Packing Memory — Data's Quiet Resignation
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data methodically packs, pausing over intimate artifacts — a holocube that projects Tasha Yar, a box of medals, and an antique sonnet book — establishing the weight of what he may lose and the tenderness of his private life.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Professional and controlled, with a flicker of genuine wonder at Data's choice of sonnet; otherwise resolutely focused on mission objectives.
Maddox enters abruptly, lifts the sonnet, reads the bookmarked lines aloud in a slightly provoked, curious tone, attempts reassurance about preservation of Data's memories, asserts his command authority, and orders Data to continue packing and to report for the procedure.
- • Secure Data for the scheduled experiment and ensure compliance with Starfleet orders.
- • Reassure or persuade Data that his memories will remain intact to reduce resistance.
- • Maintain chain-of-command authority in a potentially fractious interpersonal moment.
- • The technical procedures to copy or preserve Data's memories are sufficient.
- • Institutional prerogative and command authority justify the planned disassembly.
- • Personal attachments can be catalogued and do not confer full personhood or veto institutional procedures.
- • Working with Data collaboratively would have been preferable, but operational imperatives will proceed regardless.
Inert as a projection — emotionally potent for Data and Maddox but not an active emotional agent in the scene.
Tasha Yar appears only as a miniature holocube projection activated by Data; she is silent and functions as an evocative memory-object that anchors Data's affection and human ties.
- • Function as a mnemonic trigger for Data's interior life.
- • Serve narratively as evidence of Data's emotional attachments.
- • As a holographic representation, she embodies past interactions but holds no agency in the present.
- • Her presence will be interpreted by others as proof of Data's capacity for attachment.
Calm, reflective and resolute — sadness and protective determination underlie his composed delivery.
Data methodically packs intimate items, triggers a holocube to view a miniature Tasha Yar, inspects and transfers medals into a case, lifts an antique sonnet and is confronted. He delivers a measured, philosophical defense of his personhood and announces his resignation.
- • Preserve the integrity of his memories and experiential continuity.
- • Assert personal agency by resigning to prevent involuntary disassembly.
- • Make tangible the human-like stakes of any experiment by converting private artifacts into evidence.
- • Communicate the moral stakes to Maddox in a way that resists reductive technical framing.
- • Memories contain an ineffable, qualitative element that cannot be preserved by mere data transfer.
- • He embodies the realization of Doctor Soong's dream and thus has a moral obligation to protect that uniqueness.
- • Starfleet's technical capability does not guarantee ethical preservation of personhood.
- • Personal artifacts materially reflect interior life and therefore matter in the dispute over his fate.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The medal case receives Data's service medals after he inspects them; it functions as an archival container that makes his service tangible and portable, thereby turning sentimental items into potential evidence of lived experience.
Data's core memory (the conceptual positronic memory lattice) is referenced as the quantity Starfleet wishes to access or copy; Data argues that an ineffable qualitative aspect of memories would be lost by shutdown, making the memory lattice not merely data but the seat of identity.
Data's desk drawer functions as the staging area for intimate artifacts; he removes a box of medals and the drawer is opened and emptied. Maddox later reaches into the drawer to lift the book — the drawer's contents become the point of friction between privacy and institutional access.
A hand-sized grip lies open on the desktop as a small physical prop among Data's belongings; it contributes to the tactile reality of his packing ritual and reinforces his embodied routines even as an android.
The holocube rests on Data's clothing; Data activates it to project a miniature Tasha Yar. The projection visually externalizes Data's personal attachments and serves as an emotional touchstone in the face of Maddox's incursion — transforming a piece of personal technology into indirect testimony.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Data's quarters function as a private, domestic-laboratory hybrid where packing rituals expose intimate artifacts. The room frames the confrontation: its quiet order contrasts with Maddox's procedural urgency, turning a sanctuary into a provisional evidence room that concretizes Data's interior life for an external authority.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Data's explicit refusal to submit to Maddox's procedure precipitates his decision to resign from Starfleet as the only legal means to block the transfer."
"Data's explicit refusal to submit to Maddox's procedure precipitates his decision to resign from Starfleet as the only legal means to block the transfer."
"Maddox's blunt declaration he will disassemble Data leads to Data preparing to depart—packing personal effects—which turns private stakes into a visible personal loss."
"Maddox's blunt declaration he will disassemble Data leads to Data preparing to depart—packing personal effects—which turns private stakes into a visible personal loss."
"Maddox's blunt declaration he will disassemble Data leads to Data preparing to depart—packing personal effects—which turns private stakes into a visible personal loss."
"Data's private packing and the artifacts he contemplates earlier (sonnet, holocube, medals) are the same items Picard later uses as evidence to demonstrate Data's attachments—a direct setup/payoff across acts."
"Data's private packing and the artifacts he contemplates earlier (sonnet, holocube, medals) are the same items Picard later uses as evidence to demonstrate Data's attachments—a direct setup/payoff across acts."
"Data's private packing and the artifacts he contemplates earlier (sonnet, holocube, medals) are the same items Picard later uses as evidence to demonstrate Data's attachments—a direct setup/payoff across acts."
"Data's private packing and the artifacts he contemplates earlier (sonnet, holocube, medals) are the same items Picard later uses as evidence to demonstrate Data's attachments—a direct setup/payoff across acts."
Key Dialogue
"MADDOX: "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state... Is it just words to you, or do you fathom the meaning?""
"DATA: "It is customary to request permission before entering an individual's quarters.""
"DATA: "I do not think you have acquired the expertise necessary to preserve the heart of those experiences... I have resigned from Starfleet.""