(Congratulations, China! Welcome to the orbital club.)

A noticeably cold Hoshi hears a whispering humanoid ghost delivering cryptic messages that Phlox diagnoses as healthy hallucinations. Meanwhile, T'Pol's map of encountered anomalies predicts a nearby second sphere. They set sail but another vivid Hoshi-gram promises help so NX-01 detours to mountaintop castleworld. There they meet Tarquin Tentacle-head, having shed his non-frightening human illusion. Regarding his help, dontcha know artifacts retain imprints and Tarquin's a imprint-senser! He offers to imprense a fragment of Xindibomb provided Hoshi stays. Archer and Reed suspect his motives - good, they're thinking again - but Hoshi gives the risk speech (abbr.), decides to stay, and gets pizza and cheeseburgers for her courage.

Tarquin's story is that his homeworld exiled him for being too telepathic. (That why he contacts Hoshi only? She must be a powerful but unrealized esper, like Dehner or Mitchell.) He's decided she needs a lop-sided and repulsive relationship, and gives her a book of untranslated scribbles (an Urquat book by chance?). In a cocktail dress she disturbs him playing with a glowing blue egg that amplifies telepathy; trying it, she receives many wild images. Later she goes through the forbidden door, finding a graveyard containing Tarquin's earlier "Companions." He appeals to her sense of loneliness to join them but she's not interested.

Back aboard Enterprise anomalies strike, and Archer's water polo ball gets stuck in wall (hurray! Try to get that out without destroying it). Ladders twist and an enormous hole pops the hull, but they're close enough to the new sphere that Trip can take a day to insulate a shpod with trellium (better than adding roll-bars I guess). Archer and Tucker take the trellipod through the cloaking barrier but even so protected they suffer damage and set down for EV repairs on the surface (more awesome visuals). Trip accidentally launches the shpod, unmanned. Despite my screaming at the television they proceed to SHOOT IT DOWN where it SCREETCHES TO A HALT right in front of them.

Anyway, with terrible physics passed it's time to pick up Hoshi but Tarquin tries to trick her with an unsuccessful Archer illusion. (So why not maroon T'Pol and solve two problems at once?) Somehow with his mighty mind powers Tarquin blackouts Enterprise but Hoshi threatens the egg and he turns power back on again. Safely back on board he visits her one last time to supply the coveted Xinformation. What's more, T'Pol's method now reveals a grape-cluster of gravimetric spheres - 50 small moons (and "that's no moon…").