“Demons” is episode twenty of season four of Star Trek: Enterprise.
A man is being told by what appears to be a doctor that a patient has problems because their systems didn’t detect an infection. She’s fighting it off though. The man says that’s good news. For both of them. He says she looks so innocent, it’s almost possible to forget what she represents. She looks to be a human baby. With Vulcan ears.
Enterprise has returned home for what could prove to be a pivotal moment in human history. The senior staff is watching as a man is greeting representatives of multiple worlds who are assembled to forge and unprecedented alliance. After the speech, Captain Archer tells them to clap louder, though Trip in particular is complaining that they didn’t get credit. T’Pol is sure history will reflect their contribution. The captain goes to speak to the man who gave the speech, Nathan Samuels, who says having Enterprise‘s crew present is good and thanks them and Hoshi for the Universal Translator. They hope to have a draft charter in six weeks.
Travis is speaking to a reporter; it seems they know each other. An ill-looking woman staggers up to T’Pol as she’s saying Trip has a point and that perhaps Captain Archer should be in the photos. The woman tells T’Pol that they’re going to kill someone and collapses from a phase pistol wound, handing over a vial containing a hair as she does.
Captain Archer, T’Pol, Reed and Trip enter sickbay. T’Pol has ID’d the dead woman; a medical tech who took a leave from work because of emotional trouble. Phlox says the hair is from a child more than six months old. With human and Vulcan DNA. More specifically, Trip and T’Pol’s DNA.
Trip finds T’Pol in her quarters. She tells him she’s never been pregnant. But she can’t explain this. Does Trip believe her? He does. Phlox must be wrong. If she was never pregnant, she can’t have a baby. T’Pol, however, says the moment Phlox said it, she knew it was right, that there’s a child out there and it’s theirs. It’s a Vulcan thing.
Samuels meets with the captain on Enterprise. He talks about the increase in xenophobia following the Xindi attack. It died down, but news of a Vulcan-human hybrid would inflame them. Archer thinks it’s a small minority; Samuels tells him it’s not so small. Samuels says that they both know that Earth’s survival depends on allying with other species and the Vulcans are no longer watching their backs. There’s strength in numbers. Let Starfleet investigators do their job.
After Samuels leaves, Archer contacts Reed. He wants Reed to talk to an old friend. Reed meets with his old boss from Section 31. The dead woman was part of an underground isolationist movement, Terra Prime. Reed has heard of it. It’s thought she was trying to leave the movement; the defection may have something to do with the child. He thinks Terra Prime is planning something to do with the child.
At what looks to be a lunar facility, the man from the beginning is speaking to the doctor, who recruited the woman. The doctor thinks the woman became attached to the patient. He, however, agrees it’s an abomination. The man wants the doctor to send Greaves in as he leaves. Greaves says his men are ready. The man tells him there’s a loose end that needs tying up.
Archer finds Samuels at the conference. He wants everything Starfleet has on the investigation, and he’s asking Samuels because the chief investigator turned him down. The captain says the woman was a member of Terra Prime. As Samuels used to be. Samuels says he was young. Yes, 18, but surely the captain made questionable choices at that age. Samuels’ father died in an accident and he blamed the Denobulan pilot. It was a stupid mistake. But he agrees to help.
The reporter finds Travis on Enterprise. It seems they used to have a pretty serious relationship. It also looks like she perhaps wants to rekindle it.
Trip still doesn’t know what to think about the baby. The man behind everything is a fan of Colonel Green. Given that’s a man whose never been spoken well of, not a promising sign. The story continues in the next episode, “Terra Prime”.