[Sickbay]
(Hoshi is clucking at a slug in a plastic box)
PHLOX: I didn't realise you spoke slug.
HOSHI: Wish I did. She doesn't look any better, does she.
PHLOX: She? We haven't been able to determine its gender yet, if it has
one.
HOSHI: I should have left her where I found her.
PHLOX: Nonsense. You're on a mission of exploration. There's something
to be learned from every lifeform.
HOSHI: She wasn't meant to be in this environment.
PHLOX: I promise to do my best to keep it alive.
HOSHI: He's going to make you all better.
PHLOX: Actually I was thinking more about my pyrithian bat. He won't
eat anything once it's dead.
TUCKER: We've routed some more power to Sickbay. Let me know if it's
enough.
PHLOX: This should do fine.
TUCKER: How's sluggo?
HOSHI: Doctor Phlox thinks this argon lamp should help. She's barely
moved all day.
TUCKER: We've been out here for two weeks and the only first contact
we've made is with a dying worm.
[Ready room]
(Archer reacts to a strange squeak.)
ARCHER: Come in.
T'POL: Scans of the sectors ahead.
ARCHER: Shush. Hear that?
T'POL: Hear what?
ARCHER: A squeak. Something's squeaking. I think it's coming from under
the deck plating, but every time I get close to it, it stops. If I
can't isolate it I'm going to have to tear the whole flooring up.
T'POL: That would be unfortunate. The scans of the sectors ahead
indicate little chance of finding inhabited planets.
ARCHER: How about the Vulcan star charts?
T'POL: We have limited data on the course Starfleet has assigned you.
ARCHER: There are thousands of star systems along this path. There must
have been something that piqued your people's interest. A sentient
species, a trinary star cluster.
T'POL: We don't select our destinations by what piques our interest.
ARCHER: Vulcans always need a logical and pragmatic reason.
T'POL: My people don't share your enthusiasm for exploration. (squeak)
Space is vast, Captain. (Archer puts his ear to the floor to listen.)
T'POL: I'm sure you're aware that only one out of every forty three thousand
planets supports intelligent life.
ARCHER: I took exobiology, I know the statistics, but we're travelling
at warp five. There's got to be someone out here. Come in. (squeak)
HOSHI: I'm sorry.
T'POL: I'll leave you to your exploring.
(T'Pol leaves.)
ARCHER: Trip tells me that sluggo's not faring too well.
HOSHI: No, sir, but the Doctor's doing the best he can. Sir, my
quarters are on E deck, starboard section five.
ARCHER: Yes.
HOSHI: The stars are going the wrong way, sir.
ARCHER: Wrong way?
HOSHI: On both my training tours, I had port side quarters. I'm having
trouble sleeping.
ARCHER: Because you're on the
HOSHI: The wrong side of the ship, yes, sir. I spoke with Ensign
Porter. He said he's be willing to switch, with your permission.
ARCHER: You got it. Can't have my comm. officer falling asleep on the
Bridge.
HOSHI: I appreciate it, Captain.
ARCHER: Is there something else, Hoshi?
HOSHI: No, sir. Thank you. (Hoshi leaves. Squeak.)
[Armoury]
REED: Ready.
TRAVIS: Fore and aft target scanners are aligned.
REED: Activating simulation J6. Target acquired.
TRAVIS: Simulated launch.
REED: Five seconds to impact. Three, two, one. (It misses.) REED: Wonderful.
TRAVIS: We're only off by three metres.
REED: Only three metres. Three metres could mean the difference between
hitting a weapons port and a warp core. Instead of disabling a vessel
we'd end up destroying it, and probably ourselves in the process.
TRAVIS: We'll get it right.
REED: All this should have been dealt with before we left Earth. Have
they detected any inhabited planets or vessels?
TRAVIS: Not yet.
REED: Good.
TRAVIS: I hope you don't expect everyone we run into out here to be
hostile. In twenty three years I don't think my folks ran into a
problem more than a half dozen times.
REED: I don't believe you were ever out quite this far.
TRAVIS: Do you think that makes a difference?
REED: All I do know is until we get these targeting scanners working
properly, the further we are from everyone else, the better.
TRAVIS: Seems like everybody else on board is itching for a first
contact.
ARCHER: How's it going?
REED: Not well, sir. We've corrected the problem but we're still off by
point oh two percent. It's unacceptable.
ARCHER: Are you sure it's not the simulations that are off?
REED: There's only one way to find out.
ARCHER: How long would it take to arm a few torpedoes?
REED: Moments, sir.
ARCHER: Archer to T'Pol.
T'POL [OC]: Yes, sir.
ARCHER: Prepare to drop out of warp. It's time for a little target
practice.
T'POL [OC]: Acknowledged.
REED: Thank you, Captain.
ARCHER: Come on, Travis. We've got to find Mister Reed something to
blow up.
[Deleted scene - Corridor]
ARCHER: Try to locate an asteroid field,
a comet. Just do it quickly, I want to get back to warp.
TRAVIS: Yes, sir. We made a trip once from Livinius to Belarn Prime.
Two and a half light years. Nearly nine months without running into a
soul. There were five kids on board. We were at each others throats
within a matter of weeks. First officer and my mother came up with the
idea to teach us how to play geography. You know, you say Amazon River,
which ends in an R. I say Rhode Island.
ARCHER: Which ends in a D. Dralax.
TRAVIS: X, X.
ARCHER: Now there's always
TRAVIS: Don't tell me, I know an X. Xanadu.
ARCHER: That's not a real place.
TRAVIS: Doesn't matter.
ARCHER: Of course it matters.
TRAVIS: Well, you used an alien planet, Dralax.
ARCHER: (as they get into the turbolift) I thought you said this game
kept you from arguing.
[Bridge]
(A torpedo sails serenely past an asteroid.)
ARCHER: Load another one. Let's try again.
REED: Rotate the targeting axis by point five microns.
TRAVIS: Point five microns.
(This torpedo grazes the asteroid and bounces off, then heads back
towards Enterprise.)
ARCHER: Mister Reed. (Reed gets it to self-destruct in time.)
REED: If I refocus the infrared scanner, I might be able to compensate.
ARCHER: How long will that take?
REED: The better part of a day.
ARCHER: Resume course, Ensign.
REED: Sir.
ARCHER: We're not going to sit on our butt for twenty four hours. Make
your modifications. We'll run another test first chance we get.
[Mess hall]
TUCKER: Anyone sitting here?
PHLOX: No. Please, sit down, sit down.
TUCKER: Sluggo any better?
PHLOX: I'm afraid not. Try the potatoes, they're delicious.
TUCKER: Resequenced protein.
PHLOX: Yes. The flavour's remarkable. On my homeworld, people would
never think of speaking during a meal. Considered a waste of time. It's
taken me a while, but I've grown quite attached to it.
TUCKER: Wasting time seems to be all we've been doing. Starting to get
a little antsy.
PHLOX: Antsy?
TUCKER: Restless. We've been on the move for two weeks and haven't seen
a damn thing.
PHLOX: Every moment's been an adventure for me. Humans are so
unpredictable. Have you seen the quantities of food Crewman Namod
consumes?
TUCKER: Not really.
PHLOX: Have you smelled Ensign Socorro after she exercises? She gives
off a fragrance not unlike the adrenal gland of a Nausicaan. And
Crewmen Bennett and Haynem over there. Do you see them? (A man and a
woman sitting at the same table.) PHLOX: If I'm not mistaken, they are
preparing to mate. Do you think they might let me watch?
TUCKER: It's good to see you're enjoying yourself.
[Bridge]
T'POL: Bridge to Captain Archer.
[Situation room]
TUCKER: How big is it?
T'POL: Approximately ninety two metres in length.
ARCHER: Doesn't seem to be moving very fast.
T'POL: It's not moving at all.
ARCHER: That's odd. Where's the nearest star system?
T'POL: Almost three light years away.
TUCKER: They could be running some kind of a deep space experiment.
Maybe we should go have a look.
T'POL: If you insist on allowing your curiosity to dictate your
actions.
ARCHER: We insist.
[Bridge]
(A long vessel is on the viewscreen.)
TRAVIS: Range, five thousand kilometres.
T'POL: The vessel's hull is comprised of tritanium and disilicon
polymers.
TUCKER: I'm not getting anything on their propulsion system, but it may
be offline. Something, isn't it.
REED: If they have weapons, they're not charged.
ARCHER: Any comm. activity?
HOSHI: No, sir.
ARCHER: Run this through the translation matrix. My name is Jonathan
Archer. I'm Captain of the Starship Enterprise. We're on a mission of
peaceful exploration. Oh, we come from the planet Earth. We're sending
you a pulsar grid that should help you locate our star system. Did you
rotate the frequencies?
HOSHI: I'll try it again. No response, sir.
TUCKER: Captain, mind if I push in on the venting ports around that
hatch?
ARCHER: Go ahead. (He zooms the viewscreen image.)
TRAVIS: Are those venting ports or hull breaches?
ARCHER: Bring us in a little closer, Travis. Let's get a look at the
other side. Those look like scorch marks.
T'POL: The residue indicates oxidation and thermal shock effects. It
could be the result of a high yield particle impact.
ARCHER: You mean weapons.
T'POL: Possibly.
ARCHER: Are we close enough to scan for biosigns?
T'POL: Yes, but scanning their ship's interior might be seen as a
violation of privacy.
ARCHER: Anything? (Hoshi shakes her head.)
TUCKER: If there is anyone home, you can bet they know we're out here.
REED: Then why haven't they responded.
T'POL: Not everyone chooses to answer the door when they hear a knock.
It would be best to resume our previous course.
ARCHER: See if you can find another hatch. Diameter?
TUCKER: Point nine metres.
ARCHER: Scan for biosigns.
T'POL: There are a number of lifeforms aboard.
ARCHER: Humanoid?
T'POL: Their cellular activity is below the threshold of your sensors.
TRAVIS: Maybe they're in trouble. Sick or something.
T'POL: Maybe they're not interested in visitors.
ARCHER: Mister Reed, how long to prep a shuttle?
REED: Half an hour.
T'POL: There are a number of protocols we haven't tried.
ARCHER: Get started.
HOSHI: She may have a point, Captain. I could try hailing them on
theta-band frequencies.
ARCHER: Suit up, Ensign.
HOSHI: Me, sir?
ARCHER: (to T'Pol) The ship is yours.
[Corridor]
ARCHER: Is there a problem, Commander?
TUCKER: I want to go with you.
ARCHER: I'm bringing a translator and a security officer. Why would I
need an engineer?
TUCKER: What makes you think you can open the hatch, or turn the light
on for that matter.
ARCHER: We've got beacons, Trip.
TUCKER: That ship could have a lot of decks. You might need someone to
help you figure out the turbolifts. Okay, I've got a better reason why
you need an engineer. Because your engineer signed onto this mission of
exploration so he could do a little exploring. He didn't sign on to sit
in Engineering while you three get to break into that ship.
ARCHER: We're not breaking in. We're just going to see if everything's
okay.
TUCKER: You're chomping at the bit to find out what's in there. Why
should I be any different?
ARCHER: We just got out here, Trip. There's going to be plenty of time
to go exploring. Right now I need you on Enterprise, down with your
engine. This ship's a little young to be without her Chief Engineer.
[Archer's quarters]
ARCHER: (dictating and eating) When I used to
dream about this mission, the last thing I envisioned was having a
Vulcan on board who continuously sucked the air out of the room. Well,
she's right. Whoever's on that ship might no want us nosing around. But
I can't assume that's the case, can I? Maybe they could use our help.
Computer, pause. (to Porthos) Hey, you know that you and cheddar don't
get along. (gives him a piece anyway) Resume personal log. Before we
left, Admiral Forrest said we'd be making history with every light
year, but we're not going to do that sitting on our hands. Computer
pause. Come in. Ensign.
HOSHI: Sorry to bother you, sir.
ARCHER: It's not a problem. Cheese?
HOSHI: No, thank you.
ARCHER: Everything work out all right?
HOSHI: Sir?
ARCHER: With the swapping quarters.
HOSHI: Yes, that's fine, thank you. I was thinking, Captain, I might be
a lot more helpful to you if I stay here and keep an open comm. link.
That way I'll have immediate access to the linguistic database.
ARCHER: Can't you tie your universal translator into the database
through the comm?
HOSHI: It's not the same. The lag time is tripled.
ARCHER: Well, I'd rather wait a few seconds if it means having you on
site. For all we know, the UT won't work. You'll be our only back-up.
Anyway, it should be exciting. Half the crew would give their eye teeth
to be going over there. What's wrong?
HOSHI: The environmental suits. They make me a little claustrophobic.
ARCHER: Claustrophobic. And you took a job on a spaceship?
HOSHI: You talked me into it, remember.
ARCHER: I don't recall reading about any problems during your zero-g
training.
HOSHI: Well, I just, I bit my lip and got through it.
ARCHER: Well you're just going to have to bite your lip again. I need
you over there.
HOSHI: Yes, sir.
ARCHER: What is it, Hoshi? Is something else wrong?
HOSHI: No, I'd better get back to the Launch Bay.
ARCHER: Hang on, I'll come with you. That's the last time, Porthos.
(He throws the dog some cheese.)
[Launch bay - suit locker]
ARCHER: Going to war, Lieutenant?
REED: Can't be too careful, sir.
ARCHER: You've seen too many science fiction movies. We just need the
three phase pistols. Put the rifles back. (to Hoshi) What are you rated
for?
HOSHI: I've been cleared on EM sidearms and class three pulse rifles.
I've never seen one of those.
ARCHER: Malcolm will check you out on it first chance he gets. Don't
worry, it handles pretty much like an EM-33.
HOSHI: Is this necessary?
ARCHER: Just a precaution.
[Shuttlepod hatchway]
(The pod has docked with the ship and they are
trying to get inside.)
REED: Just our luck, no release. Shouldn't be a problem though. I can
place micro-charges here and here.
ARCHER: Hold on a second, Malcolm. (He pulls at a couple of protruding
rods, finds one that opens out and opens the hatch.) ARCHER: Sorry.
HOSHI: Enterprise, we've got access. We're boarding the vessel.
[Alien ship's corridor]
HOSHI: Well, at least we know they're bipeds.
REED: What gives you that idea?
HOSHI: The ladder.
ARCHER: Come on. Nitrogen-methane atmosphere, and it's cold. Minus
twenty degrees.
HOSHI: There's power going through here, but not much of it.
REED: Captain.
ARCHER: Molecules look like amino acids.
HOSHI: Blood? (Green dribbles are visible on the bulkheads.)
[Deleted scene]
(They force open a door. There is still
power to the displays)
HOSHI: These icons look like they represent frequency bands.
REED: Communications.
HOSHI: If it is, it's offline. Maybe that's why they didn't answer our
hails.
REED: (sees blood on bulkhead) They may have been in no condition to
answer our hails.
ARCHER: (at a schematic of the ship) Guys, does any of this make sense
to you? Anything?
REED: Could these be power couplings?
ARCHER: And these could be transfer conduits. Could be a schematic to
their power layout.
REED: Yeah, one diagram for each deck.
HOSHI: And what's this?
REED: That's midship. One deck below. If we're right, something down
there is drawing a lot of power.
ARCHER: Let's go see if we're right. (They go on down to the source of a rhythmic
noise.)
REED: Some sort of hydraulics.
ARCHER: Whatever it is, it hasn't been here very long. (Hoshi screams,
and we see figures hanging upside down with tubes coming from them to
the device.) ARCHER: Hoshi, where are you going?
HOSHI: I don't think you need a translator.
ARCHER: Stay here.
REED: Their bodies are being flushed out with some kind of fluid.
ARCHER: Are they all?
REED: All dead, sir. I'm afraid so.
[Decon chamber]
(Phlox and T'Pol at the observation window.)
PHLOX: They're clean.
(The trio are let out and go down a corridor.)
T'POL: How many?
ARCHER: I don't know. About a dozen.
REED: Fifteen.
[Launch bay - suit locker]
ARCHER: They're being drained of something.
Whoever did it went to a lot of trouble. My guess is they're coming
back.
T'POL: We should leave.
ARCHER: There are fifteen dead people over there. We can't leave.
T'POL: Your reason for boarding that vessel was to provide assistance,
if assistance was required. Clearly, it no longer is.
ARCHER: You're telling me that we should just leave them there?
T'POL: What's the alternative? Your intentions were admirable, Captain,
but nothing can be done for that crew now and if we remain here your
crew could be put in jeopardy.
ARCHER: Archer to the Bridge.
TRAVIS: Mayweather here, sir.
ARCHER: Go to warp three. Resume course.
TRAVIS: Aye, sir.
[Sickbay]
PHLOX: Not long after I became a physician, there
was an explosion on a cargo ship orbiting my homeworld. I was part of
the first medical team to arrive. There were seventeen bodies on the
Bridge alone. I'd never seen that many dead people in one place before.
Very disturbing. You have nothing to be ashamed of.
HOSHI: I screamed like a twelve year old.
PHLOX: We're all frightened by unfamiliar things. You should be
grateful that your body of experience doesn't include rooms full of
corpses.
HOSHI: Nobody else screamed. (re sluggo) Has she been eating?
PHLOX: Not so far. She has been under a great deal of stress, but I'm
hoping this protein concentrate whets her appetite.
HOSHI: I'm a translator. I didn't come out here to see corpses hanging
on hooks.
PHLOX: It goes without saying that you're going to encounter the
unexpected.
HOSHI: Not corpses on hooks.
PHLOX: Have you ever considered that you might be happier back at the
university, teaching? I did it for years. It was quite rewarding.
HOSHI: I'm an exo-linguist. I graduated second in my class. I spent
three years in Starfleet training. I was Jonathan Archer's first choice
for this mission. Every inhabited world we come to is going to be
filled with language. Some will have hundreds of them. He needs me
here.
PHLOX: If she doesn't take these nutrients I'm afraid she won't
survive.
HOSHI: Are you sure that's what she eats?
PHLOX: It's close enough.
HOSHI: I shouldn't have brought her on board. Maybe I could ask the
Captain to try to find a planet with an argon rich atmosphere.
PHLOX: It might be easier just to feed her to my bat.
HOSHI: She needs to get back to an environment that is more suited to
her.
PHLOX: Perhaps some place where she could teach.
[Captain's mess]
TUCKER: What kind of pasta is this? It's great. (Archer's mind is elsewhere.)
ARCHER: Chef told me. I don't remember.
TUCKER: Not too spicy for you?
T'POL: It's fine.
TUCKER: Malcolm's anxious to run another weapons test, especially after
what happened. Tea?
T'POL: No, thank you.
TUCKER: Captain?
ARCHER: Sure, thanks.
TUCKER: (pours iced tea) I heard they were humanoid. Is that right?
ARCHER: Humanoid.
TUCKER: Did they look anything like us?
ARCHER: They were in uniform.
TUCKER: But you didn't recognise the species.
ARCHER: They were crewmen, murdered on their own ship. Fifteen dead
crewmen.
T'POL: I detected a stellar nursery along our present course.
TUCKER: I saw one once through the big lens outside Anchorage.
T'POL: A closer view might alleviate some of the crew's tension.
ARCHER: What's the matter, the tension bothering you?
T'POL: Not in the least.
ARCHER: Must be great not to let things bother you. No remorse, no
guilt. What if they were Vulcans? Think you would have reacted the same
way?
T'POL: They weren't Vulcans.
ARCHER: I said, what if they were Vulcans. Would you have just left
them there, hanging like slaughtered animals? Don't you think maybe you
would have taken them down, tried to figure out who they were, made
some effort to contact their families?
T'POL: We don't know where they came from. It would be very difficult
to locate their families.
ARCHER: We didn't even try. (to Tucker) What about you, what if they
were humans? Would you just stick your tail between your legs and run,
leave them there to rot? Am I the only one who's having a problem with
this?
TUCKER: You said it yourself, sir. Whoever killed those people are
probably coming back.
ARCHER: So we should avoid confrontation cost, is that what you're
saying? Is that what you Vulcans do? Bury your heads in the sand and
then just fly on by?
T'POL: We Vulcans would have never gone on board that ship in the first
place.
ARCHER: You got an answer for everything, don't you.
T'POL: We have a code of behaviour, and we try to obey it.
ARCHER: You may not believe this, but humans have a code of behaviour
too. It took a few thousand years, but I think we're starting to get it
right. I can't believe I almost ignored it.
[Situation room]
TRAVIS: We've reversed course, sir. We should be
back at the coordinates in five hours.
ARCHER: You don't have a problem with the environmental suit?
PHLOX: Not at all.
ARCHER: Good. We're going to need you to examine the bodies, try to
identify their species. While you're at it, it wouldn't hurt if you can
figure out what's being done to them.
PHLOX: I'll see what I can do, Captain.
ARCHER: (to Tucker) You wanted to see what's going on over there. Now's
your chance. I can't think of a better way to find their people than
through their own comm. system. You're going to need to get it up and
running.
TUCKER: Aye, sir.
ARCHER: Hoshi will decipher their language and compose a message.
Hopefully it'll make sense.
HOSHI: Captain.
ARCHER: I'm sorry, Ensign.
REED: I'll bring a security detail.
ARCHER: There's no one over there who can hurt us. Stay here and work
on those targeting scanners. Prepare to suit up at fourteen hundred
hours. Dismissed.
[Alien ship - where the bodies are]
ARCHER: How were they killed?
PHLOX: Different ways. This one was given a lethal dose of chloraxine.
The first three back there were shot. Particle weapons, I believe. This
fellow hasn't suffered as much cellular decay. He's our best candidate
for a post-mortem. Care to assist?
[Alien ship - the room with power]
(Tucker gets a voice playing back.) TUCKER: Yeah.
HOSHI: Maybe it's a log. What do you think?
TUCKER: Beats me. Could be a laundry list or instructions on how to
conquer the universe.
HOSHI: The grammar sounds bimodal.
TUCKER: Their transceiver's intact. Let's hope the next time we make
first contact it isn't with a room full of corpses.
HOSHI: Let's hope. (to universal translator) Ship. Ship.
[Alien ship - where the bodies are]
(The post-mortem is underway.) PHLOX: Just what I
thought.
ARCHER: What?
PHLOX: A zymuth gland. It releases triglobulin into the blood. That's
what all these tubes and pumps are about. Whoever did this is trying to
collect triglobulin.
ARCHER: What for?
PHLOX: Oh, for any number of reasons. To create medicines, vaccines,
some species have even been known to use it as an aphrodisiac.
ARCHER: Aphrodisiac?
PHLOX: It's quite a common practice. I'm surprised you're not familiar
with it.
ARCHER: Humans used to collect the bile of black bears, grind down
rhino horns, things like that, but not people.
PHLOX: It's worth noting that triglobulin is very similar to human
lymphatic fluid.
[Alien ship - the room with power]
HOSHI: How long before the transceiver's online?
TUCKER: A minute or two. I can't get enough of this. An alien spaceship
sending off a message to who knows where.
HOSHI: The quicker we get this done, the quicker we can get back to the
ship.
TUCKER: It's your second away mission in two days.
HOSHI: Yeah, great.
TUCKER: I wish I had an ear for languages. The Captain's going to need
a translator with him a lot more often than an engineer.
HOSHI: Distress. Two other teachers and I once took a hydro-skimmer out
onto a small tributary in the Amazon. You know, to see the wildlife.
Sloths, pink dolphins, all kinds of snakes.
TUCKER: Wow.
HOSHI: It gave me the creeps. If I didn't like being around anacondas,
you can imagine how I feel about Suliban or whoever butchered the crew
of this ship. I'm going to ask the Captain to take me home.
TUCKER: You serious?
HOSHI: I should have never left the university. I'm not suited for
this.
TUCKER: Give it a try. You'll be fine.
HOSHI: You weren't here yesterday. I saw those bodies and fell apart.
The Captain needs a translator he can count on. Someone who shows a
little grace under pressure. That isn't me.
TUCKER: You can't be sure of that.
HOSHI: Oh yes I can. Distress. Distress.
UT: Kunatsila.
HOSHI: I think I've got it. Ship in distress.
UT: Dukdum dor kunatsila.
(Tucker transmits the message)
[Alien ship - where the bodies are]
T'POL [OC]: T'Pol to Archer.
ARCHER: Go ahead.
T'POL [OC]: There's a vessel approaching, Captain. It's power
signatures match the scans you took of those bio-pumps.
[Bridge]
T'POL: It appears that whoever killed that crew
has returned.
[Alien ship - where the bodies are]
ARCHER: Time to go, Doc. (Archer fires his phase pistol at
the pump.) ARCHER: Trip, Hoshi, docking hatch, now.
(A nasty crab-like ship drops out of warp.)
[Bridge]
TRAVIS: Distance, sixty thousand kilometres.
T'POL: Bridge to Armoury.
REED [OC]: Armoury.
T'POL: We have a potentially hostile vessel approaching. Are you
prepared to defend the ship?
[Armoury]
REED: That depends. How long till it gets here?
TRAVIS [OC]: Ten minutes, maybe less.
REED: Then the answer is most likely no. The scanners are still out of
alignment. Look, if you wanted me to hit a stationary dairy barn, then
I could accommodate you, but not a moving
[Bridge]
REED [OC]: Vessel.
T'POL: Do the best you can, but I need you on the Bridge in five
minutes.
[Shuttlepod]
ARCHER: Archer to T'Pol. Deploy the docking arm.
[Bridge]
T'POL: Arm extended.
ARCHER [OC]: How close are they?
T'POL: Eight thousand kilometres.
ARCHER [OC]: What kind of weapons?
T'POL: Our sensors can't penetrate their shielding.
[Shuttlepod]
ARCHER: Have you tried hailing them?
T'POL [OC]: Yes.
[Bridge]
T'POL: There's been no response.
[Shuttlepod]
ARCHER: Try again. (The pod docks.)
[Bridge]
TRAVIS: The pod's on the arm.
T'POL: T'Pol to Archer. They're still not responding.
REED: They're charging weapons. (Green fire is seen on the viewscreen.) REED: They're
targeting our engines.
[Shuttlepod]
ARCHER: We're almost in. Stand by to jump to warp.
(Lots of weapons fire. The pod is jolted off the arm. Hoshi closes the
porthole shutter as they try again. Success.)
ARCHER: Doors.
[Launch bay]
(They climb out of the top of the shuttlepod onto
a drop-down metal stairway.)
ARCHER: Archer to the Bridge. It doesn't feel like we've gone to warp.
T'POL [OC]: Our port nacelle has been damaged. (More weapons fire jolts Enterprise.)
ARCHER: Have Malcolm arm the
torpedoes.
[Bridge]
ARCHER: Report.
TRAVIS: We're dead in the water, sir.
T'POL: They seem to have stopped firing. They're closing on our
position.
ARCHER: Malcolm?
REED: Both forward tubes loaded and ready, sir.
ARCHER: Stand by starboard tube.
REED: Yes, sir.
ARCHER: Fire. (The torpedo bounces off the enemy ship.) ARCHER: Stand by port
tube.
REED: Ready.
ARCHER: Fire. (The other ship shoots it down.) ARCHER: Trip, warp status?
[Engineering]
TUCKER: The nacelle's been completely depolarised.
I'm afraid we're stuck here for a while.
[Bridge]
(A vertical beam goes around the Bridge.)
TRAVIS: What was that?
PHLOX: A sub-molecular bio-scan. You've been probed, Ensign. We've all
been probed. They have no doubt discovered that your lymphatic systems
contain some useful compounds.
ARCHER: Get to the Armoury. Start distributing hand weapons. (Reed gets
up to leave) Post security teams at level
TRAVIS: Sir, another vessel just dropped out of warp. (Reed returns to his
station.) TRAVIS: They're on an intercept course.
ARCHER: Let's see it.
HOSHI: They're hailing us.
ARCHER: Put it up. (The viewscreen shows a living member of the alien
species.)
T'POL: Captain?
ARCHER: He's from the same species as the murdered crew. (to Hoshi)
They must have picked up your distress call. Tell him the ship above us
killed the crew of the cargo vessel. They're about to do the same to
us.
HOSHI: I told him what you said, sir, but I doubt it made any sense.
ARCHER: What do you mean?
HOSHI: This isn't exactly Spanish we're dealing with here. I'd be lucky
if I'm getting half the vocabulary right.
(The nasty crab ship puts a beam on them.)
REED: They've locked onto us with some kind of stabilising beam.
ARCHER: Use the impulse engines. Get us the hell out of here.
TRAVIS: I can't, sir. Their beam's disrupting all our propulsion
systems.
(The alien on the viewscreen talks to them.)
HOSHI: It seems he got the part about killing the cargo ship crew but
he believes we did it, sir. At least I think he does.
T'POL: Tell him we sent the distress call. Why would we kill his people
and then do that?
HOSHI: I think I understood this one. He says the distress call came
from his ship, not ours.
ARCHER: We needed their frequencies. Going there was the only way to
find them.
HOSHI: Something about DNA scans. He wants to know why we were there
two years ago.
ARCHER: Two years ago?
HOSHI: He probably means two days, sir. The phonetic processor's still
having trouble locking on. I'm not certain, but I don't think he's
going to help us.
REED: They're fifty metres above us. Forty nine.
ARCHER: The pumps. Tell them to run scans on the bio-pumps that are
hooked up to the corpses. They'll see they're not our technology. Have
them compare the power signatures to the ship that's about to land on
our roof. Where are they, Malcolm?
REED: They've stopped at about ten metres. (The nasty ship prepares to
drill a hole in the hull.)
HOSHI: I'm having trouble with the word pump, sir. I've got the
processor searching for synonyms. The translator's not making a whole
lot of sense to him, sir. He's getting frustrated. I think he's running
out of patience, Captain.
ARCHER: Then forget the translator. Do it yourself.
HOSHI: Do what myself?
ARCHER: Talk to him.
HOSHI: That's impossible, sir. I haven't even learned their basic
conjugations.
T'POL: Talk to him, Hoshi. It doesn't have to be perfect.
HOSHI: You don't understand. I don't even know how to say pump. I'll
get it all wrong, it'll just make things worse.
ARCHER: Things can't get much worse.
HOSHI: Sir.
REED: Captain, they've started drilling into the hull.
ARCHER: Hoshi, Hoshi, I need you to do this. We all do. That's why
you're here. (Hoshi stands in front of the viewscreen, very nervous.)
HOSHI: Uta doi ura.
(The alien replies.)
ARCHER: Again.
HOSHI: Uta lora ista. Urasta mistavor. (They go into a conversation.)
ARCHER: What'd he say? Ensign. (The iewscreen changes to an image of the small
ship firing on the nasty one.)
REED: They're targeting the vessel above us.
(The beam is shut off and the drill withdrawn.)
TRAVIS: We've got impulse back.
ARCHER: Move us away.
REED: Captain, I may be wrong, but I think I've got the scanners
aligned. Permission to launch a torpedo.
ARCHER: Granted. (One satisfying explosion on the enemy ship then the
good guys finish off the job - KaBOOM!) ARCHER: Nice of them to wait until we
got clear. All stop. (to Hoshi) I think we may have just made a friend,
thanks to you.
Captain's starlog, May 6th, 2151. After helping
them recover their dead crewmen, we had a chance to spend some time
with the Axanar. Turns out they're androgynous and live over four
hundred years. I look forward to meeting them again under better
circumstances. Before we resume our course, I've agreed to make a brief
detour.
[Planet surface]
(Hoshi takes sluggo out of the carry-case, under
Phlox's watchful gaze.)
HOSHI: This isn't exactly like the place you came from, but it's close
enough. It's not that hard to adapt. You're going to do just fine here.
(She puts it down on a rock in a container, and leaves.)
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