The Eyes of the Beholders " A mysterious alien artifact could mean death to the " Enterprise " crew . " The Eyes of the Beholders is a Pocket TNG novel – # 13 in the numbered series – written by A . C . Crispin . Published by Pocket Books , it was first released in . Summary . While conducting a search and rescue mission for several recently missing ships , the freighter " Marco Polo " and the IKS " PaKathen " , the " Enterprise " is snared within a tractor field and pulled to an immense spaceborne artifact . The structure is so alien in its form and energy emissions that most humanoids are driven mad from extended proximity . The crew is unable to even look at the artifact without feeling sick , Data ' s systems can ' t process the irrational forms , and Deanna Troi has to be induced into a coma to protect her from the emotional onslaught . Only Geordi La Forge is able to examine the artifact through his VISOR , declaring it to be extraordinarily beautiful . The ship ' s shields protect the crew from the worst of the energy patterns , though everyone suffers from anxiety , desperation , and worse in increasing numbers while the " Enterprise " remains ensnared . Many of the crew have extremely vivid dreams of past experiences , though most of these are nightmares . There are berserk physical attacks and suicide attempts . Both missing ships are found nearby , though their crews have suffered from the same symptoms . The Klingons fought each other to death after an unsuccessful attack on the artifact , though a few catatonic survivors are rescued from the " Marco Polo " . Riker , Data , La Forge , Worf , and Dr . Gavar board the artifact in an effort to disable the tractor field , but they are instantly incapacitated by the alien environment . Only Gavar ' s Tellarite physiology barely allows her to stay conscious long enough to gather the team and order a transporter recall . Data is reprogrammed so that he is able to tolerate the alien environment ( though this renders our own reality beyond his comprehension ) and he returns to the artifact , learning that it is essentially an art museum . Incredibly complex videographic murals , flowing sculptures , music , transmitted emotional compositions – all created by the ancient Ylans , who prized art above all else and established a peaceful , harmonized civilization half a millennium ago . When solar radiation rendered them sterile and ensured their extinction , the museum / artifact was created as their legacy and their epitaph . The energy emanations functioned as advertisements in the Ylans ' technology and understanding of spatial geometry , but they resulted in the inescapable tractor field in our frame of reference . Had they survived , the Ylans would have been distraught to learn of the inadvertent destruction of hundreds of humanoid ships and crews . Data shuts down the energy fields holding the " Enterprise " and his programming is restored to understand our reality . Dr . Selar has been working closely with Thala , a blind young year . Regulations require that Thala be placed with her own people , though both orphans and the handicapped have little place in Andorian society , so no one wants to take her . Facing the prospect of life in a terrible institution , Thala plans to run away . Selar tries to place Thala in a Vulcan orphanage where she will receive excellent care while also considering an amazing job opportunity : head of bioelectronic research at the Vulcan Science Academy . There , she would oversee synthetic organ replacements that would help thousands , including Thala . She ultimately accepts the position and decides to adopt Thala , and both women relocate to Vulcan . Meanwhile , Data tries to author a romance novel set in the early days of interstellar exploration , though his writing is atrocious and highly derivative . He asks several of his friends for their opinions though everyone is too afraid of hurting his feelings to be honest . Only Troi is candid and reminds him that the best authors write about what they know . As Data has never been in love , he is not best suited for that type of fiction , and he decides to abandon the novel . However , a Federation xenoarchaeology team planning to study the artifact requests that Data join their initial study of the artifact , giving the android the opportunity to learn about and share the entire Ylan art repository with the rest of the galaxy . References . Andoria