“Detained” is episode twenty-one of season one of Star Trek: Enterprise.
Travis comes to in a room that looks rather like a cell. Captain Archer is next to him, but doesn’t wake. Travis opens the door – which is odd, if this is a cell – and sees Suliban in the hall. He sneaks through the corridors, then comes back to find the captain. Travis saw at least 30 Suliban, but there could eb more. He doesn’t know who attacked the shuttle.
Archer thinks the energy signatures they detected could have come from the Helix. He lifts Travis up to the window. Travis can see a wall that looks like it surrounds the building, a guard tower and no people. They head out into the corridor and a Suliban comments that they are the new arrivals. Archer asks why they are here. The Suliban asks why any of them are.
At a sound, all the Suliban come and stand in the corridors, then guards – not Suliban – with shock sticks and a liking for using them enter. The lead guard tells Archer and Travis to follow him and escorts them to an office. The man in the office, Colonel Grat (Dean Stockwell, reunited with his former Quantum Leap co-star; he proves to have a similar habit to Al of wandering around tapping into a hand link) apologises. He can understand why they’re upset; no doubt it’s been a difficult afternoon. He meant to see them earlier but urgent business came up.
They don’t see many starship captains. Grat has gone through the database in the shuttle and asks what they were doing within their military zone. They must have detected it. Yes, but they had no idea where it was coming from. They were curious. Grat tells them their curiosity nearly got them killed. They are now in a detention complex several lightyears away. Grat’s people, the Tandarans, are at war with a species that can mimic the appearance of any sort of humanoid. They had to make sure they weren’t infiltrators. Now, they know they aren’t Suliban, but are they familiar with the Cabal. Oh yes. Grat doesn’t have the authority to release them, but if they explain the situation to the magistrate on Tandar Prime, he is sure they will be released. Unfortunately, he can’t let them contact the Enterprise, but will send a message himself.
After being escorted back to their cell, Archer goes to get some more water. He sees a child and starts having a go at her father for having a child in the Cabal. The father, Danik, says they aren’t members of the Cabal. Then why are they here? Because all Suliban are dangerous.
Grat contacts the Enterprise and explains the situation, sending the coordinates of the central magistrate’s office. Trip would like to launch a rescue mission; T’Pol would rather wait until the hearing. If they want to explore alien cultures, they need to learn to respect their laws. The Vulcan High Command might be willing to send an arbitrator.
Archer and Travis speak to Danik. He suggests they speak to the Tandarans. They have; the captain doesn’t think they are telling the whole story. Danik says the only thing they are guilty of is being Suliban. The fact that they are not genetically modified doesn’t mean anything; Archer though they were members of the Cabal, didn’t he? All that matters is the way they look. This is an internment complex and, from what Danik’s heard, one of the nicer ones.
The Cabal started attacking 8 years ago. It wasn’t long before the loyalty of all Suliban living in Tandaran territory came int question. They were rounded up for their own safety, or so they were told. Danik used to be friends with the brother of the head guard; they grew up in the same place on Tandar Prime. The Suliban homeworld became uninhabitable 300 years ago and most are nomadic. Some assimilate into other cultures.
Colonel Grat may have some points – the Suliban would probably be in danger from the Cabal outside Tandaran space – but how the Tandarans are going about things is more than a little dubious, and could well be at least partially responsible. Rounding people up and separating them from their families does not go down well with Captain Archer and, of course, leaving the detainment camp isn’t as easy as waiting for the next transport.