Later Days {Star Trek Enterprise Fan Fiction}

Seven Women, Part 6

Erika Hernandez

Erika was my boss for, seemingly, forever, until I started working for Captain Robau. And now he's a casualty, and all that. But I digress. I haven't exactly got too much more digression time, eh, Kevin?

Erika was captain of the second Warp Five ship, and her ship made First Contact with our allies, the Daranaeans when I was just a kid, and she was just, all around, a great boss. I always wanted to please her, to give her my all. She took more time with me, too, and I sometimes wonder if Dad had anything to do with that.

See, Dad's origins are technically classified; he changed his name and everything. For the Calafans, who know about the other side of the pond and visit it pretty much every day or night, the idea of hiding such a thing must seem strange, like a weird form of overkill. But whatever. When Dad was brought over, it became obvious pretty quickly that, while he really loved Lili, he also didn't always know his own strength. Without even meaning to, he hurt her, and Malcolm, I think he would've killed Doug with his bare hands if Lili had died. But thank God she didn't.

So Doug must've seemed like a super soldier to Lili's commanding officer, Jonathan Archer. Plus Doug was counterpart to the deceased MACO Major, Jay Hayes. I guess it was thought to be too confusing, and maybe too much of a security risk of some sort. After all, which hostile and aggressive alien government wouldn't want super soldier Doug? They'd have run him into the ground, slurped up all of his DNA and dissected him, I suspect. So I know there's, somewhere, a rather thick file in Starfleet's classified section, about our father.

I'm the only one of the kids who went into Starfleet, and so I imagine Erika was given a peek at, well, at least part of that file. I'm definitely stronger than many of my fellow soldiers, and even now, at age seventy-three. I still run faster than a lot of them, but nobody can outrun a fireball like this. No one.

But Erika, she always cut me slack when I needed it. I think she knew that if I got angry, I could be really damaging. She made sure to channel that anger. Despite the fact that Dad retired the Captain of his MACO unit, I didn't think I was cut out for a commission when I was younger. But she saw it. Erika believed in me. I never woulda made Lieutenant Commander without her.

That is getting to be one serious crowd on that bridge, Kevin. It's gotta be some mistake, some clerical error or something. They can't possibly all be for me.