| Commander
Tucker and Lt. Reed have been on a mission to test the targeting scanners
on Shuttlepod 1, requiring them to fly the craft at least 20,000 kilometers
from Enterprise. During their trials they experienced an unusual jolt that
disabled their sensor array and com system, forcing them to return early
to the asteroid field where Enterprise has been engaged in a mapping project.
Upon arriving at the rendezvous point, the two men are shocked to find a
field of debris on an asteroid's surface, including a hull fragment that
is unmistakably a piece of Enterprise. Meanwhile Enterprise is actually
transporting a group of Tesnians back to their homeworld after their ship
was mysteriously destroyed in the asteroid field. The Tesnian ship was attempting
to dock with Enterprise when it went out of control, tearing off the Enterprise
launch bay door and crashing into the asteroid. Fortunately the crew escaped,
and Captain Archer expects to reach Tesnia in enough time to get back to
the rendezvous point before Tucker and Reed return. T'Pol hypothesizes that
the damage was caused by a micro-singularity, which Archer dismisses as
a Vulcan myth. Under the belief that the wreckage is the remains of Enterprise,
and with sensor and com systems off-line, Tucker and Reed can only assume
the worst, that their crewmates are dead. With only 10 days of air, Tucker
decides to set course for Echo Three, the nearest subspace amplifier, grimly
accepting the fact that at the shuttlepod's sublight speed they will never
get a distress beacon out in time to be rescued, but at least Starfleet
will know what happened. En route Tucker tries in vain to restore the pod's
systems, while Reed spends hours logging letters to family and old girlfriends
saying goodbye and tying up loose ends in his life. The two men get on each
other's nerves as Tucker's hope that they will somehow be found alive clashes
with Reed's more "realistic" pessimism. With nine days of oxygen left, Tucker
insists they get some rest. Reed finds himself in Sickbay, with T'Pol seductively
congratulating him for his heroics, but unfortunately it's just a dream,
which he's torn from as he's awakened by the noise of the receiver Tucker
just repaired. Suddenly the pod jolts the same kind of jolt that knocked
out their sensor array earlier and air starts escaping into space. Using
nitrogen gas to find the tiny leaks and leftover mashed potatoes to temporarily
seal them, they realize whatever hit them went clear through the pod. And
on its way out of the cabin, it was kind enough to rupture one of the oxygen
cylinders, leaving them with less than two days of air. Using valve sealant
to permanently fix the cabin leaks, they wonder how such a tiny object could
penetrate the skin of the pod that's designed to withstand meteors five
times that size. Then Tucker realizes they can buy another half day of air
by diverting power from the temperature regulator to the atmosphere recyclers,
so the men opt to endure freezing cold. On Enterprise, T'Pol presents evidence
to Archer that the Tesnian ship indeed was struck by a micro-singularity,
because three of these "tiny black holes" also collided with the polarized
Enterprise hull, but dissipated on impact. Though skeptical of her theory,
Archer decides it would be dangerous for the shuttlepod to enter the asteroid
field again, so he orders T'Pol to hail Tucker and Reed to set a new rendezvous
point. Meanwhile, under the stress of extreme cold, the two stranded officers
argue over their respective attitudes toward their plight, Tucker accusing
Reed of being a "grim reaper" and Reed accusing him of "treacly optimism."
But they do come together in a toast for the brave men and women of the
Starship Enterprise. As they huddle together under a blanket with a bottle
of Kentucky bourbon, they hear a crackling voice on the receiver it's Hoshi,
giving them new rendezvous coordinates. Enterprise is okay! The bad news
is, they're still two days away and the pod only has only a day's worth
of air, and with the transmitter still out, there's no way to tell them
to get there sooner. Desperately trying to figure out what to do, such as
finding ways to extend their air supply, Reed and Tucker realize the math
is just not on their side. So their only course of action is to attract
the starship's attention to get them to go to high warp. At Reed's suggestion,
Tucker agrees to jettison the pod's impulse engine rigged to self-destruct,
causing an explosion that they hope will show up on T'Pol's viewer. But
doing so leaves them adrift, and they go hours without knowing if their
message got through. Finishing off the bourbon with ten hours of air left
for two people, Tucker decides to double the odds of one of them surviving,
so he climbs into the airlock to seal himself off, but Reed tries to argue
him down and even points a phase-pistol at him he'd rather Enterprise find
both of them dead than one, but he's become hopeful things will work out.
Tucker relents, and the two men sit side by side in the cold, waiting and
shivering. Reed opens his eyes to find himself in Sickbay, with Archer,
Phlox and T'Pol informing him he's suffering from hypothermia, but was rescued
with only two or three hours of air left. Reed wonders if T'Pol has something
to say to him about "heroics," but she doesn't this isn't a dream. He turns
to the still-unconscious Tucker and acknowledges his fellow officer as his
friend. |
