Engineering and crew versus a crippling environmental/particle effect (hyperonic flux / teremi‑thoron) that destroys transporter function — a technological race under time pressure to restore systems needed for mass evacuation.

Picard confronts the crew with a simple, brutal demand: make the transporters work despite the hyperonic radiation that has been crippling them. Geordi and O'Brien enter, visibly skeptical, then accept …

Riker storms into the transporter room to find Geordi, O'Brien and Wesley surrounded by stripped panels, tools, and mutilated test objects—one rematerialized 'like Swiss cheese.' What begins as hands‑on troubleshooting …

On the Enterprise bridge, just after Picard nails down a three‑week reprieve from the Sheliak, a frazzled Geordi bursts in with the news that the transporter can, in principle, be …