Fortunate Son (Enterprise episode)

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Star Trek: Enterprise episode
"Fortunate Son"
Shaw & Ryan debate taking revenge for the attack on the freighter Fortunate, Fortunate Son
Episode no.	9
Prod. code	110
Airdate	November 21, 2001
Writer(s)	James Duff
Director	LeVar Burton
Guest star(s)	Lawrence Monoson Kieran Mulroney Vaughn Armstrong Danny Goldring Charles O. Lucia D. Elliot Woods Daniel Asa Henson Elyssa D. Vito
Year	2151
Stardate	unknown
Episode chronology
Previous	"Civilization"
Next	"Cold Front"

Fortunate Son is the 9^th episode (production #110) of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise.

[edit] Synopsis

Archer is contacted by Admiral Forrest to turn around and lend a helping hand to the ECS Fortunate, a Y-class freighter. Archer, Malcolm, Phlox, and Travis learn from the first officer that the Fortunate was attacked by Nausicans and that the captain was injured. The Enterprise helps repair the Fortunate until sensors show that the 23-member crew has an additional person aboard.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Teaser
On the freighter Fortunate, Captain Keene and Matthew Ryan are playing catch with an American football in a large hold. The gravity is less than Earth sea-level, so they are able to throw the ball several hundred yards with ease. As they talk, the ship is attacked by a Nausicaan vessel. Captain Keene orders the Bridge to drop out of warp and charge the plasma cannon.

Act One
On the Enterprise, Archer is woken to receive a comm signal from Admiral Forrest. He tells Archer that Starfleet has picked up the ECS Fortunates automated distress signal and the Enterprise is only a day-and-a-half away. The ship doesn't answer hails, so Forrest can't tell Archer what to expect.

In the Situation Room, T'Pol briefs Archer and Trip on the Fortunate. It is a Y-class freighter, maximum speed warp 1.8 and with a crew of 23. Reed asks about weapons and Mayweather says that they typically have only a low-yield plasma cannon for shooting meteors.

Later, the Enterprise comes upon the Fortunate and Reed's scans reveal hull damage and that most of the primary systems are down. Further scans reveal no ships in the region. Archer hails the Fortunate but receives no response. T'Pol reports that she reads 24 bio-signs.

Archer, Mayweather, Reed and Phlox take a shuttle over to the freighter. They are met by Matthew Ryan, the First Officer and three crewmen. Ryan says that Nausicaans were responsible for the damage, but the crew managed to fight them off. Ryan refuses Archer's offer of help, so Reed asks why the distress call was sent. Ryan says that Captain Keene was hurt in the attack, so Phlox offers to treat him and Ryan agrees. Phlox says that Keene won't die from the Nausicaan phaser blast but that the cortical regeneration required will take three days. Archer convinces Ryan to let the Enterprise help his ship.

Later, Ryan and crewman Shaw walk down to one of the cargobays. Shaw is incredulous that Ryan agreed to Archer's offer. "What will we do if they find it?", he asks, "Throw them off the ship?". They walk up to another armed crewman, who holds a Nausicaan raider hostage. The Nausicaan is badly beaten up. Ryan demands that the Nausicaan give him the codes but the Nausicaan just stares back at him.

Act Two
Ryan and Mayweather walk through the Enterprise. Mayweather says that Trip will be able to copy the valve assembly that he holds from the Fortunate, even though it is older than Trip himself. They come upon the transporter and Ryan asks Mayweather if he has been through it. Mayweather is curious to try it out but most of the crew are afraid. Ryan asks Mayweather why he left the Horizon, his parents' freighter. Mayweather replies by saying that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life on the Draylax-Vega run. In Engineering, Trip says that he can help and shows Ryan the warp 5 engine. Ryan says that he isn't interested in going faster than warp 1.8, and Mayweather and Trip look at each other, confused.

In the Mess Hall, Ryan and Mayweather enjoy a steak dinner. Mayweather asks if Ryan's parents were on the Fortunate. He says that they were on the North Star and Mayweather stops laughing and asks if Ryan was on board too. Ryan says that he was one of the survivors. Mayweather asks if Ryan would consider joining Starfleet, as he has more space experience than most Starfleet Captains and there are three NX-class ships on the drawing board. Ryan asks why Mayweather abandoned his family for Starfleet. Mayweather is left pondering in the Mess Hall as Ryan returns to Trip for the valve assembly.

On the Fortunate, T'Pol notices that power is being rerouted from internal sensors to the weapons systems and goes to put it back. Shaw asks her not too. Two children play hide-and-seek. T'Pol's tricorder detects one of them and she protects her from the searching boy. T'Pol continues scanning, then radios Archer to request a private conversation.

Later, Ryan meets T'Pol and Archer in the Ready Room for a status report. Archer asks if only humans are aboard the Fortunate. Archer reveals that T'Pol detected a Nausicaan bio-sign. Ryan admits that the Nausicaan is his prisoner and goes on to say that Starfleet has no jurisdiction out in that part of space. Archer agrees, then radios Trip to order him to remove the spare parts that the Enterprise has installed on the Fortunate.

Ryan leads Archer, T'Pol, Phlox and Reed to the Nausicaan. T'Pol scans ahead and reveals that the bio-sign is human. Ryan and Shaw pull guns on the Away Team and Reed fires At Ryan, missing him. Ryan and Shaw escape the cargo hold. Before they leave, Ryan shoots a hole in to the hull. The landing party feel the cargo bay shaking - Ryan has detached the hopper from the Fortunate, leaving it to drift.

Act Three
On the Enteprise, Hoshi detects the Away Team in the cargo hopper. Archer tells Trip to stop the Fortunate from leaving. At that moment, the Fortunate fires upon the Enterprise and moves off. Trip orders the hull plating polarised in time. They target the Fortunate's engines with a torpedo but it goes to warp before the torpedo can explode. Enterprise is forced to rescue the Away Team before the cargo hopper decompresses.

In the Situation Room, Reed says that they are trying to track the Fortunate's warp trail but the plasma cannon knocked out long-range sensors and it will be at least four hours until Trip can bring them back online. Mayweather says that to find the Fortunate, the Enterprise needs to find the Nausicaans first.

Back on the Fortunate, Ryan continues interrogating the Nausicaan. Shaw blanches at the violence. Later, Ryan and Shaw walk through the corridors, Ryan pleased at getting the Nausicaans' shield frequencies. Shaw wants to put the Nausicaan off the ship but Ryan wants to keep him confined. Shaw wavers and Ryan demands to know if Shaw will do whatever it takes to protect the Fortunate. Shaw nods.

"Captain's starlog, supplemental. We've picked up a faint warp trail that could be the Fortunate but we won't know for sure until our long-range sensors are back online."

In Engineering, Trip is having little luck with the repairs. Trip tells Mayweather that he can't understand why Ryan fired upon the Enterprise, as he has only made his problems worse. Mayweather points out that in the past, anything that happened on a freighter was dealt with by the crew. No one would take kindly to Starfleet showing up and giving orders. Trip says that Ryan will have to change his attitude now that things are changing. At that moment, the sensors come back online.

Mayweather goes to see Archer in the Ready Room. He is worried that Starfleet isn't handling the situation properly. Why is Archer forcing Ryan to accept Starfleet's help? Archer says that the human code of behaviour applies to all lifeforms and that it isn't driven by revenge.

On the Fortunate, Ryan and Shaw detect a Nausicaan vessel. Ryan checks that the new shield frequencies are loaded and the plasma cannon is online. The Nausicaan ship detects the Fortunate, fires then hides behind an asteroid. The Fortunate follows and finds a landing area and storage facility for the Nausicaan raiders to store their stolen cargo. They fire upon the first ship with no effect. Behind them, two Nausicaan ships deploy from the landing area, firing on the Fortunate and knocking out the warp reactor. The Nausicaan captain hails to say that they have detected the prisoner and will retrieve him. The Nausicaan ship them latches on to the Fortunate.

Act Four
On the Enterprise, T'Pol's long-range scans detect weapons fire. Archer orders a course laid in. The Fortunate is dead in space. Shaw detects three Nausicaans in section D and Ryan orders the weapons broken out for hand-to-hand fighting.

Archer hails the Nausicaan captain, who says that he is involved in a rescue operation. Archer proposes that the Enterprise will help retrieve the hostage in return for the Nausicaan captain allowing the Fortunate to continue on its way. The Nausicaan captain tells Archer to work quickly. Archer hails Ryan, who doesn't believe that the Nausicaan captain will hold to the agreement. Mayweather talks to Ryan, saying that his stubbornness and stupidity will hurt other freighters when they encounter the Nausicaans - the next one may be the Horizon, Mayweather's parents' ship. Mayweather continues by saying that if the Nausicaans kill the crew of the Fortunate there will be fewer people around to run the next generation of cargo ships. If Ryan returns the hostage, maybe they will survive for the future. Ryan is convinced and the Nausicaans retreat with their injured crewman.

Act Five
In the Fortunate's Sickbay, Captain Keene rises to greet Captain Archer. Keene says that he will reduce Ryan to an Able Crewman for his actions. Keene explains that the freighter crews who grew up in space feel protective towards their routes and are jumpy when they see another ship on their patch. Archer wishes Keene good luck for the future before departing.