Shuttlepod One

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Star Trek: Enterprise episode
"Shuttlepod One"
Episode no.	15
Prod. code	116
Airdate	February 13, 2002
Writer(s)	Rick Berman Brannon Braga
Director	David Livingston
Guest star(s)	None
Year	2151
Stardate	unknown
Episode chronology
Previous	"Shadows of P'Jem"
Next	"Fusion"

"Shuttlepod One" is the fifteenth episode (production #116) of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise.

[edit] Synopsis

During a shuttlepod mission, Tucker and Reed are cut off from Enterprise and become convinced the starship has been destroyed and that their days are numbered.

[edit] Plot

Teaser
On board Shuttlepod One, Trip and Reed are attempting to locate the Enterprise in an asteroid field that Archer was planning to map. Trip suggests that because they are early, Captain Archer could have finished and gone to do something else in the interim. Reed says that they won't know when the ship returns until they see it, as their sensors and communications array are down. Reed plans to read James Joyce's Ulysses while waiting for the Enterprise. Just then, Reed spots something on one of the asteroids and calls Trip away from the communication circuits to look. It is an impact crater surrounded by hull plates from the Enterprise. Reed and Trip look aghast.

Act One
Elsewhere, on board the Enterprise, Hoshi reports to Archer in the Ready Room. Archer asks after the Tesnians and Hoshi says that Phlox can only keep 12 of them in the Decon chamber at one time. He is rotating the 34 survivors in order to give them all six hours of boron gas a day. Hoshi continues by saying that she has learnt how to speak Tesnian and reports that the survivors of the crashed ship are upset at losing everything, as they had lived on board for years. The Tesnian captain has no idea what failed and caused his ship to crash when docking with the Enterprise. Mayweather reports from the Bridge that their ETA at Tesnia is 20 hours, which allows for enough time to return to meet the shuttlepod. The Enterprise doesn't know that Trip and Reed are early.

Archer and T'Pol use a mini-shuttle to inspect the damage to the ship. Archer orders that Trip's deputy, Lieutenant Hess, begin work on a new door for Launch Bay 2. T'Pol reports that sensors detected micro-singularities in the asteroid field. Archer says that there is no scientific evidence for their existence.

Back on Shuttlepod One, Trip and Reed are trying to come up with an explanation for the evidence. They assume that the Enterprise has been destroyed with all hands lost. They have ten days' worth of air and are more than ten days travel time from Echo Three, a subspace amplifier. It could relay the signal from their portable distress beacon back to Starfleet. Their conversation gets heated and Trip orders Reed to navigate to Echo Three using the stars for reference as Navigation is down.

Act Two

"Personal log, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, November 9th, 2151. By the time anyone hears this, by anyone, I suppose I mean anyone human, Commander Tucker and I will be long dead. It is my intention to recount the events that led to the destruction of the starship Enterprise, and to express my deepest feelings regarding my short but memorable service with Starfleet. In order to test the targeting scanners on Shuttlepod One, Commander Tucker and I had to get at least 20,000km from Enterprise. During our third trial, we experienced a brief but sizable jolt and shortly thereafter realised that our sensor array had gone offline. We had no choice but to head back to the asteroid field where Enterprise was involved in a mapping project. We found the ship destroyed, its debris strewn across a square kilometre of one of the larger asteroids. Had our sensors been working, we certainly would have done everything possible to determine the cause of the disaster. But as it was, with only a short-range distress beacon and limited air, we had no alternative but to set a course for Echo Three, where someday this vessel... eventually this log, will be found. May God have mercy on our souls."

Trip grows tired of Reed's pessimistic attitude and says that in the nine days they have left they could be picked up by an alien vessel. They prepare ration packs and Reed finds a bottle of Kentucky bourbon, a present from Captain Archer to someone, Trip can't remember who. Later, after dinner, Reed records a message for his parents while Trip tries to sleep. Trip is exasperated at Reed's continued log recordings.

Later, Reed wakes up in Sickbay. Trip is on the next bio-bed, unconscious. Phlox orders Reed to get some rest and he and Archer leave. T'Pol remains and comments on Reed's selflessness. She sits on Reed's bio-bed, smiles and leans to kiss him - just as Trip gets the transmitter working on the shuttlepod. Reed has been dreaming. The shuttlepod is then rocked by an impact which breaches the hull. They find two small holes at either end of the cabin. Reed uses the remains of Trip's ration pack meal to fill the holes. He looks at a diagnostic panel and reports that one of the oxygen cylinders was also breached, leaving them with less than two days' worth of air left.

Act Three
Trip tells Reed that they can survive for an extra half-day if they lower the temperature of the shuttlepod and use the power for the atmosphere recyclers.

On board the Enterprise, T'Pol presents Archer with her analysis of the scans of the Tesnian ship; they were hit by a micro-singularity. The Enterprise was also hit, but the polarised hull plating dispersed their energies. Archer is skeptical. Archer is more concerned with Trip and Reed than about finding scientific proof of miniature black holes.

On board Shuttlepod One, Reed records more logs to his old girlfriends. Trip is tiring of Reed recording nearly identical letters and Reed tires of Trip's "treacly optimism". Trip grabs the bourbon and pours them both a drink. He pulls out an emergency candle and toasts to the crew of the Enterprise. Reed complains that he has never been able to get close to anyone - his family, his old girlfriends, but he was starting to feel comfortable with the crew of the Enterprise.

Later, they listen to the static on the radio while drinking the bourbon. Reed drunkenly asks Trip what he thinks of T'Pol; Reed thinks that she is pretty. They toast to T'Pol. The radio picks up a signal - it is Hoshi hailing the shuttlepod from the Enterprise. She transmits new rendezvous coordinates and gives an ETA of two days. Trip says that they only have one days' worth of air left and no way to communicate with the ship.

Act Four
Trip and Reed try to work out a way to communicate their situation to the Enterprise in order to make them speed up. Reed suggests jettisoning their engine and blowing it up. Trip refuses and Reed asks if he can hold his breath for 11 hours. Trip sets to work with micro-detonators. They jettison the engine, which detonates with a large shock wave. Later, Reed checks the oxygen gauge and finds that they have ten hours' worth of air left. Trip suggests that one person would have twenty hours of air and attempts to get in to the airlock to sacrifice himself for Reed. Reed threatens to stun him to stop him. Reed says that he would rather have the Enterprise find them both dead than him as the lone survivor.

Act Five
Reed wakes up in Sickbay. Archer tells him that they were suffering from hypothermia when the Enterprise picked them up. As Archer, Phlox and T'Pol leave, Reed calls T'Pol over to ask if she has something to say about heroics. T'Pol wishes him goodnight as she leaves. Reed looks over to Trip's sleeping form and wishes him goodnight too, asking if he doesn't mind Reed calling him Trip.