Triptacuar - Glad you enjoyedpart one, hope you likepart two as much.

tripaholic and volley- I agree with youthis scene was neglected in the show. Star Trek seems tobypass concequences a lot. I couldn't find any fanfic to finish off Civilization. Thats why I decide to have a go at this one.

Nyruserra - Good to know I've got Trip in character. Hopefully I can keep that up. And yes, I am speaking from experience when I talk about the art of 'creative avoidance'. Never works though.

Thanks for the reviews.

Notes: Part Two runs in roughly the same time frame as Part One, and ends at the same point, but from Captain Archer's perspective.

Responsibilities…

Part Two - Back To Reality

"Where is your starship headed now?" Riann asked, as he stood there with his cloak, seemingly reluctant to leave.

"There are lots of inhabited planets to see. But I doubt many will be this… memorable."

They were flirting with each other, no doubt about it now. He moved in closer to her, his pulse quickening as he anticipated what was about to happen. What he wanted to happen. When he kissed her, she responded. He felt good as he pulled her close to him.

"Is your translator broken again?" She asked when they broke the kiss.

"I'm sorry. I don't understand a word you're saying." He answered her playfully, before their lips came together again…

Jonathan Archer luxuriated in the warmth of the memory. He had been reluctant to leave Riann, and she would have been happy for him to stay, but they both knew that wasn't possible. So he had returned to Enterprise, which was now travelling away from her world at warp speed along its scheduled course. The prosthetics had been removed, he had showered and eaten, and was dressed in more comfortable attire. But the memory of that woman, her kiss, and the time they spent together, still made him feel good, even as the warp engines put the distance between them.

Archer relaxed in his quarters, lounging on his bunk and fussing Porthos, as he savoured the memory of that increasingly distant kiss. Idly, he picked up a PADD and began to read. The report was signed by T'Pol, Archer noted. The Sub-Commander was as thorough as always in her account of what had happened on the ship in his absence. He expected nothing else, and had become accustomed by her no nonsense style.

Slowly, the relaxed feeling faded away, to be replaced by a creeping feeling of anger and disbelief. He stopped fussing Porthos, moving the dog to the floor, as rose to a seated position on his bunk. He read the report again. The beagle whined at his master, trying to get his attention, but Archer's attention was now focussed fully on trying to make sense of what he was reading.

He shook his head, and allowed himself a sigh of resigned annoyance, before he redressed in his uniform and summoned T'Pol to his ready room, leaving a confused Porthos alone as he left his quarters behind.

An hour later, as T'Pol left his ready room, Archer wasn't feeling that much better. He had asked the Sub-Commander to go through her report with him, not wanting to take the risk that he had misunderstood any part of it. This was too important.

Unfortunately, it appeared he hadn't misinterpreted any of her report, and by the time T'Pol pointed out that such and incident would never have occurred on a Vulcan vessel, Archer wasn't even sure in which direction his annoyance and disbelief should be focussed any more. To make matters worse, he had developed a massive headache, brought on by a combination of frustration and tiredness.

Archer briefly considered going to sickbay, to see if Doctor Phlox could give him something for the headache, then decided against it. Before that, he had other matters to attend to. He took a moment to focus his thoughts and then activated the comlink.

"Archer to Commander Tucker"

"Tucker here," came the response a moment later.

Trip sounded tense, and that tipped Archer off to his Chief Engineer's apprehension. 'Good', thought Archer, as he put the full weight of his command voice behind his order.

"Commander. My Ready Room. 5 Minutes."

There was a moment's hesitation before Trip's "Aye sir," came through and the comlink was terminated.

As Archer sat waiting in his ready room for the Commander to arrive, he sternly reminded himself that Trip was his subordinate, as well as his friend, and he was damned angry with the Commander for his actions. He had enough trouble integrating T'Pol into his crew as it was, without his senior officers squabbling like children in full view of his bridge crew.

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