Stardate 47622.1: The unexpected suicide of promising young Lieutenant Daniel Kwan in the plasma stream of the warp nacelle is baffling to all those who knew him. When Counselor Troi visits the site and stands in front of the plasma stream, she is overwhelmed with panic and fear, and she suddenly has a flashback of the time the Enterprise was being built at Utopia Planitia. Deanna further investigates the suicide and comes to the conclusion that Walter Pierce, an engineer working at Utopia Planitia who is on the Enterprise now, found his lover Marla Finn embracing another man and killed her. Marla Finn's remains are found behind a panel inside the nacelle. As she is working with Worf on the case, the two end up in Deanna's bed. Deanna, however, finds out that Worf also dates Ensign Calloway, who was Kwan's girl-friend. She kills Worf with a phaser, rushes to the nacelle and is about to jump into the plasma stream just like Kwan. Worf can hold her back, telling Deanna that everything she experienced since she first looked into the nacelle never happened. It turns out that Pierce indeed killed Marla Finn and also her lover, and that he subsequently committed suicide by jumping into the plasma stream. Being partially empathic, Pierce's experience was imprinted into the bulkhead. Kwan, who is also empathic, acted out that experience, and Deanna almost met the same fate.

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