Riker Orders Tactical Retreat as Communications Fail
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Riker takes command, urging the team to retreat to the surface, rallying focus amid escalating danger.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Concerned and vigilant, focused on team health and morale.
Natasha Yar attentively questions Troi about her pain, displaying concern for her teammate's wellbeing and reinforcing the emotional stakes within the team.
- • Assess Troi’s physical and psychic state.
- • Support the team’s cohesion under stress.
- • Troi’s pain signals serious danger.
- • Team health directly impacts mission success.
Calmly analytical despite the gravity of the communication failure.
Data tests his communicator, analytically confirms signal is blocked by an unknown shielding field, interrupting the mission with critical technical information that heightens the team's sense of isolation and danger.
- • Diagnose the communication failure accurately and quickly.
- • Provide actionable information to leadership for decision-making.
- • The communication blockade is artificial and deliberate.
- • Technology can help detect and respond to alien threats.
Concerned for crew safety but resolute in command decisions under pressure.
William Riker, concerned for Troi's wellbeing, shifts quickly to decisive leadership, examining the tunnel walls with his tricorder and ultimately ordering a strategic retreat to preserve the team's safety.
- • Ensure Troi and the team's physical and psychic safety.
- • Maintain operational control and retreat before further harm.
- • The environment is increasingly dangerous and hostile.
- • Communication loss represents a tangible and immediate threat.
Distressed and fatigued yet intellectually engaged; sensing an intangible threat isolating the team.
Deanna Troi leans weakly against the tunnel wall, visibly suffering psychic pain yet remains mentally focused, expressing a sense of nearing a critical insight before rising to acknowledge the communication blockade and the malicious intent behind it.
- • Interpret the psychic signals and understand the alien presence.
- • Maintain connection with the crew despite physical and psychic pain.
- • The alien presence is intentionally hostile, blocking communication.
- • Finding the truth beneath Farpoint is crucial despite personal risk.
Focused and cautious, aware of the unknown dangers but committed to gathering data.
Geordi LaForge methodically inspects the alien tunnel walls with intense focus, contributing scientific scrutiny to the team's understanding of their perilous surroundings.
- • Identify the nature of the tunnel walls and their effect.
- • Support the team's safe navigation of the underground passage.
- • The alien materials have unusual properties worth investigating.
- • Understanding the environment is key to survival and mission success.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Starfleet Tricorder is actively used by Riker to scan and analyze the alien tunnel walls, aiding in the assessment of environmental dangers and providing data that influences the decision to retreat.
Commander Riker's communicator is tested by Data but found to be effectively jammed by a shielding field, symbolizing the team's sudden isolation and cutting off their lifeline to the Enterprise ship above.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The underground passageway beneath Farpoint Station serves as the forbidding setting for this event, its otherworldly smooth walls emitting an unsettling aura that physically and psychically assails the away team, effectively isolating them and heightening tension.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
This event is currently isolated in the narrative graph
Key Dialogue
"TASHA: Pain again?"
"RIKER: (turning; sharply) Troi, you've been at it enough!"
"TROI: No, I feel close to an answer of some kind."
"DATA: Commander, something down here is shielding our communicators."
"TROI: Yes, that's exactly the feeling I've been reading. As if someone doesn't want us to be in touch with our ship."
"RIKER: (leads the way) Come on... let's get to the surface."