The Vanishing Drive — Danar Eludes Sensors
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Sensors detect wreckage but no life signs; the crew initially concludes the prisoner died, only for Wesley to notice the drive section has vanished.
Data confirms the prisoner's escape to Riker, acknowledging the crew has been outmaneuvered.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Puzzled and surprised; intellectually engaged by an anomaly that betrays expectations and prompts immediate questions.
Ensign Wesley runs heading coordinates on his console, notices the disappearance of the drive section, expresses puzzlement aloud, and relays that there is no sign along the expected heading.
- • Provide accurate heading and sensor data for the intercept
- • Detect inconsistencies in the sensor picture that explain the apparent disappearance
- • Console telemetry should produce a coherent, continuous track
- • Anomalies usually have technical or human explanations that can be found through analysis
Urgent and anxious; motivated to ensure the escapee is recaptured to avoid political fallout for Angosia.
Nayrok warns the bridge that the escapee is armed and dangerous and invokes Lunar Five as the maximum security origin, applying political pressure and framing the encounter as a high-stakes custody matter.
- • Ensure the dangerous prisoner is recaptured to limit Angosia's political exposure
- • Convey the gravity of the situation to Starfleet so they act with appropriate caution
- • Lunar Five's security status heightens the diplomatic consequences of an escape
- • Starfleet intervention must be both forceful and mindful of Angosia's sovereignty and reputation
Coolly analytical on the surface; a hint of professional concern beneath the procedural wording as he acknowledges an unexpected operational failure.
Data runs and interprets sensor sweeps, orders life‑form scans, watches the main viewscreen, and delivers the clinical verdict that the prisoner has eluded them, converting technical failure into a formal status report.
- • Assess sensor data to determine the transport's status and any life signs
- • Provide accurate tactical information to command and recommend maneuvers
- • Sensors and analytic protocols will reveal objective truth unless tampered with
- • Clear, unemotional reporting is the best way to preserve command decision-making
Alert and duty‑bound; pragmatic acceptance of the scans' negative results but ready to act if threat reappears.
Worf provides tactical readouts, points out the on-screen visuals, confirms the absence of warp and life signs, and supports Data's orders to reposition around the asteroid.
- • Maintain ship safety by providing immediate tactical information
- • Ensure the bridge follows cautious procedures while pursuing the suspect
- • Sensor results are reliable indicators of immediate threat
- • Physical presence and readiness are required to protect the Captain and crew
Controlled and commanding; a professional urgency to secure the suspect while balancing political sensitivity.
Riker issues the decisive order to detain and quarantine the pilot, queries Nayrok about armament, and expects status updates — he is the operational anchor attempting to convert diplomatic intelligence into tactical action.
- • Secure and quarantine the prisoner to protect the Enterprise crew
- • Keep the diplomatic interlocutor informed and maintain procedural discipline
- • Decisive orders and strict procedure minimize risk during interceptions
- • Diplomatic warnings (from Nayrok) are actionable intelligence that must be integrated
Alert and concerned — pragmatic alarm that a simple intercept has produced anomalous, unexplained sensor data.
Geordi monitors propulsion and velocity readings, flags that the transport has seen them and is increasing impulse, and reacts with concern when the drive section appears and then disappears from sensors.
- • Track and intercept the suspect vessel using engineering and sensor feeds
- • Identify physical evidence of damage or tampering to understand the escape
- • Engineering and sensors will yield a mechanical explanation for the readings
- • Rapid, accurate telemetry is essential to effect a safe interception
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The bridge sensor analysis console is the technical interface through which Data, Geordi and Wesley run diagnostics, view telemetry, and discover the anomalous disappearance; it surfaces the contradiction between visual evidence and sensor returns.
The stolen transport's drive section appears on the far side of the asteroid and functions as the only identifiable remnant of the vessel; it is scanned for life signs and then inexplicably disappears, becoming the central physical clue that reveals the escapee's evasion.
The debris/asteroid field serves as both an obstacle and concealment layer: it physically hides the transport from direct view, hosts wreckage, and creates the sensor confusion enabling the escapee's disappearance to go unnoticed until too late.
Fragments of wreckage on the asteroid register as conductive debris and provide forensic context for the apparent crash; they frame the expectation of a disabled vessel and then function as misleading evidence once the drive section disappears.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Lunar Five is cited as the penal origin of the prisoner and functions narratively as the political stake behind the escape; its reputation as a maximum security facility raises the diplomatic cost of the containment failure.
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
Key Dialogue
"RIKER: "Good. Detain the vessel and quarantine the pilot.""
"NAYROK: "Yes. And he's very dangerous, Captain. Lunar Five is our maximum security facility.""
"WESLEY: "Data, the drive section... where'd it go?" DATA: "I am afraid the prisoner has eluded us, sir.""