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Earth already had battle cruisers in the Sol System which engaged a Klingon Bird of Prey before the Xindi saga. Addtionally, Vulcan battle cruisers were also near Earth: When timeline was fixed in "Storm Front 2", dozens of ships approached Enterprise including Vulcan battle cruisers. (Presumption: There wasn't any point of reaching Earth after destruction of Xindi SuperWeapon).

The Xindi SuperWeapon emerged from a vortex roughly 2 million kilometers away from Earth. When it was destroyed, it was much closer to the Earth (my guess: a few thousand kilometers). During this travel, why didn't Earth & Vulcan battle cruisers engage it?

The Reptilian ship was also not engaged by Earth and Vulcan battle cruisers. Why?

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  • If you have problems with presumption, simply ignore Vulcan. Its a valid question without Vulcan battle cruiser.
    – Ragnarok
    Aug 21, 2012 at 10:42
  • Bad writing. Manny Coto didn't take over as showrunner until season 4.
    – John O
    Aug 21, 2012 at 13:24

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From the script: (emphasis mine)

DOLIM: When we exit the vortex, how close will we be?

LIEUTENANT: Approximately two million kilometres from Earth.

DOLIM: Two million!

LIEUTENANT: If we had all five codes we could begin the firing sequence immediately, but with three we'll need additional time. We'd be vulnerable if we dropped into normal space any closer to the target.

DOLIM: Do what ever it takes to fire the weapon as quickly as possible.

Then later:

DOLIM: Are you detecting any Earth vessels near the co-ordinates?

SOLDIER: No vessels, but there is one small orbital station. Unarmed.

The reptilians are aware of the possible threat that Earth poses, and it is because of this that they exit the vortex so far away. They were timing it so that the weapon would be ready to fire before any threat from Earth. As such, even though they were much closer when the weapon was fully destroyed, they were not (quite) ready to fire the weapon even then. This means that they were still outside the area that they had determined would be safe for them to be from Earth, which is why there were no Earth battle cruisers in the area that could engage them.

(Out of universe reason for why the weapon appeared so close to Earth when it was destroyed of course is for dramatic affect.)

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    It was Reptilian's calculations. Mind it, they failed to predict Andorians. 2 million kilometers is just 7 light seconds which could be detected from even Earth surface.
    – Ragnarok
    Aug 21, 2012 at 17:42
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    @SachinShekhar Not really an explanation, but Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale (TVTropes) (Distance version). "2 million" sounds really big, and "kilometers" is a unit of measurement not often used in the US. That in particular could be considered a Rule of Cool-style plot hole (TVTropes).
    – Izkata
    Aug 21, 2012 at 23:05

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