Data's Defiant Rescue: Beaming Sarjenka to the Enterprise
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
The ground shakes violently; Sarjenka, now realizing the dying room is no longer refuge, collapses into terror—her hope shattered as the planet’s end closes in.
Data makes an irreversible choice: he overrides the Prime Directive, taps his insignia, and orders the Enterprise to beam them both up—his final act of compassion overriding logic, duty, and protocol.
Sarjenka, terrified yet awestruck, asks if they are going 'to the stars'—her childlike wonder igniting as Data confirms, transforming her annihilation into transcendence.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Surface calm and clinical focus overlaying an emergent, sincere compassion — quietly conflicted but resolute in choice to protect the child.
Data materializes in the empty room, deploys his tricorder to scan building breaches and external seismic activity, steadies Sarjenka during tremors, responds verbally to calm her, evaluates options, and decisively taps his insignia to order a transport off‑world.
- • Assess the immediate danger and ensure Sarjenka's physical safety
- • Establish a means of evacuation before environmental collapse
- • Minimize harm while trying to reconcile actions with Starfleet rules
- • Preservation of life is a primary duty
- • Data's duty to analyze and act can include using Enterprise resources
- • Protocols are important but may not morally outweigh saving a child in imminent danger
Terrified and panicked on arrival, rapidly shifting to relief, trust and exhilaration when Data reassures her and offers rescue.
Sarjenka rushes into the room, coughing and terrified; she recognizes Data, touches his cheek, throws herself into his arms, answers his questions about her family and transmitter, and allows herself to be positioned for transport when Data signals the Enterprise.
- • Retrieve and keep possession of her transmitter
- • Find and reunite with Data
- • Secure rescue from the imminent environmental threat
- • Data will return and can be relied upon
- • Her transmitter holds emotional or communicative importance
- • Her family has fled and she must be rescued independently
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Data unlimbers his tricorder to scan the room and the door areas, producing high‑pitched beeps that change pitch as boundary breaches and external seismic activity are mapped. The tricorder translates invisible geological threat into readable data that informs Data's rescue decision.
Data taps his Starfleet insignia to open a voice link and issue a transport command to the Enterprise. The insignia converts an intimate, emotional choice into an operational order and activates the ship's authority and technology to remove Sarjenka from immediate danger.
Sarjenka's handheld transmitter is shown lying on the floor as evidence of her return to the room; its presence explains her risk‑taking and emotional need to return. It functions as the narrative motive for her reappearance and as a tangible connection between child and rescuer.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Drema Four functions as the dangerous, collapsing environment that creates the ethical crisis: seismic ruptures, ash fall and rivers of molten rock are the proximate threat that forces Data's choice to rescue Sarjenka and implicates the Enterprise in a potential Prime Directive violation.
Sarjenka's private bedroom acts as the intimate arena for the emotional reunion and the moral turning point: childhood artifacts, a vanished wall revealing volcanic devastation, and trembling floors turn a domestic refuge into a staging ground for rescue and a witness to Data's compassionate choice.
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!""
"SARJENKA: "Data, you came.""
"DATA: "Enterprise, two to beam up.""