Data's Calculated Ultimatum
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data swiftly stuns Gosheven's armed defenders with precise phaser shots, showcasing his tactical superiority.
Data reveals the 'kill' setting on his phaser, demonstrating his lethal capability.
Ard'rian gazes at Data with pride and love after his decisive actions.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Proud, tender, and quietly relieved — emotionally invested in both the outcome and Data himself.
Ard'rian stands among the colonists watching Data's actions; at the end she watches him with an expression conveying pride and an intimate, complicated affection that humanizes the aftermath of his coercion.
- • Support Data's practical efforts to save the colony.
- • Protect the community while maintaining moral integrity.
- • Technical competence can save lives.
- • Emotional bonds matter even in crisis decisions.
From apprehensive and conflicted to unified, pragmatic resolve as the evacuation begins.
The Colonists function collectively as the audience and decision-maker: stunned into silence by Data's demonstration, they converse briefly, accept Kentor's lead, and begin to exit the square, choosing life over place.
- • Preserve the settlement's people by accepting evacuation.
- • Avoid senseless sacrifice prompted by symbolic loyalty.
- • Material possessions can be rebuilt; people cannot be replaced.
- • Leadership must be practical in the face of overwhelming external force.
Shift from defiant certainty to stunned disbelief, then to muted shame and reluctant acceptance.
Gosheven stands defiant on the upper level, reaches instinctively for his probe, freezes as Data shows lethal intent, becomes speechless when the aqueduct is disabled and ultimately surrenders his public position and rejoins the departing colonists.
- • Defend the colony's claim to place and honor his vow to stay.
- • Maintain personal and communal dignity in the face of coercion.
- • The land and tradition are worth sacrifice.
- • Authority and symbolic acts hold the community together.
From apprehensive and fearful to convinced and relieved once the choice becomes clear.
Haritath stands nervously among the colonists, awaiting the outcome; after Data disables the aqueduct and offers the rifle, he breaks ranks with the holdouts and follows Kentor toward evacuation, showing visible relief.
- • Ensure personal and family survival.
- • Reach consensus with neighbors to avoid chaotic flight.
- • The risk of staying has become existentially unacceptable.
- • Collective movement is safer than individual defiance.
Resolved and sober — determined to protect the people even at the cost of tradition.
Kentor, positioned among the colonists, hears Data's demonstration and publicly steps forward to declare relocation, physically leading the exit and signaling a transfer of communal leadership from Gosheven to pragmatic survival.
- • Preserve as many lives as possible by organizing evacuation.
- • Restore social order by providing an acceptable alternative to martyrdom.
- • Survival is a community's primary obligation.
- • Leadership must adapt to new, existential realities.
Externally clinical and composed; internally resolute and weighty — accepting moral cost to compel survival.
Data emerges from hiding, uses precise phaser fire to stun four armed defenders, switches his weapon from nonlethal to lethal settings and fires at the aqueduct control, then offers a rifle to the crowd as a literal choice.
- • Force a clear, irreversible decision that preserves lives over land.
- • Break Gosheven's authority by demonstrating the real cost of refusing to evacuate.
- • Lives have greater moral value than material possessions or place.
- • A demonstrative, unavoidable act is necessary to overcome collective denial and pride.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Representing the energy-weapon system used by Data, this phaser-like canonical object is presented, switched from stun to lethal, used to incapacitate the four defenders and to fire at the aqueduct control panel; it functions narratively as the immediate instrument of coercion.
The aqueduct's pumping station control panel is the target of Data's shot; sparks fly and water flow halts, converting vital infrastructure into the physical evidence of vulnerability and forcing the community to confront the risk of annihilation versus relocation.
The rifles are the visible, local instruments of Gosheven's enforcement; Data stuns the rifle-bearing defenders and then picks up one rifle to hold it out to the colonists, turning an instrument of coercion into a prop that literalizes the community's choice.
A compact probe at Gosheven's belt that he instinctively reaches for when threatened; it functions as a personal tool and potential weapon but is not used — its presence underscores Gosheven's readiness to act but also his impotence in the face of Data's decisive action.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Town Square Upper Level is Gosheven's perch of authority and spectator vantage; his physical elevation makes his fall from leadership visible when Data's action undermines him, turning the high ground into a site of exposed vulnerability.
The Main Street Pumping Station / plant and aqueduct serve as the tangible stake in the confrontation — the fragile arterial infrastructure whose destruction would make staying impossible and whose damage becomes the lever Data uses to force choice.
The Silent Pool at the base of the square is the place where Gosheven physically manifests his private concession by scooping and letting dirt go — a tactile moment of grief and relinquishment that punctuates the public decision.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Data's realization about the need for demonstrative action directly leads to his aqueduct attack plan."
"Data's realization about the need for demonstrative action directly leads to his aqueduct attack plan."
"Data's realization about the need for demonstrative action directly leads to his aqueduct attack plan."
"Data's initial diplomatic approach to Gosheven escalates to direct confrontation when he stuns Gosheven's defenders and destroys the aqueduct."
"Data's initial diplomatic approach to Gosheven escalates to direct confrontation when he stuns Gosheven's defenders and destroys the aqueduct."
"Data's verbal portrait of annihilation escalates to his physical demonstration by destroying the aqueduct."
"Data's verbal portrait of annihilation escalates to his physical demonstration by destroying the aqueduct."
"Gosheven's symbolic gesture with the water contrasts with Data's destruction of the aqueduct - both using the colony's water supply as symbols of their arguments."
"Gosheven's symbolic gesture with the water contrasts with Data's destruction of the aqueduct - both using the colony's water supply as symbols of their arguments."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"DATA: That was the "stun" setting."
"DATA: This is not."
"KENTOR: There are other places -- other challenges. It's time to move on."