With Sickbay’s Quarantine Mode engaged, Chapel and Spock start operating on Batel, injecting her with the experimental plasma solution. Simultaneously, Uhura reports that the Gorn are transmitting an interference signal preventing the Enterprise from hailing Starfleet, prompting Pike to call Pelia and Scotty to the Bridge. Since stellar flares dictate the Gorn’s cycles, Pike suggests that they turn the Enterprise into a CME X-flare — what Scotty describes as an artificial star. Scotty and Pelia brainstorm, indicating the ship would need to fly between the binary stars, modify its deflector shields, and magnetize its hull to attract stellar material.
As Pike accepts the 1 in 1000 odds, Spock provides an alternative to Batel’s surgery in Sickbay. Instead of operating on Batel, they could satiate the Gorn hatchlings to keep them from coming out. Once the hatchlings are no longer in defensive mode, Chapel would then be able to dissolve them and treat the infection with Number One’s blood. Over on the Gorn Destroyer, La’An recalls her brother Manu as she accesses a Gorn interface, locating the vessel’s buffer signatures and transport codes. The Gorn converge on their position, igniting a fierce firefight and inflicting painful wounds upon Ortegas and Kirk.