“Bounty” is episode twenty-five of season two of Star Trek: Enterprise.
Enterprise has been exploring an uninhabited planet. Captain Archer and Trip are called back to the ship by an unexpected visitor. On the bridge, Reed says the other ship dropped out of warp 30 minutes ago and the pilot sent a brief message saying he wanted to speak to the captain. Reed found the ship in the Vulcan database; it’s Tellarite.
The captain contacts the other ship and the Tellarite demands to know what they are doing there. He is Captain Skalaar of the Tellarite Mining Consortium. Archer explains that they are exploring and having shore leave. On shore leave being explain, Skalaar recommends the equatorial range and some hot springs. He agrees to come aboard to give them directions.
Trip and the captain head to the docking port. According to T’Pol, Tellarites are not the most agreeable of species. They enjoy a good argument; it’s considered a sport. When the port is opened, Skalaar stuns Trip and then the captain after a brief struggle.
Hoshi picks up weapons fire on the bridge and Travis reports the Tellarite ship is trying to forcibly undock, which it does, shooting a nacelle and going to warp. Enterprise is unable to follow and Reed orders everyone be recovered from the surface.
Trip is filling T’Pol in and she says she’s heading to the bridge. Dr Phlox says they can’t; they’ve picked up an unusual microbe and need to go through decon.
The captain comes around imprisoned on Skalaar’s ship. Skalaar recommends he keep clear of the forcefield emitters. He doubts Enterprise will follow; he took appropriate countermeasures. The captain demands to know where he’s being taken and says his crew won’t give up. Skalaar recommends he be quiet or spend the trip unconscious.
Phlox tells T’Pol that the microbe is more resistant than expected. They need to stay in decon for several hours to see if the decon gel is effective. The microbe is highly infectious and humans will be more vulnerable than either of them. Phlox thinks it came from the marsupials he found.
Reed detects a faint warp signature matching the Tellarite vessel and Enterprise sets off.
Skalaar is contacting a Captain Goroth saying that he has the fugitive and is bringing him to Q’on’oS. Goroth has a different location he wants to meet. Afterwards, the captain asks Skalaar how much he is being paid. He assumes the Klingons want him for his escape in “Judgement”. Skalaar neither knows nor cares why the Klingons want him.
Enterprise has found a beacon emitting a false warp signature. Trip orders it destroyed.
Skalaar doesn’t care whether Captain Archer is guilty or not or what his crime was. Or that he will probably be executed. He’s captured dozens of fugitives; all have claimed to be innocent. The captain thinks if they were wanted by the Klingons, they probably were innocent. Skalaar is sure the captain isn’t a bad person; just an unlucky one.
In decon, T’Pol seems to be struggling and Phlox is detecting something wrong. She starts getting snappy and emotional, demanding Phlox let her out. T’Pol ends up apologising and Phlox recommends a mild sedative.
Skalaar is talking to another Tellarite, saying that he has more than enough money to get Tezra back. The other is not impressed and cuts him off. The captain asks who Tezra is. Not who; what. Skalaar’s cargo ship. And keep quiet; the Klingons pay the same whether he’s alive or dead. Then another ship, with another bounty hunter, Kago, approached. Kago wants Archer, who ends up having to help Skalaar avoid Kago.
Enterprise has to try and find Captain Archer before he does get sent back to the Klingons, and Phlox is stuck with a T’Pol who’s undergoing a microbe-induced ponn farr.