“Good morning, sir,” the steward said as he set the eggs down in front of the captain.
“Morning, Daniels,” he replied. “I thought this was Taylor’s shift.”
“I switched with him,” Daniels tentatively replied, “if that’s all right with you.”
“No problem.”
“Sir, I noticed we changed course. May I ask why?”
“There’s a stellar nursery not far from here,” Archer replied with a sip of his coffee. “We detected several ships inside and thought we might go say hello.”
“Very good, sir.” Daniels seemed to consider the captain’s words for a moment. “More orange juice?”
[68] “I’m fine, thanks,” Archer replied as he watched Daniels nod and head out of the room.
Archer leisurely concluded his breakfast and made his way to the bridge, where the crew eventually made contact with one of the vessels in the stellar nursery. It was a transport vessel led by a somewhat dour captain named Fraddock. After an initially terse greeting, Fraddock eventually warmed to Archer, informing him that the transport vessel was carrying a group of “spiritually minded” passengers on a pilgrimage to the Great Plume of Agosoria.
Fraddock described the stellar phenomena, and it sounded intriguing enough for Archer to welcome the transport captain and the pilgrims to visit Enterprise as the Starfleet crew joined them on their journey. Fraddock gruffly declined, but the passengers welcomed the opportunity. The two vessels docked together shortly thereafter as Captain Archer received his guests and unknowingly allowed a Suliban to come aboard.
Following a celebratory meal, one of the pilgrims asked about a tour of Enterprise. The hospitable captain split the group in two, placing Trip in charge of several of their guests as an escort through the ship while he took the rest of the pilgrims around. In engineering, Trip led his group through the inner workings of the warp core, as one of the pilgrims slipped away from the group unnoticed.
The rogue pilgrim ducked behind the warp core. Eyeing an access port above him, he opened the panel and reached an arm into the jumble of circuitry. His arm continued reaching deeper into the cramped panel, twisting at [69] an impossible angle to allow for his hand to reach a particular metal conduit. Once it was in his grasp, the pilgrim twisted the conduit out of shape, disconnecting it from an adjoining piece. His job done, he replaced the panel and joined his group, never having been missed.
“You might want to focus your sensors on that plasma storm up ahead,” Fraddock cockily announced via the main viewscreen while Archer and Trip were busy with the tours.
“We’re aware of it,” T’Pol replied.
“You ever been in a plasma storm?”
“Twice.”
“Then you know it can get a little bumpy,” Fraddock said, obviously disappointed that his new acquaintances were familiar with the occurrence. “I suggest we try to go around it.”
“Agreed.” She nodded to Mayweather. “Ensign?”
“I’m already on it,” he replied, working the helm.
Though they managed to circumnavigate the brunt of the storm, the outer edge of it still wrecked havoc on the ship, forcing the captain to abandon his tour group. The ship jolted through the storm as tendrils of plasma lighting lashed out at the vessel. Lights were flickering on the bridge as the captain came off the turbolift.
“Report,” he called over the noises on the bridge.
“We’re losing main power,” Reed said, consulting his station.
Reaching a companel, Archer called down to engineering. “Trip, what’s happening?”
[70] “That last bolt struck the warp manifold! We’ve got an antimatter cascade, sir!” Trip answered back, working frantically at a station by the warp reactor. The power was rising and falling erratically as all but one of the pilgrims looked on with concern. “If it reaches the reactor we’re gonna—”
BOOM!
A panel blew out in a shower of sparks as everyone in engineering took cover.
B-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
Several more panels and consoles exploded in quick succession, heading for the warp reactor. One by one the explosions continued, until they reached the panel beside the one on which the stowaway pilgrim had been working. Then the blasts suddenly stopped, with an electrical crackling sound coming from the last panel, but nothing more. In the resulting silence, everyone in engineering took a deep breath as Trip checked a nearby readout.
Switching on the nearest companel, he reported to the bridge. “I think we’re all right, Captain. The cascade stopped in its tracks.”
“Good work, Trip,” Archer answered back.
“It wasn’t me, sir.”
It didn’t take Trip long to discover the antimatter junction that was disconnected and realize they had a guardian angel onboard looking after the crew. The only problem was they didn’t know that their angel was in the form of an old enemy.
Walking down a corridor mulling over Trip’s discovery, Archer was approached by Crewman Daniels.
[71] “Sir, I need to speak with you,” the crewman said urgently.
“Why don’t you talk to one of my bridge officers,” Archer suggested, distracted by his thoughts. “I’m a little busy right now.”
“It’s important.”
“I’m sorry, Daniels,” he replied, still moving. “I’ve got my hands full.”
“It’s about the Suliban.”
This stopped Archer in his tracks.
“What about them?” he asked, his interest piqued. What information could his steward possess about an enemy they had not had contact with in four months?
“I have reason to believe that one of the pilgrims who came aboard is a Suliban soldier.” He paused waiting for the captain to ingest what he was saying. “His name is Silik. He’s the man you fought with on the Helix.”
“How the hell did you know what I did on the Helix?” he asked, in reference to the space station comprised of hundreds of Suliban cell-ships.
Daniels glanced at a nearby crewmember passing by in an adjacent corridor. “It might be best if we discuss this in private,” he said in a low voice.
“My ready room,” the captain replied.
“I think it would be better if we went to my quarters,” Daniels suggested instead.
“Why?”
“You’ll understand when we get there, sir,” Daniels cryptically replied.
Archer hesitated for a moment wondering what the hell [72] was going on. In only a few words Daniels managed to reveal that he knew far more than anyone in his position on Enterprise should have known. This is more than just random gossip being spread, Archer thought. He nodded to Daniels, indicating that he would follow.
Once they reached the cramped quarters, Daniels showed the captain inside. “Please have a seat.”
But Archer preferred to stand.
“I’m sorry about the mess.” Daniels indicated the items strewn about as he reached inside his locker. “Sometimes I think my bunkmate majored in chaos theory.”
But Archer was not in the mood for humor, either. He wanted answers and he wanted them now.
Daniels pulled a small equipment case from the locker. Opening it, he removed a hand-held device that looked to Archer like no piece of technology he had ever seen before.
“What is that?” Archer asked. “That doesn’t look like Starfleet issue.”
“That’s because I’m not a member of Starfleet,” Daniels simply stated. “Not that I wouldn’t be honored to be one, sir, especially after spending time—”
“Who are you?” Archer interrupted, getting right to the point. The man had somehow infiltrated his crew for four months. This was not just some simple stowaway. “How do you know what happened on the Helix?”
“Did Silik tell you who he was working for?” Daniels asked instead.
“I’m the one asking questions, Crewman.”
[73] Daniels calmly pressed on. “Did he mention the Temporal Cold War?”
“What do yo
u know about that?” Archer continued to be surprised by the wealth of information Daniels seemed to possess.
“A great deal more than you do, sir,” was his simple reply.
Archer was growing impatient with the non-answers. “If you’re not a member of Starfleet, then who are you?”
“I work for a different kind of organization,” he replied, still intentionally vague. “We make sure that people like Silik don’t interfere with historical events.”
“I’ve never heard of a group like that,” Archer replied, wondering what kind of “historical events” the man was referring to.
“That’s because it doesn’t exist yet.”
Archer eyed the crewman curiously. “So you’re telling me you’re some kind of time traveler?”
“That’s one way of putting it.” Daniels indicated the device he had taken out. “Maybe this will help clear things up.”
Daniels hit a few controls on the instrument, and the entire room shimmered around them. It was replaced by a three-dimensional graphic display of timelines, planets, alphanumeric data, strange symbols, mathematical equations, and hundreds of other graphics that Archer could not discern. Everything was scrolling around them and flying past. It was a mind-boggling display of information.
Daniels did not seem even the least bit phased by it. “This is how we keep an eye on what’s going on. You might call it a ‘Temporal Observatory.’ ”
[74] Archer was glancing around, trying to wrap his mind around what he was seeing.
Daniels saw the confusion on the man’s face. “I know this must seem a little overwhelming. ...”
“Overwhelming doesn’t quite cover it.” Archer reached out to touch one of the images floating in front of him, surprised that the projection of light actually had weight to it.
“I come from right about here,” Daniels said, pointing to a timeline graphic. “Approximately nine hundred years from now.”
“Are you human?” Archer asked, remembering that the Suliban had the ability to alter their appearances.
“More or less,” he said with another cryptic response.
“And the people giving Silik orders?”
“They’re from an earlier century. From about here.” He indicated another coordinate back on the timeline. “They can’t manifest themselves physically in the past. They can only partially materialize to deliver information.”
“But not you.”
“In the years that followed,” Daniels explained, “we eventually perfected the process.”
“Sounds dangerous,” Archer commented, giving up on questions for the moment since he knew most of them would continue to go unanswered.
“When time travel first developed, it wasn’t long before people realized that laws had to be made,” he explained. “All the species who had the technology agreed that it would only be used for research.”
[75] “But it wasn’t,” Archer said, catching on. “That’s what the Temporal Cold War is all about.”
Daniels nodded and explained that Silik had been the one to prevent the reactor breach and save the ship. Daniels had been sent back in time to capture the Suliban soldier but he would need the crew’s help tying his technology into the Enterprise sensor grid to track the genetically modified alien.
“We have reason to believe that the twenty-second century is a front in this Cold War,” Daniels went on. “What happens here could affect millennia to come. It’s imperative that we find out who Silik is working for and what they’re trying to do.”
There was much to consider, and Archer consulted with the most reliable members of his staff, Trip and T’Pol. He wanted their opinions as to whether he could trust a man who had been lying to them for months, and whether or not they felt that the being who’d saved their ship from destruction was actually an enemy.
Although Trip kept an open mind, T’Pol’s response was typical of her people’s almost innate cynicism. “The Vulcan Science Directorate has studied the question of time travel in great detail. They’ve found no evidence that it exists or that it can exist.”
Still, no matter what their personal feelings, both officers went along with Archer’s decision to help “Crewman Daniels” set up the sensor grid. Along the way, they hit a bit of a snag.
“One of the power relays is offline,” T’Pol said as the trio worked in engineering.
[76] “Must’ve been damaged in the plasma storm,” Trip guessed as he checked a monitor. “J-thirty-seven. It’s about three meters behind that bulkhead.” He pointed to a nearby wall.
“I’ll take care of it,” Daniels said. He pulled a tiny device from his equipment case and placed it over the fingers of his right hand. “J-thirty-seven?”
Trip nodded, wondering what the so-called future visitor was up to. He watched in astonishment as Daniels activated the device and casually walked right through the bulkhead. Trip looked to T’Pol, who took in the strange sight with very little apparent reaction whatsoever.
Moments later Daniels came back out through the wall. “Try it now.”
Trusting the three to work in engineering without him, Archer retired to his quarters. He had been so busy that morning that he not only forgot to feed himself, but had left Porthos wanting as well. However, as hungry as the dog was, he seemed also preoccupied with something in the room. Porthos was barking at something or someone. Archer realized he was not alone and reached for his companel.
“If you’re thinking of calling for help, I’d advise against it.” Silik became visible as he phased out of his camouflage into the familiar Suliban flesh and clothing Archer had seen him in months ago. “I’m not the one you should be worried about, Jon.”
“What are you doing here?” Archer asked guardedly.
“I thought you might want to thank me.”
[77] Archer chose not to respond.
“I saved your life,” Silik announced, confirming what Daniels had claimed. “The least you could do is return the favor. There’s someone here trying to find me. I need to know who it is.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Archer said. It wasn’t entirely a lie.
“I detected tachyon radiation,” Silik explained. The terminology was unfamiliar to Archer so he didn’t respond. “You don’t have anything that emits tachyons,” Silik continued, his expression grew intense. “Who’s looking for me?”
“I don’t know,” Archer replied evenly.
The two continued their dance around the truth, with Silik suggesting that the group he was working against actually wanted Enterprise destroyed. He claimed that it was the other group that was interested in tampering with the timeline. But Archer had reason to distrust Silik and refused to give Daniels up. Ultimately, however, the two were interrupted by a call from T’Pol that gave Silik the answer he was looking for. Silik fired his weapon at Archer, rendering the captain unconscious before heading for engineering to find Daniels.
Meanwhile, in engineering, Daniels, Trip, and T’Pol had successfully prepared the sensor grid and were able to pick up Silik’s camouflaged presence on the ship, nearing their position. Although the technology did not allow them to pinpoint the Suliban’s exact location, an unexplained sound above them told them everything they needed to know.
[78] “You two should go,” Daniels said, tense.
“We’re not leaving,” Trip replied.
“Go!” he insisted. “Bring help!”
Trip and T’Pol reluctantly moved toward the hatch in search of Reed and the security team they had called for. But before they could leave, Silik materialized and dropped from a catwalk above. Daniels spun to find a pistol leveled at him.
“Did they tell you that the twenty-second century was going to be your final resting place?” Silik fired his weapon.
Daniels stumbled backward as his body shimmered and distorted. He tried to reach for his pistol, but Silik fired again. This time the contact was far more devastating, and Daniels’s entire body shattered into fragments, evapo
rating as he flew apart.
Trip looked at T’Pol in shock, but when they looked back at Silik, the Suliban was gone.
Trip reported the incident to the captain, once Archer regained consciousness. After determining the camouflaged Silik was still on the ship, every outer-door and exit hatch was locked and security teams were posted on each deck.
Hurrying to Daniels’s quarters, Archer had a feeling of doom that was justified when he opened the small equipment scanner he had been shown earlier. The space-time scanner that Daniels had used to create his “Temporal Observatory” was gone. Silik had it. He’s not going to get off my ship with that technology, Archer promised himself.
[79] Trip had difficulty interpreting the futuristic sensors in search of the Suliban, but the technology proved unnecessary when the Enterprise computer alerted them to the fact that someone was trying to bypass the lock-out codes for Launch Bay Two. As Archer headed for Silik’s position, Trip gave the captain something that might help against the genetically advanced alien.
Archer met up with Reed and his security team in a corridor beside the junction in which Silik was working.
“It looks like he slipped through here,” Reed said, regarding the panel. “We could remove these conduits, but it would take some time.”
Archer eyed the panel, then considered the device that Trip had given him. It was resting in his right hand. He tapped a control on the device.
“Sir?” Reed said as Archer tentatively reached his hand out toward the circuitry and passed right through it.
“Stay here.” Archer took a deep breath and, steeling himself for the bizarre experience, carefully walked to the bulkhead and phased through.
Passing through metal and wiring, Archer found himself in a cramped, dimly lit passageway filled with crisscrossing conduits, exposed circuitry, and Silik. The Suliban soldier was standing at a small hatch on the wall, reworking some circuits.
“Very clever.” Silik turned to find Archer’s weapon raised. “Careful, Jon,” he said, motioning toward the circuitry. “It’d be a shame if you triggered another antimatter cascade. There’d be nobody here to stop it.”
STAR TREK: Enterprise - Shockwave Page 6
