Thrown Seven Thousand Light‑Years — Isolation Confirmed
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
The Enterprise halts abruptly, and Picard orders a full stop, immediately establishing a tense, suspended reality as Data confirms they’ve been thrust seven thousand light-years into uncharted space near system J-25.
Riker demands answers about their impossible position, and Data delivers the devastating calculation: two years to reach the nearest starbase, sealing their isolation and amplifying the existential threat.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Privately horrified and wary; her caution is laced with personal grief and an urgency to prevent repetition of past catastrophe.
Stares out the window, confirms her people's prior presence in this region, and counsels immediate retreat—delivering a warning informed by traumatic memory rather than technical data.
- • prevent the Enterprise from encountering the same threat her people suffered
- • persuade command to prioritize survival over curiosity
- • use her experiential knowledge to shape the ship's choice
- • Past trauma contains actionable warnings about present danger
- • Some regions of the galaxy bear existential threats that should be avoided
- • Emotional memory can be as valuable as analytic data in crisis decisions
Alert and anxious; performing required tasks while likely unsettled by the sudden displacement.
Acknowledges and repeats the helm response 'Answering all stop' over comms, executing the immediate procedural command, a small but necessary operational action.
- • carry out ordered ship maneuvers correctly and without delay
- • maintain bridge systems readiness
- • support senior officers through reliable execution
- • Following orders stabilizes chaotic situations
- • Technical competence can mitigate some immediate danger
- • Clear communication prevents compounding mistakes
Resolute and composed outwardly, masking the weight of responsibility; calm commitment to duty despite underlying awareness of risk.
Gives the order 'all stop', consults counsel (Guinan), and records a supplemental captain's log committing the Enterprise to exploration despite the ship's displacement and the two‑year transit to starbase.
- • reassert command and set a clear operational course
- • protect the ship while pursuing scientific and strategic opportunity
- • document events formally for Starfleet record via supplemental log
- • The Enterprise has a duty to explore and gather data even when isolated
- • Command decisions should balance caution with proactive investigation
- • Formal logs are essential to institutional accountability and future action
Clinical and objective; no observable panic, functioning as the ship's analytic anchor.
Reports sensor-derived coordinates and calculates an exact transit time to the nearest starbase with unemotional precision, converting the crew's dislocation into quantifiable data.
- • provide precise navigational and temporal information for tactical decisions
- • reduce uncertainty through measurable data
- • support command with usable calculations
- • Accurate data is the basis for correct decisions
- • Quantifying isolation (distance/time) clarifies operational options
- • Emotional reactions should not contaminate sensor interpretation
Furious and indignant on the surface; protective urgency beneath the anger, seeking to convert outrage into immediate defensive action.
Demands estimates, vocalizes anger and incredulity, delivers a scathing verbal indictment (directed at Q's act and implied philosophy), and presses the moral implications of being shown a grim possible future.
- • hold the responsible party (Q) accountable
- • persuade command to prioritize retreat and crew safety
- • translate alarm into concrete tactical measures
- • Confrontation is necessary when an outside force endangers the crew
- • Provocation from a superior (Q) requires an aggressive response
- • Exploration should not come at the cost of avoidable risk to personnel
Playful contempt; derives satisfaction from destabilizing authority and observing human responses.
After displacing the ship, he disappears in a flash; his physical action (flinging the Enterprise) stands as both provocation and proof of power even without extended dialogue in this moment.
- • demonstrate dominance over Picard and the crew
- • create a trial-like scenario to provoke reaction and reveal character
- • instill uncertainty and test Starfleet resolve
- • Mortals should be taught by disorienting demonstrations
- • Power is best asserted through dramatic, irrefutable acts
- • Observing responses to provocation is more instructive than direct instruction
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Sensor data — represented here by encoded coordinates — is the narrative instrument that converts the crew's subjective shock into objective reality: Data reads 'these coordinates,' locates the Enterprise seven thousand light‑years from known space near system J‑two‑five, and uses that information to compute a precise transit time to Starbase One Eight Five.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Main Bridge functions as the unseen but active operational center receiving Picard's command: it supplies the sensor readouts, executes the 'all stop' order, and is the locus where Data's calculations and Wesley's helm response manifest in ship control systems.
The distant part of the galaxy is the narrative backdrop newly occupied by the Enterprise; its sheer remoteness quantifies the crew's isolation and reframes every choice as one with long timelines and limited immediate support.
Ten‑Forward is the physical stage where the scene unfolds: a social lounge transformed into a crisis forum where Picard issues orders, Guinan watches the void, and crew react—turning comfort into a place of counsel and ritual witness to the ship's exile.
Starbase One Eight Five is invoked as the nearest institutional refuge; Data's transit calculation anchors it as the only proximate source of resupply or command aid two years away at maximum warp, thereby quantifying the Enterprise's operational isolation.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Guinan’s trembling admission of past trauma ('I’m not certain. Just a feeling…') evolves into her desperate, urgent command to flee ('Start back right now') — this progression shows her arc from traumatized witness to active protector, grounding her authority in lived experience."
"Guinan’s premonition in Ten-Forward echoes in her silent horror when the Borg ship appears — the same stillness, the same dread, confirming her trauma is not metaphorical but remembered, creating an emotional callback across acts."
"Picard’s calm containment of Sonya’s panic becomes the model for his own command during the Borg attack — the lesson of dignified restraint, taught in the corridor, is applied on the bridge under existential threat."
"Picard’s calm containment of Sonya’s panic becomes the model for his own command during the Borg attack — the lesson of dignified restraint, taught in the corridor, is applied on the bridge under existential threat."
"Picard’s calm containment of Sonya’s panic becomes the model for his own command during the Borg attack — the lesson of dignified restraint, taught in the corridor, is applied on the bridge under existential threat."
"The Borg’s silent, indifferent stalk through Engineering mirrors Guinan’s silent dread — both communicate horror without words. The Borg’s non-emotional purpose becomes the physical manifestation of the existential fear Guinan has carried for centuries."
"The Borg’s silent, indifferent stalk through Engineering mirrors Guinan’s silent dread — both communicate horror without words. The Borg’s non-emotional purpose becomes the physical manifestation of the existential fear Guinan has carried for centuries."
"The Borg’s silent, indifferent stalk through Engineering mirrors Guinan’s silent dread — both communicate horror without words. The Borg’s non-emotional purpose becomes the physical manifestation of the existential fear Guinan has carried for centuries."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"PICARD: Bridge this is the captain -- all stop."
"DATA (COM VOICE): According to these coordinates we have traveled seven thousand light years, and are located near system J-two-five."
"GUINAN: Only that if I were you, I'd start back right now."