Plot
With Sub-commander T'Pol and Commander Tucker held hostage, Paxton demands that all aliens leave the solar system within 24 hours or else he will destroy Starfleet HQ. With that warning and the clock counting, Starfleet orders Archer and the Enterprise to Mars to take out the weapon threatening Earth. Meanwhile the cloned baby girl of T'Pol and Tucker is getting sicker and time is running out for her as well. With the clock ticking, the future of the planned Federation lies in the balance.
Paxton's action has a devastating effect on the alliance conference. Seeing the divided nature of humans, Andorians and Vulcans refuse to negotiate any further. On Mars, Paxton agrees to let T'Pol and Tucker see the child, but then forces the Enterprise engineer to fix the targeting system of the array. He refuses to cooperate at first, but by doing so he risks more lives on Earth. Elsewhere, the crew of Enterprise think of a plan to shut down the array. They conceive a way to approach the deadly station undetected, by use of a shuttle pod hidden inside a comet. The imprisoned Gannett Brooks claims she is a member of Starfleet Intelligence, and is afraid a Terra Prime operative aboard Enterprise will know about the plan.
En route to Mars, the shuttle's navigation fails, nearly causing it to crash. The crew manages to recover, and infiltrates Paxton's base. Archer confronts Paxton in the control room, but Paxton breaches the hull and manages to lock in the firing sequence as the air escapes. Fortunately, Tucker has altered the target, and the beam harmlessly strikes the water near the Golden Gate Bridge.
With the crisis over, T'Pol and Tucker's child, whom they name Elizabeth after his sister who had been killed by the Xindi, is delivered to Phlox who cannot do anything to save her. The events threaten to destroy any potential alliance between Earth and other planets, but Archer makes an impassioned speech to convince the delegates that the unpleasant incident is reason to continue, not pull back.
Read more about this topic: Terra Prime
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