Episode Report Card Keckler: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Play Dom Jot, Hu-mon!
By Keckler | Season 1 | Episode 10 | Aired on 11.20.2001
In a plastic-barrel-filled cargo bay, a crewmate says to Ryan, "You're letting them send over more people?" "A few engineers, that's all," Ryan tells him. "We can't have people crawling all over the place," Crewmate says. "We'll keep them where they're supposed to be," Ryan says, as The Music Of Misconduct builds. "And what if they find him?" Crewmate asks. "What do you want me to do?" Ryan asks back, "Throw them off the ship?" They walk around a few barrels and reach another crewmember holding a pistol. "Anything?" Ryan asks, as it's revealed that they have a bruised Nausicaan tied up. Pistol-Toting Crewman shakes his head, and Ryan leans into the Nausicaan to hiss, "I want those codes." The Nausicaan looks scared.
Enterprise hovers under the Fortunate. Amazingly, it's about one-hundredth the size of that garbage scow. Mayberry and Ryan confab in Enterprise's corridors. "Trip'll get a kick out of this -- it's older than he is," Mayberry says, examining some device. "Quartermaster won't have anything like it, but Engineering should be able to make one for you." Ryan looks peevish: "We've got our own machine shop." Mayberry placates him by saying that he knows their crew must have their hands full with everything else, and they're just so happy to help. "That's a transporter," Ryan comments, as they pass a pad. Mayberry chuckles, "Enterprise came with all the trimmings." Like a turkey. Ryan examines the pad and says he's read about transporters. "Have you been through it?" he asks Mayberry, who grins and says, "Not yet. Most of the crew's afraid, but I'm kinda curious to try it out." Ryan steps onto the pad, and looks around, saying, "They say for a split second, you can actually feel yourself in both places at once." "Why do you think I want to try it?" Mayberry asks archly. Ryan looks at him with new respect and brings up his barge experience: "So you were on the Horizon." Mayberry tells him he was born on her, "halfway between Dralax and Vega Colony." Ryan gets personal on the walk to Engineering and asks how his parents felt about him abandoning ship. "I've still got my sister and her husband aboard the Horizon," Mayberry says, "but I know my father expected me to take over at some point." Ah, the old family-business storyline. Classic. But by "classic," I mean "trite and as tired as a recapper." Ryan asks why Mayberry left if his father had such expectations of him. "I had to figure out where I wanted to spend the rest of my life," Mayberry tells him, as they get on a turbo-lift. "And I was pretty sure it wasn't on the Dralax-Vega run. Besides, the Horizon didn't have transporters to play with."
Engineering. Trip tells Ryan that the mechanical thingy Mayberry was carrying in the last scene has destroyed valve seals. "We'll have to synthesize some new ones. Give me about forty minutes?" Mayberry and Ryan look at each other. "If you want, our resident boomer here can give you a tour," Trip offers. Ryan thanks him, but tells him he's already seen most of the ship. "You missed the best part," Trip says, "the only warp five engine in the Fleet." Ryan walks over to the warp drive like a man transfixed. "I've heard about it," he says. "Once they get installed in the next generation of freighters, they'll change a whole lot of things," Trip says, his Southern "accent" pretty much making the last part of his line completely unintelligible. Mayberry tells Ryan that, with a warp three engine, they'd reduce a five-year cargo run to six months in transport. Ryan turns to him defensively, saying, "Warp one-point-eight works just fine for us. Any faster and there'd be no time to enjoy the trip." Mayberry and Trip exchange raised-eyebrow looks. I'm willing to lay odds that if Ryan stayed in Engineering, he'd be able to cajole Trip into giving him an attitude adjustment.