Both Go Down — Risk, Logic and Loyalty on the Transporter Pad
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data and Geordi gear up in the transporter room while O'Brien mans the console, their tricorders and large phasers signaling a high-risk return to Surata IV.
Data pushes to go alone, citing Geordi’s vulnerability to the microorganism and arguing to minimize exposure.
Geordi counters with wry pushback, then lands the decisive point—he knows exactly where Riker was—while challenging Data’s assumption about android safety.
Data accepts the logic and joins Geordi on the transporter pad, locking in the decision to beam down together.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Concentrated and measured—quietly vigilant, prepared to translate the crew's decision into precise transporter operations.
O'Brien remains at the transporter console, professionally monitoring systems and standing ready to execute or abort the beam; his presence frames the technical boundary that will either protect the ship or fail should contamination be detected.
- • Operate the transporter safely, following biohazard protocols and be ready to respond to contamination.
- • Provide stable technical support so Data and Geordi can complete their retrieval and return without jeopardizing the ship.
- • Transporter systems and console monitoring are capable of detecting and mitigating biohazards if protocols are followed.
- • Clear, decisive commands and procedural adherence reduce risk during high-stakes beaming operations.
Calm, clinical and guarded—surface detachment that prioritizes risk-calculation over emotional impulse but registers the weight of the decision.
Data speaks first with clinical precision, argues for going alone to minimize biological exposure, evaluates probability, and ultimately accepts Geordi's pragmatic logic before stepping onto the transporter pad with a tricorder and phaser.
- • Minimize the number of living organisms exposed to the microorganism.
- • Ensure successful recovery of Commander Riker or diagnostic sample with the highest probability of mission success.
- • Biological threats scale with the number of exposed agents; fewer humans means lower risk.
- • Android physiology is less or differently susceptible to the organism, making single-operator approach preferable.
- • Rational calculation should govern operational risk decisions.
Determined and protective—willing to accept personal danger out of duty and friendship, masking anxiety behind pragmatic assurance.
Geordi pushes back against Data's cold calculus, invoking specific, actionable knowledge (Riker's exact location) and personal loyalty; he insists on accompanying Data, boards the transporter pad carrying a tricorder and phaser, and effectively converts an abstract risk assessment into an operational imperative.
- • Be physically present to assist Data in locating and rescuing Commander Riker.
- • Increase the likelihood of success by contributing Geordi's field knowledge and hands-on problem solving.
- • Knowing the exact location of Riker materially raises the chances of a successful extraction.
- • Personal loyalty and teamwork can outweigh isolated statistical risk.
- • Operational knowledge and human judgment are essential complements to analytic logic.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Each of the two officers carries a medical tricorder as a diagnostic and scanning instrument; it functions as their primary tool for detecting the microorganism and assessing Commander Riker on-site, shaping the immediate tactical approach.
The transporter pad functions as the physical staging platform for the risky decision; Data and Geordi climb onto it, turning it into the literal threshold between the safety of the ship and the contaminated environment they will enter.
The transporter control console is actively manned by O'Brien; it provides real-time telemetry and biofilter readouts that frame the risk assessment and will be used to initiate or abort the transport sequence, making it the technical fulcrum of the decision.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The transporter room serves as the operational crucible where technical procedure, medical urgency, and interpersonal duty collide; its instruments, hum, and consoles create a controlled yet tense environment that forces a moral-technical choice to be made.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"DATA: "I must reiterate that it would be better if I went alone.""
"DATA: "Your company is not at issue. Your vulnerability to this microorganism is.""
"GEORDI: "Because I know exactly where Commander Riker was when it happened.""