New World Man: Reunion

New World Man: Reunion

by Kevin

Rating: PG
Disclaimer: The characters mentioned within this text are the sole property of Paramount Studios, UPN, and Viacom. I intend no infringement.
Genre: Drama
Summary: Atlantis and Enterprise receive a distress call from an unknown Starfleet vessel–the Daedalus. The crew arrives to find it heavily damaged and still under attack from a Romulan warbird. Two people are taken aboard who have not been on Enterprise in four years. This story is light on T/T, but it's important background for the rest of the series.

Author’s Note: My normal formatting conventions apply for all of the stories in this series. Text in “” is English. Text in ** “” ** is Vulcan. Text in () is TnT bondspeak. Text in italics is inner dialog or the name of a ship (depending on context).

1242 Hours, 6 July 2159, USS Endeavor NX-05

Captain Jack McCoy reviewed today’s status reports. An engagement from last night caught his eye. The USS Paul Hamilton, USS Ramage and USS Roosevelt were ambushed by four Romulan warbirds while escorting a freighter convoy. Both the Paul Hamilton and Ramage took damage before destroying one of the warbirds. However they were clearly outclassed and things looked bad for the convoy. Twenty minutes into the engagement the Romulans broke off and fled at maximum warp. Although the Roosevelt could have pursued, protecting the convoy was more important and so a potential disaster was reduced to seven dead and eighteen injured.

Jack sat wondering why the Romulans broke off and ran like hell when his comm. officer interrupted him.

“Captain, incoming message for the Commodore…”

Jack nodded. “Go ahead, put it through… He’s in my ready room.”

Commodore Arthur Branch reviewed today’s status reports. An engagement from last night caught his eye. The USS Paul Hamilton, USS Ramage and USS Roosevelt were ambushed by four Romulan warbirds while escorting a freighter convoy. Both the Paul Hamilton and Ramage took damage before destroying one of the warbirds. However they were clearly outclassed and things looked bad for the convoy. Twenty minutes into the engagement the Romulans broke off and fled at maximum warp. Although the Roosevelt could have pursued, protecting the convoy was more important and so a potential disaster was reduced to seven dead and eighteen injured.

Arthur sat wondering why the Romulans broke off and ran like hell when his station chimed. “Branch here.”

“Sir, I’ve got an incoming message… Captain Ben Stone for you.”

Finally! “Put him through.”

“Aye, aye sir.”

In a short moment Captain Ben Stone’s face appeared on his screen. “Good to see you Ben!”

“Thank you sir,” Stone replied. “As soon as we’ve made sure the convoy’s safe, we’ll meet up with you.”

Arthur smiled. “I was wondering if that was you last night… I couldn’t figure out why else the Rommies would have just turned tail and run.”

Stone nodded. “Yeah, they ran as soon as we got within their long range sensors… Must’ve assumed they had a Vulcan combat cruiser heading toward them. I guess they didn’t want to take the chance of getting them involved… We’ve been shadowing the convoy since.”

“Good… Good… I’m glad you showed up.” Arthur shook his head slightly. “You really bailed us out of that one… Has the convoy tried to contact you?”

“Nope…” Ben shook his head. “We’ve stayed far enough away they can’t tell us from a Surak-class. We haven’t heard a peep from them. They’re probably making the same assumption as the Romulans. Once they get closer to Atlantis, we’ll head back your way.”

“I’m sending you the coordinates for our rendezvous now. You’ll get there before we will so just hide out until we show up.”

“Aye, aye sir.”

Arthur stood up and left the ready room to join Captain McCoy on the bridge. “At ease, everyone,” he said as they snapped to attention. I really hate this military crap! “When’s Enterprise showing up Jack?”

Jack flipped through his PADD. “They’re scheduled for 1600 hours sir.” He turned to his comm. officer. “Any updates from Enterprise?”

She shook her head. “Not since this morning sir. They confirmed they are on schedule.”

Arthur nodded. “Good… Jack let me know as soon as we’ve taken on supplies.”

“Aye sir,” Jack replied. “It’ll take a while to load the Mark V’s so we probably won’t have everything until 2100 or so.”

“That’s fine. Even if it’s later, let me know.”

2113 Hours, 6 July 2159, USS Endeavor NX-05

Arthur heard his station chime. “Yes.”

“Commodore, you said you wanted to be notified when we’ve taken on supplies from Enterprise. They’re loading the last of the torpedoes on board now.”

“Okay Jack. As soon as they’ve undocked, I want us to head to the coordinates I just sent to your station. Maximum warp…”

“Sir?”

Arthur sighed. “You heard me.”

“Aye, aye sir.”

0833 Hours, 7 July 2159, USS Endeavor NX-05

“Arriving at the coordinates, Captain.”

“Okay,” Jack replied. “Cut to impulse and raise shields. Full sensor sweep.”

A few moments later his tactical officer spoke up. “We’ve got one on approach.”

Jack turned to her. “One of ours?”

She shook her head. “Don’t know…”

“What’d you mean ‘don’t know’?”

“Just that sir… I don’t recognize the silhouette. But it’s got a Starfleet transponder.”

“Put it on screen.”

Jack looked at the ship. It kind of looked like Starfleet. But it was huge–quite a bit larger than Endeavor–which as far as he knew was the largest Starfleet ship other than its sister ship Atlantis. “What the hell is that?”

“That my friends,” Arthur Branch replied, “is the USS Daedalus. The first of the NC class.”

“That is one ugly ship,” whispered Jack’s helmsman.

“Yep,” Arthur answered. “But she’s the best warship we’ve got for the time being… Hail them.”

“I’ve got them on screen.”

Jack saw Captain Ben Stone’s face on the screen. He wondered what happened to him. He lost track of Ben over a year ago once he was removed from Challenger.

“We’ve got your torpedoes Ben,” Arthur told him. “As soon as we dock, we’ll start loading you up… I’ll be over shortly to brief you.”

Ben nodded and turned to his helmsmen. “Begin docking procedure…”

Arthur turned to Captain McCoy. “Jack, as soon as we’ve docked, transfer all our torpedoes to the Daedalus.”

Jack was stunned. That would leave us with only phase cannons! We’d be defenseless at Warp. He knew better than question the Commodore in front of everyone. “Aye sir.” He got up to follow Commodore Branch into his ready room to discuss the matter in private. Jack was certain every one of his bridge officers’ eyes were boring holes in the back of his head as he made his way out.

As soon as the door closed Arthur turned to Jack. “Something on your mind Jack?”

“Sir, with all due respect, we’ll be empty. If we get caught by the Rommies, we’re screwed.”

“Don’t sweat it Jack. She’ll leave some Mark IV’s with us and we’ll get another load this evening. The Crazy Horse is on her way with ours. She’ll be here around 1800 hours.”

“Why all that effort? Why couldn’t Enterprise just have delivered the torpedoes to Daedalus directly? Why two deliveries to us.”

Arthur scowled. “Officially Daedalus doesn’t exist. We limit her exposure as much as possible. Since we already had to meet up with her for a mission briefing, it made sense for us to take them to her. She’s going to need them.”

Jack frowned. “What for?”

Arthur shook his head. “Can’t tell you Jack. It’s classified… Just let me know when she’s left…”

Arthur recognized the frustration on Jack’s face. “After Daedalus is gone, you and your crew need to forget about this whole incident. You were doing your normal patrol all day.” Arthur smiled at the Captain. “Cheer up, Jack… I’m heading back on the Crazy Horse so I’ll be out of your hair.”

Jack smiled. I can’t wait!

0251 Hours, 11 July 2159, USS Enterprise NX-01

Commander Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola frowned as he reviewed the ship’s status. I’m a damn delivery boy. All we do any more is haul supplies back and forth to restock the front lines. That’s exactly what Enterprise was doing at this moment. Transferring the last of the Mark V torpedoes destined for Atlantis. They had already restocked both Endeavor and Challenger and as soon as they were done here, it was back to Jupiter Station.

“Commander, I’ve got an incoming,” Hoshi’s voice startled Fin out of his internal grumbling. “Text only.”

“What’s it say?”

“It’s a distress call. USS Daedalus under attack. Three Romulan warbirds. Then coordinates.”

Fin tilted his head. “Daedalus? I haven’t heard of that one. What’s the registry say?”

Hoshi looked straight at him. “It’s not listed… But the message passes checks…”

That really baffled Fin. How in the hell could a message from an unregistered ship pass authenticity checks? “How can that be?”

Hoshi shrugged. “I have no idea sir. The signature confirms it’s the Daedalus and the message is valid but there’s no record of it. I don’t know how to explain it.”

“Okay, hail Atlantis,” Fin said to Hoshi.

“Sir, they’re reporting the same thing… They’re requesting confirmation from Starfleet command.”

Fin turned to Lieutenant Reed. “How long until we’ve got everything on Atlantis?”

“Another forty minutes sir… The transfer crew is returning now for the last load.”

Fin made a quick decision. “We’re going to have to skip the last load. As soon as they’re back and we’ve got confirmation, we’ll go to those coordinates… Travis lay in a course and get ready to jump to max as soon as I give the word.”

“Aye sir,” replied Ensign Mayweather.

Fin pushed the page for the Captain who was meeting with Phlox.

“Yes,” came the doctor’s reply.

“Phlox, please let the Captain know we’ve got a situation up here.”

“I heard you Fin. I’ll be there as soon as I can,” came Archer’s reply.

“Sir, we’ve got confirmation from Starfleet command the message is authentic,” Hoshi informed him a few moments later. “Atlantis is going to Warp.”

Fin turned to Reed, “are we ready yet?”

“A few more moments, sir. The shuttles are coming in now.”

“Okay Travis, as soon as the bay doors are closed, give me everything you got.”

0328 Hours, 11 July 2159, USS Enterprise NX-01

“Captain,” came Hoshi’s voice.

Archer turned to her. “Yeah.”

“Incoming message from Atlantis… They’re on station and destroyed a crippled warbird. One more headed off with moderate damage and they’re in pursuit. They say Daedalus has serious casualties but the ship itself is not in any danger… Wait, they say a mine just exploded outside of main engineering.”

Archer knew exactly what that meant. “Travis, ignore the speed limits. Push her to the redline…”

“Aye, sir.”

Archer reached down to page Phlox. “Phlox get your people ready. We’ve got an unknown number of casualties. Many of them will be suffering from radiation poisoning.”

“Yes, Captain. I’ll have them start setting up cargo bay three for the non-critical casualties… We’ll start dropping the temperature in cargo bay two for a morgue if we need it.”

Archer was pissed to realize they already had this procedure down pat. Phlox’s team had been preparing for the time they would have to fulfill this ghoulish duty. He hated the Romulans so much for what they’d done. Not only had they killed the only woman he’d ever love with their initial strike but also they’d turned what was once the pride of Starfleet first into a transport and now a makeshift hospital ship.

Twenty minutes later they arrived on station to a grim sight.

0353 Hours, 11 July 2159, USS Enterprise NX-01

Travis stared awestruck at the scene before him. Lurking before them was a ship, or at least what’s left of it, in a configuration he’d never seen before. It had a pair of massive nacelles attached in a V-shape to an even larger cylindrical section he assumed was main engineering. What remained was larger than Enterprise–and he could tell a good bit was missing.

A massive appendage shot out from the cylindrical section and terminated in mid-air. It had a gaping hole and the edges were ragged as if the front of the ship had been ripped off. Given the amount of debris surrounding the ship, something very large was indeed ripped off the front. There was way too much flotsam for just two destroyed warbirds.

That this much of the ship still remained and they were even taking on survivors meant this had been one tough ship. Not even Atlantis, the most powerful ship Travis knew about, could have survived this battle. She engaged three Romulan warbirds in a minefield and nearly won the battle single handedly. Atlantis reported they had finally intercepted and destroyed the one that escaped. They were returning to provide cover in case any other Romulan ships lie in wait for an ambush.

“Keep her steady Travis and take us in a bit closer,” came Archer’s soft words. “Phlox is having trouble getting a transport lock on two in engineering.”

“Aye, sir,” Travis replied as he nudged Enterprise in closer while making sure there weren’t any stray mines he’d missed. Atlantis had deployed her minesweepers and it looked like they’d cleared the area already. There was still enough debris though he had to be careful in case they missed one.

“That’s got her… Good job, Travis,” Archer told him. Travis’ chest swelled with pride. Captain Archer was a good pilot himself and his praise always had special meaning to Travis.

“Malcolm, anything on sensors?” Travis heard Archer ask.

“No sir. All clear.”

As they sat, Travis turned his attention back to the hulking remains in front of him. Although he could see scarring from disruptor hits along various parts of the ship, the nacelles appeared undamaged and lit up. He wondered if even after all the ship had been through, she could still jump to Warp. It looked like it. What remained appeared structurally sound and so as long as the engines were still operational, she had a shot at generating a good Warp field.

“Captain, I need you to come to sickbay immediately. Commander Eames says she needs to speak with you right away,” Travis hear Phlox say over the comm. system.

“Who?”

“She’s the WSO of the Daedalus. She’s the ranking remaining officer… She says it’s critical.”

“Okay, Phlox, tell her I’ll be down immediately… Fin, you’ve got the bridge…”

“Aye sir,” Commander Tutuola replied.

“Travis, keep a look out for any left over mines…” Archer reminded Travis from what sounded like the turbo lift area. He heard the hiss of the turbo lift close as the Captain left the bridge.

Captain Jonathan Archer wondered what he’d find when he got to sickbay. Well I guess I’ll find out in a couple minutes. He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact there were any survivors at all. Phlox reported they picked up twenty-one, although thirteen were from an engineering section flooded with radiation. He didn’t have to ask Phlox to know some of those probably weren’t going to make it.

When the sickbay doors opened, Archer witnessed a scene even worse than he could have imagined. The first thing that hit him was the smell… the smell of charred flesh, blood, and other things too awful to think of. He bent over and almost lost his supper. He took a couple of deep breaths and swallowed hard as the acid taste of vomit stuck in the back of his throat. He had to beat back his body’s reaction to the stench that overwhelmed the environmental controls in sickbay.

As soon as he pretty much got his nausea under control, he realized sickbay was jammed with critical patients. This was worse than anything he’d ever seen since returning from the Xindi attack. Even that he wasn’t sure was as bad as the scene before him. There were groans, crying, babbling but worse than that was deathly silence from two patients who were turned lying face down. He witnessed no movement from either save the occasional erratic breath.

He stared at a blonde haired woman lying completely still, other than the occasional erratic breath, when he heard Phlox approach him from behind.

“Captain,” Phlox grabbed him by the arm. “Over here.”

Archer followed Phlox in a haze trying to cope with the scene. If anything, the stench got worse the farther he got in sickbay. Finally they arrived at a chair in the corner where a short woman sat with a bandage around her head and a cast on her left leg. The bandage covered one eye and he couldn’t recognize her.

“Captain Archer,” she asked in a gravely voice.

“Yes.”

“I’m Commander Alexandra Eames of the USS Daedalus. Captain Ben Stone and Commander Robert Goran were killed in the attack and I took command.”

Archer nodded.

“We’ve got to contact Admiral Cragen as soon as possible. I need to speak with him from your ready room.”

Archer twisted his head to get Phlox’s opinion.

“Commander, you’ve got a concussion…”

“It’ll wait, doctor. I’ve got to talk to Cragen immediately…”

“What about?” Archer asked.

She shook her head slightly. “I can’t talk about it here… Trust me Captain, it’s vital that we talk to Cragen ASAP. Please…”

Archer nodded. “Get her a wheelchair Phlox and I’ll take her to my ready room…”

Phlox must have anticipated Archer’s request because he returned immediately with a wheelchair.

Archer took a deep breath and asked the question he wasn’t sure he wanted the answer. “How’s it look?”

Phlox scowled and frowned. He looked down to Commander Eames. “We found twenty one survivors, fifteen of which are critical… I believe two are fatal and I’m just trying to make them comfortable. Their radiation exposure is too severe.”

“Who?” whispered Commander Eames.

Phlox looked down at his feet. “Lieutenant Southerlyn and Ensign Huang…”

Archer saw Eames take a deep breath and nod. “Doctor, please do me a favor…”

“Yes?”

“Find Lieutenant Novak and tell her about Lieutenant Southerlyn.”

Archer tilted his head. He saw Phlox get a confused look on his face.

“Why?” Phlox asked.

“Please, just do it, for me…”

Phlox nodded. “Captain, please help me get the Commander into the chair.”

Archer moved to the side and helped Phlox move Commander Eames into the wheel chair.

As they moved down the hall, the silence was too much for Archer. “Commander, what was that all about?”

“It’s not important right now Captain.” Something in her tone made it clear she wasn’t going to talk about it any further. “When we’re done Captain, I need to get back to sick bay. I need to check up on my people…”

“Of course Commander.”

Archer told Hoshi to put the communication through to his ready room. Soon Admiral Cragen’s face appeared on screen.

Commander Eames wheeled up and absent-mindedly nudged Captain Archer out of the way. “We verified the information Admiral.”

Cragen’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

Eames nodded. “Yes sir. Everything was right.”

Cragen took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “How’s Daedalus?”

Eames looked down at the desk in front of her. “She’s lost sir. I recommend we scuttle her after retrieving the computer core.”

Cragen slumped. “It’s that bad? You can’t bring her back?”

Eames shook her head. “No. We directly tied the Warp engine into the shields and phase cannons to buy us time until someone else showed up. She’s stuck at impulse.”

“Why can’t you restore the connections?”

Eames took a deep, calming breath. “We were hit with a mine near engineering…”

“How bad?”

“Thirteen survivors from engineering. Phlox says two are fatal and the rest are critical.”

“How about Enterprise? Can someone there fix it?”

“No sir. At last count there’s only three of us conscious and we’re all weapons officers. There’s no one to even tell them what to do.”

Cragen frowned and thought for a moment. Archer could see he clearly didn’t want to scuttle the ship but they couldn’t just leave her.

Finally Cragen nodded. “I agree Alex. Send a team to retrieve the computer core and then scuttle her… Get back to Jupiter as soon as you can… I’ll move Endeavor to provide additional cover until you’re under way.”

Cragen turned his attention to Captain Archer. “Captain…”

“Yes sir.”

“This incident is classified. You are not to speak of it to anyone, not even among yourselves…”

Archer was stunned. What the hell is going on?

“Am I clear?”

“Completely.”

“Good. Provide Commander Eames any assistance her remaining crew needs and get back to Jupiter station as soon as possible. You are not authorized to break for any reason–not even to respond to distress calls.”

Archer stiffened up. “Admiral…”

“You heard me Captain… It is vital that you return as soon as possible.”

“Understood sir.”

“Good, Cragen out.”

Archer turned to Eames. “What was that all about?”

She shook her head. “Can’t talk about it sir. We have our orders.”

Archer slumped his shoulders. “Okay. How do we retrieve the computer core?”

Commander Eames scratched at the bandage covering her right ear. “Hmm… The area’s flooded with radiation… I think we should blow the hatches to purge atmosphere. That’ll cut down on some of the exposure and give the engineers a bit more time. It’s located four levels in. It’s between the forward torpedo hold and main engineering. If two engineers release it and two engineers retrieve it, that will even further reduce the risk.”

Archer nodded. It sounded like a good plan. “Work with Commander Hess to make it happen.”

“We don’t have specs available for the ship. I’ll have to draw a picture for her from memory.”

“Not a problem… I’ll have Lieutenant Reed get his team ready with scuttling charges. How long will it take to get the core out?”

Eames shrugged. “Probably an hour or so to get your team prepped and another couple hours to retrieve it. That part of the ship is pretty heavily shielded and didn’t take damage so once they’re inside they should be able to get right to it.”

She just sat there as if waiting for something.

“Captain, a little help please?”

Just then Archer realized he was standing in her way. He couldn’t believe how thoughtless he was. “Sure, sorry about that. I’ll get you down to engineering and then take you back to sick bay.”

“You don’t have to do that Captain. I’m sure you…”

“Nonsense,” Archer replied. “Everyone else is busy with something right now. Since we’re not going anywhere, I’ll take care of it… Besides, it’ll limit the number of people who know any details. Fin’s got the bridge. He’ll call me if anything comes up.”

Archer wheeled Commander Eames to the turbo lift so they could head to engineering. He was curious what was stored in that computer core making its retrieval so important. Unfortunately he knew Commander Eames would never tell him.

As Archer wheeled Commander Eames into sickbay, the environment was less caustic than before. The air recyclers must have kicked into overdrive and cleaned up the air. Also there was much less noise compared to before. That meant Phlox must have been finally able to attend to everyone with painkillers. He heard the occasional groan but mostly he heard a single person crying. As he wheeled Eames in deeper he saw the source of the crying.

A young auburn haired woman sat next to a still blonde haired woman. She was turned face up now but Archer was certain it was the same woman he noticed before.

“Captain, please take me over there…”

Archer wheeled Eames over as the woman looked up. Her eyes were filled with tears and she appeared to alternately sob and wince at the pain. There were several layers of bandages around her chest and Archer was certain her sobbing only added physical pain to her obvious intense emotional pain. Based on their reactions, he assumed the blonde haired woman was Lieutenant Southerlyn. Her breathing was erratic and shallow and the skin on her face was blotchy.

Archer saw Commander Eames reach over and give as good a hug as someone in a wheel chair could give. “I’m sorry, Casey…” Eames whispered to her.

“Phlox… says… she’s dy… dying…” the young woman said between sobs and grimaces. “He… gave… her… pain… killers… but… but… he ca.. can’t do any… thing else…”

“Captain, could you follow me?” Phlox whispered to him.

Archer was so focused on the scene in front of him, the doctor’s voice in his ear startled him. He turned to see Phlox right behind him.

He just nodded and followed the doctor. As Phlox was leading him to another part of sickbay he wondered what was going on. Casey, he assumed her name was Lieutenant Novak, was having a difficult time with Lieutenant Southerlyn’s impending death. Just as he was coming to a conclusion, he stopped in mid-thought at the sight before him.

“Is that?” Of course it was! He couldn’t believe it.

Phlox nodded.

“What are Trip and T’Pol doing here? I thought they were back on Vulcan?”

Phlox shrugged. “I don’t know Captain. They must have been assigned to Daedalus. We retrieved Commander T’Pol from the armory and Commander Tucker, of course, was in main engineering.”

That fact stung Archer. Starfleet had assigned them to another ship. It hurt that he didn’t even get the chance to have them back on Enterprise. He missed both of them so much. He hadn’t spoken to either since shortly after they were removed.

“How are they?”

Phlox sighed. “Commander T’Pol has a mild concussion, a separated shoulder, two broken ribs and a broken femur… It appears a support brace collapsed on her.”

“Trip?”

Phlox frowned and looked away. “Much worse. His radiation exposure is pretty high. If I had to guess, around 3.2 sieverts… He will live but it’s going to be a long recovery. He appears to have no other injuries beyond a couple minor burns.”

“Why’s he on his front?” Archer saw many of the patients turned face down.

“I turned them face down so they won’t choke on their own vomit. We’re overwhelmed right now and can’t give everyone full attention.”

Archer scrunched his face in disgust.

Just then Archer heard an “Oh God! No!” and he turned to Commander Eames and Lieutenant Novak. Her body shook as her sobs turned to bawling and then to wailing. Commander Eames pulled her in as she rested her head on Eames shoulder and started babbling. Archer found it difficult to breathe as he realized Lieutenant Southerlyn was no longer with them.

He had to get out of sickbay. He struggled out and bent over trying to breathe and control the sickness in his stomach at the same time.

One year ago, Enterprise had been removed from the front lines when she couldn’t accept the deflector shield upgrades. Without them, Enterprise couldn’t even stay in the fight as long as an upgraded Intrepid-class. He was livid that Enterprise would be reduced to a supply ship for the remaining three NX class ships. Looking back on his experience of the past few hours he realized maybe that wasn’t such a bad deal after all. He wasn’t sure he could take being a captain on the front lines where death had become an all too common experience.

He thanked God he hadn’t had the chance to learn to deal with it.

1003 Hours, 11 July 2159, USS Enterprise NX-01

Archer sat on the bridge trying to forget the scene in his own sickbay. The scuttling charges were set and the team was returning to the ship.

“Back us off Travis…”

“Aye sir.”

Archer turned to Lieutenant Reed. “Ready to go?”

Malcolm simply nodded in reply. “Any time you are ready sir.”

“Go ahead… Malcolm… Scuttle her.”

The sight before him on the screen amazed him. The charges tore open what remained of the ship and reduced her to tiny pieces in no time at all.

“Looks good sir. All the charges fired,” came Malcolm’s statement.

“Travis, set course for Jupiter station…”

“Laid in sir.”

“Engage.”

Archer turned to Ensign Sato. “How’s the transmission coming?”

Hoshi looked up at him. “Commander Eames showed me the most critical data to transfer. It’ll be complete in a few minutes. Then I’ll start the rest and it should take about ten hours… We’ll still be more than a day away when the transfer’s complete.

A few minutes later, Hoshi interrupted his status report. “Sir, Phlox says T’Pol has regained consciousness.”

“She has?” That was the best news he heard in a while.

“Yes sir.”

Archer spun to Lieutenant Reed. “Malcolm, you’ve got the bridge. I’ll be in sickbay.” He didn’t even wait to hear his reply and was on the turbo lift as soon as he could.

1753 Hours, 13 July 2159, USS Enterprise NX-01

Archer sat eating his diner salad silently with Commander Eames. The two were alone in the Captain’s Mess but neither felt comfortable talking. Archer was still milling around in his head the question of why Cragen ordered all mention of Daedalus to cease.

He wasn’t sure what to talk about with her. So he decided to talk about the survivors. “How are Commander Tucker and Commander T’Pol doing? I haven’t had a chance to see them today?”

Archer saw Alex put down her fork after inserting a slice of pear into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed it before answering.

“T’Pol’s a lot better and Phlox says he no longer needs to keep her sedated. Her shoulder’s mostly recovered and her ribs and broken leg should be healed shortly after we arrive at Jupiter station this evening…”

“And Trip?”

She frowned. “Trip is still unconscious and the doctor is treating him. He said it looks like Trip will pull through but his immune system is starting to fail so he needs to get him into an ICU as soon as possible.”

Archer decided to broach another topic he had been curious about for two days. “And Lieutenant Novak?” He intentionally kept his query vague.

He saw Alex straighten her face as if to remove all reaction. “Here ribs are healing well.”

Archer scrunched his face in frustration. “That’s not what I meant.”

Alex slumped her shoulders and sighed. “She’s doing about as well as can be expected… She’s talking to Phlox and he’s helping her cope.”

“What’s going on there? Her reaction to Lieutenant Southerlyn’s death was…” Archer decided to chose his next words very carefully, “not that of a mere fellow officer.”

Alex smiled. “No it was not. Casey and Serena… cared very deeply for each other. They were not mere fellow officers.”

“How not?” Archer was probably going too far but his curiosity was overwhelming his professionalism.

Alex just shrugged. “Don’t know for sure and I wouldn’t tell you if I did, sir. Captain Stone looked the other way as long as it didn’t affect the ship’s operation… If you must know though, I would suggest speaking with Commander T’Pol. She and Trip knew Casey and Serena better than I did. Serena was Trip’s second and Casey was one of the first assigned to the… project. T’Pol’s known her for some time.”

Archer nodded.

“As for me, I would prefer not to speak of the dead again.”

Archer caught her meaning. He smiled to himself as he realized Commander Eames was a strong-willed woman who did things her way. He liked that. It was sexy.

He shook his head at that thought. What the hell am I thinking? I’ve been alone too long.

Unfortunately that thought only led to his memory of Erika and the pain in his chest returned. He probably had only an inkling of what Lieutenant Novak was going through. Learning of Erika’s death was painful but he hadn’t been there, holding her, when she died. Erika’s death was instant as Columbia’s Warp core breached in the assault on Deep Space One. It wasn’t a lingering death in an unknown sick bay as her life slowly left her.

At that moment Archer felt only sadness for Lieutenant Novak and her pain.

1523 Hours, 27 July 2159, Jupiter Station, Intensive Care Unit

Archer stepped out of the dressing room after donning what appeared to be surgical gear the nurse gave him. A man in a white lab coat approached him.

“Captain Archer?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“My name is Doctor John Munch. I’m overseeing Commander Tucker’s recovery… I just quickly wanted to go over things with you…”

Archer nodded.

“Commander Tucker most likely won’t be conscious, but if he is, he’ll be pretty groggy. The medication is very strong and his painkillers don’t help. His hair has nearly fallen out so don’t be alarmed. It’s a normal side effect of someone exposed to as much radiation as he was. Even though he’s in a tent, I’ll still insist you wear the mask. His natural immune system has shut down and we’re relying solely on drugs at this point.”

“Okay… Will do… Anything else?”

Doctor Munch shook his head. “Nope. I think Commander T’Pol is still in there with him but there should be two chairs.”

Archer steeled himself to get ready to see Trip. He wasn’t sure what to expect. He took a deep breath and entered the mantrap isolating the ICU from the rest of the facility. He donned the dark goggles and pushed the button indicating he was ready for the sterilization. Quickly the intense blue lights turned on to kill any surface microbes that came with him. Once the lights turned off, the other door of the mantrap opened to allow him entry to the ICU. There were only a handful of patients so finding Trip’s bed was easy.

Sure enough, T’Pol was at his bedside hunched over slightly with her eyes closed. He wasn’t sure if she was sleeping or meditating so he approached as quietly as possible.

The sight before him was not as bad as he had prepared himself for. Trip was lying peacefully on the bed inside the clear tent. He was covered up to his armpits by a clean white blanket. His skin was mostly clear with little blotching left. The only real indication of the trauma his bodied suffered was most of his hair had fallen out. Two clumps along the left side remained and a few stray hairs here and there but other than that, he was bald. Even his eyebrows were gone.

Archer silently thanked whatever god was responsible for keeping his oldest friend alive after Daedalus’ destruction. Of the 140 crewmembers, only 19 survived and none escaped injury. Beyond that, he could find out very little. The whole incident was classified at a level he hadn’t even known existed. Merely mentioning the name Daedalus out loud was not permitted let alone talking about the incident.

Whatever that ship and it’s mission were, Starfleet brass wanted to keep it secret and did everything in its power to keep it that way. Beyond the ship’s name and the list of survivors, he knew nothing. He only found out the crew complement from Commander Eames in the few moments before Admiral Cragen ordered everyone to forget everything about the incident.

But Archer had been in Enterprise’s sickbay after the survivors were beamed aboard. Forgetting the incident was simply not possible. He would never forget the debris field where the battle took place or the smell, that horrid smell, filling his sick bay before the environmental systems caught up. Both would be with him for as long as he lived.

As his mind returned to the present, he became aware of Trip again and the changes before him. Not just the lack of hair though. Trip was… bigger… than he remembered. He and Trip played water polo (even though the engineer hated every minute of it) and he saw Trip in his skivvies from time to time so he roughly knew his friend’s physique. The Trip that lay a short distance in front of him had considerably larger arms and appeared to have a bigger chest and neck. In fact, Trips arms were huge, but not in the overly grotesque manner of body builders. Other than their sheer size, they looked perfectly normal.

“I did not hear you enter Captain,” T’Pol said. She interrupted his wondering what Trip had been doing for the past four years that led him to this place.

Archer turned and sat next to her. “I came by a short while ago. I didn’t want to disturb you.”

T’Pol looked exhausted. She couldn’t hide from him either the fatigue or the pain in her eyes. He doubted she’d slept much in the past two weeks. He was almost certain she wasn’t meditating as much as she should have.

“I was attempting to meditate,” she whispered. “I have had difficulty with Trip here…”

Archer was certain he caught her meaning. She couldn’t meditate in ICU and it was difficult for her to be apart from him. He took a mental note to approach Doctor Munch and see if something could be done for her. The beds on either side of Trip were empty, for the time being, and possibly something could be worked out where she could sleep by his side.

“How is he?” Archer asked.

“He mostly sleeps… It is difficult for me to tell since he is heavily medicated… I can barely…” T’Pol’s voice faltered as she struggled with her emotions, “barely sense him.”

Archer saw her close her eyes and take a few cleansing breaths.

“Doctor Munch says he will be like this for another few days. He will have to be isolated until his immune system returns to normal. That is weeks away though.”

Archer didn’t know what to say. So he moved the conversation to a safer topic. “I am speaking with Admiral Cragen about our idea tomorrow.”

“What time? I should be there.”

“At 1000 hours.” Archer shook his head gently. “But you should be here… with Trip… The idea makes a lot of sense so he won’t take much convincing… I’ll have Hoshi with me to fill in the details.”

“Still I should…”

Archer cut her off with a hand gesture. “Your place is here T’Pol… If Cragen turns us down, then I’ll pull you in, but not before. I don’t expect that though. Starfleet needs something like that.”

T’Pol just nodded and returned her attention to Trip. Archer wasn’t sure how long the two sat silently as he prayed for his friend’s recovery, but he only left when T’Pol sent him away for food. She got tired of listening to his stomach growl in hunger. Or more likely she grew tired of trying to keep up her pretense of controlling her emotions. Either way, Archer decided the best thing he could do was leave her alone for the night. He could come back to see the two of them tomorrow afternoon.

1105 Hours, 28 July 2159, Starfleet Headquarters, Admiral Cragen’s Office

Hoshi took her seat and cleared her throat. She had been talking for nearly an hour.

“So in conclusion sirs,” she began, “by installing six OS-9c communications transceivers here… and here… and by upgrading Enterprise’s antenna array to the BC8-9d series, we can coordinate communications among as many as twenty starships simultaneously. We propose to tie the array and transceivers into the old command center to act as a coordination point.”

She looked around the room remembering Captain Archer’s advice to always maintain eye contact with at least one person in the room.

“Enterprise would be able to detect approaching Romulan ships at a safe enough distance to outrun any attack. It would become a mobile, self-defendable communications platform. There would be no need to keep replacing communications relay probes as the Romulans destroyed them.”

Admiral Cragen stood up. “Thank you Ensign Sato for the proposal… I think I speak for everyone here when I say it makes a lot of sense… Why don’t you and Captain Archer excuse us and grab some lunch. We’ll talk about it amongst ourselves and we’ll reconvene at… say 1300 hours.”

“Aye sir,” Archer and Sato replied.

Once Captain Archer and Ensign Sato left his office, Admiral Cragen turned to Commodore Arthur Branch and Captain Leonard Briscoe. “So what do you think?”

Arthur nodded. “It’s a great idea… Lennie and I’ve been thinking along the same lines but didn’t know what ship to use.”

Cragen turned to Briscoe. “Is it doable? Now that we’ve confirmed the intelligence, I want to hit them as soon as possible. I want to keep to the February date.”

Briscoe frowned. “I’m not sure Admiral. I’ve got everyone working double shifts to finish the ships. I don’t think I can push any harder without putting quality at risk. Carolina and the Essex are the only ones finished. Horizon and Alexander should be complete in August… I’m not sure Archon and Hood will be ready before December… That’s cutting it close. Plus we’re still repairing Ramage and Hornet.”

“Do we even have the gear?” Arthur asked.

Briscoe nodded. “Yeah, it’s all sitting in storage. I just don’t have anyone to install it.”

“Could Enterprise’s crew install it?” Cragen asked.

“Hmm…” Briscoe seemed to consider the idea. “Yeah, probably. It’d take longer but they could do it.”

“How much?”

Briscoe shrugged. “Maybe late October, early November. Depends on who supervises the installation…”

“It’ll be Commander T’Pol and Ensign Sato…” Arthur offered.

Briscoe appeared to think about that. “Yeah, that’ll be fine. Probably late October then if they start this week. The engineering staff will need to make room for it, but they know that ship better anyone I have.”

Cragen shook his head. “No. I want T’Pol on sick leave for another week.”

Briscoe seemed to think about that. “Okay… I doubt it will hurt the schedule that much. I still think they’ll be ready to start testing in November. Should be ready to relaunch toward mid-December.”

Cragen turned to Arthur. “Can we do without Enterprise for that long?”

Arthur paused for a moment as he scratched his chin. “Yeah, I think so. We can use Crazy Horse to resupply Atlantis, Challenger and Endeavor. I’ll feel better once we get Ramage and Hornet back out.”

“We’re doing the best we can sir,” Briscoe replied. “Priority call is for the NC ships… But that’s your call if you want to change it.”

Arthur shook his head. “No, Lennie. You’re people are doing exactly what they should be. We need those ships as soon as possible… We’ll just be a bit thinner than I’d like for a couple weeks.”

“I’ll try to cut anything that can be delayed. That’ll decrease our exposure,” Cragen offered.

Seeing no disagreement, Cragen considered the matter settled. “Dismissed, everyone. You know what you need to do.” Cragen paused and then remembered something. “Lennie?”

“Yes sir?”

“I want status updates in my box every morning going forward. At the first sign of trouble, I need to know so I can make sure nothing gets in your way. Understood?”

Briscoe nodded.

“Good. Tell your people to keep up the good work. So far Carolina doesn’t have any serious problems. We need to keep building ships that way.”

Briscoe nodded. “Thanks sir. I’ll pass that along…”

0115 Hours, 10 August 2159, Jupiter Station, Intensive Care Unit

Captain Eames was annoyed–very annoyed.

T’Pol sat next to Trip instead of resting as she should have been. The situation reached the point where Doctor Munch was concerned enough that he spoke to her to see if she could get T’Pol to rest. T’Pol worked during the day and spent all night in ICU with Trip. She couldn’t fully understand Trip’s and T’Pol’s marriage beyond knowing the facts the two could communicate telepathically and should not be separated for any length of time. Their special ability had proven useful during the battle when Trip could provide her status updates and keep working at the same time without using the comm. system. It bought them precious seconds to hold out just long enough for Atlantis to arrive.

Alex sighed as she tried to fathom what must have been going through T’Pol’s mind right now. To be linked telepathically to Trip, to be inside his head every day for the past four years and now to have him constantly unconscious or incoherent due to the drugs he took. She couldn’t imagine how hard this ordeal must be for T’Pol. She quietly took a set next to her and looked at Trip waiting for T’Pol to acknowledge her presence.

Alex grimaced as she heard Trip babble something incoherently to himself. He was probably talking in his sleep.

“Commander, I have not seen you since we arrived…” T’Pol finally said.

“Actually it’s Captain now… The promotion just went through last week.”

“Congratulations.”

Alex turned slightly to focus more on T’Pol and less on Trip. “How’s Trip doing?”

T’Pol looked back with green bloodshot eyes that appeared almost vacant. Her face looked gaunt. She didn’t look good at all. “The drugs they are using to supplant his immune system are powerful. He either sleeps or is…” T’Pol’s voice faltered for a moment. “incoherent.”

“How are you?” Eames already knew the answer to that–not well.

“Doctor Munch has threatened to relieve me of duty… I assume that is why you are here.”

“Not entirely…” Alex shook her head. “But I’m worried about you. You’re tearing yourself apart…” Alex closed her eyes and summoned her courage. She was about to cross a line she didn’t want to. “You need to think about Trip. Munch thinks in a few days he’ll be well enough to be aware what’s going on for at least a couple hours a day… If he sees you like this, all he’ll do is worry about you.”

Alex was certain she struck a nerve. For a brief moment, T’Pol almost seemed in pain but then it was gone so she considered that she might have imagined it. But the statement appeared to cause T’Pol to reconsider.

“You’ve got to get some rest T’Pol. Trip’s going to need you at full strength less than a week from now. If you don’t take care of yourself, he’s going to wake to find you in a bed next to him…”

T’Pol nodded. “I know… It is just difficult without his presence. You would not understand.”

“You’re right, I don’t… But still you need to think of him. Get some rest.” Alex paused for some time looking at Trip.

“What ship did you get?”

T’Pol’s statement startled Alex. “What?”

“I asked what ship did you get for your promotion.”

“Archon.”

“Have you picked your senior officers?”

“I tried to get you and Trip, but Cragen wouldn’t let me have you.” T’Pol gave Alex what almost appeared to be a look of surprise. Alex smiled and tilted her head. “Look, I know things weren’t always smooth on Daedalus, but I came to respect you two very much. I couldn’t imagine a better WSO and chief engineer.”

“We have been reassigned to Enterprise.”

“I know… I get Commander Tutuola as my XO and Commander Hess as my chief engineer to make room for you two.”

“Trip always spoke highly of Commander Hess… She was his second.”

“I’d rather have Trip but that wasn’t going to happen.”

T’Pol seemed to relax a bit. “How is Lieutenant Novak?”

Alex closed her eyes and tilted her head back and forth. “She’s doing better. She took Serena’s death pretty hard… She talks to Phlox almost every day. She really seems to trust him.”

“I have observed most people trust Doctor Phlox. He is an excellent… counselor.”

“How do you think Trip will react to Serena’s death?”

T’Pol took a deep breath and turned her head toward Trip. “I am not sure. He lost almost forty engineers in the battle. I know he cared very much for every one of them. I hope to keep that information from him until he is stronger.”

Alex stood up to leave. She had an early morning meeting and needed to get to bed. “Please T’Pol… Get some rest. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for Trip.” She knew that was a low blow, but the situation was getting out of hand. “He can’t be worrying about you during his recovery… Doctor Munch says you can use his office to meditate. He’s got permission to allow you to light candles.”

T’Pol just nodded. Alex sighed and left her alone. Something told her the only way to solve this problem was to have Munch relieve her and force her to rest. Trip once told her T’Pol was stubborn as a mule.

The End

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A whole mess of folks have made comments

Good very good. Looking forward to read more, hope that Trip will be OK soon.

Outstanding chapter, Kevin! Sucked me right in and kept me riveted the whole way through. I'm really enjoying the bouncing around in the timeline. Interesting description of Trip's physique...

Very good description of our favorite Vulcan's likely response to the incapacitation of her bond mate. I would have liked to have met Serena and Casey as a couple before you killed off one of them. It would have made Serena's death more poignant. I like Alex, too. Any chance for a prequel for more character development?

Excellent chapter. I hope you update soon. Thank you.

Thanks for the comments. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with Serena and Casey. How their relationship came about is odd. From the start, Serena was going to die in this story. Somehow though, I just couldn't have her die alone in Enterprise's sickbay. Since, ADA Southerlyn was a lesbian, Casey entered the story. For a while I was convinced they were a couple. Now I'm not sure what their relationship is. They clearly care very deeply for each other but beyond that, I haven't decided. I think their story is interesting, but not an important part of the story I'm trying to tell with New World Man so I've been putting my effort elsewhere.

Ultimately New World Man is a story about Trip and the twists and turns his life takes and his influence on future Star Trek characters we know.

Heh. You know, these new characters are completely new to me. I don't watch Law and Order so this is the first time I'm meeting them! :p

Really looking forward to the next chapter!

I like this story very much though it's a little too less TnT

Lots of development there, but basically left us hanging at the end. I hope the next chapter comes out soon. Good work as usual!

This story's taken an usual turn, but I'm still hooked. I had to comment though simply b/c I was actually assigned to USS RAMAGE not too long ago!

the story just grows and the ride gets bumpier!

okay these SVU references are just making me giggle too much!

Great update. I look forward to more soon.

Were you going to do a sequel to you your Battle of Evermore story?

Great update. I look forward to more soon.

Were you going to do a sequel to your Battle of Evermore story?

Excellent stuff, I can't wait to see what's coming next! :)

Two additional things that I noticed when I was rereading this. First, Hoshi & Travis REALLY need to be promoted. It defies logic (ESPECIALLY in a time of war where deaths lead to quicker promotions) that they would remain Ensigns (O-1s) this long - it's what, 8 years after the pilot now? Realistically, both of them should be (at least) full Lieutenants (O-3) or even Lieutenant Commanders. The same applies to Reed - he should probably be a full Commander at this point...

Second, I think you made the same error I did with the (in this case) NX-05. It should be Endeavour, not Endeavor since the NX-class appear to be using the American shuttle naming sequence and the shuttle was named after Captain Cook's ship of exploration, the Endeavour. I made the exact same mistake in both Elysium & Vigrid with my NX-06. Damn us Americans...

I'm still loving this series, Kevin! Keep it up please...