Fabula
Object
Object

Mondor Guidance System

The Mondor Guidance System — a compact, battered navigational control assembly aboard the Pakled ship Mondor, consisting of a dented alloy console, guidance actuator/gyro ring, flickering status lens and amber indicator LEDs. Jury‑rigged wiring and scorched circuitry produce erratic heading‑hold behavior; the unit is the focus of field repairs and deliberate tampering that affect the Mondor's navigation and maneuvering.
8 appearances

Purpose

To manage the Mondor's course plotting, heading control, and basic navigational functions—providing guidance and steering for impulse and short-range maneuvers.

Significance

Plays the causal role behind the Mondor's distress call—its failing power and degraded guidance force the Enterprise crew into a humanitarian rescue decision. Data's diagnostics identify limited capability, Worf voices tactical concern, and Riker orders a boarding, so the broken guidance system becomes the plot pivot that enables the Pakleds' deceptive acquisition gambit.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

8 moments
S2E17 · Samaritan Snare
Pakled Distress Call — "We Look for Things

The Mondor's guidance system is diagnosed by Data as having suffered total failure; this concrete technical failure justifies immediate rescue and explains the Mondor's drifting state and Mayday transmission.

Before: Nonfunctional — total guidance failure reported by Enterprise sensors; drifting without heading-hold.
After: Remains nonfunctional; cited as a core reason for sending engineering assistance.
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S2E17 · Samaritan Snare
Volunteering Geordi: Duty Over Caution

Referenced by Data's diagnostics as the source of the Mondor's propulsion failure; the guidance system's total failure is the proximate technical cause for the distress call and the justification for beaming an engineer aboard.

Before: Nonfunctional with total guidance failure, registering on Enterprise sensors as inert and unreliable.
After: Still reported as failed during the event; remains the technical problem that necessitates assistance and motivates the plot's rescue attempt.
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S2E17 · Samaritan Snare
False Hospitality Aboard the Mondor

The Mondor Guidance System is verbally singled out as the primary technical fault and the explicit lure: Geordi asks to be shown it, which directs him physically toward the back of the ship and provides the Pakleds a tactical objective to isolate and access the engineer.

Before: Registered by dialogue as 'broken' and nonfunctional; physically located toward the rear of the Mondor and unexamined at the event's start.
After: Remains uninspected at the scene's end but becomes the immediate focus of Geordi's movement and the Pakleds' manipulation; effectively designated as the trap's focal point.
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S2E17 · Samaritan Snare
False Praise and the Command Hail

The Pakled guidance system is the immediate focus of Geordi's hands-on work and explanation; it functions as the technical MacGuffin whose apparent failure justifies Geordi's presence and provides the pretext for the Pakleds' social manipulation.

Before: Malfunctioning and in need of reroute/repair, located in the Mondor's engineering bay under Pakled control.
After: Mid-repair: Geordi has begun rerouting power and reconfiguring components, but the system is not yet restored to full functional status.
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S2E17 · Samaritan Snare
False Failure: Pakleds Weaponize a Routine Repair

The Mondor's guidance system is the repair target whose apparent restoration initiates the sequence; its reactivation fails to yield ship movement because a higher-level power failure is manufactured, turning a technical success into a frustrating narrative pivot.

Before: Damaged and offline with smeared diagnostics; readings unreliable under jury-rigged conditions.
After: Mechanically repaired by Geordi and nominal at the guidance interface, but functionally inert because ship main power is unavailable or manipulated.
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S2E17 · Samaritan Snare
Blinded and Coerced: Geordi Forced to Build Pakled Weapons

The Mondor's guidance system is referenced by Geordi as a repair he performed earlier; it functions here as narrative proof that he helped the ship, underscoring the betrayal when the Pakleds use his goodwill against him.

Before: Damaged or malfunctioning prior to Geordi's intervention; subsequently referenced as repaired.
After: Functioning (as implied by Geordi's claim of repair) and used as testament to Geordi's earlier assistance, though it does not prevent his coercion.
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S2E17 · Samaritan Snare
Ruse Unmasked — La Forge Taken

The Mondor Guidance System is cited by Data's scan as functioning normally; its intact status is used as forensic evidence that the Mondor's failures were simulated. It functions narratively as a smoking gun that converts suspicion into proof of deliberate deception.

Before: Registered by sensors as apparently malfunctioning (as reported by the Mondor crew), but physically intact and powered according to Enterprise scans.
After: Remains physically intact; its diagnostic readings have been interpreted as evidence of tampering and are now logged as part of the investigation into the Pakleds' ruse.
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S2E17 · Samaritan Snare
Deception Revealed — Worf's Ultimatum

The Mondor Guidance System is identified by Data's intensified scans as being 'perfectly intact', acting narratively as a diagnostic clue that contradicts the visible 'malfunctions' and indicates the distress call was staged to lure Starfleet assistance.

Before: Reported as malfunctioning aboard Mondor by external observation; visually showing weak power and erratic behavior to the Enterprise.
After: Confirmed intact by Enterprise sensors and reclassified as evidence of deception rather than actual mechanical failure.
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