A/N I still own nothing. I want to sincerely thank my loyal reviewer EroSlackerMicha for the review, I really appreciate your support. I also want to thank the others that continue to honor me by reading my story.

Jonathan Archer missed T'Pol. That in itself was not remarkable, he knew he would. But it was the extent to which he missed her that was startling to him. It felt as if a part of him was missing. He also did not like that she was not where he could protect her. He had to smirk to himself as to the last. She was more than capable of caring for herself, and would not be overly pleased that he would feel that way, but he couldn't help himself. She had only been gone a few days and would be back in a couple months, but it seemed forever.

Feeling chagrined at his weakness, he attempted to put it behind him. He found himself inviting other members of the officer corps to eat the evening meal with him. This of course did not go unnoticed by them and they soon suspected what was happening. Trip had told Kathy of his long-led belief that there was much more than friendship between Jon and T'Pol. Kathy had been a little shocked at first, but then realized she shouldn't be. Trip had told her some of what had happened between himself and T'Pol, so the idea of a Vulcan and a human relationship was not as shocking as it might have been to her. She soon came to share his feelings about it, that it was wonderful that they might feel that way.

One night, about two weeks after T'Pol had left, she and Trip were eating with the Admiral. They had just received word that Shran and T'Pol had reached Rigel 7 and were about to meet with the Rigellian government. That had led them to talk of Enterprise's earlier visit when Archer had been shot. Trip and Jon told Kathy how amazed they were when T'Pol had decided to continue the mission instead of returning to Earth. They agreed that was the turning point of their attitude toward T'Pol, although they both were quick to add, it was sometime before they were completely comfortable having her aboard.

Wine had been served with the dinner and Kathy had perhaps imbibed a little more than she planned. She blurted out, "Admiral, how long was it before you realized you had feelings for her?" In the ensuing silence, she wished a vortex would open for her to disappear in. She was wondering what she could say to salvage the situation, when both her and Trip were shocked to hear Jon reply.

"I really don't know. She just came to be important to me and I knew I needed her at my side. But it wasn't until she told me she was leaving to go back to Vulcan, that I realized I loved her."

Trip finally managed to get out, "Does she know?"

Archer smiled at them and went on, "Before we left, I told her how I felt and she told me she loved me as well."

Trip and Kathy were stunned, but then broke into big smiles. Trip spoke up, "So what's going on? Why the secrecy? Are you guys going to get married?"

Archer turned serious and wondered if he had said too much. He had not planned to say anything, but realized he had been wanting to let his friends know for some time. "Trip, Kathy, I probably should not have said anything. You need to promise me that you will keep this to yourselves. Both T'Pol and I agree, that under the current circumstances, it would be better if it remained a secret."

Seeing their inquisitive looks, he went on. "With our position of leadership in the Alliance and with everything that is at stake, we can not risk taking a chance on disrupting something."

Trip finally spoke, "I guess I can see that" and looking at Kathy, who nodded, "We won't say anything." He then went on, "But I think you should tell the others. We were all kind of sure something was going on."

Archer nodded. He wasn't sure how T'Pol would feel about him breaking their agreement, but he felt she would understand. "I'll let them know."

When everyone had been informed, all of them felt the same joy that Jon and T'Pol had found each other. They all agreed they belonged together.

Back on Earth, Jane McBride was taking the first steps to create a foundation to collect money to form a research facility dedicated to the curing of Torrin Syndrome. She was traveling to England in hopes of talking to the scientist who was the leading expert on the disease. She had been apprehensive about approaching him. Everyone had told her he was brilliant, but was anti-social and worked alone. Her first attempts to meet with him had been rebuffed, but she had learned that the one person who could possibly persuade him was his sister Penelope Crowder.

So, Jane found herself knocking on the door of a small house across from windswept dunes.

Penelope had been shocked when she had been contacted by Jane. As soon as she told her story, she realized it was her child that was famous for having a Starship named after her. But of course her real interest was the tie to Enterprise. She had quickly agreed to meet with her.

Answering the door, Penelope invited her in. Jane moved in and looked around, then turned to Penelope and said, "Thank you so much for agreeing to see me."

Taking Jane's coat, Penelope signaled for her to sit with her on the couch.

"It's my pleasure. Can I get you anything?"

"Just some water."

Penelope went to the kitchen and returned with a bottled water and a cup of tea. Handing the bottle to Jane, she sat back down next to her.

"I of course know of your daughter and would have been glad to help in any case, but I admit I also had another reason."

Seeing Jane's look of confusion, she went on, "It may interest you to know that this is Malcolm Reed's hometown. In fact, he lived along this same street. I know that Admiral Archer and Captain T'Pol had a special interest in your daughter."

Seeing that Jane was still wondering where she was going, she continued, "I am very interested in anything to do with Enterprise. You see, I am in love with Malcolm Reed."

Jane was surprised, but still wondering where this was leading. It was of course quite a coincidence and she and Mercy had met Malcolm when they were on Enterprise, but the connection was tenuous at best.

Penelope had continued, "I believe that he also loves me, but does not want me to be involved with someone who could be gone for long periods of time. We broke up, but it was not my choice."

Jane finally said, "I am sorry to hear that. But I am not sure why you are telling me all this."

Penelope smiled, "I am not really sure either, but maybe with you involved in a way with Enterprise…" She ran her fingers through her hair, "I think I just needed to talk to someone. I have agreed to marry someone but have decided I can't." She waved her hands. "I am sorry to burden you with this, I really don't know what I was thinking."

Jane wasn't sure what she could say and an awkward silence followed.

Penelope broke the silence, "Okay, I got that off my chest. I am again sorry to waste your time with that, you wanted to talk about my brother."

Jane impulsively reached out and touched Penelope's arm, "There is no need to be sorry. I wish I could say something that would help. If it is worth anything, I agree you should not go forward with the wedding the way you feel."

Penelope smiled appreciatively and touched Jane's hand before she removed it, "Thank you, but just to have someone listen has been a great help."

"As for my brother, I will do what I can to help. But I don't want to get your hopes up. He has always been a loner. He was always different because of his intelligence. With our parents dead, I am really the only one that he lets anywhere near him. He has always been intrigued by Torrin Syndrome, but I have to admit it is mainly as a scientific challenge. To get him to share his findings, to work with others; I don't know."

Jane asked, "How does he get by with that? How does he get funding?"

"A few years ago, he had a major breakthrough in an entirely different area. It turned out to have a great practical application and made him wealthy overnight. He took the opportunity to be free of a need to be funded and works alone." After a moment she went on, "I think I should approach him alone. I can feel him out and hopefully convince him to meet with you. What are your plans?"

"How long do you think it would take? I can stay over for a few days, but then I need to return home. Of course, I will return if you are successful."

"I will know right away how he will react. I'll leave for London tomorrow. I am sure I will have an answer by Wednesday for sure."

"Then I will remain in England." As they both rose, she said, "I can't thank you enough. However it turns out, I will always be grateful."

"I hope we are successful." Hesitating, "Thank you again for listening to my rantings, it has helped."

They said their goodbyes, Penelope again promising to let her know either way as soon as possible.

Minister Manok allowed himself a sigh of relief as the four Romulan ships moved out of Orion space. Although they had been cloaked the entire journey and it was not the Orions that could detect cloaked ships, he was glad to leave their territory. He had been surprised when the Praetor informed him that was the path the ships should take until they were close to the Grand Depot. They had exited at a point that left them just over three weeks to their journey. The three warships could make it in a little over two weeks but the Troop Ship would slow them down.

When the mission had been put together and given the okay to go, Manok decided that with all that was at stake, he would take command of the expedition himself. Since the Depot was only a week's journey from Rigel 7, they stayed cloaked to avoid being seen by Rigellian ships, hoping they would not encounter any Alliance ships capable of detecting them.

When they finally arrived safely at their destination, Manok deployed his ships around the asteroid and as they decloaked, sent out jamming signals to prevent the Vulcans from sending any messages for help. Then Reman troops from the Troop Ship were teleported to several places on the surface where they planted devices to keep up the jamming signals. Manok reflected that the Troop Ships were some of the oldest vessels in the Romulan fleet, but still served their purpose well. They could maintain up to 500 Reman soldiers. They also had the remarkable capability to transport one hundred soldiers at one time.

Having isolated the asteroid from reaching the outside world, three shuttles armed with disruptors were stationed outside the entrance in case the inhabitants had some means to flee. He placed them so they would not be in line from any attacks through the entrance.

With that accomplished, the Reman soldiers were beamed back aboard and the four ships moved to a point around the asteroid from the entrance. Then, while shuttles made several trips to bring parts to the surface, two hundred Reman soldiers were teleported to the same spot. Unloading the shuttles, led by a Candoran engineer, they began to assemble the drill. It was slow going, needing to work in pressure suits, but utilizing their numbers they worked around the clock. Forty-two hours after they began, the mammoth structure was completed, reaching high into space.

When his subordinate had first presented his plan, to say Manok was skeptical was a gross understatement. When he had presented the problem to his group of experts, he had explained how long it had taken the Vulcans to create it in the first place. They did not have months, perhaps years, to drill.

His subordinate explained that it was not just a drill, but one that utilized an amazing substance found on the planet of Candor, one of the planets they had conquered. It was a compound that was inert by itself, but when combined with certain chemicals, produced an extremely virulent acid. The acid was so powerful that it was impossible to contain, it would eat through any container that was used to try to hold it. Fortunately, or unfortunately, once created it almost immediately lost its acidity and returned to its original state.

The inhabitants of the planet had finally conceived of a way to utilize it as a method of drilling. The inert compound was placed on the outside of the bit of the drill. As the drill drove into the ground, it built up a liner of the inert material around the bit. Then the needed chemicals were issued through holes in the bit. Immediately before the acid could destroy the bit, the drill was automatically pulled back as the created acid lasted long enough to weaken the area. The drill then resumed its path, plowing through the weakened ground. The bit was massive, creating a hole with a diameter of five feet.

Once the drill had broken through to the inner chamber, poisonous gas projectiles and powerful explosives would be dropped through the opening. After a time, the Reman soldiers would enter to finish the job. A downside was that the process was not very swift. The inert material had to be replenished regularly. It was also obviously very dangerous work, needing to be sure to keep the chemicals away from the substance. It was estimated it would take six days of drilling to accomplish the task.

As it turned out it took an extra day to get the drill working at full capacity, but it had now reached a regular rhythm and began its journey to the inner wall.

Shran had been surprised how much he had enjoyed spending time with T'Pol. He had come to think of her as a friend but that was because of her relationship with Archer. Now, being alone with her, they interacted in an entirely different way. At first, she had spent much of her time alone, apparently meditating. But then she had asked if she could join him on the bridge. Both she and Shran had been surprised by the actions of the rest of the Bridge crew. They pelted her with questions and his science officer quickly asked T'Pol to work with her. Everyone was impressed by her knowledge and intelligence. Shran could tell she was thrown a bit at first by the innuendos and banter flying back and forth. But having experience learning to deal with emotional beings and their idiosyncrasies, she quickly adapted.

She and Shran started to spend a lot of time together. Shran was pleasantly surprised by how she had learned the skill of casual conversation on a variety of subjects, something that other Vulcans did not seem to possess. They exchanged facts about their planets and T'Pol shared many stories of her early days aboard Enterprise. Shran did have to smirk how many times Archer played a prominent part in them. It was obvious she had deep respect for him, but was not afraid to admit his mistakes as well.

They were sharing a meal, something that had become a regular routine. She had been appreciative when she found Shran had been sure that appropriate meals would be available for her. They would be arriving at Rigel 7 the next day and Shran was not looking forward to meeting with the Rigellians. They were talking about the time Archer had learned of his old friend's death and about the early space program on Earth. Suddenly, Shran decided he was going to take his shot. Ever since Jhamel had mentioned that she sensed something between Archer and T'Pol, he had been obsessed with finding out the truth. He had watched them both carefully and had even attempted to draw Archer out. As there was a time of silence, he asked, "What is it between you and Archer? Are you friends, crewmates, what?"

T'Pol was not as surprised as she should be. Shran was not the subtlest of men and both her and Jonathan had taken note of his often crude attempts to learn the truth. She had also sensed that Jhamel had detected something when they were last together. She had to admit that she had enjoyed this voyage much more that she had expected to. She had been intrigued by the actions of the crew and surprised by their reaction to her. She was glad she had decided to join Shran on the bridge. She had been a little shocked by how they took liberties with rank and some of the topics that were discussed, but had soon learned to ignore it.

She decided that Jonathan would understand if she shared the truth with Shran. She knew he trusted him and she had come to trust him as well. Smiling to herself, she looked Shran in the eye and said, "I am in love with him and he loves me as well."

You could have knocked Shran over with a gourt. To say he was stunned was a giant understatement. He of course had suspected something, but to hear T'Pol come out with it…

As he struggled to answer, T'Pol went back to her meal as if nothing had happened.

Then Shran broke into a huge smile. "By the stars of Batron, that is the best thing I have heard for a long time." Suddenly he rose and to T'Pol's shock, he moved around the table and gave her a hug. She managed to resist her normal reaction to unexpected contact and accepted it.

Still grinning, he returned to his seat. "I can't wait to tell Jhamel, she will be ecstatic."

T'Pol quickly spoke up, "I need your word to keep this a secret. It must not go beyond this room."

"Why? What are you guys ashamed of? Why have you kept it such a secret?"

"Shran, you as much as anyone know how fragile this Alliance can be. If the Tellarites and the others learn of this, it will just remind them of how close the Vulcans and humans have been. They are already nervous about their role. I am also not sure how the Vulcans will react." She hesitated, "Or even your own people. Shran, I told you this because of the friendship between Jonathon and you and the fact that I knows he trusts you, as do I."

Shran thought for a moment, "All right, I will keep it to myself because you told me as a friend. But I think you underestimate the others. I think they would be as thrilled as I am." Then he smirked, "Well, as far as Soval, thrilled may be a little strong."

T'Pol looked him in the eye and said, "Thank you."

Shran said, "Your welcome." Then he smiled and rose, "This deserves a toast." As he poured two generous portions of Andorian Ale, he smiled even more broadly as T'Pol raised her eyebrows.

The meetings on Rigel 7 had been as boring as Shran had expected, but they had gone well enough. T'Pol being there to represent Archer had helped a great deal.

Now the ships were on their way to the Depot. Shran had to smile as T'Pol could not completely hide her anticipation of seeing it. He realized how well he could read her and what a fascinating and vital woman was hidden under that Vulcan stoicism. He felt he now understood why Archer loved her.

They had been traveling for a week and were both on the bridge, when the science officer excitedly exclaimed, "Long range sensors are picking up four ships in orbit over the Depot." She looked up from her instruments and turned to Shran, "They're Romulan."

Manok had just left the bridge to head to the mess hall when he was summoned back. As he entered, his second in command met him and said, "There are two Alliance warships approaching."