Stardate 46915.2: Commander Riker is surprised to find a second version of himself on the planet Nervala IV. He visited this planet eight years ago, while still a lieutenant on the Potemkin. When his beam-up through the distortion field that surrounds the planet was about to fail, the transporter chief locked a second beam onto him. When Riker materialized on the Potemkin, no one was aware that the other beam had been reflected by the field, materializing a second Riker on the planet. This Lt. Riker spent eight years on the lonely outpost and has taken a completely different development than Cmdr. Riker - including that Lt. Riker's love to Deanna is still alive. The two can't get along with each other, but they finally work well together to retrieve the last data from the outpost, before the transport window closes for another eight years. Lt. Riker eventually decides to leave for the USS Gandhi and to go by his second name, Thomas.

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