Aquiel

Summer has officially ended today and school starts in full swing tomorrow morning. I am very scared about the 5:30 am wake up that I have planned for tomorrow, especially because I woke up today at nearly 11am! YIKES. It is going to be culture shock central at the Olson house tomorrow morning and it will be even worse because I have given up coffee and soda. Basically this means no wake up aid for me. With a weekend of food and drinking it goes without saying that I am up a few pounds from the other week but I am totally committed to getting back to my sub 200 weight.

Elliptical Machine: Calories-627, Miles- 3.37

Aquiel

The Enterprise has been sent to investigate the sudden loss of communication to a Federation communications station near the Klingon border. Upon beam down the only thing living at the station is a dog that was apparently one of the crew members pet. The station only had a crew of two, Lt. Aquiel Uhnari and Lt. Rocha. On the station Dr. Crusher finds some cellular residue on the floor boards and she brings it over to the Enterprise for analysis. The stations shuttle craft is missing and the investigation begins. LaForge begins looking through the station logs and Aquiel’s personal logs. He finds information linking problems to a Klingon patrol ship that has been harassing the station for the past few weeks. Picard contacts the Klingons who are initially unwilling to help but Picard plays the Gowron card and gets their support. The Klingons reveal that they did not kill Aquiel because they have her in custody for entering their space. For Federation members it is odd that the Klingons are so uncooperative with the matters of the investigation. Aquiel now on board the Enterprise has a pretty weak story which centers on her “not remembering what happened.” Riker and Picard continue investigating the whole thing and find that Aquiel had several issues with the newly assigned Lt. Rocha and that she appeared to possibly have a motive to kill him before leaving the station. LaForge continues working with Aquiel to figure out what happened but he has developed a very close personal and physical relationship with her which clouds his judgment. Meanwhile Crusher finally analyzes the cellular reside from the floor boards and it has some strange properties. It mimics the exact shape of her hand and she deduces that it is a coalescent organism that inhabits a being for it to survive. It is unclear if the organism is now the Klingon or Aquiel. While in the middle of a ritual mind meeting between LaForge and Aquiel, Riker interrupts and separates the two to save his life. While relaxing in his quarters with the dog we learn that the coalescent life form is currently the dog and LaForge destroys it. Aquiel turns out to be innocent and she heads back to Starfleet for reassignment and the parting between her and LaForge have a bittersweet parting. 

I personally think the episode would have been more interesting if Aquiel had simply been the killer. It would have made the parting between Geordi and Aquiel more disappointing and would have advanced his character in a better way. Plus I think that the whole weird being/the dog is the danger thing was a little far fetched and ridiculous... even for Star Trek. That is just my two cents on the subject.