"The warp drive failed again, Trip?" Archer asked unbelievably as the ship dropped abruptly out of Warp.
Trip's reply was strained and quick, "Sir, we're lucky to be alive. Something almost hit our ship in Warp…we dropped out of it just in time. It looks like an asteroid…wonder why the nav. Computer didn't pick it up?"
"its surface is coated with Nitriduim Sulfate, a natural blocker to our sensors," came the mechanical drone of T'Pol, "although it does puzzle me how we escaped destruction."
"I'll start running an analysis of the computers," Mayweather volunteered.
"Get on it, Travis. T'Pol, I want you and Trip to look at the asteroid…maybe we can modify the sensors to pick up more like it," Archer said, walking towards the captain's chair.
Hoshi interrupted. "Sir, I was trying to see if any life forms could live on the asteroid when I picked up a trail of…whatever the stuff was called extending for about 500 meters. We're on a parallel heading."
Archer looked at T'Pol thoughtfully. "That's another thing you and Trip need to investigate. It looks to me like something passed it to create a trail like that. Malcolm—try to see if weapons fire created the residue."
Reed shook his head. "It's definitely not weapons fire, sir, unless they're completely different from ours; there's no electro-magnetic charge surrounding it. Our torpedoes would produce enough EM residue to—"
Archer shook his head and smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Reed. I'll be with Dr. Phlox examining for bio-matter in the asteroid if you need me."
***
"T'Pol to Archer…Captain, I believe you should come and look at what Commander Tucker and I have discovered."
Archer almost sighed with relief. Phlox had been lecturing him about the conditions that are required for organic matter to exist, but he wasn't quite the scientist that Phlox was. "I assume you'll brief me later, doctor?"
Phlox stretched out his smile. "Of course, Captain."
Once the door shut, Archer shook his head and took the lift to the bridge.
"Have a nap before you got here, Captain?" Trip said, looking at the time on his display.
Archer ignored him and turned to T'Pol. "What'd you find?"
"We—rather, I, detected a…a sort of psychic warning beacon implanted on the asteroid."
Archer looked at Trip, who grunted and shrugged. "Could you put that a little more simply?"
"I believe that whoever left the Warp-disrupting field around the asteroid—"
"Warp-dampening field?"
"Apparently, whoever passed the asteroid left a field around it, preventing Warp drive."
"That was a mighty kind act. I'd like to meet these people."
"That may be difficult," Hoshi broke in. "These beings are of a higher mental order even than Vulcans. T'Pol picked up the psychic beacon because Vulcan minds can…perceive more than humans', generally. These people probably don't look anything like us."
"One more thing, Captain—we've figured out that the residue was created by some sort of electrical field. We created none because we've polarized our hull to block electrical readings," Trip added.
Archer leaned on the wall. "If they run on electricity, then we should be able to detect them…try scanning for more electrical fields."
Hoshi stood up. "Done, sir. There aren't any readings, but that would make sense because if the electricity were anywhere above 1 or 2 volts, the…stuff on the asteroid would blow itself up."
Unbeknownst to Archer, Reed's eyes lit up and he caressed the 'fire electric charge' button on the control panel. If only we were Klingons, then we could blow everything in sight!
"That'd be a pretty small ship, then," Trip said. "You can't even run a flashlight at 1 volt!"
T'Pol looked thoughtful. "If we transported the sulfate from the surface of the asteroid into space, it should give us a clear reading on the direction of the vessel."
"Do it," Archer said.
"Transporting now, sir," Reed's hand barely missed the 'fire' button.
"Sir, I've got a lock on the ship! It's barely 200 km starboard." Hoshi said triumphantly.
"Let's beam a team over." Archer started to go off the bridge when Hoshi piped up.
"Sir…something just happened to the ship. There's now a…for lack of a better term, transport inhibitor. No power fluctuations, or anything. It just…happened."
T'Pol stood up. "I believe I can explain. On the very edge of my consciousness I could detect some sort of psychic activity. The being must have shielded itself with its own mental energy."
"Are communications still up?"
"Yes, sir."
"Hail them, Hoshi. If they're that smart, they could at least understand English."
Snickering, she opened a channel.
"This is Captain Archer of the Earth Vessel Enterprise. You must know by now that we mean you no harm. We merely wanted to thank you for saving our butts—"
A metallic voice interrupted. "You are a most gracious species, Archer. I would set our communications so that we could see each other, but my species has no need for the technology. We are telepathic in nature."
"Just a question—why are you interested in us? We're definitely not the cream of the crop technology wise."
A sound that could pass for a laugh came from the comm. channel. "It is not your technology that I am interested in; it is your mental capacity. I have tried to make contact with you telepathically, and two of you have semi-responded. Would one of them be you?"
Archer looked confused. "One would probably be my science officer, Sub-Commander T'Pol. She's what we call a Vulcan. They have…certain mental abilities that we humans lack. As for the rest of us…" the bridge crew shrugged almost in unison.
"I would like to board your ship, if you have no objection, Archer."
"Fine with me. Our atmosphere may not be the same as yours, though."
"I can—I don't really need any one type of atmosphere…I feel as if I'll have a lot of explaining to do to your people."
"That's one of our species' tendencies. We can transport you over anytime—" Archer stopped as a blazing white doorway appeared in the bridge. The being stepped out.
It was human-like in appearance. It wore a suit of body-armor of which the crew had never seen the likes. The individual parts looked as if they were alive. It was inches taller than Archer and about a foot wider.
"I am…just call me Dhal. I doubt you could pronounce my name."
The crew looked at each other.
Archer smiled. "Where no human has gone before…"
