Star Trek Enterprise - Fate Ch. 03

"You look as though you've been here before." Captain Archer remarked.

"This was my playground." She answered softly. Eagerly she moved from one area to the next taking in everything that she saw. After a moment the captain brought Trip over and to meet Danaë. "You're Commander Charles Tucker III. I remember you so well." She said with excitement then realized the impossibility of that statement. "Uh... you were the one who rescued me from the Suliban ship. Thank you." She quickly recovered.

"No problem." He assured her. "Call me Trip"

"Do you think I could look around your engine?" She asked. Trip looked at the captain then back at her.

"Sure, just don't touch anything."

Captain Archer availed himself of the opportunity and began to tell Trip the things Danaë had said as well as the possibility that she could be from the future. While they talked, Danaë wandered around taking it all in. She couldn't help smiling as she thought of how many times she had taken things apart, rerouted, and reprogrammed everything. She had even blown up the place a few times. Walking along she noticed one of the crew members performing maintenance on a set of plasma injectors. She walked over and watched him in action. Her eyes carefully looked over the injector and everything that the crewmen was doing. She noticed him look at her a few times in annoyance, but dismissed it. As he started to put the injector back into place she quickly caught his arm.

"You're not going to put that back are you?"

"Yes." The crewmen answered, staring at her as though she were crazy. "This is a plasma injector and our ship has five of them. They introduce focused and compressed matter/anti-matter into transfer conduits..."

"I know how the Warp-5 engine works, but that injector has a hairline stress fracture. If you don't replace it, it will break with the first tremor."

"I think I know more about the care and maintenance of this engine and it parts than a civilian." The crewmen responded raising his voice. He had tried to keep it down but he was still loud enough to catch Commander Tucker's attention.

"Is there a problem Ensign Rivers?" Trip asked.

"No sir. Everything is taken care of." He answered, then glaring daggers at Danaë proceeded to try and put the plasma injector back in its place.

"Commander Tucker, Is it policy to continue using a plasma injector once it develops a fracture?" She asked, returning the dirty look.

"No." Always protective of his engines, Trip immediately went over to the pair to see what the issue was. Taking the injector from Ensign Rivers he began to look it over himself. Danaë quickly pointed out a small crack that was beginning to develop towards the nose.

"It's not a problem now, but if it gets jarred, even a little..." She explained.

"Yeah, things get serious real quick." He gave look at the Ensign. It was obvious that this would be discussed in private and at a later date. "Thank you, Miss..."

"D'Arcy, Danaë D'Arcy. Just call me Danaë."

Well, thank you again. Ensign take this," He ordered handing him the damaged injector. "And get a replacement." Trip went back to what he had been working on as Danaë walked back over to the captain.

"I really wasn't trying to get him in trouble."

"He'll be fine. You must have studied warp engines back in your own time." Archer remarked, rather impressed at her catching that crack.

"Not exactly. Had I stayed at the academy I would have. Despite my Father's hopes that I might follow in his footsteps, I really wanted to be a chief engineer on a star ship."

"Why did you leave the academy?" It seemed strange to him that someone who loved space travel and warp engines would just up and leave. Danaë's expression became clouded. This was not a subject she wanted to talk about or remember.

"Personal reasons." To her relief their conversation was interrupted by Hoshi calling for Captain Archer over the comm system.

Admiral Forrest was anxious to hear about the latest incident with the Suliban and in particular he wanted to know how and why they had kidnapped a human. Archer himself was not looking forward to this meeting. He had very few answers to give and those he had weren't entirely convincing. He apologized for leaving but assured her the Trip would be able to continue where he left off. Danaë was more than understanding. If there was anything she remembered about Starfleet captains it was that duty came before all else.

With Commander Tucker as her guide she would be able to remain in engineering as an observer and was thrilled at the prospect. Watching him leave she wondered what he would say if he knew that she had spent a sizeable amount of her childhood in the holodeck exploring, learning and sometimes wreaking havoc with his beloved ship. As badly as she wanted to go back to her own time, being here was in many ways a dream come true.