Clandestine Ten-Minute Extraction
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data materializes on Drema Four, his physical departure severing the last tether to Starfleet protocol and launching him into the heart of the catastrophe.
Picard’s urgent com call shatters the fragile silence, forcing Riker to abandon oversight as O’Brien feigns awakening—masking the moral breach with bureaucratic theatre.
Riker confirms O’Brien’s readiness to extract Data under pressure, weaponizing professionalism to conceal imminent treason — the ship’s last line of defense before the unthinkable unfolds.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Nonchalant on the surface, with a professional steadiness that conceals awareness of the risk and potential consequences.
O'Brien adopts the pretense of dozing against a wall, verbally affirms his willingness to perform the transporter operation covertly, and assures Riker that he will execute a smooth beam‑out when called upon.
- • Carry out Riker's order and operate the transporter without raising suspicion
- • Ensure Data and any recovered person are beamed out safely and cleanly
- • Maintain the appearance that no unauthorized extraction occurred
- • Following a superior's direct order is both duty and protection
- • A skilled transporter operator can obscure minor breaches through execution
- • Operational competence can mitigate political or disciplinary consequences
Calm and resolute — measured in tone but carrying the weight of a consequential ethical action.
Data climbs onto the transporter, accepts Riker's ten‑minute constraint, explicitly commits to signal for an immediate beam‑out if he meets anyone other than Sarjenka, and then dematerializes from the pad.
- • Locate and retrieve Sarjenka safely
- • Avoid escalating the Prime Directive breach by withdrawing if conditions change
- • Comply with the operational parameters given by Riker
- • Protocol and contingency signaling are reliable safeguards
- • Preserving life can necessitate procedural compromise
- • Clear rules of engagement reduce risk for all involved
Tense and urgent — outwardly controlled but anxious about exposure and the moral compromise he is authorizing.
Riker issues the cover instruction, sets a strict ten‑minute operational deadline, briefs Data on the contingency, reacts with alarm when the bridge calls, and exits hurriedly to handle the fallout.
- • Enable Data to retrieve Sarjenka while minimizing institutional exposure
- • Preserve plausible deniability for the ship and crew
- • Return Data and the child safely within the imposed time limit
- • Rules should be upheld, but commanders must act when lives are at stake
- • A small procedural cover can contain the ethical fallout
- • Subordinates (like O'Brien) will follow orders to protect the mission
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The transporter room doorway functions as the formal threshold that would expose any materialization; its presence heightens the risk that a rematerialized person would be seen. Though not explicitly crossed in this snippet, its symbolic function pressures the team to conceal the extraction and informs O'Brien's promise of a "smooth" beam‑out.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The transporter pad is the operational stage for the clandestine extraction: Data stands on its hexagonal surface preparing to dematerialize while O'Brien manœuvres the room's routine cover. The pad's technology creates a literal threshold that embodies the ethical brink the crew is standing on between non‑interference and rescue.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Data’s transport to Drema Four is the direct outcome of his request to Picard and the subsequent authorization from Riker. His appearance on the planet is the physical manifestation of the moral breach — setting the stage for his ultimate act: saving Sarjenka."
"Data’s transport to Drema Four is the direct outcome of his request to Picard and the subsequent authorization from Riker. His appearance on the planet is the physical manifestation of the moral breach — setting the stage for his ultimate act: saving Sarjenka."
"Data’s transport to Drema Four is the direct outcome of his request to Picard and the subsequent authorization from Riker. His appearance on the planet is the physical manifestation of the moral breach — setting the stage for his ultimate act: saving Sarjenka."
Key Dialogue
"RIKER: O'Brien, take a nap. You didn't see this, you're not involved."
"RIKER: Ten minutes, Data, that's it, and if you meet anybody but Sarjenka --"
"DATA: I will signal for immediate beam out."