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Eager to visit the deep-space
colony of a race called the Paraagans, Captain Archer leads an
away team toward the surface of an alien planet. While piloting
the shuttlepod into the atmosphere, Reed proceeds cautiously as
he follows the Paraagan landing protocols precisely, a necessity
due to the high concentration of the volatile gas tetrazine at a
certain altitude. He closes the shuttlepod's plasma vents as
instructed (exhaust plasma being the only thing hot enough to
ignite the tetrazine), but just then the shuttlepod is rocked by
a deafening explosion, and a massive shockwave scorches the
planet beneath them. After getting back to Enterprise safely,
the distraught team learns the colony of 3600 people has been
obliterated, and tries to figure out what happened. Reed is
absolutely certain both plasma ducts were closed without
malfunction, but Archer orders an investigation while he braces
himself to report the incident to Admiral Forrest. While the
crew continues its analysis and Archer deals with intense
feelings of guilt, Forrest convenes an emergency meeting of the
Command Council. He later informs Archer that Enterprise is to
return home, and a Vulcan ship will rendezvous with them in
three days to pick up T'Pol and Dr. Phlox.
The crew is despondent and
frustrated not only that their own mission is cancelled but that
Starfleet has been set back 10 or 20 years. T'Pol reports to
Archer that Reed and his team have found an unidentified energy
signature on the shuttlepod hull, but he dismisses the evidence
as inconsequential. The captain climbs into bed after a very bad
day, but when he calls for Porthos he gets no response. Turning
the lights back on, he is bewildered to find himself in his
apartment in San Francisco! Trying to figure out what's going
on, he hears the com chirp, and receives a call from Tucker —
the exact same call he remembers getting 10 months prior, the
day before Klaang was found in the Broken Bow incident. A
familiar voice in the room tells Archer he's not dreaming — and
he turns to see Daniels, the time-travelling operative who was
supposedly killed by the Suliban Silik. Daniels apologizes and
explains that he needs to talk with him, and chose this time
period to "hide" from certain factions involved in the Temporal
Cold War. He further explains that the explosion at the Paraagan
colony was historically not supposed to happen, that it was
caused by someone who doesn't want Archer's mission to succeed.
Archer wakes up back in his quarters on Enterprise, his head now
reeling with new information. First thing he does is get Reed to
use a phase discriminator to expose an alien component that was
attached to their shuttlepod, one designed to generate a plasma
stream. Archer then orders his senior staff to create two
quantum beacons with certain specifications, and to turn the
ship back toward the Paraagan colony — he is now able to assure
his crewmates that they weren't responsible for the accident.
Archer has a specific plan, and it involves unlocking the
quarters Daniels used when he was masquerading as a crewman, in
order to retrieve a database containing schematics for a Suliban
Stealth Cruiser.
Once they arrive at the planet, Archer then directs the ship to
a binary system 2.5 light-years away, and then to a specific
moon. The quantum beacons are deployed toward specific
coordinates, and on the viewscreen the crew sees exposed a
cloaked Suliban cruiser. They approach, and before the Suliban
has a chance to fire weapons, Enterprise lets loose a barrage of
fire from their phase-cannons and torpedoes, crippling their
cloaking generator, weapons and engines. Archer, Tucker and
T'Pol quickly take a shuttlepod to board the Suliban ship. Using
stun grenades and other tactics to fight off the Suliban
crewmen, the team finds their computer core, and Archer
retrieves three data discs. With help from Reed's weapons on the
starship, the team is able to make a harrowing escape. Once
aboard, Archer has Mayweather immediately set course for the
Vulcan ship they are to rendezvous with.
T'Pol and Hoshi are able to decode and translate the data disks,
which reveal the Suliban were indeed responsible for the
explosion that destroyed the Paraagans. Archer reports the
finding to Forrest, who is baffled how he obtained this evidence
but pleased he did, and tells him to proceed to the Vulcan ship
as quickly as possible. Meanwhile at a Suliban helix hidden in a
nebula, Silik reports the incident to the mysterious man from
the future who controls the Cabal. The man orders Silik to bring
him Archer, and must not fail. On Enterprise, Archer tries to
explain his story to T'Pol, who refuses to believe it because
the Vulcan Science Directorate has concluded that time travel is
impossible. Just then the bridge crew notices an instability in
the ship's warp field. Suspicious, Archer orders the quantum
beacons deployed, and they discover they're surrounded by a
swarm of cloaked Suliban cell-ships. They are hailed by Silik,
who warns he has them easily outgunned, and demands that Archer
give himself up to one of his ships. He gives Archer five
minutes or he will destroy Enterprise. Caught in a corner,
Archer puts T'Pol in command, asking her to be open-minded about
things that may seem impossible, and glumly steps into the
Turbolift to head for the docking port. When the Turbolift
opens, he steps out into a decimated corridor — he is no longer
on Enterprise! He is now in some alien building that has been
utterly ravaged, with an eerie wind whistling through it.
Meanwhile Silik informs Enterprise that the captain's time is
almost up — but there is no trace of Archer! So the whole swarm
of Suliban ships prepares to destroy their warp core.
In the alien building, Archer finds himself at the edge of the
bombed-out floor before a devastating vista, a once beautiful
city transformed into a post-apocalyptic nightmare, burnt-out
shells of skyscrapers spread out as far as the eye can see.
Daniels is there, this time in his native clothing. Rattled like
he's never been, Daniels says that he was just having breakfast
there half an hour ago, then was instructed to bring Archer to
his time — the 31st century — because the timeline wouldn't be
safe if he boarded that Suliban ship. The sequence of events did
not occur the way they were supposed to. Archer volunteers to go
back and take his chances with Silik, to prevent this
devastation from occurring, but Daniels reveals that all his
equipment, including the time portals, have been destroyed.
There's no way to send him back.
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