After Archer rescues them from their crippled vessel, the Triannons take the Enterprise crew hostage. These alien religious zealots plot to use the ship to eradicate heretics on their homeworld.

Archer seeks to destroy the superweapon the Xindi are constructing by creating an elaborate ruse to fool its designer, Degra, into revealing its hiding place. Archer and 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.