Holodeck Gambit: Engineering by Instinct
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Geordi reveals his holographic propulsion model experiment, sparking cautious hope.
Picard authorizes Geordi's unorthodox solution, prioritizing innovation over protocol.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Urgent, resolute—calm on the surface while shouldering the weight of a life-or-death decision.
Leads the emergency conference in the Observation Lounge, parses tactical estimates, orders the holodeck reinstated, and imposes a strict one-hour deadline—converting Geordi's private experiment into official strategy.
- • Authorize any viable technical avenue to save the ship.
- • Buy time and focus Enterprise resources on a single, testable solution.
- • Protect the crew while preserving the ship's mission integrity.
- • Command must convert individual ingenuity into coordinated action under crisis.
- • A bold technical maneuver may be the only option against an archaic, non-human threat.
- • Engineers can find creative solutions if given clear authority and a deadline.
Composed and focused; displays curiosity about technical possibilities without human panic.
Sits among senior officers as the analytic backbone—listening to sensor and status reports and ready to provide calculations or playback support for Geordi's prototype if requested.
- • Provide precise sensor and systems analysis to inform command decisions.
- • Corroborate engineering models with available data.
- • Assist in translating holodeck simulations into shipboard implementation steps.
- • Objective data and computation can reduce uncertainty in crisis response.
- • Ancient artifacts and systems can be modeled and compared with Federation tech.
- • A methodical approach to testing increases the chance of viable solutions.
Concerned but stoic—translates data into actionable intelligence without dramatics.
Reports tactical sensor figures and the shield/radiation timeline to the captain—maintains situational awareness and conveys the immediate increase in environmental threat.
- • Keep command fully informed about tactical and environmental conditions.
- • Ensure any ordered maneuvers or engineering actions consider ship security.
- • Prepare security protocols should the situation deteriorate further.
- • Timely, accurate reports are essential for command decisions.
- • Environmental hazards must be measured and communicated directly.
- • Procedure and discipline prevent panic under threat.
Resigned practicality—accepts the gravity of the situation while seeking workable choices.
Present in the lounge offering terse, pragmatic commentary—balances dark humor with practical realism about the crew's options.
- • Support Picard by clarifying operational implications for the bridge crew.
- • Keep morale and crew focus intact through realistic framing.
- • Help translate engineering possibilities into executable orders.
- • All choices carry risk; leadership must choose the least catastrophic path.
- • Clear, unvarnished assessment of options helps the crew accept difficult orders.
- • Time pressure necessitates decisive action rather than prolonged debate.
Grim and pragmatic—focused on facts and the immediate necessity of triage or evacuation decisions.
Delivers the clinical verdict on lethal exposure—reduces fatal-exposure window to twenty-six minutes—forcing the bridge to weigh impossible trade-offs immediately.
- • Ensure command understands the true medical timeline and stakes.
- • Preserve as many lives as possible through informed decision-making.
- • Advocate for measures that reduce radiation exposure or buy time.
- • Radiation exposure follows predictable timelines that must be respected.
- • Honest, blunt data is necessary for responsible command decisions.
- • Medical reality should constrain but not paralyze tactical options.
Determined and anxious—single-minded about a technical solution while feeling the pressure of a shrinking radiation clock.
Located in Engineering, monitors failing reactor/readouts by com; reports he is running a holodeck program built from earliest construction entries and has prototyped a propulsion design model to counter the trap.
- • Develop a usable propulsion modification that will allow the Enterprise to escape or counteract the trap.
- • Stabilize ship systems long enough for the crew to survive or enact the plan.
- • Validate his prototype with live holodeck simulation and rapid iteration.
- • Original construction records may contain design features or tolerances that can be repurposed.
- • Practical, hands-on prototyping can outwit a computerized trap when protocols fail.
- • Time is the limiting factor; an hour of sanctioned work could produce a viable option.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The ship-spanning translucent energy lattice (shields) is the primary protective constraint described as 'crystal lattice' breaking down; its decay frames the crisis, forcing command to seek alternative technical solutions to buy time or escape.
The hyperonic radiation field is the lethal environmental hazard that is intensifying, producing the medical deadline (twenty-six minutes) and driving tactical urgency; its rise both disables systems and punishes delay.
Holodeck Three's running prototype program (a reconstruction of earliest construction entries with a propulsion design model and holographic aids) is the practical tool Geordi uses to iterate a risky engine redesign; Picard orders it reinstated so the engineer's private simulation becomes ship-sanctioned work.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Main Engineering is Geordi's operational crucible where he monitors reactor readouts, communicates findings to the bridge, and physically manipulates the holodeck-linked prototypes that form the basis of his propulsion model.
Holodeck Three is the simulation sandbox where Geordi's prototype—built from early construction records and enhanced by holographic overlays—executes virtual trials; the holodeck formal reinstatement makes its private simulations an authorized instrument of ship survival.
The Observation Lounge functions as the command's crisis forum: senior officers assemble beneath the observation port to exchange life-or-death data, weigh options, and issue orders that convert isolated engineering work into ship-wide strategy.
The derelict Promellian cruiser looms outside the observation port as the historical and technical source of the trap; its presence provokes the forensic investigation and provides the ancient engineering context that Geordi is mining.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The deteriorating crystal lattice and failing shields escalate to the imminent shield failure and lethal radiation levels."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"BEVERLY: "Down to twenty-six minutes.""
"GEORDI: "I've gone back to the beginning... to the earliest construction entries of the Enterprise. I've created... a... propulsion design model to assist me. I believe we're... making progress...""
"PICARD: "Computer, reinstate Holodeck Three program.""