PICARD: Captain's log, stardate 43779.3.
The Enterprise is preparing detailed exospheric charts
of the Hayashi system.
Although tedious, this endeavor
is the first step toward planet colonization.
[COMPUTER BEEPING]
Captain, sensors report the USS Hood
is closing on an intercept course at high warp.
That's odd. We weren't notified of a rendezvous.
They seem to be in an awful hurry.
Sir, we are being hailed on a secured channel
by Captain DeSoto.
On-screen.
Sorry to sneak up on you like that, Jean-Luc.
Robert, why didn't you inform us?
DeSOTO: Out here, you never know who's listening.
Keeps you on your toes anyway.
Hey, Will.
Will, you getting soft on board that luxury liner?
PICARD: So, old friend,
how are you?
Well, you know, they send you Galaxy-class boys out here
to the far reaches.
Me, I just haul my butt back and forth between starbases.
- But not today. DeSOTO: No.
Not today.
Star? eet's got new orders for you. This is top priority.
They need the fastest ship in the fleet and the best people.
That is you.
If time was so important,
why didn't they transmit the orders by subspace?
Well, they're worried about Romulan eavesdropping on this one.
And we have a passenger for you.
Kind of hard to send by subspace.
- What sort of passenger? DeSOTO: Mission specialist.
He'll bring your orders aboard with him.
His name is Tam Elbrun.
As in Tam Elbrun of the Ghorusda disaster?
The same.
What can I say?
Your orders are to cooperate fully with him.
Best of luck, folks.
Hood out.
Sir, the Hood is slowing to impulse.
Mr. Data, come with me.
Captain, may I come with you to greet Tam?
- You know him? - I do.
He was at the university on Betazed when I was studying psychology there.
Oh, I see, he was a colleague of yours?
No.
He was a patient.
PICARD: Space, the final frontier.
These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.
Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds,
to seek out new life and new civilizations,
to boldly go where no one has gone before.
Tam is a telepath of extraordinary talent,
even for a Betazoid.
He's a specialist in first contact with new life forms.
He's a very unique person,
but he's not what you might expect, captain.
Welcome aboard the Enterprise. I'm Captain—
Captain Picard.
Right?
Here.
You wanna know all about your mission.
Everything's on there.
Orders and briefings, destination and heading, all that.
Dee, I sensed you were out here.
- How have you been? - I've been fine,
- but I thought you were on Chandra V. - Thought you were on Chandra V.
DATA: Sir.
Who—?
What are you?
I am Data, an android.
Incredible. An android.
I can't read you at all. It's like you're not there.
PICARD: Data.
Oh, you better hurry up to the Bridge with that.
Captain wants you to run the orders, scan the technical schematics,
and be ready to brief him in ten minutes.
Right?
- Number One? RIKER [OVER COM]: Riker here.
Meet Commander Data on the Bridge. He has our orders and new heading.
RIKER: Aye, sir.
And assemble the Bridge staff for a mission briefing in 15 minutes.
Picard out.
- Mr. Elbrun, would you—? - Would I care to see my quarters? No.
I'd rather get this briefing over with,
then be left alone until I'm needed.
LA FORGE: I've heard something about Ghorusda.
- Weren't there about 40 people killed? - Forty-seven.
Including the captain of the Ade/phi,
two friends from my class at the Academy.
LA FORGE: Hmm, sorry.
Main Bridge.
So, what happened?
It was a first-contact situation.
Ghorusdan culture is so complex and different
that the Federation sent a specialist
to prevent misunderstanding.
So that was Tam Elbrun. What happened was his fault?
Not directly.
Board of Inquiry blamed Darson
for carelessness about Ghorusdan cultural taboos.
But if Elbrun was so good, why didn't he warn Darson'?
What was he doing there if he couldn't sense that much hostility?
Our destination is the Beta Stromgren system,
following the path of the Vega IX probe.
That's 23 parsecs beyond our furthest manned explorations.
That is correct, commander.
Apparently the probe has discovered—
[COMPUTER BEEPING]
Astonishing.
DATA: Our orders are to proceed to this star, Beta Stromgren.
Scientists have discovered it is in the final stages
of an alternating cycle of expansion and collapse
and will soon result in a supernova.
However, the unmanned long-range space probe sent by Starfleet
to observe the process has discovered something much more.
Oh, Data, don't waste time.
They call it Tin Man.
The Vega Probe found it orbiting Stromgren.
Looks like some kind of ship.
Its energy source is unknown.
The people who've studied the transmissions think it's a starship,
and they're sure it's alive.
Alive? How?
LA FORGE: Cybernetic organism, like the Borg.
No, no, no. Here.
Starfleet believes it's an organic creature
born in space.
Living its life in the wastes between the stars.
No one knows where it came from or why it's here.
But we're going to meet it, and we're going to talk to it.
I'm gonna talk to it.
Have attempts been made—?
TAM: To communicate with it by subspace.
Of course, lingua code, universal translation, all that.
It won't work. Tin Man is too different.
Direct mind-to-mind contact is our only hope.
The opportunity for discovery is extraordinary,
but I don't understand Starfleet's urgency.
Romulans.
Oh, hell, I forgot. The Romulans.
They claim that sector of space where Beta Stromgren is located.
The Romulans claim all that is in their field of vision.
They routinely monitor the telemetry of our deep-space probes.
They will certainly be sending a ship of their own to investigate this Tin Man.
No. Actually, they're sending two.
- Data. - That is correct.
Starbase 123 has detected two D'daridex-class cruisers
on an intercept course.
The top speed of this class cruiser is known to be less than ours.
Therefore, we do have some advantage.
[SIGHS]
Then it's a race.
An alien intelligence, a new life form
representing a technology far beyond either the Romulans or ourselves.
The Romulans will certainly take whatever measures are required
to secure this creature for study.
Study as in dissecting, I'd bet.
Mr. Data, you are our resident honor student in exobiology.
I'm assigning you to head up the life sciences on this mission.
- Aye, sir. - Excellent.
Meeting adjourned, then.
So, Data, I guess you're the brains of this outfit, huh?
Mr. Elbrun, one of the reasons I'm asking you to work closely
with a member of my staff is to avoid further omissions.
The possibility of an encounter with the Romulans
on this mission is hardly trivial.
- And yet— - All right, all right.
I should have brought up the Romulans earlier,
but I was distracted.
And no, Billy boy, I wasn't distracted on Ghorusda.
If Darson had listened to me, no one would have died.
No?
I don't care whether you believe that or not.
PICARD: Captain's log, supplemental.
Traveling at high warp, we are still several days
from rendezvous with the mysterious entity
which Starfleet has christened Tin Man.
My immediate concern is with Tarn Elbrun.
Starfleet considers his unique abilities crucial to our mission,
yet he seems to me unstable.
Well, according to his medical records and psych profile,
he's very high on the ESP scale.
A sort of prodigy.
A prodigy? In what sense?
Well, in most Betazoids,
our telepathic gifts develop at adolescence.
You mean you're not born reading minds?
No.
Except for some reason that no one understands,
occasionally a Betazoid child is born different.
How different?
Born with his telepathic abilities switched on.
Most Betazoids born like that never lead a normal life.
The noise of other people's thoughts and feelings must be overwhelming.
Incomprehensible, especially to a child.
And painful.
Early diagnosis and special training did help Tam adjust,
but he has some problems.
You mentioned a hospitalization.
For stress. Repeatedly, throughout his life.
I always wonder, what holds one person together
through that kind of struggle while another goes under?
Yes, well, he's evidently done more than hold together.
He's the indispensable man.
The Federation's finest specialist in communication
with unknown life forms.
The more unusual the life form, the better he likes it.
His personnel file shows he's gravitated towards assignments
that isolate him from other humanoids.
[COMPUTER BEEPING]
Commander Data,
I'm picking up an unusual echo on my navigational sensors.
Something is out there, sir,
tracking us, matching our speed and heading.
Something which does not fully register on our instruments.
Since there is no known natural phenomenon
capable of travel at warp velocity, there are but two possibilities.
Either it is a sensor malfunction or another ship is following us covertly.
It is not a sensor malfunction.
Agreed.
WESLEY: But, commander, if it is a Romulan ship,
with their cloaking device, we shouldn't pick them up at all.
Unless they're pulling so much power
for something else that they can't fully cloak.
Like what?
Ask the Romulans, if it is the Romulans.
Lieutenant, continue monitoring the precise position of the echo.
Any sudden change in its behavior, initiate yellow alert.
Aye, sir.
[DOORBELL CHIMES]
TAM: Come in.
How are things in the land of the living?
I thought you might be lonely.
- No one sees you except Data. - Lonely?
I can hear everything that everyone on this ship thinks.
And no one besides you seems to be missing my charming—
You want them to dislike you. Why?
Because I'm not a nice man.
Okay, okay.
Because they scare me.
Too many minds.
I can't shut them out. Never could learn.
All their loves, their hates, their fears, their needs.
It's like a tide that never ebbs.
I could drown.
I remember.
You understood
at least a little how I felt.
I see you finally found a place to fit in.
[TAM CHUCKLES]
People to care about.
And you're still looking.
And then there's Ghorusda.
I have enough doubt in my reliability
without having to listen to Riker's and Picard's.
What happened there?
I thought everyone knew.
No.
What happened to you?
Maybe I got too involved with the Ghorusdans,
with their point of view.
It happens to me.
I wanted everyone to get along.
I could have warned Darson more forcefully.
So after that, you ran away?
The last I heard,
you were the only Federation delegate assigned to Chandra V.
Oh, beautiful creatures, the Chandrans.
Their minds are glacial.
They have a lovely three-day ritual for saying hello.
Peaceful, untroubled people.
Unlike humanoids?
Well, except for your friend Data.
I like him.
He's restful.
I believe your impression of Data is probably unique.
[CHUCKLES]
Yeah.
Well, having to get to know someone, just once, has its appeal.
I mean, talking to them,
instead of getting it all at once up here, whether I want it or not.
But you accepted this mission.
You could have stayed on Chandra V.
You willingly came aboard a ship with over a thousand people.
How could I not? Think of it, Dee.
This intelligence
that swims naked through space like a fish in the sea,
totally alien. Mysterious.
Not like us at all.
Ancient.
And alone.
So lonely for so long.
How can you know that?
Tam?
You're in contact with it.
- With Tin Man, aren't you? - No.
Well...
Yes, a little.
But not quite on a conscious level.
We're light years away.
That's impossible, even for you.
Impossible for me.
Maybe not impossible for Tin Man.
Status report, Number One.
We've reached the outer regions of the Beta Stromgren system,
on course for orbital intercept of the Tin Man, ETA, 18 minutes.
- Grand. RIKER: Not altogether.
Astrophysics reports that the rate of the star's collapse has increased.
It could go supernova in a few days.
DATA: Captain, we are receiving relayed sensor data
from the Vega Probe, including visuals.
On-screen.
Magnify.
Remarkable.
Computer, locate Tarn Elbrun.
COMPUTER: Tam Elbrun is in Turbolift 1,
en route to the Main Bridge.
Of course.
[COMPUTER BEEPING]
WORF: Captain, our sensors are detecting a subspace wave front
of highly ionized particles preceding the object which is tracking us.
Yellow alert. On-screen.
Romulan warbird closing.
They are arming main disruptors, captain.
Go to Red Alert, shields to maximum.
Arm photon torpedoes and stand by, Mr. Worf.
Aye, sir.
I thought you said the Enterprise was faster than this Romulan.
In fact, we are, commander.
Evasive, Mr. Crusher. Hailing frequencies.
I guarantee that they don't wanna talk to you, captain.
The Romulan has passed us.
Damage report.
Casualties reported. Seventy percent loss to the shields.
Their attack on us was incidental, captain.
- Incidental? - Yes, to delay us.
Captain, it would appear the Romulans' intent
is to contact Tin Man first at any cost.
According to my sensor readings,
the warbird has exceeded maximum engine output by 30 percent.
They seem to have irreparable damage to their warp coils.
So they kept up with us by sacrificing their ability
to reenter Romulan space.
One-way trip.
There is one more trailing us, captain.
A day or two behind.
Data's right. This one's job is to beat us to Tin Man at any cost.
You read all this telepathically?
In the mind of the Romulan commander,
during the attack.
Very well, Mr. Crusher, all stop.
- Aye, sir. - Commander La Forge.
LA FORGE [OVER COM]: La Forge here.
Geordi, how long to full shield restoration?
I'm working on it.
Computer, reconfigure structural integrity power
to feed inner deflector grid.
COMPUTER: Unable to comply.
Requested reroute
would compromise operational safety limits.
To hell with the limits. Override. Authorization La Forge Theta 2997.
COMPUTER: Rerouting structural integrity power supply.
Russell, watch the lateral grid balance.
No, no, that's too much. We'll have to do it manually.
- La Forge to Bridge. PICARD [OVER COM]: Go ahead.
Captain, I'm trying to feed the inner grid
by stealing power from the structural integrity field.
You should have partial shielding in about 30 minutes.
PICARD: You have ten. Picard out.
[SIGHS]
If the Romulans wish the honor of first contact, let them have it.
You're out of your mind, Picard.
What if the Romulans find a way to persuade Tin Man—?
PICARD: I think the chance of that is remote.
And if you will be still, Mr. Elbrun, you may learn—
What?
That being first at any cost is not always the point.
Mr. Data, while we await repairs, I want Life Sciences and Engineering
to continue collecting information on the alien.
And query the Vega IX probe, long-range sensors.
Aye, sir.
- You do a lot of your work here? - Yes.
I have configured these instruments to display information
with greater speed and efficiency than stations used by the others.
Nice.
A little Spartan.
Spartan?
Lots of work space, not much room to live.
I don't guess you sleep.
I have tried it from time to time, but you are correct.
I do not require rest.
But you paint.
The creature's anatomy appears most peculiar.
In what way?
It is indeed laid out as a vessel,
with what appear to be chambers and corridors.
An internal environment suitable for carbon-based life forms
is being maintained,
yet there is no evidence of a crew aboard.
Tin Man is a living being, which has been bred,
or has adapted itself, to serve a purpose.
I find that interesting.
Why?
Must living beings have a purpose?
Or do we exist for no reason but to exist?
I do not believe I am qualified to express an opinion.
Oh, Data, you're uniquely qualified.
You think a great deal about humanity.
And you're an honest researcher.
You don't treat anything as trivial or irrelevant.
You wanna try it all.
You said in the transporter room that you could not read my mind.
True enough.
But I think I understand you pretty well.
It worries you that I can't read your mind?
Perhaps there is nothing to read.
Nothing more than mechanisms and algorithmic responses.
Perhaps you're just different.
It's not a sin, you know.
Though you may have heard otherwise.
Captain, the Romulan ship is hailing the alien
using their equivalent of lingua code.
- Response? DATA: Nothing so far, commander.
TAM: Why should it answer?
What could it possibly have in common with them?
But you're so sure it'll talk to you.
Captain, the Romulans are arming all disruptors.
Yellow alert. Prepare for evasive action
at the first change in the Romulans' course.
RIKER: With shields in position, we— - No! No!
We're not the target.
It's Tin Man.
What do you mean?
They intend to destroy it?
Those are their orders if they can't secure the alien.
Increase speed to intercept the Romulan vessel.
Their lead is too great, sir.
- Hail them. We cannot allow them to— - They won't listen to you!
Danger. Gomtuu.
Do not allow.
[BOTH GRUNT]
[ALARM WAILING]
PICARD: Damage report.
Nothing available yet, sir.
We have partial failure of the main computer.
It seems you woke your Tin Man.
We've got impulse power, but I've got to take the warp engines off-line
while we recalibrate the regulators.
- How long? - Everything or just warp engines?
RIKER: All of it.
LA FORGE: We're looking at 20 hours' work, double shifts.
RIKER: We don't know that we have 20 hours.
That star could explode at any moment.
I know.
Okay, first thing we need to do is get the main computer working right.
No, we fix the shields first.
Commander, whatever Tin Man hit us with,
it fried circuits I thought were unfryable.
I'm not worried about Tin Man, it's more Romulans showing up.
Right. First priority, get the shields up.
Only let's not have any more surprises until I'm done, okay?
Don't ask me about surprises. Ask Tam Elbrun.
Your brain activity suggests you're coming out
of some sort of a fugue or seizure.
Your blood pressure and glucose
are indicative of general systemic stress.
- But I'm gonna live? - No doubt about it.
Good.
Because I want to know exactly what you did.
I want to know how closely you're in communication
with this alien and what you've learned from it, and I want to know now.
[STAMMERS]
I just warned it, that's all.
I've been in contact with it, sensing impressions from it.
It calls itself Gomtuu.
It's old, captain.
It's roamed the universe for many thousands of years.
- Where did it come from? How ma—? - Far away.
Maybe beyond the galaxy.
Once, there were millions of them.
PICARD: Once?
It hasn't seen another of its kind for millennia.
It's alone.
It may be the last of its species.
Perhaps we can help it in some way.
Can you ask it to return with us to Federation space?
At least persuade it to leave the vicinity of Beta Stromgren
before the star explodes?
Captain, Gomtuu knows the star will go nova soon.
That's why it's here.
It wants to die.
There was an explosion in space.
Radiation penetrating the outer layers.
The crew...
[GASPS]
The crew died.
Such loss.
Empty pain, hollowness.
Tarn! Stop this.
You're losing yourself in this merging.
TAM: I know. I know.
Tin Man hurts and wants to die.
I can't do any more from out here.
If you want me to really reach Tin Man, I have got to be in physical contact.
I have got to go aboard.
No, that is absolutely out of the question.
You don't trust me.
No, Tam, I don't believe that I do.
Tarn,
when you reached out to the alien to warn it,
did you give any thought to this vessel?
To the danger, however inadvertent, that creature might pose to our crew?
Or did you simply react out of instinct?
- Captain— - Deanna.
He's right.
I don't know. I don't know what might happen.
But if you don't let me go, we fail our mission.
Besides, at this point, you need all the help you can get.
Even Tin Man's.
Russell, reactivate the sensor assemblies.
Okay, let's do a program reload, port array only.
Good. That's good.
Computer, run a level-two diagnostic.
COMPUTER: Port sensor array remains off-line.
Damn.
RIKER [OVER COM]: Riker to La Forge. How's it coming?
Not good. I think all the control processors are shot.
But maybe if I swap the chips from the secondary array,
I can give you a minimum EM scan.
RIKER: Do it.
Okay, Russell, we're gonna try starting retro sensor element 32 only.
You in?
Go.
[WHISTLES]
The good news is we have partial long-range sensors.
- La Forge to Bridge. RIKER: Riker here.
I'm picking up another echo on the long-range sensor display.
- You reading that on your panel? - Worf?
One moment, commander.
Confirmed.
Sir, the other Romulan ship, on an intercept course.
Are we gonna have those shields any time soon?
LA FORGE [OVER COM]: I'm doing the best I can.
But shields won't help if that star explodes.
Data, you seem to have developed an affinity with Elbrun.
Troi, you've known him for years.
How far can he be trusted?
Captain, the issue isn't one of trust in Tam's intentions
but in his judgment.
I would trust him to do what he believes is right.
Yes, of course.
- But his judgment— TROI: ls precarious.
The stress of exposure to so many minds
on the ship is bad enough.
Now he's strongly drawn to this creature.
I'm afraid for him.
Afraid of what?
I sense that the alien is somehow calling him.
If we allow him to do as he insists, to beam over,
I believe that we will lose him to it.
That he will lose himself.
Captain, I agree that Tam's motives are trustworthy.
And I do not believe it is possible that he will act against us
or will cause Tin Man to act against us out of malice.
Captain, if Tam breaks down over there,
we'll be no closer to accomplishing our mission.
It would be a grave mistake.
Thank you both.
Data.
I am puzzled, sir.
We have come this far.
Are you not going to allow Tam to fulfill his mission?
Tarn Elbrun warned Tin Man.
The first thing it did was to destroy a space vessel.
I believe I understand, sir.
If you feel the risk is too great to send Tam Elbrun alone,
then send me with him.
Counselor Troi understands him better.
But he is more comfortable with me, sir.
It is humanity he is fleeing.
Sir, I could serve as an intermediary, a bridge back,
a reminder of his obligation both to us and to Tin Man.
Captain, the Romulan has uncloaked.
- Status, Number One? - Shields are at 40 percent.
We can maneuver on impulse, sir.
Phasers available on manual, sir. Computer target lock not functioning.
Well, let's hope they're in a mood to talk.
- Hailing frequency. - Open.
Romulan vessel,
this is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise.
Enterprise, your presence here is a violation of Romulan space.
You will leave immediately.
We are not familiar with the terms of your claim on this sector.
We are here engaged in scientific research.
Do you wish to participate?
We have monitored the destruction of our sister ship by the star creature.
We claim right of vengeance.
We will destroy the alien.
If you interfere, we will destroy you as well.
PICARD: Captain's log, supplemental.
A confrontation between the Romulan warbird
and Tin Man is imminent.
I have no alternative
but to rely on the telepathic abilities of Tam Elbrun.
- Picard to Tam Elbrun. TAM [OVER COM]: Captain?
Report to Transporter Room 6 immediately.
Captain, I don't—
Commander Data will meet you there.
TAM: Yes, captain.
Counselor, we no longer have a choice.
[TAM GASPS]
No, no, too much.
- Too much. - Tam?
I can't.
Data to Enterprise. Enterprise, come in.
No, no, don't.
If it is harming you, we must return.
Enterprise, respond.
No, it's all right. It's all right now, it's all right.
Gomtuu is trying to communicate a lifetime of experiences to me
in a few seconds.
But I'm all right now.
[CHUCKLES]
- O'Brien to Bridge. PICARD [OVER COM]: Go ahead.
I've lost the transporter lock on them.
[OVER COM] Some kind of force field went up.
Confirmed. The alien has thrown up a shield.
It is blocking all our sensors.
[BEEPING]
Captain,
the Romulans' weapons systems are now at full power.
PICARD: Follow them in, Mr. Crusher.
Red alert. Mr. Worf, arm photon torpedoes.
Aye, sir.
[CHUCKLES]
Yes.
There is a large chamber 20 meters ahead.
I know.
I know everything now.
Come on.
Intriguing.
This is the control center,
where Gomtuu's crew guided their journeys.
The ship and the crew existed symbiotically.
They needed one another.
When Gomtuu had no one left to care for,
it no longer had a reason to exist.
Is that the purpose of existence?
To care for someone?
It is for me.
Deanna was right.
I'll lose myself here.
[RUMBLING]
I must remind you that our objective is to bring Tin Man out of danger
and report our findings to Starfleet.
I'm not going back, Data.
I'm staying here.
[BEEPING]
WORF: Sir, the Romulans are hailing us.
Captain Picard, if you interfere with us, we will fire upon you as well.
Commander, we are prepared to defend the life of the alien.
Screen off, shields up.
Power levels aboard the alien are increasing, sir.
Captain, the diameter of the star has been decreased
by 100,000 kilometers.
It's beginning.
Explain to them. Make them understand.
- But our mission— - Is to save Tin Man, and I will.
But he's going to save me as well.
All my life, I've waited for this.
A chance to find peace.
Finally, all the voices are silent.
Only Tin Man speaks to me now.
Don't you see, Data?
This is where I belong.
That star's gonna go any minute, sir.
The Romulans know that as well as we do.
The power levels aboard Tin Man
are increasing beyond our sensor range.
Conn, report.
Dead stop, captain.
Sir, we've been thrown clear of Beta Stromgren.
A distance of 3.8 billion kilometers.
There is no sign of Tin Man or the Romulans, sir.
[COMPUTER BEEPING]
Captain, on-screen.
Data.
[DOOR OPENS]
DATA: Sir?
Data, what happened over there?
Difficult to explain, sir.
Tam?
I believe he found what he was looking for, counselor.
PICARD: Captain's log, supplemental.
With all main systems at least temporarily restored,
we are proceeding to Starbase 152 for inspection and additional repairs.
We've had no further encounter with the Romulans.
As for the whereabouts of Tin Man and Tarn Elbrun,
we can only speculate.
TROI: You sent for me?
Yes, counselor.
It was Tam's final request that I explain his decision to the crew.
But I believe it was his hope that you would understand.
What did happen?
I witnessed something remarkable.
Individually, they were both so...
Wounded?
Isolated.
Yes.
But no longer.
Through joining,
they have been healed.
Grief has been transmuted to joy,
loneliness to belonging.
Data,
you do understand.
Yes, counselor.
When Tin Man returned me to the Enterprise,
I realized this is where I belong.