False Failure: Pakleds Weaponize a Routine Repair
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Geordi locks the final connection and declares the guidance system operational, confidence settling in as the repair takes hold.
Lights die and limp back on reserve power; the Pakleds play simple while pivoting Geordi from finished guidance work to a 'broken' main power and push him to fix it.
Geordi sighs and calls Riker to report the delay, while Riker and Troi share a look that sharpens into mounting concern.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Feigned confusion layered over opportunistic focus; appears harmless but is actively aiding the ruse.
Plays the part of an inept crewman asking Geordi directly whether he can 'make it go,' using deferential body language and simple phrasing to keep the technician engaged and isolated while the blackout occurs.
- • prolong Geordi's presence and attention aboard the Mondor
- • reinforce the Pakleds' image of helplessness to avoid suspicion
- • create a social cover for technical meddling or containment
- • Starfleet technicians will respond to apparent helplessness
- • simple questions and flattery reduce vigilance
- • coordinated acting will buy critical time
Alert and increasingly alarmed; professional control tinged with personal concern for an away-team member.
Receives Geordi's communication through the bridge link (reported by Geordi), reacts with mounting concern in concert with Counselor Troi, and prepares to escalate or alter response based on the unexpected delay and Troi's affective read.
- • assess the seriousness of Geordi's delay
- • coordinate a safe response or extraction if needed
- • weigh escalation against potential diplomatic consequences
- • an unexplained technical delay under unfamiliar hosts may signal danger
- • Troi's empathic cues are operationally valuable
- • preserving crew safety overrides deference to distress calls
Alarmed and insistent internally; externally composed but clearly signaling that something feels wrong.
Registers an empathic alarm at the feed of Geordi's delay and the Pakleds' behavior, communicates concern through presence and reaction on the bridge, which amplifies Riker's sense of urgency.
- • translate her empathic impressions into actionable warning for command
- • ensure Geordi's safety by prompting an appropriate bridge response
- • prevent complacency toward the Pakleds' apparent helplessness
- • affective cues reliably indicate hidden threat
- • command should act on intuitive warnings
- • the Pakleds' pleasant demeanor may conceal malicious intent
Focused and mildly frustrated at the interruption; outwardly composed but wary and alert to potential deception.
Physically completes the last framiss on the final spigot, announces repair, reacts to sudden blackout, taps his handheld communicator and radios Commander Riker, then immediately returns to diagnostics under the Pakleds' watchful, smiling faces.
- • complete the guidance repair and verify system functionality
- • diagnose and resolve the sudden main power failure
- • keep the Pakleds cooperative while protecting Enterprise systems
- • maintain communication with Enterprise command for status and help
- • technical problems are solvable with hands-on work
- • the Pakleds present as simple but their motives should be watched
- • reporting delays to command is necessary for crew safety
- • a minor setback can escalate if not carefully managed
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Mondor's overhead lights flicker, gutter, and partially recover on reserve circuits — a sensory signal that dramatizes the engineered failure and forces immediate troubleshooting behavior from Geordi.
Reserve power systems physically engage to restore partial illumination and life to diagnostics; their activation is audible (a GROAN) and functionally keeps the scene lit while underscoring the artificiality of the 'failure.'
Geordi physically twists the last framiss spigot into place as the definitive mechanical action that completes the guidance repair; the installation is the tangible proof of success and the cue for the subsequent power failure.
Geordi's palm-sized communicator is tapped to place a direct hail to Commander Riker; it functions as the narrative connector between the isolated technician and Enterprise command, escalating concern on the bridge.
The Mondor's guidance system is the repair target whose apparent restoration initiates the sequence; its reactivation fails to yield ship movement because a higher-level power failure is manufactured, turning a technical success into a frustrating narrative pivot.
Referenced implicitly as 'main power' that is said to be failed — the narrative antagonist here, its unavailability prevents the guidance repair from enabling movement and reframes the visit as stalled by a higher-level systems outage.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Mondor functions as the immediate site of repair and the engineered trap — a cramped, utilitarian interior where diagnostics, tools, and crew interaction are visible; the ship's systems behavior (lights, groans, reserve engagement) converts the interior into a pressure cooker that isolates Geordi.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
This event is currently isolated in the narrative graph
Key Dialogue
"GEORDI: There. Guidance is up and running."
"GEORDI: Main power failure?"
"GEORDI: Commander Riker, it looks like this might take a little longer than I anticipated..."