The Leg Goes Dead — Neurological Spread Revealed
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Riker materializes in Sickbay, waves off the waiting orderlies, and insists on walking; Pulaski pushes back until he admits a private creed that not making it on his own feet would mean the end for him.
Riker steps toward the bed and his leg collapses; the medical crewmen haul him onto the table as he registers his leg has gone dead and Pulaski’s concern spikes.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Professional control overlaying real concern; irritation at Riker's theatricality morphs into focused alarm when the fall proves a neurological event.
Challenges Riker's decision medically and authoritatively, questions his motives, reacts with immediate concern when he collapses, and shifts from conversational rebuke to clinical alarm and containment posture.
- • Prevent unnecessary risk to the patient by discouraging unassisted movement.
- • Quickly assess severity and institute containment and diagnostic procedure.
- • Maintain medical authority and ensure the safety of the sickbay environment.
- • Unnecessary movement is hazardous for an unstable patient.
- • Medical protocol must override personal theatrics.
- • Early clinical control improves chances of accurate diagnosis and treatment.
Determined and guarded pride giving way to startled alarm and sudden vulnerability when his leg 'goes dead'.
Assertively refuses help and attempts to walk to the medical table as a deliberate assertion of agency; takes a step, experiences abrupt loss of motor function, utters surprise, and is then lifted onto the biobed by medics.
- • Preserve personal agency and dignity by walking to the table unaided.
- • Avoid being treated as incapacitated; prove he is still in control.
- • Minimize perceived dependence on the crew and delay full medical intervention.
- • Physical independence equals survival and dignity ('if I can't make it on my own two feet... it would be over').
- • Accepting help signals loss of command of his own fate.
- • He can downplay or manage his symptoms without immediate surrender to medical protocols.
Alert and ready; quietly concerned but defers to medical authority as the emergency unfolds.
Present and attentive in sickbay, materializes with the party, stands by ready to assist, translates field findings into support if needed while allowing medical crew to execute immediate physical aid.
- • Be available to provide technical or logistical assistance if Pulaski requests it.
- • Ensure patient is stabilized and that diagnostic samples or equipment are secured quickly.
- • Protect Riker by following established safety and containment protocols.
- • Medical personnel should lead clinical intervention.
- • Rapid, cooperative action increases survivability.
- • The ship's protocols exist to prevent contamination and harm.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The medical treatment table functions as the intended destination and instrument of triage: Riker insists on walking to it, the medics use it as the place to catch and receive him, and it becomes the platform for immediate assessment and monitoring of his sudden neurological collapse.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Enterprise Sickbay is the functional and symbolic arena for the event: a clinical stage where authority, pride, and medical urgency collide. It contains staff, ready equipment, and an environment that permits a rapid transition from polite ritual to forceful medical intervention.
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
"RIKER: "I can walk to the table, thank you.""
"RIKER: "I've always had the notion that if I was ever so injured that I couldn't make it on my own two feet... it would be over.""
"RIKER: "This is the strangest feeling. My whole leg just went -- dead.""