Chapter 11
“Tell me you have what we’re looking for,” Archer said as soon as he stepped from the turbolift onto the bridge. It had been a few hours since they had returned from the mission on the Suliban cruiser, and he had been anxiously waiting in his quarters for the call from the bridge. He had wanted to be involved in the decryption of the Suliban data discs, but knew that T’Pol and Hoshi would fare better without him hovering over their shoulders.
“I think you’ll be pleased, sir,” Hoshi replied as he moved next to her, leaning against a console.
“Was the Suliban language difficult to translate?” he asked, wondering about the delay.
“It ran through the translation matrix perfectly,” Hoshi replied. “Once we could read it, that is.”
“It took a while before we realized the three discs had to [110] work in unison,” T’Pol explained from her seat at the science station. “The interface seems to be holding.”
Archer leaned in, looking over the jury-rigged piece of equipment T’Pol and Hoshi had put together. The three data discs were situated beside each other, seated partially in the device.
“Hoshi?” he asked her to brief him on their findings.
“The Stealth-cruiser was definitely in orbit of the Paraagan colony when the explosion took place,” she explained, referring to the text she brought up on her screen. “They were monitoring us very closely.” She pointed to the display. “There are sensor logs that tracked our course, our altitude, even our hull temperature. Look at this.” Tapping another control, the screen shifted from text to imagery as a series of photos of Enterprise shot from different angles came up.
“I can’t believe how close they got,” Archer replied, looking at the images.
“They got a lot closer than you think,” T’Pol commented as she joined them at Hoshi’s station. Pressing a button, she brought up even more intimate angles of the ship as well as Shuttlepod One as it dropped out of the launch bay. Tapping the key again and again, the frozen images from the cruiser moved closer and closer to the pod.
“These cloaking devices sure come in handy,” Hoshi mused.
As T’Pol continued to scan through the images, Archer watched as the cruiser moved in directly beneath the pod [111] and even attached itself to the outer hull under the starboard plasma duct. Archer watched with a combination of anger and vindication as the images continued and the soldiers aboard cruiser eventually finished what they Were doing and moved away from the shuttle.
“They were docked with the shuttlepod for nearly two minutes,” T’Pol summed up the images.
Archer picked up the Suliban component that Reed had discovered earlier. “Just long enough to attach this and cloak it.” With practically a spring in his step, Archer moved toward his ready room. “Good work. Keep at it. And get me Admiral Forrest.”
His tension headache had not abated since the first meeting with the Command Council. Now Admiral Forrest was in his tenth such meeting in two days. This time, however, he was busy trying to explain to his peers that Enterprise had not made its rendezvous with the Vulcan ship. Even worse, he knew that Archer was playing games with the Vulcans, pretending that their com system was malfunctioning rather than answering hails. Forrest could only hope that no one else was wise to the trick.
He saw his aide enter the conference room, quickly heading toward him.
“Admiral,” the lieutenant whispered into his ear while yet another council member was yelling about something totally off subject.
“Not now,” he replied through grit teeth.
[112] But the lieutenant knew better than to be swayed by the admiral’s ire. “Enterprise is trying to contact you.”
Forrest shot up from his seat suddenly as the entire council grew silent.
“If you’ll excuse me,” he said, moving toward the door. “There is something I must attend to.”
Commander Williams grabbed him before he could go. “What now?” he whispered.
“Nothing,” Forrest replied, not wanting to tip his hand before he knew what Archer had been up to while out of contact. “Just update me if I miss anything important.”
“That is highly doubtful,” Williams replied with an exasperated sigh.
Once again hurrying through the halls of Starfleet Headquarters, Forrest returned to his office to find Archer’s image already waiting for him on his viewscreen.
“Jonathan, where the hell have you been?” he asked before he had even sat in his chair.
“Sorry we had to disappear for a while, Admiral,” Archer replied. “But I think you’ll be happy with the reason.”
“I should hope.”
“What would you say if I could prove Enterprise was not the cause of the tragedy at the Paraagan Colony?” Archer asked.
“I’d say prove it.” The admiral was not in the mood for banter. He wanted facts.
Captain Archer then proceeded to detail those facts, [113] explaining in great detail exactly what proof he had of Enterprise’s innocence. Forrest couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Suddenly a slew of additional meetings was going to be added to his schedule, but this time he knew he would enjoy them. Well, most of them. He silently wondered if he could make it back in time to the Command Council meeting before the yelling got so out of hand that they ended the gathering in disgust.
“Sounds like pretty solid evidence,” Forrest said, trying to maintain his optimism until he actually saw the images himself. “Where the hell did you get it?”
The captain was nearly beaming. “It’s all on three data discs we took from a cloaked Suliban ship.”
The amazement continued. “How did you know about that cruiser?” Forrest asked. “And if it was cloaked, how did you find it?”
“I’ve got friends in high places,” Archer replied with a grin.
“This is going to be a very interesting briefing,” Forrest replied, looking forward to the report. “Get to the Vulcan ship as quickly as you can. I’ll let them know what you’ve got.”
There was a hesitation on the other end of the com. “That Vulcan ship was sent to pick up T’Pol and Doctor Phlox,” Archer reminded the admiral, “not to help us vindicate ourselves.”
“Those discs are hard evidence,” Forrest replied, determined. “Once the Vulcans see them, they’ll have no choice but to reconsider their recommendations.” Then he [114] moved on to a more pleasant subject. “I can’t tell you how pleased I am, Jonathan. After all that you’ve done, I would have hated to see this end.”
“Thank you for believing in us, Admiral,” Archer replied, sitting a little taller. “Archer out.”
The screen blinked off in front of the Admiral. It was just the kind of communiqué he had needed to receive. He knew that he had been speaking slightly out of turn when he told the captain that the hard evidence would convince the Vulcans. That was still an unknown entity. The Vulcans certainly didn’t make decisions for the Command Council, but their influence, unfortunately, held a lot of weight. As the initial exuberance passed, Forrest realized that there was still much work to be done.
Light-years away from Earth, another briefing was taking place. This one, however, was not over a great distance so much as it was occurring over a tremendous amount of time.
Hidden within a deep red nebula, the massive Suliban Helix hung safely away from their enemies. The alien space station was comprised of hundreds of cell-ships interlocked together. Deep within its twisting corridors, Silik, the leader of the Suliban Cabal, was busy updating his mysterious benefactor from the future on recent events.
Inside the temporal chamber, time moved differently, layered with a pre-echo effect as two different centuries [115] met as one. The humanoid figure stood within a barrier of rippling energy, shifting in and out of reality, never long enough to take definite shape and reveal his true identity. Facing him, Silik stood in a circle of light, addressing the mysterious being, assuming that the projection of his image must appear similarly distorted centuries i
n the future.
“They boarded cloaked vessels,” Silik said, already adopting a defensive tone. “And they knew exactly where to find the discs.”
“They weren’t acting alone,” the figure calmly explained.
But Silik knew the figure did not accept failure. He needed to find a way to make amends before he was punished. “My ships are fast. We can overtake them ... destroy Enterprise.”
“Have your ships bring me Archer,” he replied. “Allow Enterprise to continue.”
“But we need to recover the discs,” Silik insisted.
“Archer,” the figure said, adopting an ominous tone. “You know what happened the last time you failed me.” The being disappeared immediately following the threat as the chamber returned to normal time.
Silik had remembered the punishment quite well. His future benefactor had been generous with his gifts of genetic enhancements to the Suliban. But Silik had made the mistake of considering them gifts instead of loans bartered against his services. For the mysterious figure had the power to take away as well as to give. Silik’s first [116] failure when dealing with the Enterprise crew and Jonathan Archer had cost him with the painful extraction of his enhanced vision. Additional failures would lead to the removal of more of the gifts. And Silik knew without a doubt that once all the enhancements were removed, he would pay for whatever final failure with his life.
Chapter 12
“It was ten months ago,” Archer insisted. “He brought me back ten months. But I knew everything I know now. How is that possible?”
Standing in the captain’s ready room, T’Pol did not looked convinced. “As I’ve told you, the Vulcan Science Directorate has concluded that time travel is impossible.”
“Well, good for the Vulcan Science Directorate,” Archer replied, dripping with sarcasm. “Maybe they can tell me how I woke up yesterday knowing exactly where that Suliban ship was. Or how I suddenly had the ability to construct a quantum beacon to see through its cloak. And while they’re at it, they might as well tell me how I knew where to find those discs.”
It was the first time Archer had to really stop and think things through since his meeting with Daniels. Everything else since then had been about finding the proof to clear [118] his crew. Now that Admiral Forrest had been brought into the loop, Archer finally had the time to consider the full scope of all that he had been through in the past twenty-four hours. For the moment he was pleased that T’Pol refused to keep an open mind about the situation as talking it out with her helped further cement the argument in his own mind. But as he became more and more sure of things, he needed her to go along as well.
“All valid questions.” T’Pol’s lack of emotion, however, only served to make Archer’s outburst seem even more intense. “But to conclude that the only answer is that you acquired this information from a dead crewman who transported you back through time is illogical.”
“Then why don’t you give me another explanation?” Archer asked, truly wanting one, but knowing he was pushing her too hard. It isn’t her fault my argument goes against decades of indoctrination to believe the Science Directorate without question, he thought.
“I can’t,” she simply replied.
“Because there isn’t one. I got a call from Trip—something about inspection pods. It was the exact same call I got the day before they found Klaang. Word for word!”
“Perhaps you were dreaming,” she suggested, since even he had admitted that the conversation with Daniels had occurred in the middle of the night while he lay in bed.
Archer finally softened his tone. “Listen, I never thought this was possible, either. But I traveled through time and I need you to believe me.”
[119] “Why?” T’Pol asked, confused by the sentiment.
Archer tried to explain to the emotion-suppressing Vulcan the purely emotional reason. “Because it’s hard enough trying to fathom all this without having my science officer ... a colleague I trust and rely on ... the person who got me to stop feeling sorry for myself ... accusing me of being a hallucinating madman.” His body relaxed upon admitting the words.
“I don’t remember accusing you of anything,” T’Pol said, missing the point entirely.
Archer gave up, with a sigh of frustration.
“Bridge to Archer,” Reed’s voice came over the com.
With relief over their conversation being brought to an end, Archer tapped the companel. “Yes?”
“We’re getting some strange readings, sir,” Reed replied. “It might not be a bad idea for you to come out here.”
Archer knew that when Reed used the double negative it was a sign of trouble. Opening the door, he stepped onto the bridge and T’Pol followed, taking her position at the science station.
“I’ve taken the liberty of asking Commander Tucker to join us,” Reed said as the captain took the command chair.
“What’s the problem?” he asked, tapping a button, causing his armchair display to rise from its housing.
“We’re having trouble balancing the warp field.”
Looking down, Archer reviewed the information Reed had sent to him. “Looks okay to me.”
“It’s odd.” Reed continued running a check on the [120] system. “It will be stable one moment, then for no reason it will go slightly out of alignment.”
Across the bridge Hoshi and Mayweather exchanged a silent look of curiosity as Trip entered from the turbolift.
“What are you guys doing to my engines?” he asked, heading for his station.
“The autostabilizers aren’t functioning properly.” T’Pol tried to confirm Reed’s supposition from her own instruments as well.
Trip moved to his monitor. “The computer ran its last diagnostic on them less than ten minutes ago.” He reconfirmed the information he already thought he knew. “They look fine.”
“Well, they’re not,” Reed insisted. “We’ve had to realign the field a dozen times over the last hour.” He looked to Mayweather to confirm his statement.
The ensign nodded in response.
Archer’s mind was formulating an idea he did not want to consider. He looked to T’Pol, but she did not seem to make the same connection that he had. He could tell, however, that she certainly noticed the look of concern on his face.
He turned to Reed. “Load torpedoes and stand by all weapons.” As the crew reacted around him, he looked to Mayweather. “Deploy the beacons, Travis,” and then to Hoshi, “Modify the viewscreen and aim the beacons aft.”
Hoshi worked the controls at her station, doing as the captain ordered. She looked to him, waiting for the next [121] command. With a silent nod Archer indicated for her to activate the viewscreen.
An aft view of the ship came up, showing six Suliban cell-ships following closely at warp in the now familiar transparent green tint that indicated they were cloaked.
But Archer wasn’t finished with his commands, suspecting the worst. “Swing them down,” he told Hoshi, “slowly.”
Hoshi worked the controls and the angle on the viewscreen tilted downward, moving in concert with the beacons. Six more cell-ships were revealed beneath the others, also maintaining a close distance.
“It looks like we’re in a swarm of cloaked bees,” Trip commented.
Archer looked to Reed again. “Charge the phase cannons.”
Reed nodded and did as instructed when a beep sounded at Hoshi’s panel.
“We’re being hailed,” she said.
“Put it through.” Archer wanted to find out what was going on. He had been told the Suliban wouldn’t follow. For the first time Daniels’s plan was failing them. Or was that the real plan all along? He couldn’t help but think. Had Silik been telling the truth all those months ago? Is Daniels as much our enemy as the Suliban?
Hoshi worked the controls and an image of Silik appeared in place of the cloaked cell-ships.
“I wouldn’t advise using your weapons, Jonathan,” he said, cockily using the captain’s first name as if they wer
e old friends. “Perhaps if we decloak, you’ll understand why.”
[122] Silik blinked off the viewscreen as his image was replaced by a forward view of space. Ahead of Enterprise a dozen cell-ships slowly decloaked as they traveled along matching Enterprise’s speed. Hoshi hit the controls to give them a slow three-hundred-sixty-degree view of the ship, revealing that they were surrounded by dozens of enemy vessels.
“Malcolm?” Archer asked.
Reed tore his eyes away from the main viewscreen to check his station. “They’re all armed with high-yield particle weapons.”
“How many could you take out?” the captain asked, already suspecting he knew the answer.
“Before they opened fire?” Reed spoke with the sound of resignation in his voice. “Not enough, sir.”
Archer nodded to Hoshi again and she reestablished communication with Silik.
Once again the Suliban’s face filled the screen. “One of my ships is approaching your starboard docking port,” he said without ceremony. “I’d like you to board it immediately.”
“What do you want with me?” Archer truly wondered. And why haven’t you asked for the discs back?
“You have five minutes,” Silik said. “If you don’t comply, I have permission to destroy Enterprise.”
“How do I know you won’t destroy Enterprise either way?”
“You have my word, Captain,” Silik replied, sounding somewhat genuine. “And you have four and a half minutes left.”
[123] Silik’s image disappeared once again, replaced by the haunting image of his armada.
In the long moment that followed, Archer considered his options. He wasn’t sure whether or not Silik was bluffing, but he knew the risk was too great. Enterprise could not survive in a firefight, and the only way he had a chance of figuring out what was going on was by boarding Silik’s ship. Daniels had already failed him by telling Archer that they would not be followed. The captain knew that he could not fail his crew.
STAR TREK: Enterprise - Shockwave Page 9