Marla's Claim at the Transporter
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Marla and Jeremy enter the transporter room, startling Chief O'Brien with her impossible presence. Marla announces their intent to beam down to the planet.
Picard and Troi arrive with security, confronting Marla and demanding answers about her true nature and intentions.
Marla asserts her right as Jeremy's mother while Picard counters that the boy is his responsibility, creating a custody battle over reality versus illusion.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Startled professionalism: surface focus on diagnostics while registering an irregular, emotionally dissonant intrusion.
Chief O'Brien is working the transporter panels and comparing circuit readouts when Marla, Jeremy and Worf enter; he visibly startles at the presence of a dead woman on the pad, indicating professional concern and immediate technical attention.
- • Maintain safe, stable transporter operations
- • Assess any technical anomaly caused by the apparition
- • Protect crew and the integrity of the transporter system
- • The transporter should only be used under strict authorization and known conditions
- • Unexpected materializations indicate a malfunction or security violation that must be diagnosed
Confused desperation: hope transforms into catastrophic abandonment when the comforting illusion disappears, exposing raw grief.
Jeremy stands on a transporter pad beside the woman who claims to be his mother; he accepts her as real, pleads with Picard and resists being pulled away, then collapses into panic and grief when she vanishes.
- • Remain with the woman he believes to be his mother
- • Return to the safety and comfort of parental care
- • Avoid being separated or sent away from the person who soothes him
- • The woman is his mother and therefore safe to trust
- • Adults (Picard, Worf) should see and accept the truth of his perception
Firm, controlled concern: moral duty to protect Jeremy shapes a resolute, paternal response despite personal discomfort.
Captain Picard enters from the corridor with Troi, interrogates the woman, explicitly refuses permission to transport Jeremy, asserts official responsibility for the child and directs security to hold position in the corridor rather than intervene physically in the room.
- • Prevent unauthorized removal of Jeremy from the ship
- • Establish the true identity or nature of Marla before permitting any action
- • Preserve the child's safety under Starfleet obligations
- • As commanding officer he is responsible for dependents aboard the Enterprise
- • Unverified claims—especially anomalous ones—cannot override duty and procedure
Resolute protectiveness: action-oriented grief and duty translate into a tactile, uncompromising removal of the child from perceived danger.
Worf moves casually toward the transporter pads, then physically takes Jeremy and pulls him away from Marla—executing a decisive, protective intervention that prioritizes the child's safety over subtler counsel.
- • Physically secure Jeremy and prevent his transport off the ship
- • Protect the child from what he perceives as a manipulative or dangerous presence
- • Direct, forceful action is sometimes necessary to safeguard the vulnerable
- • Honor compels him to atone for the failure of the away team by protecting victims under his care
Concerned empathy: quietly alarmed for Jeremy's psychological state while maintaining clinical steadiness to guide him away from harm.
Counselor Troi accompanies Picard, addresses Jeremy emotionally as the confrontation escalates, and ultimately escorts him out after the apparition vanishes, providing immediate empathic care and containment.
- • Stabilize Jeremy emotionally and physically
- • Remove him from the traumatic scene to prevent further distress
- • Support Picard's protective measures while advocating for the child's immediate needs
- • Jeremy is fragile and must not be subjected to coercive 'comfort' that might retraumatize him
- • Emotional truth and care can be more important than deference to illusions
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The recessed transporter room doors frame arrivals and control access: they open to admit Marla, Jeremy and Worf and remain the threshold through which Picard and Troi enter and Security is instructed to hold. The doors visually isolate the platform and stage the confrontation.
The transporter array circuits and diagnostic panels serve as the technical locus: O'Brien runs a monitor over the circuits to verify status while the apparition stands on the pads. The array's lights and readouts give the scene procedural realism and raise the possibility that the transporter is being used or breached.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Transporter Room Three is the charged stage of the event: a clinical technical space turned emotional battleground where institutional procedure and intimate grief collide. The pads, humming coils, and diagnostic glow make procedural authority visible while also heightening the horror when an apparent dead mother appears at the platform.
The Enterprise corridor functions as the staging and holding area: Picard, Troi and two security personnel arrive there; Picard uses the corridor as a place to position security defensively while he personally enters the transporter room to confront the apparition.
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
"MARLA: Chief O'Brien, Jeremy and I are going down to the surface."
"PICARD: I cannot permit that. This child is my responsibility."
"PICARD: Jeremy, she appears to be your mother, but she is not."