Picard Orders a Desperate Course Correction
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard pivots to action, summoning La Forge for a last-ditch plan to alter the moon's trajectory.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Distressed and pleading — he conveys scientific certainty laced with personal worry for his planet's people.
Doctor Garin appears on the main viewer, visibly troubled, amplifying the planetary stakes by describing atmospheric drag, seismic repercussions, and the possibility of a global climate catastrophe.
- • Convey the severity of the threat to obtain assistance
- • Ensure Starfleet understands the planetary-scale consequences if nothing is done
- • His people face existential danger without immediate intervention
- • The Enterprise's help is essential to any hope of mitigation
Resolute and burdened — outwardly controlled but carrying the weight of millions of lives, urgency tightening his instructions.
Picard presides over the briefing, asks pointed tactical questions, physically keys his insignia to authorize action, and pivots the bridge from examination to an operational gambit directed at La Forge.
- • Clarify the technical reality and timeline of the threat
- • Authorize and initiate an engineering response to avert impact
- • The captain bears responsibility to act decisively to save lives
- • Time is limited and only the Enterprise has the capability to attempt a risky intervention
Clinical and factual — unemotional delivery that nonetheless makes the stakes painfully explicit for others.
Data provides precise orbital and impact calculations, explains why fragmentation is not a mitigation, and answers the captain's questions with clinical clarity, supplying the factual spine for command decisions.
- • Deliver accurate sensor and trajectory data to inform command choices
- • Prevent ill-advised tactical moves by clarifying physical consequences
- • Objective data should determine tactical response
- • Misunderstanding the physics will lead to catastrophic secondary consequences
Sternly vigilant — focused on ship safety and readiness to execute orders without display of panic.
Worf remains at Tactical, maintaining a security posture and monitoring bridge activity; his presence enforces containment and discipline while engineering and command deliberate risky options.
- • Protect the ship and crew during any high-risk maneuver
- • Ensure security protocols are upheld despite operational stress
- • Duty to safeguard the crew cannot be subordinated to empathy alone
- • Orderly implementation of orders is essential in crisis
Concerned and focused — ready to move from debate to action, irritated by theoretical or helpless responses.
Riker sits in the command chair, pressing for practical options and immediately testing tactical solutions (e.g., fragmentation), challenging assumptions and pushing for actionable engineering responses.
- • Explore any immediate tactical remedy that could reduce casualties
- • Translate scientific assessment into concrete shipboard actions
- • Time is short and bold action is required
- • Command must pursue all feasible technical remedies rather than resign to inevitability
Concerned and quietly steady — attentive to both the technical facts and the crew's emotional strain.
Troi is present in a command chair, providing a stabilizing empathetic presence; she listens and monitors emotional tenor on the bridge, anchoring moral clarity as Picard weighs options.
- • Support the captain by maintaining crew composure
- • Translate emotional realities into counsel for command decisions
- • Crew effectiveness depends on emotional stability under stress
- • Moral implication of choices must be considered alongside technical feasibility
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The ferrous crystalline Bre'el Moon is the subject of the briefing: sensors reveal its composition and trajectory, and its indestructibility is the causal engine forcing the Enterprise's desperate plans.
Main bridge sensor monitors display trajectory plots, orbital projections, countdowns and diagnostic overlays; officers study them for velocity, altitude and impact projections that form the factual basis of the briefing.
Picard physically keys his Starfleet insignia to authenticate and authorize command-level requests; the gesture converts discussion into operational orders and signals urgency to the bridge team.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Main Bridge functions as the nerve center for the briefing and decision: senior officers gather, the viewscreen links to planetary scientists, and the environment channels raw data into moral and tactical choice.
USS Enterprise's orbit around Bre'el provides the vantage and staging ground for the intervention; from here the ship measures the moon, times orbits, and prepares any tractor or propulsion gambit.
The Western Continent (Impact Zone) is identified as the projected strike area, serving as the human scale of catastrophe that converts abstract numbers into impending loss for millions.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
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Key Dialogue
"DATA: The satellite's trajectory continues to deteriorate, Captain... This orbit will bring it to within five hundred kilometers of the planet's surface."
"SCIENTIST: No, it has a ferrous crystaline structure and will be able to withstand tidal forces, Captain..."
"PICARD: (keying insignia) Commander La Forge, is there any way the Enterprise might be able to coax this satellite back where it belongs... ?"