Object

Variable Phase Inverter (Geordi La Forge's)

A palm‑sized, handheld engineering device with a rugged duranium casing, knurled tuning dials, a small luminescent phase readout, and two retractable micro‑probes. When engaged the unit emits a low harmonic hum and a faint blue shimmer across its crystalline core; Geordi lifts it to shuttle circuit junctions, fingers adjusting its settings while Data records diagnostic feedback and commanders look on with mounting concern.

3 appearances

Purpose

To adjust, invert, and match phase alignment and polarity between incompatible power systems — specifically to reconcile Enterprise power with shuttlecraft circuitry so energy will accept rather than be rejected.

Significance

Serves as the immediate technical solution and story pivot: the inverter is the crucial clue/tool that promises to stop the shuttle's violent power rejection, turning a mechanical failure into a targeted engineering intervention and linking the malfunction to the wider temporal/duplication mystery.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

3 moments

S2E13 · Time Squared

Phase Rejection — Shuttle Refuses Enterprise Power

The Variable Phase Inverter is invoked by Data as the specific tool required to reconcile the shuttle's incompatible power polarity and phase with the Enterprise's supply. Although not physically employed in the moment, its need reframes the failure from a transient glitch to a resolvable—but nonstandard—engineering problem, signaling a work-order and delay.

Before: Stored in engineering inventory (implied), available as a known but not yet deployed diagnostic/repair tool.

After: Identified as required; remains uninstalled/not in use, now placed on the short list of immediate engineering requisites to attempt a repair.

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S2E13 · Time Squared

Three Hours, Nineteen Minutes — Shuttle Log of Destruction

The variable phase inverter is invoked in discussion as the technical tool used to extract corrupted shuttle logs; its use explains visual and audio distortion, framing the crew's inability to recover clearer data and influencing confidence in the recording's fidelity.

Before: Having been used by engineering to bridge and extract degraded log data from the shuttle's memory, physically in engineering or in Geordi's custody.

After: Remains the reason for the retrieval's distortion; still in engineering custody and implicated in the limits of what can be recovered.

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S2E13 · Time Squared

Mobius Loop — Picard's Resolve

Geordi reports that a Variable Phase Inverter was required to extract the shuttle logs; its use explains the distortion and audio phasing on the playback, making the recovered data fragmentary yet crucial to the timeline presented.

Before: In active use in engineering and data‑retrieval processes; had been applied to the shuttle's data junctions to recover corrupted logs.

After: Has served its purpose—data retrieved remains limited and distorted; the inverter's intervention is acknowledged but does not yield fuller clarity.

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