Ordered Transfer — Danar's Fatalistic Defiance
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard and Troi enter, informing Roga of the imminent transfer to Angosian custody, emphasizing the political obligation.
Roga warns Picard he will use any means to escape, framing it as inevitable rather than a threat.
Picard receives confirmation of the Angosian transport’s arrival, signaling the transfer’s inevitability.
Roga and Troi share a final exchange, where Roga declares he’d rather die than return to Lunar Five, solidifying his desperation.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Constrained, regretful and quietly angry — maintaining procedural calm while feeling the ethical cost of compliance.
Picard enters the detention cell, states the official order to return Danar to Angosian custody, explains he has no choice because of the prime minister's insistence, offers sympathy and a tentative promise to help later, then orders Data to the bridge and exits.
- • To fulfill Starfleet and diplomatic protocol by arranging the transfer.
- • To preserve the integrity of the Enterprise's relations with Angosia and avoid a political incident.
- • To minimize harm to his crew while retaining hope for a future remedy.
- • The chain of command and diplomatic protocol must be respected even when morally painful.
- • Personal sympathy cannot override the political force being applied by Angosia's leadership.
- • Informing Danar directly is the humane way to discharge his duty.
Externally neutral and reflective — his statements align him morally with Troi though he remains factual and composed.
Data is mid-conversation with Roga, rises when Picard and Troi enter, quietly supports Troi's assessment, accepts Picard's order to go to the bridge, exchanges a brief farewell with Roga and leaves — composed and observational.
- • To follow Picard's orders and go to the bridge when commanded.
- • To maintain professional courtesy toward Roga and preserve a fact-based understanding of Roga's conditioning.
- • To observe and record interactions that may inform later analysis.
- • His programming directs obedience to lawful command structures.
- • Objective observation is valuable for understanding complex human/engineered behavior.
- • Roga's capabilities and conditioning are worth noting, not merely condemning.
Clinically urgent and focused — delivering operational facts without commentary, thereby ratcheting up tension.
Worf's voice is heard via com announcing the arrival of the Angosian transport vessel, turning a moral conversation into an immediate logistical operation; his terse report catalyzes Picard's order and the impending transfer.
- • To inform command of the transport's arrival promptly.
- • To ensure the transfer proceeds according to schedule and protocol.
- • To maintain security readiness for the upcoming handover.
- • Timely, accurate reporting is critical to ship security and operations.
- • Operational facts are to be delivered without emotional embellishment.
- • Starfleet protocol governs transfers and security responses.
Openly concerned and morally restless — she believes rehabilitation is possible and is distressed that political procedure forecloses it.
Troi accompanies Picard, speaks directly and compassionately to Roga arguing against repatriation, exchanges a meaningful look with Roga after Picard departs, and lingers emotionally engaged with the detainee's fate.
- • To advocate for Roga's humane treatment and oppose immediate repatriation.
- • To preserve the possibility of psychological intervention or rehabilitation.
- • To register Roga's human reality against bureaucratic abstraction.
- • Roga is not irredeemable and should not automatically be returned to a penal system.
- • Empathic contact can reveal important truths missed by political decision-making.
- • Starfleet has a moral obligation to consider rehabilitation where possible.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Worf's handheld communicator transmits the terse hail that the Angosian transport vessel has arrived; the single sentence immediately converts ethical discussion into an operational deadline, forcing Picard to finalize transfer orders and catalyzing the next sequence of action.
The Angosian transport vessel is announced as having arrived; though off-screen, its impending presence functions as an immediate narrative threat and logistical actor — the reason for the required handover and the ticking clock that makes Roga's resistance imminent.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The high-security detention cell is the confined, clinical stage for the moral confrontation: a sterile, humming, forcefield‑rimmed room that contains the human faces of diplomacy, law, and engineered violence as Picard delivers the transfer order and Roga prepares to resist.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Data and Danar's discussion about their respective programming foreshadows Danar's later actions when he inevitably resists transfer due to his conditioning."
"Data and Danar's discussion about their respective programming foreshadows Danar's later actions when he inevitably resists transfer due to his conditioning."
Key Dialogue
"PICARD: "Mister Danar, I am going to transfer you back to Angosian security. They are en route and will arrive shortly. I came to tell you that I have no choice. The prime minister has insisted and we have no right to refuse.""
"ROGA: "You deserve to know that I must use whatever means I can to escape.""
"ROGA: "I will not be here to see it, Counselor. Because even with this overwhelming demand to survive that they've built into my soul... I would rather die than return to Lunar Five.""