Original subtitles

Captain's Log, Stardate 46041.1.

We have located the USS Yosemite

a Starfleet science vessel sent to the Igo Sector

to observe a remote plasma streamer.

The ship has not been heard from in several days.

Magnify.

The last report we have

says they were observing the streamer at medium range.

Maybe they went in for a closer look...

got more than they bargained for.

Hail them.

No response.

Life signs?

Our scanners cannot penetrate

the plasma streamer's distortion field.

Can we tractor them out?

No, sir. Ionic interference is too heavy.

I'll take a shuttle in.

Too risky.

You could be pulled in, too.

Bridge to Engineering.

Mr. La Forge, can we beam an away team

onto the science ship?

We can beam them over there, Captain

but with all this interference

we might not get a positive lock to bring them back.

Commander, if we bridged our transporter system with theirs

we might be able to cut through the ionic field.

That's a good idea, Barclay.

Captain, I think we can do it.

We're going to bridge the two transporter systems.

Acknowledged.

Meet Commander Riker in Transporter Room Three.

Aye, sir.

Barclay, I'm going to need

a systems engineer on this away team.

I'II...

I'll ask Ensign Dern to join you.

I meant you, Barclay.

Shouldn't I stay here and set up the remote link?

Dern can do that. Come on, let's go.

Status, Mr. O'Brien?

I'll have to send you over one at a time, Commander

because of bandwidth limitations

and the transport cycle will take a bit longer.

How much longer?

Four or five seconds... about twice the normal time.

I'm afraid you're in for a bumpy ride, Commander.

What do you...?

What, exactly, do you mean by "a bumpy ride"?

Well, there may be a small amount

of static charge accumulation.

You'll feel a bit of tingling.

It's nothing to worry about.

Let's do it.

Mr. Worf.

Engaging system interlock.

Pattern buffers synchronized.

Phase transition coils at standby.

Energizing.

He's there.

I'll go next.

Engaging interlock.

Buffers synched.

Energizing.

I'm ready.

Engaging interlock.

Buffers in sync.

Oh, wait a minute.

I'm reading an ionic fluctuation in the matter stream.

Oh. No problem.

Okay.

Energizing.

Reg, you're up.

Reg?

Aye, sir.

Engaging interlock.

Buffers in sync.

Phase coils...

I'm sorry.

I just can't do this.

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.

Reg, you were faced with a difficult transport.

Anyone would have been apprehensive

in that situation.

You tell that to Commander La Forge

and the rest of the away team.

I'm sure they understand.

As soon as you feel up to it

you can probably still join them.

No!

Reg, is there something you're not telling me?

Actually...

it's, this is not the...

this is not the first time I've been apprehensive.

Every single time that I tried to do it

I had this certain feeling

and I guess... you could call it...

mortal terror.

Why have you kept it a secret?

Why?!

Because my career in Starfleet would be over, that's why.

I doubt that.

I've always managed to avoid it somehow.

You wouldn't believe how many hours

that I've logged in shuttlecraft.

I mean, the idea of being deconstructed

molecule by molecule... it's more than I can stand.

Even when I was a child, I always had a dreadful fear

that if ever I was dematerialized

that I would... never come back again whole.

I know it sounds crazy, but...

It's not crazy at all.

You are being taken apart molecule by molecule.

Reg, you're not the first person

to have anxiety about transporting.

We can desensitize you to this type of fear.

It's a slow and gradual process, but it works.

It does? How?

Well, you might first try a relaxation technique

like plexing.

Plexing?

Yes, it's a Betazoid method.

The next time you feel nervous about transporting

you stimulate a neural pressure point, like this.

There's a nerve cluster just behind the carotid artery.

It stimulates the part of the brain

that releases natural endorphins.

Plexing...

sounds easy enough.

Here.

There.

Hmm.

You know, I... I...

I feel better already.

I think I can do this.

There's no need to rush.

No, no, no. We talked about confronting my fears.

"The best way out is through."

You said that once, remember?

I suppose I did.

I'm going to beam over there.

I can do it.

There's no sign of any survivors.

No sign of anyone.

Maybe they abandoned ship.

Unlikely.

The escape pods are still on board.

There was an explosion here.

That much we do know.

Any idea what caused it?

I ruled out a reactor core failure

and there's no sign of a systems overload.

Blast analysis indicates the explosion originated here

in the center of the transport chamber.

How is that possible?

The transporter is still functional.

Could they have beamed aboard an explosive device?

Commander Riker?

Could you come here, please?

Excuse me.

Lieutenant Joshua Kelly.

He was the ship's Engineer.

How did he die?

He has second- and third-degree burns

over most of his body

but I don't think they were the cause of his death.

I'd like to take him back to do an autopsy.

You're sure about this, sir?

Sure. Please proceed.

It'll only take a minute.

Oh, it should be a smooth ride over.

Good. Good.

I know how you feel about this, sir.

You're... you're afraid of transporting, too?

No. Arachnids.

Sickening, crawly little things, don't you think?

All those legs...

Spiders... they've never bothered me.

A few years back, I was called in

to reroute an emitter array at a starbase at Zayra IV.

Turns out the entire system was infested

with Talarian hook spiders.

You ever seen a Talarian hook spider?

Their legs are half a meter long.

Well, I had a choice.

Do I walk away and let the emitter blow itself to hell

or do I crawl in the Jefferies tube with 20 hook spiders?

Wh... what happened?

It was the hardest thing I ever did

but I got through it.

After that, I was never quite so afraid of spiders.

Thanks.

Energizing.

Reg.

Welcome aboard.

You ready to work?

Yes, sir.

Good. Why don't you start

by downloading the ship's science logs over there.

Aye, sir.

Still four members of the crew unaccounted for.

Did you come up with anything?

Well, I don't know how these fit in

but I found them all around the transporter platform.

What are they?

They look like pieces of a standard sample container.

We'll take these back to the ship

and analyze them there.

Mr. Barclay?

Glad you could join us.

Me, too, sir.

The Ferengi are claiming two of their freighters

were destroyed by a Cardassian warship in your sector.

Is there any evidence to support this?

Although I'm loath to believe the Ferengi about anything

there was evidence of Cardassian weapons.

If the Cardassians also attacked the Yosemite

it could indicate a large-scale movement in this sector.

I have an away team on board the ship.

The initial report indicates there was an explosion on board

but we're not sure if it was from an attack.

How soon until you know?

A few hours.

If it looks like Cardassians, I'll contact you immediately.

Very well.

Bridge to Captain Picard.

Go ahead, Mr. Data.

The away team is returning to the Enterprise, sir.

Acknowledged.

Have Commander Riker come to my ready room

as soon as he's on board.

Aye, sir.

La Forge to Transporter Room Three.

I'm ready to go.

Stand by, Commander.

Barclay to Enterprise.

One to beam back.

Stand by, sir.

See, sir?

That wasn't so bad, was it?

Mission logs, science logs, medical logs...

they're all scrambled.

Looks like the blast wiped out the ship's core memory.

We could try to reconstitute the data stream.

It's worth a try.

Commander, has anything strange

ever happened to you during transport?

Like what?

I don't know.

Anything out of the ordinary.

No, not really.

This looks hopeless.

We're not going to get anything out of these logs.

You know, maybe...

this broken sample container I found can tell us something.

Let's try to get this thing back into one piece.

I mean... have...

ha-have you ever seen anything?

Where?

In the... during transport.

Sometimes my VISOR picks up resonance patterns

from matter-energy conversion.

It's actually kind of pretty.

Why?

I'm just wondering.

Reg, what are you getting at?

Did you see something during transport?

When I was returning to the Enterprise

I could have sworn I saw something

in the matter stream.

Something?

There was phased matter all around

and, at first, I thought

it was some kind of, uh, energy discharge

but then, it flew toward me and touched my arm.

How could something be in there?

Molecules flying apart half-phased, I mean...

it's impossible, isn't it?

Well, we'd better check it out.

When we're done here

we'll run a full diagnostic on the transporter

all right?

All right.

The confinement beam subsystems check out

so do the phase transition coils.

The pattern buffer is fine.

Emitter pads, targeting scanners...

they're all working fine.

This system's clean and so is the science vessel's.

Reg, there's a lot of energy floating around in the beam.

Maybe you saw a surge in the matter stream.

Yeah.

I'll run a scan on the Heisenberg compensators.

Oh, no, Chief, you've done enough already.

It's no problem.

Why don't you give me a hand?

You know, maybe ignorance really is bliss.

Sir?

Well, if I didn't know so much about these things

maybe they wouldn't scare me so much.

I can still remember the day

in Dr. Olafson's Transporter Theory class

when he was talking about the body

being converted into billions of kiloquads of data...

zipping through subspace

and I realized there's no margin for error.

One atom out of place and... poof!

You never come back.

It's amazing people aren't lost all the time.

With all due respect, sir

I've been doing this for 22 years

and I haven't lost anybody yet.

Yes, but...

you realize if the imaging scanners are off

even one-thousandth of a percent...

That's why each pad has four redundant scanners.

If any one scanner fails, the other three take over.

Reg, how many transporter accidents

have there been in the last ten years?

Two? Three?

There are millions of people

who transport safely every day without a problem.

I've heard of problems.

What about transporter psychosis?

Transporter psychosis?!

There hasn't been a case of that in over 50 years...

not since they perfected the multiplex pattern buffers.

Reg, transporting really is the safest way to travel.

I'd like to take a closer look at those burns.

Take a tissue sample, please.

Yes, Doctor.

Damage to the epidermis only.

Initiate a circulatory probe.

Dr. Crusher!

His heart's beating.

Cardio-stimulator.

Now.

It's gone.

Neuro-electrical activity in the cerebral cortex.

Nothing.

Now his respiratory system's active.

What the hell is going on?

Here you are, Lieutenant.

Water... ten degrees Celsius.

Computer, access Starfleet medical database

and tell me about, um...

Describe the disorder "transporter psychosis."

Transporter psychosis was diagnosed in the year 2209

by researchers on Delinia II...

No, no, stop.

All I need is...

What causes it?

It is caused by a breakdown

of neurochemical molecules during transport

affecting the body's motor functions, autonomic systems

and the brain's higher reasoning centers.

What are the symptoms?

Victims suffer from paranoid delusions

multi-infarct dementia, hallucinations...

Hallucinations?

What... what kind of hallucinations?

Victims experience somatic, tactile

and visual hallucinations

accompanied by psychogenic hysteria.

Peripheral symptoms include sleeplessness

accelerated heart rate

diminished eyesight leading to acute myopia

painful spasms in the extremities

and in most cases, dehydration.

Computer, what is the treatment for transporter psychosis?

There is no known treatment.

The autopsy showed residual ionization

in every one of Lieutenant Kelly's systems.

I think that's what caused

the muscular and systemic contractions.

From where did the ionization come?

There's evidence of electrical burns

on the victim's body

as if he was exposed to ionized gas

or high-energy plasma.

Plasma?

There's no way they could have been exposed...

unless it was matter from the streamer.

Is there evidence of a hull breach?

Could the plasma from the streamer

have found its way onto the ship?

No.

Data, what's the report

on that broken sample container?

The analysis of the fragments is not yet complete.

Captain, if there's evidence

of similar ionization in those fragments

it could mean that they tried

to beam aboard material from the streamer.

If the plasma exploded, that would explain a few things.

Let me know when the analysis is complete.

Aye, sir.

From the look of these fracture patterns

I'd say that the explosive force came from within the container.

The container does show evidence of residual ionization.

I believe your hypothesis was correct.

It was used to store high-energy plasma.

So they were collecting samples from the plasma streamer.

But they had the proper container.

How could it have exploded?

Perhaps we should attempt to re-create their experiment

to see what happens to matter when it is beamed aboard

under similar conditions.

It's a good idea.

We'll prepare a new container.

Reg, I don't want to take any chances here.

Start setting up a level-5 containment field

here in Engineering, okay?

Aye, sir.

Are you all right, Lieutenant?

I'm fine.

Yes, thank you.

Geordi?

Hmm?

Lieutenant Barclay appears inordinately preoccupied

with his physiological condition.

I have seen him check his pulse rate

as well as his visual acuity

several times over the last 20 minutes.

Thanks, Data.

Reg?

Yes, sir?

You okay?

I'm just fine, sir.

You look a little pale.

I do?

Look, Reg, it's been a long couple of days.

Why don't you get some rest?

We've got everything under control here.

I think I'll do that, sir.

Thank you.

La Forge to Counselor Troi.

Go ahead, Commander.

Counselor, do you have a minute?

Lieutenant Barclay, I've been calling you.

Why haven't you responded?

Reg, what are you doing?

I'm walking.

I can see that. Where are you going?

Nowhere.

I just don't get to see these decks very often.

Look, there's Stellar Cartography.

I thought that was deck 11.

Mr. Barclay...

I was having trouble sleeping

and I'm trying to wear myself out.

It is a perfectly normal thing to be doing, isn't it?

Commander La Forge said you seemed

a little nervous this morning.

I'm always nervous. Everybody knows that.

He also mentioned that you said

you saw something in the transporter beam.

Well, I was wrong.

They checked the transporter and there wasn't...

I mean, there was nothing there.

I imagined the whole thing.

You don't sound very convinced of that.

Listen, Counselor

I really appreciate your concern in this matter

but I wish you wouldn't continue with this conversation.

I'm really perfectly fine.

Mr. Barclay, you're exhausted and highly agitated.

And I cannot allow a member of this crew

to endanger himself or others.

I'm not endangering anyone else

and I really wish you...

I think it would be in your best interest

to take a leave of absence.

Reg, I'm temporarily relieving you of duty.

Fine.

Fine.

Do what you have to do, Counselor.

Computer, more birds.

End stress reduction program.

Water.

Specify temperature.

I don't care.

Just give me water.

Calm. Calm. Stay calm.

All right, computer, let's try some music.

Something soothing.

Sir, begging your pardon

but couldn't this wait till the morning?

No.

Chief, I've just...

I've been reviewing the transport logs.

What are these... these energy variations that keep appearing?

There was one when I was transported

to the science ship, you see?

Yeah, they're just, uh...

Sorry. They're just ionic fluctuations...

a result of our interlock

with the Yosemite's transporter system.

So a fluctuation occurred

while I was inside the matter stream.

It's nothing to worry about, sir.

I need you to transport me

to the science ship and then directly back again

and while I'm in the beam, can you re-create

one of those ionic fluctuations?

I guess so

but if you don't mind my asking, sir, what for?

Well, I... Commander La Forge

wants some tricorder readings on those fluctuations.

We can do that from right here.

No, I... The transporter sensors

may not be sensitive enough.

Now, I'm giving you an order, Mr. O'Brien.

Aye, sir.

If you don't mind my making an observation, sir

you forgot to bring a tricorder.

Either there's something in there

or I'm going crazy

and I've just got to know.

You can understand that, can't you?

Yes, sir, I can.

Stand by, sir.

I want you to wake the senior staff.

...and, and then I saw it again just 20 minutes ago.

It was the same exact thing

just moving around in the transporter beam.

Let me get this straight.

You think this thing was alive?

It... it... it was...

dark and distorted

and it had what looked like a mouth.

A mouth.

I don't see anything wrong with his arm.

Reg, why did you wait so long to tell anybody about your arm?

Well...

I...

I thought I was hallucinating.

That I... had, um...

that it was transporter psychosis

but I know what I saw in there was real.

I was the only one who experienced

ionic fluctuations in the transport.

Maybe that's why no one else saw it.

Mr. Barclay, I've been told that you've

been under considerable strain during the past few days.

Isn't it possible that you simply imagined...?

I know what you're going to say, Captain.

I know I've been acting strange lately

but you've got to believe me

that I would never have called you in here

unless I was absolutely certain.

Mr. La Forge, get Mr. O'Brien.

Take that transporter system apart

piece by piece if you have to.

Mr. Worf

I want a level-3 security alert until further notice.

Aye, sir.

I'll run a micro-cellular scan of Mr. Barclay's arm.

It might take some time, but if there's a problem, I'll find it.

Keep me apprised.

Dismissed.

I'm picking up minute levels of residual ionization

from the subdermal tissue of his left arm.

The patterns correspond exactly

to those we measured in Lieutenant Kelly's body

and in the sample container from the science ship.

There's no question... you have been exposed

to the same high-energy plasma they were.

So, something did happen to me in the transporter beam.

You might have been exposed

to something from the science ship.

You did say something touched your left arm

during transport.

And that's exactly where the ionization is focused.

Does this ionization pose a threat to Mr. Barclay?

It might. I'll have to run a base-pair correlation

to see if there's any sign of DNA breakdown.

Sir, Commander La Forge and I

were planning to re-create the circumstances

of the explosion on the Yosemite.

And that might give us some answers.

Permission to continue with the experiment?

Granted. Tell Mr. O'Brien

to take all the primary transporters off-line.

I don't want to risk any further contaminations.

Make sure you take all the necessary safety precautions.

Aye, sir.

I'd like you to wear this monitoring device.

It will tell me if there is the slightest sign

of increased ionization.

Yes, Doctor.

Structural reinforcement is at 240%.

Activating containment field.

Well, that should do it.

Okay, Reg, we've locked on

to the coordinates of the plasma streamer.

Go ahead and beam aboard a sample, will you?

Aye, sir.

Okay.

What would they have done first?

Standard analysis begins with a resonance frequency scan.

That sounds like a good place to start.

Let's do that.

Initiating resonance sweep.

Frequency range at...

Barclay!

Check the containment field.

The field is at its maximum limit

but it is holding!

My VISOR's picking up biomagnetic energy.

Highly complex patterns.

You know, I think these things are alive.

Reg?

Reg!

Reg...

Life-forms?

That is correct.

They appear to be quasi-energy microbes

that exist within the distortion field

of the plasma streamer.

We didn't detect them until we tried to run

the resonance frequency scan.

Apparently, they didn't like it very much.

They shattered the sample container.

Which caused a plasma explosion

similar to the one on the science ship.

Exactly. When we linked up

with their transporter system, one or more of the microbes

must have gotten into our system.

We think they're still caught in the buffer.

It might explain what you saw.

But what I saw was much bigger than a microbe.

Normal spatial relationships are often distorted

within the matter stream.

Your perceptions may have been exaggerated.

Some of these microbes are also in your body, Reg.

In... inside me?

They were in Lieutenant Kelly's body as well.

That's what caused the contractions during the autopsy.

The biofilters should have

screened them out, but it didn't.

The microbes exist simultaneously

as both matter and energy.

The biofilter cannot distinguish them

from the matter stream.

Right, but... if we held Barclay suspended

in mid-transport, at the point

where matter starts to lose molecular cohesion...

The molecules would begin to emit nucleonic particles.

We may be able to derive a pattern

the computer would recognize.

And then reprogram the biofilters

and screen the microbes out.

I think this will work, Reg.

Suspend me?

I don't like the sound of this.

Well, we would have to keep you in there for a while.

How long?

30, 40 seconds, it's tough to tell

but I think it would be safe.

But if-if-if I'm in the matter stream too long...

Your pattern would degrade to the point

where your signal would be permanently lost.

After 15 seconds or so in the beam

you may start to feel lightheaded.

Try to stay calm.

Oh, and it's important not to move around too much.

Right.

Initializing the backup pattern buffer.

Holding at standby.

You ready, Reg?

Energize.

Molecular resolution at 60%.

Engaging static mode.

His pattern is locked and holding.

Starting biofilter scan.

Signal's holding.

The imaging scanners still haven't isolated the microbes.

I'll try increasing molecular dispersion.

His signal resolution is down to 55%.

Don't worry, I can hold him together.

Commander, his signal resolution's down to 50%.

We need to bring him back.

I know, I know. Just give me one more second.

We need more dispersion.

Increase phase-transition frequency.

Aye, sir.

The imaging scanners are actuating.

Got it.

Pattern acquisition positive.

Programming biofilter.

Don't worry, Reg, this won't hurt a bit.

I'm reading a 92% increase in mass.

There's something in the beam with him.

Security to Transporter Room Three.

Right away.

I'm setting up a force field around the chamber.

Drop the force field.

There are more crew members in the beam.

You have to grab them and hold on.

Understood.

Follow me.

Reg, what happened?

Well, when I... when I saw that there was more than one of them

I-I thought maybe the other crew were trying

to do the same thing that we were.

We were infected with something.

Lieutenant Kelly tried to... reprogram the biofilter.

Well, it looks like he pushed molecular dispersion

past the integrity point.

Your patterns got caught in the beam.

The residual energy from the plasma streamer

it must have amplified the charge in the buffer

enough to keep your patterns from degrading.

Captain's Log, Stardate 46043.6.

The reprogrammed biofilter

was effective in removing the alien microbes

from Mr. Barclay and the four crew members.

The microbes have been returned to the plasma streamer.

Chief.

Lieutenant, glad you could make it.

You know, I think this is the first time

we've ever spoken outside of the transporter room.

Well, to be honest, I've always avoided you.

Why?

Because you run the transporters

and I hate the transporters...

at least, I used to.

So, what's in the box?

I thought you might like to meet Christina.

Christina, Lieutenant Barclay.

It's your pet spider.

Lycosa tarantula.

Don't worry, she won't bite.

She's...

very large.

I found her on Titus IV.

I almost stepped on her by accident.

Oh, I'll get us a couple of drinks, okay?

Keep an eye on her, will you?

Sure.

Uh, Chief?