The Enterprise arrives at Minos, where the U.S.S. Drake recently disappeared. Minos was renowned during the long-past Ersalrope wars as a prominent weapons manufacturer for both sides. The ship is hailed by an automated salesman, who invites them to beam down. Riker, Yar and Data do so.

Riker, on the surface, sees an image of the Drake's captain, his old friend Paul Rice, but is quickly informed by the Enterprise that there are no life signs apart from himself in the area. He tricks "Rice" into revealing it is only an image. It then turns itself into a small hovering device, and encases Riker in a force-field, and it is then destroyed by Yar.

Picard and Beverly beam down to help, and Picard leaves Geordi in command. Unfortunately, as Data begins work on removing the force-field, a second device appears and fires on the team. Picard and Bev run for cover, and end up falling headlong into a deep pit, badly injuring Beverly in the fall. Yar and Data must combine their efforts to destroy this second device, and Data then frees Riker.

As Geordi prepares to beam the five back, a similar (though much larger) device appears in orbit with them and fires on the Enterprise. It is equipped with a cloaking device, and uses it well, decloaking just long enough to fire, but not long enough to be fired on. After a second hit, Chief Engineer Logan comes up to the bridge, demanding that Geordi break orbit and suggesting that he relinquish command to Logan. Geordi refuses and sends Logan back.

A third device appears on the surface, this time equipped with a deflector shield, where all three people still on the surface are required to deal with it. Back in space, Worf and Lt. Solis at the helm try to anticipate the enemy's next move, and fire a spread of phasers and photon torpedoes at that location. The display is impressive, but a clean miss. After being buffeted by several more shots, Geordi calls Logan up to the bridge.

When Logan arrives, Geordi breaks orbit and puts Logan in command...of the saucer section. The ship separates, and the stardrive section returns to fight. Down on the surface, Picard finds a console tracking the away team, then accidentally activates the salesman, who implies that this system is what destroyed the Minosians. As the away team finds Picard and Beverly, Picard manages to shut the system down by convincing it it's made a sale, dispersing the final unit on the surface.

Geordi manages to locate their assailant by diving into the atmosphere and spotting it by its turbulence. They successfully destroy the device and beam up the away team.

Highlight Listing:

"The Arsenal of Freedom" - Picard and the away team fight for their lives on a planet run by a computerized weapons system.

Advertising Headline:

THE KILLING MACHINE Computerized weapons play deadly games with the crew.

TV log listing:

A killing machine attacks the crew on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION.

Technical design, graphic design, interactive features, HTML & CGI programming by Andrew Tong. || All materials Copyright © 1987-1995 by their respective authors. || Document created: January 28, 1995 || Last Modified: July 12, 1999