The
Enterprise travels to the planet
Acamar III after detecting traces of Acamarian blood at a looted Federation outpost. Sovereign Marouk, the Acamarian leader, suggests that the looting was done by the Gatherers, descendants of Acamarian society a century ago that have turned to
piracy to sustain themselves. Marouk initially suggests hunting them down with the help of
Starfleet, but
Captain Picard convinces Marouk to join him to seek a peaceful resolution, including ending the Gatherers' self-imposed exile. Marouk and her assistant, Yuta, arrive on the ship to help.
Commander Riker finds Yuta attractive and tries to get to know her better, but Yuta finds herself unable to open up to him. The
Enterprise crew makes contact with one band of Gatherers led by Brull, and offer negotiations. Brull negotiates with Marouk and Picard, and after hearing the offer, agrees to pass it on to the Gatherer leader, Chorgan. Meanwhile, Yuta meets alone with one of the older Gatherers and touches his cheek, causing the Gatherer to suffer a
heart attack. As the man dies, Yuta asserts that she, as the last of her
clan, Tralesta, will outlive the Lornak clan. The Gatherer's body is later found but initially assumed that death was by natural causes. However, later investigation by
Dr. Crusher reveals that a fast-acting "
micro-virus", targeted to attack a specific Acamarian
DNA profile, was the cause. Dr. Crusher believes the virus was purposely
genetically engineered, and that the death was a targeted murder. At Picard's request, Marouk has her government send data to the
Enterprise to investigate the murder. The
Enterprise meets with Chorgan's starship, and Picard, Marouk, and Yuta transport aboard to begin negotiations. At the same time, the
Enterprise crew receives the database from Acamar, and find that fifty-three years earlier, another Gatherer suffered a similar heart attack - he too was from the Lornak clan, and a photographic record shows Yuta was present, and clearly has not aged a day. Finding the common clan, Riker discovers that Chorgan is of the Lornak clan, and realizing that Yuta is there to assassinate him, transports over to Chorgan's ship. He interrupts negotiations to prevent Yuta from serving Chorgan a drink, accusing her of the murder. Yuta explains she is the last of five survivors of the Tralesta clan that was wiped out by a Lornak attack, and has undergone genetic alterations to host the virus and to keep herself from aging, allowing her to seek out and murder the Lornak clan to the last person. Riker attempts to talk her out of her revenge at phaser-point, gradually increasing the yield with each successive shot, but she cannot break from her desire for vengeance that she built up over the last several decades. After pleading with her not to try again, she advances once more on Chorgan, and Riker vaporizes her with his phaser. A truce is negotiated between the two sides; at the conclusion, the
Enterprise is assigned a routine survey mission through the now-peaceful sector. ==Releases==