“The Catwalk” is episode twelve of season two of Star Trek: Enterprise.
Enterprise is in orbit around an uninhabited planet that they are going to survey. Captain Archer and Trip are in Shuttlepod 1 when T’Pol contacts the captain. An alien vessel is approaching and hailing. It’s patched through to the shuttlepod and the hailer wants permission to come aboard as soon as possible. The neutronic wavefront is almost here and it’s approaching at high warp. Once aboard, he suggests they leave at warp 7 immediately. On a ship that can only do warp 5.
T’Pol says the wavefront spans 5 lightyears. A Vulcan ship encountered a class 5 over a century ago. The vessel was nearly destroyed. They have four hours until it hits. Reed can reinforce the structural integrity; Dr Phlox says that, though the ship may survive, the crew will not. Some of the crew might survive in sickbay. Most would die. Trip suggests the catwalk, the maintenance shaft that runs the length of each nacelle. It will be a tight squeeze, but they will fit everyone and needed supplies. Phlox agrees the protection should be adequate. However, the catwalk gets a little toasty from the warp coils – 300 degrees – so they will have to shut down the main reactor.
Trip and Travis check out the catwalk; Travis recounts what happened when his family’s ship hit a class 3. They had to shelter for 6 weeks and the generators went down. Trip designates part of the catwalk as the bridge; they will jury-rig controls.
The captain and Phlox go see the aliens in decon. They’re a long way from home and say they’re stellar cartographers. The captain would like them to help update their star charts after the storm.
The crew are transferring supplies to the catwalk and Phlox has to ask for more room. His creatures can’t share – they’d eat each other – and they’re vital to Phlox’s work and the health of the crew.
Trip shows the aliens to where they will be staying. After he leaves, it turns out they were lying about being stellar cartographers. The captain is in his ready room and is watching the wavefront approaching when T’Pol enters. He didn’t expect it to be beautiful. Too bad they won’t have time for scans. T’Pol says they will be inside it for 8 days; plenty of time for scans. The captain also looked up the Vulcan ship T’Pol mentioned. It was lost with all hands. T’Pol suggests she misremembered. Command is transferred to the temporary bridge in the catwalk, which can be best described as a bodge.
The captain heads there and is offered the captain’s chair – a barrel. After entering the storm, he goes to check on everyone, including the claustrophobic Hoshi. Trip says the aliens aren’t’ very friendly.
Reed sees Phlox for motion sickness and thew captain checks the doctor has enough space. Yes; it reminds him of home. 12 billion people on one continent. Archer suggests T’Pol try to fraternise more. Not something she’s good at. Everyone starts getting a little tetchy. Chef is seen for the first time; his legs anyway. Then aliens try to steal the ship and need to be stopped. Difficulty as, even with a protective suit, the crew can only survive outside the catwalk for 20 minutes.