Riker's Away Team Confronts the Enigmatic Armus Barrier
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Riker reports the problem to the Enterprise and orders Data’s analysis, revealing the entity’s unknown biology and mysterious movement following the away team.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Alert and cautious, balancing determination to proceed with keen awareness of potential danger.
Lieutenant Tasha Yar leads initial sensor readings, attempts to guide the team safely around the viscous mass, and remains alert and pragmatic in the face of the unknown threat.
- • Determine the nature of the obstacle impeding the team's progress.
- • Find a safe and effective route around the viscous mass to reach the shuttle.
- • Avoiding direct confrontation with unknown entities is safer until their nature is understood.
- • The integrity and safety of the team depends on environmental awareness and flexibility.
Composed and authoritative, with underlying concern for the safety of his crew and the success of the mission.
Captain Picard commands from the Enterprise bridge, maintains open communication with Riker, requests updates, and provides authoritative oversight while expressing concern for the away team’s perilous situation.
- • Ensure the away team is supported and informed to adapt their tactics.
- • Maintain command control over the unfolding rescue operation.
- • Open communication is critical during crisis operations.
- • Leadership requires balancing calm command with responsiveness to unfolding threats.
Calm and focused, driven by logic and scientific inquiry despite the entity’s enigmatic and hostile behavior.
Data performs detailed tricorder scans of the black viscous mass, provides scientific analysis that excludes known biological structures and proteins, and attempts to interpret its nature despite inconclusive data, maintaining his trademark analytical neutrality.
- • Collect as much data as possible to classify the unknown entity.
- • Assist the team by providing objective analysis to inform tactical decisions.
- • Empirical data can reveal truths even about unknown lifeforms.
- • Understanding the entity’s nature is key to safely navigating the rescue mission.
Cautious but resolute, with mounting concern about the unknown threat obstructing the mission and a firm resolve to proceed with caution.
Commander Riker leads the away team’s cautious and strategic advance towards the shuttle crash site, coordinates communication with Captain Picard aboard the Enterprise via his communicator, and assesses the enigmatic barrier blocking their path with growing concern and determination.
- • Safely lead the away team to the crashed shuttle to rescue survivors.
- • Understand and overcome the mysterious obstacle blocking their path.
- • Maintain clear communication with the Enterprise command for support and updates.
- • Every obstacle can be analyzed and possibly overcome with teamwork and technology.
- • The unknown force blocking the path is likely sentient and hostile but can be negotiated with or outmaneuvered.
Concerned and urgent for the survival of the injured crew, focused on expediting rescue efforts while aware of environmental hazards.
Doctor Beverly Crusher monitors life signs of the shuttle’s occupants, urges swift movement due to weakening signals, and suggests possible alternate routes to bypass the viscous mass, reflecting urgency and medical concern.
- • Assess and stabilize the medical condition of the shuttle’s occupants remotely and prepare for immediate aid.
- • Support the away team’s approach to the shuttle while minimizing delay and risk.
- • Time is critical when victims show weakening life signs.
- • Medical readiness and situational awareness are essential for successful rescue.
Cruelly amused and confrontational, driven by a desire to dominate and obstruct the away team.
The malevolent entity Armus manifests by lifting itself off the ground to block the away team’s path, exhibiting mocking verbal taunts directed at Data, asserting its sentient and hostile presence with chilling confidence.
- • Prevent the away team from reaching the shuttle.
- • Instill fear and confusion through psychological torment and dominance.
- • The away team represents a threat to its control and must be stopped.
- • Exerting cruel control over others is a demonstration of its power.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Enterprise phasers are drawn and readied by the away team members as a defensive measure when the viscous mass lifts itself and reveals its malevolent intent, signaling preparedness for potential combat despite recognizing the futility against the entity’s resilience.
The Starfleet Tricorder is employed by Data to perform detailed scientific scans of the black viscous mass, attempting to classify the unknown entity through sensor readings and analysis, though it yields inconclusive and confounding results, symbolizing technological limits against alien phenomena.
Commander Riker’s communicator facilitates real-time voice contact with Captain Picard aboard the Enterprise, enabling urgent updates and command decisions to be exchanged despite the threatening environment, sustaining a vital link between ground and ship.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The rocky, desolate hill near the shuttle crash site serves as the forbidding terrain where the away team beamed down and confronts the viscous mass. Its obscured wreckage beneath rubble and the dusk-lit environment add to the eerie stillness and deadness that heightens tension and foreboding in this hostile rescue operation.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"RIKER: "Enterprise, this is Riker. We've got a problem.""
"DATA: "There is no evidence of neural or circulatory systems. No internal organs. Cellular structure unknown. It does not have any proteins which are known to us.""
"ARMUS: "Very good, tin man.""