Starfleet ethical principles and institutional norms (no genocidal solutions) vs. the pragmatic impulse among officers and scientists to exterminate a dangerous emergent intelligence.
Starfleet ethical principles and institutional norms (no genocidal solutions) vs. the pragmatic impulse among officers and scientists to exterminate a dangerous emergent intelligence.
Events in This Arc
A moral and tactical inflection point on the bridge: Dr. Stubbs demands wholesale eradication of the rogue nanites, arguing survival; Picard publicly rebukes him and insists no one aboard will …
On Science One, Picard gives the captain’s order for a ship‑wide gamma pulse — a last‑resort extermination of the nanite swarm. Riker and Worf move to execute the lethal protocol; …
In the shuttle bay Picard forces a moral reckoning: Data volunteers his neural matrix as a temporary host so the emergent nanite intelligence can speak. Through Data they explain their …