of them to our communicators,
we might be able to contact Enterprise.
Admiral, the Drone has restored contact.
The repair systems are starting to work.
It'll take days.
Let me know when it's restored
its ability to self-destruct.
[door chimes]
Come in.
Updating your will?
You expect me to lose?
Shran is a member of the Imperial Guard,
trained in combat from childhood.
He won't back down.
He can't.
I understand.
If you back down, the Imperial Guard
will withdraw their ships.
If I kill Shran, or one of the Tellarites does,
the Andorians will pull out anyway.
The Tellarites'll do the same thing
if Shran kills one of them, so...
I'm the only one who can be killed
because Starfleet won't withdraw.
This operation is important,
considering that it might lead
to an alliance of planets.
Vulcans have a saying:
"One man can summon the future."
What happens if that man
throws away his life before his time?
If I've learned anything these past few years
on Enterprise, it's that...
the future isn't fixed.
If anything happens to you...
Then I'd better make sure that nothing does.
Didn't expect to find you up this late.
What are you doing here?
Too wired to sleep.
Hard to believe the Captain's going to be fighting
a duel to the death in a few hours.
Barbaric, if you ask me.
What are you looking at? Code of the Ushaan.
T'Pol wants me to go over it again.
See if I can find a way out of this mess.
Last I heard, the Captain sounded determined
to go through with it.
She wants me to find a loophole--
some way to forfeit
without offending the Andorians.
Two of us could get through that a lot faster.
Look at this.
"Either combatant can postpone a duel indefinitely
if there are no children to continue his clan."
How does that help us?
As far as I know, Captain Archer doesn't have any kids.
If he's killed, his clan would die with him.
That rule only applies if he's married.
Don't suppose we can find him a wife
in the next four hours?
Even if we could, something tells me
the Andorians would cry foul.
[sighing softly]
There are 12,000 amendments
to this ridiculous honor code.
There has got to be one
that can get him out of this.
Instead of looking for a loophole,
maybe we should be trying to find a way
for the Captain to win.
If the Captain wins,
Shran is dead.
The alliance falls apart.
Have you ever been to Nobelia Prime?
Not recently.
The tribal elders there-- they can challenge you to a duel
if you look at them the wrong way.
It happened to my father.
How did they get out of it?
Which one of these has the combat rules?
Don't try and block with this.
When he swings, intercept, deflect, and hook it away.
Better to insert between the eyes and twist.
Andorian metabolism is higher than humans'.
Keep moving, and you'll exhaust him.
How about I just win?
Take your places.
There is still time to end this.
It can only end one way.
This is not what I wanted.
Things have a way of turning out
differently than we expect.
I'm glad we met.
In your honor, I'll continue to support cooperation
between the Imperial Guard and your species.
Let's get this over with.
I got a ship to run.
I'll take your blood to Andoria...
to the Wall of Heroes.
Not today.
You have the first move.
Give up.
A single stroke, and there'll be no pain.
You think I'm losing?
I'm just trying to make you look good
in front of your soldiers.
Now do you give up?
Never!
[choking]
Wrong choice.
[choking]
You should've cut off my head.
I considered it...
but I still need your help.
[grunting]
[groans]
What good is a Guardsman...
without two antennae?
[sighs]
You'll begin to compensate within a day or two.
They take nine months to grow back.
If left untreated.
With electrical stimulation and brisk cranial massage,
you'll be back to normal in half that time.
I was told that the loss
of an antenna wasn't critical...
You humiliated me.
...and that the Ushaan is settled
when one