Home Soil - Plot

Plot

The Federation starship Enterprise arrives at the terraforming colony on Velara III, as the project is behind schedule. The director, Kurt Mandl, insists they are on time and there is no need for the Enterprise to stay any longer, but Captain Picard orders an away team to review the project. While the away team is present, one of Mandl's team is killed by a malfunction drilling laser. During Commander Data's inspection of the instrument, it begins to fire, but he escapes harm by rendering the instrument harmless. The investigation finds something has rewritten the programming of the laser to fire upon the terraforming staff. Investigation of the drilling holes reveal a crystal giving off irregular light and radiation patterns. It is brought aboard the Enterprise to study, while Picard orders a halt to the rest of the terraforming activities.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Crusher and Data discover the crystalline form has many of the features of life, including response to stimulus and the ability to reproduce. The crystal life form, made from several metals, attempts to interact with the Enterprise computers, and it is quickly placed into a containment force field while the crew continue their studies. The crystal begins to grow rapidly, gains access to the computer's translation program, and begins to communicate with the crew. It is clear that the crystalline life form sees the humans as an enemy in a war. Picard discovers that Mandl and his team had encountered the crystals before, and though they had considered the possibility of it being a life form, Mandl insisted on continuing the terraforming process. The crystal life form only began its attack, rewriting the laser's software, after the drilling process removed a saline water layer from the water table which seemed to act as a conductor, allowing many separate crystals to function as one life form (rather like an ant colony). Data suggests the saline water layer might have been what linked the crystal life forms together. Individually, a single brain cell is not intelligent, but when linked to others, their intelligence was formidable. The saline fluid is their circuitry, and to prevent its loss, it drove them to kill the humans who were siphoning off their means of performing their basic tasks which required intelligence and connectivity.

The crystalline life form begins to access higher-level functions of the computer, and Picard and the crew seek ways to remove it to the surface, as the crystal has blocked attempts to transport it down. Data and Lt. LaForge recognize that the crystal has photoelectric properties due to the presence of Cadmium and disable the lights to the medical lab. The crystal immediately begs for life. Picard peacefully negotiates with the crystal life form to return it to the surface, where Starfleet will abandon the terraforming process and quarantine the planet, leaving the life form to continue to grow in peace.