Nantucket Sleighride
| The Vexed Generation | |
| Episode name | Nantucket Sleighride |
|---|---|
| Season | Vexed: Season 1 |
| Episode number | 3 |
| Writer(s) | Anthony Butler |
| Year | 2374 |
| Stardate | |
| {{{image}}} | |
| Chronology | |
| Previous in series | The Road To Nowhere - Pt. 2 |
| Next in series | Wrapped in the Ribbon |
| Previous in timeline | The Road To Nowhere - Pt. 2 |
| Next in timeline | Wrapped in the Ribbon |
Synopsis
With the search for supplies and fuel sources utmost on their minds, the crew of the now stranded USS Aerostar find themselves picking through planets in the Delta quadrant aided and abetted by the now complacent Mirk and his knowledge of the local systems.
Having discovered, tested and discarded a number of D-Cell batteries in their quest for alternate fuel supplies for the ship, they discover a planet which Mirk tells them houses an "a vast and mysterious form of power". Of course, rather than minding their own business, Baxter orders the Aerostar crew to stick their noses in and beam down to the planet in search of this power in the vain hopes it could just possibly send them home. Wrong!
A series of Bio-metric gel packs are filled with a natural biometric plasma discovered on the planet, and in typical starfleet style, are just plugged into the Aerostar's computer networks without so much as a single sensor scan. The gel collected from the planet gains permanent sentience in the ship's computer, turning against the crew of the Aerostar and imprisoning most of the COmmand crew. Richards and Browning escape, heading back to the planet in a runabout to try and discover a way to beat the gel-creature by using it's natural predators against itself.
On the ship, Counsellor Peterman discovers the holographic bartender in a state of dispair, and offers him her professional services to try and perk him up. She results in causing the hologram to permanently delete his program, and in his parting speech he reveals to the startled Counsellor that the crew are "all failures, and you will all die. All at once, or one by one." With the bartender out of commission, Mirk decides to take action, and enlisting Hartley's reluctant assistance, they set out to repair the Aerostar's transporters in an attempt to get to engineering and activate the backup computers.
On the planet, Richards has a close encounter of the sensual kind with what he thinks is Browning in a darkened cave. Sadly, it turns out that the natural predator of the plasma is a shapeshifter which has taken her form and is using a kiss to sap the engineer's life force. Browning awakens in time to sav ehim by trapping the creature in a stasis field devised by the engineer himself. Once the creature is captured, they head back into space, and set course to chase down the Aerostar which had left the system.
On the ship itself, the gel packs reach their destination, opening fire on a clump of asteroids, which quickly shapeshifts into a replica of the Aerostar herself and returns fire, with globs of metamorphic plasma which transform to mimic crewmembers as they attacth to the hull and start to leech power from the real ship. Larkin takes control of the computer systems after Mirk miraculously survives a fall down the warp core to make it to the override controls, and uses the warp engines to flush plasma into space and dislodge the attackers. With the computer disengaged from the main systems, Larkin destroys the fake Aerostar with torpedos and changes heading back to the planet.
On route, they collect Richards, Browning and the re-vitalised and escaped shapeshifter from the shuttle. Having attacked Richards again on the shuttle, the shapeshifter has now taken Browning's form and is actively engaged in a battle royale with the doctor herself. The "Not-Browning"'s presence succeeds in gaining the attention of the gel-pack creatures, who dislodge themselves from the computer proper, and start off for the bridge. Once there, the Shapeshifter and the plasma creature combine to form a new, third creature, which announces that it now has a mission to unite the people of the planet and oozes out the window leaving the crew stunned and silent.
Mirk takes over the bar due to the demise of the holographic bartender, Hartley discovers a love of four legged fluffy companions (Charlie) and Richards and Browning have their first date. The Aerostar flies onward in her quest to find a way home.