Starbase 80?!

When its navigation processor fails, the Cerritos has to put in at Starbase 80, a run-down station Mariner dreads and the rest of Starfleet treats as a dumping ground. While the lower deckers help with repairs, Freeman and Ransom chase a replacement part, which chief engineer Gene Jakobowski will only hand over if they help him round up some dangerous Pyrithian bats. Freeman throws herself into the task, determined not to share the fate of the alternate Freeman who was banished there. Meanwhile crew members fall into a glowing-eyed, zombie-like trance, and Mariner blames a curse. The real culprit is Clem, an anaphasic lifeform picked up on an earlier mission and spreading through the crew's combadges in an attempt to make contact. With help from the station's staff, including the cheerful liaison Kassia Nox, Clem is contained and allowed to stay aboard Starbase 80. Mariner comes away seeing the station as a place of second chances.