Episode Report Card Keckler: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Flight Of The Simulator
By Keckler | Season 3 | Episode 14 | Aired on 02.03.2004
Dr. Mathra: He may have lost everything, but he still has his Weight of the World Window.
Keckler: Well, of course, because they travel so well.
Long story short: Quantum says that he and Degra joined forces (forces, bodies, lips, rings -- what's the diff?) to get out of the Bug House prison. Degra looks around the ship and says he doesn't recognize it. Quantum tells him it's a Malosian cargo shuttle. The Malosians brought supplies to the prison. Quantum also lets it drop that, though the shuttle doesn't have weapons (or the $1400 sheets they registered for at Neiman's), it should get them where they need to go. Degra thinks they should find Quantum's ship, so Quantum breaks it to him that once he was forcibly removed from Enterprise, Bug House blew it up. Degra bitches that the Bug Houses were always aggressive, but that he never thought they'd destroy everything the Xindi of the Round Table had worked for. Quantum doesn't know what the Xindi of the Round Table is. Degra explains, "It was formed when our planet was destroyed. It was created to find a new homeworld for all Xindi. After years of searching, we found a few suitable locations but, as usual, couldn’t agree on a final choice." He says that their reunification ("You have found him, Cpt. Pi-card!") was put aside when they learned of the threat from Earth. He was ordered to build the weapon, and he and his family sacrificed many things as a result of this order. Degra asks if Quantum knows what happened to Degra's family. Quantum leans back in his chair -- his feet up -- and says languidly, "You told me you'd heard from Naara before you were sent to prison -- she and the children were safe." Quantum gets up as though he suddenly had a good idea, and says they can go look for Degra's family now. "They were on a colony near a Red Giant," Degra muses. Quantum taps the con and asks for coordinates. Degra hedges and says that nothing would have been left, since it would have been the first thing destroyed. Quantum encourages him to have high hopes. Degra fixes him with a look and says, "It's too dangerous -- the patrol ships are still looking for us. We should find a refuge in case --"
Suddenly, there's a burst of metal and hissing and smoke or dry ice starts to fill the shuttle. Quantum says it's reactor coolant, and I believe him even if I have Geordi dancing around my head saying, "Coollllant leak -- we have a coolllant leak!" He always enunciated the "el"s. Degra starts coughing. Quantum grabs an oxygen mask from one overhead compartment -- shouldn't they be dropping down all on their own? -- and notes that it's the only one. He hands the mask to Degra. "What about you?!" Degra screams comically through the fabric of his prison uniform. Quantum reminds Degra that he has a family, and tells him to fix the rupture while he shuts down the coolant tanks. Eventually, Quantum falls down coughing and plays dead possum. Degra finishes the repair, and then claps his mask to Quantum's perky mouth. Quantum coughs awake, and they share the mask back and forth. Which then leads us to bedtime. No, I'm serious. But they're sleeping on opposite sides of the cabin because Degra, no doubt, thinks it's not quite "time" yet. Quantum rolls out of bed, checks that Degra is drooling peacefully on his pillow, and grabs something out of some dark corner of the shuttle. He hyposprays Degra in the neck and turns to a monitor.