Human DNA Above — Discovery Becomes Pursuit
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data’s tricorder detects anomalous human DNA thirty-one meters above, shattering the illusion that the Royale is purely a simulated environment and revealing it as a macabre mausoleum built around a real corpse.
Riker demands the location of the DNA signature, his voice sharp with urgency, confirming he is no longer merely observing the hotel’s fiction but hunting for its buried truth.
Worf proposes the turbolifts as a path upward, turning abstract data into actionable intent—bridging the gap between discovery and movement, his pragmatism cutting through the hotel’s surreal stillness.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Clinically focused with an undercurrent of seriousness — Data's detached tone nonetheless conveys the gravity of the discovery.
Data aims and studies his tricorder upward, reports detection of DNA 31.9 meters above and to the right, supplying precise sensor coordinates that transform the team's vague hypotheses into an actionable lead.
- • Accurately localize any biological signature within the structure.
- • Provide reliable sensor data that the team can use to determine their next physical move.
- • Sensor data is authoritative and should guide operational decisions.
- • Locating biological evidence is a priority because it will change the team's objectives from investigation to rescue/recovery.
Stoic and determined; urgency is present but expressed through practical solution-finding rather than alarm.
Worf points toward the elevator banks, immediately offering the turbolifts as a concrete means to reach the elevated coordinate, converting Data's abstract reading into a straightforward tactical route.
- • Identify the quickest, most controllable access route to the indicated height.
- • Ensure the team can physically reach and secure the area while remaining ready to protect them.
- • Direct, mechanical solutions (like lifts) are the most reliable in uncertain environments.
- • A confirmed biological signature indicates immediate need for containment or recovery and potential threat that must be addressed promptly.
Alert and urgent; curiosity is deprioritized in favor of mission focus and protective responsibility.
Riker reacts instantly to Data's report, asking 'Where?' and shifting from conversational interrogation to urgent command posture, ready to convert technical information into immediate action.
- • Determine the exact location so the team can move to secure or investigate it.
- • Translate Data's reading into a tactical plan that preserves crew safety while obtaining evidence or persons.
- • Timely, decisive action limits risk and preserves options.
- • Technical evidence from trusted officers should be acted on without delay.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Data's hand-held Starfleet tricorder functions as the causative plot device: by scanning the overhead space it isolates a human DNA trace and supplies an exact vertical coordinate, transforming speculation into a concrete target and accelerating the team's tactics.
The registration desk anchors the stage of investigation: the team stands near it as their staging area, and its domestic, civilian details heighten the dissonance when scientific instruments reveal lethal evidence above.
The lobby's overhead ceiling is elevated from set dressing to the event's focal point once the tricorder pins DNA there; its panels and void become the scene's suspected repository of a body, reframing architecture as a potential crime scene.
The passenger elevators (elevator bank) are visually indicated by crew as an obvious vertical access point; they momentarily attract attention as one of the mechanical options to reach the overhead area before turbolifts are proposed.
The USS Enterprise turbolifts are invoked by Worf as the practical transit mechanism to reach 31.9 meters; narratively they convert sensor coordinates into an immediate plan for vertical movement and escalate the timeline toward confrontation or recovery.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Riker’s confrontation with the Assistant Manager over exit demands leads him to interrogate the hotel’s reality, which triggers Data’s detection of the anomalous DNA—the very human truth hidden beneath the fiction—and pivots the story from simulation to tomb."
"Riker’s confrontation with the Assistant Manager over exit demands leads him to interrogate the hotel’s reality, which triggers Data’s detection of the anomalous DNA—the very human truth hidden beneath the fiction—and pivots the story from simulation to tomb."
"Detection of human DNA in room 727 directly triggers Riker and Data’s investigation, leading to the discovery of Colonel Richey—making the entire hotel’s existence suddenly less about alien artifice and more about tragic, well-intentioned cruelty."
"Detection of human DNA in room 727 directly triggers Riker and Data’s investigation, leading to the discovery of Colonel Richey—making the entire hotel’s existence suddenly less about alien artifice and more about tragic, well-intentioned cruelty."
"Detection of human DNA in room 727 directly triggers Riker and Data’s investigation, leading to the discovery of Colonel Richey—making the entire hotel’s existence suddenly less about alien artifice and more about tragic, well-intentioned cruelty."
Key Dialogue
"DATA: Commander... I am picking up something most unusual in another section of this structure. Indications of DNA."
"RIKER: Where?"
"DATA: Thirty-one point nine meters above and to the right of us."