Data Establishes Contact — Countdown Halted
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data's persistence sparks a miracle - a flicker of contact appears on his screen, freezing Picard's lethal countdown as the first tentative symbol of communication emerges.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Resolute but conflicted — outwardly commanding while privately anxious and reluctant about killing a possible emergent life.
Picard enters the bridge, issues the lethal order to gamma-irradiate Enterprise computer systems, places a consoling hand on Data, then visibly hesitates when Data signals contact — authority wavering between duty and moral doubt.
- • Protect the crew and ship by ending the nanite threat decisively
- • Execute command responsibility by ordering an unambiguous countermeasure
- • The safety of the crew is the captain's first duty
- • Unknown intelligences that threaten ship systems may require lethal measures if communication fails
Quietly determined and intellectually hopeful — single-minded in pursuit of communication even under pressure.
Data persistently studies the malformed code on his console, continues typing despite the looming extermination order, identifies a single glyph in the pause space, and declares that he has established contact — an act that arrests the bridge's lethal sequence.
- • Establish contact with the unknown program/entity
- • Prevent unnecessary destruction if the entity is emergent life
- • Communication can resolve conflict and reveal intent
- • A machine-originating entity may possess an emergent claim to moral consideration
Alert and duty-bound, with the brief impatience of someone prepared to take decisive action now curbed into watchful readiness.
Worf stands ready to activate the gamma pulse generators, confirms electromagnetic scanners are prepped, and halts his activation when Data interrupts, shifting from mechanistic execution to alert observation.
- • Execute defensive protocols to neutralize a shipboard threat
- • Maintain sensor integrity to ensure the pulse will hit its intended target
- • Direct, decisive action is often the correct response to threats
- • Orders from senior officers must be obeyed unless superseded by new, verified data
Tense and obedient, marked by the quick recalibration from action to restraint when new information arises.
Riker receives Picard's order and moves to carry it out, taking tactical steps to prepare the gamma pulse sequence; he immediately freezes and yields physical momentum when Data announces contact, his posture shifting from execution to watchful caution.
- • Carry out the captain's orders accurately and efficiently
- • Prevent immediate harm to the ship while following command
- • Chain-of-command orders should be executed promptly
- • New, credible sensor data can and should alter tactical decisions
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Enterprise main bridge viewscreen and associated visual arrays present the montage of symbols and diagnostic overlays that contextualize the nanite attack, providing shared situational awareness for command and amplifying the scene's visual urgency.
The Contact Symbol — a lone pale cyan glyph — appears within the scrolling machine-code on Data's display. As the only unambiguous pattern in the noise, it functions as the communicative foothold that converts an extermination order into an opportunity for dialogue.
Science One's bridge computer systems are both the locus under imminent threat (target of the gamma irradiation) and the interface through which Data observes the glyph; the consoles stream the montage of unreadable symbols and ultimately reveal the single symbol that changes the mission.
The ship-wide gamma pulse generators are the scheduled countermeasure: their activation is prepared and partially executed as the primary means to eradicate the nanite-based threat by irradiating all computer systems, making them the immediate instrument of potential extermination.
The electromagnetic scanners on Science One are the sensor array Worf cites as ready; they provide the diagnostic and targeting confirmation necessary to justify firing the gamma pulse and frame the tactical certainty supporting Picard's order.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"PICARD: Commander Riker, on my signal, we will gamma-irradiate all computer systems throughout the Enterprise to end this conflict."
"RIKER: Worf, prepare to activate gamma pulse generators."
"DATA: I have established contact."