Rushing into sickbay, fearing that one of his senior officers had been injured in the experiment, Captain Archer headed directly for his engineer, after momentarily glancing to the two security officers armed with rifles standing either side of the door. "Trip? What's going on?" Trip turned to Archer, revealing to him the woman that was lying on a bio-bed. "Who the hell is that?" at least that explained why there were armed officers in sickbay.
Trip shrugged his shoulders. "I haven't got a clue. She just appeared above the device a few seconds after we detected the power surge."
Standing to one side he looked her up and down, studying her carefully for any clues as to her identity. "She has an Enterprise uniform." He finally stated after noting the ship patch on her left arm. This was making things even more confusing. He knew every one of his eighty two crewmen, and this woman was not one of them.
"I can't explain it, Cap'n. She's not a crewman, but her patch says she is."
Archer glanced back behind him, taking another look at the two crewmen. They were standing pretty still, their eyes fixed on the bio-bed and their fingers poised near the triggers of their firearms, ready in case she woke up and tried to hurt anyone. She was a stranger on the ship and a potential security risk, but right now was she really a danger to the crew? "Are they really necessary?" He finally asked his best friend, keeping his voice low.
Trip shrugged his shoulders. "Malcolm's idea. I tried telling him that we didn't need 'em, but you know what he's like. Personally, I don't think she's in any condition to hurt us. She hit the floor pretty hard, but we don't know anything about her, so I can understand Malcolm's concern."
Archer nodded and looked at the woman again. "Phlox? What can you tell us about her?" The Captain sighed gently, hoping that the good Doctor would be able to help sort this mess out.
The Denobulan turned from the computer screen he was studying and took a few steps towards them. "She is human, but as for being a member of Starfleet, there's no exact match in the database."
Archer and Trip looked at each other then back to Phlox, their expressions showed that they were confused by his words. "No exact match? What do you mean by that?" The Captain asked, taking a few more steps towards the good Doctor. All Starfleet personnel were required to submit a DNA sample once graduated from the academy, so to say that there wasn't a match in the database caused more confusion.
"She shares fifty percent of her DNA with someone who is in Starfleet. Therefore she is a sibling of this person." He explained in the simplest of terms that he could, knowing that neither Archer nor Tucker knew the finer details of genetics.
Beginning to get irritated with the Doctor's lack of a full explanation Archer raised his voice. "Who?"
Phlox took a deep breath before he replied, as he knew his answer would lead to more questions than answers. "She appears to be the sister of Lieutenant Malcolm Reed."
Trip's brow furrowed in more confusion and he began to shake his head from side to side in disagreement. "No… Malcolm only has one sister… Madeline. I've seen pictures of her, this isn't her and she's not in Starfleet. You sure your equipment's working, Doc?"
"Commander, I've run the test three times already. I've got the same result each time. DNA doesn't lie."
Sighing heavily Archer began to pace back and forth a little bit. "The cloaking generator… could that have something to do with her appearance?"
"I don't see how. All it's meant to do is cloak the ship, not create people." He replied, shaking his head trying to get his mind round all of what had happened, replaying the events in the Armoury as best he could in his own mind. Things had happened so fast it was hard to be certain what exactly had gone on. All he was really certain of was there was a malfunction and this woman had appeared. Everything else was fuzzy.
"What about the power surge? You said she just appeared mid-air."
Trip sighed slightly. "I dunno… Malcolm and T'Pol are looking over all the sensors logs, trying to find out what they can. I'm sure they'll come up with something."
Still pacing slightly, Archer paused and turned to look back at the woman. She looked so peaceful, lying on the biobed in front of him. But just who was she and how had she gotten on the ship? "Is she going to be all right?" He finally asked. Despite being an intruder, she was a patient and it only seemed right to know what her condition was.
"Her back will be sore for a couple of days and it's possible she'll have a bit of a headache, as well as a minor concussion, other than that she's in perfect health." Phlox replied.
Several long moments of silence followed, the only sounds were that of the menagerie around sickbay, each little creature making their own noise as if they were getting hungry. Captain Archer was about to speak when the woman began to groan, waking up from her unconscious state. "Oww." She moaned, bringing up a hand to her head as the headache Phlox had predicted began to thump heavily in her skull. Her fingers carefully felt around her temple, feeling the lump that was there and testing just how sore and tender it was. She flinched as she lightly touched the sore lump on her head, then felt the tips of her fingers, relieved to feel that there wasn't any blood.
Phlox stepped forward and gently placed a hand on her shoulder when she tried to sit up. "Lie still." He gently pressed her back to keep her lying down as he took out a scanner and began to perform a few more scans now that she was awake. He'd be able to compare these to the ones he'd taken earlier and see if there was anything majorly different.
Opening her eyes she blinked a few times, letting her eyes adjust to the bright lights in sickbay, lights that didn't help the headache at all. "Phlox?" She groaned, "What the hell just happened?" Archer and Trip glanced at each other when they heard the all too familiar accent of a Brit, and the way she spoke seemed to indicate she knew the Doctor well.
"That's what we're trying to find out." The Captain replied stepping closer to the bio-bed. "But first who are you?"
Raising her eyebrows slightly she turned her head and saw Trip and Archer standing together. "And I thought I was the one who hit my head." No one said anything and she began to sit up again, this time, with Phlox's help she was soon sitting up with her legs hanging over one edge of the bed. The blank faces stared back at her. From what she could remember it wasn't April Fool's day, nor her birthday. "Are you being serious?" Her eyes flitted between John and Trip. She shrugged slightly and let out a long breath. "All right, I'll play along with this game." Muttering to herself she took a deep breath and rubbed her head, trying to get rid of the pain. "I'm your tactical officer… Lieutenant Mallory Reed, have been since Enterprise was launched."
Captain Archer slowly shook his head. "This isn't a game. Miss Reed."
She looked between them all again, still their faces were blank with no signs of a smile as if to say that this was all a big joke. Either they were acting very well or they really were being serious, she couldn't quite tell which. "What? You really have no clue who I am?" The all too familiar sound of a fizz was heard as Phlox injected a pain killer into the side of her neck. "Thanks." She replied as she could feel the medicine beginning to work almost immediately. "So, if you don't know who I am, where the hell am I? Cause this certainly looks like Sickbay, and I recognise all of you." Phlox handed her a cold gel pack and she held it up to the bump, a sharp intake of air went through clenched teeth as it hurt a lot.
Before anyone else could say anything more the door to sickbay opened and Malcolm entered, walking towards the group. "Here's the damage report, sir." He said as he stood next to Archer and handed a data padd over.
"Ma… Malcolm!?" Mallory's eyes were locked onto the Armoury Officer, her face suddenly being drained of all colour as she slipped off the bio-bed and started moving back, slowly. Her reaction was almost like one who had just seen a ghost. Malcolm looked at her when he heard his name but he didn't recognise her and just stared at her like the others were. "This… No… this… this can't be… you... you shouldn't… you're…!" Her eyes fluttered closed and before they knew it Trip was darting for her as she feinted. The chief Engineer's quick reaction saved her from landing heavily on the floor and preventing any further injury.
The four men stared between each other, unable to think of anything to say. This was by far one of the strangest things they had ever come across during their time on the Enterprise. Their eyes all went back to this strange woman that had appeared. There certainly seemed to be some physical resemblance to Malcolm Reed; the dark hair for one, and her height for another, and there was the accent as well, who could mistake the accent?