The telepathic pitcher plant
Telepathic pitcher plant was a name given to a bioplasmic organism by Naomi Wildman of the USS Voyager, based on her recent biology lessons about Earth plant life. It was a space-dwelling lifeform that fed on starships. It instinctively attacked vessels with intense telepathy, appearing to be whatever their crews most wanted. The closer a ship was to the lifeform, the stronger its telepathy.
In 2236 it ate a ship containing the friends and family of Qatai. He dedicated his entire life to destroying the bioplasmic creature, and gradually became somewhat immune to its attacks, although he was still sometimes susceptible to its illusions.
In 2375 it attempted to eat the USS Voyager, whose crew was telepathicly convinced that the creature was a wormhole to the Alpha Quadrant. However, it seems the telepathic attack needed to be focused on a particular delusion, as members of the crew who didn't really want to find a wormhole to the Alpha Quadrant were less affected. These included Seven of Nine, who was reluctant to return to Earth out of uncertainty as to how she would be greeted, and Naomi Wildman, who had been born on Voyager and saw the ship as her home. The Doctor was also unaffected, but this was because of his holographic status rather than anything else.
With the aid of Qatai, the three were able to trigger Voyager's engines to emit a pocket of antimatter that was then vaporized by Qatai's tetryon-based weapons, thus producing an electrolytic reaction and making Voyager 'taste bad'. This forced the creature to 'spit' Voyager out, the crew subsequently regained consciousness and the situation was explained to them by Seven, the Doctor and Naomi. (VOY: "Bliss")
- The term 'pitcher plant' refers to any of a number of carnivorous plants native to Earth. These plants use modified leaves that form basin-like structures. These basins fill with a fluid that is mostly water, but also contains narcotic compounds and digestive juices, and is usually lined with downward pointing hairs. Insects are lured to the plant by nectar, and become trapped in the basin where they exhaust their energy attempting vainly to escape, drown, and the soft body parts are digested by enzymes released by glands in the lower quarter of the pitcher. Another set of glands located near the enzyme exuding glands absorb the water-enzyme-insect mixture. Eventually all that remains of the insect after digestion is the exoskelton.
Further references
- VOY:
- "Inside Man"
- "Shattered"