- Picard is kidnapped and held with three different aliens and meanwhile replaced with a replica as impostor captain.
- An unknown force transports Captain Jean-Luc Picard out of his quarters into a closed cell, where he joins three other captives of different races, including Federation cadet Mitena Haro, who have very different temperaments and mistrust each-other, but have no hope to escape unless they manage to collaborate. Meanwhile a perfect replica of Picard takes his place aboard the Enterprise, but Commander William T. Riker soon suspects he's too perfect and a danger for the ship...—KGF Vissers
- Captain Picard's abducted by an unknown race and transported to a cell where three other aliens are also being held. A replication of Picard's placed aboard the ship. The real Captain Picard tries to find a commonality amongst the 44 captives which might help them to understand who and why they've been abducted.—garykmcd
- Picard encounters 3 other beings when he is kidnapped and replaced with an imposter.—herbalista
- Enterprise is to rendezvous with USS Hood, to help with their Terraforming efforts on Browder IV. An unknown force transports Captain Jean-Luc Picard out of his quarters into a closed cell, where he joins three other captives of different races, including Federation Starfleet academy cadet Mitena Haro (Joycelyn O'Brien), Kova Tholl (Stephen Markle) of Mizar II and Esoqq (Reiner Schöne) from planet Chalna, who have very different temperaments and mistrust each-other, but have no hope to escape unless they manage to collaborate. Mitena claims to have been brought to this place 3 days ago, Tholl has been here for 12 days. The captors have never revealed themselves. Esoqq arrives after Picard. Mitena is a 1st yr. cadet and studies impulse propulsion systems. Kova is a public servant, and his planet has a history of non-violence and peace. Esoqq is a warrior and has many enemies. But he claims he has already slain most of the them of any consequence. Picard tries to find if they have a common enemy.
Meanwhile Esoqq discovers that the food pallets being served in the confinement is not nourishment for him. Thus, he will start eating the other captors within 3 days. They try to break from their confinement room and are "punished" with a beam of energy that produces intense pain in their body. The captives start suspecting each other of being the captor or their collaborator. When the group suspects Picard, Mitena stands up for him and says that Picard has risked his life for others many times. She recounts several Enterprise Expeditions where Picard did so.
Picard manages to get them to work together and open the door of the confinement room, only to be faced with a solid wall.
Meanwhile a perfect replica of Picard takes his place aboard the Enterprise, but Commander William T. Riker soon suspects he's too perfect and a danger for the ship. The replica Picard changes the scheduled rendezvous with USS Hood and reduces the speed of the Enterprise (at warp 2 it will take 31 hours to reach the pulsar, while at warp 7 the same distance would take 34 minutes) to go study a pulsar in some random section (The Lonka cluster) of the Galaxy. When they get closer, he further reduces speed to half impulse. More so, the replica Picard stops Riker from communicating their delay to the USS Hood. The replica Picard asks Beverly to have a private dinner with him and kisses her. He asks Deanna about the lengths to which the crew would follow him without question. He asks Geordi to improve engine efficiency from 93% to 95% (while he was playing poker with his friends), sings a song with the crew in the bar, attends poker games with the crew..
Riker is alarmed when the replica Picard orders the Enterprise to within 20 MM Kms of the pulsar, where the shields will only be effective for 18 mins. He wants to know the mission and threatens mutiny to Picard. Picard orders ship to move in to 10 MM Kms where the ship will not withstand the radiation. Riker intervenes. The crew supports Riker and turns the ship away from the Pulsar.
The real Picard surmises that the captivity is an experiment. They are in a Lab and Mitena is not real and she is an observer. She knew too much about Picard's missions that would never be divulged to a first-year academy graduate. Each of the captors reacted to authority differently. Picard is a leader, Kova submits to any authority and Essoq recognizes no authority. The experiment was to see how these beings interact.
Picard calls the bluff and forces the beings to appear, who admit as much. They return Picard to the Enterprise and tell him how they conduct experiments to learn about other beings and cultures. Picard objects to being kidnapped, but the aliens don't have this concept. Picard holds the aliens captive on the Enterprise to drive home his point that kidnapping is an injury in itself. The beings understand and promise not to do so anymore. They leave
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content