“Anomaly” is episode two of season three of Star Trek: Enterprise.
Captain Archer is in his ready room when Porthos whines. Then a book drops from a shelf. In engineering, Trip is being shown a reading that doesn’t seem right. Phlox’s animals are disturbed in sickbay. In the mess hall, plates fly from the tables and stick to the ceiling. A distortion runs down a corridor, sending crew flying. Another runs across the captain’s desk, sending his drink into the air, where it remains.
He’s then summoned to the bridge where T’Pol says anomalies have been reported from all over the ship. The warp field is fluctuating and electricity is earthing from the engine. Main power is lost and they come out of warp.
Reed reports emergency power is up but most systems are offline including engine. Trip, when contacted, says it will be a while before he figures out what happened. Travis reports a vessel close by, holding position, possibly adrift. Enterprise‘s comms are down, so they can’t hail. A course is set for the ship; there are no biosigns, no atmosphere and no gravity.
The captain and Reed are with some MACOs getting ready to go across; the captain asks who’s used grav boots. Only one outside of simulations. Reed warns them that no biosigns doesn’t mean no-one is there.
A shuttlepod is taken over; the ship looks like it has been attacked. Inside, Reed discovers damage from weapons fire. And the crew is dead. Reed downloads what data he can.
Back on Enterprise, the captain tells T’Pol there were 17 dead bodies. Most died when life support ran out; the others were killed with particle weapons. T’Pol reports communications are back up, but nothing else. The captain orders Travis to get underway on impulse. T’Pol suggests they finish repairs first, but the captain tells her the people on the other ship had been dead for less than two days. Their attacker may still be around. He wants her to do what she can with the data downloaded.
Trip is trying to bring the warp engine back online as the captain arrives. Electricity discharges from it again. The captain asks how it’s going. Trip says the laws of physics are not cooperating; the Cochrane equation is not constant here. They need to either get away from the anomalies or rewrite the book on warp theory. And he doesn’t have to tell the captain how long that took Cochrane the first time.
A ship approaches, charging its weapons. Enterprise still has no hull plating and the other ship doesn’t respond to hails. Intruders beam aboard and start beaming off equipment. Reed, the captain and some MACOs assault some in the armoury, but they beam off. In engineering, one is downloading the database when Trip attacks him and then corners the others with the discharges, but they beam off too. The other ship departs.
In sickbay, Phlox says most of the injured are stable but suffered extensive disruptor burns and some of his equipment was damaged. Crewman Fuller was killed. One alien was captured and the captain wants him taken to the brig. Phlox recognises the species; they’re Osaarians and they are not native to the Expanse. As the captain leaves, Trip reports what they lost. Which includes their antimatter storage pods. They have maybe a month of antimatter left in the engine.
T’Pol says that the Vulcans don’t have much on the Osaarians, due to little contact. They have a large merchant fleet but no record of piracy. There’s no way of tracking the ship either. T’Pol warns the captain that the Osaarians have adapted their weapons and engines to compensate for the anomalies; pursuing them could be dangerous. Perhaps they should replenish supplies elsewhere.
The captain heads to speak to the Osaarian in the brig. He wants the intruder to help the captain find his ship to get back what was stolen. The Osaarian thinks that the captain doesn’t have it in him to do what it would take. They’re new to the expanse, or they would have the ship insulated with the Trellium-D mentioned in the previous episode, “The Xindi”. Otherwise ships, and people, get affected by anomalies. They entered with two merchant ships and were no different. But they couldn’t get back out and lost a ship trying. In order to survive, they became predators.
The Osaarian doesn’t think the captain has the motivation to do what needs to be done. But Enterprise is a long way from home and new supplies and may be the only thing standing between the Xindi and the destruction of Earth. That’s a lot of motivation. The Osaarians have likely not encountered anyone so motivated to get back their stuff. Which leads Enterprise to a huge metal sphere.