The alien pod leaves. In Engineering, Trip tells Quantum that he'd rather not accompany him on this little jaunt. Quantum expresses surprise, as Trip is usually quite the eager beaver when it comes to away missions. Trip tells him he's got a lot of work and he hates the desert. "You know how it sucks the life outta me," Trip whines. Quantum asks, "Well, what about the two weeks we spent in Australia?" "Survival training in the Outback? Drinking recycled sweat and eatin' snake meat? That's your idea of a great time?" Trip asks. Quantum chuckles and says it's not going to be like that this time. "This time we get to drink our pee!" Mathra chimes in. "I get the feeling Zobral's a man who likes to indulge his guests," Quantum says. Yes, yes, he does. Before he EATS them! Quantum cajoles Trip a bit more, even playing to his jealousy by saying he'll bring Reed along instead. "But I was hoping you'd enjoy a little time with your captain," Quantum pouts. "Dude, the man was telepathically linked to you through mountains of snot last week, what more do you want?" Mathra mutters. And another thing, what is with Quantum using that same line he used on T'Pol in "Shadows of P'Jem"? Kinda creepy if you ask me. Trip gives in, after receiving an assurance that he doesn't have to eat snake meat. Considering that they're going down to a completely alien planet, I'd think that snake meat might be manna compared to what they might get served.

Sandcastle City. Sh'pod veers in for landing, and Trip looks out the window. "Man, it's hotter'n hell out there. Forty-one degrees!" he whines from under the brim of his black Enterprise baseball cap. Yes, please put an anvil in the pencil sharpener in order to write out one hundred times that the world FINALLY went metric in the future after all my school teachers made us memorize those completely useless conversions. Quantum tells Trip, "It's a dry heat." Dry heave is more like it. Quantum pops the sh'pod door open, and they step onto Tatooine. Osama Bin Dribblin' and his entourage -- all wearing cloaks over their heads -- are just making their way over their landing dune to greet them. Osama Bin Dribblin' introduces Trip to his entourage as being "a brilliant engineer." Trip aw-shucks that it was just a "coupla clogged injectors." Osama Bin Dribblin' hopes they're hungry, because he's prepared a massive feast. Gratuitous shot of another cloaked Chin Dribblin' leading some goats around the dunes.