Disclaimer: Refer to chapter 1.
A/N: Thank you nookiecha (unfortunately your review was lost when I fixed a problem with the story), Quickbeam1, GEliot (Hi Julia!!!), kelsey, Lieutenants-lady, Phaser Lady, novelwriter and GallyGee (Thanks for picking up the word that was not right!) for reviewing the first chapter! Thanks also to Sailor Coruscant (Catherine) for suggesting the Japanese names that I've used. Also, I've gone with the name James for Trip's brother, so thank you whoever started using that name. I'd written this section before I posted the first chapter, so the first chapter was intentionally meant to short.
Chapter 21 year previously.
Dear Mom and Dad,
I'm sorry I couldn't see you when we got back to Earth. There were so many things that we had to do to get Enterprise ready to leave. I know that you've seen James, I hope he was able to be there for you when I couldn't. You know what you mean to me, and I just hope to God that I'll be able to tell you in person again.
Trip paused, then deleted the last sentence. He rubbed his hand over his face and muttered, "How the hell do you write a letter like this? But, what Captain Archer wants, he gets." The last was said with some resignation.
As Enterprise's mission was largely considered as very unlikely to succeed, it had been strongly suggested that each member of the crew write a letter to his or her family.
Trip sighed, and finished the letter.
All my love,
Trip.
3 years previously
Dear Trip,
It was so good to get your letter. James sent us a copy of the question session you did for Steve's class. We had to laugh. The expression on your face was like you'd been using the recycling system a little too much yourself. You were right, though. It was his question, although we actually think it might have been James' idea.
We saw Lizzie a couple of days ago. She's a bit blue at the moment. I think she's missing you, but she wouldn't say anything, just put on a brave face. I think she thought we were a bit blue actually and was trying to cheer us up. But that just reminded us of you, Trip. I hope you're enjoying yourself out there, and not getting yourself into as many sticky situations as you used to. You were such a magnet for trouble when you were little.
Get your Chef to make you some pecan pie, and think of us,
Love,
Us.
Present.
"You know, this doesn't seem fair somehow."
"Hmm?"
"I said, this doesn't seem fair," Hoshi repeated to Travis. They were sitting in the mess hall eating lunch. Both had been unusually silent, and Travis had sat staring off into space for most of the meal.
"What?" Travis asked.
'Oh, come on, you can speak in more than one syllable,' Hoshi thought, before replying.
"Our parents being the first ones to come on board. Everybody else has to wait until we've left. It just doesn't seem fair."
"We're the first people who have to go through debriefing, that's probably why," Travis pointed out. "Are you nervous?"
"About the debriefing or seeing my parents?" Hoshi stalled.
"I guess both. I mean, some of what's happened has been scary, and we don't know how people will react. How our families' will react. Where do you even start with them?"
"I don't know. I'm scared that they'll hate me if they know. I hate myself. How could they not?" Hoshi looked down at the table and fiddled with her fork.
"Hoshi, look at me," Travis said while putting his hand on top of her free one. "What happened was not your fault. Nobody is going to blame you. Your parents love you, right?"
Hoshi nodded, her eyes still downcast.
"This isn't going to change that. They'll still love you."
She looked up, and he saw the pain in her eyes.
"Thanks, Travis. I'm just not sure whether I can believe that right now."
'One more day of not knowing,' she added, in her thoughts. 'I'm going to tell them. I can't spend my life hiding it from them. I can't.'
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"Where is Commander Tucker?" T'Pol asked.
Commander Tucker, Captain Archer and T'Pol were meant to be having dinner together. Their final dinner before everybody's parents, except her own, and Captain Archer's of course, arrived. Unless his parents were ghosts. The whimsical thought that crossed her mind startled her. The Vulcan Science Directorate had determined that ghosts do not exist. They also said that time travel was impossible, her mind reminded her. Captain Archer had told her that an invitation had been extended to her parents, but she did not believe that they would come. Logic dictated that they would not.
"Trip sent his apologies. He said that some of the repairs are causing major problems," Archer replied.
"Captain, it is possible that some of the repairs will still be causing 'major problems' tomorrow when his parents arrive. It may be best if he is reminded of this event an hour before it is due to happen. It would affect how the crew are perceived if he was not there to greet the guests."
"You're right. It would look even worse if he turned up in an unclean uniform after working a double shift. Thank you, T'Pol. I trust that you would be willing to do what is necessary to make sure that he is presentable?" Archer smirked slightly. 'You never suggest something like that,' he thought. 'It's called volunteering yourself.'
"Yes, Captain."
They both waited quietly while the steward placed their meals on the table.
"Are you sure that your parents won't come?" Archer finally asked.
T'Pol sighed mentally, before rebuking herself for such an illogical act. "I don't believe that they will come," she shortly replied.
"A pity," Archer murmured.
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"Commander."
T'Pol's statement automatically made Trip look up in her direction, causing him to hit his head on the roof of the maintenance tunnel. He winced, swore and rubbed his head as he sent a glare in the Vulcan's direction.
"Damnit, T'Pol. You could at least give me some warning," he grouched.
"Lieutenant Hess directed me to you, after I had tried contacting you repeatedly," T'Pol said, trying to ignore the smell of sweat and dirt that seemed to pervade the air around him. He had gone back to working on the open panel in front of him.
"Well, what do you want?" Trip asked bluntly.
"It is just past 0800, Commander."
He looked back at her. "So?"
"In 55 minutes your parents, the rest of the bridge crew's parents as well as Admiral Forrest will be arriving."
"Yeah, well, they'll just have to wait. I've been working on this for the past three hours and it's going to take another two. It can't just be left," Trip explained while he adjusted a relay inside the panel. A spark suddenly lit up the maintenance tunnel as it made contact with his fingers.
"God damn it!" he mumbled around the fingers in his mouth.
"Commander, would it reduce the time taken to repair this panel if we work on it together?" T'Pol asked with a raised eyebrow. Trip withdrew his fingers from his mouth and inspected them for damage, a tad singed, before replying, "It might."
Fifteen minutes later T'Pol said, "It is illogical to work double shifts when in two days there will be a large repair team working on Enterprise. The repairs you make now will be minimal compared to what they will achieve."
"Why, thank you so much for your support, T'Pol," Trip paused and said sarcastically. He waved his spanner around him. "Everything we get fixed now is one less thing for them to screw up. They'll take twice as long doing it, and inevitably we'll have to go through and refix it all after we leave again. My crew have been looking after this ship for three years. They know her inside and out. Those repair crews won't have any idea. Everything we fix now is one less thing for them to touch."
"Then it is a matter of pride," T'Pol stated.
Trip glared at her and shook his head before turning back to the panel. While he continued the repairs, he thought about how to get it through her thick, but cute, Vulcan skull.
"How would you like it if a whole team of scientists went over every last scrap of data you'd collected from the last three years and pulled all your conclusions apart, even coming to some erroneous ones?" he finally said. "If the Vulcan Science Directorate took everything and said that you must be imagining things, because time travel is impossible?"
"It is illogical to like or dislike the process. It is called peer review and, even on Earth, it has been the norm in scientific circles for many centuries."
Trip muttered, "I give up."
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Captain Archer walked into the observation area of the shuttle bay. Malcolm was, unsurprisingly, already in the room, looking out towards the front of the bay.
"Malcolm," Jonathon said. Malcolm jumped before turning to face him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
"Everything's ready for their arrival, Sir."
Malcolm looked distinctly uncomfortable. Almost as bad as the time that Jonathon had asked him to come to breakfast in the Captain's Mess.
'Family,' Jonathon thought. 'Somehow it always seems to make every adult into a little kid again.'
The console beeped.
"The shuttle is on its way, Sir. ETA five minutes," Malcolm said.
Jonathon nodded in reply as Hoshi and Travis hurried in the door. He moved across to the wall comm. and activated it.
"Archer to T'Pol."
He waited several seconds before saying, "Archer to Engineering."
"Hess here, Captain," came the quick reply.
"Lieutenant, has Commander Tucker left Engineering yet?"
"No, Sir. He is working in a maintenance tunnel. I believe that T'Pol went looking for him, but that was almost an hour ago, Sir. She has not been back out."
"Thank you, Lieutenant. Archer out."
Jonathon closed his eyes and reminded himself of the cardinal rule: Thou shall not kick your Chief Engineer in the butt. Even when he really really deserves it.
The tension level went up significantly when the shuttle landed. Malcolm could not have stood straighter if he'd had a pole shoved up the back of his shirt. The bay was re-pressurised and Captain Archer and the three members of his bridge crew that had deigned him with their presence descended to greet their welcome party. The first to step out of the shuttle was Admiral Forrest.
"Captain Archer," he said, smiling broadly, "On the behalf of Earth, welcome home."
"Thank you Admiral," Archer replied for his crew.
Admiral Forrest looked at the three officers standing behind Archer and asked, "Where is Commander Tucker and T'Pol?"
"I believe that Commander Tucker is working on some essential repairs and that T'Pol is assisting him. I don't think that it will be too long before they've finished," Archer replied, resisting the temptation to sigh.
"Their dedication does them credit," Forrest said, with a slight smile. "Ensign Mayweather, I'm sorry to say that your mother isn't here to greet you. Unfortunately the Horizon was too far out to get back here in time."
Travis smiled sadly before saying, "That's alright, Sir. I know she'd be here is she could."
"Well, enough of the formalities," Forrest said, rubbing his hands together. "Eric, can you please ask our guests to join us?"
"Certainly, Sir," came the muffled reply from in the shuttle, before six people exited the shuttle slowly. Two were immediately identifiable as Hoshi's parents, Archer remembered Malcolm's parents, who followed, from contacting them on Malcolm's birthday, leaving a lone man behind to be Trip's father. There was an obvious resemblance, but Archer was left wondering where his mother was. Finally, the last person to exit was an older man who smiled when he saw Jon.
"Uncle Mike?" Archer said with a look of surprise on his face.
The man's smile widened as he stepped forward and pulled Jon into a bear hug. After a moment of stunned inactivity, Jon responded to the hug. When Mike let him go, Jon saw that Hoshi's parents had moved to hug her as well, and Malcolm's parents stood rather awkwardly beside him.
"Admiral Forrest was kind enough to invite me along, Jon," Mike said. Jon snapped his attention back to him and Forrest and expressed his gratitude.
"Some introductions," Admiral Forrest said. "Captain Jonathon Archer, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, Ensigns Travis Mayweather and Hoshi Sato may I present Mike Cunningham who worked with Henry Archer many years ago, Stuart and Mary Reed, Kenji and Ikuko Sato, and Charles Tucker the second. Apparently your son, Mr Tucker, is working on some repairs at the moment. He shouldn't be much longer. Jonathon, why don't we have a tour of the ship while we're waiting?"
TBC
A/N: Thank you for reading, please review!
