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Eager to visit the deep-space colony of a race called the Paraagans, Captain
Archer leads an away team toward the surface of an alien planet. While piloting
the shuttlepod into the atmosphere, Reed proceeds cautiously as he follows the
Paraagan landing protocols precisely, a necessity due to the high concentration
of the volatile gas tetrazine at a certain altitude. He closes the shuttlepod's
plasma vents as instructed (exhaust plasma being the only thing hot enough to
ignite the tetrazine), but just then the shuttlepod is rocked by a deafening
explosion, and a massive shockwave scorches the planet beneath them. After
getting back to Enterprise safely, the distraught team learns the colony
of 3600 people has been obliterated, and tries to figure out what happened. Reed
is absolutely certain both plasma ducts were closed without malfunction, but
Archer orders an investigation while he braces himself to report the incident to
Admiral Forrest. While the crew continues its analysis and Archer deals with
intense feelings of guilt, Forrest convenes an emergency meeting of the Command
Council. He later informs Archer that Enterprise is to return home, and a
Vulcan ship will rendezvous with them in three days to pick up T'Pol and Dr.
Phlox.
The crew is despondent and frustrated not only that their own mission is
cancelled but that Starfleet has been set back 10 or 20 years. T'Pol reports to
Archer that Reed and his team have found an unidentified energy signature on the
shuttlepod hull, but he dismisses the evidence as inconsequential. The captain
climbs into bed after a very bad day, but when he calls for Porthos he gets no
response. Turning the lights back on, he is bewildered to find himself in his
apartment in San Francisco! Trying to figure out what's going on, he hears the
com chirp, and receives a call from Tucker — the exact same call he remembers
getting 10 months prior, the day before Klaang was found in the Broken Bow
incident. A familiar voice in the room tells Archer he's not dreaming — and he
turns to see Daniels, the time-travelling operative who was supposedly killed by
the Suliban Silik. Daniels apologizes and explains that he needs to talk with
him, and chose this time period to "hide" from certain factions
involved in the Temporal Cold War. He further explains that the explosion at the
Paraagan colony was historically not supposed to happen, that it was caused by
someone who doesn't want Archer's mission to succeed.
Archer wakes up back in his quarters on Enterprise, his head now
reeling with new information. First thing he does is get Reed to use a phase
discriminator to expose an alien component that was attached to their shuttlepod,
one designed to generate a plasma stream. Archer then orders his senior staff to
create two quantum beacons with certain specifications, and to turn the ship
back toward the Paraagan colony — he is now able to assure his crewmates that
they weren't responsible for the accident. Archer has a specific plan, and it
involves unlocking the quarters Daniels used when he was masquerading as a
crewman, in order to retrieve a database containing schematics for a Suliban
Stealth Cruiser. Once they arrive at the planet, Archer then directs the ship to
a binary system 2.5 light-years away, and then to a specific moon. The quantum
beacons are deployed toward specific coordinates, and on the viewscreen the crew
sees exposed a cloaked Suliban cruiser. They approach, and before the Suliban
has a chance to fire weapons, Enterprise lets loose a barrage of fire
from their phase-cannons and torpedoes, crippling their cloaking generator,
weapons and engines. Archer, Tucker and T'Pol quickly take a shuttlepod to board
the Suliban ship. Using stun grenades and other tactics to fight off the Suliban
crewmen, the team finds their computer core, and Archer retrieves three data
discs. With help from Reed's weapons on the starship, the team is able to make a
harrowing escape. Once aboard, Archer has Mayweather immediately set course for
the Vulcan ship they are to rendezvous with.
T'Pol and Hoshi are able to decode and translate the data disks, which reveal
the Suliban were indeed responsible for the explosion that destroyed the
Paraagans. Archer reports the finding to Forrest, who is baffled how he obtained
this evidence but pleased he did, and tells him to proceed to the Vulcan ship as
quickly as possible. Meanwhile at a Suliban helix hidden in a nebula, Silik
reports the incident to the mysterious man from the future who controls the
Cabal. The man orders Silik to bring him Archer, and must not fail. On Enterprise,
Archer tries to explain his story to T'Pol, who refuses to believe it because
the Vulcan Science Directorate has concluded that time travel is impossible.
Just then the bridge crew notices an instability in the ship's warp field.
Suspicious, Archer orders the quantum beacons deployed, and they discover
they're surrounded by a swarm of cloaked Suliban cell-ships. They are hailed by
Silik, who warns he has them easily outgunned, and demands that Archer give
himself up to one of his ships. He gives Archer five minutes or he will destroy Enterprise.
Caught in a corner, Archer puts T'Pol in command, asking her to be open-minded
about things that may seem impossible, and glumly steps into the Turbolift to
head for the docking port. When the Turbolift opens, he steps out into a
decimated corridor — he is no longer on Enterprise! He is now in some
alien building that has been utterly ravaged, with an eerie wind whistling
through it. Meanwhile Silik informs Enterprise that the captain's time is
almost up — but there is no trace of Archer! So the whole swarm of Suliban
ships prepares to destroy their warp core... In the alien building, Archer finds
himself at the edge of the bombed-out floor before a devastating vista, a once
beautiful city transformed into a post-apocalyptic nightmare, burnt-out shells
of skyscrapers spread out as far as the eye can see. Daniels is there, this time
in his native clothing. Rattled like he's never been, Daniels says that he was
just having breakfast there half an hour ago, then was instructed to bring
Archer to his time — the 31st century — because the timeline wouldn't be
safe if he boarded that Suliban ship. The sequence of events did not occur the
way they were supposed to. Archer volunteers to go back and take his chances
with Silik, to prevent this devastation from occurring, but Daniels reveals that
all his equipment, including the time portals, have been destroyed. There's no
way to send him back.
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