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Synopsis
The episode was a followup to conspiratorial allusions in an earlier episode. While the Enterprise is on route to a planet called Pacifica, Captain Picard receives a confidential emergency call from Captain Walker Keel, who asks Picard for a secret rendezvous on an uninhabited planet. Picard meets with Walker and two other captains, who, after confirming Picard's identity with a series of questions about his past, tell him about their suspicions of a conspiracy of some sort reaching up to the highest levels of Starfleet Command. Picard looks into the matter, having Data to review Starfleet directives of the past six months. While Data is reviewing the records, the Enteprise discovers the debris of Keel's ship.
In light of Keel's death, Picard tells Commander Riker about the suspicions Keel voiced. During their conversation, Data enters and tells them what he has found: during the past six months there has been a great deal of "uncustomary reshuffling of personnel — usually in the command areas", and the new officers have had a great deal of contact with the highest levels of command. Data proposes that the reorganizations are an attempt by a hostile force or individual to control important sectors of Federation territory. Faced with this information, the Enterprise returns to Earth.
While the Enterprise is in orbit, three admirals representing Starfleet Command asks why they have returned, and Picard states that he would prefer a discussion of that sort occur in private; the three admirals convene for a moment, then invite Picard and Riker to dinner for the discussion to take place. Admiral Gregory Quinn says that he will not be able to attend the dinner, but that he would like to see the Enterprise again (he appeared in the earlier episode Coming of Age trying to find subversive elements). Just before he beams up, he looks at a scorpion-like creature he has in a case.
When Quinn is onboard the Enterprise, he bluffs his way through references to old times, and states that his earlier perception of a threat to the Federation was merely a metaphor for the "tumultuous process" of assimilating new races into the Federation. Picard realizes that Admiral Quinn is an impostor of some sort and tells Riker to observe Quinn closely and have Dr. Crusher give him a medical examination under false pretenses; after Riker reaches his conclusions he is to join Picard on Earth. Picard then beams down and meets two of the earlier admirals (the third being Quinn), as well as Dexter Remmick, who some months before inspected the Enterprise under Quinn's suspicion of a conspiracy.
On the ship in the guest quarters, Quinn offers to show Riker the creature and tells him about it. It was discovered by a Starfleet survey team on an uncharted planet, and Quinn refers to it as "a superior form of life". When Riker says he'll get his science officer, Quinn grabs his arm very strongly and refuses to see the science officer, saying the creature will only like Riker. The two have a fight, and Quinn displays amazing strength, especially for a man his age. Riker is knocked unconscious, and when security arrives Quinn says that Riker slipped and hit his head, and then announces his departure. When Worf and LaForge try to detain him, he throws LaForge through a door and similarly beats Worf before being blasted unconscious by Dr. Crusher. In sickbay Crusher's scans show that Quinn really is Quinn, but she discovers a bizarre moving spike or thorn sticking out of the back of his neck.
On Earth, the two admirals try to subtly persuade Picard that there is in fact no conspiracy. Dinner is announced, so Picard takes a moment to contact Riker. Crusher answers on Riker's communicator, as Riker is unconscious. Crusher informs Picard that a parasitic creature of some sort has taken control of Quinn and all his brain functions. The spike at the back of Quinn's neck appears to be a gill, which is a helpful indicator of those who have been taken over by one of the creatures. Crusher states her doubts about removing the creature, believing it would kill Quinn. She instructs Picard to set his phaser on kill rather than stun, which has little effect on the creature or its host; Picard, however, has no phaser with him at all.
Picard goes into dinner. The dish being served is a bowl filled with small living worms or caterpillars. Picard is disgusted, and realizes that everyone at the dinner (the two admirals, Remmick, and a fourth man who has joined the table) has been infiltrated by the aliens. He gets up to leave, and runs into Riker. Riker has also apparently been taken over by the creature; the gill is in his neck. One of the captains Picard met with also enters and takes her seat at the table. The "conspirators" announce that they have known of Picard's intentions the whole time. They talk of their plan to infiltrate the Enterprise. Riker moves to eat, but instead he pulls out his phaser and shoots one of the diners. A fight ensues. After shooting the other diners, Picard and Riker chase after the last admiral, who has run from the room. They shoot him and he falls to the floor. A creature crawls out of his mouth and under a nearby door. They follow it to find Remmick sitting in a chair. He turns to look at him, and the creature crawls up his body and enters into his mouth. He swallows it, and it begins moving around in his neck. "We mean you no harm," he says, as his neck bulges in and out. "We seek peaceful coexistence." Picard and Riker shoot him with steady phaser blasts. The flesh is vaporized off his face, and then his head explodes. After Picard and Riker let up their phasers, a giant wound forms in Remmick's chest, and the mother creature erupts wailing from the hole. Picard and Riker kill it, and all that is left of Remmick is his sizzling body and several dead creatures strewn about nearby. It is learned that all the creatures died when the mother creature was killed. It is revealed that Remmick had sent out a homing beacon shortly before his death, and the episode closed on that suspenseful note, but nothing ever came from this in any future episode.
See also
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