TWO

Archer had been in his ready room for nearly an hour. He was looking over the detailed damage reports from each section. Everything considered, the Enterprise had weathered the storm reasonably well. It wouldn't take more than two or three days before all the repairs were completed and the Enterprise could be on it's way.

As he read over the last report when he heard two high pitch whines, one after another. He didn't need anyone to tell him what those sounds were. He had heard them enough. It was the sound of the torpedo launchers firing. Two torpedoes had just been launched from the Enterprise.

Archer didn't wait for the call that he knew would come from the bridge. He left his ready room and headed directly for the bridge. As he did, he saw two explosions on the view screen in the distance. Malcolm was busy at his station and T'Pol was sitting in the command chair.

"Report," ordered Archer, taking T'Pol's place in the chair.

"Two torpedoes were just launched," responded T'Pol. "They have exploded on the event horizon of the nebula."

"Why did you fire the torpedoes?" Archer asked Malcolm.

"I didn't, sir," said Malcolm. "The launchers just suddenly activated and fired on their own. It might be a malfunction in the firing sequence caused by the storm. I'm heading for the torpedo bays now."

Suddenly two more torpedoes fired. Archer watched as the two torpedoes launched and headed into the nebula. They exploded near where the first two had exploded.

"Malcolm, what's going on?" demanded Archer.

"I don't know, sir," said Malcolm. "I'm ordering all launchers to be unloaded and shut down until I can get there and check it out."

"Let me know what you find out," said Archer. "T'Pol, I want a full diagnostic run on the entire computer system. If there's a glitch in the system, I want to find it before we leave here. I don't want to encounter any other planets or ships until we have this problem with the torpedo launchers fixed."

"Yes, sir," said T'Pol.

Malcolm left the bridge and headed for the torpedo bays. Archer sat in the command chair thinking. The plasma storm had messed up their systems more than they had anticipated. He only hoped they would be able to repair the damage without returning to Earth.

Malcolm's report shed no light on their problems. The torpedo launchers checked out completely. There was no damage to them and all of his tests indicated they were in perfect working order.

In addition, T'Pol's diagnostic didn't shed much light on their problems. She reported some unusual energy spikes, but didn't thing they were a problem. She said she expected some unusual energy readings from the plasma storm.

Trip had taken some of the repairs crews off the less vital systems to run a check on all relays throughout the ship. As usual, Mr. Tucker anticipated that if one system was malfunctioning because of the storm, it was possible that others could, too. He wanted to make sure that the relays weren't the problem.

Four hours passed without incident. Malcolm had gone over the torpedo bays and all of the systems several times, but still could find nothing wrong with them. T'Pol was still chasing down glitches in the computer system. She had corrected most of them when the ship suddenly jumped to warp speed and began to head toward the nebula.

"Mr. Mayweather, what's going on?" asked Archer.

"I don't know sir," said Travis. "The ship just suddenly changed course and jumped to warp one. I can't seem to get control of the helm. It's not responding."

"Archer to Tucker," said Archer into the intercom system. "Trip, we're out of control and heading for the nebula. The helm isn't responding. We need the warp engines shut down now."

"Aye, sir," said Trip. "Give me a second."

Trip checked his control panel. The readings didn't make sense. According to them, the helm was directing the ship. He didn't have time to check into the readings. Right now, he had to stop the ship.

Several options ran through Trip's mind. There were any number of ways he could shut down the engines. All were dangerous when traveling at warp speed. But they didn't have any choice. The ship couldn't stand the stress of another plasma storm so quickly.

"Terry," he called to a nearby ensign, "open the manifold injectors and vent the plasma. I'm going to shut down the power flow to the dilithium crystals. That should take us out of warp nearly instantly."

"That could be dangerous, Trip," answered Terry. "If the gas doesn't vent fast enough, it will back up in the vent tubes. We could blow every conduit along both nacelles."

"No choice," said Trip. "If we don't do it now, we may not get another chance. Tell me as soon as you open the injectors. I'll give it a few seconds to vent as much gas as possible before I shut down the power flow. That should put the risk at a minimum."

Terry went to the control panel for the manifold injectors. As quickly as he could, he opened the injector manifolds to the warp drive. He informed Trip that the manifolds were open. Trip stood looking at the control panel watching as the plasma levels in the warp engine dropped. He waited as long as he could, then shut down the power flow to the dilithium crystals.

Almost instantly, the ship dropped out of warp. It glided silently toward the nebula. But at the distance they were still from the nebula it would take them weeks to reach it on impulse speed. The dilithium crystals in the chamber suddenly shattered under the intense power surging through them with nowhere to go.

"Good work, Terry," said Trip. "Tucker to bridge. The warp engines are offline."

"We noticed, Trip," responded Archer. "Any damage to report?"

"Nothing serious," said Trip. "The crystals cracked under the strain, but I can replace them easily enough. I can have the warp drive back online in about three minutes."

"Negative, Commander," said Archer. "Keep them offline until we find out what happened."

"Aye, sir," said Trip.

Back on the bridge, Archer ordered the Enterprise to full stop. He also ordered Travis to take the impulse drive offline to prevent the same thing from happening to them. T'Pol was running a diagnostic on the warp engines and Archer knew that Trip would be doing the same thing. They would report as soon as they were finished.