Close Parking Orbit Around Data's Homeworld
Detailed Involvements
Events with rich location context
Close orbit is invoked as a tactical response to increase sensor efficiency by a marginal four percent; it becomes the practical lever Picard chooses to deploy in order to accelerate locating Palmer and to limit further cultural fallout through faster, more informed action.
Tactical edge-of-risk — a small, deliberate sacrifice of safety margin for immediate operational advantage.
A tactical posture chosen to improve sensor performance and speed the rescue effort.
Represents Picard's willingness to alter institutional distance to intervene — a physical metaphor for ethical proximity.
Not a physical location inside the ship but a maneuver the bridge executes, constrained by command approval and tactical considerations.
Close Orbit is invoked as a tactical stance: Picard orders the ship into this thinner-margin position to increase sensor efficiency and aid the search for Palmer, materially tying Sickbay's rescue needs to navigational risk choices.
Tacitly tense — a calculated escalation that narrows safety for the prospect of saving a life.
Tactical posture to improve sensor performance, directly supporting the rescue operation called for from Sickbay.
Symbolizes the command's willingness to reduce institutional safety margins for humanitarian imperatives.
Operational condition of the ship; not a physical location for personnel but a flight posture controlled by bridge crew.
Close Orbit is referenced as the tactical stance Picard orders to increase sensor efficiency; its invocation links the micro-ethical crisis in Sickbay to a macro-operational sacrifice—trading orbital safety margin for improved rescue capability.
Conceptually tense: the notion of reduced safety buffer heightens the urgency and stakes of the Sickbay decisions.
Tactical maneuver intended to improve the likelihood of locating Palmer and resolving the off-world crisis.
Symbolizes command willingness to risk procedure/comfort for a critical gain; parallels the ethical risk of intervening in a native culture.
Operational decision implemented by bridge crew; not directly controllable from Sickbay except via command requests.
The Close Parking Orbit around Data's homeworld serves as the strategic staging area for the Enterprise to observe and prepare an away team deployment, marking the transition from spaceborne investigation to planetary exploration.
Quiet and expectant, loaded with tension and anticipation of unknown threats below.
Staging ground for the away team launch and deeper investigation.
Embodies a threshold between the safety of the ship and the uncertain desolation of Data’s lost colony.
Controlled space restricted to the Enterprise and allied vessels.
The close parking orbit around Data’s homeworld serves as the strategic staging position that enables the away team’s planned descent to the planet’s surface. It embodies a threshold between safety aboard the Enterprise and the unknown desolation below, heightening the narrative’s suspense and thematic exploration of home and loss.
Silent, somber, and charged with anticipation as the ship holds position above the barren world.
Operational holding area from which away teams are deployed.
Symbolizes a liminal space bridging origin and mystery, past and present.
The brownish, barren Class M planet orbiting beneath the USS Enterprise is the focal mystery of the event, its lifeless surface a stark contrast to Data's recorded memories of a thriving colony, embodying loss and absence.
Silent, desolate, haunting in its emptiness and mystery.
Mysterious investigation target and symbolic home for Data
Symbolizes the void between Data’s programmed memories and lived reality, as well as the fragility of life and identity
No current physical access; subject of future away team expedition
The Close Parking Orbit Around Data's Homeworld serves as the staging area for the Enterprise’s shift from remote observation to direct planetary investigation. It is the orbit from which the away team will deploy, symbolizing a threshold between the safety of the starship and the unknown dangers below.
Quiet but tense, imbued with latent foreboding and the gravity of impending exploration.
Operational staging ground for the away team’s forthcoming surface mission.
Embodies the boundary between Data’s synthetic origins and the reality of the missing colony, marking a pivotal narrative threshold.
Restricted to Enterprise flight operations and authorized personnel only.
The Enterprise remains in close orbit above Data’s desolate home planet, serving as the operational base for the away team’s investigation and symbolizing a distant but steady lifeline to Starfleet and broader civilization.
Silent, watchful, and expectant from orbit.
Orbital support and communication relay for the away team.
Represents the connection between the crew and the unknown origins they seek to understand.
The orbit around Data's home planet serves as the strategic vantage point enabling the Enterprise’s away team deployment. It frames the entire scene as a threshold between the ship’s technological domain and the desolation they must confront on the surface below.
Silent, tense, and expectant, underscoring the gravity of the mission.
Command and staging area for the away team’s planetary investigation.
Represents the boundary between the known (Enterprise) and the unknown (Data’s origins).
Restricted to Enterprise crew and authorized personnel.
The orbit around Data's home planet serves as the vantage point from which the Enterprise facilitates the away team's transport and mission coordination. Though not the site of direct action in this event, it frames the broader context of exploration and investigation.
Silent and tense, underscoring the isolation and mystery enveloping the mission.
Operational base and staging area for the away team's descent to the planet surface.
Represents the threshold between known space and the unknown past of Data's origins.
Restricted to Enterprise crew and authorized personnel.
The orbit around Data's home planet is the starting point of the Enterprise's forced departure, framing the tension between the exploration of a silent, desolate world and the imposition of external command, symbolizing loss and interrupted discovery.
Quiet, somber, charged with the weight of absence and unfinished business.
Holding position for planetary investigation and the point of mission departure.
Represents the threshold between hope for understanding and institutional control.
Open to Enterprise crew but restricted from planetary surface.
Events at This Location
Everything that happens here
In Sickbay Picard and Dr. Beverly Crusher collide over a single, urgent choice: save a sick Mintakan or preserve the Prime Directive. Beverly insists she had no choice — they …
In Sickbay, a frenzied, half-delirious Barron awakens and demands Palmer be found, forcing Picard to step in with steady authority and promise the rescue. Beverly defends her choice to save …
In Sickbay, ethical friction becomes tactical action. Beverly defends having brought a Mintakan aboard to save his life; Picard demands amnesia for the alien and wrestles with the Prime Directive's …
As the Enterprise decelerates to subwarp near Data's home planet, the crew confronts a haunting contradiction: a barren Class M world where no life or vegetation registers on sensors, despite …
As the Enterprise approaches Data's barren homeworld, the crew confronts the eerie absence of life where a thriving colony once existed. Data candidly explains to Captain Picard and the bridge …
As the Enterprise arrives in close orbit around the brownish, lifeless planet Data calls home, the bridge crew confronts the unsettling mystery of a vanished colony. Data reveals his memories …
As the Enterprise approaches Data’s home planet, the crew observes a desolate, lifeless world that starkly contrasts with reports of thriving farmland. Data’s unusual ambivalence surfaces as he confronts the …
The away team materializes on Data’s homeworld only to discover a stark and lifeless landscape, contradicting the planet’s agricultural past. Geordi’s detailed soil analysis reveals a recent ecological collapse coinciding …
The away team materializes on Data’s desolate homeworld, confronting the stark, lifeless terrain that belies the colony’s once-thriving agricultural past. Data leads the group to the exact spot where he …
On the barren surface of Data's home planet, the away team surveys the desolate terrain, uncovering evidence of a deliberate concealment beneath the seemingly natural landscape. Geordi's keen engineering instincts …
On the Enterprise's main bridge, an urgent subspace message from Starfleet abruptly interrupts the crew's limited investigation of Data's home planet. Despite Captain Picard’s initial frustration, Wesley Crusher clarifies the …