“Harbinger”
Page 2 of 6In the Cargo Bay, Archer, Reed, a MACO, Phlox and Trip are all there with the vessel. Reed and Trip open the hatch. They find an alien attached to several tubes and what appears to be monitoring equipment inside.
In Sick Bay, the alien is angry. He is degenerating. He wants to return to his ship. Archer tells him he’ll die as the vessel has “minimal life support.” The alien replies: “That’s none of your concern.” Archer asks more questions but the alien won’t answer.
Archer goes to the Command Centre. Mayweather tells him it will take a day to navigate around the anomaly. T’Pol tells Archer that: “The disturbance appears to be expanding at a rate of several kilometres per second.” She adds: “Its location is exactly equidistant to five of the spheres.” They may be the cause of the anomaly. T’Pol shows Archer a dead planet which was once inhabited. Archer thinks the alien they picked up might be one of the last survivors. He wants her and Trip to examine the pod.
Later, the MACOs, Reed, his security men and some senior officers are undergoing a training session. They practice moves taught by Hayes. Trip spars with Corporal Cole and T’Pol keeps an eye on them. Mayweather spars with a MACO and is knocked down and has a cut lip. Reed calls it quits and takes Hayes aside. Reed is angry as he considers the sessions too rough.
Trip and T’Pol are examining the pod. Trip discovers that the gadgets inside the vessel may contain a transmitter. T’Pol talks to Trip about Cole. She tells him he shouldn’t be doing neuro-pressure treatments on her and should stop. She talks to him about his relationship with Cole. She suggests he should use some discretion as “it’s not appropriate for a senior officer to fraternize with a subordinate.” Trip counters that Cole is not Starfleet and: “There’s nothing inappropriate about it.” T’Pol notices something about the vessel and wants to see Archer right away.
In the captain’s ready room, T’Pol tells Archer that the vessel is made up of the same alloys as the spheres. Archer recalls the Triannon’s creation myth of the spheres and wonders if there’s any truth to it. D’Jamat had said that the makers of the spheres were gods and that they had created the spheres to alter the Expanse or the “Chosen Realm” to prepare it for the makers and the faithful. T’Pol suggests that the alien may have been inserted into the anomaly to see if he could survive in it as the vessel is equipped with monitoring equipment and a transmitter. Archer compares the alien to a canary that Earth miners used to use to tell if the air was safe in the mines.
Later in Sick Bay, Phlox tells Archer that the alien is dying, that: “he is literally disintegrating.” Archer wants him revived so he can question him again. Phlox thinks it unethical to keep someone conscious who is: “dying a painful death.” Archer tells Phlox: “Until I get the answers I need, we’re going to have to bend a few ethics.” Phlox reluctantly agrees.
