Polywater intoxication

File:Psi-2000-3.jpg

Psi 2000

A state of polywater intoxication (sometimes referred to as the Psi 2000 intoxication or the Psi 2000 virus) is an affliction caused by polywater molecules, first noted on Psi 2000. It first affected the members of a Federation science team stationed on that planet in 2266. The transmission of the affliction was water-based, caused by huge shifts in gravity, resulting in complex strings of water molecules that had the ability to propagate themselves, almost like a very simple version of a virus. The main symptom of the intoxication is the suppression of inhibitions, resulting in an effect that appears much like drunkenness. It was soon spread to the crew of the USS Enterprise (which was conducting a study of the planet's disintegration). It appeared to spread through direct contact with skin perspiration. As a result, the ship was nearly destroyed when affected Lieutenant Kevin Riley disabled the ship's engines, a disastrous move aboard a ship in orbit around a disintegrating planet. The cure was developed by Dr. McCoy. (TOS: "The Naked Time")

Ninety-eight years later, the SS Tsiolkovsky was studying the collapse of a red giant into a white dwarf; this created similar gravitational shifts that resulted in another case of mass intoxication. When the USS Enterprise-D arrived to answer odd messages broadcast by the crew of the Tsiolkovsky, she was too late; the crew was dead. An away team, led by Commander William T. Riker, established that much of the crew 'froze' to death; they had lowered the environmental controls to well below safety. The rest of the crew, as Lieutenant Commander Data ascertained, were killed when an emergency hatch was blown, blowing them out into space. Lieutenant Geordi La Forge was the first Enterprise-D crewman to become infected; despite an attempt at quarantine, La Forge managed to infect several Enterprise-D personnel. Initial symptoms of this strain appeared to be excessive perspiration and a feeling of high body temperature, as well as the lack of inhibition shown amongst the crew of the original Enterprise.

SS Tsiolkovsky crew

Even Data became infected. As Data was an android, Captain Picard thought this would not be possible. Soong-type androids were incapable of alcohol intoxication, yet components in its processing systems were apparently susceptible to disruption by polywater intoxication. (TNG: "The Outrageous Okona", "The Naked Now")

The Enterprise-D computer database did hold the formula for the cure used aboard the NCC-1701 Enterprise; however, this was not successful in treating the intoxication. Due, perhaps, to the higher gravity of the star, this intoxication was a more severe affliction, requiring Doctor Beverly Crusher to create a broader remedy. (TNG: "The Naked Now")

In TOS: "The Naked Time", Lieutenant Junior Grade Joe Tormolen was exposed when infected frozen blood partially melted itself and jumped on his exposed skin. No other account of body-heat attracted living blood was mentioned related to the polywater intoxication.