Hoshi Sato struggles with life in space as Enterprise finds an alien ship whose crew has been killed and drained of a bodily fluid.
Enterprise comes across a drifting alien vessel whose crew has been murdered, their bodies hung up and drained. Archer is eager for something to explore, while communications officer Hoshi Sato, still uneasy about deep space, doubts she belongs on the ship. Archer initially leaves, then decides that the crew owes the dead a duty and turns back.
The killers return while the away team is aboard, and Sato must work out how to communicate with the victims' own people when they arrive and mistake the humans for the culprits. Her success in translating gives her the confidence to stay. A subplot follows Reed fine-tuning the ship's still unreliable weapons. The episode was directed by Allan Kroeker and written by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga.