Attached
Taking breakfast with Beverly, captain Picard expresses concern about the application from the planet Kesprytt for just one of its two peoples - the Kes - to join the Federation, arguing that all previously invited worlds have been unified, so already demonstrating their will for harmony.
	Beverly recognises the Prytts' right of independence before promising Jean-Luc a Vulcan dish for tomorrow's breakfast after their visit to the planet.
Worf beams the Enterprise duo to the Kes co-ordinates, but they do not appear. Instead, Beverly and Jean-Luc wake up as prisoners in a Prytt cell, accused of conspiring a military alliance with the Kes enemy. Beverly notices they have been fitted with neck implants, which the Prytt tell them are interrogation-facilitating devices connected to their cerebral cortexes.
		Upon receipt of "lunch" from a Prytt guard (actually a Kes secret agent operating as a Prytt guard) Beverly and Jean-Luc find themselves back in possession of Beverly's tricorder, now updated with an escape route.
	Beverly is not too keen on heights.
Kes ambassador Mauric advises Riker that diplomacy with the Prytt "fanatical xenophobes" is not an option, whilst himself demonstrating paranoid fear over communications security, even on the Enterprise.
		As they follow their escape route, Beverly and Jean-Luc start picking up each other's thoughts more and more as the implants take effect.
	Separation from each other quickly induces nausea, so they "are stuck with each other", despite the increasingly unguarded and personal nature of their exchanges.
		Beverly tries to disguise an emotional embarrassment.
When captain Picard and doctor Crusher do not show up at the Kes rendezvous point, Mauric becomes suspicious that the Federation representatives are secretly meeting the Prytt to form a military alliance against the Kes.

Having taken their own route to avoid being picked up by a Prytt armed search gang, Beverly and Jean-Luc settle down for the night. After a revealing thought read by Beverly about their breakfasts, Jean-Luc's feelings towards Beverly flow out round their camp fire.

Increasingly irritated by the lack of communication and trust between the Kes and Prytt, Riker beams Prytt minister Loric onto the Enterprise to speak directly to Mauric. Both sides continue to believe that the Federation is forming a secret military alliance with the other side.

Riker leaves them in no doubt that the Kes will in no way be recommended into the Federation, and that if the Prytt capture the Federation officers they will be most thoroughly investigated by nosy Starfleet teams.

Beverly and Jean-Luc are caught at the Kes-Prytt border, with Beverly still inside the Prytt territorial force-shield. Loric permits Beverly to be transported back to the Enterprise with Picard.

With the implants removed, Beverly and Jean-Luc have a romantic candle-lit supper with wine in Picard's quarters. Now it's Beverly's turn to avoid the complications of high ranking romance.

home