- On Velara III, Geordi and Data discover a microscopic life form responsible for the death of an engineer stationed on the base.
- The Enterprise visits a team of scientists and engineers terraforming on Velara III. The team's leader, Kurt Mandl, isn't very welcoming stating that they are very busy but Picard insists with Riker, Data and Geordi beaming down to the planet. Velara III was selected because of its complete absence of any life forms and the terraforming initiative takes about 30 years. The team is now in the process of removing salts from the natural water supply as the first step in creating a sustainable environment. Geordi and Data come across a non-carbon based object that glows and give the appearance of life. When it attempts to communicate with the crew, it is obvious they have encountered a life form like no other.—garykmcd
- Riker, Data and Geordi eagerly form a landing party to visit potentially hospitable planet Velara III, where Kurt Mandl's specialized Federation science team is building a biosphere to allow human colonization. However, they get a far from unanimously warm welcome, and shortly after their arrival, a scientist is killed by an aggressively reprogrammed laser drill robot, which engages in a duel when Data investigates the presumed accident on site. The only logical explanation is the presence of life, so different that starship sensors don't recognize it, but the scientists are less surprised.—KGF Vissers
- The Enterprise visits a team of scientists and engineers Terraforming on Velara III. The team's leader, Kurt Mandl (Walter Gotell), isn't very welcoming stating that they are very busy, but Picard insists with Riker, Data and Geordi beaming down to the planet. Deanna had advised Picard that the Enterprise alarms Kurt for some reason and that he is deliberately hiding something. Louisa (Elizabeth Lindsey) handles gardening. Arthur Malenson (Mario Roccuzzo) handles hydraulics and Bjorn Benson (Gerard Prendergast) is the chief engineer. Arthur is having trouble with power surges in the hydraulic conversion chambers.
Louisa explains that Terraforming involves phase 2, where water is formed on the planet. On Velara all the water is sub-surface but is extremely high in salt content. So, Arthur and his machines are in charge of pumping the water out of the ground and filtering it, making it fit for consumption and also supporting life.
Velara III was selected because of its complete absence of any life forms and the Terraforming initiative takes about 30 years. The team is now in the process of removing salts from the natural water supply as the first step in creating a sustainable environment. Arthur is sent to the hydraulics chamber by Kurt, where they are using laser drills for the Terraforming process. The lasers come "alive" and start attacking Arthur. They only stop when Arthur stops screaming. Yar beams Arthur to the Enterprise for medical help.
Data restores power to hydraulics chamber and figures out that the lasers were not moving by some predetermined programming or some form of highly advanced dynamic programming. They were following the life form inside the chamber. The laser attacks him as well, but he is able to survive. Data destroys the laser drill. Arthur dies in orbit on board the Enterprise. Picard reckons one of the 3 survivors programmed the laser drill to kill Arthur. But they don't know why.
On the planet, Geordi and Data come across a non-carbon-based object that glows and gives the appearance of life. They beam it up and Beverly thinks this is an inorganic life form. Kurt refuses knowledge of this, but Deanna knows he is lying. Kurt had advanced degrees in Artificial Intelligence and Programming. Picard investigates the possibility that Kurt reprogrammed the lasers to kill Arthur.
When the object attempts to communicate with the crew, it is obvious they have encountered a life form like no other. The life form divides to reproduce and suddenly tries to speak to Picard and Beverly via the translator. Multiple cells have organized themselves into a basic computer. Picard panics and orders the quarantine of the medical lab. Picard confronts Kurt, who admits he knew about the silicone-based crystals, but said he wasn't aware that they had any life. He says he attributed any signals coming from it to natural planetary phenomenon. Meanwhile the quarantine around the lab, starts failing as energy keeps getting diverted to other areas.
The life form again speaks to Picard via the translator and says that they were being killed on the surface and the humans did not stop despite communication. They declare war on humans and start destabilizing the Enterprise. Through electrical impulses, they have hacked into the Enterprise computers and reprogrammed them, and now have total control over them.
Picard learns that Arthur was taking water from the saline water layer on the surface when he was killed. He understands that the saline water is how the life form on the planet connected to each other and remained intelligent. Removing the saline layer would have led to extinction. Beverly and notices that the life form spends a lot of energy to reproduce but has no energy source. Geordi offers that it has cadmium and hence might be photo-electric in nature. Picard turns off the lights in the medical bay and forces the life form to surrender for peace.
Picard and the life form, agree to end of the war. Picard transports them to the surface and leaves the planet with the Terraforming team.
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