Dead Stop

In the audio commentary for this episode, the writers reveal that this episode was an attempt to diverge from previous episodes of Star Trek in which a ship is critically damaged in one episode, but miraculously repaired in the next, with no mention of repair work.

Although Archer was correct in his suspicion that the repairs were too good to be true for the requested fee, Enterprise had spent the previous year offering assistance (repairs, medical supplies, etc.) to anyone that needed it, and rarely asked for anything of significant value in return.

References Star Trek: The Changeling (1967)