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Contagion

Captain's log, stardate 42609.1.

In response to a desperate plea from my old friend

Captain Donald Varley of the USS Yamato,

I am running a grave risk by taking the Enterprise

into the neutral zone.

Varley's request was prompted by dangerous malfunctions

which have been plaguing our sister ship.

Perhaps with both crews working together,

we can eliminate the problems

before our presence is detected by the Romulans.

How long to rendezvous, Mr. Crusher?

Four minutes and 33 seconds, sir.

Status of download, Mr. Data?

The Yamato log should be in our computer by rendezvous, sir.

Have you nailed down our little hiccup yet?

Sir? The odd reading?

No, sir. It might be due to problems currently being experienced by the Yamato.

Trouble, number one?

I'm not sure, sir. Are we alone out here, Worf?

Yes sir, there are no other vessels in the area except the Yamato.

Which is coming into visual range now.

At last.

WORF: Transmission from the Yamato, sir.

On viewer.

Donald?

What's a nice Starfleet captain like you doing doing in a place like this?

It's good to see you again, Jean-Luc.

Despite your antique humor.

I only hope your people are able to help us.

The malfunctions are becoming serious.

We lost an engineering team when the computer shut down a forcefield in an open shuttle bay.

18 people.

Do you have any idea what caused this, sir?

None. They're affecting every system simultaneously.

It's like the ship has suddenly decided to fall apart.

It's beginning to make me think that we should've run these galaxy class ships across a few more drawing boards before building one.

You believe it's a design flaw?

I don't know.

I'm grasping at straws here.

All I know is we've got to get it fixed before I lose more than an engineering team.

Do you wish to evacuate any non-essential personnel to the Enterprise, sir?

No. No that would be premature.

Donald, we'll get our teams to work on it immediately.

I'm sure neither of us feels too comfortable sitting around in the neutral zone.

I know what you're thinking-- what the hell am I doing here?

Well I heard a... few rumors about a couple of archaeological digs that started making the Iconians sound a lot less like legend.

I did a little investigating, and I located their home world.

In the neutral zone?

In the neutral zone.

Donald, that was quite a risk to run to satisfy archaeological curiosity.

The risk would be in allowing the Romulans to locate Iconia.

( static )

--fortunately, I got there first.

It's a virtually dead planet, but enough technology remains to give the Romulans an edge if they should find it.

( static )

Donald, your transmission is breaking up.

Mr. Data, try and clean that up.

Sir, there is an energy build-up in the Yamato's engineering section.

Yamato, this is the Enterprise.

Yamato, come in.

Captain, magnetic seals in the antimatter chamber are decaying.

Captain...

Donald, come in!

Shields up.

Sir.

DATA: Sensors indicate... no life reading, sir.

WORF: Captain, another vessel is coming within sensor range.

It is Romulan.

Space, the final frontier.

These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.

Its continuing mission--

to explore strange new worlds,

to seek out new life and new civilizations,

to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Captain's log, supplemental.

The Yamato's entire crew and their families,

more than a thousand people, have been lost.

Circumstances unfortunately

permit us no pause for grief.

No response from the Romulan vessel.

Arm phasers and prepare to lock on target.

Did they attack the Yamato?

Unknown, sir.

All their weapons systems have been fully activated.

Still no response.

Romulan vessel, this is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise.

Captain Picard.

Explain your illegal presence in the Neutral Zone.

Explain yours.

Are you responsible for the destruction of the Yamato ?

No, but believe me, Captain, had we chosen to exercise our right to defend the Neutral Zone, we would not have stopped with one starship.

You will leave at once.

Comments?

She's extremely anxious.

Understandable if she just destroyed a federation starship.

Your scan was inconclusive, we don't know what happened to the Yamato.

Our presence in the Neutral Zone is provocative.

It could force her to respond.

Open.

We will comply when I have determined the cause of the destruction of the Yamato and when I am fully satisfied that you are not responsible.

Picard out.

They're engaging their cloaking device.

Good. They can't fire when they're cloaked.

Unless they have overcome that deficiency.

The Yamato was destroyed while they were cloaked.

Enough. Answers.

I want answers, not conjecture

Number one, I want them at a staff meeting in one hour.

RIKER: Aye, sir.

Sensor recordings reveal that what we witnessed was an uncontrolled and catastrophic matter/antimatter mix.

The magnetic seals between the chambers collapsed and...

PICARD: Wait...wait.

That's not possible.

Yes sir, it is, but a highly improbable set of circumstances has to take place for such a result to occur.

Explain.

Okay. In the event of a breach of seal integrity, there's an emergency release system which dumps the antimatter.

Apparently such a dump began, was then halted, and the containment seals were dropped.

There was still sufficient antimatter present to lead to an explosion.

And so there is no evidence that a weapon was used?

No, sir, none.

However it happened, the Yamato did it to herself.

Theorize.

What could have caused such a catastrophic malfunction?

Well, I think Captain Varley may have been right.

There may be a design flaw.

In a galaxy class starship? Yes, sir.

It's the most sophisticated piece of machinery ever built.

Something could have been overlooked.

Knowing where the flaw is located, can you isolate the problem and solve it?

We're already working on it, sir.

Pull any personnel you can use.

If we have established that the Romulans were not responsible for the destruction of the Yamato, would it not be prudent to withdraw?

If it is a design flaw, we're better to stay where we are and give Geordi time to work on it, or what happened to the Yamato could happen to us.

Computer, access Captain Donald Varley's personal log.

Search parameter.

Locate entries containing words

"Romulan" and-or "Iconian."

COMPUTER: Working.

Personal log.

It was kind of Dr. Ramsey to allow me to carry away my own little piece of legend from the archaeological dig on Denius 3.

My engineers have examined it but are completely baffled by its technology.

What was its purpose?

I'm like a caveman confronted by a tricorder.

I'm certain this device is Iconian, but how far had it traveled before it was abandoned on this alien world?

Personal log.

A galactic Rosetta Stone.

The starfields on the artifact were unintelligible until I took into account

200 millennia of stellar drift.

After that, it was easy to pinpoint Iconia.

My first officer is questioning the wisdom of my order to violate the Neutral Zone, but I'm convinced that I've taken the only proper course.

Should this advanced technology fall into the hands of the Romulans, we might as well dock our ships and defend ourselves with sticks.

Personal log.

We've been spotted by a Romulan cruiser.

But after playing hide and seek through several solar systems,

I think I've managed to elude them.

The Iconian probe scan-- was it an attempt at communication?

If only I knew what we were dealing with here.

Personal log.

I'm unable to send an away team to the surface of Iconia, nor can I scan the energy source on the planet because of these maddening systems failures.

It's infuriating to be stopped at the threshold of a dream by one's own ship.

We're leaving orbit to rendezvous with Picard.

If his people can't help us repair the Yamato,

I must convince him to continue this exploration.

The future well-being of the Federation may well depend upon it.

COMPUTER: No further entries conforming to search parameters.

Mr. Data, there was a reference in Captain Varley's personal log to a probe that scanned the Yamato.

Aye, sir. We have a visual record.

Put it on main viewer.

What the devil is that?

Have you seen anything like that before?

No, sir. It appears to be a scanner, possibly a transmitter.

Transmitting what?

Unknown, sir.

Engineering.

La Forge.

PICARD: What progress on the matter/antimatter scan?

Everything continues to check out.

I'm starting an analysis on the magnetic coils.

When the Yamato was probed, where was she?

In orbit around a planet at coordinates 227 mark 359, sir.

ETA at warp factor eight?

DATA: 12 hours, 16 minutes, sir.

Sir, that would put us substantially close to the Romulan side at the Neutral Zone.

That can't be helped.

Ensign, lay in a course.

Warp factor eight.

Aye, sir.

We're going to assume the Yamato's mission.

And risk a war?

Perhaps... prevent one.

( door chime ) Come.

Sir, may I speak with you a moment?

Yes, of course.

Well, what is it, Wesley?

It's about the Iconians, sir.

I was told they were just a myth.

China was thought to be a myth until Marco Polo traveled there.

No, the Iconians are certainly real.

Sit down.

We know that three systems within this sector had a number of cultural similarities.

Similarities which can only be explained by there being a single unifying influence.

So they colonized those worlds?

Probably conquered.

You mean they were warlike?

Perhaps.

Ancient texts did speak of... demons of air and darkness.

Air and darkness?

Legend has it that they... traveled without the benefit of spaceships.

Merely appearing out of thin air on distant planets.

Sounds like magic.

Well, we would appear magical to Stone Age people.

How did you find all this out?

Archaeology has been a hobby of mine since academy days, but why don't we talk about what really brought you here?

It's the Yamato, captain.

I can't stop thinking about her.

All those people... dead.

I don't know how you and commander Riker and Geordi, how you handle it so easily.

Easily?

Oh no, not easily.

We handle it because we're trained to.

As you will be.

Tea. Earl gray. Hot.

But if ever the time comes when the death of a single individual fails to move us...

Didn't you order tea, sir?

Now that should not have happened.

Captain's log, supplemental.

As happened with our sister ship,

the Enterprise is beginning to experience

a series of system failures.

So far they are random,

but I fear they could be early symptoms

of what happened to the Yamato.

PICARD: Engineering.

La Forge.

Lieutenant, are you making any progress towards solving our problems?

LA FORGE: Solving them, no, sir, but I can eliminate one worry.

It is not a design flaw.

I've been reviewing the Yamato's log.

And I think that alien probe may have had something to do with their problems.

PICARD: How?

I'd need to see the thing.

If it was the probe, that explains the Yamato.

But how do you account for the difficulties the Enterprise is experiencing?

I can't.

PICARD: Lieutenant, are our problems likely to attain the seriousness as those on the Yamato?

If you're asking for speculation, I'd say yes, sir, they are. I need time.

Mr. La Forge, time is one thing we do not have in abundance.

PICARD: Analysis, Mr. Data?

Scanning, sir.

Well, Mr. Data?

No life-form readings, sir.

All major cities have been heavily damaged.

And the pattern of destruction is that consistent with large-scale orbital bombardment.

How long ago?

Approximately 200,000 years, sir.

There is an energy source in the mountains of the smaller continent.

PICARD: Magnify.

Is that Iconia?

Captain Varley died believing that it was.

RIKER: Did you see that?

Captain, projectile launched from the planet's surface.

Its size and composition match the probe which scanned the Yamato, sir.

Shields up.

Prepare a tractor beam.

Mr. La Forge, I'm going to assist you in your research.

A probe has been launched from Iconia.

I'm going to capture it.

No, sir, wait!

Captain! Captain!

Coming through!

Bridge.

( grunting )

Emergency stop!

( grunting )

Stop it, damn it!

Tractor beam ready, sir.

Geordi, are you all right?

Destroy the probe sir, quickly.

Worf, target phasers.

Phasers locked on target.

Fire.

( sighs ) welcome to the bridge, Mr. La Forge.

Thank you, sir.

If that thing had managed to scan us, we never would've had any chance of saving the Enterprise.

That probe was a transmitter sending an alien computer program, the same program that is currently aboard the Enterprise trying to rewrite our software in its own image.

We have two completely incompatible computer systems trying to interact.

So that's why the ship's instruments have become so erratic.

Yes. What can you do?

Not very much.

The Iconian program is so sophisticated

I may never understand it.

Consider, Captain, this program has entered an alien database, ours, and in less than seven hours has managed to not only learn our systems but has begun to reprogram our computer.

And so the earlier probe was responsible for the Yamato's destruction?

Yes, but only inasmuch as it was the probe that transmitted the program.

But we weren't scanned by that probe.

Then how did this thing get aboard the Enterprise?

DATA: We downloaded the Yamato log.

And contained in the log was the program.

Why didn't we suffer the same fate?

The program affected all of the Yamato's systems simultaneously.

But with us, it was deposited within a specific section of our mainframe.

So it's having to work its way out from that location.

That gives us a little breathing space.

Not much.

The injury reports are increasing, too, sir.

Dr. Pulaski is unwilling to trust the turbolifts.

She is sending medical teams through the access tunnels.

Captain-- the Enterprise computer system is a lot like our own bodies, with voluntary and involuntary systems.

Now, probably 90% of what goes on in this ship is done automatically, completely out of our control.

We're sitting on a bomb that could go off any second or maybe never.

The biobeds aren't working.

The ship is falling apart.

I've had 35 emergency calls scattered across 12 decks.

My trauma teams are being run ragged trying to respond.

Biobeds!

Dr. Pulaski. Yes?

I've got a problem here.

The knitter isn't working.

Oh, try a splint.

Doctor?

Splint, it's a very ancient concept.

You take two flat pieces of wood or plastic, a bandage.

The broken limb is kept immobile.

That's crazy, that's not practicing medicine.

Oh yes, it is, it's a time-honored way to practice medicine with your head and your heart and your hands, so jump to it.

Damn.

Try a bypass on the shield control interface.

No, no go.

Let me see if I can directly access the master program.

Data. Yes?

What happened?

Any answer would be mere speculation.

This is yet another example of how our actions have random results.

Thanks, Data.

I noticed.

Life support has failed on decks 7 and 13, sir.

Now what if this thing manages to rewrite our entire system?

It's so far beyond us, we have no hope of ever understanding it, let alone controlling it.

Our own ignorance could kill us.

We may never... we may never reach that point.

A variation of what happened to the Yamato might destroy us first.

So we just sit here and watch our ship disintegrate around us?

The probe was launched from Iconia... probably from an automated system.

There may be records near the launch site that could help us find a solution.

I'll arrange an away team.

And I'll lead it.

You will lead it?

Yes.

Sir, we've had this conversation 100 times.

And we will have it again, number one.

I have been studying the Iconians since I was a cadet.

I have to be the one to go.

The Enterprise is yours.

For as long as she lasts.

O'BRIEN: I've got a lock on the energy source, and, for the moment, this baby's working.

That could change in an instant.

PICARD: We are aware of the risks.

Energize.

Transport complete.

Stay sharp, Mr. O'Brien.

I want to be able to pull them out of there at a moment's notice.

O'BRIEN: Aye, sir.

Commander, Romulan vessel.

RIKER: Open hailing frequencies.

They're arming photon torpedoes.

Shields up. Go to red alert.

Sir, the shields aren't responding.

They're preparing to fire photon torpedoes.

Mr. Crusher, I need those shields.

I'm trying, sir.

They're firing.

What happened?

Instead of firing, they suddenly disarmed and cancelled.

Fate.

Protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise.

Lock phasers on the Romulans and hold your fire.

Sir, the shields are back up.

Impeccable timing.

Sir, the shields are back down.

Phaser banks are down.

Shields are back up.

In another time and place, this could be funny.

Status of torpedo banks?

They're down, too.

If it should become necessary to fight, could you arrange to find me some rocks to throw at them?

Sir, the Romulan torpedoes are continuing to arm and disarm.

Perhaps its attempt to fire was unintentional.

Open hailing frequencies.

Open.

Romulan vessel, this is Commander William Riker, first officer of the USS Enterprise.

Why did you attempt to fire on us?

This is Subcommander Taris of the Haakona.

Why have you penetrated deeper into the neutral zone?

Why are you still here?

I have claimed this planet for the Romulan Empire.

This is the Neutral Zone.

No one can claim anything.

You will withdraw, or I will be forced to destroy your ship and your away team.

What the hell?

This is your final warning. I will not...

Having a little trouble with your systems, Commander?

Maybe we should consider postponing the war.

Until we solve our more immediate problem.

You're stalling for time.

Sir, another probe launched for the planet.

Heading toward the Romulans.

Have we got our phasers back?

No, sir.

Taris, if you have phaser capability, prepare to use them now.

What?

Destroy that probe.

Not even a thank you.

Subcommander Taris is deeply frustrated, probably because her ship is as crippled as the Enterprise.

Why would the Romulans be experiencing problems?

They weren't probed.

They must have tapped into the Yamato log.

Taris got a whole lot more than she bargained for.

RIKER: Maintain red alert and try to keep those shields up in case

Taris decides to act on her threat.

Commander.

What about the away team?

With the shields up, we can't beam them back.

Captain's log, supplemental.

While there is little left on the surface of Iconia,

we have found what appears to be a control center

which seems to have remained intact.

WORF: Come in, Enterprise.

Still no response, sir.

Keep trying them.

Communications are bound to be erratic.

I would not like to become a permanent resident of this planet.

Nor would I, Mr. Worf.

Scanners show no other life-forms on the planet, sir.

I would not expect any.

Judging from the severity of the bombardment,

I doubt any Iconians survived.

Well...

Mr. Data, let's see what sense we can make of this.

Aye, sir.

This is very reminiscent of Dinasian.

Yes, sir.

There are also similarities to Dewan and Iccobar.

Is it possible they could be branches of the same language family, beginning with Iconian?

It is, sir.

Run a comparison using basic simple words from Dinasian, Dewan, and Iccobar.

Let's see if we can reconstruct a common root language.

Accessing, sir.

You're jumpy.

The tension on the ship is very high.

What's your recommendation?

Give everyone something to do, somewhere to focus their attention.

All right.

Let's consider evacuation.

To the planet?

I know it's probably impossible with Taris sitting out there... but it would give everyone something to do.

You go and organize it.

But you might need me if you have to negotiate with Taris again.

I'll manage.

Right now, they're more important.

DATA: Captain.

Your original hypothesis is correct.

Iconian is the parent tongue of a language family which consists of Iccobar, Dewan, and Dinasian.

I've constructed a basic working understanding through a comparison of common root words such as mother, father, child, home, tribe, food, life, death, yours, ours, mine...

Data, Data, Data.

You do understand, sir, that my interpretation of the symbols will not be exact?

Yes, let's get on with it.

This would appear to be manual override.

That was not manual override.

Demons of air and darkness, indeed.

What is that?

A gateway.

These scenes could be holographic images.

PICARD: Be careful.

Data!

That was very foolish.

But we have established that this is not a holograph.

If I step through and investigate, we could determine whether this is truly a gateway.

No, Data. You might not be able to get back, and I can't risk losing you.

If it is not illusion, this gate would seem to take us beyond the confines of this planet.

Is this how the Iconians traveled?

Crossing light-years as easily as we would cross a room?

Those places could be on worlds in distant corners of the galaxy.

I think the Iconians might have outfoxed their enemies.

Maybe they didn't all die in the bombardment.

Some of them could have passed through this.

This is what Varley feared.

This is what he died for.

Sir?

The Romulans could use this technology as a weapon.

Like the Iconians did.

No, I disagree.

Captain, there is nothing in this room to indicate it was used as a military command center.

Perhaps a transporter room.

But the probe was hostile.

We can't make that assumption.

The effect on the Yamato was devastating.

But what if it was by accident, not design?

What I'm going to say may sound unscientific, but standing on this soil, breathing in this air, my instincts tell me that we may have got them wrong.

But we do know the Iconians were conquerors.

But that knowledge was passed down by the descendants of those who attacked this world.

The victors invariably write the history to their own advantage.

There is an unfortunate tendency in many cultures to fear what they do not understand.

It's possible that their enemies, confronted by this technology, were driven to attack the Iconians out of fear.

Sir.

Was that really the Enterprise?

I believe that it was.

Gentlemen, we have a way home.

Captain, there's a vast underground power source which is controlled by this console.

I believe my triggering of the gateway has caused a dramatic upsurge in the power level.

Ah, I have access.

( high-pitched tone )

PICARD: Data, can you hear me?

Data, respond.

Captain...

Are you all right?

No... I am damaged.

How bad is it?

The Iconian program is attempting to rewrite my software.

Physical manifestations-- blindness, motor con...

Sir.

Without him, we have no hope of deciphering the program.

Captain, the Enterprise again.

How long is the interval?

About four minutes, if the cycle holds.

The next time the Enterprise appears, go through it with Data.

Geordi will be able to learn from him, maybe help him.

Sir, we have not yet established that that is truly a gateway.

This will be the test.

Aye, sir.

Destroy the tricorder.

Sir, it contains everything we've discovered up to this point.

And that is precisely why it must be destroyed.

PICARD: How long?

About three minutes.

I'm running out of time.

We all are.

Data.

Data...

I have to destroy this.

This control room and its technology must not be allowed to fall into Romulan hands.

DATA: I understand, sir.

How? How do I do it?

How do I destroy everything?

The control room, the probes, all of it?

The power source, sir.

I detonate it?

But how? How do I do that?

The probes, sir.

The probes? The probes.

Launch?

I launch the probes?

But why?

What good will that do?

The doors, sir.

Doors?

Perhaps the probes are in a launch bay.

And if the doors are closed, then the backwash from the rockets will spill into the power grids, and there will be an overload.

Yes, sir.

But the doors will open automatically when the launch begins.

And I will override.

Correct, sir.

Which control keys-- damn.

Of course, you can't see.

Help.

Worf, help him up.

Describe, please.

I'm standing directly in front of the gate.

To my left, there is a small, triangular screen.

Right... one... meter.

Right.

Now, to my right is a larger, triangular screen.

To the top is solid amber, to the left, red.

DATA: Correct.

Key blue, amber, amber, red.

That's the launch sequence?

How do I override the doors?

Blue, blue, blue.

I hope that's not a stutter.

I don't know how long a delay there will be between the launch and the detonation.

I will hold keying the launch sequence until you're through the gate.

How long until the Enterprise reappears?

Almost time.

Captain, you will be killed.

I'll go through the gate.

But where will you end up?

Very shortly, anywhere will be preferable to this room.

Mr. Worf, I am depending on you.

You must get Data back to the Enterprise.

He may be their only hope.

Aye, sir.

CREWMEMBER: Commander, look!

Worf! What happened? Where's the captain?

We must take Data to engineering.

Hopefully, the captain will follow.

I don't know how to help him.

But comparing recorded norms for Data to these current readings, it's clear that all his functions are just going crazy.

If we had an expert, a maddox, somebody, I...

( monitor beeping goes flat )

He's gone.

ICONIAN COMPUTER: Kandar qui,

kandar pro, kandar kija,

kandar sis, kandar...

Data!

What the hell?

I am accessing.

The self-correcting mechanism.

DATA: Captain? Captain!

Its constantly kicking in to make minute adjustments in the positronic brain.

I am on the Enterprise. How did I get here?

He cleared the Iconian program from his system-- how?

Iconia...

I was on Iconia, now I am on the Enterprise.

Geordi, this is critical-- how?!

Okay, give me a second to think.

There was an incompatible program running through

Data's system, so the mechanism started searching for a way to keep him alive.

The solution... the solution was a shutdown and a total wipe of all affected memory.

Query. What have I forgotten?

Can you do the same thing with the Enterprise?

I don't see why not. But it will have to be a complete shutdown-- we turn her off and affect a wipe of the Yamato log including every subsequent event since we downloaded it.

I'll then be able to reload all the ship's programs from the protected archives in the main core.

Geordi, if we shut down, that means we're going to be bringing down the shields, and we're hanging nose to nose with a Romulan battle cruiser.

Hey, Commander, whether it's Romulan phasers or our own warp engines, we're just as dead.

Make it so.

May I help?

Kandar nien,

kandar cobar, kandar konyen...

All systems functioning.

Lock onto the captain and bring him back.

Scanning, sir.

Got him.

Kandar jet,

kandar se, kandar tor,

kandar eir, kandar... kandar...

plo, kandar mota...

ROMULAN COMPUTER: Setha-tri par trukatha.

Setha-tri par trukatha.

Setha-tri par...

I've lost him.

Damn it!

Got him, sir.

He's on the Romulan ship.

How the h...?

Setha-tri par dreka...

Go to your stations.

Setha-tri par ruloko...

Setha-tri par riktu...

Setha-tri par rallari...

You did this.

You sabotaged my ship.

Oh, no.

I cannot deactivate the auto-destruct.

But at least I have the satisfaction that you will die with us.

Not I think today, commander.

Setha-tri par...

Setha-tri par rawltair...

Bridge, Picard.

Yes, Captain? Take us out of here.

The Romulan vessel is set to auto-destruct, and they can't deactivate.

Wait, sir, open hailing frequencies.

Open, sir. Commander Taris, prepare to receive a transmission from our chief engineer, he'll instruct you how to purge your system.

TARIS: Agreed, Enterprise.

Standing by.

Commander, your transmission has been received and acknowledged.

Now, Mr. Data, warp speed please.

Just in case Taris's engineer is not as efficient as our Mr. La Forge.

DATA: Aye, sir.

Well, Number One,

I can see why you want to keep the away missions to yourself.

That's where the excitement is.

So, what's been happening here?

Same old routine, I suppose?