Star Trek Enterprise - Fate Ch. 06

Danaë had had decided long ago that there was no room in her life for a relationship or even a fling. There always seemed to be far more important things that she needed to pursue. Right now she wanted to learn all about the Suliban. Surely they had a weakness that could be exploited, all species did. She didn't doubt that the Enterprise carried records of every encounter and documented all information regarding these creatures, the question was how to access it.

Although there was a computer in her quarters, it gave access to a very limited amount of information when it came to the Enterprise and its databases. To Danaë this was hardly an issue. Among the items she carried in her backpack was a tricorder that she stolen from engineering as a child on her father's ship. These pieces of technology were used in so many different facets of ship operations that modification was quite simple. They were used in sensor scanning, data analysis and recording data with slight variations on the look and features depending on the department the tricorder was used for. She had studied its programing and detailed schematics of its interworking before altering its programing into a device that would give her full access to the ships computer banks.

Sitting at the computer in her quarters now there was only one thing that could make it difficult to break in to the NX-01's computer and that was age. The technology was 250 years older than what her tricorder was designed to hack. Still, she was optimistic. Looking over the computer she found a place where she could plug in her tricorder. After a few minutes the screen changed giving her complete access to everything on the ship.

"I've still got it." She smiled.

Her screen seemed to come alive with a myriad of information. Now the work could begin. She narrowed down her search by telling the system to only bring up files with the term 'Suliban'. From the Vulcan databanks she found that the species had once lived on a planet in sector 3641 before it became uninhabitable. They adapted and followed one of two paths. Some became nomads moving from one place to another while others settled and assimilated into other planets and cultures. It seemed they were considered to be primitive and not a threat by Vulcan standards. Reading this, Danaë thought about what Archer had told her about how they received enhancements for working on behalf of a Temporal Agent. These enhancements were hardly primitive. It seemed that they had been given compound retinas, the ability to cling to walls and ceilings, extreme flexibility, increased numbers of bronchial lobes with modified alveoli clusters, the list was incredible. She studied until she could no longer keep her eyes open then laid down on the couch from a quick nap.

After sleeping for only four hours she quickly showered and changed before going to the mess hall and getting plenty of food to snack on from time to time while she studied the files. It might have seemed to some as a fixation, but to her it kept her focus on the problem until she solved it. She had done this at the academy as well as with pet projects during her childhood. Her hope was that before she left the Enterprise she would be able to give Archer something he could use against them. She continued her research by opening the files regarding what was known about their weapons and more importantly their vessels. It seems they possessed six known types. There was the cruiser, which according to the reports was the ship they had held her on, salvage ships, shuttles, cell ships, long cell ships and the Helix. What intrigued Danaë was these last three. According to the records these vessels could join and share their power, sensors and weapon systems.

She read the accounts regarding each of their encounters with the Suliban beginning with the very first mission. The reports spoke of Klaang, a Klingon that had crashed on earth trying to escape from the species. The Enterprise and her crew managed to return him to Qo'noS but not without encountering and battling the Suliban. It was also this incident that a 'temporal cold war' was first mentioned. She learned about Agent Daniels and his 'death' at the hands of the Silik. It seemed that despite his demise he had a penchant for returning. Among the records was also notations regarding upgrades to various systems in order to combat the threat as well as new state of the art equipment that was added to penetrate their cloaking devices. She opened the files Commander Tucker had made when he was studying the cell ship Captain Archer had used to escape the Helix during the last major encounter with the Suliban. She was even more delighted to learn that the cell ship was still sitting in one of the cargo holds. She definitely wanted to take a look at that.

She sat back in her chair and stretched. After two days of staring at all the information gleaned on the Suliban technology and every miniscule detail of their various ships, Danaë thought her brain was fried. It had not been a waste of her time though. She suspected she had found a weakness in their ships, but she wanted a bit more time to analyze it before presenting it to the captain. Her eyes were getting tired from staring at the computer screen. She needed a break and a cup of tea. She could not recall ever drinking tea before she came to live with her father. The first time she had ever tasted Earl Grey tea she had not liked it, but somehow over time it had grown on her. Now, it was more nostalgic than anything else.

The mess hall was empty as she went in. Glancing at her watch she realized for the first time just how late it was. She forgot all about the tea as her attention was caught by the stars. She walked over to the window and watched the beautiful streaks of light flying by the window. A thousand memories went through her head.

"You were born on Earth, weren't you Pa-pa?" She could hear herself asking as a child.

"Yes, child." She could so easily recall the sound of her father's deep voice.

"Can you see Earth from here?" Danaë had asked him. She remembered him coming up behind her and pointing out at the stars.

"We are too many lights years away for you to see Earth, but I believe it is off in this direction. Follow that course and eventually you'll find it." For a moment she could almost feel his hand on her shoulder just like that day.

"Has it all been explored?" She asked.

"We've barely begun. The universe is a vast place without end. If you lived a thousand lifetimes, you still couldn't discover it all,"

In that moment, he had set ablaze her desire to explore. After the academy she decided to explore every place on earth she could think of, from monuments to natural wonders. She climbed Mount Everest and deep sea dived. She swam through dangerous ship wrecks, climbed frozen waterfalls and braved the 227 degree temperatures of the Naica Mexico's Crystal Cave of Giants. Traversing the earth she had tried very hard to not think about the past, but there were times, at night when she lay in her sleeping bag looking up at the stars, that she felt home sick for the Enterprise.

Captain Archer stepped into the mess hall and was surprised to find someone in there at this hour. The way Danaë stared out the window, it was obvious she was lost in thought. Perhaps she was thinking of her own time and of the ship she grew up on.

"If you're having trouble sleeping, Dr. Phlox can probably give you something." He asked, breaking the silence in the room. Danaë jumped at the sound of his voice.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you come in."

"Quite a view isn't it?" He nodded towards the windows then graciously offered her a piece of pie.

"Compared to the views from the larger windows on the Enterprise-D and E, yours are not so grand." She smiled wryly as she took the plate from him. "Actually I came up here for a cup of tea and I guess I just got hypnotized by the stars."

"I'm sure in 200 years a lot of improvements will be made, including the windows." Archer sat down at one of the tables. "Being born and raised on a star ship you've visited places we've never even begun to imagine."

"Actually, I wasn't born on a star ship, rather, I was born on Regula-16, a Federation scientific research laboratory." She told the captain as she sat down. "It was in orbit above the planet Ayaka. The Federation wanted to build an outpost and the lab was performing surveys, studying the geology and mapping the topography, among other things. My mother held degrees in Geotechnical engineering including, engineering physics, photonics, nanotechnology, metallurgical and Geomatics. She was one of the lead engineers on the project. I have vague memories of her working with soil samples and reading charts. She worked alongside quite a few scientists and engineers engaged in everything from genetics and biochemistry to metallurgy and new ways to create infrastructure." Danaë took a bite of her pie then gave a polite thank you as she was handed a glass of a rose colored wine. "I have very little memory of her. She died when I was four years old. Everything I know about her, I was told by my Aunt Lotte."

"I'm sorry. I knew you were raised by your father, but I didn't realize . . . how did she die?"

"I don't know exactly. I remember my mother was overdue coming back to our quarters one day and Orla, an El-Aurian woman who was a close friend and worked with my mother, suddenly came and told me that I would be staying with her for a few days. I remember a lot of whispering in my presence. I was not allowed out of Orla's quarters for any reason and that everyone I came in contact with seemed to be under close scrutiny. I couldn't even eat or drink anything until it had been scanned. I got excited one day, because I heard a woman's voice and thought Ma-ma had come to get me. It turned out to be Dr. Crusher. She came to examine me and check my DNA so my parentage could be verified. After that I met Counselor Troi who finally broke the news to me. I didn't really understand right away. Not until I laid eyes on my father. I understood then that she wasn't coming back. I asked my father what happened to my mother, but he would never discuss the matter and he forbade my Aunt Lotte to speak of it, so the mystery remains."

"That must have been hard at such a young age."

Sipping the wine, she thought back to those days and the death of her mother. Without her father telling her she had always suspected what had happened. She remembered well a geneticist named Brand Emilek. He had a number of altercations with Solenne that always ended in arguments and threats. She could still recall his amber eyes with flecks of black that sparkled with hate and the way he always called her 'that Picard bastard'. She remembered hearing among the whispered conversations that he was missing and the words chemeloid, shape-shifter and that she needed protecting. She pushed the memory away and seeking something far more pleasant she reached into the pocket of her cargo pants and took out her PADD. Holding it where he could see, she turned it on and the image of a woman appeared. She had the same blond hair as Danaë and a definite resemblance as well, but her eyes were different. The woman in the picture had eyes that were blue, like a robin's egg. Danaë's were hazel/green and shaped rather differently. "This was my mother, Commander Solenne Bennett." Danaë beamed proudly as she showed him the image.

"She was beautiful." Archer commented.

"Thank you. I remember seeing pictures of your mother and I thought the same thing." At her reply Archer looked up rather surprised. "Biographies of Henry Archer didn't just include schematics of his Warp-5 engine. There was always a picture of him with Sally." Swiping the screen a new picture appeared. It was now the face of an older man with features that conveyed intelligence, sparse hair and the same intense eyes that Danaë had. "This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation Star Ship Enterprise-E. First he commanded the Enterprise-D until its destruction due to the collapse of a Veridian star. His first command was the USS Stargazer then he was assigned to another ship for about 8 or 9 years. For the life of me I can't remember the name of it, I'm not sure if he ever told me. It was on that ship that he met my mother, one of his senior officers. I don't know how long their relationship was exactly but I do know that it ended shortly before Enterprise-D left for its first mission to Farpoint Space Station. I was never told why they parted ways, but my aunt did say that a week before the ship left she made a point of contacting him. She said that it was an attempt on my mother's part to tell him that she was pregnant, but when they saw each other it opened old wounds and she never got a chance. Ma-ma told me very little about him except his name and that he was a captain. He never spoke of her at all. I tried several times, but he always refused. The only reason I was able to learn as much as I did was because of Aunt Lotte as well as a close friend of his by the name of Guinan. She was a kind of surrogate mother to me. She explained that he had loved my mother very much and that her leaving him as she had wounded him deeply." She finished off the last bite of cherry pie and set the fork on the plate. "The first time I laid eyes on him I was completely terrified."

"He probably was too." He mused as he refilled her glass. "You must have had fun growing up on a star ship. How many kids have the chance to meet all the different cultures that you did?"

"I met a lot of different species, but only because they were crew members. I was not included in ship matters and it was not until I was teenager that I was allowed to attend ship social functions such as concerts and such. Father was not comfortable around children. The younger they were the more uncomfortable he got I think. There was also an enormous gap in our ages. He was about 60 when we met. As captain he was often busy with ship affairs leaving me quite often alone and with a lot of free time on my hands. I found all sorts of ways to amuse myself."

Captain Archer continued to refill her glass as she told him different stories about her father the great captain of the Enterprise. She spoke in great detail about his various missions including how he once commanded the entire fleet as it created a blockade at the Klingon-Romulan border. Danaë told him about Q, an omnipotent entity, who took great pleasure testing Captain Picard. It was difficult to say if he was good or bad, he was definitely frustrating. To Jean-Luc Picard he was an enormous thorn in his side that was impossible to remove. To Danaë he was a friend and at least once he had been her guardian. The first time she met him face to face he proclaimed himself to be her god-father. Each visit was short and she never breathed a word about it to her father. Whenever he left he gave her either a flower or a box of sweets. Though she never understood his fascination with her, she had enjoyed the attention.

She spoke of one mission where she had something of a front row seat. She remembered watching from the window of her quarters as the Enterprise followed a Borg sphere through a temporal vortex. It wasn't until later that she found out that they had traveled through time or the significance of the year they had gone to. The Borg wanted to prevent Zefram Cochran from making his historic flight so they could take over earth and assimilate it. They destroyed the sphere, but the Borg managed to infiltrate the ship. It didn't take long to hear about what was happening on board. She managed to crawl into a narrow ventilation shaft just off the quarters. She climbed as far as she could until she felt she was in a safe area then left only long enough to find another shaft and get higher in the ship. Eventually she found her way to the Bridge. She recalled the look of relief on her father's face when he saw that she was safe. Unfortunately there was no time to enjoy the reunion. The Borg was quickly taking over the ship and options were needed to figure out how to eliminate the threat. The most decisive suggestion made was to blow up the ship, but this was something her father refused to do. She remembered vividly the sight of Worf and Dr. Crusher vehemently arguing for the ships destruction so the Borg would be stopped. She had never seen her father like that and it made her even more scared then she had been. Though she never knew what made him change his mind, he did initiate the self-destruct sequence.

As the remaining crew climbed into escape pods she had assumed he would go with her, but instead he insisted she go with Dr. Crusher. Danaë was no fool, even as a child and knew instinctively that his staying on board meant that he would not survive. Scared of the prospect, she refused to leave him. He gently told her how important it was that she be brave and promised her that he would join her on earth when it was over. Though she suspected he was lying, she dutifully went. Thanks to Lieutenant Commander Data, he did keep his promise.

Captain Archer had never heard of the Borg of course, but he did recall a speech given by Zefram Cochran where he mentioned cybernetic creatures matching their description. During the progression of the story Archer had begun to notice that Danaë's speech was ever so slightly slurred. Her eyes were a bit glassy and she seemed to laugh almost too easily. She looked over at her companion and realized she had been doing all the talking for the last hour or so.

"You must get awfully bored listening to me tell stories about people that haven't even been born yet." She said pouring herself more of the wine. "There was a time when it used to bore me to hear about the pioneering days of interstellar space exploration. Now I'm actually here and it's all so . . . incredible."

"It would be like me suddenly meeting the Wright Brothers or Wernher Von Braun I suppose. I rather enjoy your stories. It makes me think that we're accomplishing something after-all. We must be, if it's all still around after 200 years. There is one thing I would like to know though. Except for that last story, you said you were never allowed to go with your father on missions so how do you know so many of the details?" He asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Oh, that's easy. I broke into his files." She giggled as she raised the glass to her lips. Captain Archer was both stunned and a little impressed by this. He knew how difficult it was to bypass security in the 22nd century and couldn't imagine that it would be any easier in the 24th.

"Surely it's not that easy to break into."

"Oh they're not. All that alone time I spoke of gave me plenty of time to modify a tricorder for the sole function of looking up and storing user clearance codes. I then used those codes to access my father's computer and read his files, personal logs . . . whatever interested me. I actually did it in hopes of being able to access my mother's files, but I never found them. They were either erased or somehow reclassified where I wouldn't discover them. In the process I probably discovered more about the other crew members than Counselor Troi." She reached for the wine bottle only to see that it was empty. "I broke into her files too." She giggled again. "I did manage to use the device to play subtle practical jokes though. For instance I would break into the system that controlled the food replicator and reprogram a single item. I knew that someone, sometime would ask for something like chicken soup, for example, and instead they would get rokeg blood pie." She laughed again at the thought. "I was careful never to access ship systems beyond those. I was very conscious of the prospect of doing any real damage."

"Didn't you get caught?" Archer asked, rather amused at the prank.