Dr. Crusher, about to have a dishonorable end to her career, tells Guinan how she came to be in those straits. It began at a conference, when she took an interest in the work of the Ferengi scientist Dr. Reyga and decided to help him gain acceptance by inviting him and several other major scientists in subspace shielding research on board the Enterprise to discuss his idea about "metaphasic shielding". Only four others showed up, however: Kurak, a somewhat touchy Klingon; T'Pan, director of the Vulcan Science Academy; T'Pan's husband, Dr. Christopher; and Jo'Bril, a very enigmatic Takaran.

All the scientists are skeptical of Reyga's findings, and only agree to a field-test when Jo'Bril offers to serve as pilot, sending a shuttlecraft into a nearby stellar corona. The test is brought to an abrupt end, however, when Jo'Bril collapses on board the shuttle and dies when returned to sickbay. Beverly is upset enough by this, but even more so when she cannot find a cause of death - in fact, given Jo'Bril's strange physiology, he should still be alive. Picard tries to get her to take a break, acknowledging that she's knotted up inside about losing someone "on a mission", as it were.

Beverly cancels further tests in light of the circumstances, and shortly thereafter Dr. Reyga is found dead, clutching a plasma inducer. Beverly refuses to believe Reyga committed suicide, however, and hopes the autopsy will reveal another cause of death. Picard puts a stop to her plan, saying that Reyga's family have already been contacted and will not allow an autopsy until the Ferengi death ritual has been performed. Glum, Bev decides to instead question the other scientists about the past day's events.

T'Pan and Christopher do not take kindly to her questioning, with Christopher becoming indignant. Eventually, though, Christopher admits that he heard Kurak and Reyga get into a bitter argument not long before Jo'Bril's death. Bev heads to Kurak's lab to get some answers - but Kurak is not interested, instead throwing Bev into a bulkhead. Kurak, too, eventually gives out some information, saying that Reyga had falsely accused her of sabotaging the field- test. Bev leaves, no closer to an answer than before - and against all regulations and medical ethics, performs the autopsy.

It turns up nothing useful, and has the potential of causing a diplomatic incident with the Ferengi government. Beverly is taken off duty and told to prepare for a formal hearing. However, as she concludes this tale of woe to Guinan, Guinan convinces her that if she still thinks there's a murderer on board, she shouldn't be sitting around in her quarters.

Beverly agrees, and snoops around some more. After Data discusses possible methods of sabotage, and adds that a tetryon field would be created by the only possible way, Beverly tries to access the autopsy files on Jo'Bril. She manages (with the help of Nurse Ogawa, who is still on active duty and fiercely loyal), but finds nothing until she rescans Jo'Bril and looks very specifically for tetryon traces.

She finds them, but realizes the only way to prove the device was sabotaged is to retest it herself, and swipes a shuttle to do so. The test is successful, but a very alive Jo'Bril stows away on the shuttle and attempts to take it back to Takara for future development as a weapon. Bev manages to fight him off, killing him in the process, and is fully reinstated.

Highlight Listing:

"Suspicions" - A pioneering Ferengi scientist is found dead, and Beverly risks her career to prove he was murdered.

Advertising Headline:

CAREER ON THE LINE Beverly risks everything to prove a Ferengi genius was murdered!

TV log listing:

Beverly risks career to catch a murderer on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION.

Technical design, graphic design, interactive features, HTML & CGI programming by Andrew Tong. || All materials Copyright © 1987-1995 by their respective authors. || Document created: January 28, 1995 || Last Modified: November 09, 2010