Disclaimer: All rights to Star Trek Enterprise, the characters and situations except as noted below are reserved by Paramount Studios.
Tia Anlor (Tee-ah Ahn'-lor) is my own creation.
This is the 13th story in this series, the others being 'Golden Girl'; 'A Few Words'; 'Glistni'; 'Small Time'; 'Acquisition'; 'What Do I Do Now?'; 'For Want of Kilyiis'; 'Daasii'; 'Noblesse Oblige'; 'Roses and Thorny'; 'Time and Again' and 'House of Cards'. This story takes place on the same day as 'House of Cards', and continues the same arc begun in 'Time and Again'. Tia has been on the Enterprise for about five months.
Rating: G
Starlight Maiden
By JMK758
Prologue
Captain Jonathan Archer carefully surveyed the skies around the landing site, even though he knew that the sensors on Shuttle Pod One and those of the Enterprise high in orbit did a far better job of keeping watch than his human eyes possibly could. It was one thing to know this; quite another to keep himself from watching nonetheless.
There were thirteen crewmen and women with him on Caldis 3, from such diverse disciplines as geology through exobiology. All had their respective tasks; his was to determine why this planet was so significant that an agent from the future had tried to slaughter nearly half his crew to keep those individuals from reaching it.
Originally this Minshara Class world's only significance was that it was noted in the Vulcan star charts as a rich source of some of the materials from which duranium was fashioned, thus making it a potential mining source for Starfleet. Hardly had he issued orders two weeks ago to set a course for the world when a faction of the Temporal Cold War started, all undetectably, to move against them. It resulted in the almost simultaneous murders, two evenings ago, of Chief Medical Officer Phlox, Sub-Commander T'Pol, Ensign Elizabeth Cutler, Crewwomen Dina Samuels, Ann Anderson, Jennifer Farber, and the attempted murders of Ensign Hoshi Sato and Crewwoman Tia Anlor.
Through the actions of Sato and Anlor, the deaths of the others had been undone, caused to never have happened, but not without a price. They were the only ones who had suffered physical injuries from the incident, though Anlor's seemed far more severe and far reaching.
Having played an unwilling though pivotal role in several temporal incidents, Archer could understand at least some of that his crew had experienced; though he doubted anyone other than the mysterious Crewman Daniels could understand it all.
It had, however, elevated the seemingly innocuous world on which they stood to one of supreme importance. What was it about this place that had made it so significant that someone would try to murder half his crew to prevent them from reaching it? And why only the women?
"No woman must reach Caldis 3." The assassin had said this before he'd died. Why? In response to this, half the scientists on the planet were women.
And now he waited.
And in the midst of all this, his Chief Engineer had returned to the Enterprise to bring down the aforementioned Crewwoman Anlor, despite her refusal to submit to a medical exam to determine the extent of and to treat her injuries from the recent skirmish; thereby rendering herself ineligible to join the Away Team. He had brought her down, but not to the landing site. He'd appealed to Archer for permission to bring her down over forty kilometers away, and to remain there until he had cleared up 'certain business'.
If it had been anyone else, he would never have considered giving this permission. But he knew something was seriously amiss, and trusted his friend to get to the best resolution for it. He had seen the strain his friend had been under, and would not tell him that he also sensed the cause of it. He, after due consideration, gave his permission.
It had been close to an hour since the Chief left, and –
The small communicator tucked into the sleeve pocket of his landing jacket beeped twice, and he unfastened the zipper, pulling the device out. Was this what he had been expecting? "Archer here."
"T'Pol, Captain. A ship has just dropped out of warp; origin unknown. We are hailing them, but so far; no response."
"Weapons?"
Malcolm Reed, his Tactical Officer, joined the frequency. "I read significant weaponry, mostly coherent energy beams, all powered down."
"Captain," Ensign Elizabeth Cutler exclaimed, pointing to the south, "something coming over the horizon!" He followed her pointing finger, seeing a rapidly enlarging shape approaching, moving very, very quickly. It arrowed toward them at astounding velocity, far faster than a shuttle pod would travel in the atmosphere.
"T'Pol," Archer said into the communicator. "Describe the ship, please."
"Triangular, delta winged, long, sweeping 'wings'. Silver but featureless, as if its hull were covered in mercury. Height no more than 20 meters, length 100 meters, width a maximum of 167 meters from … wingtip to tip." He could hear T'Pol's reluctance to describe the point in such generalities, but to Archer it did give the best mental image without seeing the vessel for himself. In fact, he had the feeling he had no need to see the ship as yet. "No visible markings of any kind." She concluded.
In just the brief time it took for this succinct report, the approaching vessel had slowed to a position almost directly overhead, and was now lowering itself with almost eerie silence to a landing in the middle of the field not 20 meters from Shuttle Pod One.
"Well, T'Pol, I'd say it sounds like you've got the mother ship; and the daughter's down here with us."
"Do you require any assistance?"
"I don't think so. No overtly hostile moves. No movement at all, in fact. I'd say they're looking us over; maybe deciding if we are hostile."
"In that case, I suggest no overtly hostile moves." The Vulcan replied dryly. Archer could not help but glance at the communicator.
"I'll keep it in mind. Keep a lock on us."
"Yes, sir."
Archer had, except for that one brief second, not taken his eyes off the gleaming silver ship that sat just a few meters away. It was as T'Pol had described its larger companion; not very tall, but delta or boomerang shaped, except not quite as widely spread as that ancient weapon would be. It was not quiet featureless; the flowing silver of its graceful curves were features in themselves.
There was not a seam, not a rivet, not a bolt visible. It was as if the entire ship had been covered in mercury, which had been left to harden upon its hull. It was so smooth that the opening of a panel in its side, roughly two meters high and one wide was almost startling against the smoothness.
No less startling were the three figures that emerged.
The three women were clothed in long, flowing garments that fluttered in the soft breeze. They each had long hair, though the one in the center, wearing the green garment, had hair of an astounding bronze; the one on the left in the yellow gown had green hair and the one on their right, in the turquoise gown, had hair of the most startlingly vivid red. All seemed human, all were about 1.5 to 1.8 meters tall. They looked very, very human, and Archer was not taken in by appearances.
Without taking his eyes off them, he changed the frequency on the communicator in his hand. "Archer to Tucker."
"Tucker here." Came the response a moment later.
"Trip, you about finished with your business?"
"Finished, Cap'n. We're just getting under way."
"Good, because I can use you here." He watched the trio stride forward toward him. "We've got some company."
"On our way, Cap'n."
Chapter One
Bravinans
The three women who had stepped out of the silver ship watched the blue uniformed group for several long moments, and noted in particular that without exception each of them at one time or another glanced briefly at one person in particular; a tall man using a small communication device. They had detected his transmissions as they had approached and landed, and the looks of all the others in the scattered group only confirmed the deduction that this one was the leader among them.
They walked slowly toward the man, noting particularly the woman who stood beside him, contrasting the two. The woman was shorter than the man, which was quite unusual in itself. She had short brown hair framing a fair complexioned face. Their uniforms were, naturally, identical within the obvious limits of distinction, and the only particular difference between them was that the man had four small silver metallic squares in a line at the left side of his chest to her single square. In fact, he had a greater number than anyone else bore.
As they neared the pair, the green gowned woman raised her left arm, bringing before her a square device attached to her wrist by a black band, the buttons upon which she manipulated with her right hand. When they stopped, she kept manipulating the small silver instrument for another moment, then spoke. "Can you understand me?"
"Yes, I can." The man answered, glancing briefly at the device on her wrist before putting into his pocket the communication instrument he had been holding. She noted he did not close it.
"I am Alir. We have programmed our translator based on communications we detected between you and your ship." The man nodded.
"You did well. I'm Captain Jonathan Archer of the Starship Enterprise, representing Starfleet, the exploration agency of the planet Earth."
"I am tertiary commander of the Extikone, in orbit about this colony." She noted a subtle change of expression on the man's face at her reference to the colony, one that she might have interpreted as 'surprise', but couldn't be sure. "Why are you here?"
"We're exploring, and we've learned that this planet is rich in certain minerals that our ships use."
"You –."
---
Whatever she was going to say was lost when Shuttle Pod Two came over the horizon from the northeast. The two women who had flanked the speaker stepped back, and from the folds of her flowing turquoise gown the red haired woman pulled a small device, but Alir spoke to her sharply. "Kontees!"
"They're going to attack!"
"No!" Archer exclaimed. "That's just one of our shuttles." Alir turned more directly to her subordinate with barely restrained aggravation.
"You heard them communicating; were you not expecting this?!" She then glanced at Archer, as if having momentarily forgotten him; then touched a tiny button on her translator. A series of sharply clipped commands in their native language followed, culminating in Alir's extending her hand expectantly. The other woman placed the device in her hand and turned with well evident irritation, and strode toward the silver ship. Alir watched her board, touched another button on the silver translator on her wrist, and turned back to Archer. "I apologize for my associate's rash action."
"Don't worry about it. I understand; you must find a lot strange about this situation." For a moment, Alir glanced expectantly at Elizabeth Cutler standing silently about two feet behind Archer. When the woman said nothing, she looked back to Archer.
"You have no idea."
---
In the brief moments that this exchange took, Shuttle Pod Two had landed near its sister ship, the side door opened and Commander Tucker came out, looking with equal attention at the silver ship nearby and the two astounding women talking with Archer. He started toward the Captain.
"Alir," Archer began, "My Chief Engineer, Commander Charles Tucker."
"Ma'am." Trip greeted her in his most suave manner.
"Where is…?"
"Oh, she's in the Pod." He didn't volunteer any more information, and Archer had much more on his mind.
"Alir, you spoke of a colony."
"Yes," The startling woman said, visibly gathering herself. "This world, Jalandin, is a colony world of Bravina, and I do not believe you will be allowed to mine here."