Ultimatum and the Spit-Shake Pact
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
PICARD, PULASKI, DANILO, and GRANGER square off for hard bargaining, the fate of two colonies hanging over the table.
GRANGER rejects integration as "out of the question," accusing PICARD of dumping a problem, while PICARD counters that the Bringloidi are their lifeline.
GRANGER sneers at DANILO as unfit; DANILO fires back and rises to bolt, and PICARD slams the brakes on brag and bigotry, forcing order.
PICARD moves to inspect Mariposan laboratories and transport their equipment over suspected stolen tissue; GRANGER spits "blackmail" and PICARD flashes, "All right, die!"
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Defensive turning to triumphant—resentful at the insult but pleased the Bringloidi gain bargaining power and sexual freedom.
Danilo defends Bringloidi dignity aggressively, resists humiliation, then quickly appropriates the bargain as personal victory—claiming partners and demanding the clones be brought in.
- • Protect Bringloidi dignity and refuse humiliation or charity.
- • Secure advantageous reproductive arrangements for his people.
- • Personal and communal pride should not be bartered away cheaply.
- • Practical gains justify awkward rituals and cultural compromise.
Matter-of-fact and quietly hopeful—detached in presentation but motivated by genuine concern for population health.
Pulaski advances a clinical solution: she lays out a radical multi-partner breeding plan, reframes integration as a medical necessity, and privately expects Starfleet will back pragmatic policy changes.
- • Establish a genetically viable, healthy population through planned interbreeding.
- • Convince the participants that social change is a medical imperative, not an ideological surrender.
- • Open, genetically diverse societies are healthier and more resilient.
- • Institutional approval (Starfleet) will likely support scientifically defensible measures.
Not individually specified in scene—functionally instrumentalized and treated as property/stock for policy.
The Mariposan clones are invoked as a deployable resource—named by Danilo as the physical stock to be 'sent in'—their existence is leveraged to operationalize Pulaski's breeding plan.
- • (Implied) Serve as available partners to fulfill the population-increase plan.
- • Be presented as living evidence of Mariposa's reproductive system and choices.
- • As a group they are treated as interchangeable members of Mariposa's reproductive pool.
- • Their presence legitimizes the practical execution of integration policies.
Bitter and repulsed externally; privately terrified and resigned, aware his people face extinction if he refuses.
Granger resists integration with visceral disgust and cultural snobbery, lashes out at the Bringloidi, then crumbles into reluctant acceptance when Picard threatens seizure of his labs; he seals the deal with the handshake-spit ritual.
- • Preserve Mariposan cultural purity and control over reproductive resources.
- • Avoid humiliation and loss of proprietary control over cloning technology.
- • Cultural homogeneity is morally and socially superior.
- • Admitting dependence on outsiders equates to moral failure—unless survival demands otherwise.
Resolute and morally strained—calm when reproving, then edged with anger and urgency when threats become necessary.
Picard moves from conciliator to coercer: he rebukes bigotry, warns Danilo down, and explicitly threatens inspection and transport of Granger's laboratory equipment to force cooperation.
- • Secure a workable plan to ensure survival and reproduction for both peoples.
- • Neutralize Granger's obstructionism and secure access to Mariposan laboratories/equipment.
- • Practical survival trumps cultural purity in a crisis.
- • Starfleet/Enterprise authority can and should be used to enforce necessary, unpleasant interventions.
Concerned and methodical—his procedural insistence serves as a looming institutional pressure even offscreen.
Riker is not physically present in the scene but his prior investigative demand (to inspect laboratories for stolen tissue) is invoked by Picard as leverage; his investigatory posture propels the coercive turn.
- • Determine whether Mariposan labs contain stolen human tissue.
- • Ensure evidence is secured and protocol followed for potential legal action.
- • Accountability and forensic inspection are necessary when a possible crime or ethical breach is alleged.
- • Starfleet procedures should be followed regardless of cultural sensitivities.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Granger's cloning laboratories are the explicit lever Picard threatens to inspect and transport to the Enterprise. The labs function as both evidence (of potential stolen tissue) and leverage to force Mariposan compliance with Pulaski's breeding plan.
The Mariposan begging hat is invoked rhetorically by Danilo to refuse humiliation; it functions symbolically rather than physically—signaling his refusal to beg and later emphasizing the performative nature of the handshake ritual.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Observation Lounge is the contained, neutral chamber where the negotiation escalates: its close quarters concentrate tension, create witness pressure, and convert a policy debate into an intimate test of honor and survival.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Picard’s threat to seize equipment escalates into Pulaski landing the extinction clock, forcing Granger to face imminent collapse."
"Picard’s threat to seize equipment escalates into Pulaski landing the extinction clock, forcing Granger to face imminent collapse."
"Granger’s initial rejection of integration culminates in reluctantly sealing the pact with Danilo."
"Granger’s initial rejection of integration culminates in reluctantly sealing the pact with Danilo."
"Mariposa’s suppression of sexuality is thematically reversed by Pulaski’s plan that mandates robust sexual reproduction to restore genetic diversity."
"Mariposa’s suppression of sexuality is thematically reversed by Pulaski’s plan that mandates robust sexual reproduction to restore genetic diversity."
"Mariposa’s suppression of sexuality is thematically reversed by Pulaski’s plan that mandates robust sexual reproduction to restore genetic diversity."
"Riker and Brenna’s consensual intimacy prefigures Pulaski’s later plan normalizing open sexuality to rebuild a viable gene pool."
"Riker and Brenna’s consensual intimacy prefigures Pulaski’s later plan normalizing open sexuality to rebuild a viable gene pool."
"Pulaski’s multi-partner, multi-child plan precipitates Brenna’s confrontation about the practical burden falling on women."
"Pulaski’s multi-partner, multi-child plan precipitates Brenna’s confrontation about the practical burden falling on women."
"Picard’s threat to seize equipment escalates into Pulaski landing the extinction clock, forcing Granger to face imminent collapse."
"Picard’s threat to seize equipment escalates into Pulaski landing the extinction clock, forcing Granger to face imminent collapse."
"Granger’s initial rejection of integration culminates in reluctantly sealing the pact with Danilo."
"Granger’s initial rejection of integration culminates in reluctantly sealing the pact with Danilo."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"GRANGER: ((wearily)) I'm sorry, Captain, but it's out of the question. You're trying to dump your problem off on us. And we've got problems of our own."
"PICARD: ((angry)) All right, die!"
"PULASKI: Thirty couples are enough to create a viable genetic base. But the broader the base the safer and healthier the society. It would be best if each woman -- Mariposan and Bringloidi -- had at least three children by three different men."