Riker's Visceral Purge of the Cloning Lab
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Riker, Pulaski, and Geordi materialize and confront a smoke-filled cloning unit; Riker finds a half-formed copy of himself and, sickened and furious, vaporizes it with his phaser.
Riker opens the second unit, gets Pulaski’s terse nod, and annihilates the next developing clone.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Resolute and professionally disapproving; she suppresses rhetorical response in favor of concise assent, aligning medico-ethical judgment with immediate action.
Pulaski beams into the lab, quickly assesses the exposed incubation units, gives a terse approving nod when Riker signals toward the second pod, and stands resolutely as the blasts occur; her clinical judgment validates Riker's action.
- • To ascertain the medical reality and prevent further unethical replication
- • To support actions that protect living autonomy and mitigate biological risk
- • That the cloning procedure is medically and ethically corrupt
- • That rapid intervention is necessary even if forceful means are required
- • That Starfleet medical ethics prioritize consent and preservation of life and dignity
Urgent and defensive; he reacts to the destruction with instinct to protect the colony's interests and to reassert control amid chaos.
Granger bursts through the lab doors with three identical armed clones at his side, transforming the private destruction into an immediate political and armed confrontation and asserting defensive authority over the facility and its process.
- • To stop further destruction and reestablish command of the cloning lab
- • To protect the colony's survival strategy and deter outside interference
- • To frame the incident as a provocation requiring diplomatic or military response
- • That the cloning program is vital to Mariposa's survival and must be defended
- • That outsiders (the Enterprise team) are a threat to the colony's continuity
- • That showing force and unity will prevent immediate escalation against his people
Furious and violated on the surface; righteous indignation that converts disgust into instantaneous, irreversible action.
Riker approaches a smoke-filled artificial womb, recoils at seeing a half-formed replica of himself, gropes for his phaser and fires twice, destroying two developing copies; his action initiates moral and tactical escalation.
- • To stop the cloning operation and prevent further violation of identity
- • To make a forceful, unmistakable moral statement against nonconsensual replication
- • To protect himself and the crew from a biological threat
- • That creating living copies of people without consent is an intolerable violation
- • That immediate, forceful action is justified when moral and bodily sovereignty are breached
- • That destroying the replicants will prevent further harm or exploitation
Alert and disturbed; his technician's mind catalogues forensic details even as he experiences moral discomfort.
Geordi materializes with the team, observes the smoke-venting units and the half-formed replicas, remains alert and observant during the blasts, and functions as the technical witness to evidence of illicit cloning activity.
- • To confirm the operational status and nature of the cloning equipment
- • To gather evidence and protect the away team from technological or biological threats
- • That the cloning apparatus is tangible proof of illicit activity requiring technical analysis
- • That understanding the lab's workings is necessary to advise tactical and medical response
- • That rapid documentation and containment are priorities
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Mariposan clone phaser-like weapons are narrative signifiers of imminent armed resistance: though not fired in this moment, their presence is implied when Granger arrives with armed clones, converting the moral confrontation into a potential kinetic standoff.
Heavy industrial steel laboratory doors act as the threshold to the cloning chamber; they are opened to release smoke and reveal the grotesque interior, and then are the entry point through which Granger and armed clones rush, changing the scene's stakes.
A banked artificial womb functions as the primary forensic horror: when Riker opens its door smoke vents and a half-formed human replica is revealed. Its exposed contents catalyze Riker's moral revulsion and the act of destruction, marking the unit as the crime-scene focal point.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Mariposa cloning laboratory (represented here by the Mariposa setting) functions as an enclosed forensic stage: smoke-filled, sterile yet violated, it houses the illicit cloning banks whose revelation triggers personal outrage and political escalation by turning private violation into a public confrontation.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Pulaski’s confirmation of stolen epithelial cells triggers Riker’s furious destruction of his developing clones."
"Pulaski’s confirmation of stolen epithelial cells triggers Riker’s furious destruction of his developing clones."
"Riker’s claim to bodily autonomy is enacted when he destroys the unauthorized clones of himself."
"Riker’s claim to bodily autonomy is enacted when he destroys the unauthorized clones of himself."