Intrigue

An Arctic research team makes a startling find: cybernetic creatures - Borg - buried in the ice. When the revived aliens seize control of a spacecraft, it's up to Archer to keep them from contacting the Collective and threatening Earth.

An Earth research team uncovers wreckage and drones from the Borg sphere that attempted to stop Zefram Cochrane's warp flight nearly 100 years ago. The Borg regenerate, assimilate the team, modify their transport and flee Earth. Enterprise answers a distress call too late, rescues "survivors," and Phlox is injected with assimilation nanoprobes. Enterprise catches the transport and Archer must determine whether or not to try to salvage the personnel or stop the Borg efforts before they are out of control.—Meribor

A team of researchers (Drake (John Short), Rooney (Bonita Friedericy) & Dr Monger (Chris Wynne)) discover remains of a crashed spaceship in the Arctic Circle, finding two humanoids with cybernetic implants frozen in the wreckage. The bodies are taken to a nearby compound to be studied, where the crashed ship is ascertained to be about a 100 yrs old. The scientists marvel at the nano-probes that begin to repair the long dead aliens. Drake wants the specimens to be put into freezer again, but Dr Monger decides to let them regeneration process continue. One of the seemingly dead subjects attacks the scientists, assimilating them. Using scavenged parts from the wreckage of the Borg ship to enhance the transport, they escape into space, upgrading it with a faster warp drive and weapons.

Admiral Forrest (Vaughn Armstrong) orders Enterprise to rescue the "kidnapped" researchers (The aliens are roughly 6 light yrs away from their current position). They soon receive a distress call from a Tarkalean freighter, and they arrive to discover the ship under attack from the enhanced transport. Captain Jonathan Archer tries to disable their weapons, but the ship jumps to warp speed. Archer brings the survivors to Sickbay, and finds their situation reminiscent of a Zefram Cochrane story he remembers (relating to first contact) (In a speech he had recalled that during first contact he was stopped by a group of cybernetic beings and was rescued by a group of humans from the future who defeated these cybernetic beings). Archer thinks they have just awoken the defeated cybernetic beings from a 100 yrs ago, who are going back to their home-world to report and bring reinforcements to enslave the human race. The assimilated Tarkalean crew soon awaken, and in the ensuing melee Doctor Phlox is infected with nano-probes. They escape, and Lieutenant Reed then finds them modifying ship's systems, and learns that the enterprise's phase pistols are ineffective against them (after the first burst that gets through). Archer, left with no other options, orders the section to be de-pressurized. Reed then begins upgrading the pistols, while Phlox treats himself with "omicron radiation" to destroy the nano-probes. Archer is not yet ready to give up the human hostages (even after seeing what the nano-probes did to the Tarkaleans) and orders a pursuit of the transport ship.

Enterprise again catches up with the transport (which by now is travelling at warp 4.8), but the recent modifications suddenly activate and shut down weapons and propulsion. Soon after the aliens hail Enterprise and say, "You will be assimilated, resistance is futile". In response, Archer and Reed board the ship with upgraded pistols, plant explosives, and beam out. Commander Tucker troubleshoots the alien modifications thereby restoring main power to Enterprise. With the transport crippled, Archer realizes the altered crew members are too far gone and orders the transport's destruction. Later, a recovering Phlox informs Archer that while infected he kept hearing a repeating numerical sequence - Earth's coordinates sent somewhere into the Delta Quadrant. Sub-Commander T'Pol states it would take almost 200 years to reach its destination, but Archer remains troubled.