Chapter Fourteen

Epilogue

Jonathan Archer sat in his Ready Room off the ship's bridge, wishing he could shut out the galaxy. An hour ago he had beamed the last of the Bethesnans back to their new home on Mandar, no longer 'Kitaris IV'.

He did not know what would befall the devastated men and women who had shared his ship for 26 hours. Would they, knowing they were the last of their kind, see that the avowed reason for fighting no longer existed and make peace before their own world was destroyed, or would they continue their internecine conflict to the end?

He honestly did not know.

He had made his final report to Admiral Maxwell Forrest, and now stared with unseeing eyes at the 'End Transmission' banner that held upon his monitor screen. He had known how this last 'interview' would go, but that had not made it any easier.

Starfleet would send what resources they could in the form of negotiators to help the 'Mandarans' settle their differences. Neither man knew if it would work, but both knew they had done all they could, that the matter was now reduced to prayer.

The final part of their conversation concerned a more personal matter for Archer, the fate of a member of his crew. In that, each man had been equally grim.

He reached out, touching a button. There was no way to delay this any longer. "Malcolm?" His tone was dead. He could work no life into it.

"Yes, sir?"

He glanced at the chronometer on his desk. Was it really so early in the day? "Computer reports Miss Cutler is in the Mess Hall. Have a Security detail meet us there."

"Aye, sir. May I recommend Ensign Cein lead the detail?"

Archer nodded, belatedly remembering that Reed could not see him. Having the woman's beloved there would make things easier – and harder. "Yes."

xxx

Elizabeth and Hoshi left the buffet table in the Mess Hall, going over to their 'favorite' table near the viewport, Hoshi sitting in her usual chair with her back to the view. She saw it from the bridge every day, so she was content to let others enjoy the view at mealtime. Liz sat in the seat opposite her, the one Tia usually used, rather than her usual one to Hoshi's right.

After nearly a year, it felt strange just being the two of them again, but their Auran friend would not be recovered enough to join them for quite some time.

"So, how are you holding up?" Hoshi asked, getting settled.

"Okay, I guess. Phlox still has me on painkillers; dimetrizhenol, but he says as long as I insist upon working he's keeping me on three quarters strength. He says if I still feel some pain, I won't be inclined to push too hard."

"I guess he knows what he's doing." Hoshi said. Personally, she'd prefer to feel none at all, but she had to admit that it was good for safety. Her friend would be less likely to hurt herself unknowingly if she could feel something. She looked at the plate Liz was attacking. "I see it hasn't hurt your appetite."

Liz looked up from her scrambled eggs and bacon, sausage, hash browns, toast and juice. "Eating for two, you know."

"Keep that up, and Michael is going to need a diet." She observed with a grin.

"I'll work it off in the gym."

x

Before Hoshi could respond their attention was diverted by an unexpected arrival. Mother Patricia McCabe pushed a wheeled chair into place on the table's right, surprising both women. "Well," Hoshi exclaimed, immensely pleased to see the young golden woman seated in the chair, "look who's here!"

"Good to see you up." Liz enthused, delighted.

"Phlox me say did that out of Sick Bay I may go 'for a while'. Better feeling I am."

"Actually," Patricia corrected, going around the table behind Liz and assuming the remaining seat, "he said 'twenty minutes', or until you get tired, whichever comes first."

Tia smiled sardonically. "Misa serp u Aur-neeta nyasi." She admitted with heavy resignation.

"Pardon?"

Hoshi smiled, noticing from her position facing the door that a large number of crewmen entered at once, along with the Captain, T'Pol and Phlox. "Loosely translated, it's 'Can't bribe a Priest'."

"And don't you forget it." McCabe 'warned' her charge.

"Liz, I thought Dina Samuels fixed you up." Hoshi remembered. Her friend had looked considerably better the previous day.

"She did." Liz admitted. "I looked great, but it wasn't me. I mean, it was me, but – hell, I look like a lunar roadmap, and no amount of make-up is going to change that. It's just a 'cover-up'. Everyone's seen me; so I figured 'why bother?'"

"You've got more guts than I do." Hoshi replied, thinking she would never step out of her quarters without looking her best.

"All of it was gone last night after my workout; I sweated it off. There seemed no point."

McCabe looked at her, confused. "I was in the gym most of the end of Beta with Malcolm. I didn't see…" Her voice trailed off as the look in the younger woman's eyes told her exactly what sort of 'workout' she had had, and the three human women grinned in perfect understanding.

"There she is!" The loud shout tore through the Mess Hall, startling everyone.

"Grab her!" An answering shout filled the room.

Everyone in the Hall turned to the knot of men and women just a few feet into the room, and Liz was shocked to turn and see two Security Officers approaching their table from different directions, forming a pincer charge.

No, not headed for their table. Headed right for her.

She was half out of her seat, sudden fright making her want to run, mad though the thought was, when she felt a hand clasp tightly about her left hand. "Don't try to run." A woman's voice directed. She turned back, incredulous, to find Patricia McCabe holding her hand in a firm grip. "It'll only go harder for you."

x

An instant later two men fastened upon her arms, their grips even tighter. She looked frantically from one to the other, astounded and frightened. There was no gentleness in their grip, no friendship in their eyes. "Captain, we have the prisoner," one of the guards called back across the room.

"Bring her."

The two men hauled Liz up to her feet. "What the Hell are you doing?" She demanded, terrified. "Let me go!" They dragged her away from the table, and she struggled frantically, unable to resist their strength. "Leave me alone. I haven't done anything!"

But she did not get dragged two feet before a woman stepped up to block their path.

Dina Samuels stared at Liz with angry eyes. "You've had this coming for a long time." She accused, but could not get near as one of the guards shouldered her out of the way. But as they dragged Liz, despite her frantic and terrified struggles, toward the Captain, a man and woman blocked their path.

"You're finally going to get what's coming to you." Sarah Dutton told her coldly.

"I'm glad to be here to see this." Sam Harris spat the words down at her.

"Sam, Sarah, what the Hell? What's going on?"

"Out of the way." The guard on her left arm commanded, pushing her between her 'friends'. Liz was so scared she could not imagine things could get worse until, just before the guards dragged her roughly before her waiting C.O., Jim Cein stepped in front of her.

"Jim, help me! Get these maniacs off m-" The two men forced her arms forward, hands together, and Liz's heart stopped when Jim clamped cold steel restraints about her wrists. "Jim!"

"Elizabeth Megan Cutler, I arrest you." He grabbed her right arm and turned, pulling her forward as she stared at him in shock, unable to believe any of this madness. "Captain; the Prisoner," he presented. Phlox and T'Pol stood on either side of the tall Officer, and neither was pleased.

"Cutler, I'm very disappointed in you." Archer told her gravely.

"Captain, please! I don't know what's going on, but I didn't do anything wrong! I swear I didn't!"

"But you did. And word of your ongoing offences has reached all the way back to Earth." His hard voice cut through the room like a knife, slicing into her and a score of startled witnesses. "Ensign Elizabeth Megan Cutler, you stand accused of Meritorious Service, Diligence, Ability and Outstanding Performance of Duty. How do you plead?"

"Not Guilty!" She exclaimed frantically. "I can ex –." His words registered belatedly in her terrified mind. "What?"

x

"Per Starfleet Orders you are hereby found 'guilty' of all charges and sentenced to be Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. You are further sentenced to assume command of the Life Sciences Division of this ship; incarceration in the Laboratories to begin immediately." His features broke into a grin. "And may God have mercy on your soul."

Elizabeth Cutler stared up at the man, so shocked she could not speak, could not blink. She was barely aware of the restraints being removed from her wrists.

x

"Would you care to do the honors?" Archer asked, extending his closed hand to Jim Cein.

"With pleasure, sir." Jim said, accepting the unseen item from his Captain and then turning Liz by her shoulders toward him. He grasped the zipper of her uniform at her collar and lowered it far enough to allow him to reach in and join the back to the front of a small silver pin, which gleamed next to the one formerly designating her as 'ensign', above the blue piping of her division. Restoring the zipper, he stepped back, and executed a smart salute.

"Congratulations, Lieutenant."

Everyone in the room joined and held the salute. When Liz found she had enough control to move her body at will, she returned it; her eyes still locked on Jim's, her hand visibly shaking.

"Would you like to say a few words, Lieutenant?" Archer, at her left, asked. She turned, looking up at the tall man.

"I'm not going to faint." She assured him with a shaky smile, recalling Hoshi's stunning promotion of weeks before. "I'm not going to faint." She said breathily, took a deep breath and admitted: "Oh, Hell, I'm a fragging liar!"

She felt her knees go weak and leaned to her right, coming up against the body of her lover as he grasped her, supporting her. She did not faint, but for several moments she had no desire to move away.

xx

For many minutes the scene was mild chaos; everybody wanted to get close enough to congratulate and compliment the new Officer. Her closest friends and coworkers also 'apologized' for their parts in 'rattling' her.

What had started as a standard breakfast evolved into a party, and as news spread the Mess Hall became quite crowded; newcomers arrived to congratulate their fellow while those already there showed no inclination to leave.

"Sir, I don't understand." The new Lieutenant Cutler protested helplessly to her C.O., feeling like the universe was still spinning out of her control. "When we spoke last, you told me –." Her mind was in such turmoil she was now not entirely sure what he had told her, but it had not been good.

"I told Forrest that capitulating to Marin's smear campaign was not going to help Starfleet; that it was only in fighting her garbage with the truth that we were going to have any hope; that Enterprise could not lose another member of your team and that you were by far the best qualified of the candidates for the job."

"I – I don't know what to say. I won't let you down. I swear I won't."

"I know."

x

A few minutes later Hoshi Sato had a chance to get a moment's quiet time with her friend, handing her a bubbling glass. "So, Lieutenant."

"So, Lieutenant." She returned in kind, her voice no longer shaking.

"Congratulations."

"Thanks, pal." Their glasses rang as they touched.

"Whoever thought a pair like us would make it?"

"I put long odds on it."

"Any plans?"

"'Plans', she says." Liz scoffed; then reached a decision. "For my first official act, I'm going to sleep for a week."

"Don't count on it. Have you any idea how much 'paperwork' comes with that second pip?"

"The way John used to crab? Of course I do. That's why I need my beauty sleep."

"Won't help." Hoshi hid her grin behind her glass, taking a sip of champagne.

"What, the paperwork or my beauty?"

"Both."

"Cheers." Their glasses rang.

Jim Cein appeared beside Liz, handing her another glass. She looked 'helplessly' at the two bubbling crystals, but Hoshi just drifted away, leaving her friend to deal with this minor problem.

"Congratulations, honey." Jim told her.

"Thank you, darling. But please, don't ever scare me like that again."

"No promises. Beth." He told her with a grin. "You just might make Lieutenant Commander some day."

"God forbid."

He drew closer so he could speak quietly to her alone, his lips near her ear. "Does this mean I have to salute you all the time now?"

She leaned in very close to him. "Only when I'm dressed." She whispered, and pressed her lips to his.

The chimes of silverware striking crystal glasses were loud, but neither could truly be said to hear them.