Rim of Lights — Q Contained
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Worf activates the force field, physically separating Q from the rest of the ship, asserting control over the situation.
Q, now confined, reacts with anger and frustration, shouting at Worf as he leaves, culminating in his desperate insult and defeat.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Resolute professional control masking an underlying wariness; morally strict and unsentimental in order to protect the ship.
Worf physically escorts Q into the detention cell, delivers curt orders, instructs the ship's computer to activate the forcefield, then departs after ensuring containment—projecting procedural control and leaving a guard to hold position.
- • Secure Q to prevent escape or further harm to crew and civilians
- • Enforce Starfleet procedure and maintain shipboard order
- • Q has repeatedly deceived and endangered the crew and cannot be trusted
- • Institutional protocol and physical containment are necessary to mitigate unpredictable threats
Humiliated and enraged; shame at impotence underpins aggressive sarcasm and desperate testing of boundaries.
Q rants and deploys theatrical insults, verbally challenges Worf's authority, attempts to test and pass through the energized rim of lights, then devolves into frustrated petulance and finally slumps down when his powers fail to work.
- • Regain freedom or at least prove he remains superior
- • Manipulate or bait the crew into responding emotionally or reversing containment
- • He remains intellectually and morally superior to the crew despite his current vulnerability
- • The crew's pity or indecision can be exploited to regain advantage
Impartial and clinical; no emotion, simply follows orders and system protocols.
The Shipboard Computer receives Worf's command and executes it, energizing the detention cell's forcefield rim; it functions as the neutral executor of security protocol without commentary or hesitation.
- • Accurately execute authorized security commands
- • Maintain the integrity and status of shipboard safety systems
- • Authorized commands from security personnel must be executed without delay
- • Forcefield activation will physically enforce containment as designed
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The rim of lights is energized on command, physically dividing the detention cell into sectors and preventing passage or disappearance; it functions both as a practical security barrier and a visible humiliation of Q's former omnipotence.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The high-security detention cell becomes the stage for this confrontation: a cramped, clinical space where institutional procedure clamps down on an extraordinary being. It frames the scene as a moral and physical containment, compressing cosmic stakes into a human setting.
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
"WORF: Be quiet or disappear back where you came from."
"Q: I can't disappear any more than you can win a beauty contest. If I ask a very simple question, do you think you can grasp it without troubling your intellect too much... ready? If I still had powers, would I permit you to lock me away?"
"WORF: Computer, activate forcefield."