Fabula
S2E17 · Samaritan Snare
S2E17
· Samaritan Snare

Diverting for a Mayday — Duty vs. Picard

The Enterprise drops to impulse as Shuttle Two departs with Captain Picard. Riker notices an unexplained change in the captain's plan, then Worf intercepts a terse Mayday from Rhomboid Dronegar 006. Riker orders a high-speed detour at warp seven despite Data's warning that the course will take them farther from Starbase 515—and farther from where Picard is headed for a secret cardiac procedure. The choice crystallizes the episode's central tension: humanitarian rescue versus the captain's hidden vulnerability, a turning point that raises stakes and foreshadows danger to the crew.

Plot Beats

The narrative micro-steps within this event

2

Worf cuts in with a Mayday on all frequencies from Rhomboid Dronegar zero-zero-six; Riker demands details and snaps a course change at warp seven.

concern to urgency ['Rhomboid Dronegar Sector zero-zero-six']

Data warns the detour pushes them far from Picard, and Riker owns the risk, committing the Enterprise to the rescue.

worry to resolve

Who Was There

Characters present in this moment

4
Jean-Luc Picard
Captain
 primary

Measured and guarded — sounding professional on the surface while concealing urgency and personal vulnerability beneath the formal clearance.

Speaking via ship comms as Shuttle Two prepares to depart; Picard's voice is controlled and private, authorizing the shuttle while remaining physically absent from the bridge, masking a personal agenda and leaving the command circle vulnerable.

Goals in this moment
  • • Complete a private departure without alarming the crew
  • • Protect his personal medical privacy and avoid disrupting ship morale
Active beliefs
  • • His physical condition and plans are not for public knowledge
  • • Leaving the ship discretely is preferable to a public explanation that could worry or distract the crew
Character traits
disciplined stoic private about personal problems
Follow Jean-Luc Picard's journey
Data
Second Officer
 primary

Quietly concerned — professional composure with an undercurrent of worry about tactical and personal consequences.

Seated in Ops, confirms impulse speed, clears the shuttle for departure, exchanges concerned glances with Riker, then provides a technical caution that diverting to Rhomboid Dronegar 006 will place the Enterprise significantly farther from the captain's destination.

Goals in this moment
  • • Maintain accurate operational awareness and relay navigational consequences
  • • Ensure the shuttle departure and subsequent maneuvers are executed safely
Active beliefs
  • • Accurate data should guide command decisions
  • • Distance to the captain matters operationally and for crew safety
Character traits
precise analytical conciliatory
Follow Data's journey
Worf
Lieutenant, Chief of Security / Tactical Officer
 primary

Urgent and focused — reporting critical information with the expectation of immediate action.

At tactical, interrupts the bridge with an urgent report that a Mayday is being received on all frequencies and identifies the source sector; provides the raw tactical fact-pattern that forces Riker's decision.

Goals in this moment
  • • Relay reliable tactical data to command without embellishment
  • • Prompt an operational response to the distress signal
Active beliefs
  • • Distress signals demand a rapid and serious response
  • • Clear, unambiguous information best serves command decisions
Character traits
alert blunt procedural
Follow Worf's journey
William Riker
Commander
 primary

Concerned and resolute — emotionally tugged between loyalty to the captain and duty to respond to a distress call; chooses action over inaction.

Enters the bridge from the Ready Room, watches the shuttle depart on the viewscreen, questions why Picard would leave, then promptly assumes tactical command and orders a warp‑seven intercept of the Mayday source despite the strategic downside.

Goals in this moment
  • • Respond immediately to the distress call and render aid
  • • Exercise command competence and protect crew safety
Active beliefs
  • • Starfleet duty to aid those in distress is paramount
  • • Active intervention is preferable to delaying for certainty
Character traits
decisive protective dutiful
Follow William Riker's journey

Objects Involved

Significant items in this scene

1
Enterprise Main Bridge Viewscreen (Communications & Sensor Display)

The forward viewscreen displays the departing Shuttle Two and frames Riker's realization that Picard is leaving; it functions as the visual cue that transitions the bridge from routine departure to crisis management when the Mayday overlay and sector readouts demand attention.

Before: Active: rendering live shuttle departure imagery and routine …
After: Active: continues to display shuttle imagery and switches …
Before: Active: rendering live shuttle departure imagery and routine sensor readouts that show impulse speed and shuttle trajectory.
After: Active: continues to display shuttle imagery and switches focus to sensor data and the incoming Mayday sector readouts as the bridge sets a new course.

Location Details

Places and their significance in this event

6
Main Bridge

The Main Bridge is the operational hub where the shuttle departure, Riker's entrance, Worf's Mayday warning, and Riker's decision unfold; its concentric consoles and viewscreen concentrate sensory input that accelerates decision‑making and moral tension.

Atmosphere Tense, procedural, and quickly shifting from routine calm to focused urgency.
Function Command center for detection, decision, and course change.
Symbolism Embodies institutional responsibility and the burden of command; a place where private choices meet public …
Access Restricted to bridge crew and senior officers in normal operations.
Curved LCARS consoles with amber and blue status lights Low processor hum punctuated by clipped orders and status chimes Near-black viewscreen bathing faces in diagnostic light
Captain's Ready Room

The Ready Room functions as the immediate origin of Riker's entrance; its adjacency implies a private conversation or recent interaction with the captain and provides a quiet threshold from which command is resumed.

Atmosphere Quiet, contained; a small pressure bubble of privacy opening onto the public bridge.
Function Entry point for senior staff and the locus of private counsel preceding public action.
Symbolism Represents the boundary between the captain's private world and the ship's public command.
Access Generally restricted to captain and senior officers.
Dim lighting relative to the bridge Polished desk and close quarters that emphasize confidentiality
Shuttlecraft Bay

Shuttle Bay Two is the physical site from which Shuttle Two departs; its procedural bustle provides the immediate action that triggers the bridge's attention and visually confirms the captain's sudden absence from the ship.

Atmosphere Functional and brisk — maintenance checks and last‑minute launch procedures create a practical, unemotional backdrop.
Function Launch point for the captain's private departure.
Symbolism A threshold of separation where duty yields to individual movement away from the ship.
Access Operational access limited to flight crews and authorized personnel.
Grated floors and heavy docking clamps Harsh floodlights and console flares during launch preparations
Main Shuttle Bay

Shuttle Bay Two is the physical site from which Shuttle Two departs; its procedural bustle provides the immediate action that triggers the bridge's attention and visually confirms the captain's sudden absence from the ship.

Atmosphere Functional and brisk — maintenance checks and last‑minute launch procedures create a practical, unemotional backdrop.
Function Launch point for the captain's private departure.
Symbolism A threshold of separation where duty yields to individual movement away from the ship.
Access Operational access limited to flight crews and authorized personnel.
Grated floors and heavy docking clamps Harsh floodlights and console flares during launch preparations
Epsilon Pulsar Cluster

The Epsilon Pulsar Cluster is referenced as Picard's intended scientific destination; it functions narratively as the personal objective he sacrifices or postpones, giving weight to his departure and motivating the secrecy behind it.

Atmosphere Intellectual and magnetic in implication — an objective of quiet professional longing rather than immediate …
Function Motivational backdrop and the captain's privately anticipated mission.
Symbolism Represents Picard's scientific passion and the personal cost of his secrecy.
Described through sensor readouts and crew references, not physically present Conjures images of cold, strobe-like neutron stars and periodic radio pulses
Rhomboid Dronegar Sector 006

Rhomboid Dronegar Sector 006 is the geographic source of the incoming Mayday that forces the Enterprise to change course; it shifts the plot's calculus by introducing a remote humanitarian obligation that conflicts with Picard's private itinerary.

Atmosphere Remote and exigent — sensor blips and a terse distress signal imply unknown danger in …
Function Moral and operational waypoint that catalyzes the detour.
Symbolism Functions as a moral litmus test: duty to strangers versus duty to the vulnerable captain.
Sparse sensor returns with a terse 'unidentified distress' signature Cold, distant space implied by the sector designation

Narrative Connections

How this event relates to others in the story

What this causes 1
Callback weak

"Riker earlier flags Picard’s contradictory behavior; Picard later locks down gossip and reasserts the captain’s composed image."

Picard Reclaims Command and Buries the Brush with Death
S2E17 · Samaritan Snare

Part of Larger Arcs

William T. Riker's moral calculus: the internal tension between loyalty to an absent captain (Picard) and the duty to protect a captured crewmember — choosing whether to risk ship/protocol to save life.

Key Dialogue

"WORF: "Receiving a Mayday on all frequencies, sir!""
"RIKER: "Set course for Rhomboid Dronegar zero-zero-six at warp seven.""
"DATA: "Sir... Rhomboid Dronegar sector will put us at considerable distance from Captain Picard.""
"RIKER: "I know, Data. I know.""