| In
the nine decades following Zefram Cochrane's visionary warp flight in space
and the First Contact that followed, the human race has been slowly guided
by the Vulcans toward developing the Warp Five engine. Mankind is at last
able to explore the virgin depths of space with a revolutionary new starship,
the Enterprise NX-01, under the command of Captain Jonathan Archer. Plans
to launch Enterprise are moved up when a Klingon courier is shot down by
unknown assailants and crash-lands in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Feeling that
the Vulcans have been condescending toward mankind for years, Archer insists
it's the humans' responsibility to return the injured Klingon to his homeworld
alive. Archer is fully backed by Starfleet Command, and the Vulcans' objections
fall upon deaf ears. With the ship high above Earth in spacedock, Archer
has three days to assemble his crew, consisting of the charming southern
chief engineer, Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III; the strong and wary
tactical officer, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed; the eager helmsman who grew up
in space, Ensign Travis Mayweather; the linguistically talented communications
officer, Ensign Hoshi Sato; and for his chief medical officer, Archer recruits
the unconventional alien Dr. Phlox. For the ship's first mission, the Vulcans
request that an advisor from their ranks be present, and they assign the
highly intelligent but stubborn Sub-commander T'Pol. Anticipation and nerves
run high as the ship is fitted with the latest Starfleet technology, such
as the recently approved transporter, which no one is very eager to test
on themselves. Quickly the historic launch arrives, and the Starship Enterprise
does indeed, in the words of Dr. Cochrane, "go boldly where no man has gone
before," warping towards planet Kronos. As Enterprise speeds along her way,
the crew all learn more about each other and strong bonds begin to form.
Under Dr. Phlox's care, the injured Klingon, Klaang, regains consciousness
and Hoshi tries to communicate with him. Suddenly the ship experiences a
power failure and unknown chameleon-like aliens invade and kidnap Klaang
from Sickbay. Dr. Phlox examines a captured alien and discovers he's a Suliban
who has been genetically altered. With the Klingon gone, T'Pol advises Archer
to return the ship to Earth, but he adamantly refuses. He then learns from
the tight-lipped Vulcan that Klaang's last stop before crashing on Earth
was a planet called Rigel X, so Archer orders Mayweather to set a course
for the Rigel system. Meanwhile, a Suliban named Silik interrogates Klaang,
trying to find out why he was on Rigel X meeting with a Suliban female named
Sarin. At Rigel X, the Enterprise away team discovers an amazing multitude
of alien life at a trading complex there, and their attempts to locate information
on Klaang's visit are constantly interrupted by strange new sights and sounds.
Archer eventually meets Sarin, who tells him of a Temporal Cold War in which
the Suliban are being used to incite internal strife within the Klingon
Empire. Klaang was bringing proof of this back to his High Council in order
to avoid the Empire being thrown into chaos. Hidden Suliban soldiers suddenly
attack, forcing Archer, Sarin and the rest of the away team to fight their
way back to Enterprise. During the extremely intense firefight Sarin is
killed, and later Archer is rendered unconscious from a deep blast to his
leg while saving T'Pol's life. As Archer recovers, T'Pol takes command of
Enterprise despite Trip's objections, and astonishes everyone by enabling
the ship to track the Suliban vessel from Rigel X, rather than ordering
the ship back to Earth. After Archer resumes command they arrive at a gas
giant planet, apparently losing the Suliban's trail. But T'Pol is again
surprisingly helpful when she works with Archer to determine that not one
but 14 Suliban vessels have recently entered the planet's atmosphere. Enterprise
goes in to follow, and discovers a huge Suliban mothership, or "Helix,"
with 3000 lifesigns on board. They are attacked by several individual Suliban
cell ships, but manage to capture one with the ship's grappler. Archer and
Tucker learn to fly the stolen craft and use it to infiltrate the Helix
while Enterprise hides in a dense upper layer of the atmosphere and avoids
the Suliban's depth charges. Archer and Tucker find Klaang and release him
while fending off the Suliban with their new phase-pistols. While Tucker
takes the Klingon back to Enterprise, Archer stays behind to set off a magnetic
disruptor that dismantles the Helix. Trying to stay alive while waiting
for pick-up, Archer discovers a Temporal Chamber used by the Suliban to
obtain their orders from a mysterious shrouded figure from the future. Archer
is found by the Suliban leader, Silik, and the two struggle against each
other in a time-shifted environment. Realizing he's no match for the genetically
mutated Suliban, Archer tries to gain some distance by exiting the chamber,
where time returns to normal. As Archer runs, Silik fires his weapon dead
center into Archer, but at that moment the captain dematerializes, being
unwittingly beamed back to Enterprise by a nervous Tucker using the relatively
untried bio-transporter. Leaving the Suliban behind, Enterprise warps away
and successfully delivers Klaang to his homeworld. The Klingon Chancellor
draws blood from Klaang, and his scientists find hidden within his DNA Suliban
data proving their conspiracy to undermine the Empire. The Chancellor turns
to Archer and acts hostile toward him, but Archer takes his actions as a
"thank you." Back aboard Enterprise, Archer receives orders from Starfleet
that henceforth, he and his crew are to officially begin their mission of
exploration. Gratefully acknowledging her assistance in the mission's success,
Archer sets aside his pride and convinces T'Pol to remain on the ship as
Science Officer. A course is laid in for the nearest inhabited planet, and
the crew of Enterprise boldly warps toward the unknown. |
