Post by magicmuggle01 on Aug 10, 2019 11:29:50 GMT
On his way to Starfleet Academy, Wesley Crusher must care for an injured Captain Picard after their shuttle crashes on a desert moon.
Summary
Ensign Wesley Crusher comes running onto the bridge and apologizes to Captain Picard for being ten minutes late for a summon. Picard chastises the young man, then, smiling, tells the young ensign that a position has opened in this year's class at Starfleet Academy and that Wesley has been granted the posting. Admiral Nsomeka has contacted Picard and expects Wesley to be leaving for the Academy in two weeks, though he will have to work hard to catch up with his classmates.
The mining shuttle Nenebek
In the interim, Picard is to arbitrate a mining dispute on Pentarus V between hostile salenite miners, and he opts to bring Wesley along to observe the effects of outpost judiciary decisions on Federation law. The USS Enterprise-D rendezvouses with Captain Dirgo's shuttle, the Nenebek, and Picard and Wesley depart with Dirgo. On first meeting Dirgo, Wesley quietly makes a rude comment to Geordi La Forge on Dirgo calling himself a captain – though he holds no formal rank and commands only a mining shuttle. Dirgo makes it clear he heard it and says the ship has over 10,000 hours of flight recorded and means a lot to him and his people. Shortly before their departure, the Enterprise receives a distress signal from Chairman Songi of Gamelan V – they are receiving high critical levels of radiation from a "space barge" which is entering their atmosphere. The Enterprise speeds off at warp 6 under Riker's command to assist.
Meanwhile, Dirgo tells Wesley that he hopes Picard is tougher than he looks, otherwise the miners will tear him apart. Just then, Dirgo's shuttle suffers a mishap, and is likely going to crash land.
Act One
The three collaborate in the crisis situation to crash-land on Lambda Paz, a desert moon of Pentarus III. They survive, but the crash landing virtually destroys the shuttle and Picard recommends they abandon it, as it will act like an oven and won't provide shelter from the heat. Worse yet, there are very few emergency supplies and no food or water rations. Dirgo tells Picard that since the mining shuttle had very little space, he depended on the replicator for supplies, which is now damaged beyond repair, leaving them only with a medicine pouch.
The Enterprise reaches Gamelan V, and identifies the orbiting vessel as an unmanned garbage scow. The radiation levels are from toxic waste, and it appears that its engines have not been activated for 3 centuries. This means the vessel was drifting and simply got caught in the planet's gravity, achieving orbit by itself. Riker promises Songi that they will remove the vessel. He plans to take it into the Gamelan sun. La Forge recommends using portable thrusters attached to construction modules to guide the vessel in order to work at a safe distance.
Crusher, Picard and Dirgo head
for the mountains.
Picard decides they must head towards the mountains to find shelter, to which Dirgo first objects but then is forced by Picard to admit that he has no better alternative. After Picard leaves a directional marker on the ground so that a rescue party can follow their path, he, Wesley, and Dirgo start their long walk to the mountains. During the trio's trek, Dirgo becomes weakened from the heat and stumbles. Wesley extends his hand and helps him back up to his feet. "And you were worried about how tough the captain is?", Wesley snaps at him. As Wesley walks away, Dirgo secretly drinks clear liquid from a bottle and hides it in his jacket. During their hike, Wesley notes some strange energy readings with his tricorder in the direction of their travel. It could be dangerous, but the desert is taking its toll on them. They have no choice but to continue towards it.
Act Two
When the three finally arrive in a cavern in the mountain, Dirgo is hopeful. He believes that because all caves are formed by water, there may be a water source inside. Picard grimly disagrees, pointing out that the walls are dry and were more likely formed by volcanic activity. Just then, the bottle falls out Dirgo's jacket, and is revealed to be an alcoholic beverage called dresci. Dirgo makes an excuse that, "I was going to hand it round". Picard confiscates it, as imbibing it would only dehydrate them further. It would serve better as a disinfectant or coolant, and Picard orders it to be kept under guard in the medicine box.
On the Enterprise, Dr. Crusher is instructing her staff on three small island groups where the biggest radiation effects will be on the planet. Fortunately, they are sparsely populated and Dr. Crusher plans to replicate hyronalin for those population centers. Deanna Troi is behind her, and waits for her to finish. She attempts to assuage her fears of losing Wesley and Picard by noting that, while the nearest Federation ship is not that close, there's the possibility of the miners performing a search while they deal with the current situation. Beverly is thankful for Troi's concern but says that right now, she doesn't have the luxury of worrying about Wesley. She is a Starfleet officer and duty demands that she put her feelings aside to deal with the crisis at hand. On the bridge, Worf confirms that the miners can start the search. In the meantime, Riker and La Forge configure the thrusters. It works for a bit, but one of the thrusters fails and Riker is forced to use the tractor beam.
In the cavern, the three find a section with an increased level of the energy readings Wesley found earlier. Upon investigating, the trio find a strange fountain of water. A thirsty Dirgo finds out the hard way that it is protected by a tightly-confined annular force field. Dirgo hastily fires at the field with his phaser, unexpectedly triggering a sentry energy weapon which knocks the weapon from his hand and encases it in a selenium-fiber shell. In the commotion, a landslide begins above Wesley, but Picard pushes him out of the way and himself is caught in the path of the falling rocks.
Act Three
Wesley determines that Picard is suffering a broken leg, fractured arm, and internal bleeding. Dirgo initially helps still the bleeding, but is skeptical that Picard will survive and leaves. Weakened, Picard tells Wesley that he has to take charge and deter Dirgo from any further rash attempts to breach the force field. But clearly, their need for water is greater than ever.
Back at Gamelan V, the Enterprise continues to tow the waste vessel by tractor beam while dosing themselves with hyronalin. Unfortunately, they only have 38 minutes before the radiation becomes lethal. Crusher initiates radiation exposure protocol for all non-essential crew. Seeing that they won't clear the asteroid field for 51 minutes, Riker risks ordering the towing speed to be pushed to the limit. It quickly destabilizes the beam, so La Forge suggests bringing other fusion reactors online, even though the coolant pressure is reaching its maximum. Lethal exposure will now be reached in 35 minutes.
Death by impatience.
Meanwhile, Wesley is getting closer to figuring out how the Sentry works, but Dirgo runs out of patience and tries to convince Wesley to make another attempt to breach the force field with phasers. When the young Ensign refuses, Dirgo orders Wesley to set his phaser on automatic, set it to maximum, and fire at the force field, while he fires on the lowest setting from the other side of the room. The miner, in his desperation, believes that two phasers firing together can lure the sentry away from the fountain. Wesley tries to stand firm and talk him out of it, pointing out that there's no evidence that variable phaser settings will do any good, but Dirgo does not yield. Dirgo begins to fire, with Wesley following suit in frustration moments later. The sentry re-appears and begins to encase Wesley's phaser. But just as Dirgo's plan seems to be working, he stops firing for a split second before firing again from a different angle. The sentry ceases its attack on Wesley's phaser and quickly envelops Dirgo, encasing him in a selenium shell, and killing him.
Act Four
In the Gamelan system, the Enterprise-D finally manages to get the leaking barge through the asteroid belt and release it directly into Gamelan's sun. The crew breathe a collective sigh of relief, they were less than ten seconds away from lethal radiation exposure. Riker wastes no time in ordering the ship back to the Pentarus system to participate in the search for the missing shuttle.
Wesley tends to Picard. The sun has gone down, and so the temperature has dramatically reduced. Wesley heats up some rocks with a phaser to keep Picard warm. Picard becomes temporarily unresponsive, so Wesley recounts his perspective of their trip to Starbase 515 to keep his attention focused. He remembers dreading the trip at first because of Picard's discomfort with children, but that he was profoundly impressed by Picard's willingness to open up to him. He says he feels extremely lucky to serve under Picard, and Picard in turn regrets his selfishness in bringing him along, as he worried he wouldn't see him again due to the procedure he was undergoing to repair his artificial heart. Wesley promises to get to the water.
Act Five
The Enterprise is now joining the search for the trio. They discover the shuttle debris, and Dr. Crusher briefly fears that they are dead, but Data points out that there is far too little debris to account for the whole shuttle. Geordi remembers that Dirgo had rigged his thruster modules in an unorthodox way, and correctly deduces that one of the modules must have failed, causing the explosion. The crew also correctly deduces that they also probably had enough maneuvering capability to make it to one of the planets or moons in the system. Focusing on M-class worlds, they eliminate Pentarus II and V, as the miners have already searched them. Fortunately, there are four such moons, and the closest moon that could support life is Lambda Paz.
Wesley struggles to modify his tricorder to deal with the sentry, while keeping Picard conscious and comfortable. During some tense and emotional exchanges, Picard tells Wesley that he envies him, saying "you're just at the beginning of the adventure." He urges Wesley to seek out a man named Boothby as he considers him the "wisest man at the Academy." Wesley asks what he teaches, to which Picard answers, "He's the groundskeeper." Wesley confesses that everything he has done to succeed on the Enterprise has been to make Picard proud of him. Picard tells him that he's always been proud of him.
Heading towards the fountain, Wesley jury-rigs his combadge and tricorder to interfere and possibly disable the energy sentry. In trying to explain this to Picard, it seems he has some temporary memory loss due to dehydration, but he remembers his solution to the problem. He activates the sentry and it distorts and warps its shape as Wesley manipulates it with his tricorder. Suddenly, the sentry rushes forward, ready to encase Wesley, but it passes right through him and disables the force field around the fountain. Wesley tenatively checks for the force field before he is convinced it is indeed disabled, and he brings water to Picard in one of the shuttle's survival kit cases.
Wesley is woken some time later by his mother, who is joined by Data and Worf. She informs her son that Picard is all right and his vital signs have been stabilized. As Picard is carried out on a stretcher by Martinez and another medic, he grabs Wesley's hand and confesses, "You will be missed."
Log entries Edit
"Captain's Log, stardate 44307.3. I am preparing to leave by shuttlecraft for Pentarus V where I've been asked to mediate a dispute among the salenite miners, a contentious group unfortunately, prone to violence. But first, I must deal with a situation of a far more personal nature."
"First Officer's Log, stardate 44307.6. Radiation levels on the Enterprise continue to rise. The ventilation system has started pumping hyronalin into our air supply to counteract the effects."
"First Officer's Log, supplemental. Mr. La Forge has diverted power from auxiliary fusion generators in an attempt to stabilize the tractor beam. This is the only hope of increasing our towing speed so we can clear the asteroid belt before radiation levels become fatal."
"First Officer's Log, supplemental. The Enterprise is returning to the last known location of the missing shuttlecraft."
Memorable quotes
"Captain? Of a mining shuttle?"
"Yes, ensign. Captain."
- Wesley Crusher, talking to Geordi La Forge while Dirgo overhears their conversation
"She seems a very… a very sturdy craft."
- Picard, struggling to give Dirgo a compliment on his shuttle, the Nenebek
"Dear God."
- Picard, upon viewing the surface of Lambda Paz
"Are you telling me there's no water?"
- Picard, after discovering Dirgo carried no emergency supplies on the Nenebek
"And you were worried about how tough the captain is?"
- Wesley Crusher, after picking up Dirgo when he fell due to exhaustion from the heat
"Sir, in the past three years, I've lived more than most people do in a lifetime."
- Wesley, reflecting to an injured Picard about his time on the Enterprise
"If there's one thing that I've learned from you it's that you don't quit, and I'm not going to quit now!"
- Wesley Crusher, trying to keep a severely injured Picard alive
"Oh, I envy you, Wesley Crusher. You're just at the beginning of the adventure."
- Picard
"Wesley, you remember. I was always proud of you."
- Picard
"Mr. Crusher?"
"Yes, sir?"
"What are you doing in such a filthy uniform?"
"You don't look so shipshape yourself, sir."
"Wesley… you will be missed."
- Picard and Wesley Crusher (last lines of the episode)
Summary
Ensign Wesley Crusher comes running onto the bridge and apologizes to Captain Picard for being ten minutes late for a summon. Picard chastises the young man, then, smiling, tells the young ensign that a position has opened in this year's class at Starfleet Academy and that Wesley has been granted the posting. Admiral Nsomeka has contacted Picard and expects Wesley to be leaving for the Academy in two weeks, though he will have to work hard to catch up with his classmates.
The mining shuttle Nenebek
In the interim, Picard is to arbitrate a mining dispute on Pentarus V between hostile salenite miners, and he opts to bring Wesley along to observe the effects of outpost judiciary decisions on Federation law. The USS Enterprise-D rendezvouses with Captain Dirgo's shuttle, the Nenebek, and Picard and Wesley depart with Dirgo. On first meeting Dirgo, Wesley quietly makes a rude comment to Geordi La Forge on Dirgo calling himself a captain – though he holds no formal rank and commands only a mining shuttle. Dirgo makes it clear he heard it and says the ship has over 10,000 hours of flight recorded and means a lot to him and his people. Shortly before their departure, the Enterprise receives a distress signal from Chairman Songi of Gamelan V – they are receiving high critical levels of radiation from a "space barge" which is entering their atmosphere. The Enterprise speeds off at warp 6 under Riker's command to assist.
Meanwhile, Dirgo tells Wesley that he hopes Picard is tougher than he looks, otherwise the miners will tear him apart. Just then, Dirgo's shuttle suffers a mishap, and is likely going to crash land.
Act One
The three collaborate in the crisis situation to crash-land on Lambda Paz, a desert moon of Pentarus III. They survive, but the crash landing virtually destroys the shuttle and Picard recommends they abandon it, as it will act like an oven and won't provide shelter from the heat. Worse yet, there are very few emergency supplies and no food or water rations. Dirgo tells Picard that since the mining shuttle had very little space, he depended on the replicator for supplies, which is now damaged beyond repair, leaving them only with a medicine pouch.
The Enterprise reaches Gamelan V, and identifies the orbiting vessel as an unmanned garbage scow. The radiation levels are from toxic waste, and it appears that its engines have not been activated for 3 centuries. This means the vessel was drifting and simply got caught in the planet's gravity, achieving orbit by itself. Riker promises Songi that they will remove the vessel. He plans to take it into the Gamelan sun. La Forge recommends using portable thrusters attached to construction modules to guide the vessel in order to work at a safe distance.
Crusher, Picard and Dirgo head
for the mountains.
Picard decides they must head towards the mountains to find shelter, to which Dirgo first objects but then is forced by Picard to admit that he has no better alternative. After Picard leaves a directional marker on the ground so that a rescue party can follow their path, he, Wesley, and Dirgo start their long walk to the mountains. During the trio's trek, Dirgo becomes weakened from the heat and stumbles. Wesley extends his hand and helps him back up to his feet. "And you were worried about how tough the captain is?", Wesley snaps at him. As Wesley walks away, Dirgo secretly drinks clear liquid from a bottle and hides it in his jacket. During their hike, Wesley notes some strange energy readings with his tricorder in the direction of their travel. It could be dangerous, but the desert is taking its toll on them. They have no choice but to continue towards it.
Act Two
When the three finally arrive in a cavern in the mountain, Dirgo is hopeful. He believes that because all caves are formed by water, there may be a water source inside. Picard grimly disagrees, pointing out that the walls are dry and were more likely formed by volcanic activity. Just then, the bottle falls out Dirgo's jacket, and is revealed to be an alcoholic beverage called dresci. Dirgo makes an excuse that, "I was going to hand it round". Picard confiscates it, as imbibing it would only dehydrate them further. It would serve better as a disinfectant or coolant, and Picard orders it to be kept under guard in the medicine box.
On the Enterprise, Dr. Crusher is instructing her staff on three small island groups where the biggest radiation effects will be on the planet. Fortunately, they are sparsely populated and Dr. Crusher plans to replicate hyronalin for those population centers. Deanna Troi is behind her, and waits for her to finish. She attempts to assuage her fears of losing Wesley and Picard by noting that, while the nearest Federation ship is not that close, there's the possibility of the miners performing a search while they deal with the current situation. Beverly is thankful for Troi's concern but says that right now, she doesn't have the luxury of worrying about Wesley. She is a Starfleet officer and duty demands that she put her feelings aside to deal with the crisis at hand. On the bridge, Worf confirms that the miners can start the search. In the meantime, Riker and La Forge configure the thrusters. It works for a bit, but one of the thrusters fails and Riker is forced to use the tractor beam.
In the cavern, the three find a section with an increased level of the energy readings Wesley found earlier. Upon investigating, the trio find a strange fountain of water. A thirsty Dirgo finds out the hard way that it is protected by a tightly-confined annular force field. Dirgo hastily fires at the field with his phaser, unexpectedly triggering a sentry energy weapon which knocks the weapon from his hand and encases it in a selenium-fiber shell. In the commotion, a landslide begins above Wesley, but Picard pushes him out of the way and himself is caught in the path of the falling rocks.
Act Three
Wesley determines that Picard is suffering a broken leg, fractured arm, and internal bleeding. Dirgo initially helps still the bleeding, but is skeptical that Picard will survive and leaves. Weakened, Picard tells Wesley that he has to take charge and deter Dirgo from any further rash attempts to breach the force field. But clearly, their need for water is greater than ever.
Back at Gamelan V, the Enterprise continues to tow the waste vessel by tractor beam while dosing themselves with hyronalin. Unfortunately, they only have 38 minutes before the radiation becomes lethal. Crusher initiates radiation exposure protocol for all non-essential crew. Seeing that they won't clear the asteroid field for 51 minutes, Riker risks ordering the towing speed to be pushed to the limit. It quickly destabilizes the beam, so La Forge suggests bringing other fusion reactors online, even though the coolant pressure is reaching its maximum. Lethal exposure will now be reached in 35 minutes.
Death by impatience.
Meanwhile, Wesley is getting closer to figuring out how the Sentry works, but Dirgo runs out of patience and tries to convince Wesley to make another attempt to breach the force field with phasers. When the young Ensign refuses, Dirgo orders Wesley to set his phaser on automatic, set it to maximum, and fire at the force field, while he fires on the lowest setting from the other side of the room. The miner, in his desperation, believes that two phasers firing together can lure the sentry away from the fountain. Wesley tries to stand firm and talk him out of it, pointing out that there's no evidence that variable phaser settings will do any good, but Dirgo does not yield. Dirgo begins to fire, with Wesley following suit in frustration moments later. The sentry re-appears and begins to encase Wesley's phaser. But just as Dirgo's plan seems to be working, he stops firing for a split second before firing again from a different angle. The sentry ceases its attack on Wesley's phaser and quickly envelops Dirgo, encasing him in a selenium shell, and killing him.
Act Four
In the Gamelan system, the Enterprise-D finally manages to get the leaking barge through the asteroid belt and release it directly into Gamelan's sun. The crew breathe a collective sigh of relief, they were less than ten seconds away from lethal radiation exposure. Riker wastes no time in ordering the ship back to the Pentarus system to participate in the search for the missing shuttle.
Wesley tends to Picard. The sun has gone down, and so the temperature has dramatically reduced. Wesley heats up some rocks with a phaser to keep Picard warm. Picard becomes temporarily unresponsive, so Wesley recounts his perspective of their trip to Starbase 515 to keep his attention focused. He remembers dreading the trip at first because of Picard's discomfort with children, but that he was profoundly impressed by Picard's willingness to open up to him. He says he feels extremely lucky to serve under Picard, and Picard in turn regrets his selfishness in bringing him along, as he worried he wouldn't see him again due to the procedure he was undergoing to repair his artificial heart. Wesley promises to get to the water.
Act Five
The Enterprise is now joining the search for the trio. They discover the shuttle debris, and Dr. Crusher briefly fears that they are dead, but Data points out that there is far too little debris to account for the whole shuttle. Geordi remembers that Dirgo had rigged his thruster modules in an unorthodox way, and correctly deduces that one of the modules must have failed, causing the explosion. The crew also correctly deduces that they also probably had enough maneuvering capability to make it to one of the planets or moons in the system. Focusing on M-class worlds, they eliminate Pentarus II and V, as the miners have already searched them. Fortunately, there are four such moons, and the closest moon that could support life is Lambda Paz.
Wesley struggles to modify his tricorder to deal with the sentry, while keeping Picard conscious and comfortable. During some tense and emotional exchanges, Picard tells Wesley that he envies him, saying "you're just at the beginning of the adventure." He urges Wesley to seek out a man named Boothby as he considers him the "wisest man at the Academy." Wesley asks what he teaches, to which Picard answers, "He's the groundskeeper." Wesley confesses that everything he has done to succeed on the Enterprise has been to make Picard proud of him. Picard tells him that he's always been proud of him.
Heading towards the fountain, Wesley jury-rigs his combadge and tricorder to interfere and possibly disable the energy sentry. In trying to explain this to Picard, it seems he has some temporary memory loss due to dehydration, but he remembers his solution to the problem. He activates the sentry and it distorts and warps its shape as Wesley manipulates it with his tricorder. Suddenly, the sentry rushes forward, ready to encase Wesley, but it passes right through him and disables the force field around the fountain. Wesley tenatively checks for the force field before he is convinced it is indeed disabled, and he brings water to Picard in one of the shuttle's survival kit cases.
Wesley is woken some time later by his mother, who is joined by Data and Worf. She informs her son that Picard is all right and his vital signs have been stabilized. As Picard is carried out on a stretcher by Martinez and another medic, he grabs Wesley's hand and confesses, "You will be missed."
Log entries Edit
"Captain's Log, stardate 44307.3. I am preparing to leave by shuttlecraft for Pentarus V where I've been asked to mediate a dispute among the salenite miners, a contentious group unfortunately, prone to violence. But first, I must deal with a situation of a far more personal nature."
"First Officer's Log, stardate 44307.6. Radiation levels on the Enterprise continue to rise. The ventilation system has started pumping hyronalin into our air supply to counteract the effects."
"First Officer's Log, supplemental. Mr. La Forge has diverted power from auxiliary fusion generators in an attempt to stabilize the tractor beam. This is the only hope of increasing our towing speed so we can clear the asteroid belt before radiation levels become fatal."
"First Officer's Log, supplemental. The Enterprise is returning to the last known location of the missing shuttlecraft."
Memorable quotes
"Captain? Of a mining shuttle?"
"Yes, ensign. Captain."
- Wesley Crusher, talking to Geordi La Forge while Dirgo overhears their conversation
"She seems a very… a very sturdy craft."
- Picard, struggling to give Dirgo a compliment on his shuttle, the Nenebek
"Dear God."
- Picard, upon viewing the surface of Lambda Paz
"Are you telling me there's no water?"
- Picard, after discovering Dirgo carried no emergency supplies on the Nenebek
"And you were worried about how tough the captain is?"
- Wesley Crusher, after picking up Dirgo when he fell due to exhaustion from the heat
"Sir, in the past three years, I've lived more than most people do in a lifetime."
- Wesley, reflecting to an injured Picard about his time on the Enterprise
"If there's one thing that I've learned from you it's that you don't quit, and I'm not going to quit now!"
- Wesley Crusher, trying to keep a severely injured Picard alive
"Oh, I envy you, Wesley Crusher. You're just at the beginning of the adventure."
- Picard
"Wesley, you remember. I was always proud of you."
- Picard
"Mr. Crusher?"
"Yes, sir?"
"What are you doing in such a filthy uniform?"
"You don't look so shipshape yourself, sir."
"Wesley… you will be missed."
- Picard and Wesley Crusher (last lines of the episode)
