Stardate 46071.6: Lumerian ambassador Alkar comes aboard the Enterprise to conduct peace talks between Rekag and Seronia. He is accompanied by his disagreeable mother Maylor, who tells the baffled Deanna not to pursue her son. Maylor dies some time later. Alkar performs what he calls a "funeral ritual" with Deanna, and soon she exhibits a strange behavior and, moreover, begins to age rapidly. Alkar actually uses Troi as a "receptacle" to dump his negative emotions on her, in order to keep his own mind clear for his negotiations. Maylor was not Alkar's mother but just his previous victim. Picard and Beverly fake Deanna's death, so that Alkar would have to seek a new victim among his aides, but they have her beamed out in time. There is no one Alkar could link to. He ages quickly and dies just like his victims.

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