Vanishing
Point
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| Hoshi
and Trip are surveying some primitive alien ruins, taking pictures
and discussing what might have happened to the people who used to
inhabit the planet. Suddenly, Archer contacts them and asks them
to return immediately to Enterprise a storm is heading their way.
As the duo prepares to board their shuttlepod, Archer contacts them
again: the storm situation is more urgent than he predicted, and
he needs to bring Trip and Hoshi up via the transporter, one at
a time. Hoshi is apprehensive, and insists that Trip go first. Once
he is safely onboard, she beams up. Back on Enterprise, Hoshi feels
strange, but decides that she just needs some rest. Later on, she
joins some of her crewmates for a meal strangely, they seem to be
ignoring her the whole time. Dr. Phlox insists there's nothing wrong
with her, however. The next day, Hoshi is summoned to the bridge
Trip and Mayweather have been taken hostage by aliens while attempting
to retrieve Enterprise's shuttlepod. Archer needs Hoshi to decipher
the aliens' language. Hoshi, however, can't seem to accomplish her
task, and a frustrated Archer sends her back to her quarters and
assigns her duties to Crewman Baird. Later, Hoshi learns that Baird
deciphered the language easily, and the two officers were returned
safe and sound. Also, Hoshi is to remain off-duty for the time being
Baird will assume her responsibilities. Feeling useless, Hoshi begins
to notice more troubling signs: water in the shower seems to pass
right through her, and the turbolift does not respond to her. Also,
she seems to be hearing strange voices. Distressed, Hoshi pays another
visit to Phlox ... who maintains that there's nothing wrong with
her. Still apprehensive, Hoshi heads to the gym to work out. Soon,
however, her hands pass right through the free weights and the doors
will not respond to her. Upon looking in the mirror, Hoshi discovers
that she has become completely transparent. The crew soon discovers
that she is missing and mounts a search. Though she is invisible
to them, Hoshi trails the crew, hoping to somehow send them a message
that she's still alive. The crew, however, determines that Hoshi's
disappearance is, in fact, connected to a transporter snafu apparently,
her molecules are breaking down. In her invisible form, Hoshi also
makes a disturbing discover aliens have infiltrated Enterprise and
are planting explosives that will soon detonate. Desperate, Hoshi
tries to contact the crew, resorting to such tactics as Morse Code.
Nothing seems to work, however. Eventually, Hoshi sees the aliens
heading towards a transporter pad, taking the detonator for the
explosives with them. Quickly determining that the only thing she
can do is follow them, she overcomes her fear and leaps onto the
transporter pad. As she begins to hear voices again, she suddenly
finds herself materializing on Enterprise. The voices belong to
Trip and Reed, who are in the process of beaming her back. The mysterious
aliens have vanished. Reed and Trip inform Hoshi that she was trapped
in the pattern buffer for a few seconds ... leading Hoshi to conclude
that the whole ordeal took place in her head, while she was being
transported from the surface. Relieved, Hoshi gets a quick check-up
from Phlox, and informs Archer that she'll stick to shuttlepods
for the time being. |
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