Vanishing Point ( episode ) Following her first experience with the transporter , an eerie series of events makes Hoshi think she is becoming invisible to the rest of the crew . Summary . Teaser . Hoshi Sato and are on an uninhabited planet , devoid of lifeform s , taking pictures and gathering data from a set of ruins , of which there are many . They wonder what happened to the people that built the ruins , as much of the ruins are intact . They are forced to leave their work abruptly when they learn that a diamagnetic storm is approaching . Before they can reach the , another storm pushes the first one in much faster than expected , so they are forced to use the transporter to return to . They must transport one at a time due to the storm ' s interference . Sato is hesitant to use the transporter and relates her fears of having scrambled molecules to Tucker while they await transport . However , after being reassured over the communicator that Tucker is fine , Sato beams up to the ship , and the transport sequence goes smoothly and without incident . Act One . As it is the first time she has used the transporter , Sato starts to feel that things are not quite right . Fortunately , when she goes to relax and change her uniform in her quarters , the captain gives her the rest of the day off . Later , in the mess hall , some of her fellow crewmembers jokingly tease her , relating the story of Cyrus Ramsey , a man who was lost in an early transporter test and subsequently became the subject of various ghost stories . Despite the obvious familiarity her friends show with the legend ( even Dr . Phlox has heard the stories , after being stationed on Earth for a mere nine months ) , Sato has never heard of Cyrus Ramsey before . Phlox simply suggests she get a good night ' s sleep , dismissing her concern about her birthmark being moved slightly by the transporter . Sato retires to her quarters for the night , hoping to feel better in the morning . She is awakened by an emergency call from T ' Pol and realizes that she has uncharacteristically overslept by three hours and missed the beginning of her shift . When she arrives on the bridge , Captain Archer informs her that Tucker and Travis Mayweather have been taken hostage on the planet by alien s that , somehow , hadn ' t been detected the day before . Sato is suspicious that there is a problem all of a sudden , and that T ' Pol seems to know more about the ruins than she should . Then , the aliens communicate with them , but the universal translator can ' t translate . The crew encourages her to forget the UT and talk to them . She tries , but is not able to be of any help , failing to translate a simple bi - modal syntax . Archer says it ' s all right , but also orders her back to her quarters , putting crewman Baird on the conn . He calls reed to the ready room as she leaves the bridge . Act Two . Sato tries to shake it off , taking a shower . Oddly , she briefly sees her reflection in the mirror fade away , and , in the shower , water appears to drop right through her hands . It passes , but startles her . Her relations with the crew increasingly deteriorate , with crewmembers apparently ignoring her more frequently . In the mess hall , she asks to join T ' Pol at a table , but she doesn ' t hear her – just sees her and asks her to join her . Surprisingly , the hostage situation is already resolved , even though it ' s only been an hour . Baird apparently deciphered the language . Further , Baird is now in charge of communications and Archer has ordered Sato permanently off duty . She ' s devastated . Sato can hardly operate the turbolift s , with other crewmen actually pressing the buttons for her . Oddly , she then hears Tucker ' s and Reed ' s voices briefly , and she tries to answer but it ' s gone . She then goes to sickbay for some answers , relating what she ' s observed recently . Phlox can see her , but still can ' t find anything wrong with her , attributing Sato ' s strange experiences to emotional trauma caused by her experience with the transporter . A short time later , Sato goes to the gym . Finding Tucker already there , Sato asks him if he ' s feeling anything weird . He clearly doesn ' t , and tries to cheer her up a bit and suggest a sedative . She thanks him and he leaves but , soon , Sato finds she can ' t operate the equipment anymore , with even her hand passing right through the weight s and the door mechanism . She watches in the mirror as she vanishes completely . Act Three . Sato goes to sleep on the gym floor , and finds T ' Pol and Tucker walking in . This time , they can ' t see her at all , and report to Archer the same , having searched the ship . She follows them to sickbay where she hears Phlox tell Archer and T ' Pol that he had missed some subtle changes between two bioscan s , taken only twenty - four hours apart , indicating that her sub - cellular membranes were degrading . Later , while in the transporter room , again undetected , she hears Tucker tell Archer , T ' Pol , and Phlox that the secondary phase coils are out of alignment , and that was the source of the problem with the transporter when Sato went through it . He regrets going first off the planet , and Archer says Starfleet promised him the transporter was safe . Phlox believes that Sato is dead and her body should only be detectable as residue . Sato is unable to tell the crew that she is still alive and watches Archer pass right through her on his way out . Sato follows Phlox and Tucker as they try to pinpoint her remains , wishing they would focus attention on the transporter . Then , interestingly , she hears alien voices from another corridor . She follows it , and then hears Tucker ' s and Reed ' s voices again talking to each other and instructing her to do something . It passes , and she hears Phlox and Tucker confirm her remains on the floor . Phlox collects it for Sato ' s parents and leaves Tucker there to contemplate . Sato watches as he regrets aloud leaving the planet first , despite being the ranking officer . When he leaves , she hears the alien voices again . Walking further down the corridor , she witnesses two aliens planting bomb s on the " Enteprise " s walls . Act Four . Sato immediately goes to the ready room to try and warn Archer , but instead she watches him get in touch with her father to inform him of her death . He has trouble doing so , as he starts by explaining from the beginning instead of simply saying she ' s gone . While he does so , Sato tries to get his attention . She puts her hand on anything that will respond , and finds she can manipulate some lights on and off . She tries Morse code , but can ' t get his attention . He finally says to her father that she is gone , but he can ' t respond , asking him to call him later and ends the communication . Archer sits back , and does notice the light finally . He brings in T ' Pol and says he recognizes it as " SOS " in Morse code , and even hears " HOSH " as Sato changes it , but isn ' t fully convinced . T ' Pol notes the plasma conduit is being interrupted , and that it ' s self - contained , but also suggests it ' s been a long day . Archer agrees and leaves it for tomorrow . Sato takes it upon herself to do what she can . She continues observing the aliens activating their devices where she found them before , but also in engineering , avoiding the crew ' s looks . She realizes they can ' t see her , either , so she tries to deactivate the devices with her hand , and successfully does so once . However , the aliens reactivate them easily and modify it so she can ' t do it again . They then use an alien transporting device , and , after activating a timer , both transport away . Then , she hears Tucker and Reed again , instructing her to do something . She guesses they mean the transporter and jumps on it . Finally , she is transported away , right onto the " Enterprise " s transporter pad with her equipment she had on the surface . This time , they can hear her and she tries to explain the alien intruders . They stop her and insist there ' s nothing wrong . Reed explains she was in the transporter buffer for only 8 seconds due to the storms on the surface . This leads her to the realization that all of her experiences since beaming back to the ship had been hallucinations , including the alien saboteurs and the story of Cyrus Ramsey . Memorable quotes . " " You sure you can ' t read any of this ? " " " " Nope . How about you ? " " " " Well , I think this says " Tall guys are popular . " " " " " Hmm . You ' re a budding linguist . " " " " You " have " to do this , Hoshi . There ' s no choice . I ' ll need you clear of the structure , one at a time . " " " " Your molecules get pulled apart . " " " " Then they get put back together again . " " " " Do you know how many molecules you ' re made up of ? " " " " Lots . " " " " All right , how many ? " " " " Uh , a few trillion . " " " " That ' s a pretty " big " jigsaw puzzle ! " " " " Starfleet said it ' s safe . That ' s good enough for me ! " " " " Welcome to the club . " " " " It was very unsettling . Didn ' t you find it unsettling ? " " " " For a minute or two , but once I counted my fingers and toes . . . " " " " I don ' t know , I just don ' t feel right . " " " " It ' s not a joke , doctor . If that machine could move a birthmark , who knows what else it could do ? " " " " Ever since I used that transporter , nothing has been the way that it ' s supposed to be . I couldn ' t translate a simple bimodal syntax but Crewman Baird could . Crewman Baird doesn ' t know the first thing about our linguistic database ! And Captain Archer told me to stay in my quarters , but my mirror doesn ' t want to give me a solid reflection and my shower can ' t decide whether to bounce off me or go through me ! And nobody wants to talk to me . " " " " Transporter technology is very new . I ' m sure Humans were equally frightened when the automobile was introduced , or the airplane . New forms of transport take a while to get used to . I ' m not at all surprised at your reaction – you wouldn ' t catch me using that apparatus . " " " " You ' re upside down , ensign . " " Links and references . References . aeroplane ; automobile ; biomolecular scan ; bioscan ; birthmark ; camera ; centimeter ; Death Valley ; Denobulan ; dinosaur drawing ; Earth ; Easter bunny ; explosives ; flash unit ; ghost story ; gyrosphere ; hallucination ; humanoids ; Humpty Dumpty ; kilometer ; King ' s men ; linguistic database ; Madison ; matter stream ; meter ; mirror ; Morse code ; motion sickness ; multiaxis exercise trainer ; pattern buffer ; plasma circuit ; polaric discharge ; polaric energy ; polarized hull plating ; ; Sato ' s mother ; shuttlepod ; sink ; S . O . S . ; sub - cellular membrane ; ; transporter ; transporter phobia ; trespassing ; turbolift ; universal translator ; Vulcan ; warp reactor