Course Correction Studio

Category: Edge of Heaven

  • Edge of Heaven – Chapter 13. Fate

    The next morning when Dani woke up, Archer was dressing. “Good morning,” she said.

    Archer, whose back had been turned to her while he’d been pulling a shirt over his head, turned to the bed. “I hope I didn’t wake you,” he said, walking over to the bed.

    “You did,” Dani said. “But I don’t mind. I wish you’d woken me earlier, when you got up.”

    “I wanted to let you sleep.” He sat down in front of Dani on the bed. “You were up late last night because of me, and honestly, I was hoping to surprise you with breakfast in bed.”

    “I don’t want to spend any more time sleeping than I have to,” Dani said. “I don’t want to miss out on our last hours.”

    Archer nodded. “I wish I didn’t have to go down to Paragan,” Archer said. “It doesn’t seem right to spend time on that when you’ll be gone in a few hours.”

    “You have your duties,” Dani said matter-of-factly, “and I have mine. Yours, in this case, require you to visit the Paragan colony – mine is to get back to the 24th Century so that I can be debriefed. I guess it is what it is.”

    Archer, surprised by her words and her attitude, blinked. “You seem to be taking it pretty well,” he said. “How can you be so accepting of the situation?”

    “It’s not that – it’s just that I’m resigned to our fate,” Dani corrected. “There’s no point in fighting what we can’t change.”

    “But we can change it,” Archer said. He held Dani’s gaze. He knew that she knew what he was suggesting.

    “We could, but we probably wouldn’t like the consequences,” Dani said. “If Command found out that the transporter works and that I didn’t go through, think of the consequences it could have for you. They might strip you of your command or even court martial you. And that cannot happen. Your mission is way too important…Even if it didn’t happen that way, do you honestly think that the Temporal Police would let me stay here?” Dani shook her head, resigned to their apparent fate. “We might as well enjoy the time left and accept it for what it is.” She peeled back the covers and rose from the bed.

    xxx

    Dani was in the mess hall for her morning coffee break when she saw the initial bursts of orange appear in Paragan’s upper atmosphere. One burst turned into two, then three. Within a minute, it seemed like the entire atmosphere glowed orange. Her coffee and bagel unfinished, Dani abandoned her table and the mess hall and headed directly for the shuttlebay. She didn’t say anything to anyone along the way, but she didn’t need confirmation from anyone to recognize that something had gone horribly wrong on Paragan II.

    xxx

    Kyle was already standing outside the entrance to the shuttle bay when Dani arrived.

    “Did you see what happened on the surface?” asked Dani as she approached.

    Before Dani could reply, the doors slid back, and Archer, T’Pol, Trip, and Malcolm stepped out of the shuttle bay and into the corridor.

    “Lt. Hicks, Commander Janeway,” Archer greeted.

    “Captain, I saw the planet,” Kyle said. “What happened down there?”

    “We’re not exactly sure, yet,” Archer said. “Right now, we’ve got to get Commander Tucker to sickbay for treatment. I’ll have to brief you later.”

    Kyle nodded. For the first time, Kyle and Dani noticed that Trip had been injured somehow during the mission. He and Dani watched as Archer and the rest of his team continued down the corridor.

    xxx

    Dani was waiting when Archer emerged from Sickbay. She reached out to him as he passed.

    “Jon, what is going on?” she asked him. The look on his face told her that the answer was bad, but she wanted details.

    “There was an accident,” Archer began. “Somehow, the planet’s atmosphere was ignited.”

    “What about the colonists?”

    Archer closed his eyes and shook his head. “They’re gone.”

    “All of them?”

    “We’re trying to figure out what went wrong. Lt. Reed insists that everything was within the required parameters with regard to our shuttle. But somehow the tetrazine particles in the atmosphere were ignited.”

    Dani knitted her brows. Something wasn’t right here. Why didn’t she remember reading about this? Surely, an event this catastrophic would have surfaced during her research on NX-01 and Archer.

    “I don’t remember reading about this event,” Dani said. “And it seems like too significant of an occurrence to just go unnoticed by history.”

    “I’ll have to brief you later,” Archer said. “Before you and Kyle go back.”

    He moved away to go to the bridge. Dani was left wondering whether any of this could have occurred due to her and Kyle’s presence here. If that was the case, maybe she and Kyle weren’t going back to the 24th Century so soon, after all. They had to figure out what went wrong and why history never recorded this event.

    xxx

    Dani met Kyle in their quarters. He had been waiting there for her to return with news of what had happened to Paragan II. She still wasn’t over his involvement with the Cardassia Prime incident, but there were more immediate matters that needed to be attended to right now.

    Dani already knew what Kyle was waiting to hear, and she wasted no time obliging. “Something really bad happened down there,” she said.

    “What happened?” Kyle asked.

    “All the colonists have been wiped out,” Dani said.

    “What?“

    “Somehow, the tetrazine in their atmosphere was ignited, which caused a shockwave. Everything down there is gone.”

    “But…I don’t understand,” Kyle said. “I’ve never heard of that happening to Paragan II. It’s a thriving colony in the 24th Century.”

    “I know. Shouldn’t we try to find out what went wrong?” Dani asked.

    “I have a feeling that Captain Archer has every intention of doing just that,” Kyle said.

    xxx

    Dani pressed the chime on the door to Archer’s quarters. “Come in,” she heard him call from inside. The door slid open and she stepped into the room. Archer was at his desk with Porthos in his arms, scrolling through a long list of images on his computer terminal. Dani assumed they were the images of the lost colonists. Archer seemed entranced. He didn’t even acknowledge her entrance into the room.

    “Jon?” Dani said.

    Without turning to her, he said, “If it isn’t anything urgent, I’d really rather be alone right now.”

    “I know you don’t have a counselor on this ship, but talking can be a big help in situations like this,” Dani said.

    “Talking isn’t going to bring those colonists back,” Archer said.

    “No, but it might help,” Dani said. She took a few steps closer to him. “You don’t feel guilty about any of this, do you?”

    Archer finally turned to her. “My guilt is warranted.”

    “You did everything you could,” Dani said. “You followed all the protocols. There’s no way it could be your fault.”

    “Well, somehow, I must have missed something somewhere,” Archer insisted. “I have been…distracted lately.”

    “By what?” Dani asked, taken aback by the words. She couldn’t miss the underlying insinuation. She shifted her weight, fighting the urge to become defensive. “By me?”

    “The truth is I haven’t been paying as much attention to my duties ever since we got back from Risa. Maybe my preoccupation with you has caused me to miss something, something crucial, apparently.”

    Dani stood silently, unable to generate a response to Archer’s statement. She couldn’t believe she was hearing these words come out of his mouth. Obviously, she didn’t know him as well as she’d hoped she did if he could turn on her and blame her for this. Instead of responding, she merely turned around and walked out of his quarters.

  • Edge of Heaven – Chapter 12. Good News

    The first person Dani saw when she entered the mess hall-turned-movie theater was Kyle, who was seated near the middle.  They made eye contact briefly, but neither of them moved to close the distance between them.  Kyle kept his seat, and Dani kept on walking.  Prior to Risa, Dani had a permanent seat next to Kyle, not just on movie night but every time they were together.  But that wasn’t an option now.  It had been a little over a week since Enterprise had left Risa, and Dani still couldn’t bring herself to talk to Kyle about his mission to Cardassia Prime.

    About the fact that he murdered Marac.

    Dani pushed the encroaching memories of that night out of her mind and continued to walk through the room.  She took one of the empty seats near the back of the room.

    The mess hall doors opened, and Archer stepped in, his eyes scanning the room.  They stopped on Dani.

    Dani turned her attention to Archer and smiled as she watched him approach.

    “Hi,” he said once he’d reached her.  He lowered himself into the chair beside her.  “I would’ve been here earlier, but something came up at the last moment that needed to be taken care of.”

    “That’s okay,” Dani said.  “You haven’t missed anything.”

    “Do you want anything?” Archer asked.  “Popcorn?  Something to drink?”

    “I’m fine.”

    Archer looked around at the rest of the audience.  The movie would be starting soon, and the room was starting to fill up fast.  His eyes found Kyle Hicks, who was looking their way.

    “How are things between you and Kyle?” Archer asked.

    “Frosty would be an optimistic way to describe it,” Dani said.  “Nothing’s changed since Risa.  We try to avoid each other.  I try to avoid him, at least.”  She looked at Archer and smiled.  “Thankfully, I have somewhere else to sleep at night,” she said, lowering her voice.

    Archer returned her smile.  He wanted to lean in and kiss her but thought better of it, given their surroundings. “Well, that’s one good thing,” he said.

    xxx

    “What did you think about tonight?” Archer asked.  After the movie, he and Dani had enjoyed a quiet meal in the Captain’s Mess and then returned to Archer’s quarters. “It was our first time out here.”

    “I thought it went well,” Dani said.  “I noticed a few people staring, but it wasn’t too bad.  I think they’re still curious about me and Kyle.  I had a good time.”

    Archer wrapped his arms around Dani’s waist.  “I’m glad to hear that,” he said.  “I know it probably doesn’t compare to whatever they do for fun in the 24th Century.”

    “You’d be surprised,” Dani said as she fought the urge to tense up.  “Do we have to talk about the future right now?  One of the good things about this place is that it’s so different that there’s not a lot that reminds me…”

    “I’m sorry,” Archer said.  “I wasn’t thinking.”

    “It’s okay,” Dani said.  “The longer I’m here, the less likely we are to find a way back.  I’d like to start thinking of here as my home, but it’s hard to do when I’m always thinking about my old life.”

    Archer nodded.  “Of course.  I won’t bring it up again.  Promise.”  He kissed her.  “In fact, I’ve got something that I think will do a wonderful job of keeping your mind occupied.”

    “Oh, is that so?”

    “Mm-hm,” Archer said.  “It seems to have done the trick before.”  He kissed her again.

    xxx

    The comm couldn’t have chimed at the most inconvenient time.  Archer and Dani were tangled up in each other in his bed, practically devouring each other. 

    “Engineering to Captain Archer.”

    “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Archer said, annoyed.

    “Such is the life of a starship captain,” Dani said.

    “I’m sorry about this,” Archer said.

    “It’s okay,” Dani said.  “Trust me when I say I understand.”

    The comm chimed again, and Archer reached up to the control panel directly above the bed.  “Archer here, go ahead,” he said.

    “Captain – It’s Trip,” he said.  “Sorry for interruptin’, but I wanted to let you know that we’ve had a breakthrough down here.  We’ve cracked the code.”

    Archer and Dani exchanged shocked silent glances.  He carefully disentangled himself from her.  ”Trip,” Archer began, scooting into a sitting position.  ”I think I know what you’re saying, but I want to make absolutely sure I understand correctly.  You’ll have to spell this out for me.”

    “Captain – the temporal transporter is operational,” Trip said.

    Archer looked at Dani again.  They both knew what this meant, and they didn’t need to say it out loud.  It meant that Dani would have to go back to the 24th Century.

    xxx

    Dani and Archer walked into Engineering, where Kyle and Trip proudly displayed the functioning temporal transporter.  It was illuminated and looked like it was ready to go.

    “And you’re sure it will work?” Dani asked.

    “We haven’t tested it,” Kyle said.  It was the first time that words had passed between him and Dani since Risa. “It appears to be functioning correctly, from everything I can tell.  But there’s only one way to find out if it works again.”

    Dani and Archer looked at each other.  This was supposed to be good news, but both of them were finding it difficult to see it that way. 

    “Is it stable?” Archer asked.  “The power source, I mean.”

    “Yes, sir,” Trip said. Why would the captain be asking about the power?  He already knew that the issue had been Daniels’s missing code and nothing else. 

    “I don’t see any issues with power,” Trip continued.  “We’ve repaired the issue that was preventing it from working.  It wasn’t a power issue.”  As soon as he said it, he realized what the captain was really asking.  “We have the ability to activate and deactivate at will without any apparent loss or other degradation of function, if that’s what you’re asking, Captain.  There’s no urgency; we can send Hicks and Janeway back anytime we choose.  Right now, tomorrow…”

    “Is there a way to test it?” Archer asked.

    “We’d have to send someone through it, and they’d have to come back to confirm that it worked,” Trip said.

    “Not necessarily,” Kyle said.  “We could set the destination for only a few minutes into the future and transport a test object.  If the time passes, and the test object reappears, theoretically, that would serve as confirmation that the test was successful.”

    Archer nodded.  “Schedule a test for tomorrow afternoon following our meeting with the Paragon colonists.”

    “Aye, captain,” Trip said.  He turned and walked away with the transporter.

    Kyle beamed.  “I can’t believe it,” he said. “We’re actually going home!”  He turned and followed Trip.

    Dani looked to Archer, shaking her head.  She didn’t know what to say.  Wasn’t this what she’d wanted since the moment she and Kyle had landed there?  Then why was this hitting her the same way that bad news would?  Archer nodded knowingly and ushered her out of Engineering.

  • Edge of Heaven – Chapter 11. Back to Life

    Dani looked around Archer’s villa as she stepped in. She’d never been inside before, but still, she got the feeling that something – or someone – was missing. “Where’s Porthos?” she asked.

    “Trip took him out for a walk,” Archer said. “He needs the exercise.”

    “Trip?” Dani asked.

    “Porthos,” Archer clarified.

    “All that cheese he’s able to get out of you, I suppose?”

    “Yeah, I’m the culprit there,” Archer admitted. “But he’s so adorable, he’s just so hard to say no to.”

    Dani looked over at Archer’s balcony door. Up until now, his villa had seemed nearly identical to hers, but now she saw that there was one major difference.

    “You have an ocean view,” Dani said, gravitating toward the glass sliding door. She opened it and stepped outside onto the spacious, stone balcony. She looked out at the reflection of the moons off the gently breaking water. The ocean breeze kissed her face.

    “This is wonderful!” she gushed. “I would love to be able to fall asleep to the sound of the ocean every night. And I mean the real thing, not something simulated from a computer. I want to be able to smell the water, feel the breeze.” She closed her eyes and relished in the sound of the breakers, the smell of the salt water, and the sensation of the cool night air on her skin.

    Archer walked over to the balcony and stood beside her. “It is pretty nice,” he said, looking out at the sparkling night water.

    “I wish we didn’t have to go back tomorrow,” Dani said, opening her eyes. “Everything’s so simple here. Things make sense. Tomorrow, once we go back, things will be even more complicated than they were before.”

    “We don’t have to see each other any more if you think it’s a bad idea,” Archer said.

    “Oh, I know it’s a bad idea,” Dani said. “But that doesn’t mean I want to stop.”

    “Neither do I,” Archer said. He and Dani turned to each other. “We must be crazy, willingly doing something that we both know is a bad idea.”

    Dani shrugged. “What can I say? I like to take risks, obviously, or I wouldn’t have ended up here. Sometimes, things that are really bad ideas at first lead to some pretty amazing things.”

    They moved in close to each other and kissed.

    xxx

    The next morning, Archer woke first. Dani was in his arms. The balcony doors were still open from the night before. The gentle ocean breeze, the sound of the waves, and the light of the rising sun had stirred him awake.

    A perfect moment. It was a shame they had to return to the ship in a few hours. Shore leave had been eventful but still restful. Even if it hadn’t unfolded as he’d predicted, Archer couldn’t say he was disappointed with the way things had turned out.

    He looked down at Dani and grinned. She was still knocked out. He hated to wake her, but he had to. They had to get back to the ship.

    “Dani,” Archer whispered. He stroked her hair and kissed her forehead. He whispered her name again, and she began to move. Her eyes slowly opened, and she looked at Archer.

    “Good morning,” she moaned, grinning.

    “Good morning,” Archer said. He kissed her.

    Dani looked past him at the rising sun outside. “I wonder when we’ll get to wake up to a sunrise again,” she mused.

    “You take it for granted if you’re planet-side for long enough,” Archer said. “But Enterprise has been away so long now, I don’t know if I’ll ever take it for granted again.”

    That was one thing that hadn’t changed in the 24th Century, Dani thought. Even with the holodeck’s advanced simulation capabilities, it was usually never as good authentic nature.

    Dani shifted and pushed herself to a sitting position. “I have to go pack,” she said.

    “So do I,” Archer said.

    “I’ll see you on the transport,” Dani said. She moved to get out of bed, but Archer caught her by the hand, pulled her back to him, and kissed her.

    “I’ll meet you in the lobby in an hour,” Archer said.

    Dani nodded and left the bed.

    xxx

    The transport back to the ship was the first time that Dani had seen Kyle since he’d told her that he’d shot Marac. She could barely look at him, much less speak to him. When she sat, she angled her body so that she didn’t have to see him. It was only a temporary solution, though. Kyle was her cabin mate, and it was going to be impossible to avoid him forever.

    xxx

    Kyle opened the suitcase on his desk. Recyclers were one innovation that would really have come in handy about now.

    A room of his own was also something that he could use. Sharing quarters with someone always brought along it’s own set of challenges. After what had happened on Risa, sharing quarters with Dani was going to be even more difficult. And awkward. There was nothing he was going to be able to say or do that would take away the pain she now felt, knowing that he was the one who had killed Dukat.

    Dani walked into the room and froze at the door. Her eyes immediately found Kyle, and she quickly diverted them. She went immediately to her bunk, dropped her suitcase, and walked right back out.

    xxx

    When Archer opened the door and found Dani and the corridor outside his quarters, he wasn’t surprised.

    “Hi,” he said as he stepped to the side to let her in.

    As Dani stepped into Archer’s quarters, she realized that this was her first visit. She was surprised by the small size.

    “What do you think?” Archer asked, as the door slid shut behind her.

    “It’s a bit cramped to be the CO’s quarters,” Dani said.

    Archer chuckled. “I imagine that where you come from, Captains have spacious suites.”

    “Not just the captains, either.”

    “Do you miss it?” Archer asked.

    “Being on a ship like that?”

    “All of it. The future.”

    “A little.” Dani wrapped her arms around Archer, draping them over his neck. What she missed most was her family, but she found that the less time she spent thinking about them, the better she was able to deal with the possibility of never seeing them again. “But I miss it less and less each day.” She kissed him.

    “Have you finished unpacking already?” Archer asked.

    “No,” She walked over to the large chair next to the desk and sat down. “Kyle was there, so I just walked in, dropped my bag on my bunk, and walked right back out.”

    “I take it things are still awkward between the two of you right now,” Archer said.

    Dani momentarily closed her eyes as she responded, “I can’t even look at him right now.”

    Archer sat down in his desk chair and faced her. “Are you angry at him?” he asked.

    “Yes,” Dani said. “No…I don’t know.” She sighed. “It’s just…I know that he was only doing his duty,” she said. “I know that. But it doesn’t change the fact that he shot the man I loved, and now that I know that, there is nothing that he can say or do that will erase that fact from my mind. At the same time, that doesn’t change the person he is. He’s still one of my best friends.”

    She looked at Archer. “I just have no idea what to do,” she said.

    “Is there anything I can do to help?” Archer offered. He rolled his chair closer to her. “Maybe I could assign you to different quarters?”

    Dani shook her head. “I can’t avoid him forever,” she said. “This ship’s not big enough for that.”

    “Yeah, but you don’t have to live with him, especially if it makes you uncomfortable,” Archer said. “We wouldn’t bunk crewmen of the opposite sex in the same quarters anyway under normal conditions. But yours was a special case…What do you want to do?”

    Dani shrugged. “Take it one day at a time, I guess,” she answered. “Hope that tomorrow I feel differently.” Maybe it wasn’t just wishful thinking that everything would magically be better tomorrow and that she would no longer feel the way that she currently did. One could always hope.

  • Edge of Heaven – Chapter 10. Can’t Let Go

    “You know, ever since we met, I’ve noticed something about you,” Kyle said.  He lay on a lounger beside Dani on a white sand beach in a quiet, less touristy part of Risa.  There were a few others out enjoying the sand and sparkling water, but this particular beach wasn’t nearly as crowded as the more popular beaches located near the busier resorts.

    “What’s that?” Dani asked, responding to Kyle’s statement.

    “You’re attracted to men with power,” Kyle said.

    Dani’s head whipped around to Kyle, as she prepared to fire a defense at him, but she hesitated before the rebuttal could leave her mouth.  When she took a second to think about it, she realized that Kyle’s observation probably wasn’t that outrageous.

    “Let’s see, there was Commander Riker, Gul Dukat…and now Captain Archer,” Kyle continued.

    Instead of becoming defensive, Dani reflected on Kyle’s observation for a moment.  “You’re right,” she said.  “I never noticed it before because no one’s ever said it out loud to me.  But in my defense, I grew up surrounded by powerful people.  I’m accustomed to being around them.”  She shrugged.  “I guess it’s subconsciously affected what I find attractive in men.”

    Kyle propped himself up on his elbow and angled himself to face Dani.  “There’s something I’ve been dying to know for a while,” he said.

    “What is it?” Dani asked.

    “What exactly was the deal with Dukat?” Kyle asked. “I mean, how did you ever end up with him?”

    “I don’t want to talk about him,” Dani said calmly, staring out at the ocean.

    Kyle shook his head. “I’m sorry, I’m an idiot for even asking.  I…I can imagine that the whole ordeal must have been devastating for you.  I know you cared deeply for him.”

    Dani looked at Kyle but didn’t say anything. “No doubt you heard about the condition I was in when they found me on Cardassia Prime,” she said.

    “Yeah.  They said it was Stockholm syndrome.  But I know better than that.”

    Dani released a small laugh.  “Oh, really?” she asked, somewhat skeptically and somewhat warily.  She was unsure of what Kyle was driving at here.

    Kyle sat up on his lounger and swung his legs over the side so that he was now fully facing Dani.  He buried his feet in the soft sand and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs.  “Ever since we found each other again, I’ve been struggling with something,” he said.  “There’s something I’ve been debating whether or not to tell you.  At first, I thought it would be best to just let the past stay in the past, but the more time that passes, the more I feel like I’m keeping a big secret from you, and it’s making me feel like shit.”

    By this point, Dani had also sat up and turned to face Kyle.  “Kyle — what is it?”

    “Dani,” Kyle began, “I was there, that night on Cardassia Prime, when…when Dukat was killed.”

    Dani’s mouth hung open, unable to form any words.  She didn’t have to.  Kyle knew that the information came as a total shocker to her.

    He continued.  “You were sitting there, crying over Dukat’s body,” Kyle said.  “I told you that we had to leave because it wouldn’t be safe for you there without Dukat’s protection.  On the way to the transport, I told you not to look back.”

    Dani couldn’t believe she was hearing this.  “But I distinctly remember a pair of brown eyes looking at me when those words were spoken.  The face was covered by a mask, but I remember the eyes.  Your eyes have been blue for as long as I’ve known you.”

    “Everyone on that mission had their appearances altered slightly,” Kyle explained. “It’s a safety measure.  We all had brown eyes then.”

    Dani wanted to ask him why he’d never told her any of this, but she thought she knew the answer – that the mission had been classified.

    “I would have told you sooner,” Kyle said, “Only…only…”  He swallowed hard.  “The phaser blast that killed him came from my rifle.”

    Dani inhaled sharply.  For a moment, she felt like she was watching Marac get shot all over again, only now, instead of a faceless, masked figure, it was Kyle’s face she saw at the other end of the rifle.

    “I didn’t know how to tell you,” Kyle quickly added. “I thought I was protecting you.  At that time, I didn’t know the extent of your relationship with him.  I just knew what I’d been told by my superiors, which was that you were being held at his house as a political prisoner.  When he reached into his pocket, I had no way of knowing what he was going to bring out.  Training kicked in, and when you’re in a situation like that, you shoot first and ask questions later.”

    Dani rose from her lounger and began to walk away.

    “Dani?” Kyle said, standing. “Dani?” He moved to go after her, but she shook her head and held her hand out behind her.

    “I need to be by myself right now,” she said. “Please.  It’s…I just want to be alone for a while.”

    Kyle hung back. “Okay,” he said, nodding. “Okay.”  He watched Dani walk away from him toward some unknown destination.

    xxx

    Dani didn’t know where she was going. She didn’t really care. She only wanted to be alone, away from everyone. So she kept walking until she could no longer see Kyle.

    A nature path veered off from the beach, on Dani’s left.  She couldn’t recall ever having been on this path in any of her previous trips to Risa.  There was also the distinct possibility that this trail had ceased to exist by the 24th Century.

    The lush foliage created a canopy over parts of the trail, providing shade.  Beautiful slivers of sunlight shone through the trees, shimmering down onto the path below.

    The setting was gorgeous and peaceful – but it still wasn’t enough to distract Dani from the news she’d just learned from Kyle.  She knew he didn’t have a reason to lie, but she still couldn’t completely wrap her mind around the fact that he’d been there when Dukat had died – that he’d fired the blast that had killed him. It had been one of the most intimate and vulnerable moments of her life, and while part of her found comfort in the fact that it had been Kyle, rather than a stranger, who’d been there with her, another part of her was angry about that very same fact.  She and Kyle had been good friends – part of a group of best friends – at the Academy, yet he never bothered to tell her that he’d been there for that traumatic event in her life, even after they’d reunited with each other for this current mission.  It wasn’t fair for her to blame him for following orders, she knew, especially since she would have been obliged to do the same.  But it still angered her.

    I should at least give him credit for eventually speaking up, Dani thought.

    The path she was following had started to curve so sharply that it could nearly be considered a corner.  She didn’t see Jonathan Archer coming from the opposite direction until she’d already stumbled into him.

    Startled by the run-in and shaken from her thoughts, Dani apologized and said, “My mind was somewhere else completely, and I wasn’t paying attention to what was in front of me.”

    “It’s kind of a blind curve,” Archer said. “It’s a pleasant path when you aren’t having collisions, though.”

    Dani managed a small grin.  She was glad for the distraction, even if it was Archer, another complicated facet of her life.

    “Have you been down this path before?” Archer asked her.

    “No, surprisingly,” Dani replied.  “For some reason, I never came across it in my time.”  She shrugged.  “Maybe it doesn’t exist anymore by then.  Some resort could be sitting on top of it for all I know.”

    “It’s a shame because it really is a beautiful walk,” Archer said.  He and Dani began to walk together.

    “Where does it lead?” Dani asked.

    “I don’t know,” Archer said.  “I guess we’ll find out.”

    They walked in silence for a few moments.  While Archer wasn’t at the top of her list of people she wanted to spend time with right now, he was here.  And Dani needed to talk to someone.  Since Archer was here, he would do.

    Dani asked, “Have you ever had one of those moments where you find out something that makes you question something you used to think was unshakeable?”

    “I think everyone has those moments,” Archer said. “Have you had one recently?”

    Dani nodded, then launched into her story. “I was involved with a guy a while ago, and it was a complicated situation,” she began.  “He wasn’t…a lot of people thought was a despicable person.  And yeah, he did some reprehensible stuff in his past, a lot of it, actually.  But somehow, I still managed to fall in love with this person.  He died in my arms after being shot.  I just found out that the man who shot him is a good friend of mine from the Academy.”

    Archer studied her for a moment. “Kyle?”

    Dani gave a small nod. “He was part of a covert team that was sent to rescue me,” she said.  “It was, hands down, the worst day of my life, and I just found out that one of my best friends was responsible for it.”

    “Are you sure it was him?” Archer asked.

    “He just told me,” Dani said. “Not more than half an hour ago.  It’s not like I can really fault him for it.  He was performing his duty.  And he didn’t know what my relationship with Marac was.  But that doesn’t make the reality of it any better.

    They stopped walking near a stone bench. “Are you okay?” Archer asked.

    Dani walked over to the bench and sat down.  “Honestly, I’m not sure,” she said.  “I don’t know how I can ever look at Kyle again and not have all those memories come up.  I’m glad he told me, but at the same time, I hate it because it feels like our relationship might never be the same now.  I’m not really sure what to think now.  Or what to say to him.”

    Archer sat down beside her.  “Maybe you shouldn’t try to think about saying the perfect thing right now,” he said.  “Just say whatever comes naturally.  Or say nothing at all for now.  There’s no reason why you have to talk to him about it right away.  What’s the rush?  There are times that call for diplomacy and other times that call for simplicity.  I think this is one of those situations where you need to rely on the latter.”

    “Even if that mans not being able to be around Kyle right now?” Dani asked.

    Archer nodded.  “Yeah, I think so. I know that’s not an attractive prospect right now in your position, but if it’s something that you think is going to be a huge issue, something that you don’t want to have to deal with on top of everything else, doing nothing may be the best course of action right now.”

    Dani sighed heavily. “This is not how I thought I’d be spending shore leave,” she said. “Reliving the one memory I wish I could forget forever.”

    “You may not be able to avoid it forever, but you don’t have to think about it right now,” Archer said. “You don’t have I come up with a solution right this minute. Do you?”

    Dani shook her head. “Have any suggestions for appropriate distractions?” she asked.

    xxx

    Archer ran through the sand right up to the shore line, then kept running, splashing water around him until he was finally far enough out to dive, full-body, into the surf. He went under for a few seconds before his head and torso broke through the surface again as he stood, now chest-deep in the water. He wiped water away from his eyes and face, and waved at Dani, beckoning her to join him.

    Archer had brought Dani to a secluded bay just off the main trail where they’d first run into each other earlier in the day. At the moment, no one else was there, but it was literally off the beaten path, and wasn’t likely to become popular with most tourists.

    Dani hesitated only a moment before ripping her sarong away and running into the water toward Archer. To her, it symbolized running away from everything that had been troubling he, from  the problems that had arisen with Kyle to the issue of being stuck 200 years in the past. Though, being stuck in this particular time was proving not to be such a bad thing, she thought, especially since Jon Archer was turning out to be such a good ally.

    As if to prove her point, a large wave crashed into Dani just as she approached Archer, and he caught her in his arms so that it didn’t knock her down.  But even after the wave had receded, Archer didn’t let Dani go.

    “Sorry,” Archer said. “I just can’t seem to let go of you.”

    “That’s okay,” Dani said. “I don’t want you to.”

    Archer took that as his cue.  He leaned forward and kissed Dani, this time with much more confidence than he’d had the previous day in the caves.

  • Edge of Heaven – Chapter 9. Between Friends

    Dani wanted to spend the rest of the day alone.  But fate had other plans.  She ran into Kyle in a shopping district.

    “What a surprise to find you – alone,” Kyle said, as he and Dani approached each other on the sidewalk.  “What happened to your friends?”

    “Change of plans,” Dani said.

    There was a smile on her face, but Kyle sensed that something was wrong.  “What happened?” Kyle asked.

    Dani walked over to a nearby bench and sat.  Kyle followed suit.  Dani sighed and started to relay the story of the morning’s events.  When she was done telling him, the happy expression had left his face, and she felt even worse for being a downer.

    “What happened after you walked out?” Kyle asked. “What did Archer do?”

    “I haven’t seen him since,” Dani said.  “It’s all so stupid, because I shouldn’t have even been there with him in the first place.”

    “Dani, it’s not like you can predict the future,” Kyle said. “You told me this morning that it wasn’t like that between the two of you.  How could you have known what was going to happen?”

    Dani shook her head.  “We both know that I was kidding myself and you when I said that.  It was plain as day to you what was happening, so I definitely should have known better…what happened is for the best, anyway, given the situation we’re in.”

    “Look – don’t let this whole thing put a damper on your vacation,” Kyle said. “It’s better that this happened now rather than later on, when things would likely have been much more emotionally complicated.”

    Dani nodded and said, “You’re right.”

    “There’s  a beach party tonight not far from the hotel,” Kyle said. “You should come.  It’ll be a great way to have some fun and let off some steam.”

    Dani smiled for the first time that day since the incident in the caves.  “Okay.  Drop by my hotel room.  We can walk over together.”

    They both stood.  “I’m meeting Travis and Malcolm at the marina for a boating lesson,” Kyle said.  “You want to join me?”

    “No, I think I’ll hang around here and do some shopping.”

    “You sure?  I hate to leave you alone.”

    “It’s fine.  I promise.  I kind of want to be alone right now anyway.”

    Kyle nodded.  “See you tonight, then,” he said.

    Dani nodded, and Kyle started to walk away.  “Kyle?”  Kyle stopped and turned to Dani again.  “I’m really glad we found each other again.”

    Kyle chuckled. “Me too.  I wish we hadn’t had to take a trip to the 22nd Century to do it, though.”

    “Yeah,” Dani said. “But still…”

    Her words trailed, but she was sure Kyle understood.  She was glad he was back in her life.  He nodded and smiled again, before turning and walking away.

    It was only a few minutes before Dani found a store she liked, and she believed her day actually had a chance of ending better than it had begun.  But turns out that her optimism was to be short-lived.  Only minutes after she entered the shop, T’Pol surfaced again.  She had appeared in front of Dani as she turned from one rack of clothing, intending to move on to another.

    “Sub-Commander,” Dani said.  She was a little perplexed.  One of the last places she expected to find T’Pol was a shop.

    “Commander,” T’Pol said, her gaze seemingly assessing Dani.

    “Is there something I can do for you, Sub-Commander?” Dani asked.

    “As a matter of fact, there is,” T’Pol said.

    That certainly wasn’t the answer Dani had been expecting.

    T’Pol continued, “I came to inquire about the nature of your relationship with Captain Archer.”

    Dani inhaled sharply and nodded slowly.  “You’re referring to what happened this morning at the caves.”

    “That much should be evident,” T’Pol said.

    “We don’t really have a relationship,” Dani said.  It was the truth, so why did it feel like such a lie when she said it out loud?

    “Every officer on Enterprise has a relationship of some degree with Captain Archer, whether it be merely that of a commanding officer and subordinate or … closer.”

    “Closer?” Dani repeated.

    “Yes,” T’Pol said. “You and the captain appear to have become emotionally close during this shore leave.”

    “It may look like that, but I don’t think it’s accurate,” Dani insisted.  “We’re just friends.”

    “Then, you appear to be very good friends,” T’Pol said. “What I witnessed this morning was not customary behavior between mere friends.”

    “That was  a spur of the moment thing,” Dani said, working to keep her annoyance from surfacing in her voice.  She didn’t want to discuss this particular topic anymore, especially with T’Pol. “It just happened.  It wasn’t planned.”

    “Regardless, it was highly inappropriate.  I suggest that you cease all non-professional contact with the captain immediately.”

    “I don’t think you have anything to worry about in that department,” Dani said. “Trust me – it was over before it ever had a chance to begin.”

    T’Pol inclined her head slightly, and that was the end of the conversation.  She moved away toward the shop exit.

    xxx

    After the day that she’d had, Dani didn’t feel much like partying.  But she’d agreed to go to the party with Kyle, and that’s how she found herself on a beach, standing at the fringes of the party, staring at scores of rowdy vacationers when she really would rather be asleep in her comfy hotel bed.

    Kyle turned to Dani, wide-eyed and smiling.  It was the way Dani remembered him being at the Academy.  It was the first time she’d seen him like this since they’d been reunited.  Despite her desire to be elsewhere, she couldn’t help but smile with him.

    “See?” he said.  “I told you it would be fun!”  He began to bounce to the beat of the music as he weaved his way into the party.  Dani reluctantly followed him and resolved to stay for a little while, not longer than an hour, before heading back to the hotel for the night.

    Dani stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted Archer near a bar area with a small group of people.  Kyle, puzzled, stopped with her.  He followed her gaze to Archer and nodded knowingly.

    Dani wanted to turn and run away, but by the time she’d decided on that course of action, Archer had already spotted her.  So she stood there, frozen, watching while he said ‘goodbye’ to his companions and walked over to her.

    “Do you want me to stay…” Kyle began to ask.

    “No, it’s okay,” Dani said. “Go ahead.  I’ll catch up with you later.”

    Kyle nodded and left, as Archer approached.

    “Hi,” Archer said.

    “Hello, Captain,” Dani said.

    Archer was slightly taken aback by her decision to use his formal title.  “I didn’t know you were going to be here tonight,” he said.

    “Kyle invited me,” Dani said.  “He said it would help me relax.”

    “I bet he didn’t think I would be here when he said that,” Archer said.

    Dani winced and shook her head in response.  She began to walk away from the party, looking out at the ocean, focusing on the moons’ reflections on the rippling waves and trying her best not to be awkward.

    “Dani, I want to apologize for what happened earlier today at the caves,” Archer said, walking with her.

    “Are you apologizing for kissing me?” Dani asked.

    Archer stared blankly at Dani for a few moments.  “Um, yeah.  I-I assumed that…well, I didn’t really do much thinking at all, come to think of it.  It just…sort of came naturally, I guess.  I’m sorry.”

    “You don’t have to apologize, Jon,” Dani said. “Really, you don’t.  That kiss – it was wonderful.”

    Archer’s brow knitted with confusion.  “I don’t understand,” he said.  “When you ran away, I assumed it was because of me?”

    “No, it was because of me,” Dani said.  “I think I was overwhelmed by what had happened between us, and then T’Pol and Trip found us.  I think my brain just kind of shut down or something.”

    Archer chuckled, relieved. “So, you’re not upset with me?”

    Dani shook her head.  “No.  I don’t have any reason to be angry with you…but I do think that T’Pol is right.”

    Confusion returned to Archer again.  “About what?”

    “We ran into each other later on in a shop,” Dani said.

    “What happened?”

    “In a nutshell, she thinks that our behavior was inappropriate and that we should refrain further behavior of that nature.”

    “Were those her words?”

    “Not exactly, but that’s the general gist.”

    “And you agree?”

    Dani began to walk toward the water and away from the bulk of the party guests.  Archer walked with her.

    “Jon, we both should know better,” Dani said. “I should, at least.  Whatever it was that happened between us in the caves, it can’t go anywhere.  I mean, look at our situation.”

    “What about our situation?”

    “What happens if, suddenly, somehow, tomorrow, they find a way to send me and Kyle back to our own time?”  She shook her head.  “Or worse – what if it happens a few months down the road, after we’ve had time to develop deeper feelings for each other?”

    “That’s something I’ve been thinking about, too,” Archer admitted.  “It’s a valid point.  The only problem is that I think it’s too late.  For me, at least.”

    “What do you mean?”

    Archer stopped walking and turned to face Dani.  “Because I’ve already developed feelings for you,” he said. “That’s why I kissed you.”

    “All the more reason for us to end it now, before things get serious,” Dani said.

    Archer took a deep breath and nodded. “I know.”  They stared at each other for a few silent moments.  Archer knew that what Dani had said made sense, but he just couldn’t let this go easily.

    “What if…” Archer began, his intense gaze channeled directly into Dani’s brown eyes, “What if for tonight and tomorrow, we’re just two people on vacation who happened to meet?  They know they’ll never see each other again, most likely, and they want to make the best of it.”

    “After it’s all over, though, would you be able to go back to Enterprise and act like nothing ever happened between us?” Dani asked.  “Because I’m not sure I could.”  His proposal was tempting, but Dani knew herself too well to believe that things would be as simple as Archer posited.  She shook her head.  “Do yourself a favor, Jon – forget about me.  You’ll save yourself some heartache.”  She turned and quickly walked away from him, convinced that she’d made the right decision.