Non‑Human Blood at the Ransacked Outpost
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Beverly discovers non-human blood on a piece of metal, hinting at the attackers' identity.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Clinically attentive — unemotional data‑driven focus that orients the team's next move.
Data performs tricorder scans, detects faint life signs five meters ahead, assists physically in opening the jammed door with a quick, precise pull, and helps transition the team's focus from environment to occupants beyond the door.
- • Provide accurate sensor information to guide the team's actions
- • Assist in removing barriers to access the life signs
- • Sensor data is the most reliable guide in uncertain environments
- • Immediate physical access to detected life signs is necessary for assessment
Controlled vigilance — Klingon stoicism with readiness for combat or rescue.
Worf physically inspects the engineering slab, tries the manual override on the jammed door, helps move heavy debris, and stands ready to secure the opened room; his actions are physically decisive and tactically focused.
- • Breach the jammed door to reach the life signs
- • Ensure the team's physical safety while assessing threats
- • Physical obstacles are tactical problems to be solved quickly
- • Any unexplained life signs likely indicate immediate danger or casualty
Measured concern shifting to alert curiosity — pragmatic about logistics but increasingly aware of political/danger stakes.
Riker leads the away team’s survey, points out the scope of the looting, helps move debris toward the blocked door, and reacts to Beverly's forensic discovery, shifting his frame from salvage commander to investigating officer.
- • Assess the outpost's condition and immediate hazards to the team
- • Determine whether there are survivors and the cause of the damage
- • This site belongs to the Federation and must be secured and reported
- • Evidence (like blood) will change the team's mandate from salvage to investigation
Calm professional focus — outwardly unshaken, internally sharpening to investigative urgency.
Dr. Beverly Crusher methodically scans wreckage, picks up a jagged shard, notes a blood‑like smear, and immediately recognizes it as non‑human — converting environmental damage into forensic evidence and reframing the team's mission.
- • Identify the origin of the blood to clarify victim/attacker identity
- • Preserve and report forensic evidence to inform command decisions
- • Biological evidence will provide objective answers faster than speculation
- • Her medical/forensic role obligates her to convert hazard scenes into diagnostic data
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The manual override lever adjacent to the sealed corridor door is tested by Worf but fails to open the jammed door; the jammed override amplifies tension and forces the team to resort to physical tactics, after which Data achieves entry.
The outpost power reactor is absent; its mounting slab is scorched and empty. The missing reactor is noticed by Worf and the team as they assess the extent of salvage and sabotage, marking the scene not only as looted but dangerous and strategically compromised.
A palm‑length, serrated fragment of shattered lab hardware is picked up by Beverly; the fragment bears a dark, viscous smear that she identifies as non‑human blood. The shard transforms from background debris into the pivotal forensic clue that reframes the away team's mission.
Instrumentation panels ripped from the walls serve as visceral proof of looting; the away team navigates around these panels as they clear a path toward the jammed door, using exposed openings to confirm that critical systems were removed.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Beverly's discovery of non-human blood leads to the identification of Acamarian blood and Gatherer involvement."
Key Dialogue
"DATA: Life signs five meters straight ahead, Commander."
"RIKER: Blood?"
"BEVERLY: Yes, but not human. I'll have to do some analysis on it."