La Forge's Gambit — Buying Time with Flattery
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Geordi, hurting but controlled, grabs leverage by offering to secure the Enterprise computer banks if the Pakleds open a channel, enticing Grebnedlog to initiate contact.
With the viewscreen live, Geordi soft-pedals the Pakled demand while Riker refuses outright; Geordi plants a stalling tactic by claiming the Enterprise’s protected memory would take over twenty-four hours to access.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Anxious and professionally candid; worried for Geordi's physical and cognitive state.
Pulaski, present on the bridge, questions whether Geordi truly understands the peril and voices medical concern—anchoring the scene's ethical and human cost dimension.
- • Ensure Geordi's wellbeing and mental competence to negotiate.
- • Push command to recognize medical risk and act accordingly.
- • Geordi's injuries could impair his judgment.
- • Medical contingency and truth about his condition are relevant to operational decisions.
Avid and acquisitive; pleased at the prospect of gaining technology and reassured by the apparent expertise of the captive.
Reginod echoes Grebnedlog's demands—voicing a crude appetite for 'computer things'—and validates the Pakleds' acquisitive rhetoric, reinforcing pressure on Geordi to comply.
- • Secure access to the Enterprise computer systems and weapon knowledge.
- • Support Grebnedlog's decisions and expedite the seizure of useful tech.
- • External technology is valuable and attainable through coercion.
- • Geordi can provide the access or knowledge they lack.
Clinically supportive; applying logic while mimicking human sentiment to manipulate captors.
Data supplements the ruse with dry, oddly sentimental lines while offering the tactical observation that the Pakleds lack the skill to properly operate stolen systems—intellectual support for Riker's deception.
- • Reinforce the credibility of the stall by acknowledging Geordi's importance.
- • Provide technical rationale to justify delay (Pakleds' incapacity to use stolen tech).
- • Pakleds have acquired tech but lack operational competence.
- • Rhetorical sentiment, even when literal, can be leveraged as social engineering.
Combative and protective; personal honor and duty drive a stern performance meant to deter collaboration with captors.
Worf steps forward on the viewscreen to issue a blunt, honor‑based warning: any sharing of classified weapons knowledge equals treason—an intimidatory attempt to influence Geordi and the Pakleds toward restraint.
- • Deter Geordi from disclosing classified weapons knowledge.
- • Signal that the Enterprise will consider force or disciplinary action if information is shared.
- • Protect ship's security posture through moral intimidation.
- • Treasonous sharing of weapons knowledge is anathema and must be prevented.
- • A display of Klingon moral rhetoric will influence both crew members and captors.
Controlled and purposeful; using warmth and gravitas to manipulate the captors while shouldering command pressure.
Appearing on the viewscreen, Riker adopts a conspiratorial, theatrical tone—praising Geordi, implying impending loss, and coordinating the emotional cover that converts Geordi's stall into a believable ruse.
- • Create believable emotional cues to convince the Pakleds to delay demands.
- • Protect the ship's systems and crew by buying a tactical window.
- • Maintain authority and minimize escalation from the bridge.
- • The Pakleds can be influenced through performative sentiment.
- • Temporal advantage is the key resource for a safe recovery.
- • Sacrificial rhetoric will make Geordi seem both valuable and irreplaceable, increasing captors' patience.
Concerned and uneasy; her empathy amplifies the perceived danger and human cost of the situation.
Troi provides an empathic read—declaring Geordi afraid—serving as the crew's emotional radar and reinforcing urgency and the human stakes of the negotiation.
- • Alert command to Geordi's emotional state and likely vulnerability.
- • Influence Riker and others toward cautious, life‑preserving choices.
- • Emotional truth is actionable intelligence in negotiations.
- • Geordi's fear signals an elevated risk that should alter command decisions.
Feigned calm masking physical pain and anxiety; determined to protect crewmates even while frightened and disoriented.
Battered and partially blinded, Geordi volunteers to negotiate with his captors, intentionally downplaying the value and speed of accessing Enterprise systems to stall for time while enduring pain and confusion.
- • Buy time for the Enterprise to mount a rescue.
- • Prevent Pakleds from immediately accessing or damaging the computer banks.
- • Survive the abduction without divulging actionable knowledge.
- • Stalling and misinformation can create the operational window needed for rescue.
- • The Pakleds are persistent but technically limited and can be manipulated by suggestion.
- • Riker and the Enterprise crew will exploit any time he can buy.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Enterprise Defensive Shields are discussed indirectly—Riker asks 'Where did they get their shields?'—serving as a clue about the Pakleds' scavenged tech and reinforcing the idea that stolen systems exist but may not be operable by their possessors.
The Enterprise Main Bridge Viewscreen is activated by Grebnedlog to place the Mondor and the Enterprise in direct negotiation. It functions as the dramatic interface for Riker's ruse and Data/Worf’s interventions before being cut when Grebnedlog twists the dial.
The Enterprise Main Computer Banks are the Pakleds' stated objective and the narrative MacGuffin. Geordi invokes their protected memory as the explicit reason why immediate access is impractical, using them as the stall's justification.
The Pakled Mondor Hailing Frequency is the audio/visual channel that allows Geordi to plead and the Enterprise to stage the deception. It is activated to allow speech and then abruptly terminated to isolate the captors and hostage.
The Pakled Mondor Bridge Analog Dial/Switch is the tangible control used by Grebnedlog to open and later sever the hailing link; its manipulation initiates and then terminates the crucial communication window.
Mondor's Photon Torpedoes are rhetorically referenced during the ruse (Data's 'photon torpedo countdowns' line) to underline Geordi's supposed weapons expertise, thereby increasing his perceived value and credibility to the Pakleds.
Worf and Riker's Boarding Phasers are implied as part of the ship's readiness and underpin Worf's stern, security‑based stance; phaser usage earlier is the cause of Geordi's current battered state.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The cramped Mondor Bridge is the immediate arena of the abduction: a jury‑rigged, dimly lit command space where Grebnedlog and Reginod exert control, where Geordi is battered and used as bait, and where the analog dial physically mediates contact with the Enterprise.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Geordi entices the Pakleds to open a channel by offering access; the viewscreen negotiation begins."
"Geordi entices the Pakleds to open a channel by offering access; the viewscreen negotiation begins."
"Geordi entices the Pakleds to open a channel by offering access; the viewscreen negotiation begins."
"Geordi entices the Pakleds to open a channel by offering access; the viewscreen negotiation begins."
"Worf’s coded ‘twenty‑four levels of awareness’ sets the countdown cue for the later firing sequence."
"Worf’s coded ‘twenty‑four levels of awareness’ sets the countdown cue for the later firing sequence."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"GEORDI: "Let me talk to them. I'll get you their computer banks.""
"GEORDI: "The Enterprise's protected memory storage is so extensive that it would take well over twenty-four hours just to access.""
"RIKER: "Speaking of time, Lieutenant, this may be your time. I shall personally miss you.""