"Deploying the Ikaaran shuttle now, sir," Travis reported as he sat at his station on the Bridge. Most of the regular Bridge crew was with him, with a few notable exceptions.
"Open a channel, please," said Captain Archer.
"Right away," said Chip Masterson.
"We see you," said the captain.
"Not for long," replied Frank Todd from inside the Ikaaran shuttle.
"Ready to cloak, on my mark," Hoshi reported from the Ikaaran shuttle, "three, two, one!"
Kerna flipped a switch and the cloak was successfully deployed. "We have a good cloak," she stated.
"No trace of the Ikaaran shuttle on scanners," Aidan reported.
"Nothing on sensors," T'Pol reported.
"You still there?" the captain inquired.
"Still here," Lili reported from the Ikaaran shuttle. "Requesting permission to head to Earth."
"Permission granted," said the captain.
"See you in a few days," Hoshi said, "Sato out."
On the NX-01, Jonathan turned to the others on the Bridge, "Let's keep chatter with them to a minimum. Good work, everyone. T'Pol, you have the Bridge. I'll be in the Observation Lounge, as you know, conducting the trial."
"Yes, Captain," replied the Vulcan.
=/\=
On the Ikaaran shuttle, Hoshi looked at her fellow passengers. "One thing I'd like to do is get a bottle of Champagne, if we could."
"We'd have to head to France for the real thing," Lili stated, "Otherwise it's just sparkling wine. It's not a bad thing, but it's not authentic."
"Why do you want Champagne?" asked Gary Hodgkins.
"Two reasons," Hoshi explained, "for one, I want to toast our mission. I've never been an Acting Captain of any sized vessel before. And, two, I want to christen this ship."
"What does christen mean?" Kerna asked as she piloted.
"It's an official naming ceremony," explained José Torres, "so, uh, what do you wanna name the shuttle?"
"I think we should honor his memory," Hoshi replied, "he may have been a pain, but he was an animal lover. Nobody knew that until the end, so let's call it the Daniel Chang."
"Then we're gonna need two bottles, eh?" said Gary.
=/\=
Jonathan sat at a table in the Observation Lounge. All of the Ikaaran women – save Kerna, of course – sat nearby. Representatives from each of the departments – even Sekar and Shelby, who were departments unto themselves – were also present.
Mario Lattimer and Susie Money brought in the prisoner. Verinold looked around at all of them and anxiously asked, "Is my fate already decided?"
"No," answered Captain Archer, "that's why we're conducting a trial in the first place. We first call Julie McKenzie."
Julie stepped forward. "On the date of Daniel Chang's death, December first of 2037, the Ikaaran shuttle was launched. When that ship was returned to the bay, and the hatch was opened, the only person we found inside was Verinold."
Jonathan thanked her and she sat down. "We call Andrew Miller."
Andy stood up. "On the day of his death, Chang was in Sick Bay because of a complaint of a headache. When the call came in that the shuttle had been grabbed, he said he was going there. That was the last time I ever saw him alive."
"And afterwards?" prompted the captain.
"When his corpse was brought to Sick Bay, Doctor Phlox and I performed an autopsy. We determined that the cause of death was oxygen deprivation, due to exposure to the vacuum of deep space. Our considered scientific opinion – which we both share – is that there is no other way for Chang to have died. He most definitely died outside the ship."
Ethan Shapiro was then called. He said, "I was monitoring all of the airlocks. None of them were tampered with. The only way that Chang could have gotten out of the ship was through the shuttle launch bay."
Colleen Romanov then spoke. "The shuttle launch bay was only open for a minute on December first of 2037, and at no other time on that day."
"And what time was that?" asked the captain.
"Oh seven hundred thirty-one hours, sir."
"And Crewman Miller," asked the captain, "when was the estimated time of Chang's death?"
"Between oh seven hundred twenty-five and oh seven hundred forty, sir. The imprecision is due to the fact that sometimes there can be a small amount of residual oxygen in the lungs, and the body can technically be alive albeit brain dead."
"Thank you," said the captain. Turning to Verinold, he said, "What do you have to say to that? Do you have witnesses or any other contradictory evidence?"
Verinold thought for a moment. "I do not," he finally admitted, "The question is less one of culpability than it is one of the degree of punishment. Will you put me to death, Captain Archer?"
=/\=
On the Ikaaran shuttle, they made good time. "Wow," José looked out the window. "I, I had forgotten how much I miss the Earth." They were still several hours away, and had yet to get to Mars, but the Earth could still be seen plainly, with magnification.
"Me, too," Frank agreed, "but we gotta all keep it together and not get too sentimental. We got a job to do."
"Right," Lili added, "cute puppies or no, we can't just take them all home with us, although I certainly wish we could."
"We've got several kilos of tin," Gary said, "let's spend it wisely."
"Onward to Phnom Penh," Hoshi commanded.
=/\=
"I would rather not," Captain Archer replied, "but I don't honestly know what the best way to proceed is. What would you do, if you were in my position?"
"I don't suppose you have a lot of choices for banishment," Verinold stated, "and I imagine you would find it difficult to trust me again. Could I work on that little planet, live out my days there, sowing, weeding and harvesting, under the direction and supervision of your people? Will you permit that?"
"I'll consider it," said the captain, "and we're adjourned."
=/\=
While Kerna piloted, José mused, "I gotta wonder why the other version of the NX-01 didn't know about the fuel from the thermobaric clouds."
"Perhaps the other Ikaaran engineer was not as skilled as our Dakiza," Kerna opined.
"The captain, when he told us all about it, he said he hoped it wasn't due to a lack of trust," Gary said, "I mean, I can see how it could be really upsetting. He married an Ikaaran woman the last time out. To know that she kept something that big from him, I mean, that's gotta be hard."
"What did you do, last time?" Kerna asked.
Gary swallowed. "I was, uh, I was one of the guys who attacked Socorro. Lieutenant Commander O'Day here was captured by Imvari, as was Major Hayes." At the sound of his name, Lili swallowed a small lump in her throat. Gary continued, "On a mission to rescue them, my other version, well, I lost my life. But not before confessing to the deed – to Todd here, actually. It looks like it broke the case wide open. At least I did that. I don't, um, I don't recognize that guy, know what I mean?"
"You have a chance to rectify it all," Kerna reported, "Passing your Mars now."
They all looked out the window at the red planet. "It's so weird to not see it terraformed," Hoshi said.
"When we passed by Titan, it was harder than I had thought it would be," Lili added, "New France is how far from being founded? It really brings it all home, just how far back we really swung."
=/\=
Captain Archer sat in his Ready Room. There was a door chime. "Yes?"
It was T'Pol. "Am I disturbing you?"
"No, I'm deliberating and also thinking about the events of the past year or so. I'm trying to separate my feelings for Porthos, and my irritations with Daniel Chang, from the decision I have to make about Verinold."
"And then there is also what you are thinking and feeling about being so close to the Earth," the Vulcan observed.
"Of course. A part of me is very excited. It's like a little jaunt, a lark. But I'm also mindful of the timeline. And I want to temper my enthusiasm. This has to be our one and only visit. We can't just be dropping everything and returning every year, despite how attractive a prospect that might be. There are just too many chances to manhandle the timeline."
"What is the purpose behind punishment?" she asked, abruptly changing the subject. "When it comes to justice, that is."
"Huh. There are a lot of theories, I've been discovering through my reading. It can be just to, well, be punitive. Another reason is to deter others. Yet another reason is revenge on a perpetrator. It can also be to elicit essentially a penitence for the convict."
"What would your purpose be with regards to Verinold?"
"Well, I do want there to be some punishment. He caused a man's death. It may not have been intentional, but that was the collateral damage from him taking the shuttle. But I also want to deter the other Ikaarans from trying something like that."
"So you do not trust them."
"I don't know if I can," he admitted, "after all, their fellow Ikaarans kept this major technological breakthrough from our earlier versions."
"But they have shared it now," she pointed out.
"True. But T'Pol, I loved her. I loved Ebrona. And it looks an awful lot like she betrayed me." He sighed.
"Perhaps there is an alternate explanation. After all, she was brought onto the Enterprise with no technology whatsoever – she and her fellows were beamed in or brought over via our own shuttlepod. And she had not been the captain of her vessel. That had been someone else. It is entirely possible that her engineer was not the original engineer on her ship. The knowledge could have been lost."
"Maybe. I still have these vague, nagging doubts."
"Be that as it may," T'Pol opined, "I believe that you should not permit your own vague feelings of betrayal cloud your judgment, when it comes to Verinold's fate."
"Yanno," the captain said after a while, "you're absolutely right."
=/\=
And on the Ikaaran shuttle, they slipped into an orbit on the far side of the moon and turned off the cloak in order to conserve fuel, and waited for the Cambodian morning.
=/\=
Jonathan Archer's Personal Log, February seventeenth, 2038
The trial is finished, and I will announce my decision tomorrow. I do not wish to execute Verinold. I think his proposal is a sound one.
=/\=
José Torres's Personal Log, February seventeenth, 2038
We're off to Earth. I see it and try not to cry.
=/\=
T'Pol's Personal Log, February seventeenth, 2038
The captain is, I believe, making a reasoned decision about Verinold.
My own decisions are more unsettling. As Tripp speaks to me about marriage, I have my own doubts, given how the earlier iteration unfolded.
=/\=
Edmund Hamboyan's Personal Log, February seventeenth, 2038
I miss Kerna.