“Stratagem” is episode fourteen of season three of Star Trek: Enterprise.
A scruffy-looking Degra comes around on a small ship being piloted by an equally scruffy-looking Captain Archer. Archer says they’re under attack and their engines are being targeted. They need to get their shields back online. The attackers are Insectoids. Degra says to open a channel; he’ll order them to hold fire. Archer says it’s a long time since any Xindi took orders from Degra. He vents plasma and the Insectoids suck it into their intake manifolds and their engines overheat.
Degra demands to know why he’s been abducted. The captain says Degra really doesn’t remember; he was afraid this would happen. His name is Archer. Degra demands to know what species he is. Human. But they aren’t enemies any longer. Degra just spent two days in an Insectoid interrogation chamber and it affected his memory. They have just escaped from a prison colony where they’ve shared a cell for three years. Degra doesn’t think that’s possible; the captain shows him they both have prison tattoos. The conflict between their people is over. They both lost. Now, they need to find somewhere to repair the engines.
Degra asks why he doesn’t remember. Bloodworms, used during interrogation. A side effect is that they sometimes suppress memories. They did with the captain too. Degra ask why question him now, after three years? Archer asks what the last thing he remembers was. Approaching the site of the weapon test in the previous episode, “Proving Ground”. Archer says the test failed because of Gralik and the events of “The Shipment”. Degra says Gralik will be executed for this; the captain says he was. That only slowed down the program, though. A few weeks later, the weapon was launched and Earth was destroyed. And Xindi rivalries resurfaced. The Insectoids attacked. Degra says the Reptilians and Aquatics wouldn’t allow it. Archer says they had no choice; the Insectoids used Earth as a diversion and built hundreds of ships. Degra sees something moving in his arm. One of the aforementioned bloodworms. The captain pulls it out.
Archer says when they were first put in a cell together, they tried to kill each other for weeks. But he suggested they work together to escape. The ship is a cargo shuttle, used to deliver supplies to the prison. Degra suggests setting a course for Enterprise. Archer says the Insectoids boarded it, took him prisoner and blew it up with his crew onboard.
Degra says the Insectoids have destroyed everything the council worked for, and explains how the Xindi Council was set up. He asks about his family; Archer tells him what he was told. They could find them. Degra thinks their colony, which is near a red giant, would have been one of the first attacked. They then spring a reactor coolant leak and Archer gives Degra a breathing mask so he can fix it.
Later, as Degra is sleeping, the captain injects him with something. Then looks into a hidden camera and speaks T’Pol’s name. The shuttle door opens, revealing that the ship is a simulator in a cargo deck. It’s all a ploy.
In the command centre, the captain speaks to Trip, T’Pol and Hoshi. T’Pol has found 40 red giants; she suggests asking Degra outright. The captain thinks it’s too risky. They need a little more time.
Three days earlier and Enterprise returned to the testing ground and detected a Xindi ship at the edge of the system with three biosigns. The Xindi haven’t spotted them. Degra is onboard as Enterprise opens fire. Enterprise captures the ship, but most of the ship’s computer data was erased prior to capture. Fragments remaining result in them discovering who they have captured.
A complicated ploy, from hair growth to tattoos to memory erasure and a plausible reason to a simulator complete with appropriately language, is devised so that Degra will end up giving them the location of the system where the weapon is being constructed.