“United” is episode thirteen of season four of Star Trek: Enterprise.
In the previous episode, “Babel One”, Trip and Reed were stuck on the Marauder. And had discovered it was being operated remotely. The ship drops out of warp with a new target and the Romulan admiral, Valdore, orders a new configuration for the holographic skin. With a smile. They’re attacking a Rigellian ship and give them just enough time to transmit a distress call, showing them being attacked by Enterprise, before destroying them.
On Enterprise, Captain Archer tells Travis and T’Pol that Starfleet have communicated with him, sending the record of Enterprise attacking the Rigellian ship. The Rigellians are unhappy; Archer says the Romulans, if it is them, are attempting to destabilise the entire region. They need to find that ship. T’Pol and Travis have a plan to detect it. It needs 128 ships. The captain says there’s only one way to get that many ships.
Shran is seeing Talas in sickbay. She doesn’t look so good. The wound may have been superficial, but the phase pistol was set to kill. Talas tells Shran to not let her die unavenged. Phlox tells Shran Talas needs to rest as the captain arrives. He has a proposal. Shran is up for anything that involves killing Tellarites. That’s probably not the proposal.
Senator Vrax has arrived and is unhappy with Valdore; the Marauder is adrift and defenceless in enemy space, damaged by a single Rigellian scout. Valdore assures him it’s designed for self-repair and the drone ship can never be traced back to them. However, it’s a prototype built on a modified Warbird and the Vulcans will identify this if got the chance. Vrax wants the drone brought back and he will tell the Senate the test has been a success. Otherwise someone will pay for the failure, and it won’t be Vrax.
T’Pol meets with Archer. He tells her Gardener is sending every ship he can, but some will take weeks to get there. She tells him the Vulcans are sending 23; with the High Command disbanded, many ships lack full complements. The captain is thinking of asking the Tellarites and Andorians. T’Pol says even if they agree, getting them to cooperate with each other will be difficult. The captain says one species is friendly with both. Humans. Enterprise will serve as the command ship. If the Romulans are behind this and they don’t cooperate, the next time it will be a thousand ships.
Trip and Reed are searching the Marauder’s bridge. They have life support and it looks like it was an existing ship fitted with robot controls. Trip says that makes it easier; if it’s run by computer, they just need to find the off switch.
Shran and Ambassador Gral are arguing with each other. Captain Archer says he wants them to behave more like humans. Because one thing humans seem to do better than any other is to put their differences aside and try to cooperate if there’s a common threat. Someone is trying to start a war and if they don’t understand the need to stop it, they’re free to strangle each other.
Reed and Trip are working on the Marauder and Valdore is watching. They disable the warp system and Valdore has Trip sealed in a compartment where reactor coolant is vented. He speaks to them. If warp is not restored, Trip will die.
Shran sees the captain in his ready room. Gral has informed him the Tellarites are taking part. He comments of the pictures on the wall – previous Enterprises. Naming a ship after another is something Shran understands; his own ship was named the same way. Perhaps future ships will be named after their vessels, especially if they do something historic together.
On the Marauder, if Reed doesn’t restore warp, Trip will die. Though Valdore will probably kill them anyway. Talas dies of her injury, which is a problem for the tentative alliance because now Shran is angry and wants revenge on the Tellarite that shot her. Things are not very united yet.
A surprise at the end leads into the next episode, “The Aenar”.