The Mock Retreat — Picard Calls Off the Chase
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard orders a warning shot, prompting the warship to retreat, but the pursuit reveals it's intentionally matching the Enterprise's speed.
Picard abandons the futile chase, recognizing they're being manipulated, and redirects the crew back to Rana IV to confront the Uxbridges.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Ashamed and anxious about the unknown nature of the contact and his inability to explain or preempt the threat, but steady in duty.
Reports weapon and shield readings with grave professionalism, carries out Picard's order to raise shields and ready weapons, and describes enemy fire composition and effect on the Enterprise.
- • protect the ship by maintaining shield integrity and weapons readiness
- • accurately assess enemy weaponry and its effects
- • the ship's defensive posture is the first priority
- • unknown threats require maximum vigilance and immediate readiness
Neutral and dispassionate in delivery, though his precise reporting heightens the crew's alarm by removing ambiguity.
Runs vehicle-classification and communications routines, opens the hailing frequency, reports receipt and deliberate ignorance of the hail, and announces the warship's apparent retreat and acceleration profiles.
- • provide accurate sensor and communications data to command
- • clarify the unknown vessel's behavior to inform tactical decisions
- • objective sensor data is the most reliable basis for command decisions
- • the vessel's refusal to respond is intentional and tactically meaningful
Pleasure and professional pride at executing high-speed maneuvers initially, shifting to confusion and disappointment as the chase proves fruitless.
At the helm, executes acceleration and pursuit orders, reports incremental warp factors and notes that the warship is matching the Enterprise's acceleration curve exactly.
- • achieve commanded velocity profiles accurately
- • close distance to the target to enable tactical options
- • engineering and precise piloting can overcome tactical obstacles
- • if engines are pushed, pursuit will yield useful contact
Suspicious and resolute; annoyance at being toyed with hardens into determination to re-prioritize investigation over dogged pursuit.
Enters to observe the threat, issues orders to hail, raise shields and fire a warning shot, authorizes pursuit, then abruptly recognizes the chase as manipulation and orders an immediate return to Rana IV to continue the investigative priority.
- • protect the crew and ship from an unknown, powerful adversary
- • determine the connection between the warship and the survivors on Rana IV
- • prevent being manipulated into a diversionary engagement
- • the surviving Uxbridges on Rana IV are central to whatever caused the attack
- • the warship's behavior is purposeful and not simply tactical retreat
Confident but increasingly frustrated and unsettled as tactical advantage slips away; professional composure overlays rising concern.
Manning the bridge, Riker orders visual magnification, interprets tactical posture, requests engine output and initially supports pursuit; later he executes Picard's order to reduce speed and reverse course while voicing frustrated resignation.
- • establish the enemy ship's identity and threat level
- • close the distance to allow offensive or boarding options
- • follow Captain's orders while preserving crew safety
- • the enemy can be engaged and defeated with superior engineering/velocity
- • standard Starfleet protocols (hails, warnings) should elicit response or reveal intent
- • Picard's decisions must be executed even when they conflict with immediate tactical instincts
Determined and pragmatic; confident engineering can provide a solution to a tactical problem.
Responds over comms to Riker's call, pledges to push the engines and gives a precise ETA to a high warp figure intended to close the gap during pursuit.
- • maximize engine output to allow the Enterprise to overtake the target
- • support bridge command decisions with actionable engineering fixes
- • engine power can be a decisive tactical equalizer
- • with sufficient warp, the ship can force a contact or engagement
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Enterprise Defensive Shields absorb two matter/antimatter salvoes from the warship without damage, demonstrating the ship's resilience and allowing the bridge to shift from survival mode to tactical probing.
The Main Viewer displays the approaching warship, its course changes, and the escalating engagement; it becomes the crew's visual focal point and the stage where the enemy's matching maneuvers are revealed.
The Bridge Hailing Frequency is opened for formal communication; Data reports the hail was received but intentionally ignored, making the lack of response itself a tactical communication.
The matter/antimatter wave is the enemy's offensive weapon used to test Enterprise defenses; its pulse registers on tactical displays and prompts immediate defensive orders.
Enterprise Weapon Systems Control is ordered to fire a warning phaser salvo across the warship's nose; it functions as both a defensive deterrent and a tactical feint whose effects prompt the enemy's apparent retreat.
The Vehicle Classification Index runs analytic comparisons and reports that it cannot identify the design, emphasizing the ship's alien provenance and raising alarm through negative identification.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The warship's restrained hostility escalates to a direct attack."
"The warship's restrained hostility escalates to a direct attack."
"The warship's restrained hostility escalates to a direct attack."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"PICARD: Where did that come from?"
"DATA: They have received the message, Captain, but are choosing to ignore it."
"PICARD: This ship will not chase a pony on a merry-go-round. Number One, take us back to Rana Four."