- Deanna is impregnated by an unknown alien life-form, and Dr. Katherine Pulaski joins the Enterprise as the ship's new Chief Medical Officer.
- The ship has a new chief medical officer, Dr. Katherine Pulaski, now that Beverley Crusher has been made head of Starfleet Medical. The Enterprise is on an emergency mission to collect plague samples for analysis but Counselor Troi unexpectedly finds herself pregnant. She also finds her pregnancy advancing very quickly with conception to birth expected to take no more than 48 hours. Once born the child, whom Troi names Ian Andrew after her father, grows at a rapid rate proceeding through childhood in a matter of hours. Meanwhile Guinan, who tends the bar in Ten Forward, a crew lounge, gives Wesley Crusher some advice.—garykmcd
- Wesley Crusher copes well with being 'alone' now his mother has accepted a promotion on the ground, sad to be scheduled to leave the Enterprise to join her. The new chief medical officer is immediately thrown into the deep: during a mission to transport dangerous plague germ mutations to a dying planet, Troi reports an inexplicable pregnancy without even meeting any male which produces an incredibly fast-growing son, genetically filly and only hers. Then newly promoted chief engineer La Forge's containment system mysteriously starts breaking down, boding fatal contamination for everyone aboard. Talking to enigmatic alien bartender Guinan helps Wesley make up his mind.—KGF Vissers
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart); Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), First officer; Lt. (j.g.) Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Helmsman; Lt. (j.g.) Worf (Michael Dorn), a Klingon; Counselor (Lt. Cmdr.) Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Psychic; Lt. Cmdr. Data (Brent Spiner), Android; Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), Ensign; Dr. (Cmdr.) Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur), Medical officer;
The ship has a new chief medical officer, Dr. Katherine Pulaski, now that Beverley Crusher has been made head of Starfleet Medical. Wesley has to decide whether to stay with the Enterprise or go with his mother.
The Enterprise is on an emergency mission to collect plague samples for analysis (Plasma plague in the Rachelis system) & deliver them to science station Tango Seirra. Geordi has constructed some containment structures to isolate the samples and transfer them safely on board the Enterprise.
Counsellor Troi unexpectedly finds herself pregnant. An alien life force entered the enterprise and got into her womb while she was asleep. She also finds her pregnancy advancing very quickly with conception to birth expected to take no more than 48 hours. Dr Pulaski was late reporting to Picard after her arrival on board, but turns out she was attending to Deanna, whose condition progressed right around the time Pulaski came on board. The officer's council deliberates whether to terminate the pregnancy. Deanna is very firm that she will have the baby, but allows Picard to decide on how he wants to protect the ship and the crew in case the alien is hostile in any way. The baby is half human, half Betazoid. The birth is painless. There are no side effects.
Once born the child, whom Troi names Ian Andrew (Zachary Benjamin) after her father, grows at a rapid rate proceeding through childhood in a matter of hours. Picard is alarmed, but won't take any hasty decisions since Deanna is involved.
Enterprise reaches Rachelis and Lt. Cmdr. Hester Dealt (Seymour Cassel), wants to inspect the containment modules before transferring the samples over. However, he does not complete the inspection for 14 hours since Enterprise arrived at Audect IX. Katherine also analyses the specimens about to be beamed aboard and figures that 20% are actually samples of genetically engineered mutated virus strains. Even if one escapes, Enterprise will die in a matter of hours.
Pulaski is puzzled why Ian chose to be on the ship. With the virus cargo loaded, Enterprise moves towards Tango Seirra. Containment starts to fail. Hester says within 2 hours the virus in one particular module, will be out of the containment area. If the module is jettisoned, the spores will go dormant, until it comes in contact with another life form, and the results will be disastrous. The crew is unable to figure out why the containment field is failing. Pulaski figures that this mutant strain was developed by bombarding specimen with Eichner radiation.
Something on the ship is emitting this, and this is what is stimulating the viral growth. Ian was the source of the radiation. Ian tells Deanna that it is time for him to leave the ship. Ian's life force leaves the Enterprise. The containment field stabilizes. Deanna says that the life force was curious about humans and decided to learn by going through the process. When it learned that its presence was a threat, it left. She is sad.
Meanwhile Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), who tends the bar in Ten Forward, a crew lounge, gives Wesley Crusher some advice. She tells him to follow his heart and not do what is expected of him if he doesn't want it. Wesley tells Picard that he wants to stay on the Enterprise.
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