Future Matches {Star Trek fan fiction - slash }

There's Something About Hoshi

Ted Stone was a nice guy. He was polite, kind to animals and kept in regular contact with his family back on earth. He was dependable and pleasant. And he adored Hoshi.

Hoshi, for her part, thought he was okay, but nothing too exciting. Ever since her supposed future husband, the one the second Enterprise crew had told her about, had left Starfleet, she’d been alone and Ted had been there. But she had not been thrilled with the other guy, old what’s his face, and had strongly suspected that her alternate self had merely settled for him because he was around. There were twenty-eight women on the Enterprise, and twice as many men, and she had settled for someone who was just okay?

She was determined not to do that, but she was kind of lonely. She was also insightful enough to realize that she was more in love with the idea of being in love than anything else. She also knew that she was bored silly, but what she didn’t know was that, in November of 2160, that was all about to change.

Hoshi was at her station on the Bridge, as per usual, listening for various signals when she picked up one, “Captain, I have a signal. Were you expecting anything out here?”

“No, not really. Put it through,” encouraged Captain Archer.

“This is the High Council of Aris,” said an alien with a beautifully detailed pattern on his forehead, “Are you here on peaceful business?”

“Yes,” replied the captain, “I am Captain Jonathan Archer of the Starship Enterprise. We are on a peaceful mission of exploration.”

“I see,” said the alien. Sound was cut off as the alien conferred with others in what appeared to be the council chamber.

“We lost the sound,” said the captain.

“I’m trying, but I think that was deliberate,” Hoshi said, after running a quick diagnostic on her equipment.

“So sorry,” said the alien, “We have forgotten our manners. I am Councilor Milit. My colleagues and I were just conferring and we would like to invite you and your Bridge crew for the evening. Our planet is about two hours away from you at the speed of warp one. I trust that is not too far a distance for you to travel?”

“And their, um, mates. I mean spouses,” said an alien behind Milit.

“Yes, oh yes, of course, with your spouses if you wish to include them they would be most welcome.”

“Well, that’s very generous of you,” said Captain Archer, “But I need to keep some of my Bridge crew here so they can fly the ship. Hoshi, would you like to sit in the captain’s chair this evening?”

“That would be interesting.” Anything was better than doing yet another full diagnostic on her equipment.

“The female,” said an alien behind Milit, “She, oh, she should come, too,” he said. Apparently they had forgotten to turn the sound off that time.

“What is the fem-, is it Hoshi? What is Hoshi’s function, I mean, what are her duties?” asked Milit.

“May I, Captain?” Captain Archer nodded so Hoshi continued, “I’m the ship’s Communications Officer.”

“Oh, how interesting.” Milit seemed to be thinking on his feet. “We have ancient hieroglyphics here which no one can read any longer. Would you be interested – I mean, if it were appropriate – for you to join us? So that you could help our scientists read the inscriptions?”

Now it was Hoshi’s turn to turn off the sound. “Captain, I would enjoy that quite a bit, if it’s all right with you. Maybe I can, um, take command some other time.”