Meanwhile, on the bridge:

Ensign Harry Kim lifted his head from the console between the captain's and first officer's chairs and looked around in bafflement. Before he knew why he was saying it, the barked order, "Report!" passed his lips. In front of him, the dark-skinned young woman at the helm pushed herself off of her control panel and slowly came standing. She turned to face him.

"Captain?" she asked. Her tone was confused and she held one hand to her head.

Kim blinked back at her as he stood too. "I – I'm not sure. I was …" he looked behind him at the seat he had just vacated. "I was sitting in the captain's chair, but right now I can't remember who I am. What is your name?"

The helm officer shook her head. "I don't know."

In the chair to Kim's left, a female officer with long dark hair was rubbing her face as if trying to get her bearings. Kim turned around to see the officers at the security and operations stations hauling themselves to their feet. They looked very young – he was surprised to see such youthful faces on the bridge, until he remembered that he was pretty young too. How young, he couldn't be sure, but the skin on the backs of his hands was smooth and unmarked. He had no idea of his own birthdate – or the current stardate, for that matter. Yet he had the presence of mind to call for shields before he addressed the bridge crew:

"Does anybody know what just happened?"

They responded with mingled expressions of confusion. Their stations were familiar, they could still operate their consoles – but not one of them could produce his or her own name.

The officer at the engineering station, a blonde human woman, began to pull up data on the ship's personnel.

"I'm showing a large group of humanoid life forms in the mess hall," she said. "From the look of it, I would guess some sort of crew gathering was taking place. Captain – " she addressed Kim, "I mean, if you are the captain – do you think we might be some sort of backup bridge crew? Looking at us, I don't think we're the senior staff. On the other hand, I don't know why I think so."

Kim looked down and observed that his uniform was black with yellow shoulders, not command red. He turned to the woman at his side, who wore black and red. She filled it out awfully well, too, he couldn't help but notice.

"That makes sense to me," he said. "What do you think?"

"I agree," the woman in red said. "We need to find some sort of ship's manifest, to figure out who we are. From where we're sitting, it looks like one of us is in command."

The blonde turned back to them from the computer with a frustrated expression.

"I'm locked out of the personnel records. I need to get down to engineering to restore full control of the ship. Shouldn't someone search the rest of the ship to see if we can find someone who knows what's going on."

"I agree," Kim said. "Well, assuming for the moment that I am captain, or acting captain, and that you – " he gestured at the woman in red, "are my first officer, you have the bridge while I … well, while she goes to engineering and I go anywhere else I can think of. I guess I'll start with the crowd in the mess hall. Everyone okay with that?" Heads nodded silently around the bridge and Kim followed the small blonde woman to the turbolift. He turned back.

"Everyone – weapons, propulsion, and shields are the priorities. If this was an attack, we could be vulnerable to another."

Baffled faces nodded their assent and everyone turned back to their work stations.

As the lift descended, Kim said, "How is it that we know where we're going – what deck and what to do when we get there – and we can't remember who we are?"

The woman put a hand to her forehead. "I wish I knew. We've got to find the crew manifest and get communications up. The minute we're separated, I won't even be able to hail you. Even if I could hail you, I wouldn't know your name – or mine!" She dropped her hand with a frustrated grunt. "No, wait. I remember that we can assign designations to new teams. Computer, make my designation 'Engineering Team.'"

"Good idea," Harry said. "Computer, make my designation 'Survey Team.'"

The doors opened onto Deck 2 to reveal a man and a woman mirroring the tense postures of the two inside the turbolift. She was small and redheaded. He was tall with a facial tattoo. Both were out of uniform, Kim noticed with surprise. It would be unusual for an Intrepid class starship to carry civilian passengers. Perhaps these were diplomatic guests. He wondered how far they were from the nearest starbase.

"Hello," Kim said as he stepped into the corridor. "We were just coming from the bridge. We experienced something very strange up there."

"As did we in the mess hall," the redhead said. "It seems to have wiped our memories – partially, at least. We remember practical knowledge, but we've lost personal awareness. We don't know who we are or why we're here."

"That's exactly what happened to us," the woman at Kim's side answered. "I'm headed to Engineering and – uh – he" – gesturing to Kim – "is going to see who all the people are in the mess hall."

"We just came from there," the tattooed man said. "There's a large group but none of them know what happened."

The redhead turned to him. "Maybe we should go to Sickbay instead, to see if the Doctor can treat this amnesia."

Kim stepped out of the turbolift and the two new passengers stepped in. He stood perplexed in the corridor for only a moment before the sound of voices confirmed his instinct about the direction of the mess hall. He made his way there and stepped into the open doorway. Several dozen blank faces turned toward him. A tall, sandy-haired man in a loose cotton shirt took a half step his way.

"Hi there," the man said, as if he were the bartender. "I'd love to introduce myself, but I don't have the foggiest idea what my name is. Do you?"

TBC