Targeting the Point‑One Percent — Picard's Risk and Its Failure
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard and the crew assess the severity of the radiation field and the number of assimilator devices.
Worf identifies a slight dip in the radiation field, offering a potential target for their efforts.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Agonized resolve masking private remorse — outwardly commanding but inwardly haunted and quietly furious at fate.
Picard convenes the decision, weighs technical warnings and historic precedent, makes the final call to accept risk, dispatches La Forge to engineering, nods to authorize fire, and mutters a private curse when the plan fails.
- • Exploit the only detectable weakness to save the ship and crew
- • Balance preservation of the ship with the ethical responsibility of command
- • A measured risk is preferable to inaction when lives are at stake
- • Historical precedent (the neighbor's failed decision) matters and warns his judgment
Clinically factual but implicitly urgent — presenting probabilities without rhetoric, which increases the moral weight on human decision‑makers.
Data supplies the quantitative assessment of required devices and the energetic consequences, warns the team that phaser fire could energize assimilators, and monitors reserve decline as the beams are fired and absorbed.
- • Provide accurate computational assessments to minimize risk
- • Ensure command has the best data to inform decision-making
- • Objective data must guide tactical choices
- • Energetic interventions can have counterproductive feedback on alien systems
Alert practicality — focused on measurable tactical facts rather than moral argumentation.
Worf reads his station, pinpoints the minute dip in the radiation field coordinates, confirms phaser lock when ordered, reports the post‑impact rise in radiation percentages, and remains a steady tactical presence.
- • Provide the bridge with exact sensor data for targeting
- • Execute orders reliably to support the captain's decision
- • Duty requires accurate reporting and readiness to act
- • Tactical precision can create openings even in hostile environments
Professional urgency shifting to controlled disappointment — frustrated by tactical failure but steady in command execution.
Riker translates technical input into an immediate tactical proposal, accepts Picard's nod as authorization, issues the bridge order to fire, and then reports the failure when nothing results from the strike.
- • Execute a clear tactical response to exploit the detected weakness
- • Act quickly to preserve crew safety by reducing the radiation threat
- • Rapid, decisive action can salvage a deteriorating situation
- • Following command decisions promptly is critical to survival
Concerned and pressured — technically certain of the danger, anxious about irreversible hardware losses, compelled to act to salvage the ship's systems.
Geordi warns that firing phasers will deplete scarce energy reserves and risk damaging newly reconfigured circuits and dilithium stability, is ordered back to Engineering and exits urgently to continue mitigation work.
- • Prevent loss of critical circuits and dilithium functionality
- • Buy time to stabilize and complete the engine reconfiguration
- • Conserving energy and protecting circuits is vital for long‑term survival
- • Aggressive tactical expenditure risks cascading engineering failures
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Enterprise defensive shields are an implied resource in the conversation; Geordi warns about holding shields if energy is lost. The shields act as the fallback barrier whose maintenance is threatened by the power drain caused by the phaser gamble.
The assimilators (concealed generator‑like devices) are referenced by Data as the likely beneficiaries of external energy; the phaser discharge risks energizing them. They are the unseen antagonistic technology that turn Federation tactics into sustenance for the trap.
The hyperonic radiation field is the primary environmental threat; sensors show its strength and a tiny dip is exploited. After phaser impact the field spikes in intensity, producing alarms, degrading systems, and directly threatening crew safety.
The bridge tracking camera functions as the visual device capturing faces and decisions: it pushes in on Picard's reaction as the gamble fails, underscoring the moral weight of the moment and providing cinematic emphasis on the captain's private curse.
The debris field is the physical target that absorbs phaser energy. Its composition and hidden embedded devices transform a directed strike into a sink for energy, converting the ship's offensive attempt into a catalyst for increased radiation and feedback.
The bridge phasers are the active tactical instrument: a directional pattern is authorized and fired toward the coordinates of the 0.1% dip. They function as the tested intervention whose energy is intended to disrupt the field but instead is absorbed by debris, amplifying the hazard.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The discovery of the Aceton assimilators leads to the failed phaser attack that increases radiation levels."
"The discovery of the Aceton assimilators leads to the failed phaser attack that increases radiation levels."
"The discovery of the Aceton assimilators leads to the failed phaser attack that increases radiation levels."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"WORF: "A point-one percent dip in the strength of the radiation field at two-one mark eight by four-two mark zero...""
"GEORDI: "We won't be able to maintain energy reserves... we might even lose some circuits in the new configuration...""
"PICARD: "Damn you.""