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Synopsis
OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS from
StarTrek.com
Excitement is brewing onboard Enterprise as the starship
enters orbit of a Minshara-class planet with 500 million
lifeforms. Visual and acoustic scans reveal a pre-industrial
society called the Akaali. Over T'Pol's protestations of
protocol, Captain Archer decides the crew should explore the
civilization first-hand, rather than use probes. But the
mission becomes more critical when neutrino emissions are
detected on the surface, indicating an antimatter reactor on
a world that doesn't even have indoor plumbing. So Archer
sends himself, Ensign Sato, Commander Tucker and T'Pol down
to the planet disguised as Akaali to investigate.
Split into two groups, the landing team follows their
scanners through the night toward the telltale emissions.
T'Pol and Sato are disturbed to see that many of the people
on the streets of the city are afflicted with lesions.
Archer and Tucker determine the antimatter reactor is
located underneath a small curio shop, and upon breaking
into the shop they find that the entrance to the reactor is
protected by an energy barrier. Suddenly a crossbow is
trained at them by a striking Akaali woman who accuses them
of causing a local plague with their "evening deliveries."
T'Pol arrives and stuns the woman with her phase pistol.
With dawn arriving, Archer sends the others back to the
shuttle while he stays behind with the woman, whom he learns
is an apothecary named Riann. When she wakes up, Archer
tells her he's an investigator from another city who is as
curious as she is about the strange goings-on at the curio
shop and how they're related to the epidemic. When the shop
opens, Archer and Tucker confront the owner, Garos, mutually
realizing each are not of this world. Garos, a Malurian,
claims to be an explorer like them who grew fond of the
Akaali and chose to stay, and the antimatter reactor is
nothing more than a fabrication device for food and
clothing. He further claims the plague is caused by an
indigenous virus, and Riann's accusations toward him are
baseless. Archer is skeptical, so he visits Riaan in her lab
with T'Pol. While T'Pol surreptitiously gathers data, Archer
learns from Riaan that her brother was one of the first
victims of the epidemic, which started shortly after Garos
arrived. And suspicious deliveries are taking place at night
from Garos' shop to different places outside the city.
Later, Dr. Phlox determines from T'Pol's readings that the
city's groundwater is contaminated with tetracyanate 622, a
toxic compound primarily used as an industrial lubricant,
which appears to be responsible for the plague.
That night Archer and Riaan watch the curio shop, waiting
for one of those deliveries. Their stakeout turns awkwardly
romantic when Archer's translator malfunctions and he has no
choice but to kiss Riaan to cover while fixing it. But then
they see a man hauling crates out of Garos' shop, and they
follow him to a forest clearing. They watch as an alien
shuttlecraft procures the crates with a tractor beam. Riaan
is shaken by these sights, and Archer is about to confess
his true identity when they come under attack by the
delivery man. Archer fights with the attacker and succeeds
in stunning him, in the process undoing his prosthetic
disguise to reveal his scaly-gray alien skin. Archer pockets
the alien's weapon, shop key and a remote control unit, then
explains everything to Riaan as they return to the city. The
enter the curio shop, use the remote to disable the energy
barrier, and take a stairwell to find a massive underground
drilling operation operated by scaly-gray aliens. Archer
determines they're mining a veridium isotope, which is used
to manufacture explosives, and their drill bits are
saturated with tetracyanate. Determined to shut down the
operation, Archer tells Tucker to use the transporter to
beam out the reactor, once he can disengage the dampening
field that envelopes the entire mine. But he and Riaan
misread the alien controls and set off an alarm.
While a Malurian ship approaches Enterprise and opens fire,
Garos confronts Archer in the mine and warns him to leave
and never return. As Enterprise evades its assailant, Archer
manages to disable the dampening field and escape with Riaan
into the city where they get into a phase-pistol fight with
the aliens in front of the shocked locals. Meanwhile Tucker
tries to get a transporter lock on the reactor while
Enterprise fails to fend off the Malurian ship. He gets the
idea to beam the reactor into space and fire a spatial
torpedo at it, creating an antimatter explosion that
disables the attacking ship. On the ground, Riaan uses her
scientific prowess and instructs Archer to shoot his
phase-pistol into an oil lamp on the street above Garos and
his henchmen, exploding it and thus giving Archer the upper
hand. Defeated on each front, Garos and his men leave the
planet. The Enterprise crew removes all the mining equipment
and provides an antidote for the plague, all without the
Akaali knowing what's really going on, with one exception:
Riaan, who doubts anyone would believe her anyway. Archer
shares one last kiss with her before trekking back into the
unknown.
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