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"Fortunate
Son"
Production 010
11/21/2001
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Synopsis:
Enterprise must intervene when the leader of a human
freighter crew sets out for revenge against alien pirates.
Sent by Admiral Forrest to respond to an automated
distress call, Enterprise intercepts the Earth cargo
freighter Fortunate and finds it badly damaged and not
responding to hails. Captain Archer leads an away team to
board the vessel, and they are greeted by the freighter's
acting commander, first officer Matthew Ryan. Ryan informs
Archer that the Fortunate was attacked by Nausicaan
pirates, who have been harassing freighters in the sector
for years, including the one Ensign Mayweather grew up on.
Claiming the distress call was a mistake, Ryan resists
Archer's overtures of help, but Dr. Phlox insists on
tending to the injured captain. Once Phlox determines that
Captain Keene will need two or three days of treatment,
Archer talks Ryan into letting Enterprise engineers come
aboard the Fortunate to upgrade its defenses. This forces
Ryan and another crewman named Shaw to take special
precautions to hide their secret: they have a Nausicaan
prisoner on board whom they are torturing for information.
Later, a proud Mayweather gives Ryan a tour of the
impressive new Enterprise. They bond as fellow "boomers"
who both grew up on freighters, but Ryan proves to be
disdainful toward Mayweather for having left his parents'
cargo ship to join Starfleet. Meanwhile on the Fortunate,
suspicious activity leads T'Pol to run scans and detect
the bio-signs of an injured Nausicaan. Informed of this
discovery, Archer confronts Ryan, who confesses they
indeed are keeping a prisoner and argues they have every
right to. Archer concurs, but counters that he also has a
right to remove the improvements made on the freighter.
Ryan appears to relent and let Archer and his team see the
prisoner, but as he leads them into a cargo module, it
proves to be double-cross — Ryan and Shaw trap them in the
compartment with a breach in its hull, and detach it from
the freighter.
The Fortunate then fires upon Enterprise and jumps to
warp, escaping while Enterprise rescues the trapped
crewmen. Commander Tucker sets out to the repair the
damaged long-range sensors so Enterprise can track the
renegade freighter, which they figure is after revenge
against the Nausicaans. Mayweather approaches Archer and
asks him to consider that maybe they should stay out of
Ryan's way. But Archer argues that human beings have a
code of behavior whether they're Starfleet officers or
"space boomers," and Mayweather agrees. On the Fortunate,
Ryan succeeds in beating the information he wants out of
his prisoner, namely the shield frequency codes for the
Nausicaan raider ships. They find the ship that attacked
them and chase it to an asteroid where two other Nausicaan
vessels are off-loading cargo to a docking station. Ryan
orders an apprehensive Shaw to fire weapons, but their
plasma bursts fail to penetrate the Nausicaan shields. A
counterattack disables their engines and ability to
escape, so the crew prepares to fight the Nausicaans
face-to-face as they board the freighter to retrieve the
captive. Meanwhile Enterprise has detected the Fortunate's
weapons fire and sets course to intercept. As an intense
firefight ensues on the Fortunate, Archer hails one of the
Nausicaan captains to negotiate a peaceful solution,
letting the freighter go in exchange for the hostage.
Faced with the superior firepower of the NX-Class
Enterprise, the Nausicaan captain agrees to let Archer
deliver the prisoner, but he must be quick or he'll "take
his chances" with an assault on both ships. Archer
contacts Ryan and implores him to listen to reason. Ryan
stubbornly refuses to give up his hostage, but then
Mayweather speaks up and chastises Ryan for putting all
freighter crews at risk to satisfy his thirst for revenge.
When the Nausicaan ships start firing, Ryan finally gives
in and releases the hostage to the boarding party, and the
Nausicaan ships retreat. Ryan is later stripped of his
rank by Captain Keene, and Keene confesses to Archer that
it'll be hard for freighter crews to get used to seeing
the space they've been traveling for three generations get
a lot more crowded.
Cast:
Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer
Connor Trinneer as Chief Engineer Charles Tucker III
Jolene Blalock as Sub-commander T'Pol
Dominic Keating as Lt. Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery as Ensign Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi Sato
John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox
Guest Cast:
Lawrence Monoson as Matthew Ryan
Kieran Mulroney as Shaw
Vaughn Armstrong as Admiral Forrest
Danny Goldring as Nausicaan Captain
Charles Lucia as Captain Keene
D. Elliot Woods as Nausicaan Prisoner
Daniel Asa Henson as Boy
Elyssa D. Vito as Girl
Creative staff:
Director: LeVar Burton
Written By: James Duff
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