The mourning period for "Star Trek: Enterprise" can finally begin.

The eulogies are over. The last gasps will occur on May 13, and then it will be finished.

Despite claims from those involved with the TrekUnited fan campaign, there are no negotiations taking place, and really, there never was. In fact, a Paramount source told Airlock Alpha Wednesday that the pitch only even happened because an executive happened to answer his own phone after business hours one night.

"There's been no face to face," the source said.

After Paramount vice president of marketing and media relations John Wentworth published a letter last week that had been sent to TrekUnited the month before, the campaign turned around and introduced a man named Al Vinci, who claimed to be a television producer and magazine publisher who had been able to get Paramount's ear about possibly bringing back a fifth season of "Enterprise."

The announcement caused excitement throughout the campaign, which had raised more than $3.14 million in pledges and donations to try and pay for a fifth season of the show. Vinci said he was talking with the top levels of management at Paramount, and it looked like there was some genuine interest in possibly moving production to Canada. But by Sunday, TrekUnited founder Tim Brazeal said that Paramount rejected Vinci's proposal, but at the same time, Paramount had agreed to issue a release reversing its position and admitting that negotiations had taken place after all.

When no release was issued by the following Tuesday, Vinci took his crusade to the TrekUnited message boards, threatening to "out" the Paramount executive he said he had agreed not to identify. Vinci backed off his threat later in the day, saying that TrekUnited attorney Andrew Beardall was going to get involved.

So, who did Vinci talk to in these "negotiations"? None other than Paramount Television president David Stapf.

"He was in his office after hours, and made the mistake of picking up his own phone line," the source said. "If David Stapf hadn't picked up the phone, there never would've been any talks at all to speak of."

The source said that Stapf was polite and listened to what Vinci had to say before ending the call. Later attempts to reach anyone at the executive level failed, the source said.

"One thing that he consistently says is that he made three calls with Paramount this morning, or got off the phone with Paramount again that after," the source said. "It's very easy to be on the phone with Paramount. But to have an actual conversation with these people, that's a different story. He may have had a couple conversations with assistants, but there were never discussions. He just got that one lucky phone call through."

Vinci claims that Paramout turned down a deal that would've put $63 million into the studio's coffers for a fifth season. The source, however, said that no matter how much money was offered, there was just no chance of ever bringing back the show.

"The pitch that he is making has zero chance of success," the source said. "The sets are torn down. They are being kept, but they are not being kept because of TrekUnited. Nobody anticipates in any way, shape or form that they will ever be used for 'Enterprise.' If the main sets are ever used for filming again, it would be for like a video game or something like that.

"Everyone's moved on. Scott Bakula (Capt. Jonathan Archer) is not going to work in Canada, there is zero chance that will happen. You're not going to get your key creative people. (Makeup Supervisor) Michael Westmore is not going to move to Canada and work on the show. Most of the people who made Star Trek what it was the last 18 years would not go. If anything ever did happen, it would not be the show that these people would want to have saved, it would be a different animal."

As far as the main cast still possibly being under contract, the source said it has nothing to do with keeping all options opened. Most likely, he said, it's to enforce publicity obligations of the actors to promote the show until its series finale on UPN May 13.

"I think if this Al Vinci thing keeps going, it's going to create such a (public relations) nightmare for them," the source said. "It's frustrating for Paramount and a lot of people at Paramount because of the lunacy of it, the lies of it. It's more of an annoyance than anything. What everyone would like is for this to burn itself out, and just go away. But if not, I believe we are prepared to send out another release."

The source said that finding information on Vinci's resume claims are next to impossible. Airlock Alpha and other news outlets have been unable to corroborate any of Vinci's claims, including his appearance in a 1963 Sophia Loren film, his involvement with two syndicated television shows in the 1980s called "World of Motorcycles" and "Dolphin Connection," among other things. Vinci has said that these items are not available through basic Internet searches and can only be found in a library. The source said that the Los Angeles Times is working on a story about these claims, and that even their reporter is finding it impossible to corroborate the claims of this producer. Vinci himself has refused repeatedly to help provide verification of his claims.

The source did give a timeline of when Paramount tried to let fans know their efforts were no longer going to have an effect. A letter stating that fan money would not be used for a new series, and that the decision to cancel "Enterprise" was final, was sent to Brazeal in March, soon after his return from the Grand Slam Convention.

"When that was originally released, the intention was to put a cap on any fan fund-raising campaigns," the source said. "All of us knew of the existence of that letter, and we kept watching TrekUnited, looking for when they would release it."

The only mention the letter got was a quick mention by Brazeal of a communication between the network praising the efforts of the campaign. While the loyalty of fans were honored, Wentworth made it clear to announce that there would be no return of "Enterprise." When the campaign failed to produce the existence of the letter and continue to solicit donors from fans anyway, the source said Paramount officials made the decision to release the letter to the public. He said that nothing has changed as far as Paramount's position goes.

Will Star Trek survive proposed Viacom changes? The source did mention as an aside that there are a lot of questions about the future viability of the series, especially if Viacom does split into separate movie and television companies. He said that Paramount Television executive Les Moonves has been fighting to keep Star Trek with the television arm, which the source says is a vote of confidence on whether or not there could be future series.

But in the mean time, "Star Trek: Enterprise" is dead.

"Star Trek: Enterprise" airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on UPN. The series finale airs May 13.