Aquiel ( episode ) Geordi La Forge falls in love with a woman accused of murder in an isolated communication relay station . The " Enterprise " crew investigates the crime , the only other suspect is a Klingon officer who frequently visited the station . Summary . Teaser . The has sent an away team composed of CMO Dr . Crusher , Lieutenant Commander La Forge , Commander Riker , and Lieutenant Worf to the Communications Relay Station 47 . Upon arriving , they find the station abandoned and the audio monitoring system in disarray , with many subspace message s playing all at once . They also find a large , fluffy white dog , who is hiding inside a service duct . The station ' s shuttlecraft is missing , along with both Starfleet officer s , Aquiel Uhnari and Keith Rocha . Dr . Crusher discovers residue which must be the remains of one of the personnel . Act One . The blood traces match those of Uhnari , so Crusher assumes the cellular residue is Uhnari ' s also , but must study it further in her lab to make certain . Geordi La Forge explains to Riker that encrypted subspace messages are all sent through a particular channel , and that someone has tried to bypass the access protocols , perhaps taking or rewriting some of the messages . La Forge accesses the station ' s log s from the nearby quarters , but at first can see only a handful of official and personal entries by Uhnari . He peruses the logs accompanied by the dog , whom he discovers was Uhnari ' s pet . Uhnari seems to be an upbeat person , though appeared to have some problems with Rocha . The computer cuts out . Meanwhile in sickbay , Dr . Crusher tries to get a clear DNA sample from the metallic plate , she guesses to Picard and Riker that a high - level phaser blast caused the death . It also could have been a Klingon disruptor , but Picard needs evidence since Klingon attacks have not occurred for seven years . La Forge orders a diagnostic while he gets a coffee . Soon , he gets a visual of Uhnari . Act Two . Uhnari ' s personal letters continue to reveal her to be a spirited , romantic Haliian woman who was abused by her father , is intensely homesick for the rest of her family and traditions , and has difficulty getting along with " egomaniac " Rocha . At one point she confesses countermanding his orders . Uhnari also mentions in her log that Commander Morag , an aggressive Klingon , has been harassing and threatening the station . La Forge reports this to Captain Jean - Luc Picard , and he then asks the Klingon governor to investigate . At first , the governor is hesitant to help but Picard uses his influence as Gowron ' s Arbiter of Succession to convince him to help . La Forge watches more of Lieutenant Uhnari ' s personal logs in his quarters . In the log , she states that she misses her mother ' s own muskan seed punch and how the replicators on the station cannot quite make it the same when a loud bang is heard . Uhnari asks if its Rocha . The log suddenly goes to static . Back on the station , Worf , Riker and La Forge continue the investigation . Worf finds Klingon DNA traces . La Forge has most of Uhnari ' s logs , but cannot find Rocha ' s , telling Riker that whatever happened to the station ' s encrypted messages had a cascade effect on the communications storage system . Eventually , the governor arrives at the " Enterprise " s position on the . Worf escorts Torak to the observation lounge and the governor has Uhnari brought in , very much alive . Act Three . Uhnari claims that Rocha suddenly and irrationally attacked her ; she first tried to access the weapons locker , but next remembers escaping in the shuttle ; she was picked up by the Klingons . Possibly owing to a head injury , Uhnari ' s memory for exactly what happened is spotty , but she doesn ' t remember Morag on the station when she left . Torak is faced with the evidence of Klingon DNA on the station , and continues to be angered by the accusation of any Klingon involvement . He permits them to talk to Morag . Dr . Crusher now assumes that the cellular residue on the station ' s deck plate is Rocha , but continues to analyze it . While they wait for Commander Morag to arrive , La Forge escorts Uhnari out of the lounge , telling her he has a friend of hers that is probably eager to see her . La Forge brings Uhnari to his quarters , where he reunites her with her dog whose name is revealed to be Maura , named after a character in " Cold Moon Over Blackwater " , a gothic novel . He tells her she probably wants to be alone in assigned quarters after her recent ordeal . However , she tells him that she would like to go to a place that has a lot of activity since she has spent nine months on the station with only Rocha to talk to . They go to Ten Forward , where La Forge seems to know quite a bit about Uhnari , such as getting her muskan seed punch to drink and that she lived on a house on a hill growing up , which surprises the lieutenant . La Forge then confesses that he has reviewed her logs , as well as her personal correspondence . He explains that they thought she had been murder ed and needed to investigate . She eventually understands . La Forge brings up her contemptuous relationship with her superior officer , Keith Rocha . She considered him hostile and obnoxious and felt she had to battle him to hold her own . But , she insists , she did not want to see him dead . La Forge asks why Rocha attacked her but Uhnari does not know . While taking Uhnari to her quarters , she asks La Forge , since he knows her the best from anyone on the " Enterprise " , if she seems like a person who would murder someone . La Forge admits she doesn ' t . She wishes him a good night in Haliian . Riker has Rocha ' s Starfleet ID file brought up to Picard on his desktop monitor , showing that he was not as nasty as Uhnari ' s experience of him ; in fact , he seems to have been a bright and promising officer . Uhnari ' s duty record s , on the other hand , show her to be difficult and argumentative from her previous posting on Deriben V . Picard orders Riker to examine the shuttle to shed more light on her story , since there ' s still no hard evidence . There , Worf finds a missing phaser from the station in the shuttlecraft : it is set to kill . Act Four . Circumstantial evidence now points to her as possibly having killed Rocha , but she hotly denies this to Riker and Worf . Riker informs her that the phaser was found on level ten and all phasers in weapons lockers are set on level one . Uhnari still cannot recall what happened after her struggle with Rocha but admits she may have used the phaser in self - defense . Riker tells her that to inflict the cellular damage found in Rocha ' s remains , it would take a sustained phaser blast on level ten of thirty to forty seconds . At this point , La Forge defends her , saying that the phaser found hasn ' t even been established to be the murder weapon . La Forge tells Riker he is heading back to the station to try to retrieve Rocha ' s logs . Riker stops him and asks that he not get involved more with Uhnari , so his relationship doesn ' t cloud his judgment . La Forge responds back that he ' s " " not the one making judgments . " " Commander Morag arrives shortly thereafter . He describes how he investigated the station when they did not answer his hails . He confesses that he was the one who tried to bypass the access protocols and filched a number of priority Starfleet messages , but that while he saw blood and signs of a struggle , he did not kill anyone . Torak has Morag remain on the " Enterprise " under Starfleet custody at Picard ' s request , as he does not want to cause a diplomatic incident with the Federation . On the station , La Forge discovers that Uhnari had established a subspace link with a console on the relay station and deleted a number of Rocha ' s personal log s , including a letter he was planning to send to Starfleet . Citing her as " belligerent and insubordinate " , Rocha had planned to ask for a formal hearing . She explains that she did so because she was afraid that if Starfleet found the letter , they would blame her for the murder . Knowing her pattern of running away in panic when she is afraid , La Forge advises her to stay and face what has happened , and she agrees . They kiss passionately . On the " Enterprise " , Dr . Crusher continues to examine the cellular residue in sickbay , which suddenly , upon contact with her skin , takes the form of her hand . Act Five . On the station , Uhnari and La Forge are quite close , and she introduces him to a Haliian custom in which their minds can telepathically connect , amplified by a large crystal ornament called a Canar . Meanwhile , Crusher explains to Picard that these are not Rocha ' s remains , but a coalescent organism that feeds off other lifeform s , then assumes their shape . Rocha never worked at the station ; it was the shapeshifter who killed him at his last post of duty in the remote Triona system and took his place . Crusher warns that what appears to be Uhnari may actually be the creature , the same applies for Morag . Worf and Riker leave to find them . While Uhnari and Morag are examined , La Forge returns to his quarters , where he ' s been keeping Maura . The dog attacks him ; revealing that she is the coalescent organism , not Uhnari . When it starts morphing again , La Forge shoots at it with his phaser , this has virtually no effect until he ups his phaser settings and so kills the creature . In Ten Forward , La Forge tells his theory , that Uhnari ' s memory loss after the Rocha - like creature attacked her was caused by the beginning coalescing process ; which explains her feeling of having her memory drained out . Uhnari realizes she may indeed have taken the phaser and shot . She is grateful to La Forge for his advice and friendship but refuses his offer to recommend her for a post . She knows she is not an ideal Starfleet officer , but tells him she is considering staying in Starfleet and perhaps one day serving aboard the " Enterprise " . Memorable quotes . " " We found traces of Klingon DNA on the station . " " " " You still try to blame us ! " " " " Have the courage to admit your mistakes . Or are you a " lo ' Be Vos " ? " " " " At least I do not wear the uniform of the " petaQ " ! " " " " The Klingon Empire will not stand for these kinds of lies ! " " " " Governor Torak . . . I apologize . I can see that you honestly didn ' t know what happened aboard the station . I will just have to take this matter up with Gowron . I ' m " really " sorry that we bothered you . " " " " Lieutenant Uhnari ' s logs reported that Commander Morag had been harassing the station . " " " " He was doing his job . " " " " You know me better than anyone here . Do I seem like the kind of person who would murder someone ? " " " " No , you don ' t . " " " " I think you ' ve let your personal feelings cloud your judgment . " " " " I ' m not the one making judgments . " " " " Geordi ? " " " " I can " see " you . Oh , and I can feel you . " " " " What are you doing , commander ? " " " " That may not be Lieutenant Uhnari . " " " " Concerned ? " " Links and references . References . 47 ; alpha shift ; Aquiel and Shianna ' s parents ; Arbiter of Succession ; " Batarael " ; beta shift ; canar ; coalescent organism ; " Cold Moon Over Blackwater " ; deck plate ; Deriben V ; disruptor s ; DNA ; duty engineer ; ' ; Federation ; Federation - Klingon border ; gothic fiction ; governor ; Gowron ; Haliian ; Haliian language ; hearing ; ' ; iced coffee ; impulse propulsion officer ; Klingon s ; Klingon Empire ; Klingonese ; Klingon patrol ship ; level 2 diagnostic ; level 2 specialist ; level 3 diagnostic ; ; memory module ; message delay buffer ; micro - vaporize ; Milky Way Galaxy ; Muskan seed punch ; network relay tech ; nightstand ; " oumriel " ; Pendleton ; Personal log , Aquiel Uhnari ; Personal log , Keith Rocha ; " petaQ " ; phase inducer ; pooch ; phaser , type 2 ; ; Relay Station 47 ; Relay Station 194 ; remote sector ; Science Station 1812 ; Sector 2520 ; Shianna ; shuttlecraft ; Starbase 12 ; Starbase 212 ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Command ; subspace relay station ; transporter systems officer ; Triona system ; Type 6 shuttlecraft ; Uhnari ' s former commanding officer ; " Verne " ; ; waiting list ; warp propulsion officer ; wig