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The Zoo Broadcast February 24th 1968

On Mission date 3901.2, the Endeavour has been released from patrol duties as the fear of a Tellurian invasion has diminished. Indeed the complete lack of any sort of Tellurian response is beginning to worry Commonwealth and Klingon authorities as is the complete lack of any sort of Rhihannaun activity. Whilst the powers that be are deciding what to do, some fleet vessels are being allowed to go back to exploration and scientific duties. The Endeavour has been tasked with investigating the disappearance of the CSS Amundson, which last reported, just before the Tellurian Incidents, from the Vectran System.

On arrival in the Vectran system, they discover the Amundson orbiting Vectra VII but there are no signs of the crew. Reynolds, Stein, M’Beke, Blamire and two security guards beam down to discover a series of unusual environments. First an arctic wasteland, which turns into a lush tropical environment and then desert. They meet the Vectrans, humanoids with intelligent capacities far beyond their own. Stein surmises that they are not only telepathic but communicate at a rate of speed far too fast for them to comprehend. The team is captured by the Vectrans to be made part of a zoo collection.

Once in the human exhibit, they find the surviving crewmembers of the Amundson, one of whom is deathly ill. M’Beke determines he could cure her easily if he only had access to his medical equipment currently held in a display case just outside the exhibit window. Discussing the problem with the Amundson crew, Reynolds comes up with a plan where they all focus their mental images on their need for help, hoping the Vectrans will comply. Their first effort only gains them a supply of food, but a second attempt successfully gets M'Beke’s medical supplies and he is able to treat their dying comrade.

Having seen the success of their effort to get help, Reynolds suggests trying to similarly focus on a communicator as an object they direly need. A young Vectran (guest star Sally Thomsett) responds, and Reynolds signals the Endeavour for a beam-up but the youngster snatches away the communicator at the last second and is itself beamed aboard the ship.

The adult Vectrans, not realizing exactly what has happened except that their child has disappeared begin focusing all their telepathic energy on Reynolds trying to find an explanation. Meanwhile aboard the Endeavour, the youth reaches the bridge. She probes the Bridge crew’s minds and processes the ship's entire library system, and promptly proceeds to take the Endeavour galloping out of orbit.

On the surface, the other officers, organised by Stein, try to project a mental barrier to protect Reynolds from the overwhelming telepathic assault of the adult Vectrans. Then the child beams back down. The youngster communicates what she has learned, and the adults decide that although still extremely primitive, the Endeavour and Amundson crews are too intelligent to be kept as zoo exhibits and are set free.