Shuttlepod 2

Shuttlepod 2
Owner:	United Earth
Operator:	Starfleet

Shuttlepod 2 was an United Earth shuttlepod that was in service with Starfleet in the mid-22nd century, attached to the Enterprise NX-01.

In April of 2151, Shuttlepod 2, and her sister ship Shuttlepod 1, were parked alongside each other in Enterprise's launch bay while the vessel's commanding officer, Captain Jonathan Archer, and Vulcan science officer, Sub-Commander T'Pol, briefed an away team for a mission to Rigel X. (ENT: "Broken Bow")

Later that year, a team of Starfleet officers from Enterprise traveled to Archer IV, a planet orbiting 61 Ursae Majoris, aboard Shuttlepod 1. While staying on the planet overnight, the officers sought shelter from a storm in a cave. In an attempt to retrieve his officers, Captain Jonathan Archer accompanied Lieutenant Malcolm Reed down to the planet in Shuttlepod 2. While the craft traveled through the planet's atmosphere, Reed detected the officers below. Archer tried to pilot the shuttlepod to a clearing one hundred meters from the cave entrance but the storm had become extremely violent. Since there was intense wind shear near the planet's surface, Archer ordered Lieutenant Reed to activate Shuttlepod 2's auxiliary landing thrusters. Upon descent, Archer attempted to compensate for the wind by changing the shuttlecraft's vector. However, the vehicle was blown starboard and it grazed against a rock face. Consequently, the shuttlepod's fourth thruster was damaged and the craft began to leak plasma coolant. Although Archer tried to land again, Reed advised him that the craft would not be able to do so with a missing thruster. Reluctantly, the captain acknowledged the armory officer's advice and headed back to Enterprise, explaining the situation to the officers on the surface. The next morning, the storm had dissipated and Shuttlepod 2 made a successful descent to the planet's surface. The craft safely returned the officers to Enterprise. (ENT: "Strange New World", "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")

In early 2152, Commander Charles Tucker piloted Shuttlepod 2 from the starship to a Tandaran moon, where Archer and Ensign Travis Mayweather had been imprisoned in Detention Complex 26. Tandarans used the facility to detain Suliban living in the Tandar sector. However, the Suliban had been wrongly imprisoned for supposedly being members of the Suliban Cabal. In an ultimately successful attempt to free Archer, Mayweather and the innocent Suliban, Commander Tucker used Shuttlepod 2's plasma cannons to destroy guard towers surrounding the facility. (ENT: "Detained")

In the final draft script of "Detained", Shuttlepod 2 was chased and fired on by a Tandaran patrol ship while in space on a heading for the Tandaran moon. The attack caused a panel aboard the craft to spark and Tucker to request "a little cover" from Enterprise, which the starship subsequently did, destroying the pursuing patrol ship.

In March 2153, three science teams from Enterprise studied an uninhabited planet. The teams returned to Enterprise aboard Shuttlepod 2. The last science team to return to Enterprise consisted of Sub-Commander T'Pol and Doctor Phlox. Upon return to the starship, Phlox detected a highly unusual microbe that he and T'Pol had carried from the planet. (ENT: "Bounty")

In the final draft script of "Similitude", Shuttlepod 2 was detected – from the bridge – as powering up, though this doesn't happen in the final version of that episode.

Appendix

Appearances

• ENT:
  • "Strange New World" (Season 1)
  • "Detained"
  • "Desert Crossing"
  • "Two Days and Two Nights"
  • "Shockwave, Part II" (Season 2)
  • "The Catwalk"
  • "The Breach"
  • "Bounty"
  • "The Xindi" (Season 3)
  • "Impulse"
  • "Similitude"
  • "Chosen Realm"
  • "Hatchery"
  • "Countdown" (seen as Shuttlepod 1 in the previous episode, "The Council".)
  • "These Are the Voyages..." (Season 4)