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Two weeks into their first mission of deep space
exploration, the Enterprise crew is still breaking in their ship and
itching for first contact with another civilization. Captain Archer hears
squeaking; Lt. Reed tests his weapons system on an asteroid field; Ensign Sato
is trying to keep an alien slug alive; Commander Tucker tries the resequenced
protein food; and Dr. Phlox is intrigued by human behavior. Sub-commander T'Pol
detects a ship floating immobile in interstellar space, so Captain Archer
decides to try to make contact with it. Getting no response, the crew takes a
closer look at the alien vessel and sees evidence of weapons fire, and bio-scans
reveal lifeforms with very low cellular activity. Over T'Pol's protestations,
Archer orders Reed to prep a shuttle, and asks an apprehensive Hoshi to come
along.
The shuttlepod carrying Archer, Reed and Hoshi docks
with the alien ship, and the away team — in environmental suits — boards the
vessel. The ship's interior looks old and worn; the nitrogen-methane air is
below freezing temperature; and the walls and floors are stained with a
blue-green liquid that appears to be blood. They follow a noise into a large bay
where they find hydraulic machines. When Hoshi shines her beacon on one of the
machine conduits and follows it up the wall, she sees something above her and
screams. Alien bodies are hanging from the ceiling with tubes draining their
fluids.
Back at Enterprise, Archer concurs with T'Pol
that whoever killed the aliens will likely come back and put their own crew in
jeopardy. The ship resumes course, but Archer is plagued by guilt for abandoning
the victims without at least trying to contact their people, so he orders Ensign
Mayweather to turn back. Back onboard the alien cargo ship, Hoshi works with
Trip to repair and decipher the communications consoles and send off a distress
signal in the aliens' own language. Performing an autopsy on a corpse, Dr. Phlox
learns that the alien crewmen were being drained for triglobulin, a valuable
fluid that can be used to create medicines, vaccines and aphrodisiacs. But the
away team has to evacuate when a vessel approaches with a power signature
matching that of the perpetrators' machinery.
As the shuttlepod returns to Enterprise, the
hostile vessel fires and knocks out the starship's port nacelle. Reed fires two
torpedoes, but they are useless against the enemy ship's superior defenses. The
bridge crew then finds themselves being probed by a bio-scan which no doubt
reveals to the attackers that the human lymphatic system contains some, in Dr.
Phlox's words, "useful compounds." Just then another vessel drops out
of warp and hails Enterprise. This alien captain is from the same species
as the murdered crew, apparently responding to Hoshi's distress call. Hoshi
tries to communicate with him through the computer translator, but its
inaccuracy causes the alien captain to think the humans were responsible for the
murders. As the enemy ship prepares to drill through the hull and board Enterprise,
Hoshi abandons the translator and begins talking to the alien captain directly
as best she can in his language. Despite the extreme pressure she's under, Hoshi
manages to convince the alien captain of their friendly intentions, and he
begins to attack the other vessel. While the enemy ship is vulnerable, Reed
fires another torpedo and causes some serious damage, and another shot from the
alien captain finishes it off.
The Enterprise crew learns their new allies are
called the Axanar, and after helping them recover their dead crewmen they spend
some time on their planet. Before resuming course, Archer agrees to a brief
detour to allow Hoshi to place her slug on a new planet — not exactly like
home, but close enough to adapt to and do just fine, similarly to Hoshi's own
experience of adjusting to life aboard Enterprise.
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