Bounty
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crew of the Enterprise encounters Skalaar, a Tellarite who offers
to give them a tour of a nearby planet. As it turns out, Skalaar
is actually a bounty hunter who kidnaps Archer, planning to turn
him over to the Klingons for a reward. The Klingons have apparently
placed a substantial price on Archer's head since his escape from
Rura Penthe. Archer tries to plead his case with Skalaar, but the
Tellarite doesn't want to listen, and claims not to care if Archer
is guilty of the crime he was imprisoned for. Archer soon learns
that Skalaar plans on using the substantial reward money to buy
back his cargo ship, the Tezra. The Tellarite runs into trouble
when a rival bounty hunter tracks him down and demands that he turn
over Archer. Skalaar refuses, and the rival bounty hunter opens
fire on the Tellarite's ship. Archers convinces Skalaar to temporarily
free him while Skalaar makes repairs, Archer will pilot the craft.
The two men end up landing on a nearby planet, where they make further
repairs to Skalaar's ship. As they work, Archer learns more about
Skalaar's circumstances. The Tezra is very important to Skalaar
it was the first ship of its class, and Skalaar retrofitted the
engines himself. On one mission, Skalaar and his brother were hauling
cargo when Skalaar decided to take a shortcut through Klingon space.
Unfortunately, the Klingons caught them and took the ship. Skalaar
dreams of buying it back one day. On Enterprise, T'Pol and Phlox
are undergoing decon in order to get rid of a microbe they picked
up on a recent away mission. T'Pol is acting strangely she's having
a hard time controlling her emotions and is making sexual overtures
to Phlox. It appears that the microbe has activated T'Pol's mating
cycle she is undergoing pon farr. If she doesn't mate with a male
soon, she will die. Phlox races to find a treatment, but T'Pol's
emotions keep getting more and more erratic. Finally, she knocks
Phlox out and escapes from Sickbay. Luckily, Reed and a security
team manage to track her down and sedate her. Meanwhile, Skalaar
pays his brother Gaavrin a visit. Gaavrin now works as a maintenance
engineer and is skeptical of Skalaar's schemes to win back the Tezra.
Skalaar asks for an antimatter injector and tells Gaavrin it's only
a matter of time before he's able to get the Tezra back. Gaavrin
angrily informs Skalaar that his plan won't work the Klingons cannibalized
the ship a long time ago. There's nothing left of it. Skalaar is
devastated by this news. Even if he can't get the Tezra back, he
still has to give Archer to the Klingons or he may end up dead as
well. Archer, however, has an idea. Skalaar turns Archer over to
the Klingons as planned, but hides a small lock pick in the captain's
handcuffs. Meanwhile, he also alerts Enterprise to the location
of the Klingon ship. Archer frees himself and departs the Klingon
ship in an escape pod, just as Enterprise is arriving on the scene.
Enterprise locks on to Archer and fends off the Klingon ship, damaging
it enough to make a quick getaway. In Sickbay, Phlox has managed
to treat T'Pol and she wakes up feeling more or less like her usual
self. Though T'Pol is embarrassed by her actions, Phlox promises
not to mention what happened to anyone. Finally, Skalaar contacts
Archer to make sure the captain escaped the Klingons. He also warns
that the price on Archer's head will probably double. Grateful to
have made a new friend, Archer bids Skalaar farewell. |
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