Cosmic Betrayal
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard commands Haskell to lock the Yamato with the tractor beam and insists the ships leave together; Haskell fails to acquire a lock while Data warns the star fix is fading, and Picard cuts off further attempts—ordering 'Let it go' and forcing the bridge to accept futility.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Mounting frustration undercut by dawning horror
Struggles desperately at the tractor beam controls, his technical efforts growing more frantic as the Yamato slips beyond salvation—embodying Starfleet's can-do ethos facing cosmic indifference.
- • Achieve tractor beam lock against physics-breaking odds
- • Prove his operational competence under duress
- • Starfleet engineers can solve any problem with enough effort
- • Equipment failures reflect personal inadequacy
Professional detachment covering unease
Reports the away team's sudden contact re-establishment—a cruel contrast to the Yamato's loss—through gruff professionalism that avoids acknowledging their impossible timing.
- • Maintain transporter systems amid spatial anomalies
- • Deliver critical updates without emotional interference
- • Protocol ensures clarity during crises
- • Technological systems shouldn't behave this erratically
Concern tempered by analytical curiosity
Tracks the Yamato's disintegration on the main viewer with scientific fascination momentarily overriding dread, his youth showing in the slight tremor as he delivers the grim report.
- • Monitor navigational anomalies accurately
- • Prove his bridge-watch competency
- • Empirical observation grounds emotional responses
- • Even lost ships yield valuable scientific data
Steely resolve masking profound distress at abandoning comrades
Issues urgent rescue orders with clipped authority, then makes the agonizing decision to abandon the Yamato when cosmic interference proves insurmountable. His jaw tightens as stars disappear on the viewscreen.
- • Save the Yamato against impossible odds
- • Preserve Enterprise crew from the void's influence
- • Starfleet's duty to assist takes precedence over personal risk
- • Some threats require recognizing when action becomes futile
Clinical focus unaffected by existential stakes
Monitors the deteriorating spatial phenomena with analytical detachment, delivering stark warnings about the fading star fix—his monotone reportage a counterpoint to human tension.
- • Report navigational data accurately
- • Maintain protocol despite reality's instability
- • Empirical evidence should dictate command decisions
- • Emotional responses impair crisis management
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The main viewscreen displays the Yamato's cruel disintegration in real-time, stars winking out around it like a cosmic countdown. Its shifting imagery transforms from navigational reference into an unsettling canvas of reality's instability.
The tractor beam becomes both rescue instrument and tragic symbol—its intended tether to the Yamato straining against cosmic forces until rendered useless by the void's manipulation of physics. Its failure demonstrates technological limitations against existential threats.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The bridge becomes a crucible for command decisions under cosmic duress—its ergonomic consoles and glowing displays framing the crew's collective trauma as their attempted rescue fails spectacularly against the void's indifference. Every station reflects escalating tension through facial expressions and lighting shifts.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The viewscreen bleeding out and stars fading is part of an escalation that culminates in the Yamato beginning to fade while the Transporter Chief reports tentative contact—phenomena intensify and the window for rescue narrows."
"The viewscreen bleeding out and stars fading is part of an escalation that culminates in the Yamato beginning to fade while the Transporter Chief reports tentative contact—phenomena intensify and the window for rescue narrows."
"The viewscreen bleeding out and stars fading is part of an escalation that culminates in the Yamato beginning to fade while the Transporter Chief reports tentative contact—phenomena intensify and the window for rescue narrows."
"The viewscreen bleeding out and stars fading is part of an escalation that culminates in the Yamato beginning to fade while the Transporter Chief reports tentative contact—phenomena intensify and the window for rescue narrows."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"DATA: Captain. The star fix is fading."
"PICARD: Let it go, Data."
"WESLEY: The Yamato's beginning to fade out, Captain."