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February 4, 2005
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42 minutes
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2024-09-12 18:21:29
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SUMMARY
Archer tries to unify the Andorians, Tellarites and Vulcans in a plan to capture a marauder ship threatening to destabilize the region.
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TRANSCRIPT
ARCHER: Previously on Enterprise
TUCKER [Romulan ship]: I'm starting to wonder if the ship even has life support.
REED: They must have atmosphere on their Bridge.
VALDORE [Control area]: The humans have seen too much. We can't allow them to escape.
ARCHER: (Enterprise is under attack) Evasive manoeuvres. Get our people back. Did we get everyone?
T'POL: Just the MACOs.
ARCHER [Romulan ship] [OC]: Trip, we've lost the transporter. Sit tight until we come back for you.
TUCKER: Understood.
ARCHER [Ready room]: If this is a Romulan ship, why would they be stirring up trouble so far from home?
SHRAN [Gral's quarters]: (with a gun to Gral) Stay out of this, pinkskin.
ARCHER: Shran, listen to me. The ship that attacked you wasn't Tellarite. You're both being set up. Someone didn't want this conference to go forward.
(Naarg shoots Talas and gets shot himself.)
NIJIL [Romulan ship] [OC]: They've entered the Bridge.
TUCKER: There's no one here.
(The ship continues to be thrown around, trying to kill the intruders.)
[Control area]
NIJIL: They won't last much longer.
VALDORE: It'll have to wait. We're approaching our next target.
NIJIL: Stabilise the Drone for battle. Activating the holographic skin.
VALDORE: Use this configuration.
[Romulan ship]
TUCKER: You still in one piece?
REED Yeah, I'll let you know when my head stops spinning.
TUCKER: Feel that? We're dropping out of warp.
[Control area]
NIJIL: Target acquired.
VALDORE: Engage visual sensors.
NIJIL: The Rigelians are hailing us.
VALDORE: Answer them.
[Romulan ship]
TUCKER: We're firing at someone.
REED: Well, brace yourself. Whoever it is, they'll be sure to fire back.
(There's a bang.)
[Control area]
NIJIL: The Drone is taking damage.
VALDORE: Give the Rigelians time to send their distress call. Now destroy them.
(We see Enterprise blow the Rigelian ship to pieces and sail serenely through the debris.)
Captain's starlog, supplemental. For now, the truce between the Andorians and Tellarites on Enterprise is holding. But Starfleet has informed me of a new diplomatic crisis.
[Situation room]
ARCHER: It was a heavily-armed scoutship with a crew of seventeen. There were no survivors.
TRAVIS: Why does Starfleet think this is connected to the other incidents?
ARCHER: Rigelians transmitted a visual record of the ship that attacked them.
(A grainy image of Enterprise is put on the monitor.)
ARCHER: I'm told their Trade Commission is demanding compensation, and my arrest. Whoever's behind these attacks, they're trying to do more than provoke a war between Andorians and Tellarites. This is an attempt to destabilise the entire region. We need to find the marauder before it attacks again.
T'POL: I've found a way to detect their warp signature. And Travis designed a sensor grid that should extend our range.
ARCHER: How many ships will it take to make this work?
T'POL: Only one hundred and twenty eight.
ARCHER: There's just one way we can get that many ships to help us.
[Sickbay]
SHRAN: Talas.
TALAS: Have you come to take me home?
SHRAN: I think this Denobulan doctor is secretly in love with you. He wants to keep you to himself.
TALAS: You said my wound was superficial.
SHRAN: You were only grazed, but the phase pistol was set to kill.
TALAS: That Tellarite pig.
SHRAN: Is there any other kind?
TALAS: I've seen what phase-pulse infection can do to Andorians.
SHRAN: You're going to be fine. We'll be home soon, the two of us.
TALAS: Don't let me die unavenged.
SHRAN: I won't.
PHLOX: I'm sorry. She needs to rest.
SHRAN: See what I mean? He can't get enough of you. I'm jealous.
(He backs away from her bed, and Phlox draws the curtain so she can't hear them.)
SHRAN: Doctor.
(Archer enters.)
ARCHER: How is she?
SHRAN: Lucky to be alive.
ARCHER: I have a proposal.
SHRAN: If it involves killing Tellarites, I'm all for it.
[Control area]
VRAX: (not in a military uniform) Your ship is adrift in enemy space, damaged and defenceless, because of a single Rigelian scoutship? Is that what you want me to report to the Senate?
VALDORE: The Drone has taken damage before. It's designed to self-repair.
VRAX: If our enemies find it.
VALDORE: That's the point of this project. No prisoners to capture, no bodies to recover. These Drone ships can never be traced back to us.
VRAX: This prototype's a modified warbird. The Vulcans would identify it the moment they inspected the propulsion matrix.
VALDORE: The Vulcans won't get anywhere near it.
VRAX: Don't underestimate our distant brothers. Bring your ship home. I'll tell the Senate that your test has been a success. Otherwise, they'll make someone pay for this failure.
(He opens the door and we see two Remans waiting for the Senator.)
VRAX: And I promise you, it won't be me. Jolan tru, Admiral.
[Ready room]
ARCHER: Come in.
(T'Pol enters.)
ARCHER: Admiral Gardner just called. He's sending every ship available, but at top speed it'll take weeks for most of them to get here.
T'POL: What about Columbia?
ARCHER: She's stuck in dry dock. Engine trouble. Did you get through to your people?
T'POL: Minister T'Pau is dispatching twenty three vessels.
ARCHER: That's all?
T'POL: The High Command has been disbanded. Many of our ships no longer have full crew compliments.
ARCHER: T'Pau could have picked a better time to clean house.
T'POL: (seeing his desk monitor) Andorian and Tellarite fleet deployments?
ARCHER: I'm thinking of asking them to join us. Without more ships, our sensor net's going to have a gaping hole. The marauder could fly right through it, and we'd never know.
T'POL: Have you discussed this with Commander Shran, or Ambassador Gral?
ARCHER: Not yet.
T'POL: Even if both sides were to agree, which seems unlikely, their deployments would have to be co-ordinated, a command hierarchy established.
ARCHER: An Andorian captain might have a problem taking orders from a Tellarite?
T'POL: Precisely.
ARCHER: There's one species that's on friendly terms with both of them. Humans. Enterprise could serve as the command ship, relaying all orders. The other ships would only have to exchange communication codes.
T'POL: It might work.
ARCHER: You don't sound too optimistic.
T'POL: These have four species have never co-operated on a mutual endeavour.
ARCHER: As far as I know, no one's ever tried to get them together before. From what I've heard about these Romulans, they mean business. If they're behind these attacks, we have to find some way to stop them, or next time, they might come back with a thousand of those ships.
[Romulan ship]
REED: Some of these circuits are live, but I don't know what they're for.
TUCKER: And I can't figure out what half this stuff is.
REED: What about the other half?
TUCKER: Well, I think I found an environmental system.
REED: That'd make sense. These consoles look like crew stations.
TUCKER: Here goes.
(He activates a circuit, and something comes to life.)
TUCKER: Well, how about that. In a few minutes, we'll have heat and air.
REED: Do you think it's possible that there's no one else on board?
TUCKER: Why would a robot ship have a Bridge like this?
REED: It could be a prototype. Outfit an existing ship with the latest in computer controls.
TUCKER: Well, that'd make things a whole lot easier for us.
REED: How's that?
TUCKER: If this ship's run by computer, what we need to do is find the off switch.
[Conference room]
SHRAN: I'd rather co-habit with Klingon targs than join forces with Tellarites.
GRAL: Your personal mating preference is no concern of mine.
(The pair square up to each other across the table, and Archer waves the MACOs away.)
ARCHER: If you're waiting for me to stop you, don't worry. I won't.
SHRAN: You heard what he said.
ARCHER: And I heard what you said. So now it's time for both of you to listen to me. Instead of insulting you to make you feel at home, and putting up with your arrogance as a sign of my respect, why don't the two of you try behaving like humans for a change?
GRAL: And you said you wouldn't be insulting.
(The pair sit as Archer stands.)
ARCHER: There's one thing humans seem to do better than any species we've met. When we're faced with a common threat, we put our differences aside and try to co-operate. Someone is determined to start a war in this region. I've shown you how we can stop them. But if you don't understand that, feel free to strangle each other. Just remember, that's exactly what this marauder wants you to do.
[Romulan ship]
(Tucker and Reed have taken their helmets off now.)
REED: We've gone back to warp.
TUCKER: Just when it happened, I got a power spike from one of these conduits.
REED: Do you think warp control runs through here?
TUCKER: If this ship was originally built for a crew, all of its controls should connect to the Bridge. Maybe they never got disconnected. Keep your eyes on these consoles.
(A monitor screen comes to life.)
REED: Did you do that?
TUCKER: Even money we just found their propulsion controls.
[Control area]
VALDORE: What are they doing?
NIJIL: I can't tell for sure. Visual surveillance is offline. The Drone is dropping out of warp.
[Romulan ship]
REED: You've found the off switch?
TUCKER: All I did was interrupt the power to the warp controls. There's probably a backup that'll switch on in a few minutes.
(Reed looks at the monitor display.)
REED: Can you make any sense of this?
TUCKER: Where's Hoshi when you need her?
REED: That's where we are.
TUCKER: I'm going to guess that's the power circuit I just shut down.
REED: If this were Enterprise, that'd be the power coupling for the entire warp control system, including the backups.
TUCKER: Should be right through there.
(He touches the monitor, and a door opens.)
REED: Maestro.
[Control area]
NIJIL: One of them's left the Bridge. He's in the service junction.
VALDORE: Why?
NIJIL: It appears he's located the main coupling for the warp matrix.
VALDORE: What else is in there?
NIJIL: Just what we need to kill him.
[Romulan ship]
(Reed can see Tucker in the service junction.)
TUCKER: Okay, Malcolm, I'm going to flip through these like circuit breakers. Let me know how the diagram changes.
REED: Ready when you are.
TUCKER: There's the first one.
REED: It went out.
[Control area]
NIJIL: He's disabling the warp system.
VALDORE: Is self-repair still activated?
NIJIL: It'll take more than a day to reroute the major circuits.
VALDORE: We don't have a day.
NIJIL: One of them is still in the service junction.
VALDORE: Seal him in.
[Romulan ship]
TUCKER: I'm going to see if there's a communications circuit we can tap into.
(The doorway closes between them.)
TUCKER: Malcolm! (into communicator) Malcolm, did you touch something?
REED: Wasn't me.
(They both try the door controls.)
TUCKER: Do the hatch controls work on your side?
REED: Negative. They're not responding.
(Trying to push the door open fails too.)
VALDORE [OC]: Listen carefully, and you won't be harmed.
REED: Who are you?
[Control area]
VALDORE: I control the ship.
[Romulan ship]
TUCKER: Not anymore, you don't.
{Reed hears something being switched on.)
REED: Commander, what's happening?
TUCKER: (now bathed in a yellowy light) Reactor coolant. Radiation's at a hundred roentgens and climbing.
VALDORE [OC]: That gives you seven minutes, Commander. Re-establish the warp matrix, or you will die.
[Ready room]
SHRAN: (handing over a PADD) Compliments of the Imperial Guard. These are the communication codes we'll use for the joint operation.
ARCHER: Gral's informed me that the Tellarites are also taking part, so they'll need these codes as well.
SHRAN: Do what you have to.
ARCHER: I appreciate your cooperation.
SHRAN: You're not especially difficult to work with, Captain. Unlike Tellarites, you understand ethics and try to live by them.
ARCHER: Try?
SHRAN: Well, nobody's perfect. Have you served on all these vessels?
ARCHER: A few of them are a bit before my time, but they were all named Enterprise. This one sailed Earth's oceans almost four hundred years ago.
SHRAN: My vessel, the Kumari, was named for the first ice-cutter to circumnavigate Andoria. Perhaps future ships will be named after our vessels, especially if we do something historic together.
ARCHER: There's no reason our people can't become allies.
SHRAN: Agreed.
(They shake hands.)
[Romulan ship]
TUCKER: Pay attention to that board, Malcolm. I'm going to try to cut power to the reactor.
REED: I've got a better idea. Make sure you're well away from the door.
[Control area]
VALDORE: You're wasting time, Commander. The radiation will be fatal in three minutes.
[Romulan ship]
VALDORE [OC]: I can save you.
(While Reed tries firing his phase pistol at the door, Tucker is pulling crystals from panels.)
TUCKER: Malcolm, what happened to the board?
REED: Everything's off.
TUCKER: That's more like it. Radiation's falling.
[Control area]
NIJIL: They've taken the reactor offline.
VALDORE: Activate the backup sequencer.
[Romulan ship]
(The yellow lights come back on again.)
VALDORE [OC]: I'm still in control. There is nothing you can do to save your life
[Control area]
VALDORE: Except follow my instructions.
[Bridge]
T'POL: We've received the final confirmations. All one hundred and twenty eight ships are in position.
PHLOX [OC]: Phlox to Captain Archer.
ARCHER: Go ahead.
PHLOX [OC]: I require you in Sickbay as soon as possible.
[Sickbay]
(Archer is already there with Phlox, in front of the closed curtain, when Shran bursts in with his MACO shadow.)
SHRAN: No.
PHLOX: I did everything I could.
SHRAN: You said she'd recover.
ARCHER: Shran.
(He goes into the cubicle and weeps over her body.)
SHRAN: No.
[Romulan ship]
(Tucker is ripping out every wire and crystal he can lay his hands on.)
REED: Commander, what's your status?
TUCKER: I should've brought my helmet. Radiation's at one eighty and climbing. I can't shut it down.
[Command area]
VALDORE: You don't have to die like this.
[Romulan ship]
TUCKER: You're not getting this ship back.
VALDORE [OC]: You're wrong, Commander.
[Control area]
VALDORE: Eventually it will repair itself.
[Romulan ship]
VALDORE [OC]: You'll have died for nothing.
REED: All right. I'll reconnect the matrix. Open the hatch!
TUCKER: Malcolm, no! That's an order!
(TUcker collapses. Reed works at the panel.)
REED: Commander?
VALDORE [OC]: Do your duty, Malcolm.
[Control area]
VALDORE: Restore the matrix. Save your commander's life.
[Conference room]
(There's an intricate lacework design on the main monitor screen.)
GRAL: There. Every Tellarite ship is connected to your sensor network, despite the inefficient Andorian codes.
ARCHER: Now comes the hard part. We have to sit and wait.
NAARG: We're not a patient people.
ARCHER: I've noticed. Maybe that's something we can work
(The door bursts open and the MACOs bar Shran's way.)
SHRAN: I only want to talk to him! I only want to talk.
ARCHER: We're listening.
(The Tellarites sit, and the MACOs come in to keep an eye on things.)
SHRAN: You (indicating Naarg) need to know about Talas, the woman you killed.
NAARG: She attacked us.
SHRAN: The attack was over when you shot her, but I'm not here to argue that. Her family was privileged, her parents wealthy. She could've chosen any career, never known discomfort. But she felt the call of duty. She pledged her life to the Imperial Guard. Talas could've had anything. Anyone. She chose me. I just wanted you to know.
(Shran reaches into his pocket, but Archer stops him and takes out the bottle himself. He opens it to smell it.)
SHRAN: It's her blood. When a Guardsman dies far from home, his companions, her companions, carry part of her back to the ice of Andoria. I wanted you to know that, too
(He grabs Naarg's hand and pours some of the blood on it before Archer drags him off.)
SHRAN: Before you die!
ARCHER: That's enough!
SHRAN: Not until his blood pays for hers!
NAARG: Keep him away!
SHRAN: You will face justice at my hands!
ARCHER: That's not going to happen on my ship.
SHRAN: Yes, it will, pinkskin, because if you and the Tellarites don't show respect for Andorian tradition, the Imperial Guard will withdraw its ships.
ARCHER: What tradition?
SHRAN: Unless this murderer meets me in combat, your precious alliance is finished!
[Romulan ship]
REED: I'm reconnecting the warp matrix!
[Control area]
REED [OC]: Shut off the radiation!
VALDORE: When you're finished.
[Romulan ship]
REED: There! Now shut it off! And open this hatch!
(The hatch opens and Reed takes the two suit helmets in with him. He helps Tucker sit up.)
REED: Commander, stay with me.
[Control area]
NIJIL: The matrix has been reactivated.
VALDORE: Then we don't need the humans anymore.
[Romulan ship]
(Tucker and Reed have their helmets back on when the door closes, locking them into the service junction.)
TUCKER: Why didn't you listen to me?
REED: We're better off here than on the Bridge.
(We get to see what the Romulans don't know - a phase pistol set to overload lodged in the power conduit panel.)
[Control area]
VALDORE: Take it to warp. Set a course for home.
[Romulan ship]
TUCKER: We're back at warp. I ordered you not to help them.
REED: I apologise for saving your life, Commander. It won't happen again.
TUCKER: Sorry.
(Reed is undoing the nuts around another circular feature.)
REED: According to the bridge schematic, this is an access panel.
TUCKER: Where's it lead?
REED: Away from the Bridge.
TUCKER: What does that give us?
REED: We should assume that we're being monitored. Did you ever read the manual that came with that thing?
(Tucker looks down at his phase pistol, then Malcolm turns to show his holster is empty.)
REED: The warning about inadvertent overload?
TUCKER: How long does it take?
REED: By now, less than a minute.
(Tucker joins him in getting the panel open.)
[Control area]
VALDORE: What access panel are they talking about?
NIJIL: It leads into the superstructure, away from any critical equipment.
VALDORE: We'll deal with them when the Drone returns.
[Romulan ship]
(They get the panel off, and break through big tubes to get through into the corridor and away from the impending explosion.)
TUCKER: We've got to be a safe distance by now.
[Control area]
REED [OC]: I wired it directly into the power conduit.
(There's a very big bang, the hull of the modified warbird is breached, and the monitors in the control area revert to the Romulan symbol as Nijil's console goes blank.)
NIJIL: We've lost contact.
[Ready room]
HOSHI: The Andorian tradition Shran wants to follow is called the Ushann. Basically, it's a duel to the death.
T'POL: The combatants fight with these.
(An almost semicircular blade with a wicked serrated edge.)
T'POL: It's called an Ushann-Tor.
HOSHI: It's an ice-miner's tool. Andorians play with them as children. A Tellarite won't stand a chance using one against Shran.
ARCHER: I don't think that's going to be an issue. Ambassador Gral's refusing to let Naarg fight.
T'POL: Andorians will consider that a further insult.
ARCHER: What else do we know about this tradition?
[Shran's quarters]
(Shran is sharpening his blade when Archer comes in.)
SHRAN: Please, make yourself at home. An old friend. I carry it everywhere.
ARCHER: Two hours ago, we spoke about a new partnership between Andoria and Earth.
SHRAN: A benefit to both our worlds.
ARCHER: You're throwing it away for personal vengeance.
SHRAN: There's more to this than Talas. I lost my ship, almost my entire crew. If I do nothing to avenge these losses, what kind of leader am I? Why should any soldier follow me again? Besides, you should be wishing me luck. I provide a voice for your species at the Imperial Guard. I'm valuable to humans.
ARCHER: I spoke to Ambassador Gral about the rules of the Ushann. Specifically, the right of substitution.
SHRAN: The Ambassador's decided to fight in place of his underling?
ARCHER: Not the Ambassador.
SHRAN: You wouldn't.
ARCHER: I'm the substitute. You're going to have to fight me.
SHRAN: I'm going to have to kill you. You're my friend.
ARCHER: Then call it off.
SHRAN: I can't.
[Romulan ship]
(Moving quickly through a tangled mess of dangling stuff and small explosions.)
TUCKER: You did all this with one phase pistol?
REED: You're good at building things. I'm good at blowing them up.
TUCKER: I'm thinking we should get to the outer hull.
REED: No, we might be safer trying to find another area with life-support.
TUCKER: The hull's covered with subspace transceivers. If I can link one of them to our communicators, we might be able to contact Enterprise.
[Control area]
(The console lights up again.)
NIJIL: Admiral, the Drone's restored contact. The repair systems are starting to work.
VALDORE: It'll take days. Let me know when it's restored its ability to self-destruct.
[Archer's quarters]
ARCHER: Come in.
T'POL: Updating your will?
ARCHER: You expect me to lose?
T'POL: Shran is a member of the Imperial Guard, trained in combat from childhood. He won't back down.
ARCHER: He can't. I understand.
T'POL: If you back down, the Imperial Guard will withdraw their ships.
ARCHER: If I kill Shran, or one of the Tellarites does, the Andorians will pull out anyway. The Tellarites'll do the same thing if Shran kills one of them. So, I'm the only one who can be killed, because Starfleet won't withdraw. This operation is important, considering that it might lead to an alliance of planets.
T'POL: Vulcans have a saying. One man can summon the future. What happens if that man throws away his life before his time?
ARCHER: If I've learned anything these past few years on Enterprise, it's that the future isn't fixed.
T'POL: If anything happens to you.
ARCHER: Then I'd better make sure that nothing does.
[Bridge]
(Hoshi is still at her station, going through Andorian documents.)
TRAVIS: Didn't expect to find you up this late.
HOSHI: What are you doing here?
TRAVIS: Too wired to sleep. Hard to believe the Captain's going to be fighting a duel to the death in a few hours.
HOSHI: Barbaric, if you ask me.
TRAVIS: What are you looking at?
HOSHI: Code of the Ushann. T'Pol wants me to go over it again. See if I can find a way out of this mess.
TRAVIS: The last I heard, the Captain sounded determined to go through with it.
HOSHI: She wants me to find a loophole. Some way to forfeit without offending the Andorians.
TRAVIS: Two of us could get through that a lot faster.
[Mess hall]
(The table is covered in PADDs.)
TRAVIS: Look at this. Either combatant can postpone a duel indefinitely if there are no children to continue his clan.
HOSHI: How does that help us?
TRAVIS: As far as I know, Captain Archer doesn't have any kids. If he's killed, his clan would die with him.
HOSHI: That rule only applies if he's married.
TRAVIS: Don't suppose we can find him a wife in the next four hours.
HOSHI: Even if we could, something tells me the Andorians would cry foul. There are twelve thousand amendments to this ridiculous honour code. There has got to be one that can get him out of this.
TRAVIS: Instead of looking for a loophole, maybe we should be trying to find a way for the Captain to win.
HOSHI: If the Captain wins, Shran's dead. The alliance falls apart.
TRAVIS: Have you ever been to Nobelia Prime?
HOSHI: Not recently.
TRAVIS: The tribal elders there, they can challenge you to a duel if you look at them the wrong way. Happened to my father.
HOSHI: How did he get out of it?
TRAVIS: Which one of these has the combat rules?
[Cargo bay]
(Both sides have assembled, and Hoshi is giving a last minute lesson on how to use the Ushann Tor.)
HOSHI: Don't try and block with this. When he swings, intercept, deflect, and hook it away.
GRAL: Better to insert between the eyes and twist.
PHLOX: Andorian metabolism is higher than humans'. Keep moving, you'll exhaust him.
ARCHER: How about I just win?
T'POL: Take your places. There is still time to end this.
SHRAN: It can only end one way. This is not what I wanted.
ARCHER: Things have a way of turning out differently than we expect.
SHRAN: I'm glad we met. In your honour, I'll continue to support co-operation between the Imperial Guard and your species.
ARCHER: Let's get this over with. I got a ship to run.
(The metal 'shields' on their left hands are chained together.)
SHRAN: I'll take your blood to Andoria, to the Wall of Heroes.
ARCHER: Not today.
SHRAN: You have the first move.
(The fight begins, with neither holding back. Shran draws first blood.)
SHRAN: Give up. A single stroke, and there'll be no pain.
ARCHER: You think I'm losing? I'm just trying to make you look good in front of your soldiers.
(Archer manages to get the chain around Shran's throat.)
ARCHER: Now do you give up?
SHRAN: (being strangled) Never!
ARCHER: Wrong choice.
(He brings the Ushann Tor down in a fast, vicious blow.)
[Sickbay]
(Shran is still alive, but missing an antenna.)
SHRAN: You should've cut off my head.
ARCHER: I considered it, but I still need your help.
(Shran stumbles off the bed and looking at his reflection.)
SHRAN: What good is a Guardsman without two antennae?
PHLOX: You'll begin to compensate within a day or two.
SHRAN: They take nine months to grow back.
PHLOX: If left untreated. With electrical stimulation and brisk cranial massage, you'll be back to normal in half that time.
ARCHER: I was told that the loss of an antenna wasn't critical.
SHRAN: You humiliated me.
ARCHER: And that the Ushann is settled when one fighter is rendered defenceless. Are we done?
SHRAN: You respected Andorian tradition. It's settled.
T'POL [OC]: Bridge to Captain Archer.
[Bridge]
T'POL: Four ships have located the marauder's power signature.
ARCHER: Can you pick up biosigns?
T'POL: Not at this distance.
ARCHER: Travis, plot an intercept course. Take us to maximum warp.
TRAVIS: Intercept in forty seven minutes.
ARCHER: Alert the fleet.
[Command area]
NIJIL: The Drone's sensors have detected Enterprise. It's closing.
VALDORE: Activate the holographic skin.
[Romulan ship]
TUCKER: Something's starting to draw a lot of power. It's all those systems that went down in the explosion. They're coming back online.
REED: What about the warp matrix?
TUCKER: Not yet, but if you want to contact Enterprise, we'd better hurry.
[Bridge]
T'POL: Approaching visual range.
ARCHER: On screen. Magnify.
(And the image they see is -)
SHRAN: Vulcan?
ARCHER: Check their power signature.
T'POL: It doesn't match.
ARCHER: Tactical alert. Charge weapons.
[Control area]
NIJIL: Enterprise will reach the Drone before the matrix is restored.
(The door opens, and Vrax enters.)
VALDORE: Senator, I was not told of your visit.
VRAX: You allowed our enemies to board and disable the Drone. I have my sources, Admiral.
VALDORE: Then you know we are about to engage the human ship.
VRAX: I'm here to witness its destruction.
[Bridge]
TRAVIS: One minute.
T'POL: (at Reed's station) We have biosigns. Two humans.
ARCHER: Can you get a transporter lock?
T'POL: We'll need to be much closer.
ARCHER: Open a channel. Archer to Tucker and Reed. Respond.
REED [OC]: We're both here, Captain.
[Control area]
VALDORE: Fire.
[Bridge]
(There's a big bang close to T'Pol, who nearly falls off her chair.)
ARCHER: Target its weapons.
T'POL: I can't get a lock through the camouflage.
ARCHER: Take out the emitters, but don't puncture the hull.
(Enterprise swoops in, and the image of the ship fluctuates as the shots hit their targets, until it becomes its true self.)
[Romulan ship]
(Where things are also going bang.)
REED: They do know we're on board?
TUCKER: They're probably trying to take out the weapons. Enterprise
[Bridge]
TUCKER [OC]: Any chance of using the transporter?
ARCHER: You have to get closer to the hull.
[Romulan ship]
ARCHER [OC]: Can you do that?
TUCKER: We're on our way.
[Control area]
NIJIL: We've lost the emitters.
VALDORE: Warp status?
NIJIL: Two minutes. More enemy ships are closing. If Enterprise stops the self-repair sequence.
VRAX: The Drone will escape.
(It certainly manages to dodge two torpedoes, thanks to not bothering about inertial stabilisers.)
[Romulan ship]
TUCKER: Enterprise, we're at the hull!
[Bridge]
TUCKER: The ship's movement is too erratic. I can't get a lock.
TRAVIS: They're targeting our warp core. Hull plating's at forty three percent. (another bang) Thirty six percent.
ARCHER: Shut down weapons. All power to hull plating. Travis, bring us about. Trip, Malcolm, we can make one more pass. Get the hell out of there.
[Control area]
NIJIL: Their weapons are offline. They're vulnerable.
[Romulan ship]
(Tucker and Reed open an airlock.)
REED: I can't imagine how things could get much worse!
TUCKER: I can.
(They leap into space.)
[Bridge]
T'POL: They're clear. (another bang) Sensors are down. I've lost them.
[Control area]
NIJIL: Six more enemy ships within range.
VALDORE: Twenty seconds to warp.
[Bridge]
HOSHI: We've got company, alliance ships.
ARCHER: Tell them not to fire. Our people are out there.
[Control area]
NIJIL: The matrix is restored.
VALDORE: Withdraw.
[Space]
(The little ship warps away, and the big Vulcan ship and its companions go after it.)
REED: They left us. You were right. This is worse.
ARCHER [OC]: Anyone out there need a lift?
(Enterprise sails up and beams them onboard.)
[EV suit lockers]
REED: If I had to wear this helmet for one more minute, I swear it would've fused to my skull. I tell you, I'd like to find the designer of this suit and make him wear it for three days.
TUCKER: Yeah. Thanks for what you did back there.
REED: Yeah, you would've done the same for me.
TUCKER: No, you took a big chance. Which makes what I have to do all the more difficult. I'm putting you on report.
REED: You're what?
TUCKER: You disobeyed a direct order.
REED: I saved your life! If you put a reprimand in my file, it could be years before I'm even eligible for
(He sees the grin growing on Tucker's face.)
REED: Are you pulling my leg?
TUCKER: (finally laughing out loud) Malcolm, you're just such an easy target.
[Conference room]
ARCHER: The marauder got away. One of the Tellarite ships was hit. An Andorian warship rescued the crew.
SHRAN: So, it's still out there. As you said, a common threat.
GRAL: I believe we have more to discuss than trade disputes.
(Gral offers his hand, and Shran takes it.)
ARCHER: Why wait until we get to Babel?
[Control area]
NIJIL: The Drone has re-entered Romulan space.
VALDORE: Disconnect the pilot.
(The helmet is lifted to show us - a white-skinned, blind Andorian.)
To Be Continued...
2024-09-12 18:21:29 -
Pike:
Added the transcript.
