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.
( mysterious animal noises )
( crackling )
( growling )
Above! Look out!
( clanging )
The exercise is over!
( snarling )
( yells )
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 beeping )
Coming, Commander?
Right behind you.
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.
Captain's Log, Stardate 42193.6.
We're on a long reach toward the Morgana quadrant
a section of the galaxy
which has yet to be visited by a manned Federation vessel.
We are using the time
to further detail the charts of this region.
( beeping )
There it is again, sir, an 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.
Um...
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.
Worf, prepare 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.
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 1 with full sensor array.
Launching, sir.
Happened even more quickly.
Recommend we fire 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.
Make it so, Mr. Crusher.
Thrusters only.
Mr. Data?
Still no readings of any kind, sir.
Number One?
I'm going to go with Worf on this one.
Let's be careful.
All right, that's enough, Ensign.
Come to full stop, and hold these coordinates.
Aye, sir.
( whoosh )
What's happened?
Data?
Whatever it is, sir, we seem to be inside it.
RIKER: It enveloped us.
It moved.
All stations, report.
DATA: No response, Captain.
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 awhile, 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.
By 100.
PULASKI: Isn't this impossible, sir?
I'm not a Bridge Officer, but...
increase by 1,000, Mr. Data.
By 10,000.
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: Engineering.
Lieutenant, are all your systems functioning?
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.
Mm, yeah, for a later discussion.
( sighs )
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.
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: Lieutenant La Forge
I'd like you to monitor our velocity closely.
Is everything all right up there, Captain?
Are the engines operating normally?
Yes, sir, everything looks fine down here.
We're increasing to warp two.
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 fixed point of reference to confirm
speed and distance.
Make it so, Data.
Lock onto the beacon.
Keep it dead astern.
( rhythmic chiming )
The beacon is in place, sir.
Dead ahead. Impulse power.
The beacon is falling astern, Captain.
Engineering, report.
All systems functioning normally, sir.
Prepare to increase to warp two.
Aye, sir.
( chiming fading, lowering in pitch )
Captain, we are receiving a signal from dead ahead.
Maybe you found the door out of this.
Closing on the new signal, sir.
Identify.
( chiming getting louder, rising in pitch )
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.
( chiming stops )
( fast beeping )
Captain, sensors indicate a disturbance in sector 1-0-8.
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 0-9-1 mark 2-6.
On screen.
PICARD: 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?
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.
LA FORGE: 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 could find onboard
would help us figure out what happened.
Granted, minimal complement.
Worf, you're with me.
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.
Have you got a lock on that other ship?
Aye, sir, no problems at all.
Can you put us on the Bridge?
Anywhere you say, Commander.
I am 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.
( high-pitched beeping )
Energize.
This isn't the Bridge.
Worf?
( screeching howl )
( howling )
( screaming )
Ho! 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?
( staticky ): We show...
( static fades out )
Captain, do you read me?
RIKER: We're having difficulty with our communications...
Number One, come in.
Transporter Room, this is the Captain.
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.
This isn't a Federation ship.
These walls aren't tritanium.
It's close, but it's a 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?
( beeping )
We've regained ship's communication, sir.
Captain, I have a star fix.
On screen.
HASKELL: It's an opening, sir.
Confirm, sir, navigation is possible.
Should I set a course?
Transporter Room
do you have a fix on the away team?
Negative, Captain.
Damn.
Sir!
WORF: Commander.
How did you...?
Where did you come from?
What's going on?
A ship has one Bridge.
One Bridge!
One Riker, one Bridge!
( growling )
( speaking Klingon )
Lieutenant!
This is impossible!
Impossible!
Pull yourself together.
Worf!
( snarling )
( muttering ): At ease, Lieutenant, at ease.
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.
TRANSPORTER CHIEF: Bridge.
I have reestablished contact with the away team.
Beam them back immediately.
Captain.
Come in, come in, Enterprise.
TRANSPORTER CHIEF: 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?
Are you all right, Number One?
I've had it.
Let's put all 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 over there, where the hell were we?
HASKELL: Commander, I have reestablished the star fix.
Great.
Set course.
Velocity, warp two.
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.
All right, set a course for those stars.
Warp 6.
Yes, sir, warp six.
I've lost the signal, sir.
What's going on here?
All stop.
Captain...
Yes, Mr. Data, I can see it.
This game is now
wearing very thin.
Let's just hold this position.
Counselor, you've said that you sensed
no intelligence in all of this.
You haven't changed in that belief?
I am 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.
Data.
Nagilum.
You are of different construction than the others.
Interesting.
Picard...
Riker...
Geordi...
Haskell...
What are you?
Your construction
also differs.
Oh...
My... construction?
Perhaps referring to your gender, Doctor.
Yes, well, uh, 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 shield, sir.
Sensors still show nothing there.
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."
( screaming )
How interesting.
( beeping )
( electronic whine )
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 experiment shouldn't take more
than a third of your crew--
maybe half.
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.
WORF: In a battle for survival, Captain
30 to 50% 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.
( 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.
Does Riker, William T., concur?
I do.
Initiate auto-destruct sequence.
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.
20 minutes to auto-destruct.
( rhythmic buzzing )
19 Minutes, 50 seconds.
( soft piano music plays )
( door chimes )
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 chimes )
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...
( snap )
with all of our experiences
and hopes and dreams merely a delusion.
Which do you believe, sir?
Considering the marvelous complexity of the universe--
its 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.
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.
Commander Data is on the Bridge.
It's not going to work, Nagilum.
DATA: Captain, we are clear.
We are out of the void.
RIKER: It's gone, Captain.
We can abort the auto-destruct.
Hold, Number One.
But, Captain...
Hold.
COMPUTER: One minute to auto-destruct.
We are out of the void, sir.
You may stop auto-destruct.
Mr. Crusher, warp six, any heading.
Now.
COMPUTER: 50 seconds to auto-destruct.
( alarm wailing )
40 seconds to auto-destruct.
Captain.
It could all be part of the illusion.
Commander Data, report.
All navigational systems
confirm we are at warp six, on course, sir.
Counselor Troi?
Captain
it has gone.
I no longer feel its presence.
20 seconds to auto-destruct.
Ten seconds to auto-destruct.
Captain.
Abort auto-destruct sequence.
Riker, William T., do you concur?
Yes, absolutely.
I do indeed concur wholeheartedly.
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?
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 faced death.
It 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.
Oh, 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 three.
Aye, sir, warp three.
And, Ensign, if you encounter any holes...
steer clear.