On Board

            Admiral Archer joined the crew of the NX-05 Discovery via a runabout just two days later. They had been diverted from the Alpha Centauri system and took up orbit around the moon where warp plasma was kept in large quantities for easy refueling in low gravity. Their mission to Akal was direct on Archer’s behalf. He walked along the corridor from his quarters on E deck. The Discovery was almost identical to the Enterprise but with a few more modern touches. Most of those had been suggested by Captains’ Archer and Hernandez crews like brighter lights, bigger windows, and more intercoms throughout the ship. And more weapons. After the Romulan War, everything carried more weapons.

            The familiarity Archer felt walking into the turbolift, hearing the swoosh of the door closing, and the feeling of a little G force as he ascended towards the bridge reminded him that he was still a captain at heart.  Of course he’d been on many missions since leaving Enterprise and taking promotion. This trip, this mission, was neither a maiden voyage nor a diplomatic negotiation; it was not a pleasure cruise to Risa. Nearly twelve years had passed since their visit exposed an alien profiting at the expense of the Akalli. He was breathing just a little harder.

            The lift stopped and the door opened automatically. Archer took a step onto the bridge, slowly, hearing a melody of beeps and a display of colored lights and monitors. The large forward view screen was dark with specks of stars in every direction.

            “Admiral on the bridge!” shouted the helmsman, bolting up from his seat to attention. The rest of the bridge crew duplicated his action. Jonathan was taken aback briefly.

            “As you were,” he told them, still occasionally surprised when that happened in his presence depending on the crew’s enthusiasm.

            “Good morning, Admiral,” Captain Ramirez greeted.

            “Captain Roberto,” Archer answered. It wasn’t customary to call a person by their rank and first name, but Archer found it a formal way to be informal. “Can you give me a status? How much longer to rendezvous with the Soval? It’s been two weeks yesterday.”

            “Nothing escapes you, Admiral,” the captain said with a smile. “We had to divert around a class one neutronic wave front overnight, so it will be another 24 hours at warp 5.9.  From then their warp 7 should take just a couple of days to finish the trip.”

            The two officers exchanged glances about the wave front. Archer had been in the big chair himself. Nothing ever happens as expected. And he didn’t want it back, at least not today.

            “The Soval reports every 25 hours?”

            “There’s been no new development since we left Luna Station, Admiral. The situation seems static.”

            Archer stared absentmindedly at the view screen with the ever present black with streaks of white, red, blue, and yellow. He smiled slightly when he remembered the morning that his bridge crew casually mentioned the discovery of a populated M class planet as if it were an everyday occurrence instead of the milestone they had dreamed about for decades: discovering and meeting intelligent, sentient humanoid life.

            He’d met Suliban, Orions, of course Vulcans, Xindi, Andorrians, and his ship’s doctor was a Denobulin. And then he met the Akalii, Riaan. He hadn’t thought of her for years until the Soval was en route to the planet, but he’d not forgotten her. Two wars and a decade of time faded his memory, and he was aware of that, but couldn’t help but wonder what happened to her; wonder if she was alright.

            “I’ll be in my quarters.”

            “Admiral, would you like to take the big chair for a while?”

            Jonathan’s expression focused, softened, and then a smile appeared.

            “Thank you, Captain, but I have a lot of work to do still before transferring to the Soval.”

            “You’ll be joining us for dinner at 19:00? I hear our cook has prime rib on the menu tonight.”

            “You don’t have to ask me twice,” he replied, and left the bridge for his cabin. He sat at the desk and turned on the computer. The Akal file from 2151 was already on the screen.

Inquiry

           

            “I know you’re not part Vulcan”, Bernard said when Valerie got up to make another pot of tea. She called to him from the kitchen.

            “You know, you could look up all this in the Starfleet database. It’s not a secret.”

            “I want to hear it from the sanguine ancestor, if you will.”

            “If you’re listening, I’m talking.” Valerie returned to the sofa and poured fresh, hot tea. Bernard lit a half a dozen candles on the hearth of a former fireplace. Back on the sofa, they faced each other and Valerie continued her story.