Plot

Archer and the Xindi Degra are in a shuttle. With Degra suffering from memory loss, Archer tells him they escaped together from a prison and that the Insectoids took power after destroying Earth.

Archer is traveling in a Malosian shuttle with the Xindi Degra, constructor of the Xindi weapon. It appears Earth already has been destroyed and the attack on Earth was used as a decoy by the Insectoids to take over the power. Degra seems to be having memory loss and Archer tells him both were cell mates in an Insectoid prison. They worked together to escape from the prison, are hunted by them and are now looking for a shelter. Is Archer really telling the truth?—Arnoud Tiele (imdb@tiele.nl)

Three years in the future, Captain Archer and Degra (Randy Oglesby) (the scientist behind the Xindi weapon project) are aboard a shuttle escaping from an Insectoid prison camp. Degra cannot remember his time as Archer's cell-mate and friend, and remains suspicious despite having a prison tattoo and long graying hair. Degra doesn't believe that his own species would hold him prisoner, and recalls Archer from the Earth vessel that attacked the prototype site. Archer convinces Degra that the weapons test had failed as the Kemocite shipment used in the weapon had been tampered with. But the Xindi launched another weapon and destroyed Earth 3 yrs ago. Then the Xindi descended into civil war, with the Insectoids attacking the other 4 species.

The Insectoids used the attack on Earth as a diversion to build hundreds of ship with an aim to dominate the expanse itself. They also destroyed the Enterprise after capturing Archer. Archer convinces him that this memory loss is due to the blood worms in his system (used because they excrete a truth drug, but sometimes causes the victim to suffer amnesia afterwards), and removes a live worm from Degra's arm.

They are in fact inside a simulator aboard Enterprise (and still in December, 2153) and the whole set up is a ploy to learn where the weapon is being constructed. Degra and his crew, had been captured near the test site of the weapon (They had deleted the data logs and the navigation logs of the ship before being boarded and captured), the worm was inserted by Doctor Phlox, and the fake ship was constructed by the crew. In the Xindi ship, Sato finds a letter to Degra mentioning the system Azati Prime.

The ruse is partially successful, and Degra reveals information about his family (Living safely near a red giant system), and inputs coordinates into the navigation system (After Archer simulates a reactor coolant leak and pretends to be unconscious and encourages Degra to meet his family) (He also gets Sato to pretend to be a Xindi humanoid and "contact" the shuttle. Sato reveals to Degra that his family is safe on Azati Prime). He later becomes suspicious after a malfunction in which one of the windows of the simulator briefly glitches due to ship-wide power fluctuations (As they hide in an debris field to hide from Xindi ships), and attacks Archer.

This leaves Archer with a dilemma; travelling to the red giant star, Azati Prime, would take them three weeks, time they do not have to waste on a wild goose chase (Degra now claims that he never gave Archer the right coordinates). Instead they again deceive Degra into thinking that they have used Xindi warp technology to open subspace vortexes, and trick him into thinking that they have already arrived at the coordinates. Degra shouts that they will never be able to breach the base's defenses, thus proving that the coordinates do in fact relate to the weapon. In a final deception, Degra and his crew are mind wiped and returned to their ship.