“Force of Nature” is episode nine of season seven of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Data arrives at Geordi’s quarters. Geordi has borrowed Spot because he’s been thinking of getting a cat. It has not gone well. Geordi suggests Data try training Spot. Then Riker contacts them; all senior staff are to report to the observation lounge. Trying to catch Spot results in something else breaking.
The Enterprise is investigating the disappearance of the medical transport Fleming that has disappeared in the Hekaras Corridor. Finding it is complicated by the region, which has dense tetryon fields that are a hazard to warp vessels. The Corridor is the only safe passage through. Scanning is limited by the fields, so Geordi will tweak the efficiency. Hekaras II has had no contact with the transport, only a Ferengi trader the previous week. Dr Crusher says the Fleming is carrying a valuable biomedic gel. It’s possible the Ferengi hijacked the Fleming.
Data finds Geordi in engineering, as there’s a diminishment in sensor efficiency. Geordi is tinkering with the engine, purely to try and compete with the chief engineer of the Intrepid, who went to the Academy with Geordi. This doesn’t work, so they head to work on the sensors. Discussing Spot’s training as they do. Geordi suggests a phasor. His sister trained her cat to jump into her arms on command. By walking around with a piece of tuna in her blouse for two months. The sensors are about as good as they’ll get and Riker asks them to come to the bridge; there’s a ship on long range sensors.
This is a Ferengi vessel; warp drive is inactive, impulse engines are down, power generation is at extremely low levels as is life support. There are 450 Ferengi onboard. No response to hails and their field coils have overloaded. Geordi thinks he can communicate through their sensors. Worf reports the Ferengi are locking weapons. They open fire, then Enterprise takes down the Ferengi weapons. The Ferengi have more power and impulse; they were playing dead.
Geordi gets in contact with the Ferengi ship. The Daimon, Prak, says they were defending themselves. The Ferengi Council will consider this an act of war. Captain Picard suggests Prak come aboard to discuss this. Prak sees no reason to trust them. The captain says they’ll be on their way then. They’ll relay Prak’s position to his government if he wishes, in case he’s unable to complete repairs and remains stranded. Prak is now open to discussion.
In the captain’s ready room, Prak tells Riker and Picard they approached what appeared to be a Federation signal buoy which hit them with a verteron pulse, disabling them. He thought it was a new Federation weapon. The captain asks why the Federation would mine the corridor they created. Riker asks about the Fleming. Prak passed it several days ago. He may have some sensor data. If only he could spare the crew from repairs to retrieve it. The captain offers assistance with the repairs, so Prak can retrieve the data.
Geordi finds Data trying to train Spot; he suggests that maybe Spot isn’t trainable. But, watching Data get Spot’s food and ball of yarn on command, he thinks Data’s training has come along nicely.
The Enterprise encounters a debris field, possibly a ship and possibly the Fleming. They head into it and Data reports a small metallic object. It generates a verteron field that takes down the warp engines, shields and subspace systems. A small ship approaches and two lifeforms beam off it into engineering. The two tell Geordi they’re trying to make them listen. They’re being killed.
The two are from Hekaras II, a brother and sister. They are claiming that warp drives are causing problems in this region of space, which will change the climate on Hekaras II. No-one has been willing to listen so they’ve resorted to more extreme measures. It seems they may have a point when their latest data is gone over, but the sister, Serova, wants people to do more than just concede there may be something to it. And is willing to go to almost any lengths to get people’s attention.