“Suspicions” is episode twenty-two of season six of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
A disconsolate-looking Dr Crusher arrives in her quarters. Her door goes and she tells them to come in It’s Guinan. She thinks she has tennis elbow. The doctor tells her to go to sickbay; Dr Selar is on duty. Guinan is very particular about her doctors; she wants Dr Crusher. Who tells Guinan she isn’t a doctor on this ship anymore.
Dr Crusher is going to be sent by shuttle to a starbase then back to Earth where the formal inquiry begins and her career ends. Guinan says she’s never been to a formal inquiry. The doctor explains that all she has to do is disobey orders, violate medical ethics and cause an interstellar incident. Guinan asked what happened.
It started when Dr Crusher got curious about a new subspace technology being developed by a Ferengi scientist. He didn’t get much respect at a conference, but the doctor read his work and thought it was extraordinary. She rounded up as many scientists as she could who were experts on subspace, which was only four. Kurak, a Klingon warp field specialist, Dr T’Pan, the director of the Vulcan science academy and her husband, Dr Christopher, a subspace theoretician, Dr Jo’Bril, a Takaran, and the Ferengi, Dr Reyga.
Reyga explains he needs help developing his metaphasic shield and will grant exclusive rights to whoever provides the necessary resources. It has already been tested. Kurak suggests Reyga may have manipulated the results. Dr Crusher explains that a shuttle has been outfitted with Reyga’s technology and can be taken into the star. T’Pan and Christopher suggest trying a less dangerous star. Reyga thinks this is the best way to test it. Kurak thinks a more neutral party should conduct the experiment and Jo’Bril volunteers. Afterwards, Reyga tells the doctor he’s grateful for her help. He’s used t skepticism; a Ferengi scientist is almost a contradiction in terms (though someone must have developed Ferengi technology) and he just wants to be recognised as such.
The shuttle is launched and the others watch from the bridge as it heads into the corona. The shield forms and things are going well. Then something starts to go wrong. There’s increased baryon particles in the shuttle and Jo’Bril is starting to suffer. He can’t be beamed out until the shuttle emerges. Jo’Bril is beamed to sickbay, where he dies.
The doctor tells Guinan it was a complete failure. Guinan says that, though the doctor has lost patients before, this was different. Normally, the doctor has control; you send someone on a mission and all you can do is sit and watch. That reminds Dr Crusher of something Captain Picard said during the autopsy.
The doctor was struggling with the autopsy as Takaran anatomy is unlike anything she’s encountered before. The captain enters and asks how it’s going. Dr Crusher can’t see how Jo’Bril died; it must have been on the cellular level. Ogawa has the tissue scan; the rate of cell decay is extremely low. The captain tells the doctor that she’s the loneliest person in the world right now. No-one can do or say anything that will help, and she thinks it will never go away. It won’t. But you can get used to it.
Geordi, Data and Reyga are looking over the shuttle when the doctor arrives. Geordi confirms the breach by baryonic radiation, but the equipment seems fine. The doctor gathers the scientists and says it would be inappropriate to continue further testing. Reyga wants more time. T’Pan says the shield concept is flawed. Reyga is willing to pilot the shuttle himself. Dr Crusher can’t authorise more tests. Reyga says he will prove himself.
Then he turns up dead. Seemingly a suicide, but Dr Crusher doesn’t think it is. She thinks he was killed, and probably by one of the other scientists. So, she decides to investigate herself. And that was how she wound up in trouble. Guinan says she should continue the investigation. After all, it’s not like she can be suspended from duty twice.