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As Captain Archer prepares to lead
a survey team to an uninhabited planet, Enterprise is suddenly
hailed by a trio of aliens seeking refuge. The aliens warn
Archer that a deadly neutronic wavefront is quickly approaching.
After conferring with the crew, Archer surmises that everyone
must take shelter somewhere protected in order to survive the
storm's deadly radiation. Trip suggests that the one
heavily-shielded place onboard that might suffice for the
eight-day ordeal is the cramped quarters of the catwalk, the
maintenance shaft that runs the length of each nacelle. Only one
problem — the temperature in the catwalk can reach 300 degrees
when the warp coils are online, so Trip will have to shut down
the main reactor and set up a makeshift bridge in one of the
catwalk compartments.
The crew and their alien
visitors evacuate to the catwalk, and as the days wear on,
tensions run high among them. The storm envelops the ship,
making for frequent, sudden bouts of turbulence. Also, the alien
trio doesn't do much to endear themselves to the Enterprise
crew, and even endangers the crew by trying to cook their food
near a plasma manifold. To make matters worse, Trip and Archer
discover a problem in Engineering — the matter and antimatter
injectors have come online, endangering the crew's safe haven in
the catwalk. Trip cannot shut the injectors down from the
catwalk, however — outfitted in an EV suit, he must make the
trek to Engineering. The suit will only protect him for 22
minutes, so he has to work fast.
 Once Trip reaches Engineering, he notices something even more
peculiar — alien intruders, who appear to be interfering with
the ship's systems. Trip manages to hide from them, and attempts
to ascertain what they're doing aboard Enterprise. As he peers
out a window, he notices an alien ship docked alongside
Enterprise. He also manages to activate a monitor and witnesses
the aliens on the bridge — oddly enough, they're the same
species as the trio of aliens taking refuge in the catwalk. Trip
returns to the catwalk and relays his findings. Phlox runs a
scan on the alien visitors, deducing that the aliens are
actually immune to the effects of radiation. Angered, Archer
demands to know what's going on. The trio confesses that the
aliens Trip saw are actually looking for them — they're
considered fugitives. They explain to Archer that they were
officers in the Takret Militia, but they escaped when they
learned that the commanding officers were corrupt. The trio
apologizes for lying to Archer, and tells him that these alien
intruders have a history of seizing vessels like Enterprise and
murdering the crews.
 Reed reports that the alien intruders are trying to
re-initialize the warp reactor, putting the crew in danger.
Realizing that he must act quickly, Archer formulates a plan.
He, T'Pol and Reed suit up and head down to the main area of the
ship. While T'Pol and Reed work to shut down the warp reactor,
Archer distracts the alien leader, claiming to be the only
survivor onboard Enterprise. He demands they leave, or he'll
destroy the ship. He then breaks contact, and orders Mayweather
to change course, heading straight for a destructive plasma
eddy. As T'Pol and Reed finally succeed in shutting the reactor
down, the alien leader realizes that Archer is serious, having
set Enterprise on a suicide course towards the plasma eddy. He
and his men flee the ship, and Mayweather manages to steer clear
of the eddy just in time.
Soon after, Mayweather maneuvers Enterprise out of the storm,
and the crew is able to return to their quarters. The alien
visitors, meanwhile, apologize for all the trouble they've
caused, and head for the Gyrannan System. Relieved that the
whole ordeal is over, Archer wishes them luck and bids them
farewell. |
