You're worried.
With reason.
About Worf or Commander Riker?
Both.
I think it is perhaps best to be ignorant
of certain elements of Klingon psyche.
[GROWLS]
Above! Look out!
[BOTH GRUNTING]
The exercise is over!
[GROWLING]
At ease, lieutenant!
[GRUNTING]
Exit holodeck.
You do this every day?
No, commander.
Usually my calisthenics are more intense.
But those sessions are too personal to be shared.
I'll bet they are.
Computer, program complete. Save.
[COMPUTER BEEPS]
Coming, commander?
Right behind you.
PICARD: 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.
PICARD: Captain's log, stardate 42193.6.
We are on a long reach toward the Morgana Quadrant,
a section of the galaxy which is yet to be visited
by a manned Federation vessel.
We are using the time to further detail the charts of this region.
There it is again, sir. Area of blackness.
It appears, it disappears, and then it reappears.
There's no predictable pattern. No sequence.
On-screen.
There it is.
I can't see anything.
Hmm.
Magnify section 285.
WESLEY: There it is, sir.
It's like a hole in space.
Well, we're acquainted with the wormhole phenomenon, but this...
This appears quite different.
- What do your sensors indicate? - Nothing, sir.
Nothing?
Mr. Data, you must mean that it's empty of matter.
There's always some energy form at work.
Sir, our sensors are showing this to be the absence of everything.
It is a void without matter or energy of any kind.
Yet this hole has a form, Data. It has height, width.
Perhaps. Perhaps not, sir.
That's hardly a scientific observation, commander.
Captain, the most elementary and valuable statement in science,
the beginning of wisdom, is, "I do not know."
I do not know what that is, sir.
Captain, if this were any ordinary kind of hole in space,
wouldn't we be able to see what's behind it?
Counselor?
I know what you're asking, but I feel nothing from it.
Data, is there any record anywhere of any occurrence
- even vaguely similar to this? - Accessing.
Negative, sir.
There is no record of any Federation vessel
encountering anything remotely like this.
Indeed?
I believe we have time to take a closer look, Number One.
Concur.
Ensign, slow down to half impulse power.
Adjust coordinates to intercept this... Whatever this is.
Scanning and recording as we go.
WESLEY: Aye, sir. Adjusting course to intercept in 12 minutes.
Let's launch a probe into it.
RIKER: Worf, prepare a scanner probe. Let's see what's in there.
This is close enough, ensign. Hold this position.
Aye, sir, holding this position.
You may fire the probe when ready, Mr. Worf.
DATA: All the probe's systems are functioning perfectly, sir.
It's gone.
Data, what happened?
Unknown, sir.
Recommend we go to yellow alert, sir.
Why?
Explain.
Sorry, sir. It's...
Mr. Worf, this starship operates best
when my officers share with me what is on their minds.
My thoughts were of an old Klingon legend
of a gigantic black space creature
which was said to devour entire vessels.
Devour vessels?
Sorry, commander. I agree these are thoughts hardly worthy
of a trained and practical security officer.
Mr. Worf, will you launch another probe?
This time a class one with full sensor array.
Launching, sir.
Happened even more quickly.
Recommend we fire a photon torpedo, captain.
Negative.
Captain, based on where the probes disappeared,
I've been able to plot the outer boundaries.
I could move in closer.
PICARD: Make it so, Mr. Crusher. Thrusters only.
Mr. Data?
DATA: Still no readings of any kind, sir.
Number One?
I'm going to go with Worf on this one. Let's be careful.
PICARD: All right. That's enough, ensign.
Come to full stop and hold these coordinates.
WESLEY: Aye, sir.
What's happened?
Data?
Whatever it is, sir, we seem to be inside it.
- It enveloped us. It moved. - All stations, report.
DATA: No response, captain.
PICARD: Captain's log, supplemental.
While exploring a strange void in space
without any form of matter or energy,
we have apparently moved past its outer boundary and entered it.
After a brief disruption,
our ship's communications have returned to normal.
All stations have reported, captain.
There appears to be no immediate threat to the ship or the crew.
Let's hold this position for a while, Number One.
This is worth studying.
RIKER: Incredible. It's like looking into infinity, sir.
Remember the course in ancient history at Starfleet Academy?
About the time when men still believed the Earth was flat?
Mm. And that the sun revolved around it?
And that if a ship sailed too far out into the ocean,
it would fall off the edge of the world?
"Beyond this place, there be dragons."
It's even said that crews threatened to hang their captain from the yardarm
if he refused to turn back.
I'm sure no one here has that in mind, sir.
- How comforting, Number One. - WESLEY: Captain?
We have no communications outside of the void.
Complete your scans, Data. Let's not stay any longer than we have to.
PICARD: Hello, doctor. Have you been briefed on what's happened?
I heard, but I don't understand it, captain.
I wish I could say I did. Increase magnification by ten.
[COMPUTER BEEPS]
By 100.
[COMPUTER BEEPS]
PULASKI: Isn't this impossible, sir?
I'm not a Bridge officer, but...
Increase by 1,000, Mr. Data.
[COMPUTER BEEPS]
By 10,000.
[COMPUTER BEEPS]
It does know how to do these things, doesn't it?
Commander Data knows precisely what he is doing.
Forgive me, Mr. Data.
I'm not accustomed to working with nonliving devices that...
Forgive me again.
Your service record says that you are alive.
And I must accept that.
Engineering.
LA FORGE [OVER INTERCOM]: Engineering.
Lieutenant, are all your systems functioning?
LA FORGE: Yes, captain.
Wherever we are, it seems to have no effect on Engineering.
Thank you, lieutenant. Data?
Difficult to make a judgment, sir, based on the absence of information.
Speculate.
This void has a total lack of dimension.
Therefore, by any accepted standard, it does not exist,
yet being within it denies that conclusion.
Might we have moved into another dimension?
Could a lack of dimension be another dimension in itself?
That's an interesting question.
Hmm. Yeah, for a later discussion.
Number One, I think we should get on with our mission.
Starfleet can send a science vessel back to investigate this further.
- Move us back out of here. - Aye, sir.
Wesley, reverse our direction and set a course for the Cornelian star system,
- impulse power. - Aye, sir.
Reversing direction. Course laid in.
Engage.
Our engines have engaged, haven't they, ensign?
Aye, sir.
PICARD [OVER INTERCOM]: Lieutenant La Forge, I'd like you
to monitor our velocity closely.
Is everything all right up there, captain?
PICARD: Are the engines operating normally?
Yes, sir, everything looks fine down here.
- PICARD: We're increasing to warp 2. - Aye, sir.
We should be seeing stars by now.
Data, how far have we come?
Inertial guidance shows 1.4 parsecs traveled, captain.
Ensign?
Confirmed, sir. Exactly what my readings say.
Engineering, transfer to Bridge.
What's happening, sir? We should be clear.
We should be. We're on a reverse course.
- Full stop, helm. - WESLEY: Full stop, sir.
According to this, we're already well past the point
at which we entered the void.
Except that we are still in it, sir.
Captain, if we dropped a stationary beacon,
and traveled straight away from it, we would have a point of reference
to confirm speed and distance.
Make it so, Data. Lock onto the beacon and keep it dead astern.
[BEACON BEEPING]
- The beacon is in place, sir. - Dead ahead, impulse power.
The beacon is falling astern, captain.
PICARD: Engineering, report.
All systems functioning normally, sir.
- Prepare to increase to warp 2. - Aye, sir.
Captain, we are receiving a signal from dead ahead.
[BEACON BEEPING]
Maybe you've found the door out of this.
- Closing on the new signal, sir. - Identify.
DATA: Captain, it is the stationary beacon we just released.
- We must have come full circle, sir. - We couldn't have, sir.
I've shown us moving steadily away from that beacon.
PICARD: Full stop.
Hold this position again.
[COMPUTER BEEPING]
Captain, sensors indicate a disturbance in sector 108.
Possibly a vessel.
Perhaps some answers at last. On-screen.
The ship is equipped with a cloaking device.
Romulan.
- WORF: It's closing. - Shields up, go to red alert.
I'll be at my duty station.
WORF: Main viewer locked onto coordinates.
[ALARM BLARING]
Arm the photon torpedoes, Mr. Worf.
Hold for my orders.
- There! - WORF: It's uncloaking.
Direct hit, sir. Our shields are weakening.
- Warn them we'll return fire. - Transmitting.
They've armed another full spread, sir.
Fire torpedoes.
Yeah.
Oh, that was too easy.
Captain, our sensors show no debris from the Romulan vessel.
Impossible.
Captain, there's another vessel approaching.
In sector 091, mark 26.
On-screen.
Magnify.
It's a Federation ship.
NCC 1305-E: It's the Yamato, our sister ship.
The Yamato's nowhere near this quadrant.
Open a hailing frequency, Data.
USS Enterprise to USS Yamato. Respond, please.
USS Enterprise calling USS Yamato.
Respond, please, on this frequency.
No response, captain.
Make a full scan.
Life-support system, engineering and propulsion all appear functional.
But there are no life signs, sir.
Data, can we be getting a false reading?
DATA: Since we know nothing of these circumstances,
that is at least conceivable, sir.
You look doubtful, sir.
Hmm? Oh, I'm not anything.
Right now, Number One, I'm just a man who's looking for answers.
Like the rat said, "Keep the cheese.
I just want out of the trap."
Captain, request permission to board onto the Yamato with an away team.
Perhaps something we find on board will help us figure out what happened.
Granted. Minimal complement.
Worf, you're with me.
PICARD: Captain's log, supplemental.
We remain like a fly in amber, trapped in the void.
We have encountered a vessel which appears to be the USS Yamato.
All its systems are shown as functioning,
yet it seems devoid of life.
Commander Riker is leading an away team.
Hopefully, the answer lies over there.
- Got a lock on that other ship? - Aye, sir, no problems.
- Can you put us on the Bridge? - Anywhere you say, commander.
I'm acquainted with the Yamato, commander.
Recommend the aft station of their Bridge.
When in doubt, surprise them.
- Them? Who's them? - Whoever may be there.
- Our sensors indicate no life-forms. - Still, the tactic is sound.
- Agreed. Aft station, lieutenant. - Aye, sir.
Phasers on stun.
Energize.
This isn't the Bridge.
Worf?
[HOWLING IN DISTANCE]
[WORF ROARING]
No! Don't fire.
I heard you screaming. I was coming to help.
You heard me? I heard you.
Transporter chief, where do you show us over here?
O'BRIEN [OVER INTERCOM]: We show—
[STATIC CRACKLING OVER INTERCOM]
Captain, do you read me?
[OVER INTERCOM] We're having difficulty with our communications.
Number One, come in.
Transporter Room, we're out of contact with the away team.
Beam them back immediately.
I've lost the lock on them.
Nothing on my communicator, sir.
Computer on.
Let's find a turbolift to the Bridge.
Transporter Room, have you been able to establish a lock?
COMPUTER: Emergency power engaged.
Initiate full check, all systems.
LA FORGE: Engineering section, report.
What is our situation?
Engineering?
Captain, request permission to leave the Bridge.
Granted.
[WHIRRING]
This isn't a Federation ship.
These walls aren't tritanium.
It's close, but it's material beyond our technology.
Let's get to the Bridge.
There's got to be an answer to all of this somewhere.
This Bridge should be four decks above us.
What's going on here?
That's not where we came from.
Wait a minute.
Two Bridges?
If we go through there, where will we be?
- On the Bridge. - But we are on the Bridge.
It's up to you, sir.
Let's see what happens.
Is it the same Bridge?
Or did we step from one Bridge onto another Bridge?
We've regained ship's communication, sir.
- Captain, I have a star fix. - On-screen.
HASKELL: It's an opening, sir.
Confirmed, sir, navigation is possible.
Should I set a course?
Transporter Room, do you have a fix on the away team?
O'BRIEN: Negative, captain.
Damn.
WORF: Sir!
Commander.
How did you—?
- Where did you come from? - What's going on?
A ship has one Bridge. One Bridge!
One Riker! One Bridge!
[ROARING]
Lieutenant!
This is impossible! Impossible!
Pull yourself together!
Worf!
[WORF GROWLS]
At ease, lieutenant, at ease.
HASKELL: Captain, the star fix is fading.
Data, lock onto the Yamato with a tractor beam.
We'll leave together.
- I cannot make the lock, sir. - Captain, the star fix is almost gone.
Let it go.
- But, sir, we can get out. - Let it go.
Bridge, I have reestablished contact with the away team.
Beam them back immediately.
Captain.
Come in. Come in, Enterprise.
Hold position, away team. I've got you. We're bringing you home.
- Transporter Room, hurry. - Captain, it's almost gone.
- What the hell is going on? - PICARD: Are you all right?
I've had it. Let's put this technology to work,
figure out what is going on, and get the hell out of here.
A ship that was almost the Yamato, existing in a hole in space
with no crew aboard. Now, what is the purpose?
Add to that an attack by a nonexistent Romulan vessel.
It does suggest an interesting question.
Was our away team actually over there?
If we weren't there, where the hell were we?
HASKELL: Commander, I have reestablished the star fix.
Great. Set course. Velocity, warp 2.
- Course and speed set. - Engage.
- I've lost contact, sir. - What?
The star fix is gone.
Captain, it is not in the same sector, but another opening has appeared.
PICARD: All right. Set a course for those stars, warp 6.
Yes, sir, warp 6.
I've lost the signal, sir.
RIKER: What's going on here?
Full stop.
Captain.
PICARD: Yes, Mr. Data, I can see it.
This game is now wearing very thin.
Let's just hold this position.
Counselor?
You said that you sensed no intelligence in all of this.
You haven't changed in that belief?
I'm not certain of that now, captain. I do sense something unusual.
Perhaps a different level of consciousness?
Yes.
Perhaps an intelligence so vast, it eluded me.
Rats in a maze.
- Exactly. - Hmm?
Explain.
Well, everything we've been through reminds me of a laboratory experiment.
As if something was testing our responses to stimuli.
Are you suggesting...?
Are you suggesting that we're in some kind of laboratory?
Yes.
HASKELL: The opening seems closer, captain.
I've had enough of being led about in this way.
Agreed, captain. Hold present position.
Good.
Don't satisfy its curiosity.
WORF: Captain, look!
Why are you so alarmed
when I've gone to such trouble to look just like you?
Captain, sensors show nothing out there.
Absolutely nothing.
Sure is a damned ugly nothing.
I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise,
representing a federation of planets in this part of the galaxy.
Can you identify whoever or whatever you are?
Nagilum.
Speaks right up for something your sensors say isn't there, Data.
We still have no idea what you represent.
NAGILUM [ON SCREEN]: Data.
Nagilum?
You are of different construction than the others. Interesting.
Picard.
Riker.
Geordi.
Haskell.
What are you?
Your construction also differs.
[PULASKI GRUNTS]
My construction?
Perhaps referring to your gender, doctor.
Yes, well, there are minor differences.
I'm what we call a female.
I understand. The masculine and the feminine.
It is the way in which we propagate our species.
Please demonstrate how this is accomplished.
Not likely.
Whatever you are, your actions are not welcome.
Let me put up the shields, sir.
Sensors still show nothing out there.
NAGILUM: Your life-form surprises me more and more.
Is it true you also have only a limited existence?
- Answer. - What information do you want?
I don't understand the question.
You exist, and then you cease to exist.
Your minds call it death.
[GRUNTING]
[SCREAMING]
How interesting.
[DEVICE BEEPING]
He's gone.
We cannot allow you to do that!
We will fight you.
To understand death,
I must amass information on every aspect of it.
Every kind of dying.
The experiments shouldn't take more than a third of your crew.
Maybe half.
PICARD: Captain's log, stardate 42194.7
It is obvious that whatever we have met
sees no value in our kind of life-form.
How do we fight something that both is and is not there?
I know this much.
We are unimportant to it.
In a battle for survival, captain, 30 to 50 percent casualties—
Would be appalling.
But within acceptable limits.
This is not a battle, Worf.
No, a laboratory experiment would be the closest comparison.
Is there any reason for not believing this Nagilum?
- No. - All evidence indicates
it is willing and able to do as it proposes.
Agreed.
Under the circumstances, I think there is only one decision.
I will not stand by while half my crew is slaughtered.
Sir, I do not believe there is anything you can do to prevent it.
- Yes, there is. - What?
Destroy the Enterprise.
Isn't that a little like curing the disease by killing the patient?
It's better than standing around helplessly.
[PULASKI SIGHS]
Why do I get the feeling that this was not the time to join this ship?
COMPUTER: Recognize Picard, Jean-Luc.
Recognize Riker, William T.
Initiate auto-destruct sequence.
COMPUTER: Does Riker, William T., concur?
I do.
- Initiate auto-destruct sequence. - COMPUTER: Desired time interval?
Stand by.
Interesting question.
How long to prepare to die?
What would be least painful for our crew?
Move to it quickly, or allow them time to prepare for it thoroughly?
Well, 20 minutes, nice round figure.
Initiate auto-destruct.
Interval, 20 minutes.
COMPUTER: Twenty minutes to auto-destruct.
[BEEPING]
COMPUTER: Nineteen minutes, 50 seconds.
[DOOR BEEPS]
Come.
Our destroying ourselves won't change its mind, captain.
I would feel that.
You didn't mention you were that certain.
I was wrong not to tell you.
And your decision may also be wrong.
[DOOR BEEPS]
Yes, come in, please.
I have a question, sir.
Yes, Data, what is it?
What
is death?
Oh, is that all?
Well, Data,
you're asking probably the most difficult of all questions.
Some see it as a changing into an indestructible form,
forever unchanging.
They believe that the purpose of the entire universe
is to then maintain that form
in an Earth-like garden which will give delight
and pleasure through all eternity.
On the other hand, there are those
who hold to the idea of our blinking into nothingness.
[SNAPS]
With all of our experiences and hopes and dreams merely a delusion.
Which do you believe, sir?
Considering the marvelous complexity of the universe's
clockwork perfection, its balances of this against that, matter, energy,
gravitation, time, dimension,
I believe that
our existence must be more than either of these philosophies.
That what we are goes beyond
Euclidean or other practical measuring systems,
and that our existence is part of a reality beyond
what we understand now as reality.
We should not let ourselves die, Jean-Luc.
I agree with her, Jean-Luc.
TROI: If only half of us live,
then I would rather take my chances on being one that does.
DATA: Yes.
It is wrong of you to force us.
It is wrong.
Yes, this is very wrong.
Neither of you should be reacting in this way.
Computer, locate Commander Data for me.
COMPUTER: Commander Data is on the Bridge.
It's not going to work, Nagilum.
DATA [OVER INTERCOM]: Captain, we are clear.
We are out of the void.
RIKER [OVER INTERCOM]: It's gone, captain.
We can abort the auto-destruct.
PICARD: Hold, Number One. RIKER: But, captain—
PICARD: Hold.
COMPUTER: One minute to auto-destruct.
DATA: We are out of the void, sir, you may stop auto-destruct.
[ALARM BLARING]
Mr. Crusher, warp 6, any heading, now.
COMPUTER: Fifty seconds to auto-destruct.
- Forty seconds to auto-destruct. - Captain?
It could all be part of the illusion.
Commander Data, report.
All navigational systems confirm we are at warp 6, on course, sir.
- Counselor Troi? - Captain, it has gone.
I no longer feel its presence.
COMPUTER: Twenty seconds to auto-destruct.
Ten seconds to auto-destruct.
Captain?
Abort auto-destruct sequence.
COMPUTER: Riker, William T., do you concur?
Yes.
Absolutely. I do indeed concur, wholeheartedly.
COMPUTER: Auto-destruct canceled.
A simple yes would have sufficed, Number One.
I didn't want there to be any chance of misunderstanding.
Of course. You have the Bridge.
He sure held that bluff to the last second, didn't he, sir?
Was he bluffing?
PICARD: Well, Nagilum, I hope you got what you needed.
You have provided me with much more than I needed.
Why did you release us?
You could have seen the way we face death.
That wasn't necessary.
I have learned all I needed to know.
Would you like me to share some of my conclusions?
- I'm not interested. - Well, of course you are.
You are too inquisitive not to want to know.
You seem to find no tranquility in anything.
You struggle against the inevitable.
You thrive on conflict.
You are selfish, yet you value loyalty.
You are rash, quick to judge, slow to change.
It's amazing you've survived.
Be that as it may, as species we have no common ground.
You are too aggressive. Too hostile. Too militant.
During this period, you too have been evaluated.
It would seem that we have at least one thing in common.
- Oh? - Curiosity.
The point is well taken, captain.
Perhaps that is a trait we share.
Then perhaps we shall meet again.
But next time, it will be out here among the stars.
Ensign, put us back on course.
- Warp 3. - Yes, sir, warp 3.
And, ensign, if you encounter any holes, steer clear.