Directional Radiation — Promellian Defenses Sought
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data confirms safe radiation levels on the ancient warship, raising immediate questions about the directional nature of the threat.
Riker questions why the warship isn't being irradiated, suspecting Enterprise involvement, while Data deduces the field targets them specifically.
Riker orders Data to analyze Promellian defenses and searches for records that might reveal the trap's mechanism.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Measured, clinically curious and focused; displays procedural urgency rather than overt emotion while recognizing the tactical implications for crew safety.
Data materializes on the ancient bridge, activates his tricorder, reports that radiation on the Promellian craft is within safe human limits, deduces the field is directional and aimed at the Enterprise, and accepts Riker's order to analyze defenses and seek logs.
- • Determine the nature and geometry of the radiation field.
- • Analyze Promellian defensive systems to locate the trap mechanism.
- • Locate and recover ship logs or records of the Promellian last battle.
- • Sensor data and tricorder readings are reliable indicators of environmental conditions.
- • The anomalous radiation pattern is not random and therefore can be understood and mitigated through analysis.
- • Archived records (logs) will contain actionable clues about what occurred here.
Concerned and urgent; pragmatic command focus that channels anxiety into immediate, concrete investigative steps.
Riker materializes, questions why the derelict isn't contaminated, reframes the problem as an attack on the Enterprise, issues clear tactical orders to Data to assess Promellian defenses and find a ship's log, then moves off to physically search the bridge.
- • Protect the Enterprise and crew from further radiation exposure.
- • Ascertain whether Enterprise systems (engines) triggered the trap.
- • Obtain ship logs to reconstruct the Promellian ship's final actions and avoid repeating mistakes.
- • This is a deliberate, target-specific defensive system rather than a random environmental hazard.
- • Understanding the enemy's defenses and records will permit an actionable countermeasure.
- • Quick, coordinated analysis will reduce the risk of exposing the away team or Enterprise to further harm.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Data's tricorder is the forensic instrument that turns the unknown into data: he uses it to read ambient radiation, produce a definitive 'safe' reading for the derelict ship, and underpin his deduction that the field is directional and aimed at the Enterprise. Narratively it converts atmospheric danger into a solvable engineering problem.
Data 'keys insignia' as a stage direction cue — he taps a combadge-like device to open a channel or record identification; the insignia functions as a communicative control and authentication device in the away team's procedure, enabling Data to speak with command authority and log findings.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The USS Enterprise's Main Bridge is invoked as the target of the Promellian directional field: while the scene physically takes place on the ancient warship, the Enterprise bridge is the conceptual locus under threat, representing the ship and crew that must be defended. The revelation reframes events back to the Enterprise's safety and command decisions.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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This event is currently isolated in the narrative graph
Key Dialogue
"DATA: "Radiation factor is within safe human limits, Commander.""
"RIKER: "Why isn't this ship being hit with radiation?""
"DATA: "That is curious, Commander. The radiation field must be directional in nature... aimed only at the Enterprise.""
"RIKER: "Maybe our own engines triggered it somehow... Data, see if you can determine what kind of defenses the Promellians tried to employ... I don't want to waste time trying them again...""
"DATA: "Understood.""
"RIKER: "What'd really help us is a ship's log... any kind of record of their last battle.""