Aqueduct Ultimatum — Data Forces the Choice
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data blasts the aqueduct's control panel, cutting off the colony's water supply.
Data delivers a chilling ultimatum: surrender or face annihilation by the Sheliak.
Data offers the colonists a final choice by presenting them with a rifle.
Kentor leads the colonists in choosing survival, abandoning Gosheven's leadership.
Gosheven confesses his willingness to die for the land, but Data counters with the value of human life.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Proud and tender — relieved that pragmatic action spares lives, emotionally moved by Data's intervention.
Ard'rian watches from the crowd, quietly allied with Data's aims; after the decision she looks at Data with evident pride and affection, signaling personal investment in the moral outcome.
- • See the community survive to rebuild
- • Support practical leadership that values human life
- • Technical solutions and clear-headed action save people
- • Emotional bonds can and should survive enforced displacement
From stunned and conflicted to resolved and cooperative — fear turned into pragmatic compliance.
The Colonists serve as a watching, deciding public: initially silent and fearful, they respond to Kentor's lead and Data's ultimatum by abandoning the pump and following Kentor away from the square.
- • Find a course that preserves lives
- • Follow a leader who offers credible safety
- • Material possessions can be rebuilt elsewhere
- • Collective action is necessary to survive an existential external threat
A mix of astonished disbelief, wounded pride, and resigned sorrow leading to reluctant acquiescence.
Gosheven stands defiant and unarmed on the upper level, frozen by Data's display; after the pump is disabled he scoops dirt from the silent pool, confesses his willingness to die for the place, then, shamed and resigned, abandons his stand and walks to rejoin his people.
- • Maintain the colony's claim and honor its traditions
- • Model courage and commitment to place for his people
- • The land and its works embody identity and must be defended
- • Personal sacrifice is the highest moral response to dispossession
Apprehensive relief — fearful of the threat but relieved at a path to survival.
Haritath stands among the colonists initially aligned with Gosheven's defiance; confronted by Data's demonstration, he breaks ranks and shifts toward evacuation, visibly swayed and apprehensive.
- • Preserve the wellbeing of family and neighbors
- • Help facilitate a nonviolent transfer away from destructive leadership
- • The colony's continued existence matters more than retaining a site
- • Practical action should be taken when danger is incontrovertible
Nervous determination: anxious about the cost but clear-eyed about the necessity of action.
Kentor, standing among the colonists, speaks for practical survival — he breaks public silence with a clear call to move, then leads the way offstage, shifting community allegiance away from Gosheven.
- • Protect as many colonists as possible
- • Enable a peaceful transfer of leadership away from destructive pride
- • Survival and future rebuilding trump ritual fidelity to place
- • Community will follow a calm, credible alternative to sacrificial defiance
Measured, resolute calm — utilitarian clarity with an undercurrent of moral urgency rather than anger.
Data reveals himself, calmly incapacitates the armed line with precise phaser fire, switches his weapon setting to lethal, destroys the aqueduct control panel, addresses the crowd, and physically presents a rifle as a moral choice.
- • Force a pivot from place-based pride to survival-minded action
- • Demonstrate the futility of armed local defense against the Sheliak
- • Catalyze a collective decision to evacuate
- • Human lives are of greater value than material inheritance
- • A visceral demonstration of consequence will break political obstinacy
- • His immunity and precision give him moral standing to intervene
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The aqueduct's control panel and pumping machinery are the target of Data's demonstration: he blasts the control, producing sparks and halting the water flow — physically removing the colony's ability to defend the resource and making the pump strategically meaningless.
Gosheven's Rifles are the visible instruments of local coercion: four rifles are held in a defensive line, then instantly rendered useless when Data stuns their bearers. One rifle is picked up by Data and presented to the colonists as a tangible representation of choice and consequence.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Main Street Pumping Station is the practical and symbolic locus of the confrontation. It anchors the standoff: defenders block its entrance, leadership performs from its vicinity, and Data's destruction of its control immediately undercuts the colony's claim to the land.
The Silent Pool sits at the square's emotional low point: Gosheven scoops its dirt as a ritual gesture of devotion and loss, underscoring the intimate cost of abandoning place and the tactile moment of personal surrender.
The Town Square Upper Level is Gosheven's vantage — a ceremonial high ground where he stands unarmed, making his defiance visibly public. It frames him as a figure of authority and exposes him to Data's demonstration.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Data's realization about the need for demonstrative action directly leads to his aqueduct attack plan."
"Data's realization about the need for demonstrative action directly leads to his aqueduct attack plan."
"Data's realization about the need for demonstrative action directly leads to his aqueduct attack plan."
"Data's initial diplomatic approach to Gosheven escalates to direct confrontation when he stuns Gosheven's defenders and destroys the aqueduct."
"Data's initial diplomatic approach to Gosheven escalates to direct confrontation when he stuns Gosheven's defenders and destroys the aqueduct."
"Data's verbal portrait of annihilation escalates to his physical demonstration by destroying the aqueduct."
"Data's verbal portrait of annihilation escalates to his physical demonstration by destroying the aqueduct."
"Gosheven's symbolic gesture with the water contrasts with Data's destruction of the aqueduct - both using the colony's water supply as symbols of their arguments."
"Gosheven's symbolic gesture with the water contrasts with Data's destruction of the aqueduct - both using the colony's water supply as symbols of their arguments."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"DATA: I could reduce this pumping station to a pile of debris... but I trust my point is clear. I am one android with a single weapon. There are hundreds of Sheliak on the way... and their weapons are far more powerful. DATA: And the Sheliak may not even offer you a target. They can obliterate this colony from orbit. You will die never having seen the faces of your killers. DATA: The choice is yours."
"KENTOR: There are other places -- other challenges. It's time to move on."
"GOSHEVEN: I really was willing to stay and die for this. DATA: I know that, but it is just a thing, and things can be replaced. Lives cannot. Live, rebuild and be remembered."