The Farewell Bluff — Selling a Weapons Expert
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Riker probes the origin of the Pakled shields; Geordi exposes a patchwork of stolen systems, and Data locks the insight: they take technology they can’t truly use.
Riker launches the bluff, elevating Geordi as unmatched in phaser and photon expertise while cutting off Geordi’s attempt to defer, framing him as the indispensable weapons mind.
Data leans in with a faux farewell, prompting Geordi to decode the act and echo the cue—‘weapons systems analysis’ and ‘photon torpedo countdowns’—signaling he’s onboard.
The Pakleds bite hard—declaring Geordi smart and demanding he make them strong—while Geordi plays humble to cement their trust in his ‘weapons’ prowess.
Worf turns the screws with charges of treason and dishonor, then slips the coded marker—‘twenty-four levels of awareness’—which Geordi clocks as the countdown cue.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Worried and pragmatic; concerned about the hostage's psychological and physical welfare amid a risky tactic.
Standing beside Riker on the bridge, Pulaski questions whether Geordi comprehends the deception; her clinical concern reframes the ruse as a medical and ethical issue under time pressure.
- • Confirm Geordi's capacity to endure the psychological strain
- • Protect the patient's well-being while surgery continues on Picard
- • Prompt command to prioritize rescue and medical evaluation
- • Medical condition and mental state materially affect tactical choices
- • An ethically questionable tactic may harm a patient even if tactically effective
Simplistic excitement and greed; readily persuaded by apparent proof of technical value.
On the Mondor bridge, Reginod echoes Grebnedlog's simple acquisitive refrains—affirming 'We need their computer things' and declaring Geordi 'is smart'—helping convert the ruse into concrete perceived value.
- • Obtain technology and computer systems for his crew
- • Validate the leader's decision to seize Geordi
- • Encourage the leader to press their advantage
- • Technology equates to power and status
- • If Geordi truly knows weapons, their ship will benefit
Neutral and cooperative; uses precise wording to increase the bluff's plausibility rather than displaying affect.
Steps forward to add literal, emotionally resonant lines to the ruse—declaring he will 'miss' Geordi and specifically referencing weapons systems analysis—thereby validating Riker's boast with machine-precise, believable detail.
- • Reinforce the perception that Geordi is a weapons expert
- • Make the deception internally consistent and convincing
- • Support command's tactical plan with credible technical references
- • The Pakleds will interpret concrete technical claims literally
- • His unemotional delivery increases credibility with simple-minded opponents
Stern and severe; intentionally threatening to deter Geordi's coerced compliance and to intimidate the captors.
Steps up to the viewscreen and delivers a stern Klingon-coded taunt about treason, honor, and the 'twenty-four levels,' both warning Geordi and signaling to the Pakleds the seriousness of sharing classified weapons information.
- • Deter Geordi from divulging classified weapons data
- • Use cultural weight (honor/treason rhetoric) to influence captors
- • Project a security-first posture to protect ship systems
- • Language of honor and shame has persuasive force even on non-Klingons
- • Strong threats can limit the willingness of a captive to cooperate
Calculating and composed on the surface, masking urgent anxiety about Picard's surgery and the hostage's safety.
Leads the staged farewell from the Enterprise bridge, calibrating tone and content to flatter and overinflate Geordi's technical value; cuts off Geordi's protests, times the performance with Data and Worf, and answers Pulaski's concern with command authority.
- • Convince the Pakleds Geordi is uniquely valuable to extract technology
- • Buy time and force the Pakleds into choices that reveal or relinquish tech
- • Maintain control of the scenario and minimize escalation
- • A little theatricality will manipulate the Pakleds' simple acquisitive drives
- • Preserving ship systems justifies risky deception
- • Command responsibility includes psychological gambits when lives are at stake
Concerned and focused; uses empathic insight to ground the staged performance in Geordi's real risk.
Counselor Troi watches the exchange and provides empathic appraisal—telling Riker Geordi 'is afraid'—thereby pressuring command to factor emotional risk into tactical decisions.
- • Alert command to Geordi's true emotional state
- • Ensure rescue tactics consider human vulnerability
- • Influence Riker toward caution and urgency
- • Emotional information is operationally relevant
- • A frightened ally is more likely to be coerced and needs protection
Confused and anxious, trying to be cooperative while resigned; flickers of professional pride used defensively to play along with the bluff.
Held captive on the Mondor bridge, Geordi volunteers to speak to the Enterprise, offers to access computer banks, and tries to stall through tentative humor as Riker and Data deliver faux eulogies; he registers Worf's taunts and mentally catalogs 'twenty-four' as meaningful.
- • Buy time for the Enterprise and for his own survival
- • Protect core ship systems by appearing to cooperate
- • Use his technical knowledge as a bargaining chip to manipulate captors
- • The Pakleds respond to perceived technical value
- • Delaying tactics increase the chance of rescue
- • His cooperation can limit physical harm to himself and the ship
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Shields are discussed indirectly—Riker asks where the Pakleds got their shields—making the shields a material clue to stolen technology and one of the Pakleds' goals rather than a device physically manipulated during the event.
The Enterprise main viewscreen becomes the theatrical window between ships: it displays the Mondor bridge, allows Riker and crew to perform directly to the Pakleds, and then goes black when Grebnedlog severs the link—making the screen both a tool of persuasion and a physical barrier to further negotiation.
The Enterprise main computer banks are invoked as the explicit bargaining object—the Pakleds demand access and Geordi offers to 'get' them, making ship systems the central prize of the exchange and the moral fulcrum of the bluff.
The Pakled Mondor hailing frequency is activated to connect Geordi with the Enterprise and thereby make the staged performance possible; its abrupt termination by the Pakleds closes the negotiation and ratchets tension.
Phaser and photon weaponry are rhetorically invoked by Riker to inflate Geordi's value; the objects function as the imagined expertise that makes the bluff credible to the Pakleds rather than as physical hardware displayed in the scene.
The crude analog dial on the Mondor bridge is the physical control for the hailing frequency: Grebnedlog turns it to open the line and later twists it to abruptly cut communications—punctuating the ruse and closing the transactional window.
The Mondor's photon torpedo retrofit is implied via Geordi's joking reference to 'photon torpedo countdowns'—the object exists as part of the technical lexicon used to make the bluff plausible and to signal real offensive capability to the Pakleds.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Mondor bridge is the cramped, improvised arena where Geordi is held, the analog dial is reachable, and the Pakleds chant their simple acquisitive refrains; it physically contains the hostage and the crude controls that enable and end the viewscreen liaison.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Geordi entices the Pakleds to open a channel by offering access; the viewscreen negotiation begins."
"Geordi entices the Pakleds to open a channel by offering access; the viewscreen negotiation begins."
"Geordi entices the Pakleds to open a channel by offering access; the viewscreen negotiation begins."
"Geordi entices the Pakleds to open a channel by offering access; the viewscreen negotiation begins."
"Worf’s coded ‘twenty‑four levels of awareness’ sets the countdown cue for the later firing sequence."
"Worf’s coded ‘twenty‑four levels of awareness’ sets the countdown cue for the later firing sequence."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"GEORDI: Let me talk to them. I'll get you their computer banks."
"RIKER: Speaking of time, Lieutenant, this may be your time. I shall personally miss you."
"WORF: You will never attain the twenty-four levels of awareness."