The Brandy Pause and Riker's Choice
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Marouk and Chorgan clash over representation on the ruling council, their heated exchange threatening to derail negotiations.
Picard intervenes to cool tempers, suggesting a pause for brandy to ease tensions.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Alert, defensive, and ready to answer violence with force; shaken when the assassination unfolds in front of him.
Standing behind Chorgan as a visible enforcer and interlocutor, supporting Gatherer demands and witnessing Yuta's exposure and death; his presence ratifies Chorgan's authority and raises the stakes of the assassination attempt.
- • Defend Chorgan and the Gatherer position both physically and politically.
- • Ensure any negotiations do not weaken Gatherer power or invite betrayal.
- • Strong leadership requires visible strength and readiness to respond to threats.
- • Federation overtures are potentially duplicitous and must be guarded against.
Angry and suspicious at first, then alarmed during the threat, and finally haunted and grateful but emotionally numbed after Yuta's death.
Gatherer leader who argues passionately for council representation, is frozen by Riker's phaser command when the crisis erupts, survives the assassination attempt, and responds with formal gratitude after Yuta is vaporized—though privately haunted.
- • Obtain meaningful political representation for his people on the ruling council.
- • Protect his life and the honor of the Lornack clan.
- • Gatherer survival requires tangible power, not symbolic concessions.
- • Past atrocities against his clan justify deep mistrust and fierce protection.
Initially defensive and angry, then contrite and later stunned and uncomfortable at having been used as a means to an end.
Sovereign at the negotiation table who cools from anger after Picard's intervention, invites the ceremonial brandy, and listens in astonishment as Yuta is unmasked and then killed; she is implicated as an unwitting facilitator of the assassination attempt.
- • Secure a stable peace and representation agreement without ceding undue power.
- • Maintain sovereign dignity and the appearance of impartiality during negotiations.
- • Symbolic gestures (brandy) can humanize a tense meeting.
- • Her presence and rituals should be respected; being used as a tool for violence is a betrayal.
N/A (deceased), but his memory provokes anger and a demand for justice among those present.
Referenced historical victim whose murder fifty years earlier is invoked by Riker to link past atrocities to the current engineered killings, providing legal and emotional weight to the accusation against Yuta and Tralesta.
- • N/A—serves to anchor the historical continuity of the vendetta in the current confrontation.
- • N/A
- • N/A—his past death is used to assert that the Tralesta vendetta has long reach and scientific backing.
Initially composed and fatalistic, then a flicker of contrition and human hesitation before resignation; ends in tragic acceptance.
Performs the ritual pour, approaches Chorgan with a glass to place her within reach, calmly acknowledges her identity as Tralesta and her mission, briefly shows signs of regret, attempts to reach for Chorgan, and is ultimately shot three times by Riker—first stunned, then knocked back, then vaporized.
- • Complete the vendetta against the Lornack line by killing Chorgan.
- • Fulfill a lifetime's engineered purpose even at the cost of her own life.
- • Her transformation and long mission justify targeted killings as justice.
- • Once the last Lornack is dead, her own fate is irrelevant to the mission's success.
N/A (deceased), but his death casts an atmosphere of urgency and grief over the meeting.
Referenced rather than present: Volnoth's recent engineered death is cited as immediate evidence tying current murders to a targeted clan virus, catalyzing Riker's accusation and Yuta's exposure.
- • N/A—serves narratively to demonstrate the lethal pattern being discussed.
- • N/A
- • N/A—his death is treated as evidence that targeted biological vengeance is real.
- • N/A
Calm and purposeful outwardly, carrying quiet awareness of the political stakes and the moral weight of what is unfolding.
Presides at the table, intervenes to cool a rising argument with a suggested pause, supports Riker's authority when the crisis erupts, and frames the moment as necessary to preserve the negotiation despite the violence that follows.
- • Preserve the diplomatic process and prevent the summit from collapsing into violence.
- • Provide moral and procedural cover for Starfleet actions to maintain legitimacy.
- • Dialogue and ceremony can de-escalate entrenched hostility.
- • Starfleet must avoid heavy-handedness but will act decisively when lives are at risk.
Tense and conflicted—outwardly resolute and tactical but internally anguished and reluctant about killing someone who shows regret.
Materializes in the meeting chamber with a hand phaser, neutralizes a guard with a stun shot, restrains Chorgan by force of presence, identifies Yuta, pleads with her, and ultimately escalates phaser settings until he vaporizes her to stop the assassination.
- • Prevent Chorgan's assassination and stop an immediate outbreak of clan violence.
- • Expose and neutralize the engineered assassin while preserving the fragile negotiation if possible.
- • Immediate lethal threats must be stopped even at great personal cost.
- • Diplomacy can survive difficult, painful enforcement actions but carries political consequences.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
A Gatherer guard's shoulder-fired phaser rifle is the visible, immediate threat that provokes Riker's first shot; it represents the latent capacity for violence in the room and justifies Riker's tactical escalation when the guard reaches for it.
The meeting table structures the negotiation—participants lean on it, evidence and drinks are set upon it—and becomes the focal stage where the ceremony, accusation, and the assassination attempt unfold, emphasizing cramped proximity and political theater.
Sovereign Marouk's bottle of Acamarian brandy is poured by Yuta and used as a ceremonial token to ease tensions; its pouring places Yuta within lethal proximity of Chorgan, enabling the assassination attempt and making the bottle a banal instrument in a violent reveal.
Commander Riker's hand phaser is the decisive instrument: used first to stun the guard, then to command and control Chorgan, and finally to escalate lethality against Yuta—moving through stun to higher settings and ultimately to vaporize—mapping Riker's moral escalation into mechanical steps.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The compact meeting chamber on the Gatherer ship funnels ritual and menace—tight sightlines force participants into ceremonial postures, enabling proximity for both reconciliation (brandy) and the concealed assassination; the chamber's claustrophobic layout magnifies the shock when violence erupts.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Data's discovery confirms Yuta's identity as Tralesta, leading to Riker's confrontation with her."
"Riker's fatal decision to vaporize Yuta leaves him haunted and allows negotiations to continue."
"Riker's exposure of Yuta's true identity leads to her calm assertion of her mission as justice."
"Yuta's assertion of her mission leads to Riker's appeal to her humanity."
"Yuta's assassination of Volnoth and her assertion of justice both underscore the theme of vengeance as a corrosive cycle."
"Marouk's reluctant agreement to reconciliation and the tentative accord at the end both reflect the fragile hope for peace amidst cycles of vengeance."
"Yuta's assassination of Volnoth and her assertion of justice both underscore the theme of vengeance as a corrosive cycle."
"Marouk's reluctant agreement to reconciliation and the tentative accord at the end both reflect the fragile hope for peace amidst cycles of vengeance."
"Riker's initial attempt to connect with Yuta and his later appeal to her humanity both explore the possibility of breaking free from engineered destinies."
"Riker's initial attempt to connect with Yuta and his later appeal to her humanity both explore the possibility of breaking free from engineered destinies."
"Riker's fatal decision to vaporize Yuta leaves him haunted and allows negotiations to continue."
"Riker's exposure of Yuta's true identity leads to her calm assertion of her mission as justice."
"Yuta's assertion of her mission leads to Riker's appeal to her humanity."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"RIKER: Yuta. Move away from Chorgan."
"YUTA: It isn't murder. It's justice."
"RIKER: You're about to commit murder."