A/N I continue to borrow these characters out of pure enjoyment. My heartfelt thanks to AnonymCzZ and EroSlackerMicha for their reviews and input. I am like Johnny Five in the old movie Short Circuit. I love input! :)

In the months between Trip's arrival and the news that a Romulan Fleet was apparently in route, Trip and Kathy spent a lot of time together. While their working together and admiration of the others abilities was the original impetus, they soon discovered they helped each other with being away from their loved ones. Kathy told Trip that when they got home, she wanted to come and see him and hold his son.

Trip, Jon, and T'Pol had also got back in the habit of sharing meals together at least three or four times a week. The more time Trip spent with them, he became more and more convinced that something was going on. Hoshi and Natalie had told him about what they had seen when Archer looked at T'Pol holding Charlie. Several times he had thought of approaching Jon and find out if he was right, but realized what a burden Jon was carrying and didn't want to add to it. He finally decided they would tell him if they wanted him to know.

Back home, Mercy was excited to receive T'Pol's letter. At first she was confused about what T'Pol was saying, but with help from her mother, she came to remember what she had discussed in T'Pol's quarters. Both she and her mother were astounded when they realized that T'Pol must mean that either Trip or Jonathan was now T'Pol's boyfriend. Since Trip was married, it was pretty apparent whom she meant. Both were so exited and happy for them, but realized how important it was to keep it a secret. Jane also kept her promise and they went to visit the zoo to see the Sehlat when it arrived. Although even the pet variety looked scary, Mercy steeled herself and petted it. She sent T'Pol a letter telling her about it and also how T'Pol's secret was 'Cool'.

Natalie Warren was surprised and at first slightly troubled when Trip told her in a letter about his new friendship with Kathy Reynolds. She was glad he had found someone to help him cope, but admittedly would have preferred it to be a man. She understood Kathy was Gay, but knew that didn't necessarily mean something couldn't happen. But then she chided herself that she would ever doubt Trip. She wrote back how happy she was and would look forward to having Kathy hold their son when they all came home. As for Natalie, she had found her own peace. She really missed Trip, but consoled herself with how necessary and important a job he was doing. Her father had become increasingly busy and dedicated to getting the Spaceship building program to full capacity; but Trip's family had been wonderful and had visited her often. She sometimes felt they considered her their daughter and came to realize she was helping them with their loss of Elizabeth. Then of course there was Charlie. Her love for him grew every day and she felt herself amazed that she and Trip had produced this precious person.

Mary Robbins was also a little shocked when Kathy notified her about her new-found friendship. She, like Natalie, was glad her spouse had found someone that helped her cope with the stress of them being apart, but found herself a little jealous. She herself had been terribly lonely. Kathy had been her first real love. Three years together seemed like such a short time. She wished that they had gone ahead and had a child instead of deciding to wait until Kathy returned. Then she shook herself and resolved she was going to quit feeling sorry for herself and find someway she could serve.

A few days after hearing about the Romulan Fleet, the War Council met aboard the Charon.

When everyone was seated in their usual seats, Archer began, "Well, it's apparently finally here. I think we can assume they know where we are and what our fleet consists of." He smiled, "At least maybe we can get rid of that ship that has been observing us."

Gral spoke up, "Do you think they will attack the fleet or go after our planets?"

Shran added, "It really doesn't matter what their intent is. If we locate them, we can bring the battle to them."

Archer answered, "If we do detect them, we have to be careful not to show our hand too soon. We need to tell the Vulcan scout ships to be careful not to give anything away if they do find them. We don't want to mess up our advantage after keeping it a secret all this time."

Soval then spoke for the first time, "I even hesitate to bring this up, but it is something I have been thinking about since the battle with the original fleet. Are we going to give them any warning?" He paused, then added, "If we do not it will be a slaughter. We will be attacking helpless ships."

Gral snorted, "Isn't that the whole idea? Isn't that what we have been planning on?"

Shran interrupted, "While I agree with Gral, I do think we should at least address what Soval said. I don't think of it as helpless ships, but overcoming an enemy advantage. But I must admit, I am not completely comfortable with shooting at ships that can't fight back."

Gral looked at them in amazement. "I don't believe this. This is war. Believe me, they would not have any problems doing the same to us. We have a saying on The Teller, 'Those who wage war invite war to be waged against them.""

Archer smiled ruefully, "Earth has a similar saying, 'He who lives by the sword will die by the sword. Relax, Gral, I am sure Shran and Soval know we will do what we need to do, but that does not mean we take pleasure in doing it."

As Shran and Soval nodded their agreement, he continued, "Now, I would like some opinions as to how you think the Romulans will attempt to utilize their perceived advantage."

Grag joined In, "I am sure they will not want to give us much time to react. I would expect them to get very close to our ships."

Shran added, "I would agree with that. I say, the closer they get, the better." Then, after a moment he added, "One thing has bothered me, how will we utilize the twelve ships we have with the detectors so that all ships will be able to target them? Also, do we intend to disarm them or cripple their engines?"

Archer turned to T'Pol, "As one of the two people who worked on duplicating the devices and provided the information on how to install them, I will let Captain T'Pol answer those questions."

T'Pol nodded and began, "As you know, on the ships with the detectors, the information can be seen on screens within the ship. This information can then be transmitted to other ships. Of course, the problem lies in that the detectors have a limited area of detection, so the twelve ships can only show perhaps say twenty ships at one time if they are reasonably close to one another. However, we can detect them for some time before they reach us and should be able to identify where the majority of the ships are. Thus, we should have a plentiful supply of targets."

Archer then carried on, "Thank you Captain. As we have discussed before, once the Vulcan scout ships have located the enemy fleet, they will head back to our fleet and provide twenty-five more detectors. At warp 8, they should have no problem beating the Romulan fleet to our location."

Shran broke in, "What if they fail to find the fleet?"

Archer smirked, "Then we have a problem." As the others stared at him, he quickly continued, "Since the Romulans have no inkling that we can detect them, I see no reason they will attempt to avoid detection. But if they have not been detected in forty days, the scout ships will also join us."

T'Pol then added, "As to your other question, General Shran, although we can detect their presence, we are not able to scan the ships. Therefore, we will have to just fire at the ships themselves."

Soval spoke again, "So we will not be doing any targeting, but basically laying down a barrage."

Archer nodded, "I was also planning that if any did manage to decloak, we will assign the Vulcan fleet to attack them since your ships are the most powerful."

Although Valdore's fleet was maintaining constant speeds of Warp 7, they seemed to be crawling along, such was his eagerness to exact his revenge on Archer and the others. He, Torok, and their staffs had worked out a plan to engage the enemy. They had even sought out Venter's advice. They planned to set up almost one with one on the Alliance ships and destroy them at almost point-blank range. But to be sure, Voldare's flagship and two others would attack Enterprise. He had considered trying to just damage the ship and capture Archer and T'Pol alive. He knew it would greatly please the Praetor, but decided it was just too risky. There must be no chance for Archer to escape.

Subcommander Storek commanded the Vulcan science ship Votar. He and his three-man crew were completing their path through their sector when the detector began to beep. In spite of himself, he felt a moment of excitement and pleasure. They had apparently located the Romulan Fleet. Turning to the crewman manning the scanning screen, he asked if it was indeed the fleet. She quickly moved the detector through its full range of motion and confirmed on her screen that it was indeed a large number of ships. Upon hearing that confirmation, Storek, heeding his instructions from the War Council, made sure to make no indication that anything had happened and continued on his journey. As soon as he was sure he was out of scanner range, he notified Enterprise what he had seen. As expected, he was then ordered to head back to the Alliance Fleet at maximum warp. The rest of the science ships were soon also on their way to join him.

Tribune Hahn and the crew of the Tragon had long grown tired of their monitoring of the Alliance fleet. Thus, he had been relieved and exited when he had last moved off and reported in to the Empire, that he had been told an attack fleet was on its way. Now, as he had returned to his vantage point, he eagerly awaited the time he could join in the destruction of Archer and his fleet.

Then, when he believed the fleet would be soon arriving, he was surprised to see a group of small ships drop out of warp and join the fleet. He quickly scanned them and found they were unarmed. Just as he was wondering if he should take steps to relay this information to the oncoming fleet, he noticed two Vulcan ships break out of the formation and head in his general direction. Suddenly, they turned toward him, and his armory officer yelled out, "They are charging weapons." By the time he realized that the impossible had happened, that they knew he was there, he had only a short time to live. In a matter of minutes, the Tragon ceased to exist.

As the Romulan Fleet prepared to drop out of warp and engage the Alliance Fleet at last, they took the normal step of setting their self-destruct systems to two hours. If no one would correct that, the ship would be destroyed. It was the ultimate method to be sure no secrets would be left undestroyed. Of course, they could also at any time do an immediate self-destruct. All the ships prepared to move into their positions with Valdore's flagship and its two sister ships moving toward their position to attack Enterprise. In a short time, Archer and his Alliance would be a memory. Then, just a short distance from their goal, Valdore was stunned to hear his science officer say the words that had been said aboard the Tragon and repeated in some way among all the ships of his fleet, "They are charging weapons!"

In that moment, Valdore strangely felt a brief sense of wonderment. Somehow, that accursed Archer had done it again. He was cheating death, avoiding the seemingly inevitable fate that they had prepared for him. Then as panic took over, he screamed out, "Curse all the Elements, they can see us, Decloak, Decloak!"

But, of course, it was much too late. Lieutenant Commander Reed and the other Armory officers aboard the Alliance ships were taking no chances, they laid down an overwhelming barrage of cannon fire and a wide swath of torpedoes. Much of the Romulan fleet was destroyed or rendered helpless almost immediately. The ones that managed to decloak were attacked by the Vulcan fleet. Archer noted how efficiently the Vulcans were able to accomplish that task.

A few ships tried to escape cloaked, but were detected by science ships and hunted down.

Then, as the firing slowed and the results were beginning to be accessed, the self-destructions began. Then the whole battlefield came to a point of calm.

It took thirty-seven seconds for the Van Hindenburg to crash.

It took two hours and forty minutes for the Titanic to sink.

The Romulan Fleet was destroyed in six hours and fifteen minutes.

The Captain of the Cornot was stunned beyond belief. His ship had suffered engine problems and had fallen behind the fleet and told to catch up when he could, or they would check on him after the battle. The repairs had taken some time and he was hurrying to catch up with the fleet. Then his long-range scanners located what he assumed was the battle ahead. When he was able to see the action on his viewscreen, he could not believe his eyes. The Romulan Fleet was being destroyed. He was able to pick up messages from the attacked ships and realized that somehow they had been detected while cloaked. Shaking off his disbelief, he knew there was nothing he could do to help them, but he needed to get this information to Romulus. He quickly had his ship turned around and headed back the way he had come at maximum warp.