Star Trek Enterprise Bk. 04 - Family Ch. 05

"Well, well, good morning, admiral," Lt. Cmdr. D'Arcy said as she entered Archer's office. He looked up from his PADD and smiled at his wife "Enjoying your new title?"

"It's not too bad," he answered, getting up from his chair and walking over to her. Since she had come down to Starfleet headquarters she had put on a modified version of her uniform which was simply a pair of cargo pants that matched the regulation jumpsuits, and a blue t-shirt. What wasn't regulation was the gray cotton infant wrap that was tied around her. Carefully he peeled back a bit of gray fabric and looked at small, pink, round face sleeping so soundly against his mother. Archer had intended to be home all week, helping his wife with this new addition, but except for the birth he had mostly been called away by Starfleet for one reason or another. "Mine wasn't much of a change, but you, on the other hand, have taken on a few new roles and titles over the last few months and you look tired."

"It's not so bad, but my current superior officer is a bit of a dictator. 'Feed me, change me... on and on all day and night. I would file a complaint with his admiral but he's never available."

"I hear he is available for lunch and will be available all evening. He can run you a hot bath, apply a little neuropressure for your headache."

"You can see that?"

"Yes," he answered.

"Damn. I was hoping you wouldn't. I suppose I can take some of those ngai berries Dr. Phlox gave me from his visit to the planet Galya."

"If it works and doesn't interfere with your milk supply or Jean-Robert's health, I see no reason you should not."

"I can." she responded with a slight roll of her eyes. "They only take the edge off and taste like week-old pond scum."

"Take them now and I'll fix you up tonight, I promise." Archer kissed her forehead then turned back to his desk and picked up his PADD. "Unfortunately right now I need to get back on task and get to the reason I asked you down here in the first place. Has Admiral Gardner contacted you yet?"

"Actually yes, right after you left this morning. He didn't have much to tell me, really, except that they caught two intruders inside the Warp-7 engine test facility. I can't imagine why they were there. We were still working on stabilization when I went on maternity leave and everything is on hold until I get back. It was good they caught those two when they did or it might have overloaded and killed them. I assume they were humans. Every species we have been in contact with already has that capability or more."

"They are human." He looked down at the mug shot of Picard then shut it off and turned back to Danaë. "How about you and I take a walk?"

This suggestion immediately made the lieutenant commander suspicious, but spending time with her husband was a rarity and she would not miss out on the opportunity. Placing the baby into his pram carriage they walked across the Starfleet campus talking about almost anything except why he had summoned her there. Before long they were outside of one of the containment cell blocks which only made her more apprehensive. This was where they held some of the most dangerous prisoners, or a few that didn't fit anywhere else. Archer gave his authorization then led her to an office outside of one of the interrogation rooms where an ensign was monitoring the cells.

"The two men that were found in the Engine test facility were brought here and questioned all last night."

"Since when do you require my help interrogating suspicious characters caught sniffing around restricted Starfleet areas?"

"One of them is... special," Archer explained. He started to click a few buttons then turned the screen so she could see it. "Trust me, you'll want to see this."

This truly piqued her interest, although she couldn't imagine what he thought she could possibly do. Archer clicked another button and brought up the camera that monitored all activity in the interrogation room cell next door and had her look at the screen. At first all she saw was the back of a man in a long sleeved dark coat wearing a tweed cap on his head. This hardly seemed important, but then he turned around. Instantly Danaë's jaw fell slack and her eyes grew wide. Archer was watching her closely and saw the way the color drained from her face. Thinking back to the way she had fainted when she first saw him, he immediately put his arms around her for support and started to try and calm her down, but she only shooed them away.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine," she assured them all without taking her eyes off the screen. Yes, it was her father. Her own father! How could he be here? Why? Then she saw Will Riker appear on the screen and this whole thing became more curious. She looked up at Archer in wonder. "How--"

"We don't know. Neither of them will say anything." he explained. "Once you've calmed down I'll take you in there to see him." Archer said, but to his surprise she shook her head.

"Of course he hasn't." she responded. "He's not going to talk and he's not going to let Captain Riker either because of the Prime Directive."

"The what?" At this question Danaë waved her hand ignoring what he asked altogether.

"Have you actually talked to them yet?"

"No," Archer answered. "I figured you shou..." Before he could finish what he was saying she was vehemently shaking her head. This seemed strange. He had assumed that she would be chomping at the bit to get in there.

It was true, Danaë desperately wanted to go in that cell, but was too afraid. Looking at her father she suddenly became that four-year-old child being taken to meet him for the very first time. Why shouldn't she? At this point in her life she had lived more years without him than she had ever lived with him. She had so many questions swirling in her head. Would he want to see her? Was he still angry with her? Was he the same man she had always known or had Irumodic Syndrome changed him? What would she say to him? What would he say? A thought suddenly struck her that there was a way to know at least one of the answers.

"You should go in there,"she suggested. "Be the dickish admiral that I know you can be." Hearing this Archer almost felt insulted. "They know who you are, Jon, and they both have great respect for you. Seeing you will be like meeting one of their childhood heroes and putting them off kilter. The man with my father is Captain William Riker. He's married to Deanna Troi who was our ship's counselor. Father always calls him 'number one' because he was his first officer. Use that information to your advantage. Call them by their ranks, or that nickname, "she suggested, trying to think of ways to put her father off his guard. "Mention their ships, or one of the species I've told you about that they made first contact with that you couldn't possibly know. Ask about the vineyards... um, tell him any of the things that I have told you and he may start to talk."

"I really think it should be you."

"Jon," she sighed, unable to silence her scared, uncertain child inside of herself. "I can't...not until I know..."

Captain Archer wasn't certain that he wanted to do this, but if it kept Danaë calm, then he would. He started towards the door, only to be stopped by his wife and have his wedding band of gold and black opal taken from his finger. He objected of course, but rather than give it back she assured him it was necessary and he would get it back. He walked down the corridor to the interrogation room then pressed the button to go inside. Picard took a deep breath, determined that he would not answer any questions, then turned to see who had joined him and Will Riker. He had expected to see another generic Starfleet officer, clipboard in hand ready to go over the same identical litany of questions. In a million years he had never expected to be face to face with a legend.

"Archer." he managed to say as Will took hold of his shoulder, equally stunned. This man was not only one of the great architects of the future, but was supposed to become his son-in-law, or so he was told by Q. Surely he would help them discover how they came to be here and why.

"Yes, I'm Admiral Archer of Starship Enterprise NX-01 and I believe you are Captain Jean-Luc Picard also of the Starship Enterprise. You, I believe, are Captain William T Riker of the Titan." The two glanced at each other in confusion.

"That's right," Picard answered softly. "How..." His eyes suddenly grew wide as he realized the answer for himself. "Danaë." he breathed. "She's here isn't she?"

"Lt. Cmdr. D'Arcy is here, yes."

"D'Arcy, her middle name, of course, she dropped the name Picard so I wouldn't see her on any crew rosters or historical data." A ripple of laughter escaped him at her cleverness. "Can I see her?"

"We'll see. Whether she knows either of you remains to be seen. Right now I want to know why you are here. It's no accident that the two of you ended up in a warp engine test facility. That's a restricted area and only authorized personnel can access the site. Obviously there was something there you wanted." Archer waited for an answer but neither spoke up. "Look, I know you're both from the future and I do believe in time travel. If you have a device or have found some means to move from one time to another I need to know."

"We have no such device, I assure you," Picard answered.

"One moment we were on my ship orbiting Planet Archer IV getting ready to step off the lift so we could beam down to the planet's surface," Riker added, "the next moment we were here."

"So you're claiming that you just randomly showed up here." Archer summed up, to which the two former captains quickly nodded in agreement. "I'm not buying it. Nobody just appears out of thin air so there has to be a reason and rest assured, I will find it out." This was not the direction Picard was expecting things to go. There was no kindness in Archer's face or recognition that they were family. Had none of it happened yet? Had his daughter never told him? He couldn't have imagined all those things that Q had shown him. They were not delusions brought on by his illness, they were real. He wanted to scream it, but dared not since this man held his fate in his hand. His hand? Yes of course, his hand. He glanced down at the captain's left hand, but found nothing. There was no ring (gold band or otherwise), just an empty finger. There had to be a mistake. Q was many things, but he had never lied to him. Somewhere there had to be a wedding band so surely... unless... unless history had been altered. Perhaps that was it and not his faulty memory. If that was the case they were truly in dire trouble. "I'm wondering if you traveled back to this time to steal technology."

"What use could antiquated equipment be to us in the future," Will snapped at such an accusation.

"That I could not answer. Black market sales perhaps? People are always looking for antiques or relics of the past. You tell me."

"We are no criminals!" Picard barked, his temper beginning to flair. "Get Danaë! She will vouch for us!"

"Jean-Luc, she is not here." William Riker interrupted. Even after Archer's momentary confirmation He still did not believe that his old friend's daughter had been spirited into the past. It was just too fantastic. Yes, Archer had seemed to know who they were and had even spoken of a Lt. D'Arcy, but that didn't mean it was necessarily her. He was playing with them, letting them hear what they wanted to hear so they would talk. It could also just be anyone who happened to have the same name. Perhaps he found the information from somewhere else, like Guinan. Captain Archer could be using this information to simply toy with a sick old man in hopes of answers.

Captain Archer believed their story, of course, even the part about appearing out of nowhere. It had happened to him before. Daniels had spirited him away to different time periods in the flash of a second, so why couldn't it happen to these two. The question was who had made it happen? Was it Daniels or perhaps another like him? The one thing he was certain of was that neither of these two were threats of any kind. He was about to press them for more information when the door suddenly opened and Danaë walked in.

Picard was not a man given to shows of emotion. There were moments, however, when what he felt was so deep and so overwhelming that nothing could hold them back. This was one such moment. He saw her there, Danaë, his only child, right there before him and he couldn't stop the flood of memories from rushing and flooding his brain until it had filled every corner and was squeezing the tears out. This woman couldn't be the same little girl that used to hold his hand and run beside him so she could keep up with his steps. She couldn't be the young pre-teen or teenager that was so hard-headed and fought with him day and night. She also seemed a world away from the young lady that was rebellious and ran away from the academy.

Slowly at first he started towards her, still trying to reconcile in his mind the image of the girl he raised and the fine officer before him. Soon each step got a little faster than the previous one until he was finally close enough to pull her into his arms and hug her to him as though he were afraid she might disappear once again. They collapsed to the floor still holding each other. So raw was their happiness that both Archer and Riker couldn't help being moved by the moment before them. For Jonathan Archer, he could think of no better medicine for Danaë than this moment. Months of recovery from the Battle of Cheron then giving birth to a baby had left her feeling useless and isolated. As for Riker, he had been aware of Picard's frail mental health for years, but seeing him now, holding his child, he was stronger than ever and his mind was sound and sharp. There was no drug here or in the future that had more healing power. Even Q, who had made himself invisible so he could watch the scene unobserved, found his own heart stirring as he shared in the joy of this reunion. His birthday gift it seemed was better than he had expected. What curious creatures these humans were.

"Pa-pa, pa-pa, pa-pa" Danaë said over and over again in between sobs of joy. "I've missed you so much." The old man covered his child's face with kisses even as she wept and tried to explain why she hadn't come to him in her family's native tongue. "S'il vous plaît pardonnez-moi, papa, j'essayais de rentrer à la maison avec vous! Tante Lotte a dit que tu avais besoin de moi et que j'essayais de venir à toi. [Please forgive me, papa, I was trying to come home to you! Aunt Lotte said you needed me and I was trying to come to you].

"Je sais, enfant, je sais. Tout va bien se passer maintenant, [I know, child, I know. Everything is going to be alright now,]" he answered, gently lifting her face to look at him. I am the one who should be apologizing. Child... can you ever forgive me for that day at the academy."

"There is nothing to forgive. There never was. I was a terrible, stupid and wicked child. I was so angry because I didn't want to share you with anyone and all I did was hurt you. I was so afraid that another woman would take my place or my mother's place... I was stupid and thoughtless...I'm so sorry pa-pa. I'm so sorry."

"No, no, child, no more apologies. That's all in the past and we're here together now." Danae nodded, then turned and looked over at Riker and smiled.

"I don't remember you being so gray, Number One," she observed. Will only gave a slight laugh then answered.

"I don't remember you being so grown up." Riker could not have been more amazed at this turn of events if it had been one of his own children. In his mind, Danaë was a small wisp of girl that used to ask to play his trombone or pet Data's cat. Everyone had spoiled her. Until this moment he had never seen her in any other light. This would take some getting used to. Picard reached out and wiped away a tear from his daughter's eyes and he repeated that everything would be alright. He then reached out his hand and shook Archer's.

"For a moment I actually believed you were going to put me in prison."

The door to the interrogation room suddenly opened and the ensign poked their head in apologizing for the interruption. The sound of crying behind her left no mystery as to what she needed. Immediately the lieutenant commander got up and went out of the room only to return pushing the pram. Lifting the bundle from the carriage she tried putting a pacifier in its mouth in an attempt to buy time while she got a bottle. For the moment it worked and she started to hand him to Archer only to stop and instead hold the infant out to her father. At first he shook his head afraid to handle something so small and fragile, but she insisted and he finally reluctantly took him in his arms.

"You've been busy, I see."

"We've been busy." Danaë smiled then reached out hand and took Archer's.

"You never were one to do anything by halves, were you?"

"No" she laughed, taking a bottle from the diaper bag, checking the temperature of the milk then giving it to the baby.

He looked down at his grandson, in awe of what he was seeing. He had never had the opportunity to hold his daughter at this age so all of this was completely new. In that moment he realized that he was not the end of the family line after all. It would continue to thrive in ways he had never expected and that made him feel strong and young again. Deep in his memory he recalled the words of the Anoushkain wise woman from so long ago 'When joined with the bowman, two arrows will be fired leading to a harvest beyond your imagination'. Here was that first arrow, lying in his old arms making him feel so young again.

Danaë looked so happy and Archer was convinced that there was no better medicine in the world than this for her. Pregnancy and nursing had forced her to forgo some of the treatments and medication Dr. Phlox normally prescribed for her headaches and depression. It had been a long time since he had seen her so lighthearted and loved hearing them talk. She had told him so many stories about her father that he felt as if he knew him and felt a pang of excitement that he would be able to know his father-in-law. At least he was pleased, but a simple phrase from Picard's lips gave him pause.

"Everything will be alright now, you'll soon be back where you belong."