Alexana's Oath — Justifying the Sweep
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Riker reacts with disbelief to Alexana's extensive list of suspected Ansata sympathizers, revealing her government's broad-brush approach to counterterrorism.
Alexana rationalizes her massive detainee list, exposing the blurred line between terrorist agents and political dissidents in Rutian policy.
Alexana reduces seventy years of separatist struggle to mere excuses for violence, provoking Riker's assertion about mutual hatred.
Alexana recounts the school bus bombing that radicalized her, weaponizing tragedy to justify her uncompromising stance.
Riker silently acknowledges Alexana's formidable willpower as she returns to surveillance, locking their ideological conflict in place.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Controlled, stern resolve with an undercurrent of grief and hardened anger — her moderation replaced by resolute purpose informed by trauma.
Alexana stands before the wall monitors and police files, delivering a compressed history of grievance and a personal testimony about the shuttlebus bombing. She frames past violence as justification for mass, coercive security responses and watches Riker for the moral effect of her case.
- • To convince a skeptical Starfleet officer of the necessity of broad security measures
- • To morally justify aggressive counterterror policy by personalizing the cost of inaction
- • To shore up political and operational latitude for mass detentions and sweeps
- • To present herself as decisive and unyielding in the face of violence
- • Extreme acts of terror justify extraordinary security measures against sympathizers
- • Sympathy and passive support for Ansata materially enable violence and must be suppressed
- • Personal trauma and local experience make her judgment more valid than abstract moderation
- • Concessions (like the earlier denied independence) created grievances but do not excuse current violence
Uneasy respect — he understands the emotional logic behind Alexana's stance even as he worries about the moral and civil cost of her measures.
Riker studies the monitors and listens, asking pointed questions. He reacts with visible disbelief and then a guarded, grim respect; he does not assent but acknowledges Alexana's resolve and the political force her testimony generates.
- • To assess the scope and legitimacy of Alexana's intelligence and claims
- • To evaluate the moral and operational implications for Starfleet cooperation
- • To test whether the political case for mass detentions holds up under scrutiny
- • To protect Starfleet personnel and interests while remaining open to local exigencies
- • Trauma can make leaders demand excessive force, and that must be weighed against legal/ethical constraints
- • Starfleet has responsibilities to its crew and to due process even in hostile jurisdictions
- • Understanding local context is necessary before accepting draconian security policies
- • Evidence (files, names) must support extraordinary actions, not just emotional appeals
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The bombed shuttlebus functions here as the narrative linchpin: Alexana invokes the destroyed school transport and its sixty child victims to convert historical grievance into immediate moral justification for aggressive policy. The bus is not physically present; its memory is treated as incontrovertible evidence shaping decisions and hardening resolve.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
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Key Dialogue
"RIKER: "You're telling me all these people belong to the Ansata?""
"ALEXANA: "Not really. We suspect the organization itself only consists of some two hundred members. There are over five thousand names on this list. Citizens we know to be sympathetic to their cause...""
"ALEXANA: "A terrorist bomb destroyed a shuttlebus... sixty school children. There were no survivors. That day I vowed to put an end to terrorism in this city. And I will.""