“Dead Stop” is episode four of season two of Star Trek: Enterprise.
Trip and Captain Archer are in an inspection pod looking at the damage done to the saucer section by a Romulan mine in the previous episode, “Minefield”, four days ago. Trip says he can’t polarise the port hull plating like that. As to repairs, assuming he could get tritanium, it would take 3-4 months. They can also only do warp 2, maybe 2.1. That puts Jupiter Station a decade away. Plus, the subspace amplifier is damaged; they only have short range communications. The captain thinks they’ve answered enough calls for help in the past year; it’s time someone returned the favour. He contacts Hoshi and asks her to start a general distress call. But not to go into too much detail; the captain doesn’t want people to know how bad the damage is.
Reed is also recovering from the damage the other mine did to his leg. Dr Phlox is working on it. Reed says it’s surely unethical to cause a patient this much harm. Phlox tells him it’s unethical to harm a patient; he can cause as much pain as he likes. (There’s also the fact that Denobulan medical ethics might not be the same as human and, technically, speaking, Phlox may not be a doctor by the human definition.) Phlox tells Reed to stop complaining. It will be 1-2 weeks before he returns to duty. Reed doesn’t want any more blood worms either; they still haven’t found the last one.
The captain is in his ready room when T’Pol contacts him; they’re receiving a response to the distress call. He enters the bridge and is told a Tellarite freighter is responding. The signal is poor quality – which is more significant than it seems – but the Tellarites broadcast the coordinates of a repair station. T’Pol says the Tellarites are not the most agreeable of people but usually trustworthy. The station is three and a half days away.
There’s no response from the station when they arrive nor any biosigns. Trip suggests salvaging materials, though the interior is filled with liquid helium. Then Enterprise is probed and one of the station’s docking bays reconfigures to fit Enterprise. The helium has also been replaced by an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere.
The captain, Trip and T’Pol enter the station after docking. There’s a room showing a hologram of the Enterprise, with every bit of damage noted. Even where Trip scratched the hull paint in “Broken Bow”. The captain thought he told Trip to have that repainted. All the displays are in English and there’s even scans of the crew, showing Reed’s injured leg. What sounds like a computer voice (which may sound familiar; Roxanne Dawson, who played B’Elanna Torres in Voyager and who directed this episode) says inspection is complete; select method of compensation to begin repair process.
T’Pol suggests the station is fully automated. There are three payment methods; Trip suggests the warp plasma rather than supplies they might need. The repairs will take 34.2 hours. Jupiter Station would take 3 months. The captain selects payment and the computer displays a repair schedule and says crew must vacate areas undergoing reconstruction.
Mechanical arms latch onto the Enterprise and Travis contacts them. The captain reassures him. The computer says there’s a recreational facility they can use. It’s rather bland, but T’Pol is scanning a table. A matter energy converter. T’Pol explains what she thinks it is and demonstrates, ordering a glass of cold water. It’s essentially a replicator; something Starfleet doesn’t have yet. It can also create Trip’s request for pan-fried catfish. Because the data is in Enterprise‘s computer. The captain isn’t that happy this was done without permission.
The ship is being fixed, as is Reed’s leg. Phlox would like the device doing that. The captain is in his ready room watching the repairs when T’Pol enters with a progress report. Even the squeak in the floor is gone. Which leads to a discussion about gremlins. T’Pol suggests scanning for them. Trip is happy with the repairs but T’Pol senses the captain is troubled. The repairs are a bargain. He’s suspicious of the motives.
In the recreational facility, Trip is talking to Reed about the station’s computer. Enterprise has the most powerful computer in the fleet and it’s enormous. The station’s computer is more powerful, yet the area it’s in is much smaller than Enterprise‘s. He wants to take a look.
Things look to be going well, then Travis is killed in an accident. However, he was where he was because the captain summoned him there. Except the captain didn’t, and the crew don’t know Travis was responding to what was definitely not the captain’s request. The Tellarites had tried to warn about something, but it couldn’t be heard.