"Admiral on the Bridge!"
"As you were." Admiral Forest sat down in the center seat and watched the crew of the just finished Intrepid. The third vessel of the NX-class, she was a test bed for improvements on the Warp Five engine, and humanity's newest, but untested, achievement, shields.
Forest had overseen the project that had taken most of the last three years to complete. He had to keep it top secret though, since the Vulcans would have seen it as a hostile development.
"And yet they have shields twice as powerful as the ones we've just developed." Forest thought to himself. "For a 'peaceful' race, they sure are armed to the teeth."
"Admiral, were ready to depart." The helmsman brought him out of his inner thoughts.
"Take us out. Tell the fleet to move out to Xena station. Get the Verteron Array switched over to defensive actions and secure the comets into a safe trajectory. They'll have 30 minutes to do so. Get on line with all available civilian ships with a battle rating of 6c and above and tell them to report to Mars in order to defend the Array. I also want two of the StarRaptors to report there to coordinate and reinforce that battle group."
It was the first time that there would be an invasion of the system, but Admiral Forest had adapted much of what he had learned from the history books of the Third World War, and what the Vulcans had made available to him. Oddly, the angle that the invasion force was coming in on was exactly on a course for Xena Station. It was almost like they had an exact layout of the system right down to the defensive outpost positions.
--On the Bridge of Enterprise—
"Patch me through." Archer settled down in his center seat as Hoshi put him on the intra-ship and intercom communications.
"Ladies and gentlemen…" Archer looked around him, those words just didn't sound right. "My family. Today, as you all know, is the day that we find out what we can really do. We prove our worth not only as a family, but as a race.
For over a hundred years, the Vulcans kept us to our solar system. When we began our journey, I believed that to be a mistake, but over time, I have come to realize that that was the right thing to do. As we have seen these last few years, there are many dangers outside our front doorstep.
But now, those dangers want to break into our home, and pillage it. And after that, mankind won't be able to rebuild like we did after the Third World War, no. We will become their food source. I know that isn't something anyone wants—"
"Damn straight!" Came Trip's shout over the intercom.
"Amen to that!" Reed from the Armory.
"As I was saying," Archer couldn't help but let a chuckle escape. Trip and Reed, the odd couple uncles. "There is not one of you among this crew that would not be affected by this. We are talking total obliteration from Earth. Our homes, our families, our hopes, our dreams, all of them, gone. Well I for one am not willing to let that happen. I for one will fight until they take the last breath from my lungs."
"Huzza!" Reed, following his Royal Navy roots, starting cheering for the captain. Soon, everyone on the ship was doing it. It continued for a few minutes then died down
"Thank you for your enthusiasm. But I am not quite done yet. We are outnumbered. That is the truth. What is also the truth is that there is a good possibility of us not surviving this battle. Since we have a little time to spare, I am giving everyone 10 minutes. I don't care what you do with that time. Just make sure you do this: Do not let this family down. If ever there was a time that we needed to bond, this is the time. This is your father, Jonathon Archer. Ten minutes, starting……now."
He signed off the intercom, then took T'Pol's hand into his, and walked to his ready room. When they were alone, Jon let out a sob.
"Beloved, what is wrong?" T'Pol had never seen him cry.
"I just realized what I did. I talked to everyone like a father, like my father would have done. And I also realized that his ship is now all that may stand between them, and I'm going to die without being married to you."
"Hey, you listen here." T'Pol embraced him and whispered in his ear. "You are the Captain of the Enterprise, and that means you can do a wedding ceremony anywhere."
"Right as usual."
The door chimed. Jon composed himself, wiped away the last tear, and unlocked the door to a sight.
"Malcolm, Hoshi! What are you two doing here?"
"Sir, with your regards, we would like you to marry us." Malcolm saluted as he said this, being very formal.
"Captain….Dad…." Hoshi said, looking down. In the last two years since her family died in the transport accident, they had become just like her parents. "Mom, I don't want to die alone."
"First off, no one is dying alone on this ship!" Archer's words carried beyond the couple and onto the Bridge. "Second, I'd say it's about damned time you got the nerve to do something Malcolm, as much as you have been going to Trip and eyeing her! Third." Here his voice toned down. "It would be my honor, but we only have another five minutes. That isn't quite a lot of time to plan a wedding."
"Don't worry, we've got everything we need right here on the Bridge, don't you think?" Trip stepped forward. "A starscape on the viewscreen, plenty of witnesses, and" He zipped open his uniform to reveal his pastor costume. "an ordained minister. Being in a family of vampire killers that's on the pope's good side has its perks."
"You're just full of tricks, aren't you, Trippy?"
"Yes, sir. Though why you have to go reopening those old wounds at a time like this…"
"Times like this…" Jonathon immediately was shot back to reality. A horrible reality where the name Enterprise was the only human ship defending her home. Three ships were all that stood in front of a fleet of at least ten, and Shran's ship was pretty much counted out in this final battle, since he took a few too many hits when they had transferred the probe to Enterprise.
That left only two ships, and he wasn't even a good tactician. He had always lost games of chess and any other game where strategy was needed to win.
'Beloved, do not worry. You are forgetting that all of those games were played in two dimensions, where we have three to work with here.' T'Pol could sense her fiancée's fear, and tried her best to calm him by taking his hand into hers.
'Together and always, we will never be separated.'
'That's right.'