Stardate 2821.5: The Enterprise is carrying medical supplies for Makus III when Kirk, against the wishes of High Commissioner Ferris, decides to launch a shuttle to investigate the quasar-like formation of Murasaki 312. The shuttle Galileo with Spock, McCoy, Scott, Yeoman Mears, Boma, Gaetano and Latimer, however, is pulled off course and crashes on a barely inhabitable planet. Moreover, Latimer and some time later Gaetano are killed by indigenous creatures. As the fuel supply is exhausted, Scott has devised a method to use the phasers to power the shuttle. In the meantime, Kirk has to break off the search for the Galileo on Ferris's orders and sets a course to Makus III, albeit at very slow speed. The shuttle lifts off, but the Enterprise's sensors are unable to locate it. In a "logical action of desperation", as he explains it, Spock ignites what little fuel is left as a beacon for the Enterprise crew to see on the screen. The five crew members are rescued just as the shuttle begins to break apart in the planet's atmosphere.

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