“Minefield” is episode three of season two of Star Trek: Enterprise.
Reed is heading to have breakfast with Captain Archer and he’s clearly nervous. The captain tells him to be at ease; Reed wasn’t sure if he’d been called to discuss something. No; Archer wanted to have a long overdue meal with his armoury officer. Archer tries discussing football – soccer – but Reed doesn’t follow it. Or any other sport. When T’Pol calls from the bridge to report an uncharted system with a habitable planet on their course, Reed is likely relieved to head to the bridge with the captain. On the bridge, Archer is arranging a trip down to the uninhabited planet when an explosion shakes the Enterprise and takes a chunk out of the saucer.
T’Pol contacts sickbay as Hoshi is injured. Reed reports that eight sections are decompressed but emergency bulkheads are in place. He doesn’t know if anyone was in the sections yet. Sensor logs show nothing before they were hit. Casualties are 17 so far, including Hoshi, but no fatalities.
Travis reports something else has just struck the ship. Looking at that section shows an object with a cloaking device that fails. It’s too small to be a cloaked ship and there are no biosigns. Reed reports that it’s armed; he thinks it’s a mine and something similar damaged the ship. T’Pol points out that if the mine explodes where it is, it could disable the ship. Reed says someone needs to head out and defuse it and he’s the best qualified.
After Reed leaves, Archer says he’s never heard of a minefield with just two mines. He asks if the quantum beacons from “Shockwave” are still mounted on the grappler arm. They are. The viewscreen is altered, but nothing shows. T’Pol modifies the signal, as the beacons were designed to work on Suliban cloaks, as Reed suits up and heads out onto the hull. T’Pol detects something. There are far more than two mines.
Reed reports in; the mine has magnetic spikes, two of which are locked on. The mine’s proximity sensors appear to be offline, so the mine doesn’t think it hit anything. Trip arrives on the bridge; the good news is they didn’t lose anyone. Archer asks if they can detach the section of hull plating if Reed can’t diffuse the mine. Yes, though Trip wouldn’t recommend it. The captain tells him to start working on it as a last resort.
Then a ship decloaks in front of them. T’Pol doesn’t recognise it and the beacons don’t penetrate its cloak. The translator can’t cope with the language when the ship hails them, and Hoshi is in no fit state to head to the bridge; she has a concussion. The ship fires a warning shot and the captain orders Travis to navigate out of the minefield. The other ship cloaks as they do. Reed thinks he can deactivate the mine, but the ship lurches and another magnetic spike deploys, latching onto the ship. Through Reed’s leg. Captain Archer heads out to Reed.
Hoshi wants to head to the bridge to help but Phlox tells her she’d collapse on the way. The comm logs will be brought to sickbay. The captain has reached Reed and is going to cut the spike free of Reed’s leg when Reed tells him not to; there are detonation circuits in the spike. Reed comments they could amputate his leg. Reed wants something for the pain so he can reach the access panel; which is more important, him or the ship? The captain plans to save both. The backup plan was to detach the hull plating. It seemed like a good idea at the time; less so with Reed attached to it. Archer gives Reed something for the pain and wants Reed to talk him through defusing the mine. Even though Reed doesn’t think that’s a good idea.
In sickbay, Hoshi tells them the planet has been claimed in the name of something called the ‘Romalan Star Empire.’ T’Pol corrects her pronunciation; it’s ‘Romulan.’ The captain remembers the name from the future in “Shockwave, Part II”. T’Pol says they are rumoured to be aggressive and territorial, but the Vulcan High Command has never made direct combat.
Reed is stuck to the ship and a mine and the captain is working on it. The Romulans are being not exactly patient as well. Archer does take the advantage of a captive audience to have a chat with Reed; Reed prefers a more formal command structure and explains why he didn’t join the Royal Navy. Talking relaxes the captain; Reed is likely made more uncomfortable by this than having his leg impaled on a mine.