| The Next Generation | |
| 113 | |
| The Masterpiece Society | |
| 45470.1 | |
The Enterprise is doing one of its more interesting missions - acting as traffic police for a stellar core fragment. "Move along" they say, "there's nothing to see". Unfortunately one crowd thinks that a huge ball of glowing stellar matter is quite interesting to see and don't want to move. After being told that they will be beaten repeatedly with rubber truncheons they agree to meet with an away team.
They colony is exclusive society that shuns all contact with outsiders, but this isn't uncommon, we've seen that sort before. What is uncommon is that they are all genetically engineered and bred for their respective roles. This is the ultimate club - all those not wearing genes need not apply!
The problem they face is that the biosphere in which they live will not cope with the tectonic shocks as the core fragment passes by. They must evacuate or die. Since neither death, nor a long stay with laughing boy is considered pleasant, they seek another option. Geordi and Hannah Babe - one of the local scientists - think that they can use a multiphase tractor beam to move the fragment away. Hannah is given permission to beam up to explore the possibility.
Picard gets told the full details of the situation by Riker, and he is shocked. The thought of eugenics police sickens him, since no-one with a genetic disposition to be bald would be allowed to live! Hannah is equally surprised at Geordi since he would have been disposed of before birth. Actually looking more carefully at it, maybe the eugenics police wouldn't be such a bad thing...
Troi is trying her hand and getting picked up by the leader of the colonists, and is doing well at it. I wonder if it's a club that they have on the Enterprise, the "bonked by an alien club" or something? She joins Riker and Bev as a full member! Unfortunately for him she brushes him off as a one night stand and beams back in the morning.
Geordi and Hannah have discovered that if they use a pulsed tractor beam, they might be able to move the fragment. Combining this with shoring up the biosphere will probably allow the colony to ride it out. There is just one small flaw in the plan - they will have to send a team of 50 down to the planet for the modifications. What started as a minor disturbance to the unchanging lifestyle of the colony is rapidly turning the place into a tourist stop!
Geordi reroutes warp power to the tractor beam, and seconds before life-support to the entire ship fails, manages to deflect the fragment. Wow! For a moment there I thought that they would all die - NOT! Everyone beams back from the colony when... there is a biosphere breach. Or maybe not - since Geordi can't detect anything with his visor. Hannah is being naughty and trying to force an evacuation!
Since that ploy failed, she asks Picard for asylum. He is left in a quandary (which is a small place at the back of his ready-room). Should he grant asylum, but risk destroying the colony? Sure, why not! They are actually human so the Prime Directive doesn't apply! He takes Hannah and a few others and leaves the colony to rot. That will teach them to mess with the Bald Avenger!
