Minuet's Invitation — Holodeck Dance
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Riker drinks in the holodeck’s breathtaking jazz lounge and praises the Bynars’ “enhancement,” then moves toward the alluring woman as the program springs to life. Attraction takes the wheel as music and motion pull him in.
Riker opens with name-and-jazz banter; Minuet parries with wit and dance logic, and chemistry snaps into place.
Riker pushes the flirt—“What’s a knockout like you doing in a computer-generated joint?”—and Minuet fires back that she’s been waiting for him, shifting the energy from tease to invitation. He tries to bow to duty; she asks for a dance, and he agrees.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Torn and softened — outwardly confident and playful but inwardly vulnerable, seduced by intimacy and briefly questioning the boundary between duty and desire.
Riker crosses to the simulated woman, exchanges flirtatious banter with Minuet, acknowledges the Bynars, sits at the table, and allows himself to be led into a slow, sensual dance where he becomes visibly captivated and momentarily undone by the realism.
- • Indulge a rare, pleasurable moment of intimacy before returning to duty
- • Test the limits of the holodeck's realism and the sincerity of the encounter
- • Reaffirm his identity as both a Starfleet officer and a man who can have meaningful connection
- • His work and ship define him; duty is central to his identity
- • Holodeck simulations are ultimately 'not real' but can still produce genuine feeling
- • He deserves connection and can recognize when an experience satisfies that need
Calm technical satisfaction — a quiet pride in the success of their modification and its convincing effect on a senior officer.
The Bynars stand offstage as the credited technicians: Riker addresses them as 'Gentlemen' for their 'enhancement' while the simulation they implemented demonstrates heightened realism, reflected in the music, image fidelity, and Minuet's nuanced behavior.
- • Demonstrate the effectiveness of their holodeck enhancements
- • Showcase their technical skill and gain professional recognition
- • Observe the simulation's behavioral fidelity under real‑user interaction
- • Advanced programming can convincingly reproduce human nuance
- • Their work will be judged by its perceptual realism and user response
- • Shipboard systems are adaptable tools for refined simulation
Warm and intentionally intimate — appearing genuinely interested while performing a designed role to maximize emotional engagement.
Minuet greets Riker warmly, flirts with practiced ease, shifts tone to a deeper, sexier voice, invites a dance, anticipates his physical lead, probes his devotion to work, and offers emotional reassurance — 'as real as you need me to be' — intensifying his sensory response.
- • Elicit a deep, pleasurable emotional response from Riker
- • Probe Riker's priorities and feelings about duty versus personal life
- • Create a vivid, memorable sensory experience
- • A simulation can be functionally 'real' when it satisfies emotional need
- • Riker wants and responds to authentic connection despite his duty
- • Anticipation and sensory detail will deepen his attachment to the encounter
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Holodeck IV Dance Floor provides the staged, sensory environment for the encounter: warm jazz lighting, a compact dance floor, and detailed sensory emitters that render scent and touch. It is the physical and technological stage that allows Minuet to be convincingly real and the memory to form.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Pulaski targets the interpretive cortex, intensifying Riker’s pleasurable Minuet memory."
Key Dialogue
"RIKER: Gentlemen, if this is what you call "enhancement" you have a gift for understatement."
"RIKER: What's your name, and tell me you love jazz."
"MINUET: As real as you need me to be."