Course Set; Secrets in Plain Sight
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Riker reports the course to Daled Four and states the ship will remain on impulse while Lieutenant La Forge finishes adjustments, anchoring the mission and its temporary technical limitation.
Data questions how Salia could unify Daled Four and explains the planet's permanent day/night hemispheres—delivering crucial exposition that frames the mission's political stakes and the deep causes of the conflict she must resolve.
Picard, Riker, and Worf react—Picard notes the irony that a child must heal centuries of division, Riker doubts her fragility, and Worf warns that outward form deceives, underscoring tension between appearance and hidden power.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Watchful and authoritative; contained vigilance signaling control over Salia's movements and appearances.
Anya (the guardian) enters an adjoining room visible during the viewer call, projecting watchful, imperious presence at Salia's side and reinforcing her protective custody without speaking.
- • Maintain control and proximity to Salia to ensure her safety and the guardian's duties.
- • Project authority to influence how Starfleet perceives Salia and to deter interference.
- • Salia must be closely guarded for her own protection and the success of her mission.
- • A visible, commanding presence will limit others' willingness to approach or question Salia.
Appears calm and sincere; outwardly optimistic though Troi senses deeper or mismatched interiority.
Salia appears on the Main Viewer, responds politely to Picard about her quarters, expresses gratitude and hopeful naivety about similarly luxurious accommodations on Daled Four, and thus registers as outwardly gracious and untroubled.
- • Reassure shipboard authorities that she is comfortable and obedient to protocol.
- • Project an image of confidence and readiness for her role as head-of-state.
- • Proper decorum and gratitude will foster goodwill with Starfleet hosts.
- • Her external comportment can help legitimize her mission on Daled Four.
Alert, professionally curious; an undercurrent of concern as he weighs the mismatch between appearances and political reality.
Picard emerges from the Ready Room to assert command: he solicits status, activates the viewer to speak with Salia, processes Troi's empathic warning, and frames the mission's diplomatic stakes after Data's exposition.
- • Confirm the wellbeing and accommodations of the passengers (Salia and guardian).
- • Assess Troi's empathic concern and determine whether the passengers pose a diplomatic complication.
- • Gather facts necessary to shape the Enterprise's role in the Daled Four mission.
- • The captain must balance protocol with the emotional and political realities of passengers.
- • Information (sensor, empathic, and visual) is required before issuing orders that affect a fragile diplomatic situation.
Calmly factual; curious about sociocultural implications without emotional investment.
Data provides clinical exposition about Daled Four's perpetual hemispheric day and night, reframing the problem as environmental and cultural — and establishing why Salia's mission to unify the planet is politically fraught.
- • Supply objective, scientific context about Daled Four to inform command decisions.
- • Clarify the environmental cause of long-standing conflict to reduce ambiguity in mission planning.
- • Data and environmental conditions (e.g., permanent day/night) shape cultural development and therefore political conflict.
- • Providing factual context reduces uncertainty and aids rational decision-making.
Skeptical and guarded; professional detachment mixing with cultural bluntness when discussing 'shells' and appearance.
Worf, posted at the aft station, answers Picard about passenger accommodations with blunt skepticism, executes Picard's order to put Salia's quarters on the Main Viewer, and offers a terse philosophical admonition about appearances.
- • Provide Picard accurate, concise information about the passengers and their accommodations.
- • Maintain shipboard security and proper display controls (viewer) during the exchange.
- • Appearances are unreliable; there is often more to an individual than outward presentation.
- • Security and certainty come from observation and readiness, not sentiment.
Calmly professional; focused on technical constraints and immediate ship handling rather than the passengers' psychology.
Riker sits in the command chair, reports their plotted course for Daled Four, and explains the ship will remain on impulse pending La Forge's engineering adjustments, projecting pragmatic control over operations.
- • Ensure the Enterprise's propulsion and engineering state are safe for the upcoming transit.
- • Communicate clear operational limits so command and bridge crew can act within engineering constraints.
- • Operational readiness must come before diplomatic flourish.
- • Engineering realities (impulse vs warp) determine tactical and schedule choices.
Uneasy and puzzled; professionally insistent that what she senses is significant even if it is hard to articulate precisely.
Troi arrives from the turbolift and interrupts the procedural exchange with an empathic warning: she reports that the new passengers' emotions don't align with their presented identities, pressing Picard to consider a deeper truth.
- • Convince Picard and the bridge crew to take her empathic impressions seriously.
- • Protect the ship and crew by flagging potential hidden emotional or identity risks among the passengers.
- • Emotions can reveal inconsistencies that pure facts miss.
- • Her empathic readings should inform command decisions about passengers and diplomatic interactions.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Main Viewer is activated by Picard/Worf to display Salia's quarters and her image for the bridge. It functions as the bridge's conduit for remote diplomatic inspection and as a visual anchor that contrasts Salia's composed exterior with Troi's empathic misgivings.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Main Bridge serves as the operational and diplomatic forum where command decisions, empathic readings, and sensor/contextual briefings collide; its layout concentrates voices of authority and allows rapid activation of communications and displays.
The Captain's Ready Room is the adjacent private locus Picard just exited; its presence explains Picard's immediate authority and provides narrative contrast between private deliberation and public command on the bridge.
The Aft Turbolift is the transit space through which Troi enters and which situates crew movement within the bridge's rhythm; it underscores how private arrivals (Troi, Picard) can puncture routine operations.
Daled Four is the mission target whose environmental and political condition (permanent day/night hemispheres) Data explains; it reframes the voyage as high-stakes diplomatic intervention with longstanding cultural schism.
Salia's Quarters are the remote location displayed on the Main Viewer; they function as the immediate evidence of the passengers' accommodations and as a prism through which Salia's composed exterior and Anya's presence are judged by the bridge crew.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Data's exposition about Daled Four's permanent day/night hemispheres links to the visual magnification of the planet's yellow clouds on the viewer — technical context and imagery together reinforce the theme of divided worlds needing unity."
"Data's exposition about Daled Four's permanent day/night hemispheres links to the visual magnification of the planet's yellow clouds on the viewer — technical context and imagery together reinforce the theme of divided worlds needing unity."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"RIKER: Captain, we've laid in a course for Daled Four. We will remain on impulse power until Lieutenant La Forge completes his adjustments."
"TROI: Our new passengers. Their emotions do not seem to fit... ... well, who they are and what they're doing."
"DATA: I did? I meant that Daled Four does not rotate. One side has constant night, the other constant daylight. One might surmise that the two hemispheres developed disparate cultures, which is a major cause of most wars."