3 months later and Marlaya was hanging up a glittery green dress that she had worn the night before to go off to movie night with Malcolm, in her quarters, but suddenly she got a sharp pain and held the bulge where the twins were inside.

"Oh god." She said to herself. She quickly moved over to the COMM panel and pressed a button. "Marlaya to Lieutenant Reed."

Down in engineering Malcolm was working with Trip on a new type of energy based signature weapon which had been suggested by Captain Archer. They had decided to call it an EBS weapon for short. It had only beenon the drawing board for a week and now they were actually making it.A voice over the COMM system suddenly alerted them.

"Marlaya to Lieutenant Reed." Malcolm moved over to the COMM panel by the door and pressed the button.

"Reed here. Is everything all right Marlaya?" he was wondering why she was calling for him and why she was sounding in pain.

"Come to my quarters, quick! I think the contractions have stared!" Malcolm quickly looked over at Trip and noticed everyone in Engineering starring at him.

"You'd better go Malcolm, she needs you." Malcolm nodded to acknowledge Trip's order.

"All right, I'm on my way." He quickly opened the hatch and left engineering, not having the time to close it behind him, so Trip closed it as he went over to it to hit the panel and contact John.

"Tucker to Cap'n Archer."

"Go ahead Trip." Came the captain's voice after a couple of seconds waiting for him to hit the button on the captain's chair.

"Sir, we've had to pause work down here for a while."

"What's the problem?" There wasn't any reason that Archer could think of for the suddenly halt in production and so he was slightly confused.

"We just got a call from Marlaya. She thinks she's her contractions have started." Hearing those few words that Trip was speaking surprised him, although not just him, it also surprised the rest of the people who were up on duty on the bridge.

"Let's hope they'll be all right. Meet me outside sickbay."

"Understood." Trip pressed the button on the panel, looked around engineering. "Rostov! You're in charge!"

"Aye sir." Trip opened the hatch and left, closing it behind him.

For 2 hours Trip, Hoshi and John were waiting outside sickbay for any news about Marlaya and the twins. Trip had done the most pacing back and forth out on the corridor and it had been annoying both John and Hoshi. They were beginning to wonder when Trip would have walked across the same section so much that he would fall through the deck plating and down onto the deck below. Soon the doors slid open and Phlox moved out.

"Well Doc?" John asked. Many questions going through his head. 'Is Marlaya ok?' 'Are the twins ok?' ' Are they boys, or girls, or both?' 'What am I going to have for dinner tonight?'. The last time they had had a baby on board was when Doctor Phlox had created Sim from a symbiotic creature to save the ship and Trip's life.

"Come in and see for yourselves." They moved in. As they did they saw Marlaya holding a small bundle and Malcolm was holding another, both with smiles on their faces. there was also the sound of not one, but two babies crying.

"Boys or girls?" Trip asked as he moved over to them.

"Or both?" Hoshi quickly added. Marlaya and Malcolm looked up to see them.

"They're both girls." Marlaya, the proud mother, replied. She was quite tired, but wanted to stay awake just so she could see her own children.

"Ideas for names?" Hoshi asked stepping next to Malcolm to look at the child in his arms.

"Not yet. Any suggestions?" Trip moved closer to look at the child Marlaya was holding. She was being a bit quieter than the one Malcolm had, but was still crying.

"She has the healing ability." Trip suddenly declared. Marlaya looked at her daughters eyes and realised what Trip had said was true. The girl did have the pale lilac pupils. "Does that one?"

"No, she has blue eyes." Malcolm replied. Marlaya smiled slightly. but her smile washed away a few seconds later as she began to feel a slight pain in her head.

"Trip, could you take her?"

"Sure." Trip carefully took the baby from Marlaya and held her, she immediately stopped crying. Marlaya put her head in her hands.

"Is something wrong?" John asked putting a hand gently on her back.

"No. Something's right. I can sense a Tarnisian nearby."

"The babies?"

"No, a much older Tarnisian." Marlaya replied. A voice suddenly came over the COMM system.

"T'Pol to Captain Archer."

"Go ahead." he replied as he hit the COMM panel by the bed.

"We are picking up a vessel on long range sensors." Malcolm looked at him, John kept watching the babies the whole time he was talking to him science officer.

"Who?"

"We don't know. But we do recognise one bio-sign. A Tarnisian." Marlaya looked at John, raising her eyebrows in a way to say 'See I told you so'.

"I'm on my way. Get a security team down to sickbay, just as a precaution. Trip."

"Hoshi!" Hoshi moved round and took the baby from Trip, then both men left sickbay. They both very quickly entered the bridge, Trip taking his place at Malcolm's desk. T'Pol stood up and moved out of John's seat as he entered.

"We're being hailed sir!" Called out the young man sitting at the COMM desk.

"On screen." An alien face quickly appeared on the screen in front of them and he began to speak.

"I'm very sorry for interrupting anything but our sensors indicated that you have 3 Tarnisians on your ship." The alien said, he appeared to be very pleasant, but John was still a little wary of him. He'd had past experience with aliens looking innocent and friendly and then turning out to be completely the opposite and after money. John's mind quickly reminded him of what had happened with Skalaar.

"And you are?" John asked very calmly.

"How silly of me. My name is Galahad. Captain of the Matollan ship K'Tar. Yourself?" Replied the alien, a Matollan. Matollan's did look a little strange. Their skin was slightly green in colour and their hair… well their hair seemed to be all over the place, sticking out, looking rather messy. The hair was also hinted green.

"I'm Captain Jonathan Archer of the Earth Vessel Enterprise. Our sensors also show you have a Tarnisian on board."

"Yes, we've been trying to find others like him for 5 years. We picked him up from an escape pod. He used to work on one of their Battle cruisers before some aliens overtook it and got control. You probably know what they're capable of."

"Yes, we've had our three for 5 months."

"We'd be happy to meet so that they can meet each other and so he can finally be with his own kind." John looked over at Trip looking for any assistance in what to do in the matter. Trip only gave him a look to say 'You're call but I'd be careful if I were you.'

"All right. Dock with us."

"Very well captain." The Matollan disappeared and the screen went back to the view of the stars. John took a sigh and nodded at Trip for him to follow him down to the air lock.