[Arctic Circle, Earth]
(It is
still a cold, snow-covered landscape that the transport lands in,
despite the current global warming predictions. Three figures in thermal suits are scanning for
something.)
DRAKE: (older man) I think this is the place. (They stare at the
wreckage.) DRAKE: Take a look around. (A woman uncovers a corpse in the snow.)
ROONEY: Over here!
Definitely humanoid, but I don't recognise the species.
DRAKE: Seems very well preserved.
MONINGER: (younger, taller man) Getting him out of here's going to be a
delicate operation.
DRAKE: Drake to Arctic One.
VOICE [OC]: Go ahead.
DRAKE: Set up a base camp. Get Alpha Team started.
VOICE [OC]: Acknowledged.
DRAKE: Contact Starfleet. Tell Commander Williams he owes me a bottle
of Scotch.
VOICE [OC]: Sir?
DRAKE: He'll know what it means. Drake out.
ROONEY: I'm picking up EM traces a few dozen metres under the glacier.
There's a lot more here than we're seeing. (she heads off following her
scanner signals) We've got another one!
[Base
camp]
(Two
cybernetic looking corpses are laid out, and a mechanical arm gets put
on a table.)
DRAKE: I give up. What is it?
MONINGER: An arm. It's his.
DRAKE: You're joking.
MONINGER: From what I can tell, it was integrated into his circulatory
and nervous systems. He could probably operate it like it was his own
flesh and blood.
DRAKE: I met a Vulcan scientist who wore a prosthesis. He lost his
forearm. It's pretty sophisticated, but it doesn't compare to this.
MONINGER: Take a look at the eyepiece. Judging by the optics, I'd say
he could see most of the EM spectrum.
DRAKE: Did you run a genetic analysis?
MONINGER: That's even more interesting. They don't have much in common.
They belong to two different species.
DRAKE: Transmit your findings to Starfleet. Maybe they'll find a match
in their database.
MONINGER: Right away.
ROONEY: Sir, I've run every test in the book. I still can't identify
this alloy.
DRAKE: What about this?
ROONEY: I thought it was simple thermal damage until I found signs of
antimatter residue.
DRAKE: Maybe their warp drive overloaded.
ROONEY: That could explain why there's not much debris. I did find some
carbon traces.
DRAKE: Could you date them?
ROONEY: This debris has been here for about a hundred years.
(They are distracted by a drill fitting on the prosthetic arm starting
to whirl, and then stop again. Later -)
ROONEY: (at microscope) Take a look at this. Do you see those devices?
They're repairing the cell membranes.
DRAKE: What are they?
MONINGER: I believe you're looking at a form of nanotechnology. I found
thousands of these in both aliens. They're not just regenerating the
damaged tissue, they're repairing the mechanical components as well. As
far as I can tell, this arm's as good as new.
DRAKE: The Denobulans have experimented with nanotechnology, but they
have nothing like this.
MONINGER: Maybe we should move the bodies to Module three, put them
back in cold storage with the other samples. That way, we can examine
them later under controlled conditions.
DRAKE: Couldn't the bodies be damaged if we freeze them again?
MONINGER: I guess it's possible.
DRAKE: Then we should leave them here. Let the regeneration process
continue.
MONINGER: What if it revives more of their systems? We don't know
anything about this species or what they were doing here a hundred
years ago.
DRAKE: There's no reason to assume they're hostile.
MONINGER: They don't exactly look friendly.
DRAKE: Starfleet has asked us to find out everything we can. Keep them
here for now, we'll see what happens.
[Arctic
crash site]
DRAKE:
Anything?
ROONEY: Oh! Plenty.
DRAKE: You seem a little jumpy.
ROONEY: Cybernetic corpses, digging through frozen remains in the
middle of the night, why would I be jumpy?
DRAKE: I'd be more worried about the polar bears.
ROONEY: I've identified twenty two fragments of the outer hull. Each
one has the same curvature. I think this ship was a perfect sphere.
DRAKE: How big?
ROONEY: About six hundred metres in diameter.
DRAKE: The debris field could be a lot more extensive than we thought.
We might want to get another excavation team out here. (her scanner
beeps) What is it?
ROONEY: A warp signature. (It leads them to a cover.) ROONEY: Help me with this.
(They start to open it)
[Base
camp]
(A researcher brings in a flask of hot drink.) RESEARCHER: Just what the doctor ordered.
MONINGER: Thanks.
RESEARCHER: How are your friends?
MONINGER: A little on the quiet side.
RESEARCHER: There's a broken heating unit in Module Three. They've
asked me to take a look. Will you be all right here? (Moninger gestures with the phase rifle.)
MONINGER: Go ahead. I'll be fine.
(Tis fellow researcher leaves, and Moninger pours himself a cup of
something hot, then knocks it over as a sound comes from behind him. He
checks the monitors. Still flat lines all round. He speaks to the pale corpse with the prosthetic eye.)
MONINGER: Feeling better?
[Arctic
crash site]
ROONEY:
Deuterium residue. Might be some kind of warp coil.
DRAKE: Seems too small for a ship this size.
ROONEY: I'd like to bring it back to the lab, take a closer look. (Back at Base camp, one of
the medical monitors bursts into life, and Mister Eyepiece takes a deep
breath, then his eye opens. A
scream from the camp has Drake and Rooney rushing back.)
[Base
camp}
(They
burst into the lab to find a corpse is missing and Moninger lying on the floor.)
DRAKE: Here, here. Get me a
medical kit.
(Moninger is gasping, and his skin is starting to turn pale and
mottled, like the corpse. Rooney turns to face the alien who has come
up behind her.)
[Starfleet
HQ - Forrest's office]
WILLIAMS: Admiral, there's a problem with the A-6 excavation team. The
Science Council hasn't heard from them in three days.
FORREST: Get a shuttle ready. (The
rescue team force their way through drifted snow to get into Research
Module C376. There is no one there.)
[Situation
room]
(Looking at a sequence of still photos on the table top display.)
ARCHER: The Admiral thinks that they're humanoids enhanced with
technology. He believes they abducted the research team.
REED: We're a long way from the Arctic. What can we do?
ARCHER: Earth tracking stations spotted the transport leaving orbit at
warp three point nine.
TUCKER: That's impossible. Those transports can't exceed one point
four.
ARCHER: I think it's safe to assume these aliens reconfigured the
engines using technology from their own ship.
HOSHI: Does Starfleet know where the vessel is now?
ARCHER: Not exactly, but their heading puts them within a half dozen
light years of our current position. We've been ordered to find the
ship.
T'POL: It shouldn't be difficult to isolate their warp signature.
ARCHER: We'll start searching at these coordinates. Go to tactical
alert. Lay in a course.
TRAVIS: Aye, sir.
(Just Archer and Trip are left.)
TUCKER: Buried in the ice for a century.
ARCHER: Hard to believe anything could survive.
TUCKER: Handsome devil.
[Armoury]
(Reed is studying the images of the aliens on a monitor.)
PHLOX: You wanted to see me, Lieutenant?
REED: Yes. The researchers gathered a great deal of biometric data on
these aliens, but I'm having trouble making heads or tails of it.
PHLOX: How can I help?
REED: Well, this arm might contain some sort of weapon. If I can
determine its yield, we'll have a better idea of what we're facing.
(Phlox operates the computer.) REED: What sort of people would replace
perfectly good body parts with cybernetic implants?
PHLOX: You, of all people, should be open-minded about technology.
REED: I don't have a problem with it, as long as it stays outside of my
skin.
PHLOX: If your heart was damaged, would you want me to replace it with
a synthetic organ, or would you rather die?
REED: That's different.
PHLOX: There's a species I once encountered in the Beta Magellan
system, the Bynars. When they're born, a surgeon removes the child's
parietal lobe and replaces it with a synaptic processor. I saw the
procedure performed once. It was very impressive.
REED: Yeah, I'm sure it was. Anything?
PHLOX: I don't see any evidence of a weapon.
REED: The research team was heavily armed. How did these aliens manage
to overpower them?
[Ready
room]
T'POL
[OC]: Bridge to Captain Archer.
ARCHER: Go ahead.
T'POL [OC]: We're receiving an automated distress call. It's from a
Tarkalean freighter.
[Bridge]
HOSHI:
There's a lot of interference. To any ship within range, we're under
attack by an unknown species. Request immediate assistance. That's it,
sir.
ARCHER: How long to reach them?
TRAVIS: About an hour.
ARCHER: Set a course.
(As they arrive on the scene, a nasty green weapon is being used to try
and cut open the freighter.)
ARCHER: Open a channel. This is Captain Archer of the Starfleet vessel
Enterprise. Stand down your attack, or we'll open fire.
REED: They're charging weapons. (Enterprise is hit.) REED: Some kind of proton
burst. Those transports aren't normally armed.
T'POL: Obviously, the engines aren't the only system they've upgraded.
ARCHER: Any human biosigns?
T'POL: Nine on the Arctic transport. The readings are erratic. (Another
hit.)
ARCHER: Can you disable their weapons?
REED: I believe so.
(Two quick precision phase cannon shots.)
REED: Their weapons are down.
TRAVIS: They're going to warp.
ARCHER: Is there anyone alive on the Tarkalean ship?
T'POL: Two biosigns on their upper deck. I'm reading minimal life
support.
ARCHER: Hold our position. Get a shuttlepod ready. (to T'Pol) You have
the Bridge.
[Sickbay]
(The
patients have some pale and mottled patches, but are unconscious.)
PHLOX: The Tarkaleans should live but the nanoprobes have infiltrated
their autonomic systems. Their renal glands have been replaced with
devices like this. Essentially, these individuals are being transformed
into some sort of cybernetic hybrid.
ARCHER: You said the human biosigns were erratic.
T'POL: It's likely the researchers are going through a similar
transformation.
ARCHER: Can you remove the nanoprobes?
PHLOX: Not surgically. These devices are multiplying at an
extraordinary rate. I could never extract them all. I'm attempting to
slow their progress with a modified retrovirus, but so far I haven't
been very successful.
T'POL: Perhaps you should isolate them in the Decon chamber.
PHLOX: If you do that, I won't be able to treat them as effectively. I
don't believe they're a danger to the crew. ARCHER: I'm not so sure. I'll have
Malcolm post a guard. Keep me updated.
[Ready
room]
(Archer
is reading what looks like the transcript of a speech on his monitor.)
ARCHER: Come in.
T'POL: I've contacted Tarkalea. I told them we're doing everything we
can for their crewmen.
ARCHER: Any sign of the transport?
T'POL: Nothing.
ARCHER: There was something familiar about all this, but I couldn't put
my finger on it until I find this speech Zefram Cochrane made eighty
nine years ago. When I was a kid, I read everything I could about him.
It took me a while, but I finally found it in the database. He was
giving a commencement address at Princeton when he started to talk
about what really happened during First Contact. He mentioned a group
of cybernetic creatures from the future who tried to stop his first
warp flight when he was living in Montana. He said they were defeated
by a group of humans who were also from the future.
T'POL: As I recall, Cochrane was famous for his imaginative stories. He
was also known to be frequently intoxicated.
ARCHER: No one took him seriously, and he recanted the whole thing a
few years later. But you have to admit, there are similarities.
T'POL: (reading) He said their ultimate goal was to enslave the human
race.
ARCHER: If he was right, they might be heading back to their homeworld
so they can try again.
[Sickbay]
(One of
the Tarkaleans is starting to regain consciousness.)
TARKALEAN: Who are you?!
PHLOX: My name is Phlox. I'm a physician. You are aboard a starship. We
responded to your distress call. (The Tarkalean sees the mottling on his hand.)
TARKALEAN: What did you do to me?
PHLOX: Your vessel was attacked. I'm doing my very best to treat you.
(to guard) I'm going to sedate him.
(But the man pushes Phlox away, then the woman jumps the guard and
knocks him out. Two tubes come out of the man's fist and into Phlox's
neck. He collapses, and the Tarkaleans leave up an access ladder. Later, as a cacophony of voices is heard.)
ARCHER: Doctor? Phlox. (Phlox sits up.) ARCHER: What happened?
PHLOX: We were attacked. (he grabs a scanner and holds it against his
neck) I've been infected with the nanoprobes. One of the aliens
injected me, some sort of tubules.
REED: Captain. (Reed goes to the ladder.) REED: They left through here.
ARCHER: Seal off the maintenance shafts. Post teams at every access
point. When you find them, put them in Decon. Maximum security.
REED: Aye, sir.
PHLOX: Use extreme caution, Lieutenant. Their physical strength has
been enhanced. It's critical that you don't let them touch you. (checks
the guard) You haven't been infected.
GUARD: Thanks, Doctor.
ARCHER: Stay here in case there are any more problems.
GUARD: Understood.
ARCHER: Call the bridge if you need anything.
PHLOX: Actually, it's feeding time for my Edosian slugs. They're quite
partial to boiled rootleaf. I usually pick some up from the galley, but
under the circumstances.
ARCHER: I'll have it brought down. (The
Tarkaleans quickly make their way through Jefferies tubes and
maintenance walkways, looking for something in particular.)
[Engineering]
(Looking at a schematic of the Arctic transport.)
TUCKER: They've modified most of the primary systems. Engines, hull
plating. These look like weapons nodes. I don't even want to guess what
this thing's for.
ARCHER: Doesn't look like they've enhanced the aft plating yet. If we
can punch through here, we should be able to knock out this EPS
manifold, take down their main power.
TUCKER: One or two torpedoes ought to do it.
T'POL [OC]: T'Pol to Captain Archer.
ARCHER: Go ahead.
[Bridge]
T'POL:
I've located the transport on long-range sensors. They're traveling at
warp four point eight.
ARCHER [OC]: How far are they?
T'POL: Less than two light years.
[Engineering]
ARCHER:
I need you to coax a little more power out of the engines.
TUCKER: I'll give it a shot.
ARCHER: Travis, lay in a course, warp four point nine.
TRAVIS [OC]: Aye, sir.
TUCKER: They doubled their top speed in less than twelve hours.
ARCHER: Let's hope they didn't have time to upgrade their weapons.
[Maintenance
area]
(The
Tarkaleans are bust pulling off panels and using their injector tubes
to modify things when Reed and his security guards turn up.)
REED: Stop what you're doing! I'll fire if I have to. (he's ignored) I
said, step away.
(Reed fires at the woman, but she just recoils and resumes what she's
doing. Combined fire just hits a personal forcefield.)
REED: Maximum setting. (They all fire again, and this time she walks
towards them, beams not touching her.) REED: Fall back.
(The male ambushes them, and tries injects one man before Reed knocks
him out with a phaser rifle.)
REED: Reed to the Bridge.
[Bridge]
ARCHER:
Go ahead.
REED [OC]: They're in maintenance shaft C.
[Maintenance
area]
REED:
Junction twelve. They appear to be modifying systems.
[Bridge]
ARCHER:
What's in that junction?
T'POL: Warp plasma regulators.
ARCHER: Can you stop them?
[Maintenance
corridor]
(Retreating rapidly.)
REED: Our weapons were useless. They're equipped with some kind of
energy shielding.
[Bridge]
TRAVIS:
Sir, our warp field's destabilising.
T'POL: It's them.
ARCHER: Isn't there an outer hatch in that junction?
T'POL: Yes.
ARCHER: Malcolm, get out of that section and seal it off.
[Maintenance
corridor]
REED:
Understood.
(They reach a bulkhead door and head out.)
REED: Come on, go.
[Bridge]
ARCHER:
Take us out of warp.
[Jefferies
tube]
(The
team heads down a ladder as Reed seals another hatch above them.)
REED: We're clear, Captain.
[Bridge]
ARCHER:
Sub-Commander.
(A hatch on the top of the port side of the saucer opens, and two
bodies fly out.)
T'POL: The junction's empty. (Archer is not happy that he's had to kill two people.)
ARCHER: Close the hatch
and re-pressurise. Malcolm, I want you to work with Trip.
[Jefferies
tube]
ARCHER
[OC]: Find out what they were doing in there.
REED: Aye, sir.
[Bridge]
ARCHER:
Resume course and speed.
T'POL: You had no choice.
[Sickbay]
HOSHI:
Room service. (Phlox has some mottling on his neck by the holes left by the
tubules.)
PHLOX: What's this?
HOSHI: Rootleaf lettuce for your slugs, Vulcan sandworms for the bat
and angel hair pasta for the ship's physician.
PHLOX: It's best if I avoid food for the time being.
HOSHI: You need to keep up your strength.
PHLOX: If I eat, my cellular metabolism will accelerate. The nanoprobes
could spread further.
HOSHI: Well, it's right here if you change your mind.
PHLOX: Why are you wearing a phase pistol?
HOSHI: Oh, it's Lieutenant Reed's idea. If you come near me, I'm
supposed to shoot you.
PHLOX: I hope you'll use the stun setting.
HOSHI: It's going to be a few hours before we catch up with that
transport. I'm sure that Captain Archer wouldn't mind if I stayed for a
little while, kept you company.
PHLOX: I appreciate the offer, but it may not be safe to be near me
right now.
HOSHI: I'm armed, remember? You've looked after me more times than I
can count. I want to return the favour.
PHLOX: The technology could assert itself at any moment. I don't know
what will happen if it does. I underestimated these nanoprobes once. I
don't intend to make the same mistake twice.
HOSHI: Do you mind if I feed your animals before I go?
[Maintenance
area]
(The
exposed circuits have a lot of green about them.)
TUCKER: They did a real number on these circuits. It could take days to
get all this junk out.
REED: What do you think they were doing here?
TUCKER: I don't know. But they almost overloaded the plasma regulators.
Doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why blow up the ship if you're still
on it? Hand me that, will you?
REED: That shielding of theirs was impressive. We might as well have
been firing holographic bullets.
TUCKER: Too bad you didn't get a closer look. That kind of technology
could come in handy.
REED: There's got to be a way to get through those shields with phase
pistols. If I cross-polarise the power cells, it might increase the
particle yield. I'll be in the Armoury.
[Mess
hall]
ARCHER:
Coffee with cream. (He looks in the plate display for something to eat.)
T'POL: I believe Crewman Cunningham is in the galley if you'd like
something else.
ARCHER: This'll be fine. (Archer just takes his drink.) ARCHER: Is this seat taken?
T'POL: Please. Lieutenant Reed informed me that you plan to disable the
transport when we find it.
ARCHER: He thinks we can knock out the power systems without causing
too much damage.
T'POL: So you still intend to rescue the humans?
ARCHER: That's the general idea.
T'POL: If they've already been transformed, that could be difficult.
ARCHER: I want to take these people home, the humans and the
Tarkaleans, no matter what state they're in.
T'POL: There are twenty nine lifeforms on that transport. It's logical
to assume they've all been infected. We could endanger Enterprise if
they're brought aboard. Perhaps you should reconsider.
ARCHER: Are you saying we shouldn't go after that ship?
T'POL: I'm saying, we destroy it.
PHLOX [OC]: Phlox to Captain Archer.
ARCHER: Go ahead.
PHLOX [OC]: Could you please come to Sickbay?
ARCHER: On my way. I'm not ready to declare them a lost cause.
[Sickbay]
(Phlox
is a lot more mottles, and his hand is shaking.)
ARCHER: How are you feeling?
PHLOX: Better than I anticipated. The nanoprobes seem to be having
trouble with my immune system. But they're persistent little fellows.
It won't be long before they adapt.
ARCHER: Any progress finding a treatment?
PHLOX: Possibly. I've been attempting to treat the infection as if it
were, well, an infection. Then it suddenly occurred to me, this isn't a
biological problem. I need to think like an engineer, not a physician.
I extracted several of the devices and subjected them to different
forms of radiation. Their intra-molecular processors appear to be
vulnerable to omicron particles. But if one of the nanoprobes survives,
it will start to multiply again. So I'll need to programme a rather
excessive dose. The side effects will not be pleasant, to say the
least. You may want to keep this in the event I'm unsuccessful. (He hands
over a hypospray)
ARCHER: What is it?
PHLOX: A cure of sorts. It contains a neural toxin that will terminate
my synaptic functions within a matter of seconds.
ARCHER: Aren't you jumping the gun a little?
PHLOX: I have no intention of turning into one of those cybernetic
creatures.
[Armoury]
(Reed and Crewman Foster are test firing a phase rifle.)
REED: Increase power another five megajoules. Fire. Keep it going.
Increase to seven megajoules. Try eight. Nine. The density's holding.
Bring it up to ten. (It finally blasts a hole in the target.) REED: That
should do it. We'll reach that transport in less than an hour. Let's
modify as many of these as we can.
[Bridge]
(The
Arctic transport is a lot more angular now, with a green glow at the
stern.)
T'POL: The vessel's mass has increased by three percent.
REED: They've improved their defences since we last saw them.
TRAVIS: They're accelerating, warp four point nine six, nine eight
ARCHER: Increase speed.
(Enterprise starts to shake.)
TRAVIS: We're closing.
ARCHER: Target that EPS manifold.
(One phase cannon burst.)
TRAVIS: They're dropping to impulse.
HOSHI: They're sending a transmission, some kind of activation
sequence.
ARCHER: Block it!
HOSHI: I can't.
[Maintenance
area]
(The
Starfleet displays vanish from the monitors and are replaced with alien
ones made of roundels.)
TUCKER: Tucker to the Bridge. These cybernetic circuits just lit up
like a Christmas tree!
[Bridge]
(The
lights flicker.)
T'POL: They're disrupting our plasma network. Main power is failing.
REED: We're losing weapons.
ARCHER: They set us up.
HOSHI: They're hailing us. Audio only.
ARCHER: This is Captain
VOICES [OC]: You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
(The green-tinged transport starts firing at them.)
REED: Hull plating's down eighty one percent.
ARCHER: Trip, we could use weapons.
[Maintenance
area]
TUCKER:
It's going to be a few minutes.
[Bridge]
REED:
Plating's down another twelve percent.
ARCHER: Is the transporter still on line?
REED: For the moment.
ARCHER: Then you're with me.
T'POL: Captain.
ARCHER: I'm counting on you to pull us out of there.
[Sickbay]
(Phlox
is hearing voices, and is almost completely pale and mottled.)
GUARD: Doctor?
PHLOX: I've programmed the irradiation sequence, but I'll need you to
activate it once the chamber's sealed. All you have to do is press
this.
(He crawls onto the trolley which then takes him into the imaging
chamber, then the hatch closes. Inside, it looks like the radiation is
agony for him.)
[Transporter
alcove]
(Ree hands over a phase pistol.) REED:
I've doubled the particle yield. It may
take a few seconds to recharge after each shot.
ARCHER: Put us as close as you can to their EPS manifold.
CREWMAN: Aye, sir. (The
pair beam into a place of green lighting and electricity arcing on the Arctic transport, with lots
of strange tubing around, and regeneration alcoves.)
[Bridge]
(The
attack continues, and a piece of hull gets blown off.)
TRAVIS: Hull plating's at twenty three percent.
[Arctic
transport]
(They
find a figure standing in one of the alcoves, immobile and oblivious to
their presence, then another. Two creatures walk towards them, a male
and a smaller female. They shoot them successfully.)
ARCHER: (scanning the female) This was one of the researchers. (It was
Rooney.)
REED: Was?
ARCHER: Look at these biosigns. They're not human anymore.
(Three more come around the corner.)
REED: Sir.
(As they back away, more aliens arrive.)
[Bridge]
HOSHI:
We've been boarded. Six biosigns, C deck.
T'POL: Alert Security. Bridge to Commander Tucker.
[Maintenance
area]
TUCKER:
Go ahead.
[Bridge]
T'POL:
How much longer?
TUCKER [OC]: I think I've isolated
[Maintenance
area]
TUCKER:
One of the power relays. Stand by.
[Arctic
transport]
(They
shoot some more aliens.)
REED: Another human?
ARCHER: Same as the others. (In a corridor on Enterprise, three
security guards meet and shoot two alien boarders, but the second two
adapt their personal forcefields straight away, and are unaffected. The
Starfleet men make a strategic withdrawal.)
[Arctic
transport]
(Reed
is attacked by an alien, and is being choked when Archer manages to
pull one of its tubes out of it's headpiece. It writhes around on the
floor, helpless. Around the corner they find the device they are
looking for.)
ARCHER: That's it.
(Three aliens come out of their alcoves to defend it, but get shot. Reed sees the red dot of an alien eyepiece on Archer's back.)
REED: Captain!
(Archer turns and shoots it, then Reed sets explosives on the device.)
[Bridge]
TRAVIS:
We've lost hull plating.
HOSHI: They're cutting into the hull. E deck, starboard forequarter.
T'POL: Evacuate that section.
[Arctic
transport]
(Another alien comes round the corner, and Archer shoots with no
effect.)
ARCHER: They've adapted. Hurry, Malcolm! (Two more come.) ARCHER: Archer to
Enterprise. Stand by transporter.
[Bridge]
T'POL:
Acknowledged.
[Arctic
transport]
ARCHER:
Now.
(They are beamed out and the aliens start taking the explosives off the
device. Reed
activates the explosives from the transporter alcove, and there is a satisfying bang.)
[Maintenance
area]
(Tucker
takes out a control unit, and the green glow disappears.)
TUCKER: Tucker to the Bridge.
T'POL [OC]: Go ahead.
TUCKER: The alien circuits are losing power.
[Bridge]
T'POL:
Do we have weapons?
[Maintenance
area]
TUCKER:
They're coming online now.
(In a corridor, the four remaining aliens halt, and are beamed away in
a swirl effect.)
[Bridge]
ARCHER:
Report.
T'POL: Our engines and weapons are back online. The transport's been
disabled, so has the alien circuitry. Did you find the research team?
ARCHER: There isn't anyone on that ship we can help anymore.
REED: Sir, something's happening on the transport. Their systems are
being restored. They're charging weapons.
ARCHER: Target their warp core. Hit them with everything we've got.
(Five torpedoes and a phase cannon shot blast the transport into
pieces.)
ARCHER: Get me Admiral Forrest.
Captain's Starlog, March 1, 2153. Repairs to the ship are underway, and
we've resumed our previous heading at low warp. Doctor Phlox is
confident he'll make a complete recovery.
[Sickbay]
ARCHER:
Aren't you supposed to be in bed? (Phlox is nice and pink again.)
PHLOX: I'm merely catching up on some paperwork.
Nothing too strenuous, I assure you. It's vital to keep the mind
occupied during the healing process.
ARCHER: They say doctors make the worst patients.
PHLOX: Captain, there's something you should know. I had a rather
strange experience while I was infected. I believe I was connected with
the aliens, possibly through some form of telepathy.
ARCHER: Do you think they were trying to communicate with you?
PHLOX: Not precisely. It felt as though I was part of a group
consciousness.
T'POL: You were under extraordinary physical stress. You may have
imagined it.
PHLOX: It seemed quite real. I couldn't understand most of what I was
hearing, but I got the distinct impression they were trying to send a
subspace message. They transmitted a numerical sequence. I heard it
over and over again.
(He hands over a PADD.)
[Ready
room]
ARCHER:
Come in. (T'Pol enters.) ARCHER: The computer analysed Phlox's numbers. They're
pulsar frequencies with geometric light year measurements.
T'POL: Spatial co-ordinates.
ARCHER: They told their homeworld how to find Earth.
T'POL: Did you learn where the message was sent?
ARCHER: Somewhere deep in the Delta Quadrant.
T'POL: Then I doubt there's any immediate danger. It would take at
least two hundred years for a subspace message to reach the Delta
Quadrant, assuming it's received at all.
ARCHER: Sounds to me like we've only postponed the invasion until what,
the twenty fourth century?
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