"Cause and Effect" Line-by-Line!

[Vanyel]

Data: I have a hypothesis that may explain that Captain. I have analyzed the recording Doctor Crusher made. Most of it is quit ordinary. 150 discussions about ship operations. 252 conversations of a personal nature. 5 couples engaged in romantic encounters…

 

[LeadHead]

Picard: Your point, Mister Data.

 

[Vanyel]

Data: There is evidence of some sort of disaster aboard the Enterprise, severe enough that the Captain ordered all hands to abandon ship. I have isolated 3 segments of this recording that are crucial.

 

[LeadHead]

Worf: (recording) ... a highly localized distortion in the space/time continuum.

 

[Vanyel]

Data: Collision course. Impact in 36 seconds.

 

[LeadHead]

Picard: (recording) All Hands Abandon Ship! Repeat, ALL HANDS ABANDON-

 

[Vanyel]

Playback end
LaForge: Worf refers to a distortion. If this were a temporal distortion and if we were close enough to it, it’s possible that a large enough explosion could have ruptured the space timer continuum. We collided, exploded then got caught in this repeating loop of time.

 

[LeadHead]

Picard; If you're right, perhaps we could escape from the loop by avoiding the collision.

 

[Vanyel]

LaForge: That’s our guess.

 

[LeadHead]

Worf: Perhaps we should reverse course.

 

[Vanyel]

Riker: For all we know reversing course may be what leads us into the crash.

 

[LeadHead]

Picard: No, we can't afford to start second guessing ourselves. We'll stay on this course until we have reason to change it. But, lets do everything we can to avoid the collision.

 

[Vanyel]

LaForge: Captain, we might not be able to figure out how to avoid this accident until it’s too late. And if the loop begins again we’ll forget everything we learned this time around.

 

[LeadHead]

Picard: What do you suggest?

 

[Vanyel]

LaForge: If we do find a way to avoid this collision we should try to send that information into the next loop.

 

[LeadHead]

Riker: Is that possible?

 

[Vanyel]

Data: We have seen that echoes, or after images from previous loops appear as distortions in the Dekyon field. We may be able to send a deliberate echo into the next loop.

 

[LeadHead]

Troi: Like a message in a bottle?

 

[Vanyel]

LaForge: Exactly. We could enhance a Dekyon emission to create a specific pattern and send ourselves a message. Not a long one, probably only a few characters. Maybe one word.

 

[Brian]

RIKER: How do we know we'll pick up that word the next time through?