Orelious Nine
Detailed Involvements
Events with rich location context
Orelious Nine is the distant subject of Wesley and Data's observations: a ruined planetary system whose scattered wreckage provides forensic clues and a visual metaphor for catastrophic choices, motivating the pair's technical conversation.
Eerie, frozen—a silent monument of ancient destruction visible through Ten-Forward's windows.
External plot clue and thematic backdrop: the physical evidence that fuels Data's analysis and frames the crew's conversation.
Symbolizes the long-term consequences of warfare and technological escalation; acts as a counterpoint to the small-scale emotional fallout inside Ten-Forward.
Externally visible but physically inaccessible from the lounge; reachable only via sensor and ship operations.
Orelious Nine functions as background exposition visible through Ten-Forward's windows: the shattered debris field supplies historical context and visual melancholy, reinforcing themes of loss and the shipboard crew's professional preoccupation with ruins and danger.
Distant, haunting, and ruin-laden—a silent testament to a decisive, ancient conflict.
Expository backdrop that thematically underscores vulnerability and the cost of conflict.
Symbolizes large-scale destruction and the contrast between historical catastrophe and current personal disappointment.
Orelious Nine is verbally referenced as the signal's possible origin point for survivors, providing historical context and motivating Riker's initial hope; it functions more as a narrative anchor than an active location in this beat.
Implied historical weight and tragedy—an off-stage site of past conflict.
Referential locus that frames the signal's presumed destination and lends emotional weight to the possibility of survivors.
Conjures the aftermath of ancient war and the human impulse to find and remember the lost.
Orelious Nine is invoked by Riker as the hoped-for site of survivors, serving as a narrative referent that frames initial optimism and anchors the crew's humanitarian impulses before being deflated by Data's findings.
Mentioned rather than physically present; it functions as a remembered or hoped-for location tinged with nostalgia and loss.
Referential origin point for rescue expectations and initial hypothesis testing.
Represents the possibility of life and the human cost of long-ago conflicts.
Not directly contested in this event; simply referenced.
Orelious Nine is the ruined system they have arrived to chart; it is the historical site that gives the Promellian cruiser its value and motivates Picard's historian instinct while simultaneously providing the dangerous context for Menthars' battlefield denial tactics.
Grave and archaeological — a deadly 'museum' of wreckage, simultaneously fascinating and menacing.
Operational area of exploration and the ultimate site of the away team's mission.
Symbolizes the cost of war, the seductive archive of ancient power, and the risk of treating the past as a playground.
Externally hazardous due to debris and potential traps; access requires careful mission planning and security measures.
Orelious Nine is named in Picard's log as the broader archaeological and tactical setting for the mission. It supplies historical weight and stakes: a battlefield of mutual extinction that contextualizes the Promellian relic and informs risk assessment.
Grim, ancient, and foreboding in the log's framing — a place of ruined battle rather than scenic wonder.
The outer-space location that justifies the mission, supplies urgency, and colors the crew's attitudes toward the wreck.
Symbolizes the accumulated consequences of interstellar warfare and the thin line between scientific curiosity and danger.
Externally hazardous due to debris field and historical booby traps (implied by log and later action).
Events at This Location
Everything that happens here
Wesley and Data stand at Ten-Forward's panoramic windows, calmly cataloguing the vast, ancient debris field and Data's clinical observations frame the battle's scale. Their forensic quiet is humanized when Wesley …
Geordi enters Ten-Forward drained and wordless after an aborted holodeck date, collapsing into the bar where Guinan moves in with quiet care. Wesley reads the posture and translates the scene …
The bridge intercepts an ancient distress transmission that turns a routine curiosity into a menacing mystery. Data identifies the signal as archaic interplanetary code; Riker briefly imagines survivors while Picard, …
On the Enterprise bridge, routine sensor work becomes a revelatory turning point: Data decodes an anomalous transmission as an ancient interplanetary code; Riker briefly clings to the hope of survivors …
Captain Picard records an eager captain's log as the Enterprise arrives at Orelious Nine and the crew discovers a centuries-old Promellian battle cruiser. Walking to the transporter, Picard's childlike enthusiasm …
Picard, charged with historical curiosity and a childlike thrill, brushes past Riker's tactical caution as they walk to the transporter. Riker urges a full security sweep and Worf-led precautions; Picard …