“Vox Sola” is episode twenty-two of season one of Star Trek: Enterprise.
There’s another ship docked with the Enterprise and Captain Archer is wondering in inviting the Kreetassans aboard was a good idea. It’s been a challenging morning. Said Kreetassans are currently storming off the ship. Hoshi is struggling to translate. She thinks they want to leave. T’Pol thinks that much is obvious. The captain is unable to apologise to the Kreetassan captain (Vaughn Armstrong). As the Kreetassan ship undocks, something on the outside of the docking tube slips in the airlock.
On the bridge, Hoshi can hear frequency distortions in the static coming from the comm. Yes, she’s run a diagnostic. Twice. She’s also working on translating the Kreetassan language. The word for eat is very similar to the word to mate; the same word, in fact, has a dozen different meanings. T’Pol states they rely on Hoshi to recognise the difference. Possibly not helpful. Hoshi thinks T’Pol thinks the misunderstanding is her fault. T’Pol didn’t say that; simply noted linguistics are Hoshi’s responsibility. It might have been Trip’s table manners. Hoshi can learn from failure.
Trip enters the bridge and Hoshi tells him of the interference in the comms. Irritating more than anything. Trip says he will track it down first thing in the morning, then asks T’Pol if the captain is in his ready room. Yes, but it might not be the best time. Trip enters anyway and eventually interests the captain in a recording of a game; Stanford versus Texas. In the captain’s room, Porthos barks at the creature which is now in the air vent.
In the mess hall, Reed and Travis are discussing the Kreetassans; they didn’t lose their temper until they arrived in the mess hall. Travis asks Reed if he’s staying for the film, The Wages of Fear. He convinces Reed by promising lots of explosions. Hoshi, sharing their table, will turn in. On the way through the corridors, she hears the creature on the other side of the wall but dismisses it.
Two crewmen in the engine room are planning to see the film, but one, Kelly, tells the other, Rostov, to check out cargo bay two where the lights and comms are down. Travis, meanwhile, is building up the film for Reed, but they instead get sickbay followed by the bridge. Reed contacts the bridge to let them know. Trip and Archer are watching a water polo match; the captain’s sport.
In cargo bay two, Rostov finds a broken vent, liquid and a moving tentacle. He takes out a communicator to tell Kelly, but something attacks him. Kelly heads to the cargo bay, and contacts the captain when she gets there but is cut off. Archer and Trip, accompanied by Reed and a security officer, head to the cargo bay. Jelly and Rostov are there, alive but seemingly cocooned. Phase pistols do no good and all but Reed are taken. Reed severs part of a tentacle shutting the door.
Reed briefs Hoshi, Travis and T’Pol. T’Pol isn’t certain the alien is hostile; Reed disagrees. Travis says the Kreetassans might know something about the creature. T’Pol agrees, but they will need to communicate with the Kreetassans better than last time.
Phlox contacts them; he’s preparing to examine the specimen if they’d care to observe. They would. The sample is still alive, despite being severed. And it might be intelligent. Hoshi thinks she might be able to communicate with it too. Reed isn’t willing to wait that long, though, and T’Pol tells him to come up with a way to neutralise it. Phlox says the lifeform is highly photosensitive; EM emitters might work.
The captured crew are not dead and, in fact, several of them are still conscious. The lifeform doesn’t seem to want to kill them. Given Hoshi’s problems with the Kreetassans, it’s practically certain solving this problem will come to depend on her language skills.