Targeting Pain: Isolating Sadness to Starve the Microbe
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Troi claims they can repel the infection, but Pulaski undercuts the relief with worsening vitals and a hard line against more tricordrazine, turning promise into a time-pressured risk calculus.
Pulaski commits and refocuses the device to isolate stronger, pain-laced memories; current snaps through the circuit and RIKER jerks in reflex.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Cautiously optimistic and determined, masking concern; resolute in action but aware of potential harm to her patient.
Pulaski monitors the diagnostic readouts, weighs pharmacological risk, then decisively recalibrates the neural stimulator to emphasize memory patterns that produce intense negative emotion — taking a medical gamble to exploit the organism's biochemical weakness.
- • slow and reverse the organism's growth without unnecessary drug exposure
- • find a non‑pharmacological lever (emotionally driven endorphins) to inhibit the microbe
- • preserve Riker's life while minimizing systemic drug risk
- • The organism's growth can be modulated by host biochemistry (endorphins).
- • Pharmacological options like tricordrazine are dangerous and should be avoided unless necessary.
- • Targeted neural stimulation of memory can safely (or at least effectively) produce usable biochemical responses.
Weakened and in pain; possibly resigned but trusting of the medical team, with limited capacity to influence decisions.
Riker is the passive subject of the treatment: his nervous system is monitored as Pulaski adjusts stimulation patterns; he makes a quick, reflexive movement when the current changes, and his vital signs are noted to be weakening, showing the physiological cost of the procedure.
- • survive the infection and treatment
- • rely on the medical team to make the right clinical choices
- • minimize further injury or distress
- • The crew and medical officers will act in his best interest.
- • Enduring pain may be necessary for recovery.
- • He must tolerate discomfort to allow specialists to fight the infection.
Encouraged and soberly invested — hopeful that the discovery offers a path but aware of Riker's fragility and the moral cost.
Troi provides an empathic read identifying Riker's dominant emotion as sadness, interprets the biochemical implication for Pulaski, and confirms the theory that different emotions produce distinct endorphin profiles which affect the organism.
- • accurately read and verbalize Riker's emotional state to guide treatment
- • ensure the emotional stimulation used will produce inhibitory endorphins rather than exacerbate the infection
- • support Pulaski's clinical decisions while advocating for Riker's wellbeing
- • Her empathic impressions reliably correlate with biochemical states.
- • Specific emotions produce measurable endorphin responses that can be therapeutically exploited.
- • Emotional manipulation, even clinical, carries ethical weight and must be applied judiciously.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Tricordrazine is referenced as a pharmacological backup Pulaski is reluctant to administer further; its mention frames the risk calculus and motivates Pulaski to seek a non‑drug strategy (emotionally driven stimulation) instead of immediate additional dosing.
The bedside vital signs/neurological monitor displays a highlighted readout of Riker's nervous system; its subtle dimming provides the first empirical evidence that the organism's growth rate has slowed. The panel drives Pulaski's decision to alter stimulation parameters and confirms Troi's empathic read.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Enterprise sickbay functions as the clinical arena where empirical data, empathic insight, and medical risk converge. The space concentrates authority and intimacy: Pulaski's procedural control and Troi's bedside empathy turn the bay into a pressured surgical/thought laboratory where ethical choices are made under time stress.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Reliving Tasha’s death produces sadness that Pulaski registers as inhibiting microbial growth."
"Reliving Tasha’s death produces sadness that Pulaski registers as inhibiting microbial growth."
"Ian’s death memory amplifies sorrow, reinforcing the observed slowdown in infection."
"Ian’s death memory amplifies sorrow, reinforcing the observed slowdown in infection."
"Pulaski tightens the current to target pain memories, then escalates to even harsher stimulation."
"Pulaski tightens the current to target pain memories, then escalates to even harsher stimulation."
Key Dialogue
"PULASKI: The growth rate has definitely slowed. What is he feeling? Can you tell?"
"TROI: Sadness."
"PULASKI: I'm refocusing the pattern again. We need to isolate memories that generate stronger negative emotions."