Title: Light the Day
Fandom: Star Trek Enterprise
Rating: PG
Length: 400 words
Content notes: AU based on the episode "E2"
Pairing: Jonathan Archer/Malcolm Reed
Author notes: This is an AU story that stands alone, though it could be considered a possible follow-up to Unsettled. It takes place ten years after Enterprise returns to Earth from the Delphic Expanse and makes reference to the Season 3 episodes "Azati Prime" and "E2". Jonathan and Malcolm have a long-established relationship; this is Jonathan's voice. The title is a reference to the lyrics quoted from "May It Be" - Enya.
Summary: A lingering question answered.

May it be you journey on
To light the day
“You spoke with Daniels? It’s been a long time…” Malcolm’s surprise is an echo of mine when Daniels materialized in my quarters earlier this evening.

“Ten years, give or take a few months. He said he’d been ordered not to contact me again.”

“But he did. What was important enough to be worth defying his superiors?”

“This was an unofficial visit… nothing he thought would have an impact on timelines. He’d learned something he thought I deserved to know. He discovered what became of the E2 Enterprise.”

We’d wondered what happened to that ship and crew after they’d covered our escape from the subspace corridor in Xindi space, but had never emerged themselves. Daniels once told me he didn’t know.

“After taking heavy damage from the Kovaalans, they attempted to get through the corridor to join us, but it destabilized and they were time-shifted… 351 years into the future.”

I pause, letting him absorb that information.

“Over three hundred years? What kind of world did they find? Had Earth survived?”

“Yes. Apparently we’d succeeded in stopping the Xindi weapon, and the Federation was established… just as we saw it founded recently. But it has many more members then… including the Xindi.”

Malcolm nods, unsurprised by that news. He and I have talked many times about my hope of establishing a formal diplomatic relationship with them… in time.

“Do you remember Daniels showing me the Enterprise J when he was trying to dissuade me from my trip to Azati Prime? He pointed out that there were Xindi serving in Starfleet… on that ship… four hundred years from now. What he didn’t know at the time was the identity of one of the helm officers. She was half-Xindi… and the daughter of Karyn Archer.”

Malcolm wraps his arms around me and we simply hold each other silently for long moments. I’m so grateful to Daniels for the information and the risk he took in conveying it. When he’d said that the E2 ship took heavy damage, I was afraid that his message would be a confirmation of Karyn’s death. That they’d shifted into friendly Xindi territory, and that many of them survived and made lives for themselves in that time was more than I ever expected to learn.

Malcolm finally looks up, meeting my eyes. “How do you feel about it, love… your great-great-granddaughter?”

I’m sure my smile says it all.

“Content.”___________________________________