Stardate not given: Dal and his crew are discovering the wonder that is the Protostar’s transporter system when a distress call is picked up. The signal comes from a Ferengi ship claiming to be carrying orphans – a claim Dal finds familiar. Sure enough, the Ferengi ship is commanded by DaiMon Nandi, who gave Dal shelter growing up. When Dal claims to have stolen the Protostar, Nandi asks him to use the Protostar – and the Federation – as a front to obtain a valuable crystal from a developing species, contact with whom would normally be forbidden by the Prime Directive. The species has the ability to shape matter with sound and harmonics, and Nandi is unimpressed when she presents a (worthless) gift and receives only a song in return. She snatches a crystal and runs, leaving Dal and the Protostar crew to find their own escape route. Dal confronts his old friend, and discovers while fighting to recover and return the crystal that he wasn’t kidnapped by the Diviner…he was sold to him. And Nandi will gladly sell him out again.
written by Diandra Pendleton-Thompson
directed by Steve In Chang Ahn and Sung Shin
music by Nami Melamud
Star Trek: Prodigy main theme by Michael Giacchino
Cast: Brett Gray (Dal R’El), Ella Purnell (Gwyn), Jason Mantzoukas (Jankom Pog), Angus Imrie (Zero), Rylee Alazraqui (Rok-Tahk), Dee Bradley Baker (Murf), Jimmi Simpson (Drednok), John Noble (Diviner), Kate Mulgrew (Hologram Janeway), Robert Beltran (Captain Chakotay), Grey Griffin (Nandi), Melissa Villasenor (Nandi / Frail Woman)
Notes: If Nandi has been a DaiMon of a Ferengi ship for much of Dal’s early life, she either hid her gender or perhaps more reform has been underway on Ferenginar than episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine might have led us to believe.
LogBook entry by Earl Green