Vanishing Drive — Danar Slips the Net
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Riker orders Data to intercept and detain the fugitive vessel, emphasizing caution after Nayrok warns of the prisoner's danger.
The bridge crew tracks the small vessel as it maneuvers behind an asteroid, revealing only a detached drive section—suggesting a potential crash.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Puzzled surprise that quickly turns to alertness and deductive inference about intentional evasion.
Wesley supplies heading coordinates, actively monitors his console, notices with surprise that the drive section has vanished, and suggests the disappearance implies someone is actively piloting the vessel.
- • Provide precise navigational data to support pursuit.
- • Detect anomalies and present observations to senior officers.
- • Help reacquire the target by identifying discrepancies in the sensor picture.
- • Sensor console readouts are trustworthy indicators of movement and location.
- • A sudden disappearance likely means deliberate action by a pilot rather than random failure.
- • Raising anomalies quickly will enable the command team to make corrective maneuvers.
Anxious and defensive — seeking to convey seriousness while implicitly protecting his nation's reputation.
Nayrok answers Riker's question directly: he warns the captain that the pilot is armed and dangerous and names Lunar Five as his government's maximum security facility, framing the political stakes.
- • Ensure the escapee is treated as a serious threat and secured.
- • Protect Angosia’s political standing by emphasizing the severity of the prisoner.
- • Avoid admitting fault for the escape and minimize diplomatic fallout.
- • The prisoner represents a grave danger that must be contained immediately.
- • Lunar Five is an adequate custodial facility and should be viewed as such by Starfleet.
- • Acknowledging too much could damage his government's credibility, so he must control the narrative.
Calmly clinical on the surface; a momentary cognitive recalibration when the sensors fail to account for disappearance.
Data commands the bridge sensors and analysis: he runs diagnostics on the detected drive section, orders a repositioning to the asteroid's far side, and succinctly reports the ultimate conclusion that the prisoner has eluded capture.
- • Accurately assess the status of the transport and any life signs.
- • Direct ship maneuvers to reacquire the target and secure the prisoner.
- • Report an honest appraisal up the chain of command without speculation.
- • Sensor data and scans are the most reliable way to determine the ship's status.
- • Procedural caution and controlled maneuvers best protect the crew.
- • If no life signs are detected, it is reasonable to conclude the target did not survive unless evidence suggests otherwise.
Focused vigilance — pragmatically noting tactical facts while remaining prepared for threat.
Worf reads visual and tactical data aloud: identifies lack of warp drive and minimal weapons, confirms absence of life signs on the detected wreckage, and provides concise situational reports to command.
- • Provide accurate tactical sensor readouts for command decisions.
- • Prepare the ship and crew for a possible armed encounter despite initial readings.
- • Ensure bridge awareness of changing threat conditions.
- • Sensor-derived tactical information should guide immediate responses.
- • If there are no life signs, immediate physical threat is reduced but not eliminated.
- • Clear, rapid reporting reduces risk to the ship and crew.
Controlled urgency: focused on securing the prisoner and minimizing danger while anticipating political consequences.
Riker, off-bridge, issues the arrest/quarantine order, interrogates Nayrok about armaments, demands status updates, and asserts Starfleet custody — projecting command authority while managing diplomatic risk.
- • Ensure the escapee is detained and the crew is protected.
- • Obtain clear information about the prisoner's threat level and custody claims.
- • Maintain Starfleet protocol and the Enterprise's authority in a delicate diplomatic situation.
- • The prisoner represents an immediate security threat that must be contained.
- • Angosia's officials may downplay or misrepresent details to save face.
- • Starfleet has responsibility and authority to intercede to prevent wider harm.
Concerned and attentive — puzzled by the sensor anomaly and its engineering implications.
Geordi monitors sensor feeds, reports the vessel's increasing speed and the anomalous presence of only a drive section on screen, and reacts with technical concern to the disappearance of the larger ship.
- • Track the transport's motion and provide accurate sensor interpretation.
- • Determine whether the sensor readings indicate a physical destruction or a technological trick.
- • Support tactical maneuvers with timely engineering data.
- • Sensor signatures correspond to physical events unless tampered with.
- • Anomalous readings merit immediate investigation to avoid being blindsided.
- • The ship's engineering and sensor capabilities can reacquire or compensate for most anomalies.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The bridge sensor analysis console (and its integrated displays/main viewscreen) is the crew's eyes: officers interrogate readouts, pivot sensor modes, and reveal the paradox (drive section present, then gone). It mediates the discovery, the tactical orders, and the final reporting to Riker.
The stolen transport's drive section appears on the far side of the asteroid as the sole detectable component—initially functioning as the primary forensic clue that the vessel was destroyed. Its subsequent disappearance from sensors transforms it into an active plot device that falsifies the conclusion of death and signals deliberate evasion.
The asteroid/debris field functions as the physical masking environment: it hides the transport from direct approach, hosts visible wreckage, and provides the geometry that allows a drive section to appear isolated—creating the conditions for the escapee to exploit sensor blind spots.
Scattered electrically conductive wreckage on the asteroid's surface corroborates the idea of a disabled or destroyed transport. It acts as supporting evidence that initially reassures the bridge crew and anchors their tactical interpretation—until the key piece (the drive section) disappears.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Lunar Five is invoked as the designated custodial destination and a narrative threat-reducer: Nayrok's naming of the penal colony raises the stakes by reminding the crew of the prisoner's supposed security classification and the political consequences if custody fails.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
This event is currently isolated in the narrative graph
Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"GEORDI: The ship's drive section..."
"WESLEY: Data, the drive section... where'd it go?"
"DATA: I am afraid the prisoner has eluded us, sir."