Chapter Text
Jon had never been in a room with quite so many hard headed people in his life, and in reality he wasn’t even in the room with them. He and Erika were stood in his ready room, deciding that a united front between the two of them was what was needed here. He was about to shoot back at Captain Ramirez when he felt a gentle hand on his arm, and saw Erika’s hand go up to the rest. “This is not, at all, conducive to a sensible conversation, gentlemen.” She kept an even and serious tone, though she tried to add some brevity. Jon appreciated it, and it did force him to take a long breath in.
As her words faded the only other woman on the call, Captain Niko of the Augustine, echoed the call. “Captain Hernandez is right, we need to be calm about this.” Erika nodded to the other woman, whom had spent most of the meeting with her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose, clearly feeling as exasperated with their fellow captains as Erika had been.
“What are we supposed to do?” Someone said, Jon didn’t catch who and he wasn’t as familiar with some captains as maybe he should have been, and as he was about to speak Erika once again beat him to it.
“Right now, we need to get the fleet to somewhere where we can regroup.” There was no better way to phrase it, and he looked down at her for a moment, not at all understanding how she had thought she didn’t belong here. “We have cause to believe that Proxima Colony was spared the damage of most other Terran colonies.”
That caused everyone to stop a moment, and they all thought about the youngest of Earth’s colonies. “What’s so special about Proxima?” Captain Jennings was the one to speak first this time, and Jon tried to remember anything he knew about Proxima. In truth, he was probably the Captain in this room with the least amount of actual space time. Even Erika had spent longer out in space than he had. He may have gone further, but that didn’t mean he’d gotten to visit all of Earth’s colonies.
“It is our newest. And it is in a system rich in deuterium.” Captain Daly on the Defiant was the first one to either remember or bring up the information on Proxima. “It could be more tactically advantageous for the Xindi to invade it at a later date.” That was not something that Jon was willing to think about.
“We don’t know what the Xindi plan to do. That’s one of the problems with what is going on here.” Jon broke in to that thinking and shook his head. He didn’t get the feeling that the Reptilians and the Insectoids would really care about the resources enough to invade rather than eradicate. Of course, nobody but him in this room knew how close he had actually gotten to some of the Xindi. “There are so many unknowns.”
“What if Proxima is a trap?” Erika was the one who voiced that, and out of the view of the other captains he took hold of her hand, threading his fingers between hers to try and keep her from going down the thoughts there. He was the one who knew the most here, but he wasn’t ready to share it all. He would have to, and soon, but he wanted to get the logs finished before he shared them all.
He had almost dropped out of the conversation when he heard the response from Captain Ramirez and he squeezed Erika’s hand again, knowing she had a history with him. “And what if it isn’t. There are a thousand humans there. More than ten percent of what we have left.”
“All the more reason to go and protect them as best we can.” Jon eventually broke in, if only to prevent another argument from breaking out. “The simple truth of it is we won’t be safe until there is some sort of peace, but we can’t even begin on that.” He believed that, while he trusted the Arboreal, Primate and Aquatic Xindi, he knew that the Insectoids and especially the Reptilian Xindi could not and should not be underestimated. “Have we found any government figures?” He brought the conversation back to the other part that he thought was extremely important for them.
“No. Why are you looking for a politician, Jon?” There was a ripple of scoffs and snorts throughout the captains, he was grateful that Erika didn’t join in with them, nor did Captains Niko and Jennings, clearly both knowing what he was thinking.
“Because more than three quarters of this fleet are made up of civilian ships - They need leadership, and it would be best if there was a civil leadership against us.” There was nothing he wanted more than another leader to bounce ideas off. Erika would work, and he would be proud to have her by his side, but someone civil would give them cover. “We’re essentially the military right now, there needs to be someone to keep us in balance.”
The grins all became much more sombre as they realised that he was speaking the truth, and finally Ramirez looked sufficiently chastised he just nodded and answered. “We’ll keep looking.”
“Then I think we’re all in agreement. We can run a meeting with all the civilian captains when we arrive at Proxima, get their ideas of what is next.” Erika was ever the peace-keeper, an excellent chairman when he needed one, just like she always had been.
“That’s for the best. So ordered.” He agreed then thought through the next steps to hand that out now. “Enterprise will leave at warp 2 for Proxima at oh nine hundred, once every ship has left, Columbia will follow up as the caboose, is that understood.” That would allow for stragglers and any sudden issues to have help and protection while they were worked out. As there was a chorus of affirmative responses he just waved his hand and nodded, entirely composed. “Dismissed.” He said, and the minute that the screen went dark he sighed and leant back against his desk, pulling Erika by the hand to stand just in front of him. “That was not as productive as I was hoping.”
“I’m glad Captain Niko was there to echo my calls to shut the fuck up.” She smiled and shook her head a little, a wry smile on her face at that. “Let’s try again at Proxima, where at least there is a docking port in orbit so we can meet in person. Or at least… well. Somewhere we could hold a duel if we needed to.”
Jon just smiled at that and then groaned as he thought about this all. He knew they needed to get on with this, and no matter how much he wanted to pull her into his arms and never let go, they both had work to do, and he couldn’t let that fall to the side. Especially not now all of humanity rested on his shoulders in a much more literal way than it had a week ago. “You going to be alright tonight?” He asked, though he knew that she’d been alone for days now, she’d be fine. Maybe it wasn’t her that he was worried about.
“Are you?” Erika clearly was thinking the same think that he’d been, at least about whether he was worried about her or himself, and really he didn’t know the answer to that. “When did you last sleep?”
“I don’t know… two nights ago.” He hung his head and leant forward until his forehead was resting on her shoulder, and no matter how much comfort he was taking from being so close to her he knew he should pull it back. “Rike. We need to keep a lid on this.” He sighed but even as he said that he looked forward and kissed her.
“It’s our secret, Jonathan.” She chuckled and shook her head and then motioned for him to follow her as she started out of the ready room, clearly ready to return to her own ship. “I’m going to be spending the better part of a long boring week to Proxima working out how we’re going to encourage everyone to have babies.”
She had said that as they were crossing the bridge and he didn’t even notice everyone else’s reactions as they got into the turbolift, his mind was momentarily too blank from exactly what she’d said, and it was probably a solid minute later that he finally stammered out a response. “What?”
“We’re an endangered species now Jonathan… we gotta start reproducing.” She clearly realised that the modifier was left dangling and took him down a mental road that he hadn’t allowed himself to travel down in years, but one that had been a retreat for him for some time. “Not specifically us necessarily, but as a species.”
“I wouldn’t mind if you’d meant specifically us.” He joked as they stepped out of the turbolift on C deck to allow her to easily traverse to the airlock. He just smiled the longer she went without answering, as it meant that it wasn’t an outright no.
“Maybe with the world ending you could convince me that the procedures would be worth it.” He grinned at that, unable to stop the smile that spread. If that was something that came out of this he wouldn’t be angry about it. Not that part at least. There was still a lot that he would be angry about.
“Go back to your ship.” He laughed as they pulled up alongside, doing everything he could to let go of the pit in his stomach. The one that had been there since the first Xindi attack. It was not going to be helpful. So he needed to let it go. He then just looked at her and smiled. “Do you need anything?”
“An engineer. Preferably a high ranking one.” It seemed like an easy request, but Jon suddenly remembered that Columbia hadn’t even been meant to launch yet, she had basic systems completed, but he was sure now Erika was going to be trying to finish her ship without any kind of dry dock.
“I’ll see who Trip recommends.” He wasn’t going to add anything to her load, so if Trip could spare one of his more senior engineers he was going to ask. “See you at Proxima. Where we are going to revisit the baby conversation.”
“For us or for the human race.” She teased, and the slight pull of the smile made him realise that they were probably not the only couple in the fleet going to be having that conversation in the coming weeks. “See you at Proxima, Jonathan.” She stepped into the airlock and then turned and finished her thoughts. “And when we get there… you are going to have to give me a briefing about what happened in the Expanse.” There was absolutely no arguing with the smirk on her face at that, and he just tilted his head as the door slid closed in front of her.
He barely had time to gather his thoughts when he felt a hand clap his shoulder and the very familiar sound of his chief engineer falling in to step beside him. “Damn, I haven’t seen her since the NX Programme.” Which actually just caused Jon to tilt his head even further.
“I didn’t realise you knew each other?” He asked, knowing that Erika had never mentioned knowing Trip, fairly sure that if she had she would have asked more directly for his recommendation for some engineers to go take over on their sister ship. “You should have said hello.”
Trip’s rather aggressive head shake continued adding to Jon’s confusion. “We don’t know each other.” He confirmed, so at least Jon hadn’t missed a memo on that, and Trip then had the decency to look a little bit embarrassed by whatever he was about to say. “I was scared of her back on the project.” Jon stared a moment and was about to ask a question when Trip continued speaking. “She was always just there… She had such a presence, I was intimidated.”
That made him laugh a little. Trip and Erika would actually have been great friends. Jon was certain that Trip would have appreciated her roguish behaviour when she didn’t agree with a command decision. “You’d like her.”
“You certainly seem to.” Trip smirked, and there was a moment where Jon wondered if T’Pol had told at least the engineer about the situation she’d come across in the corridor earlier, but he wasn’t going to inquire. As far as he was concerned, what he reached out for for comfort right now was none of anyone else’s business.
So he just rolled his eyes instead and shook his head as they continued walking through the corridor, vaguely in the direction of engineering. “We dated. For a long time actually.” Another gentle smile as he thought about her, trying to focus on the future, not think about the past. “So yeah I do like her. Always have.”
“You didn’t always like the people you dated Cap’n I think we all remember Rebecca.” Stopping in his tracks he glared for a moment, pretty sure his time with Rebecca had been before Trip had been part of the project.
“Why does everyone hold her over my head?” He sighed, knowing that Erika would probably have said something similar. Though given the history between the two women he also probably wouldn’t think of her as being objective about it. Instead he shook his head and turned to the reason Trip would have been where he was heading anyway. “We’re heading off for Proxima in the morning. But do you have an engineer you’d recommend to go take over Columbia?”
Now it was Trip’s turn to look confused, and Jon took a sick, perverse pleasure that he had managed to turn the tables, even if it was on a much more serious topic. “She doesn’t have an engineer?” Trip asked after a moment of clearly trying to figure out the maths in her head.
“They were on a shakedown. Every engineer over there is from Jupiter Station. I get the feeling they aren’t the most spaceworthy bunch.” He also knew that at least three that she’d had on the trip were aliens who were probably not so happy at this point. “There were also a reasonable number of non-humans there, they almost certainly want to be returned to their homes.”
“I’ll see who I can spare, but if she needs a chief I recommend Lieutenant Hess.” Kate Hess had been Trip’s number two ever since Enterprise launched, and they’d all come to rely on her, but if Trip was ready to let her go then that was who Jon would recommend. “She’s been with me for years, stellar engineer. It’s about time she moved up.”
“I’ll get Erika to reach out to her.” Jon stopped then as they reached the hatch for engineering and reached out to hold his engineer by the shoulder a moment. Feeling like a second of contact was wanted by both of them. ”How you holding up?”
“You mean after watching our entire planet obliterated?” The statement was delivered with no emotion and then there was a slow blink and a shrug to go along with it. Trip had been suffering for months, now, because of the Xindi. This was just a bonus. “Honestly I think I’m too numb to it all at the moment I haven’t really had time to process it. You?”
“I don’t know. I swing between fury and despondency.” He admitted honestly, deciding of all the people he could trust right now, the ones he’d most trust with his emotions were Trip and Erika, so they were who he’d try and rely on. “Maybe that’s normal?”
“Least you have some other captains around, should help you figure out what is normal.” That seemed like Trip expected the Captains to be far, far more united on anything than they were. Right now their training and loyalty to one another were keeping everything going, but he didn’t think it would continue that way if there wasn’t an obvious path to a solution soon. “Because I don’t think society is gonna ever be normal again.”
“Erika made an interesting point just as we were leaving the meeting now.” Jon said, as he thought about a new normal that would be created and that would definitely be something that was needed for any kind of normalcy to resume. “If we look to the future, the days after tomorrow… we’re all gonna have to start having babies.”
“Starfleet rules don’t exactly allow for that.” Trip chuckled and then shook his head clearly not sure about any of that. “At least not for those of our ranks. I guess the lieutenants and ensigns would be fine…”
“Maybe we’re going to need to think about suspending those rules… There’s only a few thousand of us left, Trip. We’re going to need to repopulate.” Jon hadn’t really had time to consider it, and he didn’t need to ask Erika. He already knew that she thought the frat rules were ridiculous. She’d made that very clear during their separation four years earlier and he doubted anything since would have changed her mind about it.
“I don’t think that’ll be hard with the civilian population. There are always baby booms after tragedies and wars.” That wasn’t something that Jon had considered either, but it wouldn’t surprise him. Wasn’t that the first thing that he and Erika had done when they were together? Searched for some physical comfort, something to reconnect them with their humanity, and with another person. “But I don’t think the Starfleet crews would hate that being lifted either. Maybe one to talk about in a future captain’s briefing.”
“Maybe.” He let himself think about it for a moment as Trip headed into the engine room, looking through to see clearly if Jon was going to follow him. “I’m going to check in with Phlox, tell Hess to expect a call from Captain Hernandez, and prepare her for the fact Columbia is… well unfinished.”
“Will do…” Trip grinned then pulled the door shut after him, leaving Jon in the corridor, wandering slightly aimlessly and idly considering the damage throughout the ship. Between Columbia being unfinished and Enterprise being so terribly damaged he doubted that either ship would really be able to put up that much of a fight if the Xindi Reptilians or Insectoids were actually going to come knocking.
Eventually though, he made his way down to his destination, stepping in to a still quite well occupied sickbay. Though it had only been five days since they had been in The Expanse. “Busy down here Doctor?” He asked, though it was not really a question that could be answered.
“We still have a lot of crew recovering from our last few days in the Expanse.” Phlox admitted and then tried to put on a smile, though it was clear he was feeling every inch as tired as the rest of the crew was looking at this point. “Are you here for any particular reason?”
“I’m just checking in, wanting to know about the health of the crew. Beyond the obvious.” He motioned around him, though he was glad that three had left to their quarters since the day before. Ensign Aquino and it looked like crewmen Mably and Whittle.
Phlox took one of his long breaths that often made it clear that not everything was going the best it could, Jon just hoped that it wasn’t something that was immediately going to impact them all. “Physically the crew is doing quite well, Captain. Mentally… We may have problems in the future, but for now we don’t need to be worrying too much about it.”
“Am I going to be arranging with one of the Denobulan ships to take you home when we get to Proxima?” Given what he knew about Phlox he doubted this was a question he really needed to ask, but he felt like after the experience in the Expanse and then literally watching Earth be destroyed he may feel differently.
“Captain?” Phlox asked and Jon just nodded, hoping to reassure him that no matter the answer, Jon would respect it. “I know that, technically, the IME likely will collapse after this, at least with regards to humans… but I feel like my place is here, with your fleet.”
“Thanks. I needed to make sure. I will also be checking with T’Pol. I can’t imagine that the Vulcans would be very happy about her staying with us now. Not that they really were before.” Though he didn’t think that there was anything they could do to force her to go home.
“I’m glad you thought to check Captain.” There was a moment where Phlox’s face was genuinely more cheerful, but then he brought it back, remembering what was now happening. Though truthfully, Jon would have preferred for the happiness to have stayed on his face longer. “When can we expect to be at Proxima?”
“In about ten days.” He said, quietly making plans to start getting headcounts sent to him so he could get a firmer count on how many humans there were left. Send out word through all their contacts for humans who’d been off world so they knew that there were other survivors still around.
Phlox, seemingly oblivious to Jon’s mental calculations that Erika had triggered, just cheerfully continued. “I will have my letter of request to remain with Enterprise ready for transmittal then.”
At that Jon couldn’t help but smile and then nod. He was hoping that that was going to be all they needed.“It will be easy, we’re going to have a whole group of Denobulan medical vessels joining us at Proxima for at least a few days. Hopefully enough to deal with the civilian fleet, and maybe find one or two other physicians like yourself who might care to stay with us a little longer.”
“I’m sure there would be no harm in asking. My daughter is coming, she sent me a letter. She may like to stay with our little fleet.” Phlox’s unwavering optimism was always something that Jon appreciated, and it was why he found it so easy to speak to the doctor. As Jon stood there awkwardly for a moment it was clear that Phlox picked up on his conflicted thoughts. “Is there anything else?”
Should he ask the doctor his opinion about Erika’s though that they needed now, as a society, to start making babies? He wasn’t sure. Immediately he even thought that he might ask Phlox specifically about his and Erika’s problems six years earlier and what could be done now? That might be too much when they didn’t really know themselves if they wanted that yet. “Not right now, Doctor, thank you.” He said then sighed and shook his head. “I should go and try to get some sleep.” There were going to be a lot of decisions he’d need to make in the morning, and he thought that maybe talking some of this over with Porthos would make it all seem more straight forward.