Deliberate Infection: Data Identifies Predatory Vine
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard demands a report; Data states the injury was deliberate, explaining that certain vines seek warm-blooded hosts and infect them.
Pressed for motive, Data concedes it's unknown, floats possible symbiosis, then—prompted—cites nearby animal remains to hypothesize the vines are predatory.
Picard completes the logic—infect to kill—while Data hopes he's wrong and Picard grimly notes Data’s hypotheses rarely miss.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Focused and professional; mildly tense under the pressure of an abnormal retrieval but outwardly steady.
O'Brien operates the transporter console, effects the beam that returns Geordi and Data, and remains positioned behind the console as routine procedure converts into urgent evidence transfer.
- • Complete a safe transport for returning personnel and evidence.
- • Maintain console operation and support any containment protocols if needed.
- • The transporter bay must remain controlled and by-the-book to avoid compounding the risk.
- • His technical competence is a stabilizing influence in emergencies.
Concerned and grim; professional command overlays personal worry for Riker, driving action toward preservation and understanding of the threat.
Picard enters the transporter room, receives Geordi's thorn, immediately prioritizes medical analysis by ordering the specimen to Sickbay, and interrogates Data for an explanatory assessment linking evidence to motive and method.
- • Ensure the specimen reaches Sickbay without delay to inform treatment and investigation.
- • Extract clear, actionable analysis from Data to determine threat level and intent.
- • Concrete evidence must direct the crew's next steps; protocol and chain-of-command matter.
- • If the organism is deliberate in its action, the Enterprise has an obligation to protect its crew and investigate motive.
Clinically calm with a restrained, intellectual concern; a faint hope that his hypothesis might be wrong when human life is at risk.
Data provides a calm, analytical report asserting that Riker's wound was deliberate; he offers a hypothesis of symbiosis before conceding predation after noting numerous animal remains at the site.
- • Translate field observations into testable hypotheses to guide medical and tactical response.
- • Communicate findings clearly to command so the ship can adjust priorities.
- • Empirical evidence (e.g., animal remains, thorn morphology) should determine the classification of the organism's behavior.
- • His duty is to provide objective analysis even when the implications are troubling.
Relieved at personal safety but cautious and focused; conscious of duty and the potential consequences of the specimen he carries.
Geordi materializes on the transporter platform, inspects himself for injury, presents the severed thorn to Picard and physically removes himself from the platform to deliver the sample to Sickbay.
- • Deliver the thorn specimen to Sickbay intact and promptly.
- • Confirm no personal injury and report field conditions accurately to command.
- • The physical sample is crucial evidence that must be preserved for medical analysis.
- • Speed and chain of custody matter when an unusual biological threat is involved.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Fossilized animal remains are referenced by Data as corroborating evidence that the vines may be predatory; they function narratively to shift the hypothesis from benign symbiosis to lethal intent.
O'Brien's transporter console is the operational tool that rematerializes Geordi and Data, converting remote field work into immediate shipboard evidence transfer; its operation frames the transition from exploration to containment/forensics.
The mean-looking thorn is presented by Geordi as the central piece of physical evidence; it functions as proof of contact and likely causative agent, immediately triggering Picard's order to send it to Sickbay for forensic and medical analysis.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Sickbay is designated by Picard as the immediate destination for the thorn; it will function as the forensic-medical center where analysis, containment, and treatment intersect and where the line between patient care and criminal investigation will be drawn.
The transporter platform functions as the staging ground where field evidence is handed directly to command. It compresses technical procedure and human urgency into a single space where command decisions are made and evidence changes custody.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The vine’s deliberate attack (exposed thorn) yields Data’s report that Riker was intentionally infected."
"The vine’s deliberate attack (exposed thorn) yields Data’s report that Riker was intentionally infected."
"Data’s predation hypothesis echoes Armus later engulfing Riker—both hostile lifeforms exploiting a body."
"Data’s predation hypothesis echoes Armus later engulfing Riker—both hostile lifeforms exploiting a body."
Key Dialogue
"GEORDI: "Captain, here's your sample.""
"DATA: "Captain, the commander's injury was not accidental. Certain vines on the planet evidently seek out warm-blooded beings and deliberately infect them.""
"DATA: "It is possible. For Commander Riker's sake, I hope my hypothesis is in error.""