Iconian Control Room — Ruins, Gateways, and Roots
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
The away team materializes into a dim control room dominated by three silver gateways and a waist-high pentagonal console with a softly glowing blue dome, colored keys and five geometric screens; Data immediately scans, Worf stands with his phaser drawn, and Picard roams, establishing the alien technology and the team's alert posture.
Data announces scans show no other life-forms on the planet; Picard reads the severity of bombardment and concludes the Iconians likely did not survive, shifting the mission from rescue toward investigation and moral weight.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Not applicable as living participants; their legacy evokes solemnity and ethical gravity.
The Iconians are present only as absent authors of the technology; their absence is confirmed by Data's scans and Picard's observation of catastrophic bombardment, transforming them into an archaeological and strategic presence rather than living actors.
- • N/A (their technology now dictates the team's priorities)
- • N/A
- • the Iconian systems are sufficiently advanced to outlast their civilization
- • the artifacts may function autonomously and pose strategic danger
Cautious alertness — professionalism overlaying an undercurrent of disappointment and dawning concern at the implications of the ruin.
The Away Team beams into the Iconian control room as a unit, spreading to examine gateways, consoles and walls; they function collectively as investigators, preserving evidence and following Picard's direction while remaining alert to danger.
- • establish perimeter and security around the control room
- • gather forensic data and evidence from the console and gateways
- • the immediate priority is crew safety and evidence collection
- • the environment may be hazardous and must be treated as a potential active threat
Resolute and focused with restrained concern — accepts bad news and immediately redirects the team's purpose toward understanding and containment.
Picard roams the chamber, studies alien script at the console, directs Data to perform comparative linguistic analysis, frames the mission's shift from rescue to reconstruction, and voices the grim conclusion about Iconian survivorship.
- • determine whether any Iconians remain or can be rescued
- • reconstruct a linguistic/technological key to safely interact with or disable the gateways
- • knowledge of the Iconian language and technology is essential to prevent the gateways from becoming a strategic weapon
- • the crew must prioritize investigation and containment once rescue is impossible
Calmly clinical; procedural certainty hides the intellectual excitement of solving a complex linguistic-technical puzzle.
Data conducts methodical scans with his tricorder, reports sensor results (no life-forms detected), identifies linguistic parallels, and immediately begins comparative analysis between Dinasian, Dewan and Iccobar to reconstruct a root language.
- • collect exhaustive sensor data about the room and gateways
- • run cross-linguistic comparisons to reconstruct Iconian roots for safe interface
- • empirical data can be used to decode the control systems
- • linguistic parallels (Dinasian, Dewan, Iccobar) will yield actionable insight into Iconian technology
Wary irritation — professional readiness with a personal impatience about the prospect of extended exposure to the planet.
Worf stands guard with his phaser drawn, attempts to raise the Enterprise on his insignia, expresses annoyance at being stranded, and monitors external comms while physically securing the party from immediate threats.
- • establish secure communications with the Enterprise and maintain perimeter security
- • ensure the away team's safety and prevent surprises from the gateways or control room
- • the environment is potentially hostile and must be treated defensively
- • leaving the planet sooner rather than later is preferable
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Varley's Iconian probe is not physically present in the room but is referenced by observation: the dome is flecked with the same reflective material, linking the probe to Iconian technology and allowing Picard and Data to correlate debris from the probe with control-room artifacts.
Data's tricorder is used to sweep the room for life-forms, environmental hazards and linguistic traces; it supplies the empirical basis for declaring the planet devoid of life and for feeding comparative language datasets into Data's analysis routines.
The pentagonal console crowned by the glowing blue dome and ringed with colored keys is the room's focal artifact: examined visually and linguistically by Picard and Data as the probable control interface for the three gateways and the primary subject for forensic decoding and possible manual override.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Iconian Control Room is the event's physical and symbolic stage: a ruined, high-technology chamber whose central pentagonal console and three silver gateways embody the civilization's vanished power and pose immediate strategic questions that force the away team's investigative pivot from rescue to containment.
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
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"WORF: "I do not want to become a permanent resident of this planet.""
"DATA: "Scans indicate no other life-forms on the planet.""
"PICARD: "Is it possible that they are all branches of a language family beginning with Iconian?""