Duplicate Picard — Antimatter Burn and Temporal Alarm
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard and Data arrive, and the crew holds its breath — Picard stares at his double, wordless, while Troi enters unbidden, sensing a soul-deep mirror reflection that questions identity itself.
Picard orders Data to access the shuttle’s logs, and Riker summons Geordi — the search for answers shifts from observation to forensic urgency, sparking the first coordinated push to unravel the temporal wound.
Picard examines a strange burn on the shuttle’s hull — recognizing it as the signature of an antimatter explosion — linking the shuttle’s fate to a catastrophe that barely missed it, and tethering the anomaly to violent temporal displacement.
Picard commands Troi to stay alert and exits to Sickbay, leaving the crew with the unspoken truth: the duplicate is not just a puzzle — he is a warning, and the Enterprise is already living in the shadow of its own destruction.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Professionally alarmed — urgent concern for patient safety while resisting impulse for ad hoc intervention.
Performs initial medical scans on the unconscious duplicate (P2), reports confusing life-signs and 'out of phase' brain waves, refuses to attempt revival in the bay and orders immediate transfer to Sickbay with her team.
- • Stabilize and safely transport the patient to Sickbay for controlled treatment.
- • Obtain accurate diagnostics without exacerbating an unknown condition.
- • Preserve the integrity of medical data for later analysis.
- • The patient's neurological condition is unstable and potentially dangerous to treat outside Sickbay.
- • Controlled medical environment yields safer, more reliable outcomes.
- • Immediate field intervention could harm the patient or crew.
Unconscious; implied pre-existing disorientation or panic prior to being found.
Found slumped over the shuttle controls, unconscious with a strong but irregular heartbeat and brainwaves described as 'out of phase'; physically intact but medically abnormal.
- • Regain consciousness and coherent memory of recent events (inferred).
- • Receive medical evaluation and stabilization (inferred).
- • Shares identity with Jean‑Luc Picard (implied by Troi and physical likeness).
- • His condition is atypical and linked to an event that affected shuttle systems (inferred).
Clinically focused — not flustered, concentrating on system reads and remediation steps.
Enters and takes the shuttle's command position, performs diagnostics, reports that both primary and reserve power have been drained, and requests a connection to the Enterprise to access shuttle systems and logs.
- • Restore power or connect the shuttle to Enterprise systems to retrieve logs.
- • Diagnose the cause of the power drain and report findings to command.
- • Preserve any remaining data and forensics on the shuttle.
- • Technical systems will yield empirical answers if accessed correctly.
- • A complete power drain is abnormal and suggests an external energetic event or tampering.
- • Connecting to ship resources is the appropriate next step to recover data.
Concerned and focused — displays restrained puzzlement but prioritizes tactical assessment.
Accompanies Riker to inspect the incoming shuttle, notes the absence of nearby Federation traffic, reacts to duplicate registration, and accompanies Riker when they depart for the bridge.
- • Determine if there's an immediate tactical threat to the ship.
- • Support Riker in securing the bay and consolidating evidence.
- • Protect crew and maintain order during the anomaly.
- • Physical evidence (burn, registration) points to an external, possibly dangerous cause.
- • Orderly, immediate assessment mitigates tactical risk.
- • Anomalous contacts should be treated as potentially hostile until proven otherwise.
Shielded astonishment that hardens into urgent command — startled but immediately operational and disciplined.
Moves into Shuttle Bay Two, reads and re-reads the shuttle registration, discovers the duplicate registration, coordinates immediate response, notifies the Captain and orders bridge coverage before heading out with Worf.
- • Verify the identity and origin of the shuttle(s).
- • Secure the scene and ensure medical/safety protocol is followed.
- • Inform and involve command and specialists (Data, La Forge).
- • This anomaly may threaten the ship and must be handled by command.
- • Evidence (registration and burn) is meaningful and indicates a serious incident.
- • Procedural order and quick reporting will mitigate risk.
Concerned but composed — following Pulaski's direction and focusing on patient safety.
Accompanies Dr. Pulaski into the bay, assists opening the shuttle, helps stabilize and remove the unconscious duplicate, and aids in preparing him for transport to Sickbay.
- • Execute Pulaski's orders swiftly and safely.
- • Prepare the patient for controlled transfer to Sickbay.
- • Maintain sterile and efficient procedure during an anomalous situation.
- • Medical chain of command is to be followed.
- • Quick, careful action is necessary to avoid worsening the patient's condition.
Uneasy and contemplative — unsettled by a psychic echo she cannot fully interpret yet.
Enters the bay unbidden, uses empathic sense to report that the duplicate is 'as much Jean‑Luc Picard' as the man present, but that she needs the duplicate conscious before she can say more.
- • Assess the empathic/psychic relationship between Picard and the duplicate.
- • Provide emotional support to both the Captain and duplicate once stabilized.
- • Inform command of any psychic anomalies that could affect decision-making.
- • Psychic impressions provide useful—but incomplete—data until the subject is conscious.
- • There is a meaningful psychic link between Picard and the duplicate that may reveal origins or intent.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The shuttle's primary and reserve power systems are examined by Data; both banks are discovered fully drained, preventing local system activation and forcing a manual connection to the Enterprise — this technical failure is central forensic evidence that something external bled the shuttle's energy.
A shuttle bay control panel is used by a crew member to attach a second tractor beam which releases the first stronger beam and transfers tractor control; the panel mediates the physical retrieval of the derelict shuttle and the timing of doors closing.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Shuttle Bay Two functions as the event's stage — a cavernous hangar where tractor motors, crew, medics, and engineers converge to inspect the derelict shuttle and extract the unconscious duplicate, and where the first forensic and medical readings are taken.
Shuttle Bay Two functions as the event's stage — a cavernous hangar where tractor motors, crew, medics, and engineers converge to inspect the derelict shuttle and extract the unconscious duplicate, and where the first forensic and medical readings are taken.
The USS Enterprise as a location/institution frames the event — the ship's systems provide tractor power and diagnostic resources, and its command structure is being invoked to investigate a problem that may directly threaten the vessel's timeline and hierarchy.
Sickbay is established verbally and procedurally as the required destination for the duplicate — Pulaski refuses to attempt revival in the bay and insists on controlled treatment there, making Sickbay the site's intended sanctuary for detailed medical diagnosis.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Riker’s discovery of the duplicate shuttle registration (NCC-1701-D) directly causes the realization that there are two identical shuttles, which is confirmed when Picard on the bridge is contacted via com — shattering reality and triggering the temporal paradox at the core of the narrative."
"Riker’s discovery of the duplicate shuttle registration (NCC-1701-D) directly causes the realization that there are two identical shuttles, which is confirmed when Picard on the bridge is contacted via com — shattering reality and triggering the temporal paradox at the core of the narrative."
"Riker’s discovery of the duplicate shuttle registration (NCC-1701-D) directly causes the realization that there are two identical shuttles, which is confirmed when Picard on the bridge is contacted via com — shattering reality and triggering the temporal paradox at the core of the narrative."
"Riker’s discovery of the duplicate shuttle registration (NCC-1701-D) directly causes the realization that there are two identical shuttles, which is confirmed when Picard on the bridge is contacted via com — shattering reality and triggering the temporal paradox at the core of the narrative."
"The shock of discovering a duplicate shuttle echoes in Picard’s visceral confrontation with his unconscious duplicate. Both moments shatter physical and psychological certainty — one through mechanical duplication, the other through existential replication — linking the crew’s external crisis to Picard’s internal disintegration."
Key Dialogue
"PULASKI: "The readings from his brain waves are very... strange.""
"PULASKI: "No -- neither. They are just out of phase.""
"DATA: "Both primary and reserve power has been drained from the shuttle. I am going to have to connect to the Enterprise in order to activate the shuttle's systems.""