Stardate 2510.6

Uhura records a personal log regarding her final day on the ship as her cadet assignment on Enterprise is over.

The crew are gathered in Pike’s quarters to celebrate Uhura and Cadet Chia. Ensign Duke is promoted to Lieutenant.

Uhura tells Ortegas she hates goodbyes. Pike interjects and reminds her that she’s welcome to stay.

Spock contacts Pike and informs him a new mission has come in.

La’an joins the team in Pike’s quarters after her therapy session. The information on the new mission is shared while Pike and Spock clean up from the party. The USS Peregrine activated a distress beacon and then lost contact. They were making an emergency landing on Valeo Beta V when they lost contact.

Because their current mission is time-sensitive, La’an advises they send a landing party to search for the Peregrine and her crew while the Enterprise continues onto the space station to deliver the power cells.

Valeo Beta V is a known dead zone. The landing party will be cut off from communications and unable to beam back to the ship.

Pike intends to lead the landing party himself.

The landing party take two shuttles to the surface of Valeo Beta V and land within sight of the crashed USS Peregrine.

Upon arrival, Spock warns there will be an ice storm in about six hours. Hemmer is pleased by the cold, windy environment, comparing it to Andoria. He calls Duke an ensign which triggers him owing the new lieutenant a drink by Starfleet tradition.

M’Benga’s having difficulty scanning for lifesigns. La’an proposes that it isn’t a scanning problem when she finds a severed human arm in the snow.

The crew gets into the Peregrine and finds all systems down. La’an reports they’ve found twenty casualties outside, including the captain. M’Benga describes most dead from hypothermia. La’an notes that some were picked apart, possibly by local wildlife.

Outside, Cadet Chia calls Kirk and Chapel over to where she and Duke have found a huge number of dismembered bodies.

On the peregrine, Uhura accesses an audio of the captain’s log. They learn that the Peregrine picked up three castaways – a human girl, an unknown type of humanoid, and an Orion. The Orian was infected with Gorn eggs. He tried to destroy the ship before the Gorn eggs could hatch and the plasma grenade he set off in Engineering triggered the distress signal that Starfleet received. The captain warns off anyone hearing her message.

Pike orders M’Benga to get the rest of the landing party. Uhura’s scanners come online and she is able to detect a human life sign and one unknown life sign.

Hemmer is sent to Engineering to try to get systems running again. Pike, La’an, and Uhura search for the life signs and come across the unknown humanoid alien from the captain’s log. They are unable to communicate with each other but manage to make peaceful contact. He leads them to the human girl who is keeping warm by a makeshift fire.

Spock asks Chapel for medical supplies to treat a burn wound Duke sustained in the Jefferies tube. They discuss Vulcan’s natural anger which is dramatic and dangerous.

Uhura assists Hemmer with the repairs and they discuss her plan to leave the Enterprise. Hemmer suggests that her fear isn’t facing the future alone, it’s making friends and connections and putting down roots.

Chapel and M’Benga examine the girl and the alien. The girl refers to the alien as Buckley. She is called Oriana.

La’an interrogates Oriana aggressively and M’Benga intercedes, accidentally referring to Oriana as his daughter rather than his patient.

La’an reports to the captain that the girl was reported missing two years previous. She suspects the girl and the other two escaped a breeding planet.

Pike leaves to begin a security sweep. M’Benga enters and talks to La’an about how she can help Oriana before the trauma scars her permanently.

Spock is following a trail of blood and sounds intently. Pike startles him with M’Benga who laughs at Spock’s jumpiness.

Buckley seems to be in physical distress. Chapel asks Chia to set him up for a physical to compare his reading before to what they are now. Chapel leaves the room to run the simulation on his scans. Oriana recognizes the signs and hides away.

Four Gorn babies emerge from Buckley’s body. Chia is killed by one almost immediately. Chapel comes in and sees the carnage and runs back to the bio bed and activates the quarantine field.

At the Jefferies tube, M’Benga treats Duke’s burn. As they reassure him that it’s not a big deal, a Gorn baby latches onto his neck and another drags him away.

Chapel ventures back into sickbay to look for Oriana. La’an arrives, startling Chapel. La’an examines Buckley’s body, counting four hatch holes and one dead hatchling, killed by another, leaving three that will mature and fight for dominance.

Chapel is in shock. La’an arms her and gives her simple instructions to survive. Together, they look for Oriana. They find her in a cargo bay, the coldest place on the ship. She knows the Gorn hate the cold. La’an gives Oriana a pep talk.

Hemmer and Uhura manage to restore power. Just as they flip the switch, they hear the Gorn and Hemmer smells the scent of human blood.

Kirk starts to panic. Pike addresses the ship now that coms are online again, ordering everyone into emergency protocol and to regroup at sickbay.

Before they can leave, a young Gorn kills another hatchling and then spits venom at Hemmer.

La’an and Chapel arrive before the Gorn can attack and scare it off.

On examination, M’Benga discovers the Gorn’s cells are invisible to sensors, a genetic chameleon.

Hemmer arrives at sickbay, suffering from the venom. He reveals that his psychic abilities are not able to detect the Gorn either.

Spock is impressed by the Gorn’s level of evolution and adaptation. Kirk is upset by his calm observations. He accuses Spock of having no feelings. Pike intercedes and tells him to quit it.

Hemmer lets them know the nav com is the only system left to reboot.

La’an says the two hatchlings left will be the best of the batch and driven to assert alpha dominance.

They form a plan to draw the Gorn out, attracting them with aggression, and put them down when they rise to the challenge.

Using the environment controls, they drive the Gorn into the areas where they lay the trap using cold air.

Uhura lures one hatching into the transporter room where it tries to escape through the vent system. Spock waits for it to emerge, trying to draw it out with blasts. When that doesn’t attract it, he must tap into rage which the Gorn reacts to. The second Gorn tries to box Spock in but Kirk pulls him to safety. His rage causes him to manhandle Kirk a bit until he’s able to recognize his crewmate.

The two Gorn, now in each other’s vicinity, turn on each other.

La’an waits for one Gorn to emerge victorious and then leads it down into Engineering where she and Hemmer hide in pods and Hemmer remotely triggers a blast of cold that freezes the Gorn solid.

La’an emerges from her pods and destroys the frozen Gorn hatching.

When Hemmer emerges, he is clearly in physical distress. The rest of the landing party rushes to the bay doors and celebrate the eradication of the hatchlings. La’an realizes that Hemmer is infected with eggs via the venom hit he took.

Hemmer has known that he’s infected and sealed the bay doors to prevent anyone stopping him. M’Benga and Chapel offer to find a way to extract the eggs or stop the growth process. Hemmer says it’s too late for that. He plans to walk outside so that the cold will kill any hatchlings that emerge.

Uhura begs him to stay. Hemmer gives her some advice and takes his leave of them, free-falling into an icy crevasse.

The Enterprise returns and tows the Peregrine free of the planet.

The crew holds a memorial for the three dead crewmates, but mostly it’s for Hemmer.

During the testimonials, Chapel notices that Spock is exhibiting signs of rage. He abruptly leaves and she follows, witnessing him punch a bulkhead.

He expresses that he fears that his mind has become weak because he can’t control his emotions. Chapel assures him that he’s only being human and hugs him. After a moment, he accepts the hug. Once it is over, he walks away. La’an tells Pike she’s found a lead on Oriana’s family. She wants a leave to help reunite her with her family. He gives her the leave but insists she come back to the Enterprise once she’s done with her mission. She thanks him for everything before leaving.

 

Uhura returns to the bridge and takes a long look at the communications station.