Rhizome Revealed — The Vine as Predator
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data and Geordi beam to Riker’s last known spot, move with deliberate caution, and begin a methodical survey—Geordi sweeping with his VISOR while Data opens a tricorder scan.
Data reports no animal life within fifty kilometers but detects extensive, mostly fossilized remains, prompting Geordi’s "graveyard" read and sharpening the threat profile.
They isolate an unusual vine—Data tags its structure as rhizomatous and lifts it, yet Geordi’s VISOR spots thermal variations, elevating the vine from harmless-looking to prime suspect.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Alert and ready — prepared to execute transport protocols rapidly on command, there is implied professional concern for team safety.
O'Brien is invoked off‑screen by Geordi's communicator call to 'Stand by'; he is implied to prepare transporter systems and await a signal to energize and beam the away team or specimen out immediately.
- • Prepare transporter for immediate energizing/beam operation on command
- • Ensure safety and proper protocol are maintained in a potentially hazardous beam‑up
- • Transporter technology is the fastest means of extraction in an emergency
- • Following procedure and being on standby mitigates risk to personnel
Calmly cautious — externally composed and analytical, with an undercurrent of concern about Geordi's safety and the medical implications for Riker.
Data conducts a meticulous tricorder sweep, reports absence of living fauna and presence of fossilized remains, physically lifts and restrains the vine when it strikes and helps expose the thorn for sampling while warning Geordi of the danger.
- • Collect an uncontaminated sample for medical analysis
- • Protect Geordi and minimize risk during the physical examination
- • Accurately document the organism's structure and behavior for Sickbay
- • Scientific observation and controlled manipulation will yield actionable data
- • The organism may be biologically linked to Riker's condition and therefore dangerous
- • Preservation of evidence is paramount to diagnosis
Focused and slightly playful risk‑taking on the surface, masking urgency and a single‑minded determination to secure evidence that could explain Riker's injury.
Geordi sweeps the area with his VISOR, locates the unusual rhizome, deliberately provokes it to create a reaction, adjusts his phaser to sever a thorn, and calls O'Brien on his communicator to stand by for immediate extraction.
- • Confirm whether the vine caused Riker's injury by provoking a response
- • Secure a physical specimen (thorn) for medical analysis
- • Enable rapid extraction if the situation escalates
- • Physical evidence is required to prove causation for Riker's condition
- • Technology (VISOR, phaser, communicator) will keep him and the team safe
- • A controlled provocation will reveal the organism's behavior
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Pulaski's Medical Tricorder (here used by Data) performs a meticulous scan of the immediate area, detecting a lack of living fauna and extensive fossilized remains; it provides diagnostic readouts that frame the scene as a graveyard and supports Data's analysis of the vine's rhizomatous structure.
The Surata IV rhizomatous vine initially appears desiccated and harmless; when Geordi provokes it and Data handles it, it reveals an underside thorn and, when the thorn is cut, triggers a planet‑wide reactive oscillation—revealing it as an active, interconnected predator likely capable of fusing with nervous tissue.
Geordi's VISOR is actively used to survey thermal and structural anomalies in the soil and vegetation; it guides Geordi to the rhizome, reveals subtle thermal variations that suggest reactive behavior, and informs the decision to provoke the vine for testing.
The fossilized animal remains are surveyed and recorded by Data's tricorder as environmental evidence; they contextualize the planet as a graveyard ecosystem, raising the possibility of long‑term predatory behavior and ecological dominance by the rhizome.
Geordi adjusts and fires a pinpoint phaser to sever the thorn from the vine; the phaser functions as a precise sampling tool rather than a weapon, its cut directly provoking a reflexive, large‑scale reaction from the surrounding rhizome network.
Geordi's portable communicator is used to contact O'Brien in the transporter room, creating a direct lifeline between the field team and ship operations and triggering standby protocols for immediate extraction once the specimen is secured.
The mean‑looking thorn is the key biological sample: attached to the vine until Geordi severs it with a pinpoint phaser. Its exposure confirms the vine's predatory anatomy and provides the specimen likely responsible for Riker's neural fusion.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Picard's order to get a sample leads Data and Geordi to isolate the hostile vine."
"Picard's order to get a sample leads Data and Geordi to isolate the hostile vine."
"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."
"The thorn’s invasive attack rhymes with Armus physically engulfing Riker—alien threats breaching bodily boundaries."
"The thorn’s invasive attack rhymes with Armus physically engulfing Riker—alien threats breaching bodily boundaries."
Key Dialogue
"DATA: "I detect no animal life within fifty kilometers. Merely vegetation. However, I am reading extensive animal remains -- mostly fossilized.""
"GEORDI: "Perhaps it likes humans more than androids.""
"DATA: "If you are correct, you are placing yourself in grave danger.""