Star Trek Enterprise - Fate Ch. 04

It was no dream for the Suliban however. The men Silik had sent through time to capture Danaë had returned to the Helix and informed him of their failure. They knew they would be tortured and punished by Silik, but the final price would be exacted by the mysterious Temporal Agent upon the Cabal leader himself. The men stood in a line before Silik, afraid to speak.

"How could you possibly have lost her!?" Silik growled. The men he had trusted to secure her said nothing only looked at the ground. "Answer me!" He grabbed one man slammed him against the wall in rage.

"We had difficulty controlling the emissions of chronometric particles so the temporal vortex would open. When we did make it through the Enterprise was already there."

"Your weapons should have been more than enough to destroy them" Silik hissed. His hand tightened around the subordinate's throat as he tried to explain.

"They fired on our weapons banks and disabled them before we could get a shot off."

"Then you should have killed the human female." Silik slammed the man against the wall once again in frustration.

"You told us that he wanted to see her and question her." The subordinate struggled to speak. Silik released him dropping him to the ground.

"Now because of your failure she is safe on board the Enterprise with Archer." Silik knew far too well the cost of failure. The rewards for success had granted him many genetic enhancements which he enjoyed with relish, but likewise each time he had failed some of those gifts had been taken from him. If he was lucky this would only cost him his compound retinas.

In truth he cared nothing for the timeline, Archer, or the creation of the Federation of planets, but he did covet those augmentations. The superiority he felt from each new ability was a greater high than any drug he could imagine and if destroying Archer was what it took to reach the pinnacle of genetic evolution, then so be it. The problem was that this human captain had proved himself quite resourceful and that, combined with a temporal agent helping him, had made it a difficult task indeed.

It was because of this that they had changed their strategy. Silik had not lied when he told Captain Archer that he knew everything about him. He had seen in the timeline that Archer would meet Danaë Picard. He knew how entwined their lives would become, first as friends and then as so much more. Her contributions to Starfleet and Federation would be substantial on their own, but more importantly she would become Jonathan Archers confidante and support when his burdens were too great as well as his lover. Also of great importance were their two sons. Both would follow in their parent's footsteps continuing the legacy and building on what Danaë and Jonathan had built. Silik's orders from the Temporal Agent he worked for had been clear. Capture Danaë Picard and bring her to him. Under no circumstances was she to meet Archer. The result would have been the destruction of Archer's foundation before it could it could be built.

Now she was there on the ship with Archer and Silik could only cringe at the thought of the punishment awaiting him for failure. If only there was a way to fix this, perhaps make Archer give her up. No, he would never do that. Perhaps if the Enterprise was at stake, but no, Archer would give himself up rather than risk the ship, lives of his crew or a guest in his care. Perhaps that was the answer. The human captain was a far better prize than Danaë Picard and if they brought him to the agent he might well be rewarded. Perhaps it was time to seek out the Enterprise.

Captain Archer was keenly aware that the Suliban may yet return for their captive. He still wanted to know why they were so interested in her. At this point she seemed a rather odd choice. True, she was a very intelligent woman who seemed quite knowledgeable about Starfleet and this future Federation, but she was not a member nor connected to anyone he knew of that was, at least not in his century. One thing he had noticed during the ship tour was that she seemed quite familiar with everything. When he saw her again, he might need to ask about that.

Stepping into his own quarters Captain Archer suddenly found himself inside an office with a view of San Francisco. The desk was well ordered with everything in its place. A half drank cup of tea sat near a PADD, a hint of steam blew off of it proving that it had not gone cold and the occupant of the office would soon be returning. The screen in front of him read 'Starfleet Academy'. He couldn't imagine why or how he got here. As he walked about the room he turned and saw Agent Daniels watching him. Archer immediately set his jaw in indignation. He had long since grown tired of being dragged into Daniels Temporal Cold War and today was no different.

"Why have you brought me here? I'm supposed to be having a meeting with Admiral Forrest."

"I know and you will make it to that meeting, but first we need to talk." Daniels said, trying to reassure the captain.

"I don't suppose this has anything to do with Danaë Picard?"

"You were able to rescue her, but she is not safe yet." Daniel explained.

"Then she is from 2398?"

"Yes." He acknowledged.

"Then you can send her back to that time."

"It's more complicated than that." Daniel looked almost ashamed as he said this. "She belongs here, in this time. She is instrumental in transforming the academy of your time into the Starfleet Academy of the Federation. She will also be involved in developing the Warp-7 engine. This room you're standing in is her office. She was always supposed to come back to this time. The Suliban were informed that this would happen and whomever is helping them gave them the means to go through time and get her in an attempt to prevent it." He explained.

"Are you telling me that they are doing this because she helps build an engine or has influence over the academy?" This seemed rather superfluous to him. Trying to stop a future government had more sense than this.

"It is far more complex than that, but it is nothing that I can share. I wish I could explain more. You're simply going to have to trust me." Daniel said apologetically.

"She told us that the only reason they hadn't killed her was because someone was waiting to question her. She said there was someone they didn't want her to meet."

"Yes." Daniel nodded. "You are the one they were trying to keep her from."

"Me? Why stop her from meeting me? Am I the one who sets her on the path to building that engine?"

"Yes and no, it's more involved than that." At this answer Archer grumbled in aggravation. Daniel understood the captain's frustration, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn't tell the captain how this woman would affect his life or how he would give hers purpose. "The Suliban will come looking for her again and if they succeed she will die within minutes of being in their custody. They will not make the same mistake twice."

"How was she able to come into the past before?" Archer demanded. In truth Daniel was not supposed to tell Archer anything about the future, but he had found that there were times when he had to give at least tiny crumbs of information in order to secure any help from the captain. Even those 'crumbs' had to be carefully given so actions, relationships and history would remain as intact as possible.

"Originally she boarded the transport so she could see her father in La Barre France. The transport was hijacked by mercenaries in the employ of the Orion Syndicate. Everyone on board was taken to be sold into slavery. After a year of planning she managed to escape, with the help of two other slaves, and steal a vessel. They were pursued by their master and subsequently fell through a wormhole and into your century. The Suliban actually saved her a great deal of pain and torture by taking her when they did."

"If they only wanted to keep her from coming to this time, why didn't they just stop her from getting on the transport? She could have gone to her father and lived her life. Why attempt to kill her?" Archer demanded.

"Maybe that would have prevented it. Maybe she still would have come back into your time just in a different fashion. They weren't going to risk that chance. As I said, there is a reason she is here. Killing her is the only way to make 100% certain she is stopped."

"Why isn't she aware of this? She mentioned going to the academy, surely she would have seen her own name staring back at her either as a founder or at least when she studied the Warp-7 engine."

"No she wouldn't. Her academy career ended too abruptly to learn Warp-7 technology." Daniels explained. "She also knows well the generations of her own family, like her father and mother as well as herself, who will come and walk through these doors. Rather than risk any effect on their choices and place in the timeline, she changed her name and gave whatever honors she achieved to others. Her life and accomplishments will remain a sealed file to be opened only by those who have achieved proper clearance."

"I don't know how she is going to feel when I tell her all of this." Archer remarked, looking about the room again.

"You can't tell her." He continued. "If you tell her the things I've shown you it could very easily change the future."

"So I'm supposed to look her in the face and say 'Hey, we know you're from the future and why you were kidnapped, but it's classified and you're not allowed to know? Oh yeah by the way, you are never going back to your own time, no matter what." His voiced dripped with frustrated sarcasm.

"I understand your irritation at all of this..." Daniels began.

"No, no, my irritation has nothing to do with it. It's not my life that just got completed uprooted. I'm not the one whose family won't be able to find me or know what happened to me. I'm just the one that has to break it to her." Daniels looked regretfully at Archer, but his hands were tied. His orders were clear, protect the timeline.

"The family that she left behind may hurt, but what she will help build is their future. I think she will understand that."

"Maybe, but I can't tell her anything from here." He leveled a look at Temporal Agent that made it very clear this meeting was over. "Put me back on my ship." Agent Daniels pointed to the door leading out of the office. Captain Archer walked towards it as it opened automatically. Stepping over the threshold he found himself back in his own quarters. Everything was exactly as it should be. Porthos looked up from his dog bed and instantly began wagging his tail. Whatever doubts the captain might have had about Danaë coming from the future, they were gone now.

Glancing at the time he saw that he had returned at the exact moment that he had originally stepped through the door. It was as though he had never seen Agent Daniels. He still had a meeting with the admiral and he would have to disclose everything regarding Danaë Picard, though he would use her chosen surname of D'Arcy. When his meeting was over he would need to talk to her. He couldn't imagine being in her position; marooned not from a place, but a time. This woman from 200 years in the future recognized some of the people on board yet really didn't know anyone. What a lonely feeling, he thought to himself. He sighed and gave his pet a few gentle strokes on his head. Let's get this over with, he thought as he sat down at his computer and began his conference.