Identicals: Riker's Alarm, Pulaski's Challenge
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Riker spots twin women working in an office and snaps an order to Worf to stand by for immediate beam-out. Caution spikes as the pattern of duplicates becomes undeniable.
GRANGER 1B probes Pulaski’s credentials; she answers, activates her tricorder, and pushes on a possible medical issue while Riker clocks another duplicate approaching. Pulaski cuts GRANGER 1B off, insisting the prime minister explain—signaling she knows he’s holding back.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Professional curiosity with guarded skepticism; she treats social ambiguity as a clinical puzzle to be resolved.
Dr. Pulaski walks with Granger, quietly activates the tricorder on her belt, frames a direct medical question to the host, and glances at her readout for subtle diagnostic cues while maintaining a professional exterior.
- • Establish whether any immediate medical threat or anomaly is present.
- • Assert Starfleet medical jurisdiction and obtain factual information through diagnostics.
- • Use clinical framing to compel truthful answers or reveal concealment.
- • Anomalous social patterns can have medical or biological explanations worth immediate examination.
- • Direct clinical questioning and diagnostic tools (tricorder) are effective at cutting through diplomatic euphemism.
- • Her medical authority aboard Enterprise grants her standing in first contact situations.
Neutral or socially programmed; presents no visible agitation and maintains hospitable appearance.
Multiple identical Mariposan men and women move through the reception area in calm, routine ways — conferring, passing papers, working at desks — presenting a coordinated, uncanny civic face to visitors.
- • Project social normalcy and institutional calm to visiting dignitaries.
- • Mask individual identities within a replicated civic presentation.
- • Preserve the political and ceremonial rhythm while visitors are assessed.
- • Replication/duplication is an accepted aspect of Mariposan social order.
- • A uniform, repeated public face reduces individual variability and potential challenge.
- • Visitors will read the surface hospitality as a sign of stability unless pressed for deeper answers.
Alert and cautious as a collective; cooperative with chain of command and prepared for tactical withdrawal.
The Away Team materializes and proceeds under diplomatic escort, staying formation‑tight and deferring to Riker's leadership; they move from ceremony to cautious posture as the cloning pattern becomes apparent.
- • Execute the diplomatic mission while protecting team members.
- • Support Riker and Pulaski in information gathering and threat assessment.
- • Maintain readiness for rapid extraction.
- • Team cohesion and adherence to orders minimize risk during unknown contact.
- • Non‑escalation is preferable unless a direct threat manifests.
- • Observational data gathered on the spot will guide immediate tactical decisions.
Disturbed and ready; instinctively prepared to act but constrained by command and protocol.
Worf accompanies Riker, emits a low growl of disturbance at the duplicates, does a double‑take when another identical man appears, and acknowledges Riker's order to stand by for an immediate beam‑out.
- • Be ready to execute Riker's beam‑out order without delay.
- • Assess physical threat levels and protect the away team.
- • Maintain a security posture that deters unexpected aggression.
- • Repeated identical individuals in proximity increase the probability of coordinated deception or ambush.
- • Obedience to command structure ensures the fastest, most effective response to danger.
- • Visible readiness (growl, posture) can serve as a deterrent.
Alert and suspicious; outwardly controlled but privately alarmed and protective of his team.
Commander Riker leads the away team inward, registers the uncanny duplication of individuals, steps aside to whisper a terse order for an immediate beam‑out and tries to maintain diplomatic cover while assessing threat.
- • Ensure the physical safety of the away team and prepare for immediate extraction if necessary.
- • Identify the nature of the duplicates without escalating hostilities.
- • Preserve diplomatic protocol to avoid unnecessary offense while gathering information.
- • The identical people indicate an intentional social or technological practice (likely cloning) that may pose security or ethical complications.
- • Caution and readiness (beam‑out) are necessary in first contact anomalies.
- • Pulaski's medical questions will be useful for clarifying intent without provoking confrontation.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Dr. Pulaski casually keys on the palm-sized medical tricorder clipped to her belt and consults its readout while speaking with Granger, using the device to translate diplomatic euphemism into hard biometric or medical questions and to silently scan the environment for anomalies.
The low, curving reception desk frames the initial diplomatic threshold; Riker and team pause at its edge, the seated attendant and passing clones use it as a staging point, and it visually separates the visitors from the prime minister's domain.
The stack of reception desk papers provides textural realism to the meeting and visually anchors the reception desk; staff confer over them, and they emphasize the ordinary bureaucratic surface that masks the uncanny duplications moving through the room.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Riker’s observation of duplicate citizens prompts Pulaski to challenge Granger, leading to the clone revelation."
"Riker’s observation of duplicate citizens prompts Pulaski to challenge Granger, leading to the clone revelation."
Key Dialogue
"((sotto voce)) A brother?"
"Worf, stand by for immediate beam out. There's something damn odd down here."
"Is there some medical problem we should know about?"