Object

Iconian Gateway

A palm-to-room-sized, semi-translucent Iconian spheroid mounted in the control room that spins and projects a spiraling, radiant aperture of intersecting emerald rays. The projection cycles fleeting vistas of distant worlds (including brief images of the Enterprise and a Romulan bridge), emits a high-pitched tone and focused defensive beams, and can discharge pulses that injure organic and synthetic beings. Crew members reach toward or probe its edge; Data physically investigates and is struck, suffering severe positronic disturbance.

3 appearances

Purpose

Function as transit gateways/portals: engineered to enable rapid spatial transfer or access control between locations when activated by the central console or keyed interfaces.

Significance

Serve as the episode’s primary technological mystery and moral fulcrum: their presence shifts the mission from rescue to forensic investigation, implying lost Iconian mastery of long‑range transit and raising the prospect of contagion, weaponized defense, or civilization‑ending technology. The gateways embody both the vanished culture’s power and the immediate strategic danger that forces Picard to prioritize decoding and containment.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

3 moments

S2E11 · Contagion

Iconian Gateway Awakens — Data Struck Down

The Iconian Gateway Globe powers up when Data touches the keys: it hums, intensifies in light, projects rays that form the spinning aperture, cycles through distant-world images and emits the high-pitched tone and sickly green beam that incapacitates Data. It operates as active defense and the episode's primary demonstration of Iconian capability.

Before: Mounted at the center of the control room, semi-translucent and idle with faintly shifting filaments.

After: Fully active, spinning and projecting various worlds; after the energy discharge it continues to cycle but has incapacitated Data and increased console power draw.

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S2E11 · Contagion

Iconian Gateways Awaken — Data Struck Down

The Iconian Gateway Globe is the central projector that intensifies, emits rays that intersect to form the spinning aperture, projects distant-world images (including the Enterprise and Romulan bridge), and releases the sickly green disabling beam that strikes Data — functioning both as demonstrator of capability and as defensive hazard.

Before: Dimly glowing but quiescent; humming faintly and unengaged.

After: Fully active and energetically charged; projecting rotating portal images and has emitted a disabling energy discharge; remains energized at scene end.

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S2E11 · Contagion

Leap Through the Flickering Gate

The Iconian Gateway Globe projects the portal image and governs the aperture's stability; it serves as both interface and fail-safe, and it physically shatters at the climactic instant, rendering the gateway unstable and marking the technological loss that follows Picard's leap.

Before: Spinning and actively projecting the gateway image; emitting focused hum and interface light.

After: Shattered at the moment of Picard's transit, producing debris and terminating stable projection capability.

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