- Near the Romulan Neutral Zone and Lysian territory.
- On the USS Birnam, near the Romulan Neutral Zone and Lysian territory.
Summary:
- 2393.05.23:
Having had his memories altered by the Ullian telepath Dobin, Captain Torn believed that the Lysians were an enemy of the Federation. Under the assumption that all of his crew had been influenced by Lysian mind control, the Captain ordered his senior officers (except of course the Away Team on the Birnam) to report to the conference room, where Dobin would 'liberate' their minds. As soon as everyone had assembled and Dobin started to put false memories in the minds of the senior staff, Lieutenant Jomorr and Ensign Quinto noticed what Dobin was doing -- Jomorr noticed because he was a Ullian telepath himself, and Quinto figured it out because his brain damage prevented Dobin from accurately tinkering with his mind. Realising that Captain Torn was already completely under Dobin's influence, Jomorr and Quinto did the only thing they could: they ran.
The rest of the senior crew was already in Dobin's iron grip: their memories were being altered, and soon they, too, believed that the Lysian Central Command had to be destroyed in order to save the Federation. Nothing appeared to stand in the way of the Atlantis completing the mission the Birnam had started -- except, maybe, Jomorr and Quinto, who, having fled to the science labs, found in Ensign Sorek (who had not been at the meeting) a kindred spirit. Together, the three of them concentrated on a way to prevent the Atlantis from ever reaching the Lysian Central Command.
On board the Birnam, meanwhile, the Away Team had figured out that something was wrong. The Atlantis had jumped to warp, leaving their officers on the Birnam behind. ACEO Conners had a plan to get the Birnam's warp engines back on line while at the same time tricking the computer into locking the Birnam's crew out of their own systems, but he couldn't make the necessary modifications with the entire Birnam security department, led by Lieutenant McKnight, watching him carefully.
In an attempt to create a diversion, Commander Velden and Doctor O'Gallagher accessed one of the neurogenic field generators with which the Birnam crew had previously been brainwashed, and programmed it to transmit a single thought to everyone in the engine room: the thought of Starfleet troops attempting to take over the Birnam from the shuttle bay. Hopefully, that would make the Birnam security teams run towards the shuttle bay instead of standing guard in Engineering.
Unfortunately, the implanted thought affected the Atlantis security teams stationed in the Birnam's Engineering as well. They grew overconfident, which made the Birnam security teams even more nervous. Within seconds, the two sides were once again aiming weapons at each other. In the end, Commander Velden managed to convince Lieutenant McKnight, STC of the Birnam, to lay down their weapons. As the Atlantis security officers took the Birnam security teams away to lock them up in the mess hall, Commander Velden learned that Conners' modifications had been completed. The situation wasn't looking so bleak any more.
On the Atlantis, however, things were looking more grim, as two-thirds of the crew assembled in Shuttle Bay One at 2300 hours, as ordered by Captain Torn. There, Dobin placed false memories in the minds of everyone present. Now, most of the Atlantis crew is convinced of the Lysian threat -- they believe that destroying the Lysian Central Command is critical to the survival of the Federation, and they will not abort their mission for anything or anyone. Will the Away Team on the Birnam get to the Atlantis in time to stop them? Or does all hope lie with the attaché to the Ambassador, Demetrius, who has managed to escape Dobin's mind control? But even if he meets up with Sorek, Quinto and Jomorr, what can the four of them do to stop an entire Starship?
