Some Assembly Required

 Some Assembly Required  is a short story by the pseudonymous jespah.

The story is told from the perspective of Seppa, a young Daranaean girl.

In December of 2165, the successor ship to the Enterprise, the USS Cochrane, and a leading Daranaean family exchange holiday gifts. Seppa, a young child, comes crying to the Prime Wife in the household, Dratha. It seems all of the human toys are broken, and Seppa is overly worried that she will be blamed for breaking them.

Trinning, an elder half-brother, brings a box over and confirms that, while the toys are made from sturdy wood, they are all broken into bits. Dratha puts in a call.

Captain Jonathan Archer explains that he did not select the toys but, rather, his First officer, Malcolm Reed, did so. Reed, smiling, explains that the toys are jigsaw puzzles and they are supposed to be that way. The pieces have gotten mixed up among the three boxes, and so the degree of difficulty has risen dramatically. The family will need to work together in order to complete the images.

Reed also explains that the images are of the Big Ben clock in London, Starfleet Command in San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background and the third is a picture of the Cochrane itself.

A few days later, at their holiday party, Archer, Reed and Hoshi Sato open the Daranaeans' gift, a large serving platter on which the entire extended family signed their names. Sato translates the aliens' message, which reads, "We have a new saying on Daranaea: When human friends come, happiness is sure to follow."

The family has further informed them that a portrait has been commissioned to be done of Dratha and then cut into pieces so that they can assemble it as another puzzle. There is also a press photograph enclosed, of the Daranaean Provisional Alpha, Elemus, placing the last piece into one of the puzzles.