with the characters,
maybe find clues to help us
understand what's happening.
Very well.
Mr Data, Mr Worf, go along.
Try to re-establish control of
the ship without damaging the nodes.
If the ship is truly
an emerging intelligence,
then we have a responsibility
to treat it with the same respect
as any other being.
Welcome aboard, Counsellor.
If you distract these people, I will
try to depolarise the power grid.
Excuse me.
Have you finished the puzzle yet?
Not yet, but we're getting close.
Do you recognise it?
No.
I would like to help.
Tell me, what exactly are you making?
What do you think we're making?
A puzzle.
No. I meant the picture. What is it?
Well, I don't know.
- Can you deal me in?
- Sorry. It's a two-man game.
Get your hand off that.
Is that why you killed the engineer?
To get this brick?
I had to get it back.
You know what it's worth, lady?
Plenty.
And I gotta get it to Keystone City.
- Why, what's Keystone City?
- It's where everything begins.
Gin.
Are you succeeding, Commander?
I am ready
to access the main power grid.
Keystone City, next stop.
Keystone City.
Well, look who's back.
We do not want any trouble.
We are simply passengers.
Then I'm sure you wouldn't mind
showing me your tickets.
Right, sorry, boys.
You're getting off right here.
This is my stop.
What happens at Keystone City?
Why are you taking the brick there?
Excuse me.
We should follow that man.
The brick might be an important clue.
Where did he go?
I can access the power grid here.
I will try to depolarise the grid
with a low-frequency inversion field.
It may disengage the nodes
without destroying them.
There he is. I'm going after him.
What are you doing here?
Laying the foundation.
Now, if you'll excuse me,
I got a train to catch.
All of a sudden, cargo bay five
started to depressurise.
Did everyone get out?
Yes, sir. But I'm reading massive
power surges in the cargo bay,
and lots of transporter activity.
Something weird is happening there.
Send a team down there immediately.
Find out what's going on.
- La Forge to bridge.
- Picard here. What's going on?
I wish I could tell you.
That man said he was
laying a foundation.
Foundation for what?
- Troi to Data.
- Data here.
How are you doing?
I encountered a minor difficulty,
but it has been dealt with.
I am ready to depolarise
the power grid.
It looks like the ship's
replicator and transporter systems
have been merged somehow
to create this.
The question is, what is it?
Ensign, I want you to run
a full spectral analysis on this...
I'm reading
massive power fluctuations.
The ship is losing
its structural integrity.
What's happening?
It's an earthquake.
La Forge to Data.
Stop what you're doing.
Acknowledged.
- Are you alright?
- I'm fine.
Data, we ought to get together
and compare notes.
Agreed.
The ship was protecting itself again.
Stopping us from interfering.
Whatever it's doing,
it intends to continue.
This must have something to do
with that object in the cargo bay.
He's right. Look at the common themes
playing out on the holodeck.
A puzzle being put together,
a foundation being laid,
a paper doll being fashioned.
They're all images
of something being constructed.
And some kind of object
in the cargo bay
that's being constructed
atom by atom.
What is that object?
I've no idea, but it's composed
of silica polymers, duranium
and other compounds
we haven't identified yet.
But creating it has had
an effect on our systems.
Warp power has dropped 47 percent.
Did you draw any other conclusions
from your experiences
on the holodeck?
Anything that would help us
understand this situation?
The holodeck was full
of metaphoric imagery,
like it was having
some kind of daydream.
It may not make literal sense,
but symbolically, it probably has
some kind of logic to it.
These characters you spoke to,
do they have any significance?
I think they represent
different