'Force of Nature' (Story Code 261) by Naren Shankar

Searching for the U.S.S. Fleming , a missing medical transport ship, the U.S.S. Enterprise crew in vestiges the Hekaras Corridor, a safe route through an area of space filled with tetryon particles, which interfere with warp drives. The one inhabited planet in the region has not seen the Fleming, but has seen a Ferengi ship, news that prompts Doctor Crusher to suggest that the missing vessel was hijacked for its supply of valuable bio-mimetic gel. The Enterprise locates the Ferengi ship, quickly disabling it when it opens fire; Captain Picard contacts the Ferengi commander, Daimon Prak, and learns that his ship was disabled after encountering what appeared to be a Federation signal buoy, which emitted a verteron pulse that caused a power loss. Prak admits to having seen the Fleming, but refuses to divulge its location unless Picard sends his engineers to repair his vessel. Picard agrees, and it is not long before the Enterprise is on course for a debris field; however, the ship then meets a small object that emits a verteron pulse; the vessel’s subspace systems are disabled, and then two aliens beam aboard and introduce themselves as Doctors Rabal and Serova, brother and sister. They tell Picard that, according to their research, the continual use of warp fields in the area is causing subspace rifts, which will soon destroy their planet, Hekaras Two; the two doctors have been disabling warp-drive ships in the hope of forcing Starfleet to investigate, and are so desperate that they are willing to give up the use of warp drive and effectively isolate their planet from the rest of the Federation. Picard instructs Lieutenant Commander Data to determine the validity of their claims, and insists that the two doctors disable the mines; the android finds that their theory could be valid, and asks the captain to refer the matter to the science council for further study. But Serova merely sees this as a stalling tactic; she heads off in her spacecraft and deliberately causes a warp-core breach - destroying herself, and creating a deadly rift in the process.

Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander William Thomas Riker), LeVar Burton (Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Security Chief Lieutenant Worf), Gates McFadden (Doctor Beverly Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Councelor Deanna Troi), Brent Spiner (Lieutenant Commander Data), Michael Corbett (Rabal), Margaret Reed (Serova), Lee Arenberg (Prak), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

Directed by Robert Lederman
Produced by Ronald D. Moore and Peter Lauritson
Co-Produced by Brannon Braga
Executive Producers Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller and Rick Berman

TX:
15th November, 1993

Notes:
*Featuring Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Commander William Thomas Riker, Chief Engineer Lieutenant Geordi La Forge, Security Chief Lieutenant Worf, Doctor Beverly Crusher, Councelor Deanna Troi and Lieutenant Commander Data