprise.

Inari's cover never fooled Malcolm.

Once he had seen a selection of his potential replacements for his temporary absence, he had known his daughter had come into the past.

"I had hoped I would teach you better than this, Inari," Malcolm stated severely as he brushed past his daughter and into her apartment. When he had seen her doctored Starfleet ID, he knew it was her. "You're as I imagined you…ever since my last run in with Daniels…and Archer."

She said nothing, waiting for him to continue.

"Why have they sent you back?"

Inari said nothing still, her silence confirming her father's suspicions.

Malcolm stared at her, able to see himself in his daughter. "You have to go back. You'll be born soon and the temporal displacement disorder –"

"I'm immune."

"How?"

"Youre exposure… You passed the antibodies onto me."

Her father was not deterred. "It doesn't matter," he insisted. "You have to go back to the future."

"I have a mission, Father."

"It doesn't matter," Malcolm replied.

"Yes, it does!"

He could see the stubborn tilt in her chin, the one that Hoshi accused him of so frequently. It was pointless to argue, but he would continue anyway.

"There are temporal agents unaccounted for… potential for assassinations throughout the timeline," Inari stated.

"The catalysts," Malcolm whispered, a long-forgotten fear twisting in his stomach. "Hoshi –"

"Is no longer classified as a catalyst. She's safe," Inari confirmed. "We've received viable intelligence that a rouge agent is going to attempt to kill a prominent Starfleet figure."

"Commodore Archer," he guessed.

Inari nodded. "I need to get on board Enterprise. There's no other way to protect him."

Malcolm stared at his daughter, torn between his dislike of temporal meddling and his responsibility to family and duty. "I'll recommend your posting as my replacement," he conceded grudgingly. "On one condition."

Crossing her arms over her chest, she nodded for him to continue. "Which is?"

"Don't interfere."

"I—"

"Unless you feel the Commodore is in danger," Malcolm finished. "Do the job! Nothing more."

"Commander Reed should return in a few months. Seeing as this is only a temporary posting," Jon stated, "you'll be in his quarters."

"Thank you, sir."

Jon rubbed the bridge of his nose. The woman…his officer still had yet to sit down. "If you need anything, the quartermaster will see to it, and –"

Archer's comm panel chirped and a nervous voice sounded over the system. "B-bridge to Com-commodore Archer."

Sighing, Archer pressed the button to respond. Unlike Malcolm, Hoshi had no plans to return to Enterprise, and her replacement was permanent. "Go ahead."

"You're needed on the bridge, sir."

"I'm on my way." Archer stood and walked around his desk. "Welcome aboard, Lieutenant Commander Stewart. Breakfast is at 0600 in the captain's mess.

Inari stared at his back as he walked away, her eyes lingering on his posterior. She shook her head and sighed. She had a sinking suspicion that this mission was going to be anything but easy.

FIN

A/N -- Anybody want a sequel?