A few hours later, Karyn had downloaded everything she had on the Delphic Spheres and was showing Jon and T'Pol all the information. Meanwhile, Alex Reed told Malcolm the abbreviated version of his other life in the other timeline.

"So, you were kind of the king of tragedy and all," said Alex. "You know. Brooded around. But my great-grandmother's first husband died in an early pirate attack on the colony. So...that's how you ended up married to Julia Lynch."

Malcolm stared into the eyes of the young man.

"And Hoshi is your great-grandmother," said Malcolm slowly.

"Yes," said Alex as he sipped on a generous glass of Ikaaran tea, "but on the other side of the family. She and Major Hayes."

Malcolm couldn't imagine a military presence on Enterprise, but then again he couldn't imagine an attack that had cost seven million lives, either.

Meanwhile, Trip was pondering his granddaughter's ears. And his granddaughter, who had not yet specifically explained that she was a quarter Vulcan because Trip and T'Pol had married and produced her father - knew that the Enterprise's chief engineer was good enough at math to figure out that was what had happened.

Lizzie looked over at the exceptionally Vulcan woman helping the Captain Archers with their data. She looked at her grandfather, who had died before she was born, and saw the warm, funny and brave man that her T'Pol had described to her. Lizzie felt a bit sad that in this timeline, it was unlikely the two would ever fall in love.

Bummer, she thought. According to her T'Pol they had been happy for many years.

"So," whispered Lizzie, "It's not like I'm corrupting a timeline if I tell you what happened. How you and my foremother over there...well, you know, it must seem very unlikely."

This was very awkward, thought Lizzie. Very awkward.

Trip glanced over at T'Pol. "Don't get me wrong. I respect her, even like her. And she is certainly easy on the eyes...but I can't imagine falling in love with a Vulcan."

"Long story short," said Lizzie, "In that timeline, your sister, my namesake...she died in the attack on Earth. It threw you into a deep depression. You couldn't sleep. Phlox was afraid you'd get addicted to the sedatives you kept asking for, and so Foremother started helping you sleep using a Vulcan technique...well...one thing led another. Here I am more than a century later." 

Her "grandfather" was quiet, as if he was trying to process all this information.

"My namesake? She's okay, right? No Xindi attack. She's alive and well?" asked Lizzie.

Trip nodded. "Last time I got a letter from home, she was fine...you know, you seem pretty young," said Trip.

"Vulcans have a long life span...so my Dad was in his 90s when he when he had me," said Lizzie. "I've got two older brothers."

"So, we've never met before," said Trip.

"No. I've seen pictures. I knew Captain Archer a little bit...but he lived well into his hundreds. Longer than most of the originals, even the younger ones."

Trip looked a little sad, and then he looked over at T'Pol. Despite his humanity and openness, Lizzie didn't have a clue what he was thinking.

Meanwhile, Karyn had told Jon everything she knew about the spheres.

"You really need to go see Lizzie's father," she said. "He knows more than anyone. I mean, he doesn't remember the attack...but he knows. We can take you there. Except that most of my crew won't return until next week, I could try and get most of them back, but it won't be easy."

Alex piped up.

"Don't be silly. You'll just freak everyone out anyway. We can get to Beta-X and back before Monday. We'll just tag along on new Enterprise."

Karyn shook her head.

"I'm not leaving my ship--"

"It will be fine," chimed in Lizzie, "We'll have the Space Dock Coordinator take good care of her. Just one thing, Malcolm...our Malcolm is sleeping something off in sickbay. But I'll just arrange to dump him in a hotel suite here,  the hotel will be happy to have him. That way he can get back to his friends if he needs to. Alex, he's your brother, you want to go take care of it?"

Alex grinned. "It will be my pleasure," he replied as he dashed off.

Karyn nodded to herself. She didn't like leaving her ship, but this was important. In fact, she had already gotten the impression that this was far more important that anything she had ever done.

"So," said Karyn, "If you'll allow the three of us to tag along, we can take you to our colony. I have to get back by next week, but we'll be able to take one of the faster transports back. It will all work out."

And so it was that Alex, Karyn and Lizzie boarded the brand new, by their standards, Enterprise and gave the captain directions to Beta-X.