Reversal {Star Trek Enterprise Mirror Universe fan fiction}

It's Like Nothing Else

"Oh, there you are,” Lili was considerably more alert. "I missed you last night."

Doug kissed her. "Doc said you needed to sleep. And I kinda needed to sleep flat. I won't, uh, I don't like sleeping without you."

She smiled and sat up. "Did you see anyone we know?"

"Yes,” he said, “I had a dream about Miva."

"Oh. Did you tell her how sorry we both are for her loss?"

"Yes, of course. She said, and man, I don't know how they do it, but she said she's still got her husband and while it hurts her, she's still kind of covered. She said she knows her counterpart is also a doctor on this side."

"Good to know,” Lili said, “I dreamed of Beth Cutler. She says Tripp, uh, she calls him Charles, she said he's getting better."

"I have a debriefing I need to get to. Spill all about the Defiant. How do I, um, look? Keeping in mind you're probably already sick of this outfit." 

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/jespah301/Writing/3210_culp_steven_2.jpg

"Perfectly fine,” she said, “We should buy you more clothes."

"And sexy things for you,” he said, “But I don't know how much of a budget we've got to work with. I, uh, I have an idea of how to help with that."

"Oh?"

"I don't want to say until I make a few inquiries, okay? You can handle a little surprise, right?"

"Sure,” she said, “I'll be here; Jenny's going to come visit me and I'll probably also do a lot of sleeping. I love you."

"And I love you,” he said, “Now, I'd better go." he kissed her face and departed.

=/\=

The Executive level staff were assembled in the Main Conference Room. Brian was setting out breakfast foods. "And, uh, we have two kinds of danish and there are muffins. Fruit over there, coffee and tea, and everything to go with it is over here."

"Crewman, you seem to be enjoying your new role,” Malcolm said, grabbing a sesame bagel.

"Yes, sir. I'm thinking of enrolling at the Mars Culinary Institute. I'm gonna ask Ensign O'Day to put in a word for me."

"I'm sure she'll do that for you,” Malcolm said, smiling a little tightly.

"All right," Jonathan said once everyone had sat down. "Hayes, you're on."

"First, I want to reiterate that I'm no engineer,” Doug began. "And Tucker and Crossman can be reached, through either Lili or me, at any time. So you should talk to them, too, at some time. Tucker here, in particular, should talk to them."

"You do realize how I made contact with you last time, right?" Tripp asked. "I, uh, she and I, we ...."

"What Commander Tucker is trying to say is," Phlox said through the screen at Sick Bay, "that he and the Ensign crawled into her bed together."

"It was the for the purpose of making contact." T'Pol clarified.

"Uh, yeah." Tripp said.

"I'm sure you were a gentleman,” Doug said, “I do trust her, you know."

"Moving right along," Jonathan said, "the debriefing?"

"Yes, of course,” Doug said, “The Defiant is around one hundred and fifty years later in design than the NX-01. The main difference is, it's loaded with sensors. They are everywhere, and they have to be maintained at a level that's just not done here. The entire hull is one huge sensor grid. Every system is sensor-dependent. So here's what that means. Let's look at Tactical, which of course I know the best. It means that targeting is better and more accurate. It means that targeting takes into account not only X, Y and Z space coordinates but also the speed, pitch and yaw of the ship in a way that I know you just don't do right now."