| Admiral
Forrest learns from Ambassador Soval that the sacred Vulcan monastery at
P'Jem has been destroyed, a result of Captain Archer's discovery of a surveillance
station beneath the sanctuary and his sharing the finding with the hostile
Andorians. Blaming both Archer and T'Pol for the incident, the Vulcan High
Command decides to remove T'Pol from her position on Enterprise, and arranges
to send a ship to take her back to Vulcan. Upon delivering the news of her
reassignment, Archer is disturbed with T'Pol's nonchalant attitude towards
her imminent departure. But since she has two days left as part of his crew,
he asks her to accompany him on a trip to the capital city of Coridan, a
planet already familiar with Vulcans but not humans. Piloting a shuttlepod
to the planet's surface, Archer and T'Pol suddenly come under attack by
an unidentified aircraft and are taken prisoner. Held inside an old shanty
in an unknown location, Archer learns their captors are Coridan rebels who
are mounting a coup against the current government, which is kept in power
by the Vulcans. While Archer and T'Pol struggle unsuccessfully to escape
their restraints, Commander Tucker is informed by the Coridan Chancellor
that the kidnapping is the work of a radical faction who must not be negotiated
with, but that the government is doing everything in their power to find
the crewmen. Tucker won't sit on his hands, though, so he orders the crew
to run scans for the shuttlepod. Just when they locate it amidst a "shantytown"
just outside the capital, they are hailed by Traeg, one of the abductors,
who demands weapons in exchange for the hostages. While Tucker and Reed
consider their best course of action, the Vulcan ship Ni'Var arrives a day
early to pick up T'Pol, but then learns of the kidnapping from Tucker. Visiting
Enterprise to discuss the situation, the Vulcan captain, Sopek, opts to
mount a quick, decisive rescue mission, advising the human crew to stay
out of the way. This worries Tucker and Reed, so they discreetly take a
shuttlepod to the surface. As they search the Coridan shantytown for their
crewmates, they are themselves ambushed and kidnapped. It turns out their
captors are Shran and Tholos, two of the Andorians they came to blows with
at P'Jem, and they actually abducted Tucker and Reed for their protection.
Shran explains that the Andorians are in league with the Coridan rebels,
supporting their fight against the Vulcan-backed government, a government
he claims to be corrupt. But since the P'Jem incident, Shran has lost sleep
over feeling indebted to Archer, so he wants to secure the captain's freedom
from the rebels. Shran and Tholos have a plan to break Archer and T'Pol
out of the rebel compound, but they would be vastly outnumbered, so they
let Tucker and Reed have their weapons back and come along. The humans and
Andorians work together to overcome the guards and infiltrate the rebel
compound. Just when they are about to reach Archer and T'Pol, the place
is also raided by heavily armed Vulcan commandos, led by Sopek. Suddenly
the Enterprise crewmen and Andorians are caught in massive crossfire between
the Coridans and the Vulcans. But Tucker and Shran manage to slip by and
reach Archer and T'Pol. After helping to untie the hostages, Shran gives
Archer back the scanner that contained the incriminating evidence from P'Jem
his debt is now repaid in full. The Vulcans overpower Traeg and the other
Coridan rebels and are then met by the humans and the Andorians. While the
Vulcans and Andorians face off in intense distrust, weapons trained on each
other, Traeg regains consciousness and aims a gun at Sopek. T'Pol immediately
throws herself at Sopek and takes a plasma bullet in her flank. After the
Andorians return fire and put Traeg down for good, Archer takes the severely
injured T'Pol in his arms, refusing to turn her over to the Vulcans, and
leads his crewmates back to the shuttlepod. While T'Pol is treated by Dr.
Phlox in Sickbay, Sopek visits and learns the prognosis is uncertain. Archer
appeals to Sopek to let her have a second chance, given her heroic sacrifice.
He agrees to bring the matter up with the High Command and leaves. When
T'Pol awakens, Archer tells her the odds are pretty good she'll be on Enterprise
a while longer. |