- Noncorporeal aliens inhabit the bodies of Enterprise crew members to study how the crew reacts to a lethal virus infection that has afflicted Trip and Hoshi.
- Trip and Hoshi are returning from a visit to a planet where the Klingons once landed. Nothing interesting could be found, but in the shuttle pod back Trip suddenly starts coughing. A while later he collapses. Dr. Phlox finds out they are infected by a silicon-based virus. He estimates that the pathogen will kill them in five hours. Meanwhile an alien species seems to have taken over Mayweather and Reed. They are discussing the behavior of the Humans. For 10000 years they have been observing the reactions to the viruses to measure the intelligence of the infected species. Will the crew surprise them?—Arnoud Tiele (imdb@tiele.nl)
- Commander Trip and Hoshi are contaminated by a silicon based virus in a planet visited by Klingons and are kept in quarantine by Dr. Phlox. He researches with T'Pol an almost impossible cure since Trip and Hoshi have only five hours. Meanwhile Lieutenant Reed and Ensign Travis are the hosts of two advanced life forms that want to observe the human behavior in the stressed conditions caused by the incurable virus.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Lieutenant Reed (Dominic Keating) and Ensign Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery) play chess while serving as hosts to non-corporeal alien known as Organians. The Organians have taken refuge in Reed and Mayweather's bodies and observe the world from their eyes as they go about their daily duties.
Returning from an away mission on the planet below, Commander Tucker (Connor Trinneer) and Ensign Sato (Linda Park) soon exhibit symptoms of a strange disease. Upon examination by Doctor Phlox (John Billingsley), it is found to be a highly contagious silicon-based virus - which carbon-based physiology cannot counteract. To pass the time, while isolated in Decontamination, Tucker and Sato try to learn more about each other.
The Organians are keenly interested in examining the human response to this crisis, and compare notes to previous reactions by Klingons and Cardassians. One of the Organians comments that the Klingon captain didn't allow his infected crew back on-board, and Archer did something similar as decontamination is completely isolated from the rest of the ship. Cardassians killed their infected crew. They are members of an advanced species looking to make "first contact". For 800 years, the pair have been passively observing various space-faring species as they react to the pathogen, but no species has yet been deemed ready. Seeking a different view of the crew, they variably shift to the bodies of Captain Archer (Scott Bakula), Commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) and Phlox. Archer is determined not to lose his crew, while Phlox works tirelessly to find a cure.
Archer figures out that the Klingons have visited the planet and contacts Starfleet to figure if they found a cure or not. He later find the Klingon shuttle debris around the planet and figures that Klingon blew their cure apart when they found they were infected. The two Organians start to disagree: one seems determined to maintain their non-interference protocol, while the other feels the protocol is outdated and unnecessary. Phlox finds the 2 Organians when he sees Sato and Tucker having the debate in the decontamination.. The Organians meet Phlox as Archer and T'Pol and tell him that they are only there to observe the humans reaction.
With time running out (Tucker and Sato only have 5 hrs to live as the virus is reproducing rapidly), Phlox and T'Pol find a way to disrupt the virus using deadly levels of radiation. Archer and Phlox, while wearing environmental suits, escort Tucker and Sato to Sickbay for treatment. Sato soon goes into cardiac-arrest, and Archer removes his gloves and helmet to assist her (which means he is infected as well), but she cannot be resuscitated. They then administer a dose of radiation to Tucker, but he dies too.
Suddenly, the Organians possess Tucker and Sato, explaining the situation to a surprised Archer, including the unstoppable spread of the infection. Archer pleads on behalf of his crew, pointing out that the Organians have lost empathy, confusing non-intervention after-the-fact with a harmful choice to not post warnings about the virus. They decide to modify their protocol, choosing to resurrect and cure the infected crew members, when they previously would have left the entire crew to die. They erase the encounter from the crew's memory. Archer orders a warning beacon to be placed above the planet, and the Organians leave to begin planning first contact with humans 5,000 years in the future.
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