Ash, Recognition, and the Decision to Beam Up
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data materializes in Sarjenka's ravaged room amid ashfall and molten lava, discovering the destroyed transmitter and unusual star-themed childhood artifacts, then triggers a hidden wall to confront the planet’s apocalyptic eruption.
Sarjenka bursts into the room through the open wall, terrified upon seeing Data, but freezes and reaches out to touch his face as she recognizes him—her long-awaited friend from the stars.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Terrified and coughing on arrival, rapidly shifting to awe and relief upon recognizing Data, then thrilled and comforted once rescue is imminent.
Sarjenka rushes into the room coughing from ash, freezes at the sight of Data, then recognizes him and reaches out to touch his cheek. Overcome, she throws herself into his arms, answers questions about her family and transmitter, and is positioned for transport off-world.
- • Reconnect with Data and maintain contact.
- • Keep evidence of contact (the transmitter) as proof and comfort.
- • Survive the immediate environmental danger.
- • Be rescued and find safety (implied desire to reunite with family).
- • Data will return if she keeps the transmitter as proof.
- • Adults may abandon items and leave behind things she values unless she hides them.
- • Contact with Data is more trustworthy than other adults in the moment.
- • Her transmitter and the signal are crucial to being found.
Calmly analytical at first; quickly shades into compassionate determination and mild confusion as emergent empathy overrides strict procedural distance.
Data materializes in the room, immediately deploys his tricorder to scan doorways and structural integrity, steadies Sarjenka during tremors, accepts her embrace with visible confusion, diagnoses imminent danger and taps his insignia to call the Enterprise and effect a beam-out.
- • Assess environmental danger and survivability objectively using sensors.
- • Protect and stabilize Sarjenka during tremors.
- • Secure immediate rescue transport for the child.
- • Minimize harm while managing the ethical implications of intervention.
- • Immediate physical danger creates moral weight that may justify intervention.
- • The Enterprise has resources to perform a safe extraction.
- • Sarjenka's attachment and the transmitter constitute a real human (personhood) claim needing response.
- • Data can interpret rules but must prioritize preserving life when imminent risk is present.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Data's tricorder emits high-pitched beeps and is used to map doorway openings and environmental danger. Its tonal shifts across wall sections reveal the vanished portal and help Data assess external volcanic activity, informing his decision to call for immediate extraction.
Data taps his Starfleet insignia to open a voice/transport link to the Enterprise and order two beamed up. The combadge functions as the operative instrument that converts Data's private decision into immediate organizational action.
Sarjenka's handheld transmitter lies on the floor as the sentimental reason she stayed. She references it when explaining her presence, making it both emotional proof of connection and the narrative catalyst that humanizes the signal the Enterprise answered.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Drema Four functions as the external, active antagonist: a volcanic, ash-choked world whose eruptions and a crawling river of molten rock make habitation impossible, forcing Data's evacuation decision and grounding the Prime Directive dilemma in immediate mortal peril.
Sarjenka's room is the intimate, domestic stage where childhood artifacts collide with planetary catastrophe. It shelters the child briefly, frames the personal connection between child and android, and becomes the threshold across which Data must convert ethical analysis into protective action.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Data’s transport to Drema Four is the direct outcome of his request to Picard and the subsequent authorization from Riker. His appearance on the planet is the physical manifestation of the moral breach — setting the stage for his ultimate act: saving Sarjenka."
"Data’s transport to Drema Four is the direct outcome of his request to Picard and the subsequent authorization from Riker. His appearance on the planet is the physical manifestation of the moral breach — setting the stage for his ultimate act: saving Sarjenka."
"Data's rescue of Sarjenka on Drema Four is the direct cause of her unauthorized arrival on the transporter pad. This act—carrying out his moral belief in person—is the single event that forces Starfleet to confront the concrete human cost of the Prime Directive."
"Data's rescue of Sarjenka on Drema Four is the direct cause of her unauthorized arrival on the transporter pad. This act—carrying out his moral belief in person—is the single event that forces Starfleet to confront the concrete human cost of the Prime Directive."
"When Sarjenka reveals she returned alone to hear Data’s voice, it confirms that she doesn't just see him as a savior—she sees him as her friend. This exact same emotional truth is what makes the neural erasure so monstrous: she doesn’t just need saving—she needs remembering."
"When Sarjenka reveals she returned alone to hear Data’s voice, it confirms that she doesn't just see him as a savior—she sees him as her friend. This exact same emotional truth is what makes the neural erasure so monstrous: she doesn’t just need saving—she needs remembering."
"Sarjenka’s emotional vulnerability—whispering why she waited alone—mirror's Data’s silent, mechanical departure at the end. She reaches out to comfort him as a child; he, in turn, removes himself like a ghost. Their interaction is one of unspoken sorrow: she feels, he remembers, and both are left alone."
Key Dialogue
"DATA: "Sarjenka, wait!""
"DATA: "Do not be afraid. I am Data.""
"SARJENKA: "Data, you came.""