For the next few hours the ship was in chaos. Captain Archer had managed to get to sickbay and was having his side and arm stitched up by Crewmen Cutler when Danaë was carried in on a stretcher by two MACO's. Following close behind was Malcolm Reed and two security officers. T'Pol and Cmder Tucker arrived a few moments later just as Cutler was tying off the last stitch. As Dr. Phlox began running scans on Lt. D'Arcy, Lt. Reed went over and gave the Xindi communicator to the captain. He then turned his attention to her backpack and began rummaging through it with Archer watching intently. Her NX-01work PADD was located immediately and handed over to Cmdr. Tucker and T'Pol for analysis. They were certain that whatever she had been up to would be found on it or she wouldn't have taken it with her.
The two left sickbay under orders to sift through every keystroke that was made by Danaë since her return in the Xindi pod. This was a job that could potentially take several hours or even days, but no stone could be left unturned. Whatever their findings, Archer wanted it reported directly to him the second it was uncovered. Standing to one side with his arms folded, Captain Archer watched intently as Dr. Phlox ran a litany of tests. All around the exam table was a beehive of activity, but the captain knew the lieutenant was in good hands. He trusted the doctor implicitly. If anyone could figure out what was possessing Danaë it was Phlox. Until the Klingon Klang had crash landed on Earth and ushered in the beginning of human interstellar exploration, Archer had never heard of Denobulan doctor. Since then he had been nothing but impressed by his abilities and use of traditional and non-traditional methods. He held numerous medical degrees and there was no one the captain trusted more when it came to the lives of his crew.
Right now he wished he could have the doctors infinite patience because waiting for answers was quickly becoming a lesson in self-control. He had already seen her go into convulsions more than once and each time his instinct was to rush to her side, but he dared not move. He knew It was best that he stayed out of the doctor's way, it was just so frustrating feeling so powerless. How long had he been standing there, ten, fifteen, perhaps thirty minutes, maybe more? It seemed like an eternity. All the captain could do was sit and watch as Dr. Phlox worked on Danaë. He wanted to know what was controlling her and believed that the Xindi had implanted some sort of electronic device in her brain and was giving her orders remotely. If he was right then could they do that with the rest of his crew? Could it be easily removed?
Standing there in sickbay, Captain Archer thought about how many times he had stood in this very spot and watched as one of his crewmen fought to survive. Too many times. The last incident involved Cmdr. Tucker. While installing a new drive, a warp manifold exploded causing severe head injuries. He would not have survived at all except that Dr. Phlox suggested the creation of a clone that had a life span of only fifteen days. From it they could harvest the necessary brain tissue and save Cmdr. Tucker. The plan had seemed like a good one and Archer readily agreed to it, after-all he needed Trip for this mission to succeed. Unfortunately the doctor's information had been incorrect and the clone's life cycle was much longer. Archer had ordered the harvest anyway and persuaded the duplicate to sacrifice himself for the greater good. It was a decision that had cost him a piece of his soul. He even believed he had felt the devil tear it from him, but it had to be done. They had to succeed in this mission, too many lives were at stake. If he had to sell the rest of his soul to save Danaë then so be it. He was not going to lose her.
Archer believed with all his heart that he was to blame for this. When the Xindi had attacked earth, Lt. D'Arcy had initially been offered a chance to help get the Columbia ready in anticipation of assisting the Enterprise, but Archer himself had asked her to remain on board with him. After all the warnings about the expanse, he had felt that having her as part of the crew would be an asset. Who better to help the ship adapt to the anomalies than an engineer that specializes in hacking and modification. He could still recall her reaction. Instead of taking time to think about it as he had expected, she smiled, grabbed her backpack and said 'let's go'. Now he was wishing he could go back and rescind that request.
Crewman Cutler brought him a chair which he thanked her for without ever taking his eyes off of Phlox or Danaë. The lieutenant was strong so he had every reason to believe she would be fine, but he still had doubts. Putting his own life on the line to protect his friends and crew was an easy choice and a sacrifice that the captain could easily make. Seeing any of his one-hundred and thirty odd crew members injured or killed in the line of duty was always a heavy blow and the closer they were to Archer personally, the more deeply it affected him.
As the captain sat watching the minutes tick by in sickbay, T'Pol and Trip spent their time sifting through the ship's systems trying to discover what sort of damage Lt. D'Arcy had created. At first nothing seemed to turn up. They turned on her work PADD and nothing seemed amiss. Further digging uncovered a program that linked directly into the computer core. Together they went to D-deck and examined the core's console. There they discovered a small disk inserted into a slot on the side. T'Pol removed the disk and could see that it was Xindi technology formatted to work and adapt to the ship's computer system. Yes, they may have concocted the virus, but it was Danaë's knowledge that made the Enterprise's computer compatible with the Xindi program. Thinking of how close they had come to disaster, the pair soberly brought the incriminating evidence to Archer.
Stepping into sickbay T'Pol was struck by how tired Archer appeared and for a moment the normally stoic and emotionless vulcan felt a deep compassion for her friend and captain. Everyone had grown used to contending with enemies outside the Enterprise, but the possibility of crew members being compromised and an enemy hiding within their ranks was far more frightening. How can you trust anyone?
"The attempt at sabotage has been discovered and neutralized," she reported. "It seems she was supposed to activate a virus designed to spread and overload the warp engines, blowing them and the rest of the ship apart. If she had succeeded, we would not have been able to stop it." The captain nodded in acknowledgment, continuing to watch as Phlox worked on Lt. D'Arcy at a furious pace. T'Pol looked over at the unconscious crewmen and noticed the blood still on her hand. "How bad were you hurt?"
"The knife was small and missed the vital organs. I'll be a little sore, but fine."
"You are fortunate that she didn't use her D'K Tahg," the sub-commander commented.
"That Klingon knife would be too hard for her to conceal,"
"How is she?" T'Pol asked, motioning toward the Lieutenant on the examination table.
"She has had four seizures since she came into sickbay. Dr. Phlox is still running tests."
"Strange. All she would have had to do was get into an escape pod, move a safe distance away and activate the virus. I wonder why she chose to jeopardize her plan with a personal attack on you."
"I don't know," he answered. He had replayed the encounter in his quarters a million times over in his mind. Whatever it was inside Danaë had gambled in choosing to try and seduce him and in the end it had lost. Archer thought about how for a moment he could have sworn it was the real person and wondered if human emotions had not proven harder to ignore than it had expected. His thoughts were interrupted as he heard Dr. Phlox call to him.
