A/N: Sorry I was later than usual posting this chapter. I was having trouble getting it to post, but the problem seems to be resolved now. Thanks for being patient. As usual, my reviewers are awesome!

CHAPTER 8

Something warm and disgustingly slimy was being dragged across Hoshi's face. With a startled exclamation, she sat up in bed. The doberman pinscher was standing on its hind legs, its front paws on the bed, licking her.

"Stop it!" she cried, pushing away the dog.

Laughter came from across the cabin as she wiped her face with the edge of the sheet.

"Dart was getting worried about you," the captain said.

Hoshi looked up to see Archer, seated at the desk, smiling at her. She started to return the smile, but faltered as it hit her that this wasn't her Captain Archer. She stared at him, trying to reconcile her abruptly recovered memories with what she'd experienced in the last few days. Of her more recent memories, the last thing she remembered was being in a mind meld with T'Pol. Since she had been lying down, she could only assume that she must have passed out during the procedure.

The meld had been successful. She remembered who she was. She remembered her past. But most important, she remembered that this wasn't where she was supposed to be. She'd been working on a project in the shuttlepod by herself, and without warning, here she was among people who looked like her friends and co-workers, but who obviously weren't. Thanks to her amnesia, at the time she hadn't even known that they looked like people she knew.

That was especially true of the man sitting across the cabin from her. He looked like the Jonathan Archer she knew, but he most definitely wasn't her captain. The uniform he was wearing was similar to what was worn on her Enterprise, but there were disturbing differences. This Archer's uniform was almost the same shade of blue as hers, but it was more severe in design. Not a jumpsuit, it consisted of trousers and a tailored shirt with a number of medals and military-style ribbons. In addition, she could see the handle of a pistol at his hip. Her Captain Archer rarely wore a phase pistol, and then only on dangerous missions away from the ship. What shook her, though, was that when she looked at this man's face, there was none of the kindness and compassion she'd come to expect from the man with whom she had worked the past four years and who had been something of a mentor to her.

Uncomfortable with this Archer's scrutiny, she glanced down, relieved to see that she was still in her uniform and not one of the skimpy outfits from the closet in the adjoining cabin.

"T'Pol was able to unlock your memories," the captain informed her.

Hoshi nodded mutely, not meeting his eyes. Before she'd recovered her memories, her time here had had a dream-like quality. Having no past to reference, the present had seemed unsettling but not overly alarming. Now, in possession of her life's experiences again, she felt trapped and worried about her future.

"So you remember your past now?" he asked.

"Yes," she whispered. "It's all a bit...confusing."

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs, appearing for all the world as if he were settling in for a friendly chat. "How so?"

She darted a glance at him. He appeared relaxed, but she could sense the tenseness in him. He was like a coiled spring, ready to burst loose at a moment's notice, yet supremely confident. And he was waiting for an answer.

"Well, I feel I should know you," she said, "but obviously I don't."

"That's because I look exactly like a Captain Archer in your universe," he said.

Not trusting herself to say more, she nodded in agreement.

"According to T'Pol, the universe you come from is very similar to this one," he said. "You might be interested to know that there was a Hoshi Sato in this universe."

Hoshi stared at him. She'd been so fixated on the fact that he looked exactly like the Captain Archer she knew that she hadn't considered the possibility that another her might walk through the door at any moment. "Was?" she asked tremulously.

He clasped his hands over his stomach, slouching in the chair with Dart curled up by his feet. "Yes. She died about twenty years ago."

She looked away as she digested that information. It might have been interesting to meet the person who was her in this universe, although she probably wouldn't have liked her if she was anything like the other people she'd met so far. Maybe it was just as well, she thought, absently rubbing her forehead.

"Are you in pain?" Archer asked, startling out of her reverie.

"Not really. I was just...thinking."

"In what language?"

She jerked her attention back to him. "English."

There was a small smile on his face. Was he teasing her? That seriously creeped her out, because he wasn't the Captain Archer she knew, and now that she could make comparisons, she knew teasing was something this Captain Archer wouldn't do. It wasn't in his nature.

But his smile, so like one she'd seen for years, made her homesick for the security of her own Enterprise. She almost laughed, considering that when she'd first been on her Enterprise, she'd almost asked to be sent back home. In her universe, Captain Archer had talked her into sticking it out. Apparently, both captains could be very persuasive when they needed -- or wanted -- to be.

Now that she had her memory back, Hoshi felt at a disadvantage in more ways than one. First, she was in some parallel universe, which was bad enough. She had no idea what was going to happen to her, or if there was even a chance she'd be able to go back. Second, there were counterparts here for at least some of her friends and coworkers on her Enterprise. They didn't act like the people she knew, and worse, she didn't like how they acted. They could be indifferent, as she'd seen with this universe's Phlox, and possibly even cruel, which is the impression she'd gotten from her brief encounter with this universe's Reed.

And finally, she was in the bed of a man who, she admitted, scared her, and he was sitting no more than two meters away, staring at her in a very speculative manner. He had been very charming, even solicitous, since she'd woken up after the meld, but she knew it was an act. He wanted something from her.

She felt incredibly vulnerable. She slid her legs over the edge of the bed, not knowing what she was going to do other than get off the bed.

"You're wondering what's going to happen to you," Archer said as she got to her feet.

"Of course I'm wondering what's going to happen to me!" she snapped, suddenly irritable, before she caught herself. She looked warily at Archer, hoping she hadn't overstepped her bounds, whatever they might be in this crazy, mixed-up universe.

To her surprise, he didn't seem upset by her outburst. He appeared more amused than anything. He got to his feet and approached her where she stood by the bed. Towering over her, he led her to a chair at the table where they'd shared breakfast that morning.

"Your head does hurt, doesn't it?" he asked as she sat down.

"I do have a headache," she admitted. "It's probably the result of the meld. I remember the last time--" She inhaled sharply as a conversation between Trip and Malcolm she'd heard a long time ago came back to her. They had been discussing, after T'Pol had been taken for interrogation by the Suliban, how much information a prisoner should give to captors. Malcolm had adamantly insisted that name and rank were the only information that should be given voluntarily. Trip, on the other hand, had thought that sometimes there could be extenuating circumstances.

Archer, still standing, was watching her closely. "The last time what?" he prompted.

As far as she knew, she wasn't a prisoner here. They hadn't deliberately snatched her from her universe. If anything, they'd been suspicious of her because of the unorthodox manner of her arrival.

Then she shook her head. Everything was too complicated. Besides, she didn't think it would hurt to tell Archer that she'd melded before. "About a year ago, T'Pol...the T'Pol in my universe...performed a mind meld with me," she said at last. "Afterward, I had a terrible headache." She rubbed her temple. "It doesn't seem so bad this time."

"Why did you meld?"

Hoshi again weighed whether she should tell him, but found no reason not to. "I was on Earth, having dinner with Doctor Phlox. As we were leaving the restaurant, we were attacked and he was kidnapped. The meld was to gain information about our attackers that I couldn't recall."

"Was it successful?"

"Yes. We found out who the attackers were, and that they were specifically after Phlox." She thought it prudent not to go into the details of why the attackers were after Phlox.

Archer stared down at her a moment longer, then went to the com panel next to the door. "Archer to Phlox. Report to my cabin immediately."

A moment later, Phlox acknowledged the order.

Hoshi shifted in the chair. The Phlox of this universe wasn't someone she wanted to be anywhere near. "I don't need a doctor," she said.

Archer turned from the panel to look at her. "Maybe not. But I want to make sure you're all right after the meld. Phlox can give you something for your headache while he's here."

The captain had a point. If she got rid of the headache, she might be able to think more clearly. Right now, the whole situation felt like it was spinning out of her control. She'd just gotten her memory back, and she was desperately trying to reconcile the differences between the two universes. But if there was one thing she'd learned from her time aboard her Enterprise, it was that you just didn't sit and wait for things to happen. She needed to find out what options were available to her.

She sighed. She hoped she had some options.