"Broken Bow": A young Jonathan Archer paints a model of his father's spacecraft in San Francisco and recites a quote from a speech by Zefram Cochrane. Jonathan curiously asks about his father's ship, wondering if it will be bigger than Ambassador Soval's ship. Although Henry Archer does not fully understand the reasons behind the Vulcans' constraint of Human space flight, he believes that there must be an explanation.

Thirty years later, the wreckage of a crashed Klingon K'toch-class scoutship lies in a cornfield in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Klaang, the Klingon pilot of the craft, desperately flees from two pursuing aliens. The commotion attracts the attention of a farmer. Although Klaang eventually manages to kill the aliens, he is shot by Moore's plasma rifle.

Aboard an inspection pod, Jonathan Archer, now a captain in Starfleet, and Commander Charles Tucker inspect the prototype NX-class starship Enterprise in a spacedock orbiting Earth. After being called back to Starfleet Medical, Archer attends a meeting where the fate of Klaang is discussed with several Vulcan dignitaries. It is decided that Enterprise will launch ahead of schedule on a mission to return Klaang to the Klingons' homeworld, Qo'noS.