TEASER
FADE IN:
INT. ENTERPRISE – BRIEFING ROOM
Most of Enterprise’s senior UESPA officers sit around the table: COMMANDER TUCKER, DOCTOR PHLOX, and LIEUTENANT RAKEE GARLA. ENSIGN TRAVIS MAYWEATHER is with them at the table, making general small talk with them, while SUB-COMMANDER T’POL stands patiently next to the main computer monitor at the head of the table.
The door opens and CAPTAIN ARCHER enters the room. Tucker notices and stands, which causes the others follow suit.
TUCKER
(unenthusiastically)
Mornin’, Cap’n. Ready for another morning briefing?
ARCHER
(sitting down)
As ready as I’ll ever be.
As Archer takes his seat, so do the others, except T’Pol who watches on from her location by the monitor.
TUCKER
I don’t know about you, but sitting around the this table every day for the past few weeks, talking about the next dead rock or gas giant we’re being sent to study next is starting to wear on me.
ARCHER
(smiling)
You could always wait until the department briefings before coming up here.
TUCKER
(with a gesture that encompasses the room)
What? And miss out on all this?
Tucker and Archer share a smile with each other for a BEAT.
ARCHER
If there are no real objections, I think we might as well get this over with.
(beat, indicating Mayweather)
Ensign Mayweather will be joining us from now on in these briefings. We’re in an area that hasn’t had any previous UESPA manned exploration, so I thought his experience as a Boomer might come in handy.
MAYWEATHER
I’m glad to help out, sir.
TUCKER
(wryly)
Give it a week, Ensign; you’ll be as bored out of your mind as the rest of us.
MAYWEATHER
I doubt that’ll happen, sir; I’m starting to feel at home, being back among the stars again.
TUCKER
I like it out here too, and don’t get me wrong: I love my Enterprise, but being cooped up on this ship for over a month is starting to give me a healthy case of cabin fever. I could sure use a nice habitable planet to stretch my legs out on, maybe some friendly locals to chat with…
Lieutenant Garla begins to smile inexplicably.
T’POL
You may not find them “interesting”, Commander, but the uninhabited systems we’ve surveyed are an important step in humanity’s exploration outside of its own system.
TUCKER
Sure, I can see that, but when we’ve already been to places like that Andorian outpost, it just sort of gets my expectations a little higher.
T’Pol raises an eyebrow at that.
T’POL
Yet your actions on that planet illustrate my point.
Tucker’s demeanor immediately darkens as he gets ready to unleash a verbal lashing on the Vulcan Sub-Commander. Archer notes the sudden change in his friend and quickly looks up at T’Pol, controlling his own expression as well as he can.
ARCHER
(flatly)
What do you have for us this morning, Sub-Commander?
T’Pol finally breaks eye contact with Tucker and taps a few buttons on a panel next to the monitor. A fairly unremarkable star system appears, with a typical assortment of rocky planets and gas giants. Its one stand-out feature is the lack of an asteroid belt.
T’POL
This is star system G-Two-Five-One-One-Three-Six-Zero-Zero. It was initially charted by the Vulcan Ministry of Science in 2035 by the Sorbin as it passed by this system, and again by a probe sent by the United Earth Space Probe agency in 2135.
T’Pol inputs some commands into the monitor’s interface, changing the display to an “overhead” view of the system.
T’POL (CONT’D)
The star itself is similar to Sol, although initial scans indicate that it is approximately four-point-five million years younger.
(beat)
As you can see, initial findings indicated that this system contains four gas giants and four rocky planetary bodies.
We change angles briefly to see the rest of the crew’s reaction; Tucker is obviously bored, Archer less obviously so, while Phlox and Mayweather only appear to be slightly interested. Garla maintains her enigmatic smile.
Changing angles back, we focus on the monitor and note a rather large gap between the orbits of the third and four planets in the system.
TUCKER
(unenthusiastically)
So, more dead rocks and gas giants then.
Garla starts to squirm a little, which draws everyone’s attention to her and her smile. The briefest flicker in T’Pol’s eyes shows that she notices too, but she carries on as if nothing has happened.
T’POL
Essentially, yes.
(beat)
I would, however, wish to point out that this system lacks an asteroid belt, which is unusual for a system such as this.
ARCHER
(distracted by Garla)
How so?
T’POL
Typically the forces involved in forming planetary bodies result in left over debris and planetoids of similar density, which tend to orbit between the rocky planets and gas giants.
Garla tries to compose herself under the stares of her crewmates, but she can’t quite seem to sit still or get rid of that smile.
TUCKER
You find something funny here, Lieutenant?
GARLA
No sir, it’s not that, it’s just…
(beat)
Well, I’d wanted to save this as a surprise for later, but I don’t think I can wait any longer…
(beat)
Sorry, Sub-Commander.
T’Pol simply regards her with a raised eyebrow and stands off to the side as Garla stands up and joins her at the monitor.
GARLA
Since we’ve gotten with sensor range of this system, we’ve already been making a few of our own scans to update our information for this briefing. To our surprise, all the old maps seem to be missing a planet.
Off the confusion of the others, Garla inputs a command into the panel and the display changes again, this time showing us the grainy image of a planet, covered almost completely by green oceans with only a few slivers of land and plenty of white clouds in its atmosphere.
T’POL
A Minshara-class planet, previously undetected by Vulcan or Earth.
ARCHER
Minshara-class?
T’POL
Suitable for humanoid life.
TUCKER
Doesn’t look all that suitable to me; looks like mostly water.
T’POL
There are several small “continents” and other islands that appear to make it Minshara-class, but we would need to investigate further.
ARCHER
(a little suspicious)
Why wasn’t this planet ever detected before?
(beat)
Travis, have any Boomers been through this system?
MAYWEATHER
The closest shipping lane is a few light-years away sir, so I doubt it.
T’POL
Neither the Sorbin, nor the probe sent by Earth entered the system; all previous information was taken from peripheral scans. Apparently, the timing of both was such that this planet was likely located on the other side of the star when the scans were taken of this system.
Tucker shrugs and gives Archer an almost pleading look.
ARCHER
I guess it doesn’t really matter now.
(beat)
Let’s go in for a closer look.
(beat)
Set a course, Ensign Mayweather.
The helmsman grins and stands up.
MAYWEATHER
Aye, Captain.
Mayweather exits the room as Archer gives Tucker a sidelong glance.
ARCHER
(critically)
And you thought it’d be boring.
Off Tucker and Archer’s shared smile we….
FADE OUT.
END OF TEASER
Continue to Act One
