"The Fairest One of All." CHAPTER THREE





Mired in mixed emotions Archer decided that he needed more information before he could make any kind of decision, and there was only one person who could give him the answers that he needed. "Can you bring him around?"

"Of course." Phlox moved toward Charlie's bedside. "He'll probably be ravenous when he wakens."

"That's okay." Archer said. "We can talk while he eats."

**********

True to the doctor's prediction, Charlie woke up hungry. So with Phlox's permission, Archer sprang the engineer from sickbay and guided him toward the mess hall. As they walked Charlie kept looking around. Archer couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, but the engineer was certainly jumpy. "Is something wrong?"

"Well..." Tucker hesitated for a moment. He wasn't used to being able to ask his Archer anything, but this wasn't his Archer, he reminded himself. "Where's your personal guard?"

"My what?" What the hell was a personal guard? It sounded kind of pompous to Archer.

"You know, your body guard."

"Ah..." That explained much. Archer realized that his counterpart must be all ego. Then the captain thought about all those scars on Charlie's bones and wondered if sadist might be a better term. "Well, I'm beginning to see why a lot of people might want to attack your Captain Archer, but I need no such protection. Nobody's going to jump me. At least not on the way to the mess hall." Charlie didn't say anything as he took this in, but he stopped his nervous survey of the corridor.

"Here we are." Archer gestured to the mess hall doors. Since they arrived in between lunch and dinner the room was sparsely filled, with only a few late eaters.

The captain started to guide the engineer to his private dining room when Charlie stopped still. Rooted, the engineer was terrified to take another step. "That's... that's the Captain's Mess, isn't it?"

"Yes it is. I thought we might eat in private and talk..." Archer trailed off as he saw Charlie, now white as a sheet, start to back away. "But we don't have to." Archer amended hastily. We can eat out here if you like."

The engineer made himself take a minute to remember when he was before he shook away whatever nightmarish images that he had associated with that room. Relieved to see the color return to his friend's face, Archer led Charlie to a table by the window. Then got him a tray full of leftover spaghetti, salad and dessert and took it over to the engineer. The captain set the tray before him, but Charlie did nothing. He just sat still and stared at the food.

"Is something wrong?" Archer finally asked.

"Sir?" Apparently the engineer didn't understand the question.

"With the food?" Archer pointed to the tray. "If you don't like spaghetti I can get you something else."

Imagine, Charlie thought, someone asking "him" what he wanted to eat. "No, it looks great." The engineer sniffed. "Smells great too. I'm so hungry, I can't wait to try it."

"Then why don't you eat?"

"Well, I'm waiting for you to take your share, sir."

"My share?" This answer didn't enlighten Archer any, until realization dawned. "You've never seen this much food in one sitting, have you?"

"No, sir." Charlie admitted. "The captain always takes a share of everything we have, including what we eat. It's his way."

"I bet it is." Archer's anger sparked as he began to silently curse his counterpart. Taking a share was a way for a dictator to keep control of his people. "Look Charlie. I'm getting the idea that life is pretty rough where you come from, but here on this Enterprise things are different. We have plenty of food, enough for everybody and I don't take a share. All of this..." he gestured to the tray. "...is for you."

"Me?" At first the engineer couldn't comprehend such riches. "Really?"

"Really." Archer confirmed. "Now, go ahead and eat."

"Yes sir." Now that it was permitted, Charlie grabbed his fork and started shoveling in food like there was no tomorrow.

"Woah, slow down." The captain ordered. "You'll just make yourself sick if you keep eating that fast. Take your time. The food's not going anywhere."

"Aye, Cap'n." The engineer eased his pace, but only a bit. While he didn't doubt Archer's word, a part of him still didn't believe all this bounty was just for him and he wanted to make sure that he had eaten all he could, just in case.

As Charlie ate, Archer noticed the fully formed nipples on his left wrist. Another sign of confirmation that this man was not his Trip Tucker. Trip's nipples disappeared about a week after the Xyrillian's extracted the fetus from his body. There we no physical traces of his pregnancy remaining on the Trip he knew, but there sure as hell was on this one, Archer thought as he glanced at Charlie's bulge. This brought the captain back to the main order of business. "Charlie, if you don't mind I'd like to ask you a couple of questions."

"You want to know how I got here and where your Trip Tucker is, am I right?"

"Right on the nose." Archer was a bit surprised. He knew his Trip had a brilliant mind hidden underneath his country drawl. It looked like this one did to.

Charlie sighed. The story was so hard to explain, but he had to try to organize his jumbled thoughts at least enough to sound a little coherent in front of this captain. "I guess that it started when I was testin' a new spy camera for Cap'n Archer."

"Spy camera?" Archer wondered what his counterpart would need with that.

"My cap'n wanted to scout out the opposition's strength without them bein' aware that we were around, so I came up with a little remote camera probe about the size of this." Charlie held up his glass. "Worked like a dream too. Flyin' through the planet's atmosphere it was able to pick up crystal clear images, full of detail, from over four hundred miles away. Then I ran into problems when I tried to beam the probe back aboard. There was a storm ragin' in the ionosphere and it interfered with my transport."

"Let me guess. The probe never materialized."

"Oh it materialized all right, but not on the transport pad. The camera was showin' a picture of one of Enterprise's corridors." Charlie told him in-between bites. "The probe was still sendin' back telemetry, but the coordinates made no sense. All the readings were backward. The motor still worked though, and I flew the probe up and down the corridors hopin' to figure out where it was on the ship exactly. Finally I recognized the armory so I went to go and pick it up,"

Archer didn't need Charlie to finish this part of his story. The captain could see the ending as if the page were printed out right before him. "You couldn't find the probe because it wasn't on your ship. It was on mine!"

"Exactly." Charlie was pleased that Archer came up with the correct answer right away. Tucker wasn't so sure if his cap'n was bright enough to grasp such concepts. Well, maybe he was smart enough, Charlie admitted, but his Archer just couldn't be bothered to pursue such scholarly pursuits, not when there was plundering and killing to be done. "I wasn't sure what the hell was goin' on at first. I mean, our ships are similar in design and construction, but there are differences."

"I bet there are." A picture of everyday life on that ship went through Archer's mind. A pretty grim picture too, the captain gathered, based on the information that he had so far, anyway.

"The first thing I noticed was everythin' was so clean. We're a little more messy on my ship. It smells a bit better here too." Charlie punctuated this statement by deeply inhaling the appetizing scent of the apple pie before he began to eat. "Then I saw your Charlie Tucker...Trip...walkin' down the corridor and I was just blown away. I mean, that was me. I was watchin' myself."

This whole double universe thing had been shocking enough to Archer and he'd only heard about it. The effect of actually seeing yourself like that must have been staggering.

"I was so stunned that my mind shut down for what seemed forever." Charlie admitted. "It was only after Trip walked out of my sight that I began to realize what it was that I was lookin' at."

"A parallel universe?"

"The telemetry confirmed it. Now that I knew what was goin' on I could start to make sense of all those wacko readings." Charlie had spent days trying to unscramble the intriguing puzzle. "I knew the transport must have sent the probe here, but I had to figure out how. So I hid the camera in one of your Jefferies Tubes while I went over the transport logs. I had to find out what was goin' on."

"What did your captain think about that?" Archer regretted the question immediately after he asked it because it caused the engineer to become embarrassed and duck away. "You didn't tell him, did you?"

"Oh I told him." Charlie conceded, the color beginning to flee from his face again, this time ever so slowly. "I told him the camera was lost in the transport."

"I'm guessing that he didn't take the news well?"

"That's an understatement." The speed increased, and Charlie's pink facial pigment rapidly drained away as he vividly recalled his captain's violent reaction to the news.

For one horrifying moment Archer was sure that the engineer was going to pass out. The captain's counterpart must have exacted some horrendous punishment for the mere memory of it to effect Charlie this much. Archer gently shook Tucker's arm. "It's all right, Charlie. You're safe now. It's all right."

Charlie felt the warmth and concern coming from Archer and relished the fact that somebody else actually seemed to care about him. Then the warm feelings died away when Tucker thought about what was to come. "You've been really nice to me since I've been here, Cap'n and I really appreciate it, so I hope you don't end up bein' too angry with me when you hear what I've got to tell ya next."

As Charlie said this the captain could clearly see the fear prominent in the engineer's eyes, but this time it was different. It took awhile, but then Archer belatedly realized that Tucker was now afraid of him, not his counterpart. "Whatever it is, Charlie, I promise you I won't hurt you. No one on this ship will."

The engineer, though still pale, took a deep breath and summoned up all of his courage. "I sorta spied on you, Cap'n. Not in anyone's private quarters..." Charlie hastened to add. "...but I watched you all for several days."

A flash of anger blasted through Archer at the thought of them being watched, but he was careful to control his face. He didn't want to scare Charlie anymore then he was all ready. "Why?"

Realizing he survived the initial confession, the engineer hastened to explain. "I had to find out who you were. This place..." He gestured to the room around them. "It's so different. Not in just the way it looks, but in the ways that count. In the way you all are. I had to find out if it was as good as it looked. I was desperate."

"Why Charlie? Why were you so desperate?"

Tucker struggled to put his feelings into words. He knew everything came down to this moment. He was going to fail or succeed right here and right now. "When my Cap'n Archer found out I was pregnant he went ballistic. The only women on our ship are either concubines or slaves and all of them are taken care of to make sure that they can't get knocked up, so when it happened to me..." Charlie's voice trailed off as he glanced at the door to the Captain's Mess. "He went kinda crazy."

"I bet." Archer remembered Charlie's skeletal scan. Phlox had told him that the most recent break, the one on Tucker's arm, had occurred two to three weeks ago. That would be right around the time that Charlie became pregnant. Archer followed the engineer's gaze to the Captain's Mess and had no trouble visualizing the horrors that went on in that room.

Charlie began to breathe in large and uneven gasps. The memories were so vivid that even flashing on them for a moment was enough to spark a small panic attack, but Tucker fought through it. Desperate to make this Archer understand. "At first he wanted me to... to... have an abortion...but I wouldn't do it! I'd never stood up to the cap'n before, but I did then." For a minute Charlie lost control and let the panic overtake him. "I couldn't let him just... murder my little girl!" Then Tucker got a hold of himself and after a few minutes he calmed down enough to continue. "I thought the cap'n was gonna kill me right then and there, but then Malcolm had a suggestion. He thought it would be amusin' to let me continue to carry my baby. It would make the games more entertainin'."

"Games?" Archer was afraid to imagine what kind of "games" that his barbarian counterpart would find amusing.

"The cap'n holds a banquet in one of the cargo bays every so often. Usually the after dinner entertainment is a couple of fights amon' the crew. Cap'n Archer stages bouts between crewmembers who have made him angry or broken one of the rules. It's his way of keepin' order and bein' entertained at the same time."

"Charming." Imagine, in the 22nd century the Roman Coliseum was alive and thriving. Archer hated the idea of such brutality happening on his ship, even if it was one in another universe. Humanity never seemed to learn. "Does everyone on your ship enjoy these games?"

Charlie shook his head. "Only Archer and his crowd. Most of the crew is made up of good people, Cap'n. We just spend most of our time tryin' to duck under the radar and keep on livin', but it's hard to stay unnoticed when you have a baby pokin' out from under your shirt."

Tucker let the implication hang in the air, but Archer instantly picked up on what must have really happened over there, and the thought of it made him sick. "Your captain didn't make you participate in a fight, did he?" When Tucker's eyes closed and he turned away Archer had his answer. "Oh, Charlie. I'm so sorry."

"Archer came into the ring himself to fight me. He told me it was one hell of a honor."

"Some honor." The captain never considered himself to be a masochist, but he would have dearly loved to take a punch at his other self right then. "The coward picked on you because he knew he had the advantage."

"That's right." Tucker allowed himself a glimmer of hope. Archer was getting the picture. Maybe his mission was gonna work out after all. "My cap'n knew that I would have to spend most of my resources to protect my baby." Charlie's hand tightened around the bulge on his abdomen protectively.

Archer could easily picture the scene. "So with you protecting your child, your captain was free to beat the crap out of the rest of you."

Charlie's paleness was replaced with a flush of anger. "I knew he wasn't gonna kill me, that would end the torment too soon, but Cap'n Archer had great pleasure in draggin' things out as long as he could The cap'n would throw a punch at my stomach, knowing full well that I'd turn away, waddle away they called it. Then he and his friends would start laughin' at my expense. Everyone had a great time calling me names as I struggled to keep my baby away from the cap'n."

Archer felt the bile rise in his throat. The thought of anyone getting pleasure out of tormenting a parent, who's only concern was to protect his unborn child was sickening.

"But then the worst thing happened." Charlie continued. "The cap'n was able to get past my guard and he landed a punch right on the pod."

"Oh, God."

"I was terrified that he might have hurt my little girl. There wasn't anythin' more that I could do to protect her and Archer knew it, but fortunately he decided to stop then. They'd had enough entertainment for one night and the captain knew that I'd only get fatter and slower as my pregnancy progressed. That would make the fights far more entertainin' in the months to come."

"And more dangerous." Archer focused in on the most important aspect of the matter. If Charlie couldn't move very fast he would have more and more trouble protecting his child from that Archer's attacks. On purpose or not, the damage to the baby could be extreme.

"That's it exactly." Charlie's eyes started to fill with tears. "You see now why I had to cross over. There is no way my little girl could survive several more of these attacks and even if she did..." The engineer's voice faltered for a moment because this next part was so hard to tell. He barely had the courage to think about it, but he told himself to get it together. "Malcolm suggested to Archer the ultimate 'entertainment'. The cap'n was plannin' for me to give birth right there in the circle, in front of everybody."

Archer was aghast. "Without any medical help?"

"Just me and the baby." Charlie had many nightmares picturing the disaster that he knew was to come. "It would be quite a spectacle."

It would be more than that. Archer remembered all of the warnings and dangers that Phlox had given them when their Trip had been pregnant. This baby was attached to his heart for Christ sake. No human male had gone through this before. Who knew what kind of complications might arise if Charlie were to give birth under controlled medical conditions, but out there in the arena, all alone..."

Charlie could see that Archer had come to the correct conclusion. "There's no way that my baby could survive."

"Or you." Archer pointed out.

"I don't care about me!" The engineer was all but shouting now. "I care about my little girl. That's why I was forced to kidnap your Trip Tucker. I wouldn't have done it otherwise, but I was desperate. That's why your Trip agreed to take my place for three weeks until I come to term. He was willin' to help me save my baby. So, Cap'n...it all comes down to you. I'm beggin' you, please let me stay and give birth to my baby here. If I go back over there she is going to die, but here..." Charlie leaned forward and grasped Archer's hand. "Please, Cap'n. You're the only chance she's got!"

Archer looked at the desperate man sitting across from him. A man desperate enough to reach out and touch Archer even though the captain knew that Charlie was still, on some level, afraid of him. After all he had the face of a barbarian.

Archer brought a friendly smile to his face and tightened his fingers around Charlie's hand in a reassuring gesture. "Of course you can stay, Charlie. "We'll do everything in our power to make sure that your child is going to be born safely and healthy."

"Oh thank you, Cap'n. Thank you." Weeks of fear and frustration welled over and Charlie broke down. Understanding, the captain held Charlie in his arms and let the frightened man calm cry. Archer felt a little better than he had an hour ago. At least one problem was resolved for the moment, but still... what to do about Trip?

To be continued......

 

 

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