Millisecond Gambit
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data defines the tactical premise—strip the Hathaway of value to the Ferengi—while Kolrami scoffs that a brief warp won't hide it for long.
Picard cuts off Kolrami and calls for Riker’s commitment; Riker answers with wry confidence, aligning the teams.
Prompted by Picard, Data lays out the gambit: fire four photon torpedoes at the Hathaway and jump to warp a millisecond before detonation.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Calmly analytical; emotionally neutral but soberly obligated — conveys risk without dramatics.
Data lays out the technical plan with clinical precision: four photon torpedoes fired at Hathaway with a millisecond‑timed computer trigger to initiate Hathaway's warp jump, and reiterates the catastrophic timing risk.
- • Present a technically feasible solution that maximizes chance of preserving life.
- • Ensure all participants understand the timing constraints and risks involved.
- • Quantified timing and systems control can determine survival outcomes.
- • Duty requires stating facts and probabilities, even if outcomes are grim.
Anxious and sober; professionally candid about system fragility while willing to try.
Geordi voices technical skepticism and anxiety: he warns that they cannot be sure the Hathaway's warp jump will function and implicitly commits to attempting the risky engineering implementation.
- • Make the Hathaway's warp engines as reliable as possible in short order.
- • Communicate the realistic technical limits so command can weigh risk honestly.
- • Systems under strain can fail unpredictably; honesty about probability matters.
- • Engineering ingenuity can reduce, but not eliminate, catastrophic risk under time pressure.
Resolute with quiet moral conflict; determined to save lives without personally absolving or condemning the decision.
Picard orchestrates the moral framing: he proposes the deception, refuses to give the direct order to Riker, and sets the clock, delegating the painful execution to his first officer while protecting the principle of consent.
- • Save the Hathaway crew and the Enterprise from capture.
- • Preserve ethical command boundaries by forcing voluntary acceptance of the lethal order.
- • Command carries moral weight that must sometimes be borne by subordinates by choice.
- • Deception is defensible if it preserves life and prevents enemy capture.
Arrogant detachment; revels in exposing perceived weaknesses in others' plans.
Kolrami interjects scornful strategic commentary about the enemy relocating the Hathaway after a two‑second warp, attempting to puncture confidence and reframe the plan as naive.
- • Undermine the crew's confidence and assert intellectual superiority.
- • Highlight flaws in the Federation's tactical thinking to test their resolve.
- • Strategic contests are decided by predicting enemy relocation and responses.
- • Provocation will destabilize opponents and reveal their true competence.
Grim acceptance; outwardly steady, inwardly braced for responsibility and potential loss.
Riker accepts the burden of command with a restrained, resigned courage, verbally consenting to execute the dangerous plan and prepare a tactical surprise for the enemy.
- • Execute Picard's plan flawlessly to protect the crew.
- • Coordinate a follow‑on surprise to exploit the few minutes of deception.
- • Command requires accepting morally fraught choices when necessary.
- • A short deception that saves lives justifies serious risk and improvisation.
Stoic severity; accepts harsh calculus and readies for violent contingency.
Worf issues the blunt warrior's assessment: if the warp fails the crew will die and the deception only buys minutes, and he agrees to prepare the retaliatory surprise once the temporary concealment is achieved.
- • Prepare a tactical surprise to exploit the few minutes of deception.
- • Protect crew lives by realistic appraisal and decisive action.
- • Deception is only useful if followed by decisive, violent action when necessary.
- • Honorable service includes accepting dangerous assignments to save comrades.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Referred to as 'the computer,' this onboard system is tasked with executing the millisecond trigger that will initiate the Hathaway's warp jump at the exact moment before torpedo detonation — a precision timing role central to the deception's feasibility.
The Hathaway functions as the physical decoy/target in the deception: it will be fired upon by Enterprise torpedoes while executing a timed warp jump to escape destruction and appear annihilated to the Ferengi observers.
The warp engines are the technical enabler of the Hathaway's survival: Geordi warns they may fail under hurried implementation, and the plan hinges on their functioning for a two‑second warp initiated precisely a millisecond before detonation.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Observation Lounge is the confined, strategic forum where senior officers assemble to convert technical possibility into command decision; its quiet, public intimacy forces a moral airing of risk and responsibility before action.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"DATA: At the captain's signal, we will fire four photon torpedoes directly at the Hathaway. A millisecond before detonation, the computer will trigger your warp jump."
"PICARD: Captain Riker, I can't order you to do this..."
"RIKER: What the hell. Nobody said life was safe."